Mark Hawkes takes Management job at Chelmsford City

Chelmsford City have released the news this morning that Mark Hawkes has been appointed as first team manager as the permanent replacement for Dean Holdsworth, who departed earlier this month. Hawkes brings with him former colleague Steve Smith as his assistant, the pair arriving from Isthmian League Division One side Heybridge Swifts.

Hawkes undertook the role at Heybridge in March 2011, after taking the reins on a temporary basis with the aim initially to stabilise the club. After stringing together some good results to steer the side towards the promotion spots, Hawkes impressed enough to make the move permanent. Swifts finished the season in sixteenth place, and Hawkes went about making improvements for the following campaign.

The club was famously launched into the spotlight under Hawkes when signing The Only Way is Essex star Mark Wright in September 2011, who was fielded just twice before moving on to play alongside his brother at Thurrock.

The season of 2011-2012 was one of mixed emotions as Heybride drastically improved on their previous season, but were gutted to miss out on a playoff spot by just one place, finally finishing seventh. However, the team had far advanced from where Mark had taken them from and have gone into this campaign with much promise.

The summer saw some team rebuilding, and Hawkes brought in new faces such as Neil Cousins, a player with Conference experience to propel the club forward. Alongside some other summer signings, Hawkes made sure that the players that were performing for him committed themselves to the club. 33 goal hero Luke Callander was just one of the players Hawkes secured, and has this term has already netted 19 times.

Hawkes and Smith depart with Heybridge Swifts siting in 2^nd position. The club have the best form in the league having won all of their last five league games, within this scoring 24 times and conceding just 4.