They Have Managed in the Southern League (3)

Former managers in the Southern Football League.

Micky Bell

Micky Bell was appointed manager of Southern Division Division One South West club Clevedon Town in May 2010 – his first post as a football manager following the departure of Peter Beadle.

Bell started his playing career at Northampton Town before being sold to Wycombe Wanderers and was then transferred for £150,000 to Bristol City where he spent eight years before being released in the summer of 2005.

Port Vale came in and signed him on a free transfer and after a spell in the Potteries he joined Cheltenham Town, helping them to promotion as he had at Bristol City.

A series of injuries forced him to retire from the professional game and he moved to Team Bath as player-coach before moving to Weston-super-Mare in February 2008, leaving the following summer.

He continued coaching youngsters in North Somerset and had a spell on the coaching staff at the Southampton academy before being appointed manager of Clevedon.

John Relish

John Relish could be described as `Mr Newport County`!

After being on the books of home-town club Liverpool as a youngster and then Chester City, he moved to Wales to join Newport in May 1974 and left 13 years later and, despite suffering a broken leg which kept him out of the game for almost a year, he made over 400 appearances.

He contributed to helping County through possible extinction in 1976/77 and then became a key member of the club`s golden era at left back.

In 1986, Relish accepted the role of player-manager to avoid likely relegation and his leadership succeeded in that.

He was torn but chose to leave at the end of the season to work for the Professional Footballers’ Association, although he did return briefly to play during an injury crisis.

Perhaps his most crucial contribution was agreeing to become manager in the inaugural season as Newport AFC.

The announcement that he was to play a key part in it, raised confidence through such difficult times, both on and off the field.

He inspired winning the `double` in AFC`s first season in the Hellenic League and saw the club`s return to Somerton but sadly then faced enforced exile to Gloucester when in the Southern League Midland Division.

During that time Relish felt, partly due to the excess travelling, that it was time to step down in 1993.

He became assistant manager of Weston-super-Mare under his former Newport manager Len Ashurst and took full charge of the club in 1998.

He was sacked in October 2001 after an indifferent start to the season.

He returned to Merthyr Tydfil, again as assistant-manager, but now under Andy Beattie in June 2002.

He became Merthyr's manager in 2003 but resigned in May 2005 after the playing budget had been cut for the following season.

He was appointed as manager of Bath City the following month and the following season guided the Romans to the Southern League title, and with it, promotion to the Conference South.

He moved aside to be replaced by his former assistant Adie Britten in October 2008, although remained with the club to work with their community and youth development programme.

He was also involved in the coaching set-up which oversaw Wales win in the non-League Four Nations Tournament in 2006.

Malcolm Woodbine

Was appointed manager of Southern League Midland Division club Dudley Town in the summer of 1992 having been caretaker boss since February 1992.

He couldn`t prevent them from finishing bottom of the table that campaign – 10 points adrift of second-bottom Alvechurch.

He was a former Dudley player who also managed Oldswinford, Tividale and Cradley Town.

Alf Bentley

Alf Bentley was a goalkeeper in his playing days and started his career with Kent League side Snowdown Colliery Welfare before moving into the Football League with Coventry City in 1955.

After a spell with then-Kent League Margate he returned to League football in 1958 with Gillingham, making 42 appearances.

In 1962 he joined Southern League Division One side Tunbridge Wells United before going on to another Southern Division One outfit, Hastings United, before finishing his playing career back in the Kent League with Snowdown in the 1966/67 season.

However, it`s as a manager that Bentley will be best remembered.

He started off as manager/chairman at Snowdown after hanging up his gloves in 1967.

He went on to become one of the best-known managers in Kent football, taking charge of firstly Canterbury City from 1970 until 1975, Ramsgate in 75/76, Dover from 1976 to 1979, Folkestone from 79 to 1983 and then returned to Canterbury towards the end of the 83/84 season until the end of the 84/85 campaign.

During the 1987/88 season, Bentley had another spell at Canterbury as caretaker boss and then went back to Folkestone as manager in the summer of 1990 but resigned at the end of September 1990.

He later returned yet again to Canterbury for the beginning of the 1991/92 season before being sacked in January 1992.

He then returned to Snowdown, now in the Kent County League, in the summer of 1992 and then moved `upstairs` as chairman in 1993.

He sadly died in October 1996 at age of 64.

Rob Smith

Rob Smith was a skilful attacking midfielder who saw service with a number of Midlands non-League sides.

He began at King`s Heath and Stourport Swifts before moving on to have spells with Halesowen Town, Dudley Town, Worcester City, Stafford Rangers, Tamworth, Telford United and Redditch United, where he had two stints as a player before taking on the role of player-manager at Redditch towards the end of the 1998/99 season.

Smith and his trusted assistant Larry Chambers gained their first managerial shot at Redditch, before being controversially axed after the club finished sixth and fourth in successive seasons in the Southern League Division One West.

He then spent four-and-a-half years with Willenhall Town, who were pushing for promotion in the Southern League Division One West when, in February 2006, he took the decision to step up to manage AFC Telford United, who were sitting in the relegation zone in the Conference North in their second season after re-forming.

He was sacked in April 2010 after failing to take the club into the play-offs.

Smith left National League North rivals Hednesford Town to return to Telford in August 2015.

They helped the club avoid relegation from the Northern Premier League in their first season, led them up the following year, then twice went close to promotion, losing in the play-off semi-finals in 2008, losing to Gateshead in the final in 2009 and missing out on the play-offs a year later.

He left the Bucks again in June 2017 and returned to Hednesford.

Smith will be fondly remembered by Pitmen supporters as the manager who led the club back to the second tier of the non-League Pyramid and bringing with it Conference football in 2013 following an eight-year absence.

During his 271 games in charge, Smith recorded a total of 151 victories with him guiding the club to Southern League Cup, Birmingham Senior Cup, Staffordshire Senior Cup and Northern Premier League play-off final titles.

But he left the Pitmen again to become the new manager of Halesowen Town in November 2018.

However, things didn`t work out at The Grove and he left the Yeltz by mutual consent in March 2019.

Paul Arnold

As a player, Paul Arnold spent seven years with Southampton before being released in 1979 and joining Weymouth.

He helped the Terras finish second in the first season of the new Alliance Premier League.

He also helped the club win the Bob Lord Trophy and reach the Third Round of the FA Cup in 1981/82.

His final season was in 1987/88 when the Terras moved to their current ground.

In total, he made 494 appearances in his nine-year stay, including 297 as captain.

He moved along the Dorset coast to Southern League South Division side Poole Town in 1987 and was appointed as player-manager a year later.

He led the Dolphins to third and second place in consecutive seasons before earning promotion to the Premier Division.

Arnold took the managerial helm at Southern Premier Division neighbours Dorchester Town in July 1991 after the departure of Keith Miller.

He left the Magpies in 1993.

In February 1999, Poole Borough were formed, appointing Kim Sturgess and Paul Arnold as joint managers in the Dorset County League Division One.

Arnold took over on his own in December 1999 but left in the summer of 2001.

Arnold then took over as manager of Wimborne Town in 2002.

He stepped down from the Magpies helm in March 2007.

Bert Head

Bert Head became a very successful manager in the 1960s and 70s.

Yet another who had the best of his playing days curtailed by war, after being with Welton Rovers in the Western League, he joined Torquay United in October 1936.

The right back went on to make 225 appearances for the Gulls but lost six years to the Second World War.

He left Torquay in 1952 to join Bury, where he finished his playing career and had a spell on their coaching staff before taking on a tough-looking job for his first managerial role at Swindon Town, who at the time were second-from-bottom of the Third Division South.

He developed a very successful youth policy at Swindon, introducing players such as Mike Summerbee, Bobby Woodruff, Ernie Hunt and Don Rogers to the first team.

Head led Swindon to their first Football League promotion when they finished second in Division Three in the 1962/63 season.

He was manager at the County Ground from 1956 to 1965, then spent a short while at Bury before moving to Crystal Palace in 1966.

He guided Palace to the First Division for the first time and kept them up for three seasons before being moved `upstairs` to the general manager`s office to make way for the mercurial Malcolm Allison.

After leaving Palace in 1973 he became manager and then a director of Southern League Premier Division club Bath City in 1975.

Bath became almost a full-time club under Head, who had 20 players in his squad, 75% of which were full-time.

He resigned from the Bath board in 1982.

He sadly passed away in February 2002.