By Brian Bennett
Ashington FC joint head coaches Andy Coyles and Richie Hill have made another summer swoop after signing Jamie Tunstall to bolster their management team.
Darlington-born Tunstall – who has a wealth of experience after managing several clubs in the Ebac Northern League – said he is excited and feels ‘very privileged’ to link up with the Woodhorn Lane based outfit.
Hill said: “Jamie and I go back quite a long time. I’ve worked with him previously at Crook Town and he’s been a former manager of Shildon, Crook, Thornaby and more recently Northallerton Town. He’s unbelievable with his intelligence of North East football and beyond and there’s not a player who he doesn’t know – so he will be very good in that regard with recruitment. He’s also a qualified coach and we see things in the same way.”
Hill continued: “Jamie was very excited at coming on board at such a big club with so much potential and in the short space of time he’s been with us he’s already been really, really helpful. He’s given us information on players that we had as targets and I think he’ll be an excellent addition to the management team. He’s very professional and he’ll certainly buy into our DNA and the way in which we want things to be done. He’ll be very much involved in pre season training; at the heart of pre match warm ups; watching the games back on veo and reporting back to us on the things we did well and also the things which we didn’t do well.”
Tunstall joins the set up at Ashington after leaving behind ‘a great club’ in Northallerton where he will forever have fond memories: “Northallerton are a great club – a club where I spent most of my career as a player so I’ve got a really good connection with them,” he said. The 38 year old added: “However, I feel very privileged to come to a club of this size and to be involved with Andy (Coyles) and Richie (Hill). I know what ambitions Ashington have got especially under the management team which are in place and I know that they want to try and push the club forward as much as they can – and that’s exciting for me.”