Rammy’s Chris is now a Red

New manager Chris Willcock will meet the Reds squad for the first time at Consett on Saturday ahead of another difficult friendly in the north east.

The former Ramsbottom United manager succeeds Danny Grainger as Workington boss, six weeks after the former opted to further his reputation in Scotland.

Chris has spent much of his career in the Manchester/North West area distinguishing both as a player and a manager.

He served the likes of Flixton, Warrington Town, Altrincham, Netherfield, Leigh RMI, Mossley, Salford City and Ramsbottom United during his playing days, scoring the Mossley goal at Borough Park in the North West Counties League title decider back in 1999!

A return to Salford as player/manager was the first step on the ladder for the next stage of his career and he has steadily ascended the climb with managerial roles at Winsford United, Woodley Sports, Mossley, Stocksbridge Park Steels, Glossop North End, ShawLane and, for the last two years, Ramsbottom United.

He was the last manager to plot Workington’s downfall in a league game, pre-pandemic, back in January 2020.

Perhaps the highlight of his managerial career was the four successful seasons he spent at Glossop bagging cup success, a league title and a trip to Wembley for the FA Vase Final.

With just three weeks to go until the start of the season proper, Chris will know many of the squad already, particularly the two former Rammy players, Reuben Jerome and Iyrwah Gooden, but he will have at least three friendlies and numerous training sessions to get to know everyone and instil his ideas and various game plans and structures.

He becomes the first non-Cumbrian to manage Reds since the Tommy Cassidy era.

Kick-off for Saturday’s game is 3pm at the Belle View Stadium (postcode: DH8 7BF).