Rugby Town are pleased to announce the appointment of Carl Adams as the new first team manager.

Adams left his post at Southern League Premier Division side Stratford Town after six years in charge there to replace the out-going Dave Stringer, whose second stint in the Butlin Road hot seat came to an end after the completion of the 2017/18 season.

The 45-year-old Adams comes to Valley with an impressive managerial track record, having guided Stratford to two promotions since joining them for the 2012/13 season.

In his first season at Knights Lane, he helped secure them the Midland Alliance title (the equivalent of Town’s current league), before then advancing through the Southern League South & West Division via the play-offs in 2015.

Adams has left Stratford after maintaining their Step Three non-league pyramid status for three seasons – recording 19th, 14th and 15th place finishes, and he also has a further title success on his managerial CV at Coleshill, where he won the Midland Combination championship in 2008.

As a player, he made three first team starts for Birmingham City, before also featuring for Northampton, Kettering, Stevenage and Weymouth – ahead of a spell in the USA.

Valley Director Neil Melvin explained the rationale behind the switch and welcomed the new man to the club.

He said: “After the disappointment of relegation at the end of 2016/17, we set ourselves the primary objective of restoring non-league step 4 football to Butlin Road at the earliest opportunity, and we believe that this appointment now gives us the best chance of achieving this.

“Whilst we would like to thank Dave for all his efforts and wish him well in the future, unfortunately this season has not been as successful as we would have hoped for and as a result we were not any point in serious contention for one of the two promotion places that were available.

“Getting out of this division is likely to be even tougher next time around, so we have appointed someone who has previously accomplished this task and is now ambitious to replicate this with us."