Cheltenham Town Football Club have confirmed that Steve Cotterill has returned to the Robins as first-team manager.

The Cheltenham-born former Robins player and manager takes over for a second time having enjoyed a hugely successful spell between 1997 and 2002.

During that time Cotterill won three of his five career promotions as a manager, firmly establishing Cheltenham Town in the Football League having taken them up from the Southern League to EFL League One, as well as winning the FA Trophy at Wembley in 1998.

The 61-year-old has signed a contract until the summer of 2028.

Club chairman David Bloxham said: "I am very pleased to confirm that Steve Cotterill is returning to us as manager.

"Those are words many people never thought they would hear but having held discussions with Steve and his agent over the past few days, we all believe that the time is right for him to return.

"Steve is a manager with vast experience and a record of success going back many years. I think it's fair to say that we would not be able to attract someone with his record of success unless he wanted the opportunity to rejoin his home-town club and the place where it all began for him.

"I'd like to thank our owner Mike Garlick and my colleagues on the board for their work towards making this happen. The club would not have been in a position to appoint Steve without Mike's full support. I would also like to thank all our supporters for their patience and forbearance in recent times while we have been trying to reorganise the club.

"The directors and former principal shareholders have worked really hard over the past few months to bring new ownership to Cheltenham Town and to restructure the football management in order to give us the best chance to improve and move forward.

"We have all been bitterly disappointed by our start to the season, but positive action has been taken and there are still a lot of games left for us to turn things around."

As part of the changes Cotterill will be appointing his own assistant manager with former club captain Aaron Downes stepping down from the role.

Bloxham added: "I would like to thank Aaron for his efforts since returning to the club at the start of last season. He is another terrific club man who has worked hard in difficult circumstances and I'm sure he has a good coaching career ahead of him.

"I would now like to appeal to everyone to get behind the new manager and the players, starting with our home match on Saturday. I really believe this can be the start of a new era for our football club."

Steve Cotterill started his career as a youth team player at Cheltenham Town way back in the 1980-81 season and later played for Alvechurch, Burton Albion, Wimbledon, Brighton & Hove Albion and AFC Bournemouth. His managerial career started at Sligo Rovers in the Republic of Ireland before returning to Gloucestershire to manage the Robins in 1997.

After five years at the helm, he has since taken charge of nine other clubs since 2002 including Stoke City, Burnley, Notts County, Portsmouth, Nottingham Forest, Bristol City, Birmingham City, Shrewsbury Town and, most recently, Forest Green Rovers which he left in June. He won promotion from League Two as champions with Notts County in 2010 and achieved the double by winning the League One title and EFL Trophy with Bristol City during the 2014/15 season.

Cotterill will be in the dugout for his first Cheltenham game in 23 years against Fleetwood Town at the EV Charger Points Stadium on Saturday, October 4, 3pm kick-off.

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