The club are delighted to announce that Benburb Under 20’s manager Martin Montgomery has been appointed as the new Men’s First Team Manager. Martin has had great success with his young charges along the road at New Tinto, culminating in winning their conference last season and lifting the inaugural West of Scotland Football Development League overall championship. They almost made it a double but lost out in the SLDFL Combined Cup final to the University of Stirling.
The 42-year-old will begin life at McKenna Park next Monday due to a prior engagement and will be in the dugout for the first time in our next match, which is a way to Whitletts on 22nd February.
There was significant interest in the role and the club would like to thank everyone who took the time to apply for the job.
Ants Secretary Martin McKenna is delighted to have the new manager in place and is looking forward to a bright future at McKenna Park under Montgomery. “There was a great selection of candidates and it was a really tough decision for the interview panel to make but we feel that we have the right man in Martin. He blew us away at his interview and his plans for the future of the club really excited us. Being a local boy and growing up watching the club he knows how we operate and hopefully having a local boy at the helm will further strengthen our ties with the community and hopefully we’ll see some more new faces along at McKenna Park. I’d like to thank Frank and Paul Lovering at Benburb for allowing us to speak to Martin and ultimately let him leave to join us”.
The new gaffer was himself over the moon with his appointment, speaking to us after he agreed to take the job. “ I am delighted and honoured to be given the chance to manage the club and I’m looking forward to meeting the squad and getting to work. Being a local boy the two teams you always went to go see were the Ants and Bens. I’ve always had a soft spot for The Ants despite the bens literally being my back garden growing up as my house backed onto tinto. I’d like to thank Frank, Paul and the rest of the family and staff at Benburb for their professionalism in letting me take this opportunity and for giving me the platform to put myself in the position to get such a prestigious job and to Martin and the rest of the committee at the Ants for putting their trust in me to lead this fantastic club”.
Martin will be joined at the club with his Assistant manager David Breen who played at pro youth and WoS level before stepping into coaching at both under 20’s and again in the WoS. Goalkeeping coach Lewis Melvin played in the WoSFL before joining the Bens 20’s coaching staff in March 2024. Lastly is Physio Sean Anderson who is currently a physiotherapy student at college and is passionate about sports science as well as injury prevention and rehabilitation.
Further backroom team announcements will hopefully be made in the next week or so once the gaffer takes the reigns
We can’t wait to see the new team in action!
