Howes
joins the Stags from Southern Premier Division South neighbours Blackfield
& Langley and he brings James Wood with him as his assistant and Henry
Howes as his goalkeeping coach.
Howes,
then 31, was appointed as the Watersiders boss in May 2015, taking over from the
vastly experienced John Robson when the club had just finished fifth in the
Sydenhams Football League (Wessex) Premier.
He
was a highly rated midfielder with Eastleigh, Basingstoke Town, Newport IoW and
Gosport Borough.
But
his career was cruelly cut short in distressing circumstances in 2013 when,
playing for Poole Town, he fell victim of a nasty challenge against Merthyr
Tydfil at Penydarren Park.
Following
a number of consultations with specialists, Howes discovered he had ruptured
medial and posterior cruciate ligaments, damaged cartilage and fractured the
knee joint.
After
taking over at Blackfield & Langley, he has led the team to back-to-back
promotions from the Wessex League in 2017 to the Southern Premier Division in
2019. |
