Southampton Women’s have this evening announced the appointment of Lee Hurrell as the new First Team Assistant Manager ahead of the 2019/20 season.
Hurrell worked as current manager Aaron Smith’s number two at Chichester City last season where the two guided the Lilywhites to a best-ever third place finish in the FA Women’s National League Southern Premier.
On linking up with Smith again he told the club’s website: “When Smithy told me he was joining Southampton Women it was a no-brainer to follow him over. The success at Chichester last season was no accident, he put a lot of work into his planning and putting a structure in place that allowed us to really get the best out of the players that bought into it.
“The squad is strong and that’s shown in the two consecutive second-place finishes in the National League South-West the last two seasons. Everything here is set up for Tier 3 and we’ll be working as hard as possible to deliver that. I’ve also been impressed by the great youth setup here with really good coaches across the age groups, so I think it’s perfectly set up at the club to progress now and for years to come.”
Their first challenge will be pre-season which starts on Sunday, July 7th with an away friendly against Winchester City Flyers, 1 pm kick-off.
The UEFA B Licence holding coach has a wealth of coaching experience in the women’s game which also includes spells at Toronto High Park, Portsmouth and Bristol City.
It is going to be a very interesting year at Southampton Women. The side finished second behind Keynsham Town last year and will be hoping to do one better next season. While there is already a strong squad there I wouldn’t be surprised if we see one or two players moving down from Chichester to join Aaron and Lee, and when I say one or two, I really mean one or five!