The committee met Friiday night and are delighted to announce that Chris Baynton is to be their new manager in the Spar Mid Wales League next season.
Chris is well known as a referee and he has done extremely well progressing through the leagues to the National Referees List meaning he was refereeing in the Welsh League and lining in the League of Wales. Chris enjoyed some great moments being an assistant on 3 internationals, 2 U16s boys Wales v France and Northern Ireland(live on Sky)and Wales Women v Finland. He also ran the line in the FAW Trophy Final in 2007/08.
Unfortunately Chris has suffered an achilles injury and is having an operation on it in July. He has been told there is a 3 month rehabilitation period and there is no guarantee that it would improve the injury. He has always wanted to go into management and therefore felt this was a time where he could choose between continuing his progress in refereeing or making the move to football management. The committee are delighted that he has chosen the management route and are looking forward to working with Chris.
Chris has previous experience of management in the Mid Wales League, having actually managed Crickhowell at the age of 22, when they gained promotion after a successful couple of seasons in the Mid Wales South.
Chris, who also turned out for the Saints in his early playing days, spent two seasons playing for Abergavenny Thursdays in the Welsh League under Kyle Holmes the ex Hereford United player. Following this Chris had a very successful spell at Clydach helping them to promotion 4 times in 5 seasons through the Gwent County Leagues to finally end up in the Gwent County 1st Division.
His next stop was at Vale of Arrow where he played under Paul Worts and then he played a four seasons at Gwernyfed before ending his playing days and taking up refereeing.
Chris has already shown his enthusiasm for the job in his early dealings with the committee and is already planning pre season training and friendlies. We would all like to wish him all the best and we look forward to working with him over the coming seasons.