A NEW management and coaching team – with several old and familiar faces – will lead Crooklands Casuals into West Lancs battle this season.

Following the departure of Jon Bell, Toby O'Reilly has stepped in to take the first-team reins once more at Longlands Park, having stood down previously in 2008.

The experienced former Casuals player/manager, reserves boss last year, will be assisted by a strong line-up of coaches at the Dalton club – men who were determined not to let the team go under.

Jonny Lowes will help out with coaching at training, mostly during the season itself, though commitment to his sons' junior team means he will be more sporadically involved on match days.

Chris McKenna, who has been part of the coaching set-up in the past, Paul Muspratt, Lee Andrews – Lowes' junior management counterpart – and players Glyn Caine and Dave Mansergh will also be involved alongside O'Reilly.

Lowes said: “They were struggling to get people, so Toby said he would step up and there were a group of us who said we'd do our utmost to contribute.

“We've been in and around the club for a long time and we said we will do whatever we can to support Toby. He has always been in and around the club and now he is keen to get back involved.”

Cassies will start their season at home to Fulwood Amateur tomorrow, with a full schedule of two fixtures a week until the end of the month.

They will be aiming for a better campaign than last year, when they finished second-bottom in the West Lancs Premier Division, but avoided the drop due to a league restructure.

Lowes knows it will be a tough start to the season, and said: “It's the way it has to be done now – they lose that many games in the winter. I know the eight games are horrendous at the time, but if they didn't do it, I don't know how they would get the league completed.

“They've brought in Whitehaven to the league this year, but Charnock have gone up to the North West Counties – they have been due to do that for a few years. It will be a tough season, but everybody is in the same boat.”

One issue O'Reilly, Lowes and the team will have to deal with is player availability due to work commitments. New shift patterns in the Barrow shipyard hit them hard last season and it could be the same again this.

“The problem for Cassies is that they have got so many lads – probably more so than most other teams – who work shifts,” Lowes added.

“I watched a few games last season and it must have been demoralising for some of the regulars thinking they had to try and keep the score down. They had half a team, because a lot of them work in Vickers and when half can play, the other half can't.

“You can have players who can play for three weeks, but then they miss three weeks. The other half of the team, they're on opposite shifts. Last season, I don't think they ever put out a full squad.

“You just have to do what you can.”