Harpenden Town this week announced Jim Nicholls is taking over as manager of the reserve team.

Nicholls, 42, is a stalwart of football in the St Albans area having previously managed London Colney first team and also Harpenden Town Reserves in the past.

The Reserves squad was re-launched this season with a core of players who came up through the ranks of Harpenden Colts and is already successfully feeding players into Town’s first team.

Nicholls, a sales director for a finance company who lives in Markyate said: “My challenge is to quickly get to know the young players who have been brought on this season so that we can work together and start climbing up the table.

“It is important for Harpenden Town to have a strong reserve set-up to feed into the first team. You can’t have a successful first team without a good development squad to fall back on when injuries take their toll.”

First team manager Danny Plumb added: “It is great to have Jim working with us, he has loads of experience to draw on and guide the young players. We have already had players from the reserves coming through to our starting line-up and with Jim on board the future looks great.”

Club chairman Roman Motyczak concluded: “It’s fantastic for Harpenden Town to add experienced management and coaching resources to the club. With developments both off the field and on the pitch improving at the club we can look forward to working together as a management team to bring more success to Harpenden Town FC.”

Previous reserve team manager Adam Dedman resigned recently to resume his playing career.