AT THE end of last month, the big news out of Ivybridge Town was regarding their managerial situation.

Wayne Gamble had previously left the role vacant somewhat out of the blue, a decision that the club later clarified. “Wayne’s decision is linked to an ongoing disciplinary investigation with the Football Association. This matter is entirely unrelated to Ivybridge Town FC and the timescales of the process are completely outside of our control.”

Attentions then turned to his replacement, or in this case, replacements, with Ben Washam and Brad Gargett stepping up to the plate.

The former will be a familiar name to those at Erme Valley as he is a former Ivybridge player, he told the South Hams Gazette about how “They were the first senior team that I played for.”

Regarding the decision to take the job, Washam continued, “It’s a bit closer to home. With all the refurbishments and it being the centenary year, I don’t think there was a better club” out there for the pair.

They were in charge of Dobwalls AFC previously, leading them to their highest-ever finish in the South West Peninsula League Premier West in 2024/25. A third-placed finish with 61 points would be enough to secure promotion in other divisions but unfortunately, there is just one slot at the Peninsula League summit and Newquay AFC claimed this.

Washam “had been at Dobwalls for six years. I had a manager, Simon Westlake, who was with me for a few years and then I brought Brad in as a joint manager with me and it really clicked. We’ve been together now for three years, it’s been a great time so far.”

It didn’t take long into their tenure for a big piece of news to be released online with the club saying their goodbyes to several key first-team players.

The statement read “thank you and farewell” to 12 players- Scott Pocock, Connor Rush, Ollie Aplin, Rio Daly, Jake Lane, Jordan Powell, Owen Pritchard, Sean Thomson, Kyran Ibao, Chris Wright, Fletcher Williams and Jordan Duffey are the dozen in question.

Just to pick out a few and Ollie Aplin has returned to former club Bovey Tracey AFC, with whom he topped the Peninsula League scoring charts in 2023/24, Rio Daly is a promising youngster who was very highly rated by Gamble and Scott Pocock was there for a decade and regularly donned the armband.

This sort of thing does happen in non-league football though and the new Ivybridge managers aren’t worried by it.

“They think it’s time to move on and we wish them all the best, we’ve gone out and looked at our targets, met a lot of players and there will be people coming in imminently,” said Washam.

He continued, “We’ve got some quality players coming in, some coming with us from Dobwalls who I really rate so it’s looking good.”

Washam spoke of being “tired but excited” for the challenge ahead having spoken to a lot of players in recent days and weeks. They’re “Excited about a league that we’ve never been in. Everything is going to be new for us but we know we’re up to the challenge.”

Finally, when it comes to goal setting, he is “Not a person to put it out there and what [he wants] to achieve. I’ve got personal goals and all we’ll do is prepare the lads as best we can.”