Club News

Newcastle Benfield have surprisingly parted company with manager Tom Wade just three months after he guided them to a league and league cup double.

Wade has been replaced by former Benfield manager Paul Baker, who until recently was working with Glenn Roeder at Norwich City.

Wade, who had managed several non league clubs and still wants to be involved in management, said: “I informed the chairman that I am changing my job, and might miss a few midweek games, but not Saturdays. We discussed it, and decided to get on with pre-season. I took the team to the Annan tournament last weekend, and when we got back, I was phoned on Monday night and informed that the club could not accept that I could miss a few games and have decided to appoint a new manager. I was gutted that it has ended like this as we were building a strong squad which would have been very competitive this coming season. I can understand the club’s point of view and wished them all the best.”

Baker was manager of Benfield until two seasons ago when he quit to join former Newcastle boss Roeder at Carrow Road as chief scout, but he returned to the north east following Roeder’s departure. In his previous spell, Baker helped Benfield to the last qualifying round of the FA Cup and the last sixteen of the Vase.

Baker’s first game in charge was the Cleator Cup match against Consett, which is the traditional curtain raiser to the Northern League season. Benfield won this game convincingly with a 5-0 final score line adding the JR Cleator cup to last seasons convincing haul of silverware.