Rowberry completes journey from County mascot to manager

JAMES Rowberry will complete the journey from club mascot to manager when he takes charge of his first game as the new boss at Newport County this weekend.

Despite never having had to pick a team before, or been in management, the former Cardiff City firstteam coach is ready to take over the reins of his hometown team from local hero Michael Flynn.

He couldn’t have bigger shoes to fill after the heroics performed by Flynn in first taking the club back into the Football League as a player and then keeping them up in his first season as manager.

After that he twice took them to Wembley and enjoyed some epic cup journeys.

But if Flynn was steeped in the history of both the city and its football club,

Rowberry is cut from the same cloth.

Born and bred in Newport, he still lives in the city and first fell in love with the club when his father, Stephen, was a player.

“I can remember going to Moreton-in-Marsh in 1989 when the club reformed and had to go and play in England. I was a mascot with the team when I was five,” recalled the 36-yearold Rowberry.

“Then I joined the coaching staff at 18 and was given a chance to learn by the then manager Glyn Davies. Now I am so incredibly proud to be managing the club.”

Rowberry left Cardiff City after eight years on the coaching staff at that club to take up the role created by

Flynn’s amicable departure. At Cardiff, Rowberry worked under five different managers, including Neil Warnock and Mick McCarthy.

“Michael Flynn did a great job at this club and I know I’ve got big shoes to fill. I have an advantage in knowing the background to the club, coming from the area and there are members of the staff with who I’m friends and have worked with before.

“When I met the players I told them they all start with a clean slate and it will be evolution, not revolution. My job is to build on the good work of the past and to add extra value to that.”

Rowberry will stand in the managerial dug-out for the first time in his career at Bristol Rovers on Saturday with his team just three points off the play-off places and on a run of four games unbeaten in League Two.