Graham Westley

Westley returns to Broadhall Way

Blue Square Premier club Stevenage Borough have announced the appointment of manager Graham Westley following the recent departure of Peter Taylor.

The 40 year-old returns to Braodhall for a second spell in charge and has penned a one-year deal along with his assistant, John Dreyer.

Westley steered Stevenage to the Promotion Final in 2005 but they narrowly missed out to Carlisle United on the day.

Former fans favourite Dreyer and Westley subsequently teamed up to help Rushden stave of relegation in the 2006/7 season.

"The opinion of the board is that we need a manager who can hit the ground running coming August, so extensive knowledge of the Conference is essential," chairman Phil Wallace told the club's official website.

"Graham most certainly has that and is our preferred choice. We also know that we need people around him that are the right types and John Dreyer is most certainly that.

"The board has no doubt that Graham and John are a formidable partnership and the right people for us, right here, right now.

"Graham has changed a lot in 2 years but his energy, motivation and desire to succeed are even stronger than before.

"He's had a while to gather his thoughts about how to lead a club to success and has learnt over the last few years that Stevenage fans, including myself, want to watch a high tempo passing game played in the right spirit.

"That is the driver and motivation for everyone employed at Stevenage from now on, irrespective of who the manager is.

"We'll be beefing up our coaching staff during the summer with an instruction to deliver winning football with pace and flair and that mindset will determine everything we do from now on".

He continued: "John Dreyer is well known to our fans and well liked by people in football.

"He's a great admirer of Graham's ability to manage and there's a lot of mutual respect between them.

"We have three top names on our list for the coaching position but we'll wait a bit before making that appointment as there are some great coaches out there and we'll see who else applies."