GUISELEY have appointed joint managers in a bid to revive their fortunes.

The experienced duo of Russ O’Neill and Marcus Bignot

are taking the reins .

The Lions have also appointed Paul Clayton as assistant manager.

After a turbulent 2017/18 season the club has also confirmed it will be reverting to a part-time playing squad.

The Nethermoor outfit are looking to re-group, stabilise and consolidate under new chairman Gary Douglas following their relegation from the Vanarama National League.

With that in mind they have hand-picked a management team who have extensive experience of working at National League North level while achieving success with limited resources.

Both O’Neill and Bignot have won the division before.

Douglas, said: “We have been long-term admirers of the work Russ did at Alfreton Town along with Nicky Law in gaining promotion to the Premier Division and to the brink of the Football League at their peak.

“The ability of Russ to identify potential and work with players to improve their game and turn them into an integral part of a team will be invaluable to us, as it was at Alfreton Town.

"The fact that he was at the club for 10 years, we feel, says everything not only about the great job he did, but also about his loyalty and character as an individual.”

O’Neill left Alfreton Town to make way for a new investor and manager combination after the club had given him and Law a testimonial after the most successful 10 years in the club’s history.

Douglas added: “Since leaving Alfreton, Russ has been working for Burnley FC in recruitment and has turned down the opportunity to go back into management on several occasions, so we feel fortunate to have him as part of our new management team.

“Marcus did a similar job at Solihull Moors, gaining promotion from the National North to the Premier and in turn attracting the attention of Grimsby Town.”

Bignot, 43, enjoyed an extensive playing career with over 600 appearances to his name most notably with QPR and Crewe in the Championship.

Bignot’s first managerial appointment came in July 2011 with National League North side Solihull Moors.

His five year tenure at the club was a great success as he built a reputation for developing players, improving playing squads on limited resources, as well as identifying and recruiting young talent.

His skill set would not stop there. A visionary he also had a desire and passion to build a Community Football Club and not only a football team at Solihull Moors.

He demonstrated his involvement off the field in contributing to the building of an infrastructure on the football, community and business side behind the scenes – a structure preparing for future success.

Solihull Moors won the National League North and promotion to the National League in 2015–16 for the first time in their history.

Bignot’s success led to him being appointed manager by League Two side Grimsby Town in November 2016

He continued to maintain a good points tally that would keep Grimsby Town well away from relegation in their first season back in the Football League.

Bignot and The Mariners parted company at the beginning of April 2017, when they were seven points off the play-offs.

Next stop for Bignot was Chester where he was appointed boss in September 2017.

The club had financial problems and he had to reduce the wage budget drastically while fighting relegation.

Bignot gained many admirers within football for the way he managed the situation before leaving the club last month after they were relegated with Guiseley.

Completing the management team is Clayton who was a thorn in many a team’s side over the years, most notably for Alfreton Town.

“His aggressive and enthusiastic will to win attitude on the pitch will no doubt be taken into his first steps of management,” said Douglas.

He added: “We are really excited to have the new management team in place as we look to get stability back into our club.

"We are a family club and at this point in time we need everybody connected with the club to pull together as we aim to recover from what was a really testing 12 months.”

Douglas concluded: “We were overwhelmed by the number of candidates applying for the post and we are thankful for all of the interest.

"We would also like to put on record our thanks to Sean St Ledger, who stepped up from a playing role to manage the team over the past few months.”

He took the helm as interim manager after the sacking of Paul Cox and his backroom team.