Northampton Town have appointed Jon Brady as the club's new manager, with Marc Richards remaining first team coach and the club also planning on making an external appointment of an assistant manager in the coming weeks.
46 year old Brady was an experienced player who had made more than 600 appearances in a career spanning 17 years.
As a manager, he took charge of Brackley Town and led the club to the Southern Premier League title in 2012 while they were 90 minutes away from back-to-back promotions the following season, being edged out in the Conference North play-off final.
Brady also brought FA Cup success to St James Park, reaching the second round proper of the competition in 2013-14 beating Gillingham during that season's run.
In all, Brady won seven trophies in his six and a half years in charge of Brackley, before joining the Northampton Town Academy in 2015.
After taking charge of the under 16s, Brady moved up to oversee the under 18s and led the side to the EFL Youth Alliance title in 2018.
Earlier this week, the club announced a number of structural changes, and Chairman Kelvin Thomas said he felt Brady was the ideal candidate to take on the manager's role within the new structure.
"Jon has impressed us with his work since taking caretaker charge," he said.
"All of the statistics have shown improvement with the players Jon inherited. We score more goals per game, we concede fewer, our points per game is higher and our performances have been better. We are all disappointed we weren't able to avoid relegation but we felt we saw improvements in the work with the management team.
"Within the new structure we have spoken a lot about the player pathway and having a clearer identity for the club. With that in mind, no one knows the young players coming through better than Jon and we wanted to appoint a management team who understand the club and are clearly very passionate about Northampton Town doing well throughout the whole club.
"Of course, the pressure is still on to win games and it is our aim and intention to try and return to League 1 at the earliest opportunity. Jon enjoyed success as a manager locally with Brackley Town and also enjoyed a successful period with our under 18s, so he knows how to win games and be a success. He has that winning mentality, he has done his apprenticeship and we feel he is now ready to step up.
"We have taken our time over this decision and we have turned to some very experienced people for advice, including the likes of Graham Carr, and we are delighted to appoint Jon.
"Within the new structure, Marc Richards will have a particular focus on developing the young professionals, while as well as a new Head of Recruitment, we will be looking to appoint an external candidate with experience to help Jon and Marc who we expect to appoint by the start of the season."
Brady added: "I am proud and delighted to be appointed the manager of Northampton Town.
"I will give this job my total commitment and will do everything I can to be successful.
"I have often spoken about how I see Northampton as my adopted home town and being part of the community, I know how much the club means to the community and the town. I understand and feel the responsibility that comes with managing this football club and we will leave no stone unturned in our bid to get better and better and enjoy success.
"I have spoken a lot with the Chairman and James Whiting over the last few months about the changes in structure at the club and I am very pleased with the changes we have put in place.
"The last couple of months have given us a chance to assess the squad and that is important, we have a big summer ahead and we can't wait to get going.
"A huge thank you is due to Marc Richards, Ian Sampson, Dan Watson and all the staff for their work and their support and I am delighted that all will have important roles to play as the club moves forward."
Ian Sampson will continue as the club's Head of Academy and will be involved closely with the first team staff and Dan Watson remains as Goalkeeping Coach.
Kelvin Thomas continued: “Ian is very important to the academy and even more so now with the relationship between the first team and the academy. Ian continuing in his role was important for stability and we are pleased that he will continue with that role while also helping with the first team as required.”