Bristol Rovers have announced the appointment of Martin Foyle as first team coach at the Memorial Stadium and will start his new role immediately and will start working with the squad today. At one point the former Port Vale and York City gaffer was linked with the managerial vacancy with Rovers before Dave Penney joined the club. Foyle was earlier speaking to bristolrovers.co.uk about his new job, saying:
"It was an easy decision to come here.
"Dave Penney is one of those people that I've respected for a long time in the game. I played with him for about a season and a half at Oxford and to get back into League One again was major for me.
"Whilst I was keen to get back in the game as quickly as possible, it had to be the right opportunity. I have had the chance to get back in at Conference and League Two level but I didn't feel that those were the right moves for me.
"I'll be working closely with Darren Patterson and Dave. I know them both well and I think, at this level, you have to have people you can trust and work with and I'm certainly one of those people. I'm a hard worker and anything they need I'm here to get what they want."
Born in the west country Foyle started his professional career at Southampton where he never made a big impact on the first team during a four year stay on the south coast before he joined Aldershot. After his extended stay in Hampshire Foyle moved onto Oxford where he spent some time playing with his new boss Dave Penney. Following this he joined Port Vale, where he scored 83 goals in 296 league appearances for the potteries club before injury forced him into retirement.
Foyle's managerial career started as manager of the youth team at Vale before he took charge of the first team in 2004, missing out on the League 1 play-offs in his first season before guiding the club to two mid-table finishes. He eventually left the club by mutual consent after a poor start to the 2007/08 season. After a spell as a coach at Wrexham and one game in caretaker charge he was appointed manager at Conference side York where, over two seasons in charge, he took the club to Wembley twice, losing an FA Trophy final and last seasons Conference play-off final.
