Haldane wants new mentality as Chester-le-Street Town look to move on

Lee Haldane has set his sights on bringing a new mentality to Chester-le-Street Town after he was confirmed as the Cestrians new manager.

The former Whickham and Easington Colliery manager was named as successor to Steven Stewart and Steve Bowey earlier this week and he will be joined by assistant manager Paul Wardle and goalkeeper coach Ryan Caven as they look to help the Moor Park club move on from a disappointing season.

A late-season run of just two wins in their last 16 games left the Cestrians sat in sixteenth place in the Northern League Division Two table when the full-time whistle was blown in a 5-0 home defeat against Yarm and Eaglescliffe on the final day of a draining campaign.

By his own admission, the most pressing issue for Haldane and his coaching staff will be to make their newly-inherited squad difficult to play against and improve their home form after they lost 13 of their 21 league games at Moor Park during the season.

He told The Echo: “There’s going to be big changes with the mentality and the personnel because every time I’ve gone to Moor Park over the years, I’ve always known you have to win the battle first and foremost. It was never a place where you went and expected a really good day and it’s moved so far away from that and it’s something we need to bring.

“It needs to shift from we don’t care what we look like, it’s just about battling and winning no matter how it happens. It’s about giving the town a team they can watch and know the players have left everything out on the pitch. The club has been let down and we can’t allow the lads to put us in that same position next season. There is a lot of speaking with current players going on and I want to check into their mentalities to see if they are the right fit for us and we have to make sure they are the right fit for what we want at this club.”

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