Hosking has high hopes for Tewkesbury side
TEWKESBURY Town have appointed Teejay Hosking as their new joint manager for the 2019/20 campaign.
The experienced former Cheltenham Saracens skipper will join current boss James Layton-hill at the helm of the Cheltenham League Division One club.
Hosking, who helped Cheltenham Civil Service win the Gloucestershire County League title in 2014/15 as captain, is now hoping to help lead Tewkesbury into the next step on the football pyramid.
“We want to try and get out of this division and get into the Northern Senior League,” Hosking said.
“Firstly we will be looking to build on last season, but we’d be lying if we said promotion wasn’t top of the agenda.
“Tewkesbury as a football club is punching under its weight. You only have to look down the road at Bredon and see what they have done.
“We should be competing with them as a minimum, not looking up to them.”
Hosking was part of the Tewkesbury team that defeated Cheltenham League champions Andoversford on penalties in the final of this season’s Senior Charity Cup at Cheltenham Town’s Jonnyrocks Stadium.
“We were absolutely delighted with the cup final win,” he said.
“We turned our form around towards the end of the season, and week after week we were very hard to beat.
“We had the rub of the green at times in the final and it could have been very different, but we dug in and stayed in the game.
“Nick Hill scored a ‘worldy’ and then Pep (goalkeeper Andy Pepperell) came up with the goods in the shootout.”
Defender or central midfielder, Hosking has also played for Pershore and Dowty Dynamos but he has been considering a move into management for some time.
“James Layton-hill is a very good friend of mine and I have enjoyed working under him as manager as he puts on very good sessions and has a very good footballing brain,” he said.
“There’s always been part of me that wanted to manage and even when I’m watching games I feel that I’m always analysing things.
“It will be good to put my ideas across to the lads and hopefully the two of us can complement each other well.
“I love all the tactics and can’t wait to start putting on sessions for the boys.
“I’ve been lucky with being managed and coached by Nick Locke, Stu Mitchinson, Kristian Churchley and Ryan Betteridge tin the past and have picked up a lowt from them.”
Stu Bailey will help out with the first team, while secretary Marc Lane plays a key role in ensuring the club runs smoothly on and off the pitch.
Hosking says they will be looking to supplement the squad during the close season.
“We are looking to strengthen, but we obviously want to keep the current crop and improve certain areas,” he said.
“Me James and Stu have already sat down and addressed the positions we feel we need to strengthen so we will try or best to get some new faces down to pre- season.”
Tewkesbury start training on Thursday, July 4 (6.15pm) with all new players welcome.