Shrewsbury Town bring in Andy Jones
Shrewsbury Town have appointed former starlet Andy Jones as their new academy manager.
The Shrewsbury-born 31-year-old, who has been a sports lecturer at Shrewsbury College for the last seven years, replaces Steve Reece, who has decided to leave the club.
Jones, who played for Town as a schoolboy and AFC Telford United and still plays semi-professionally with Airbus UK, wants to continue the good work the academy has done.
He said: "The best thing for me is we've got a good team to work with and a good base to build on. There's a lot of good stuff going on so it's just about continuing that.
"From what I've seen, the coaching staff are in place and they do good work and there are a lot of hardworking people here really looking to push the academy forward.
"They're excited about a new challenge, a new start and maybe a new direction to take it in."
Boss Micky Mellon is excited about the crop of under-16s and Jones believes there could be some gems there.
He said: "I've had good meetings with Matt Rains (professional development phase coach), Ian Dawes (head of youth) and Ian Sharps (under-15 and 16s coach who oversees the under-18s programme).
"They're really excited about the lads coming through. Pushing them through is something we've got to look at over the next year to get them ready for the first-team.
"Ian and Matt are doing lots of work to get things in place."
