Cefn Albion Football Club is absolutely delighted to announce that well known and very well-respected duo Phil Bathers and Kev Edwards have agreed to be the new reserve team manager and assistant manager respectively. They are both entered in Comet and we are awaiting approval.

Phil and Kev who both hail from the village, will replace Tommy Evans who after four committed years in the role has decided to hand over his young guns to focus on getting fit and playing himself.

About Phil Bathers
For those who don’t know Phil as a player he represented Druids united until he left at the age of 14 to sign for Chester City. Unfortunately, after just 2-years on the YTS scheme at City Phil lost a little bit of interest in football and decided to have some time out until he signed for the old Cefn Albion at the age of 17. Following the amalgamation of Cefn Albion and Druids United Phil went on to spend 4 successfully years with Cefn Druids under Ian Williams and Ken Roberts who describes as the best manager he has played for. Phil later had spells with Rhos Aelwyd and Penycae in the Cymru Alliance.

In the dugout Phil had a short spell with Llangollen Town before joining FC Cefn where he managed the reserves but later joined former Albion manager Stephen Davies (Wacky) where he helped to build up a squad of players that went to on to win the welsh national league premier division in 2011/12. It was during FC Cefn’s title winning season that Phil moved onto Cefn Druids following an approach offering him a coaching role. Being a club close to his heart Phil made the difficult decision to move on.

Whilst at Cefn Druids Phil worked alongside the well renown Huw Griffiths and Geoff Williams where he believes he learnt so much about football, he worked with and coached all age groups from 8’s – 19’s in the academy at Druids. It was with the group of 16s where Phil arguably had his biggest success as he coached them to lifting the FAW academy cup. Whilst at Druids Phil worked towards his coaching badges.
Phil now joins his son Keenan at the Albion.

About Kev Edwards
Within the Wrexham Area footballing scene there won’t be many people that haven’t heard of ‘Kev Ed’ especially if you are a defensive player who he has likely terrorised over the years! Without any doubt, on the local scene Kev is one of the most talented football players to hail from the village.

As a young lad transitioning from the youth Kev joined Cefn Druids where he quickly went on to represent them and establish himself in the league of Wales. Eddie had spells with Chirk AAA, Llangollen Town and Corwen in the Cymru Alliance but it’s his achievements with the local side Cefn United, particularly in the FAW Trophy which they lifted 2000/01 that will be remembered fondly in the area. Despite being plagued by some nasty injuries Kev soldiered on and was part of the title winning FC Cefn team that were crowed welsh national league premier division champions.

After a few years away from football to the delight of everyone at the Albion Kev made a surprise return last season signing a form and featuring for our reserves. You could feel his presence amongst our younger lads when on the pitch.

We spoke to both Phil and Kev about their decisions to join us and here is what they had to say.

Phil Bathers

“I’m excited to be given the opportunity to work with Cefn Albion reserves who I believe are a talented young group after watching numerous games over the past couple of years.

I’ve been involved in football for many years but with my recent coaching experience at Cefn Druids where I learnt so much, I hope I can use it to educate and coach these players in order to get them to a standard where they are ready for the first team. Of course, development is important but building a competitive team that is challenging for honours will be an added bonus.

Whilst operating on a voluntary basis and to zero budget its evident that Cefn Albion have continued to grow over the years both on and off the pitch. Its great to see them keeping the faith in local players and creating an excellent platform for players to go out and enjoy their football. For me, this is how football clubs at this level should be operating which is why I was happy to get involved at the Albion. I’m looking forward to the challenge!"

Kev Edwards

“I was delighted when Phil asked me to become his assistant at Cefn Albion, having played numerous times last season I can appreciate that there is a lot of young talent in the ranks so it was an easy decision.

Both Phil and I have been around for many years so between us I think we have a lot of experience and excellent knowledge about local football. The plan is to pass on everything that I have learnt over the years which I feel will help. Hopefully we can put together a strong team that together we can develop and help compete for trophies.

We are encouraging all of last season’s players to re-sign and with a few solid additions we shouldn’t be to far away. We have lots of exciting plans and will be working with the club to ensure that everything is in place for a much-anticipated season ahead.”

First team manager Sean Jones on the appointment

“Firstly, I would like to thank Tag and Lloydy for the brilliant job that they have done with our reserve team. When Tag first made me aware that he was considering stepping down to have another go at playing my first though was Phil and I am delighted that he has decided to accept and come on board. From previous roles Phil has a brilliant reputation within our local area.

Phil already knows many of our current players and with experience of coaching in the academy he will have lots of contacts. I believe that bathers and I are on the same wave length and share similar ideas about how football should be played. We both want to improve an develop players, especially our youngsters to get them to a higher standard.

Phil has brought in Kev Ed as his assistant which is another huge positive, alike Phil Kev is a well-known figure around the community and our club. He is definitely a player that our lads can learn a lot from.

Welcome to the club lads”

Finally, we would like to thank Tom Evans for all his hard work and commitment over the past four years, running a reserve team is no easy task! Having got to three semi-finals and no higher than third place in the league by his own admittance, he believed the team under achieved. What we can say is thanks to ‘tag’ we have a talented group of players at the club (many who have gone onto to establish themselves in the first team) and he has kept that together as best he can over the years. This gives the new management a fantastic base to work with.

Also, thank you to Stephen Lloyd Jones who having stepped in to help Tag this season has decided to take a little break from football. The door will always be open for Steve to return when he is ready to do so.

Very exciting times for our reserve team who will have two excellent figures in the backroom. The lads who are resigning or thinking about signing won’t be disappointed!

Good luck to Phil and Kev and welcome to the Albion.

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