Clark is a former pro who made nearly 300 appearances in the Football League playing for Doncaster Rovers, Hartlepool United and Darlington. 

He also played for Scarborough, Stockton Town, Harrogate Town, Gateshead, Spennymoor United, Norton & Stockton Ancients, Horden Colliery Welfare, Guisborough Town and Thornaby.

Most recently, he was assistant manager at Marske United, helping them gain promotion to the NPL Premier Division in 2021/22.

Shildon also confirmed that Chris Hughes will continue as assistant manager with Alex White continuing as player-coach. 

Shildon chairman David Dent told https://shildonafc.com: “Firstly, I would like to thank Alex, Chay, Chris and Ben for helping the club over the past few weeks. It’s massively appreciated. 

“I’m absolutely delighted to have secured the services of Ian who understands the potential of the club and wants to play a part over the next few years in realising our ambitions. From our first conversations I was impressed with his knowledge of players and the Northern Premier League, his coaching acumen, but more importantly his desire to win games of football. His first target is to get us up the league and then we will jointly develop our plan to take the club onto another level, both on and off the pitch”.