All change!

RIGHT-HAND MAN: New No.2 Martin Gray (left) and Athletic boss Dave Penney.

Penney raids former club to appoint new backroom team

NEW Athletic manager Dave Penney has already made his mark at Boundary Park.

Penney, who was appointed late last week, has quickly got to work by announcing that Martin Gray and Andy Collett are to join him from Darlington.

With the Quakers in administration, there should be no obstacles to Gray becoming his No.2 and Collett the club’s new goalkeeping coach.

It means assistant manager Tommy Wright and goalkeeper/coach Mark Crossley will leave the club, but Lee Duxbury will stay on as reserve-team manager.

The departure of Wright brings to a close a lengthy relationship with Boundary Park. He first joined the club as a player and later returned as a coach at the centre of excellence, before being appointed John Sheridan’s right-hand man in June 2006.

“It will be great if I can have the team that I had at Darlington,” said Penney.

“It is unfortunate for Tommy, but Martin and Andy have a good working relationship with me.

“They know what I want and they can come in and hopefully we can hit the ground running.”

Athletic chief executive Alan Hardy paid tribute to Wright and Crossley.

He said: “Tommy was a terrific assistant to John Sheridan for the last three seasons and Mark was a great character to have about the place and also had good coaching skills.

“We are grateful for the work both have done for the club and wish them well with whatever they do in the future.”

Penney, who watched his first match from the stand at Walsall where Joe Royle took charge for the final time, believed the injury to Daniel Jones in the warm-up had a bearing on Athletic conceding a goal inside the opening 30 seconds.

Jones suffered a suspected broken metatarsal in his foot and was replaced by Paul Black.

Penney said: “The injury to Daniel rocked us early on, but after the first 20 minutes I thought we were the better side.

“I was pleased with the character we showed to come from behind and also the way we passed the ball.

“Ryan Brooke took his goal well with his first touch on his debut. There was no better way to make an impact and it was a great substitution by Joe.

“What I saw has given me plenty of food for thought and I am pleased Joe got a win in his last game.”

Penney will be watching DVDs of recent Athletic games in the next week and will then make decisions about the futures of the out-of-contract players.