Darley named as Garstang boss

Darley joins from near neighbours and fellow West Lancashire League side Longridge Town, where he has spent the past three years and has guided the club to two promotions.

Darley was understood to have been on the shortlist last time the Riverside hot seat was up for grabs, before the Garstang management committee opted for Barrie Stimpson.

And club chairman Adrian Wilding was clearly delighted to have secured Darley's services. Mr Wilding said this week: "Stuart Darley's name had been linked with Garstang FC previously and now, having met and discussed the position with him in depth, I am sure that he is the right man for the right job.

"I'm confident that Stuart will complement our plans and ambitions for Garstang Football Club and, on behalf of the Management Committee, I welcome him to our club.''

Darley's first official duty will be to take training tonight, Wednesday, but he and new coach Glenn Johnstone, the former Preston North End goalkeeper, were both at Saturday's game at Lostock St Gerard's that Garstang lost 2-0.

Darley's first game in charge will be Saturday's home game against Eagley.

Darley, 41, has enjoyed a long career in the semi-professional game, playing at clubs including Morecambe, Lancaster City, Kendal Town and Bamber Bridge, before finishing his playing career at Fulwood Amateurs.

His move into management with assistant Darren Gornall brought instant success at Longridge, when the pair took the club to the Preston and District Premier Division title in their first season at the helm, romping the league by 15 clear points and only losing two games in a memorable campaign.

That triumph saw Longridge make the step up to the West Lancashire League and they continued on their winning ways the following season as they won promotion from the West Lancs division two.

Darley takes over at Garstang with the club languishing second bottom of the league with only one win and seven defeats in their opening eight games. It has been a spectacular turnaround in their fortunes after being top of the league at Christmas and still harbouring outside hopes of promotion going into the final weeks of last season.

But a poor pre-season and back-to-back defeats in the opening two games saw Stimpson resign last month after just 15 months in the job, saying he was finding it difficult to balance the demands of an increasing workload in his day job with delivering the commitment required at Garstang.