Rainworth Miners Welfare this week have secured a new coach and a sponsorship agreement for travel to the Wrens' away games for the coming season.

Joining the club as coach is the experienced and highly regarded Junior Glave, who has been tempted back into the game following a couple of years out.

Rainworth manager Rudy Funk said: "In many ways the backroom staff can be the most important part of a club, and I'm delighted to welcome Junior on board.

"Mark Place has done an excellent job as coach over the last three years, but he now has greater family calls on his time, and Junior is the ideal man to build on Mark's good work.

"I've always admired Junior and I worked with him in my days at Eastwood Town - he's an extraordinary fitness coach with a great pedigree and he also knows a lot about management.

"I don't think there is a better dressing room anywhere than ours, and with Junior now also coming in, that will be enhanced further.

"His appointment goes a long way towards completing the building up of this club. He has a great CV with a number of clubs who, without exception, speak very highly of him, and getting him to Rainworth is a real coup for us."

Glave readily admitted that the thought of joining the ongoing 'Rainworth revolution' played a big part in bringing him back into football.

He said: "This club has come a long way in the last few years and yet it still retains that family atmosphere although it is run very professionally.

"The ground and the facilities are immaculate, everything is geared for success, and although I have had offers from other clubs in the time I have been out of the game, my gut feeling was that this is where I wanted to be.

"I'm the kind of person who follows all the local clubs and wants them all to do well, so I have been keeping an eye on how Rudy and Billy Millar have been doing with Rainworth, and I'm delighted to have now become a part of this club."

Meanwhile a different kind of coach, on four wheels, will also be part of the club next season, following a sponsorship agreement with vehicle rental company AVR, who have agreed to supply a team mini-bus free of charge for the Wrens' away games.

Funk added: "Firms and organisations are always keen to come on board and help us because of the way we look after our sponsors, and now AVR have agreed this latest package it will mean that we travel together to away games on a regular basis.

"We are very grateful to them for their support and we hope and trust that we will be able to give them something back in return."

On the player front, the Wrens remain adamant that they will not reveal the identities of any new players until contracts become binding on 1st July.

One club recently went public in naming a player who, they said, had pledged himself to them but Funk is adamant that the player concerned will be joining Rainworth and has already signed a contract which will become valid on 1st July.

"This vindicates our policy of not naming any new players until registrations become binding," said Funk. "All that identifying a player during June dpes is to alert other clubs that he may be available.

"A club which does this can quite easily be left with egg on its face when the player turns up somewhere else, as well as raising and then dashing the hopes and expectations of supporters.

"Since this story appeared I have spoken again to the player concerned and I am assured that he is joining us and will honour the contract that he has already signed.

"We have recruited two or three fantastic lads who will add to our promotion winning side from last season, but who they are will not be revealed until the time is right.

"We already have a great squad from last season, and this season is as at least much about them as it is about the newcomers.

"We're looking forward to a very good season, I have a good feeling about it, and we won't be about consolidating at our new level.

"We are going all out to win the league at first try because there is only one promotion place and runners-up will not be good enough this time around.

"There are many very good and well established clubs in the Premier Division, but we intend to show them that we have every right to belong in their company.

"I have a personal ambition to lead a team out at Wembley, and if we get the chance to go all the way in the FA Vase that would be superb.

"But, it takes second place to achieving my ultimate aim, which I expressed on my first day as manager here, of bringing UniBond League football to Rainworth."