Former Cardiff City first team coach Kevin Nicholson is the new Bangor City manager.

Nicholson, 31, takes over from Ian Dawes in charge of the Welsh Premier League club and will be assisted by Gary Taylor-Fletcher, who was Bangor caretaker manager.

Former Stoke City, Derby County and Exeter City coach Nicholson worked alongside manager Russell Slade at Cardiff, while he also took charge of the club’s development players.

A year ago Nicholson became the youngest English coach to obtain the Uefa Pro Licence.

He will work closely with Taylor-Fletcher and Director of Football Stephen Vaughan Jr for Bangor, who qualified for next season’s Europa League after beating Cardiff Met 1-0 in the Welsh Premier League play-off final.

Nicholson’s dreams of a football career changed dramatically as he approached his 16th birthday. He had been training with the Rams since the age of eight, but was told that Derby County would not be offering him a scholarship.

“I was there for eight years and it was all ended in a 20-minute meeting,” said Nicholson. “It was devastating for me and the others who were told they were not wanted.

“It was important to hold myself together in that meeting, but the tears flowed once I was at home.

“I went to the exit trials, where scouts look at released juniors. As a result, I had a game with Sheffield Wednesday, six months with Rotherham United in their under-16s and 18 months at Kidderminster Harriers.

“I played a bit for Mickleover Sports and Borrowash Victoria, but found it hard to adjust.

“Sadly, I was not enjoying playing but I as asked to help with coaching in Derby County’s Community programme. I found those sessions on Normanton Park extremely satisfying.”

The upshot was that he started to work for his coaching badges and became one of only 16 Football Association elite coaches in the country.

Nicholson is a Derby boy, educated at Mickleover Silverhill Primary School and John Port School, Etwall, while he worked at Exeter City, coaching their under-16s, before coming to Wales.

“Dick Bate, the most highly regarded coaching educator in the country, asked me to go to Cardiff City,” says Nicholson, who worked with several Bluebirds managers before moving on as part of Neil Warnock’s radical restructuring of the youth set-up at the club. That involved putting Craig Bellamy in charge of development.

Now Nicholson has taken up a Welsh Premier League challenge with Bangor City.