WARREN Jones is playing the hand that footballing fate has dealt him.

And he could barely be happier about it, or more excited for the challenges to come.

Mike Clegg’s second-in-command has left Atherton Collieries and returned to his former club, hoping to recreate the kind of success the pair once enjoyed in the Hallmark Security League.

Atherton LR’s new manager says the chance to branch out on his own, in familiar surroundings, was one he simply could not pass up.

Jones has been, for close to five years, the right-hand man to Clegg, at Prescot Cables and Colls, where they engineered the club’s remarkable rise to their current position in Evo-Stik North.

But, following Shaun Lynch’s departure from Colls’ neighbours LR, Jones decided he would take the plunge and returned to Crilly Park.

“Myself and Mike Clegg had a few discussions about where Colls are going and he wanted to do a few things differently to what I had been planning,” he told The Bolton News.

“Then the LR job came up and the opportunity really interested me. I know a lot of the players from when Colls were in that league, I know a few of the players already at the club, and Jane [Wilcock, club chairman] too.

“It was a no-brainer for me to come here, there wasn’t any disagreement between me and Mike, I just had to take on this challenge. I did manage Atherton Town’s reserves a few years ago but it will be my first real first-team manager’s job after being a number two for so long.

“It will be a difficult job, LR has fallen away a bit after being the most successful club in Atherton but, to my mind, the only way is up.”

Jones certainly got off on the right foot in his first game in charge, as LR avenged a defeat by Stockport Town just before Christmas, Gary Grier and Ashley Woodhead netting in a 2-0 win last Saturday, in a game in which both teams ended the first half with 10 men.

Rovers’ Kieran Halliwell, who was dismissed in an off-the-ball incident in that game, will now sit out three matches. But the club must do without the services of Woodhead, who has had a hip operation, for the rest of the campaign.

Ahead of hosting New Mills today, Jones says all the players at the club – which currently occupies 13th place in the First Division table – have a chance to stake their claim for places over the course of the next 20 matches.

“There has been some turmoil here in recent weeks, with Shaun leaving and [interim manager] Dave Potter going as well, but I’m not interested in what goes on in the background,” said the new man at the helm. “I’m focusing solely on the team and the football side of things.

“It’s a very young side, which I like, I’ve had a couple of sessions with them and they’re very receptive to what I’m trying to bring in, so they’ll be given a chance to show what they can do.

“It’s been a bit of a bumpy ride so we’re having a process of stabilisation at present, I wouldn’t be putting any money on us getting into the play-offs this season. The problem in this division is there are ‘three leagues’ – one where the teams win virtually every week, one where everybody loses most weeks, and one in between.

“When we won the title with Colls I think we only lost four games in the whole season, so I don’t see those higher up losing more than that in the final 20 games.”

In addition to those league outings, Jones also has a chance to bring some silverware to LR, and complete his personal set in doing so.

“We have a First Division Cup quarter-final to come, we play Daisy Hill, so that’s one to look forward to,” he added. “It’s the one thing I didn’t win during our successful stint in the North West Counties League, we did get to the final but lost to Darwen.

“I know what it takes to be successful in this league and there’s no way I’ll be counting my chickens at all but that wouldn’t be a bad way to start out would it?”