ADY Pennock is putting the band back together one more time after appointing his new assistant manager.

Jamie Day, who worked under Pennock at Welling United, Forest Green Rovers and Gillingham, has signed on as the new number two at Holker Street.

The 28-year-old Londoner left League One Gillingham on the same day as Pennock in September, and the AFC boss – appointed by the Bluebirds a month later – has been biding his time before working with him once again.

AFC managing director Andrew Casson was pleased to have Day on board at the club, rekindling a relationship with Pennock which dates back to his playing days at Welling in 2005.

“It’s more the right time than anything,” Casson said of the appointment. “We’ve spoken to the fans about Ady’s sometimes frustrating patience in following through with a plan.

“When you look at the timeline, he always knew he wanted Jamie to be his assistant, and it was a matter of when, and not if.

“I think Jamie had some personal situations he had to resolve before he could commit to coming up north, which led to the delay. Ady made the decision that it was worth the patience to give him the time he needed to come on board.”

Day is a former manager at Welling, where he was in charge between 2009 and 2014, as well as having taken the reins at Ebbsfleet United for five months in the 2014/15 season. He had brief spells with Braintree Town and again at Welling before joining Pennock at Gillingham last year.

He teams back up with Pennock, and joins player/coach Grant Holt and strength and conditioning coach Lindsay Davies as the back-room staff for the Bluebirds going forward.

Casson sees that team as being a big positive for the club, hoping the on-field recruitment can build on it.

“When you look at that management team of Ady, Jamie, Grant and Lindsay, and you think about the strength it has and the successes Ady and Jamie have achieved together, that’s, if not the best management team at this level, then it’s got to be close to being up there,” Casson said.

“It solidifies the foundations, and now we hopefully build the squad for the rest of this season and into next season.”

While Day arrives for his first training session with AFC, physio Matt Butterfield has departed.

Butterfield, appointed at Barrow by former boss Paul Cox in the summer, will join League Two side Crewe Alexandra’s academy set-up, with his last day having been Saturday, when he took part in a training session instead of being on the sidelines for the postponed fixture against Hartlepool United.

Davies will take over Butterfield’s responsibilities, and Casson added: “Lindsay is a fully-trained and qualified physio, and so he will be taking over those duties in conjunction with his strength and conditioning role. It cleans up that area.

“Fortunately, since they came on board, we’ve had decent luck with injuries. It’s pretty much just been pre-hab exercises and working out general muscle soreness, things like that.

“Lindsay will handle all that, and in emergency situations we’ll luck at that on a case-by-case basis.”

Casson confirmed Pennock had been given the option of bringing in a new physio rather than having Davies take on new responsibilities, and said: “I gave Ady carte blanche to bring in a replacement if he thought it was necessary, but he seems comfortable with Lindsay as a physio and said the players are comfortable with it as well.

“If that group of individuals is pleased with it, then I will be pleased with it.”