Bernard starts as new head of youth coaching
Bernard McNally says he is delighted to be "back home" in Shrewsbury having this morning started his new role as head of youth coaching at the Greenhous Meadow.
The popular former Town midfielder, who played around 300 games for the club after joining the Gay Meadow staff as an apprentice, is happy to be back working in full time football after managing Welsh Premier League club Newtown.
The fact the opportunity has come with his home town club makes it even more attractive for Bernard who will take charge of Town's youth team for the first time tonight when they head to Histon in round one of the FA Youth Cup (7.45pm).
"I'm delighted and for me it's coming back home to where I started my career," said the former Northern Ireland international.
"I can't wait to get my teeth into what's ahead of me and hopefully have some input into producing future first team players.
"As soon as this job came up, I knew it was what I wanted to do - coming back is a dream come true."
Bernard was at the club on Friday to meet the youth teamers for the first time. He was keen to introduce himself, explain his ideas and put the squad through their paces in training ahead of tonight's clash at Histon.
"I didn't want to come in cold," he said. "I wanted to take a session which is why I came over on Friday although I haven't officially started until today.
"Hopefully we can get through this first stage of the competition but you can't take anything for granted and we can't take any team lightly.
"I can remember as a 17-year-old playing for Shrewsbury in the FA Youth Cup and beating Aston Villa 3-1 at the Gay Meadow.
"It was a fantastic game for us to play in front of probably 800 or 900 people and then we played Leeds in the next round who were a bit too strong for us on the night."