Bungay Town FC have appointed Mike Derbyshire (pictured) as coaching advisor to support their bid for promotion to the Premier Division of the Anglian Combination.

Bungay Town FC have appointed Mike Derbyshire (pictured) as coaching advisor to support their bid for promotion to the Premier Division of the Anglian Combination.

A man with considerable experience in football in the region, he said: “I am delighted to be joining Bungay Town FC. They have a fantastic set-up with wonderful facilities and are clearly a club that is going places. Player-manager, Lee Henwood, has done a brilliant job with the first team here, helping to take them into senior football and now to the verge of the Anglian Combination Premier Division.

“I have come on board purely in an advisory capacity, to offer Lee any support I can give him gained from my experience of a successful first division promotion campaign - and to help co-ordinate training sessions.”

Club chairman Jon Fuller said: “Lee Henwood has done a great job getting the team to a position to challenge for promotion. Now we have reached the business end of the season it seems sensible to bring Mike on board, in an advisory role, to help Lee and the players secure the promotion that is tantalisingly within their grasp.”

Mike began his playing career in senior football at the age of 15 with Norwich Union (now AFC Norwich) in the Anglian Combination League, in the 1980s. During this time, he had a trial for Norwich City and Norfolk County u19s, in 1984.

Mike moved on to play for a time in the South East Counties League (now the Ridgeons League) with Yarmouth Town before returning to the Anglian Combination with Sprowston Wanderers.

He took-up his first management role as player-manager with Wensum Albion in the top division of the Norwich & District Business Houses League, in the 1990s. Mike ended his regular playing career in 2003 at the age of 35, following the birth of his two children.

Mike's first management post in senior football came when he joined Watton United in the Anglian Combination in the autumn of 2005.

He was with them for three-and-a-half years during which time he helped guide the club back to the Premier Division in the 2007/08 season and to their first senior cup final for 22 years.