Hooks switches to touchline team

Hooks was drafted into the management team at Croft Park on the eve of the new season as the successor to John Cornforth who resigned less than a month after replacing Wade's former assistant manager Lee Picton in June.

After opting to promote from within, Wade is backing the 29-year-old playmaker to be a success combining his first coaching role with playing in the EVO-STIK NPL's top flight this season.

Wade said: “Neal has decided to go into management pretty early, and I think he’ll do well. He came to see us asking if he could apply for the job. We were a little bit shocked, as he’s still classed as a player. He’s very keen, so let’s see if we can get a future Blyth manager out of the playing squad.”

Hooks, a business development manager when not playing, said: “My work commitments are changing, and it means I might not have the energy to play as much as what I have done in the past, so I saw a good opportunity to get involved. I might be down the far end of the country one day, then travelling back up to make training and take sessions with the lads, but it means I might not have the energy to commit fully to playing.

"If we have any injuries or people are perhaps not performing to the level that they can, I’ll still be keeping myself fit and available for selection. But I’ll be focusing more on helping out Tom and being an assistant more than anything. It will be quite exciting to learn the game from Tom. He’s very experienced and he’s done a fantastic job at Blyth so far. For me, it will be a good thing to learn from him.”

Hooks is also convinced that Spartans can go one better than last season after finishing as runners-up in 2015-16 and missing out on promotion via the play-offs.

Spartans travel to Halesowen Town on Saturday and he added: “I think we’ll be pushing for promotion, I don’t think there’s any doubt about that. It was very disappointing the way things ended last year but I think we’ll have gained vital experience from that, and hopefully we can kick on this season, push for promotion and finally get it.”

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