Lordswood boss Neil Hunter promotes Imran Englefield to become his number two

LORDSWOOD manager Neil Hunter has appointed Imran Englefield as his assistant manager going into his second season in charge of the club.

Englefield has stepped up into the Southern Counties East Football League Premier Division management team after managing the reserve side for the past three years.

Englefield joined the Medway club 11 years ago and went on to make 145 first-team appearances in over five seasons, scoring nine goals.

He was part of arguably one of the clubs most successful seasons when in the 2012-13 campaign the side reached a then highest ever league position of fifth and reached a club record Fourth Round in The FA Vase when they lost to eventual winners Spennymoor Town and were beaten by Tunbridge Wells in the Kent Senior Trophy Final.

He left the club at the end of the 2014-15 season but returned two years later to play for the reserves under Rob Everett in their first Kent County League campaign.

Everett resigned at the end of that season and Englefield took over the reins as joint-manager with Chris Gardner.

Lordswood beat their Whitstable Town counterparts to clinch the Kent Intermediate Cup a few weeks ago and Hunter has seen enough to offer him a first-team role in the ninth-tier of English football.

“Imi is Lordswood through and through,” Hunter told the club website.

“He loves the club and I’m over the moon to be able to bring him in as my number two.

“He has impressed me massively in how he deals with players and how he has managed the reserves. I respect him immensely.

“Having Imran joining the first-team set-up leaves a gap in the reserves management and that is one that we will be looking to resolve over the next month.

“Undoubtedly though, the links between the youth, reserves and first-team sections will continue to build ever stronger,” said the former Fisher coach.

The 2021-22 Southern Counties East Football League Premier Division campaign gets underway on Saturday 31 July 2021.

The previous two campaigns failed to finish due to the coronavirus health pandemic.

Visit Lordswood’s website: www.lordswoodfc.club