After a successful two seasons in the North West Youth Alliance, our current Under 18’s squad will be merging with our Under 21’s squad to form a new Under 21’s team that will compete in the North West U21 Development League.

This means that we’ll welcome a new crop of Under 18’s players to Stalybridge Celtic and to lead this, we’re delighted to announce the appointment of James Caldwell as our new Under 18’s Head Coach.

James has previously worked at Oldham Athletic as their Development Centre Manager and also had a spell as their Head of Academy Recruitment.

He’s also coached at Rochdale and Accrington Stanley and is well known in youth football. James will be taking a ready built squad into the North West Youth Alliance.

Our Under 21’s will be jointly managed by existing coaching staff Garry Jones and Leo Inneh and the Under 21’s will be training alongside James Kinsey’s first team squad for the upcoming season.

This restructure is part of our long term plans to build and develop our youth teams under our new ownership. There are exciting plans to follow with our Academy and Education programmes.