Birmingham City old boy 'uniquely placed' after securing League One head coach role

Birmingham City favourite Wade Elliott has been handed the first management role of his coaching career. The 43-year old has been named head coach at League One outfit Cheltenham Town, following Michael Duff’s departure to Barnsley.

Elliott, who spent two-and-a-half seasons at St Andrew’s where he scored 14 times in 105 appearances and played in the Europa League under Chris Hughton, also represented Bournemouth, Burnley and Bristol City in a long playing career that ended in 2015.

Since then he has held coaching roles at Bristol City, Forest Green and Stoke City and he had been with Cheltenham as first team coach for the last couple of seasons. Robins chairman David Bloxham explained why the Whaddon Road outfit had opted for an internal candidate.

“It's been a very intense couple of weeks but we believe we have arrived at the correct decision for Cheltenham Town Football Club at this moment in time," Bloxham told the club website.

"The Board set out with a clear criteria for the type of coach we wanted and one of the key requirements was to try and continue the excellent progress we have experienced over the last three years...and we spoke to a number of outstanding candidates for the role.

"In the end we believed that Wade's knowledge and understanding of the club, its staff and players made him uniquely placed to take us forward. Sometimes it isn't possible to see the way forward until you have undertaken a detailed analysis and considered a range of views and we certainly did that.

"I also think it's fair to say that Michael Duff would have liked to have Wade with him at Barnsley because his contribution to our success over the past two seasons has been considerable. However, we are delighted that he has chosen to