BRISTOL Rovers boss Darrell Clarke has strengthened his backroom team with the appointment of former Torquay United boss Chris Hargreaves.

Chris takes on the newly created role of Under-21 coach and will monitor closely all players up to that age, which will see him work closely with Academy staff on the development of players for the future.

Darrell said of his new appointment; “I am delighted to welcome Chris to the club as we continue to strengthen our infrastructure.

“Moving forward, these are exciting times for our football club and although we only have seven players under the age of 21 in our current squad, it’s important that we develop our U-21 system to ensure that as many players as possible make it all the way through to our first team.

“Chris, who I know very well, will also be working with our first and second year pros out on the training ground and I’m sure that we will all benefit from having another experienced coach on our backroom team.”

The 44 year old, who began his playing career with Grimsby Town back in 1989, went on to appear in well over 600 first team games, in all competitions, for 10 other clubs as a player.

He was appointed as manager of Torquay United, for whom he made over 100 appearances as a player, in January 2014 and left Plainmoor in June 2015.

Chris is the latest in a number of new recruits Darrell’s backroom team and we will be looking at the revamped medical and management team later this week.