WARRINGTON Town striker Paul Heavey has taken the first steps on the road to management.

The 29-year-old has been appointed player coach of the North West Counties first division team after impressing joint manager Glenn Walker with his abilities.

Walker is to take full charge of the Cantilever Park team shortly as fellow joint manager Derek Brownbill is to take on a director of football role and so the former Crosfields chief has been seeking extra help for the past few weeks.

He said: "Paul's taken a few of the training sessions lately and done a good job. He's a good talker and played soccer professionally. As he says, he's been in thousands of dressing rooms and he knows what is required.

"Having help like his allows him to get on with a main session while I can take players to the side for one-to-one work and advice.

"I've still got irons in the fire around Christmas time to bring in an assistant manager and that wasn't the next stage for Paul.

"He is one of the team at the moment and has a good rapport with the players. He wants to take his badge and needs to gain a different type of respect from the players and look to take the step up to management in the future."