Pitching In Northern Premier League Marine announces the signing by manager Neil Young of a contract that secures him at The Marine Travel Arena through to May 2024.
Young has masterminded the Mariner’s epic Emirates FA Cup run this season taking the Club to Round 3 for the first time since 1992 being drawn sensationally against Tottenham Hotspur. The game is to be played on 10 January 2021 at Marine.
Marine’s Emirates FA Cup run has been a record breaker having won through seven rounds beating Barnoldswick Town, Frickley, Runcorn Linnets, Nantwich Town, Chester, Colchester United and Havant & Waterlooville on the way.
The game against Tottenham Hotspur sees the biggest gap in the history of The FA Cup between two competing teams with Tottenham in 6th place in the FA Premier League and Marine in 6th position at Step 8 in the English football system.
Club officials met Neil Young on Tuesday to sign the deal after a short period of discussions.
Marine Manager Neil Young said:
“I’m very pleased to commit to the next 3.5 years to Marine Football Club and I’m very proud to be the Manager here. I would like to thank the club for showing their faith in myself and my staff and believing in what we are working towards to drive the club forward. This was clearly shown to me in their determination to offer and agree a contract through to 2024.
Obviously everyone is judging us on reaching Round 3 of the Emirates FA Cup, which correctly is an unbelievable achievement but that doesn’t just happen. There has been a lot of work done both on and off field from a strategic perspective to take us forward and that journey is very much in its infancy. I’m looking forward to continuing that development and implementing many of the processes that we have identified in order to take us forward and make us more professional and an even more attractive in terms of player recruitment.”
Marine President Dave Thompson said:
“I am so delighted that Neil has put pen to paper and agreed to stay at our wonderful club and work with us to help achieve our long term exciting plans.”
Marine Chairman Paul Leary said:
“This is really great news for everyone at Marine Football Club. Our team, with Neil at the helm, has created history with the Emirates FA Cup run and this announcement of a 3 year+ agreement is well deserved and could not be timed better. The agreement with Neil paves the way for him to build on this year’s amazing achievements and to continue to plan and achieve improvement especially in league standings.”
Neil Young added:
“It’s been a tough number of years for our supporters but I must say in the time I have been here they have always stuck with the players and I have been amazed at their support. This cup run is a thank you to them for their continued unwavering support and I intend it to be, only the start of this new chapter.
Finally a word for the players who have more than exceeded my expectations with their attitude, commitment and work ethic in many areas. Our work together has only just begun and hopefully when we look back at the end of the season (whenever that will be) we won’t just have a cup run to celebrate. We all know that to be successful we have to all work even harder in both the short term but more importantly over a longer period of time.
Have a wonderful Christmas and let’s hope 2021 is a better year for everyone.”
