Swanage Town and Herston football club has appointed a new manager with a wealth of experience – and has real hopes that he can take them to the next level.
Craig Adams, a former professional player with football league club Northampton Town, has also had managerial roles with Wellingborough Town FC, Bedford Town, Biggleswade Town and St Ives Town FC, along with a spell coaching within Peterborough United FC’s Academy.
Craig Adams, a former football league professional, is the new manager of Swanage Town and Herston FC
Aim is promotion to Wessex League
He arrives at Days Park in Swanage after a frustrating start to the season for the Swans, who have suffered a number of 0-1 defeats in matches where they should have picked up at least a point.
They currently sit eleventh in the Dorset Premier League with six points and are missing their new star striker Will Prior, who’s recovering from a knee operation.
But the good news is that their Days Park ground, with recently fitted floodlights and refurbished spectator stand could get the Swans promotion to the Wessex League if the team can finish fifth or better by the end of the 2024/25 season.
Despite a 5-3 victory over Wimborne Town reserves on the first day of the 2024/25 season, the Swans’ fortunes have slipped since
Former manager stepped down after a year
New manager Craig played for Northampton Town as a central defender in the early 1990s while they were in the old Third Division.
He will begin the job of steering the Swans to glory at Days Park on Saturday 14th September 2024 at 3 pm when Swanage and Herston Town take on Sherborne Reserves in the Dorset Premier League Cup.
He replaces Jamie Smith as first team manager, who joined the club in April 2023 but who had to step down for personal reasons.
Senior teams’ head coach Manu Laurijssen, who has been an integral part in the club’s recent development, will remain with the club as Craig’s assistant.
Striker Will Prior is expected to be back in action this autumn after a knee operation
“Craig has massive experience”
Chair of Swanage Town and Herston FC Andy Dunster said:
“Manu is more of a coach than a manager, so we have brought Craig in to support him in that role, and Manu can carry on as a coach as he was before. He had taken on the role of temporary manager to keep the team going in the interim, but it’s not easy on your own.
“Craig has massive experience and can help us push forward like we want to do. It has been a frustrating start to the season, with a number of 0-1 losses and games we should have had something from.
“We have a good defence, we are just not putting them in the back of the net at the other end of the field, that’s the problem.
“Hopefully, we’ll get striker Will Prior back within a month or so. He’s had his operation done, then needed to go back for a little bit of keyhole surgery on his knee, but they told him two weeks after that he should be good to train again, so fingers crossed!”
The Swans are hoping for promotion by the end of the season
Pursue a more senior role
Craig Adams, a UEFA ‘A’ Licence coach, moved to Dorset recently for his job at Weymouth College, and immediately brought success to Weymouth FC U23’s by leading them to the Hampshire Combination U23 Challenge Cup Final.
But he had become frustrated with managing a team which only plays occasionally and wanted to manage an ambitious team which plays week in, week out.
Craig is keen to help the Swans achieve their ambition of getting into the Wessex League and after positive discussions with both the Swans and Weymouth FC, announced his decision to pursue a more senior role in football.
Days Park could be the key to getting promotion into the Wessex League
“We want Swanage to play first teams”
Andy Dunster said:
“The Dorset Premier League is good and probably the difference in standard of football between the two isn’t that big, but the problem is that we are playing a lot of reserve teams who have a place in the league, and we want Swanage to be playing the first teams.
“Only one team gets promoted out of the DPL, but the real advantage we hold is that we have all the facilities at Days Park.
“There are a lot of other teams in this league who are very good, like Blandford, who beat us last week – but they don’t have the facilities like floodlights and seats that you need to be accepted in the Wessex League.”
New floodlights funded by Swanage Town Council were installed at Days Park in May 2022, with a refurbished spectators’ stand completed and named in honour of former Swans player Derek Marsh six months later.
Despite recent 0-1 defeats, here against Dorchester Sports, Swans have still shown much promise for the season ahead
New team spirit and morale
Andy added:
“Sturminster Newton went up last year and of all the teams in our league now, there isn’t another team that could get promoted without a lot of work to their grounds apart from us.
“We don’t have to win the league, we just have to do well in the league. We may be able to get promotion if we can finish in the top five, as long as Wessex still accept us.
“The season hasn’t started the way we wanted it to, but with Craig coming in we can hopefully get some new team spirit and morale and push us forward that next step.
“We hope there will be plenty of support on Saturday to welcome him to the club.”
Further information
- Follow the fortunes of Swanage Town and Herston FC on its website
