New Manager Hawthorne

03 Jan 2012

Mark Hawthorne has been confirmed as the new manager of Horsham YMCA with immediate effect, following this afternoon's confirmation that Sammy Donnelly had stepped down as first team coach. The former Crystal Palace, Torquay United, Crawley and Horsham man had been a player/coach at YM since Donnelly's appointment last May, but was handed the assistant manager role when Simon Funnell left to manage East Grinstead Town in October. He has featured more frequently on the field in recent weeks with YM's rife injury woes, but now takes over as first team manager following Donnelly's departure to Ringmer. Following the confirmation of his position, Hawthorne commented, "Firstly, my main feeling is that I am disappointed that Sammy's gone. I got on really well with Sammy, he was a good coach, but above all he was a really, really nice fella and I will miss him, and wish him all the best. "But that is football, things move on and the only real concern I have here is which players want to stay, and who wants to go. I think maybe a couple of players will follow Sammy, but I'm going to speak to the lads on Thursday, and I'm hoping most of them will stay. "I need to sort that out and above all, make sure that we stay in the league. Four or five wins would probably see us through, and as soon as we can get them, the better, and then we can look towards next year. "The season's gone as far as silverware is concerned, we're out of all of the cups and obviously the league's away from us, but I am really looking forward to working with these guys because I think that we've got a good group of players in that dressing room. They're a nice bunch of lads as well, and I think it'll be good fun and we'll really enjoy it." YM will release their official club statement regarding the appointment of Hawthorne tomorrow morning. Tom Norris