NEWTON Abbot Spurs will have a new face in the dugout next season following some recruitment from their cross-town rivals.

The club announced on Monday that Buckland Athletic Reserves boss Marc Revell would be making the short switch from Homers Heath to The Rec to work alongside Ross Bellotti.

Revell, who joins as first team manager, racked up more than 350 appearances as a player for Buckland before taking on a managerial role with the club’s reserve side.

Having won the SDFL Premier Division and the Herald Cup in his first season shadowing Neil Snell on the sideline, Revell led the team on two promising runs in the Devon Football League before both seasons were curtailed.

But with league rules meaning that Buckland’s second string cannot be promoted, the prospect of Peninsula League football elsewhere is an itch Revell says he needed to scratch.

‘The chance to progress and test myself was ultimately too good to turn down,’ he explained this week.

‘I look back on my time at Buckland as a player and a manager as being successful. I’m confident we would’ve won the title in one of the curtailed Devon Football League seasons.

‘I take my Saturdays very seriously, and I’ve been very blessed at Buckland to have been able to win a few things.

‘And based on some of the feedback I’ve had from Ross, that’s one of the reasons the players at Newton Spurs are excited to work with me. They’ve spent a bit of time not winning stuff and they want to change that.’

Revell wasn’t set on a career in management during his time as a player, but a campaign working with Snell gave him an appetite for more.

‘I never really fancied management during my playing days,’ he explained. ‘Believe it or not I was actually a pretty quiet player – I’d give referees a bit of stick but I wasn’t a big voice in the dressing room.

‘But working alongside Neil in that first season actually made me want more. It’s been fairly natural for me to stand up and just tell the lads what I think.

‘Now I’m hungry and just want to keep earning my stripes at the best club possible for my situation right now.

‘And the messages of encouragement I’ve been receiving since the announcement seem to have justified it to me that I’ve made the right decision.’

As a naturally confident person, it comes as no surprise that Revell joins the Spurs with some lofty expectations of what they can achieve during his time in charge.

He said: ‘Naturally, my confident self says I want to win the league there.

‘When we took the Reserves into the DFL I was told to consolidate and stay in the division, but I was confident of getting top six and we were on course to out-perform that.

‘That being said, I’m not deluded. I know a few of the lads have moved on. I think a top half finish is very much possible if the players work hard.

‘Then hopefully we can build something really good over the next three years or so.’

Spurs chairman Bellotti, who has known Revell personally for more than 20 years, said that from his perspective the appointment makes complete sense.

‘Marc has been around and done it while being successful along the way,’ he explained. ‘I first contacted him about it around a month ago, and I think the way he’s handled the whole thing has been exemplary.

‘He’ll be the manager – in my experience having joint managers doesn’t really work.

‘The key thing is communication with the players and you don’t want to muddy the water, so I’ll be stepping back a bit from that side of things.’

Bellotti also hopes that the move will bring some stability to The Rec, adding: ‘I took over to build the club around the right people.

‘We don’t wand a succession of yo-yo players – we want to build on what has historically made the club so great, and that’s local people.’

Revell was set to take his first training session yesterday, with a trip to Exwick Villa scheduled for next Saturday after tomorrow’s clash with Topsham Town was called off.

The Spurs have also added a new sponsor ahead of the coming season in the form of Pavilion Construction.

‘We really are very grateful to them for lending their support in what is still a difficult time for many businesses,’ Bellotti said.