YATE Town director of football Nigel Hawkins has a new role within the club after being appointed as their first team coach.

And there is another boost for the Bluebells in that the Southern League structure has been altered for next season with only one team being relegated, not that Yate are looking at a basement struggle in the new campaign.

Hawkins has been praised for his success with Yate’s under-18 set-up over the past years.

Therefore, when last season’s first team coach John Rendell left the Jelf Stadium to take up the job of manager at Yate’s Evo-Stik Southern League Division One South and West rivals Paulton Rovers last week, a vacancy opened up.

Manager Paul Britton said that, despite a lot of interest from people to join the club, Hawkins was an obvious choice to help the young team during the summer as they head towards the new campaign.

Britton said: “We have got Nigel coming in as first team coach which is brilliant for us in that he knows the club inside out and he has had a year off from coaching the Under-18s.

“We had a good relationship at the end of last season and he gives us something extra in the coaching department.

“We are pleased to have appointed someone that has knowledge and fire to bring on young players.

“And it speaks volumes that, with the set-up he has had, it has brought terrific success to the Under-18s.

“We are delighted to have Nigel on board and he was our first point of call after John left. We had a couple of people interested in it if Nigel had not wanted to take the role but he did.”

And it will be a different league that Yate will play in next season after it was confirmed last week that only one club will go down.

Britton said he has not really paid much attention to it as he expects the Bluebells to be fighting for a place at least around mid-table rather than the 18th place – three off the relegation zone – that they finished in last season.

But it is a significant decision nonetheless.

It has been taken in order to accommodate a new division at Step Four level of the football pyramid. This will also apply to the Southern League Central division.

Following the changes, the six Step Four divisions currently run by the Northern Premier League, Isthmian League and Southern League will rise from 136 clubs playing in six divisions, to 140 clubs playing in seven twenty club Leagues.

The decision follows a long awaited review of Steps Three and Four to iron out geographical anomalies, cut down on travelling and encourage more clubs in Yate’s position to climb the pyramid.

Of more concern to the Yate manager are the list of juicy friendlies they have lined-up for pre-season.

They confirmed a visit from League One side Bristol Rovers, who Britton has strong connections with, earlier this month. Rovers will play Yate at the Jelf Stadium on Saturday July 8.

Now they have also added two more July matches and one in August.

They play Stonehouse Town, of the Gloucestershire County League, on July 22 before taking on National League South outfit Bath City on Saturday July 29.

They then have a derby with next door neighbours, Toolstation Western League side Chipping Sodbury Town also at the Jelf Stadium on Tuesday August 1.

There are two other matches that are yet to be confirmed in July which are both on Tuesdays. These are on July 18 and July 25.

Britton said: “We have done well with these pre-season games. To have Bath City that late in the day is good and we are delighted to have Bristol Rovers at our place.

“We played Chipping Sodbury at their place last season and we will reciprocate it now this pre-season.”