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City’s Youth Academy has bolstered its backroom team with the arrival of Andy Rhodes as goalkeeping coach.

43-year-old Andy’s playing career took in stints on both sides of the border, with its high-point being his appearance in the 1990 Littlewoods Cup final with Oldham Athletic.

Since hanging up his gloves, Andy has moved into coaching, most recently with Ipswich Town where his son Jordan is on the books as a striker.

Academy Manager Jim Cassell has welcomed the new arrival to Platt Lane by saying, “We never stop trying to improve the players we produce at the Academy and we identified some time ago that there was a hole in the coaching set up when it came to goalkeeping.”

“Alex Williams and Dave Felgate have done a great job on a part time basis but with the calls on Alex’s time getting more and more demanding he felt it was the best time to stop his coaching role and we have decided to go for the full time option.

“Andy will have a year long contract to see how we get on with him and visa-versa.He has played in a Littlewoods Cup final and had plenty of experience at all levels both coaching and playing and we are sure that he will be a great addition to the staff here.

“He arrives having done well at Ipswich where he worked for Joe Royle and he knows this club too having been here before for a short while."