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Eastbourne Borough Appoint New Manager

Vanarama National League South club Eastbourne Borough have announced the appointment of highly rated former Dorking Wanderers head coach and Brighton & Hove Albion youth coach Mark Beard as their new manager with immediate effect.

Thursday 08 June 23 I 16:47:37	I	Photo by

Beard, an experienced UEFA A Licence coach with more than 30 years’ experience of playing and coaching across all levels of football, joins from the Surrey club he helped to reach the National League for the first time in 2022. Prior to that, the 48-year-old, who counts Newcastle United and former England and Brighton sporting director Dan Ashworth and ex- Brighton and Chelsea head coach Graham Potter among his fans – was the Seagulls` under-18s manager. In his time in the role between 2019 and 2021, Beard and his staff created a world class youth training model. The programme developed top talent including full Ireland international forward Aaron Connelly, former England under-20 defender Alex Cochrane, ex-England under-18 defender Haydon Roberts, former Three Lions under-17 midfielder Teddy Jenks, and Hull City regular Ryan Longman. This season alone Evan Ferguson, Andy Moran, Cameron Pepiuon and Odel Offiah made their premier league debuts. New Eastbourne Borough owner Simon Leslie is confident Beard will use his nurturing of talent, care for his players, and tactical expertise to great effect with The Sports as they seek to win promotion out of National League South. Beard, who in a 15-year playing career made 370 appearances for teams including Millwall and Sheffield United, said he was “honoured” to become the new Eastbourne Borough Manager. Beard’s is joined and his assistant manager Jamie Strong and Niall Clark, who will be head of performance medicine and sports science who has won four top-flight titles globally. Having also worked at Manchester City, West Ham United, Crystal Palace and Reading. Discussing his new manager, club owner Leslie told https://ebfc.co.uk: “I could not be more excited for Mark Beard to be joining us at Eastbourne Borough as manager. “I am excited about the lessons Mark learned from his time at Brighton, working with Dan Ashworth and Graham Potter, and his desire to be lifelong learner. “Mark’s time at Brighton, getting so many players into the first team, made him immensely proud and that to me demonstrated that he put others’ successes ahead of his own. “That spoke volumes about his character, and I knew instantly he was the right man to lead the project. “I have big plans to take Eastbourne Borough forward and when I shared my vision for the club with Mark, he instantly got it. “Mark is passionate about helping his players to learn and grow, the lessons we can all learn from all other areas of the club and the other top coaches who we will be hiring to support him and his players, and the science and testing facilities we are going to implement that will give us the best chance to create successful and well-rounded athletes. “I believe in Mark and the way he will build a team of players who care for each other, believe in each other, and give their very all until the final whistle. “And, that whatever happens in their career, Mark and I will have had an impact on their life and left them better than we found them.” Leslie added: “Mark’s current manager at Dorking, Marc White, said he will make one of the top managers in our league, and that his skills for developing players is second-to-none. “He was gutted to see him go but would not stop him doing what he loved. I am grateful to him for giving us this wonderful leader of footballers. “If we do the right things the results will follow. I am confident we will build it and Eastbourne will come along with us”.

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