Stansted Football club are pleased to announce that UEFA B licensed coach Ian Bent has agreed to come on board as part of Mark Ashford's management team for the 2016/17 season.

Mark said on the appointment " I'm so pleased that Ian has agreed to join us. We met a number of years ago when Ian was with Essex FA and I liked his coaching style and organisation even back then. I'm hoping to complete my UEFA A licence this coming season so with Ian's coaching qualities added to my experience then we will be able to offer every Stansted FC player first class training sessions to aid their development and understanding of the game.

With a new reserve side launched this coming season which will train together with the 1st team at all times and will be full of exciting young talented players wanting to play senior football as soon as they can then it's important to provide development led sessions that will allow these players to flourish.

We don't want Dwight Gayle to be a one off for our club and several of our current 1st team players have the potential to play professional football.

We want talented hungry players in Essex, Hertfordshire and East London to know that Stansted FC should be a club of choice as a stepping stone to a much higher level of football and that a couple of seasons with us will help them achieve just that.

Mark went on to say that having Ian on board will only add to the overall offering. He also explained that he is hopeful to add a third person to the management team over the next few weeks and then along with our excellent young Physio James Heaton we will have a really strong management group to take the team and club even further forward.

Stansted FC officially welcome Ian on board and am sure he will enjoy his time with us.