THE new Westbury United chairman has a Bright future planned for the club after taking over the reins from departing Paul Brickley.

Matt Bright, who has overseen a successful period at Westbury Youth alongside vice-chairman Greg Coulson, is looking to get the club back to a position where people are proud to wear the green and white shirt again.

In recent years former chairman Brickley admitted things had gone stale at the club and, despite taking control sooner than expected, Bright is ready for the challenge and believes his youth players hold the key to a positive future.

“We had an inclination that Paul was going to resign, but didn’t think it was going to happen for probably at least another year and we talked extensively about how we would like to pick up the baton if and when that happened and it would be something that we would want to take on,’’ he said.

“So it all happened a bit faster than expected, but when Paul was talking during the meeting and handing his notice in I was thinking ‘does it make any odds if it is now or in a year?’

“It is something I want to do and something I care about so I put my name forward straight away.

“It all happened that quickly and by Saturday (November 1) morning it had all been rubber stamped and away we went.”

Westbury has a good catchment area for players, but, because the situation has degraded, the club have found it hard to attract players to play.

Bright is looking to address that and may even start paying some playing staff in a bid to get promotion.

“Stability is the main word to start with,” he added.

“We went down to Meadow Lane on Saturday for the first game and the atmosphere around the ground is not where it needs to be.

“I’m looking for sustainability on the pitch and sustainability behind the scenes, which is where my skill set lies. We really need to get Westbury United back to a place where people enjoy playing football and enjoy watching football.

“The key to Westbury Youth, and what we are going to bring to Westbury United is a nucleus of people who will help.

“I think in fairness to Paul and his people, it has been left to two or three people to run that club for too long and you can’t do that, this is a semi professional club.

“I am very fortunate that I have a lot of good people at Westbury Youth that we can bring in to do the administration side of things and people that will work with us to turn things around.

“Long-term it is to get out of this league and move on and progress. I am not coming into this as a hollow shirt, I wouldn’t be doing this if I didn’t want to take the club forward.”

Bright has already started to impose his plans, bringing in new manager Shaun Gardiner, with caretaker boss Mark Hurkett continuing in an assistant’s role.

Gardiner, who also has a long-standing association with Chippenham & District Sunday League side Westbury Rangers, was briefly appointed joint-manager back in 2011 before stepping away from his position before the start of the season.

He steps into the hotseat for Saturday’s home clash with Ashton & Backwell United and said: “Matt Bright shares my views on how things should go, with bringing in young players, and I should work well with Mark Hurkett because I was the best man at his wedding years ago.

“I wasn’t really happy with being appointed as a joint-manager a few years ago, so I decided to go and learn my trade at other clubs.

“I’m a Westbury lad and I’ve been involved with Rangers for about 25 years – I started as a player and then I’ve been the manager for about 12 years.I know United are struggling but I’m looking forward to the challenge.”

  • Additional reporting by Dan Barnes

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