Solihull Moors' women's team appoints first team manager
Solihull Moors Women have confirmed the appointment of Tom Blaymires as their new first team manager.
Following an extensive recruitment process, Blaymires ' recent track record and passion for further developing the women 's section at Moors stood out, amongst several other key qualities.
In a new-look backroom team, Blaymires ' support staff will include an assistant manager (TBC), Ben Davis as first team coach - who makes the step up from the development team - and Mark Blaymires as first team secretary.
In 2016, Blaymires was given the opportunity to move across from boys ' youth football and become the manager of Leafield Athletic Ladies.
Since then, he has guided two different clubs and sets of players at Leafield and Redditch United to the top of the West Midlands Regional Premier League table, narrowly missing out on promotion with both - by one point in 2017/18 with Leafield and with Redditch in 2019/20 due to Covid.
His Leafield Athletic side maintained an unbeaten run throughout the whole campaign, while also winning the League Cup for the first time in the club 's history.
While at Redditch, Blaymires guided the Reds to just one league defeat all season and reached the quarter-final of the County Cup, losing 2-1 to Boldmere St. Michaels. They also made it to the semi-final of the League Cup, which was unfortunately cancelled due to Covid.
On his new appointment, Tom Blaymires said: “Moors are a fantastic club with big ambitions to get both the men 's and women 's first teams into the highest leagues possible.
“They also have a fantastic education programme and a thriving youth section which shows how important future development is to this club. That is what attracted me initially as it aligns perfectly with my own values and ambitions as a coach.
“On behalf of myself and my coaching staff I just want to say a massive thank you to Solihull Moors Football Club for the opportunity. We can 't wait to get started and look forward to working alongside everyone over the current season and beyond ”.
Building on the current foundations in place, Mr Blaymires said:
“If we are going to grow the game and especially the fanbase at Solihull, then I believe we must make the football attractive for people to watch. They need to be entertained and excited to come down and watch each week. We also need to create a genuine pathway from youth football all the way through to the first team.
“We want girls who play for us across all age groups to aspire to get into the first team and provide them with genuine opportunities as a club to do so ”.
On the short and long-term aims for the club, Mr Blaymires said: “Short-term our focus for the remainder of this season is to consolidate our position in the table and make sure that, at the start of next season, we are still in the same division. In order for us to build for the future and help the club achieve its full potential we need stability on and off the pitch.
“Long-term our aim is to gain promotion and compete with teams like Wolves, West Brom, Derby County and Nottingham Forest. I am confident that with the clubs ' support on and off the pitch and with the new coaching team we have in place, we can help this amazing club reach its full potential and make the target of promotion into the Premier Division a reality ”.
He added: “There are some really good players currently within the squad who have invaluable experience playing at this level already and will be key to our success moving forward.
“Due to injuries and players leaving over the past couple of months the squad is looking very depleted and in need of some urgent recruitment. We plan to bring in some new faces over the coming weeks that we believe will strengthen the squad not only numerically, but also qualitatively ”.