Coton Green

Welcome to the homepage for our Coton Green First Team who currently play their football in the Midland Football League. The team currently play in Division 1 which is Step 6 of the football pyramid.

The Green Army are led by Jason Pyott who joined during pre-season ahead of the 2023/24 season. Jason is supported in his role by experienced assistant, Mark Edwards and coach Charlie Nash. Finishing off the First Team staff is Sports Therapist Madison Jordan.

History

The team entered the Midland Combination in 2004 and was promoted to Division Two in its first season after finishing league winners. In this successful first season, they also finished runners up in the Challenge Urn, losing out in a penalty shoot out to Greenhill at Atherstone Towns Sheepy Road. They were promoted to Division One in 2007 and a second successive runners-up finish in 2008 saw them clinch promotion to the Premier Division. Their meteoric rise came to a halt soon after when they were relegated back to Division One in 2009. After such a quick rise to the top of the Midland Combination, the next few seasons were spent lingering around the bottom half of Division 1 which also saw several changes of manager.

When the Combination merged with the Midland Alliance to form the Midland League in 2014, Coton Green were placed in Division Two of the new competition. Unfortunately this change of divisional structure did not alter the on-field fortunes of Coton as they suffered a second successive bottom of the table finish only to be reprieved by FC Glades withdrawing from the competition for the following season.

Since their transformation from Sunday morning to Saturday afternoon football, Coton have had 10 full-time managers at the club with varying lengths of tenure. Cotons initial and most successful manager to date was Steve Pike who was helped out by 4 different assistant managers during his time. These included ex-Tamworth Youth team coach Alan Ross and former Birmingham City player Barry Barnes. Pikes reign at the Coton helm came to an end in 2009 when the club were relegated back to Division 1 after finishing bottom of the Premier Division in their first season at that level.

The club were helped out in the short term by reserve team manager Jamie Dix before short spells in charge for Paul Casey, Steve Scattergood and Steve Nichols. Following this unsettling period of change, reserve team manager Jamie Dix stepped up as full-time manager for 2 seasons where Coton achieved lower half finishes but did manage to win the Fazeley Charity Cup, defeating local rivals Lichfield City 1-0 in the final.

The club were again faced with change in the 2012 / 13 season when Dix left the club after struggling with results. It was this time the turn of another reserve team manager to step up to the plate to take the first team reigns as John Downing took over for the final 5 games in charge. Downing took full responsibility of the first team for season 2013/14 but in his 2 years at the helm he couldn't improve the fortunes of the team, finishing bottom in his 2 seasons and stood down after 10 games into the 2015/16 season with the team languishing in the bottom 3 of the MFL 2.

Rob Masefield was appointed in November 2015 as the Coton Green manager, where he was able to bring his wealth of experience, contacts and knowledge from the Midland Combination to Coton Green. Masefield was initially assisted by Carl Nolan who was also a coach in the Coventry City youth set-up. For the 2016/17 season, Masefield moved to appoint a new assistant following the departure of Nolan, with him being joined by the highly respected Keith Green - the former Earlswood Town Manager with a target of improving on the previous seasons creditable 7th-place finish. During this campaign Masefield was able to achieve another 7th placed finish in the league with the ship firmly steadied after years of languishing near the foot of the table. The season also saw the team reach 3 cup finals (Fazeley Charity Cup, Birmingham Saturday Vase, Smedley Crooke Memorial Cup) but they were unable to come away with any silverware in their 3 efforts at glory. The Smedley Crooke cup run did see a highly notable victory in the semi-final against Division 1 Champions Bromsgrove Sporting who had otherwise gone unbeaten throughout the season.

The 2018/19 saw a decline in fortunes for Coton who were only able to achieve a 12th placed finish in the league despite Masefield recruiting well and the club investing well in its facilities. However the following season saw a return to some success with Masefield achieving his highest league finish during his tenure with a respectable 6th placed finish. Unfortunately the success didn't continue into the 2019/20 campaign and Masefield eventually resigned following a 3-0 defeat away at Dudley Town in the Birmingham Midweek Cup.

This saw Adam Wilkes take up the post of Manager for the Green Army and up until the curtailment of the season due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Wilkes was able to achieve 10 straight wins setting a club record in the process. These proved to be Wilkes' only 10 games in charge though as he resigned prior to pre-season for the 2020-21 campaign. The club moved quickly to appoint a new Manager and achieved somewhat of a coup in attracting Russell Dodds to the position, but again the next campaign was put to a halt by covid with the club sitting in 3rd position in the league after the 9 games which were played. Dodds was able to attract Darren Acton to his management team who came in as Assistant Manager, and was also boosted by the appointment of Darren McLaren as a second assistant. The team then participated in a post season covid cup, with Coton losing out by 3 goals to 2 in the final against Lane Head.

With Acton leaving his role to pursue other opportunities, Dodds brought in ex-Studley Manager Nic Oakley as his assistant, but unfortunately Dodds then departed himself in October leaving Oakley to take over full control of the team. This led to Oakley and McLaren leading the team with Shaun Edwards coming on board the following month.

The team made their FA Vase debut in 2015, and played in the competition for 5 consecutive years before FA rule changes meant that Step 7 clubs could no longer enter. Across those 5 seasons, all fixtures came against higher league opposition as well as defeat. With promotion back to Step 6 at the end of the 21/22 season, this also meant a return to the FA Vase. An away tie to Brocton saw the Green Army go in 2-0 ahead at half time, before a stunning comeback from Brocton saw the hosts prevail 4-2 winners.

In 2021/22 Nic Oakley embarked on his first full season with the team, and was able to guide them to promotion to Division 1. After a 13 year hiatus, Coton Green were back at Step 6 of the football pyramid. Oakley and his staff enjoyed a successful first season back at the level, achieving a 9th place finish as well as reaching 3 cup semi-finals.

Manager: Jason Pyott
Asst Manager: Mark Edwards
Coach: Charlie Nash
Sports Therapist: Madison Jordan

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