A passionate and natural leader, 'Pee Wee' led Tividale to the Midland Football League Premier title in 2014 and the following season Tividale finished a creditable 8th in their first season in the NPL Division One South.

He left in May 2015 due to budget cuts and was swiftly appointed as the new boss of Alvechurch FC with his right-hand man Richard Colwell following him to the north Worcestershire club.

He and his support team have since enjoyed unbridled success at Lye Meadow.

In 2015/16 Alvechurch finished as runners-up to Hereford FC in the MFL Premier Division and then twelve months later they landed a treble, securing the MFL Premier Division title and lifting both the Polymac League Cup and the JW Hunt Cup.

2017/18 saw Alvechurch compete in the NPL Division One South where they finished as runners-up to Basford United to earn back-to-back promotions.

Last season saw Alvechurch finish 4th in the Evo-stik League South Premier Division Central and end the Glassboys hopes of winning promotion in the play-offs with a 2 - 1 victory at Lye Meadow earlier this month. The 'Church were beaten away at King's Lynn Town in the Divisional Final 48 hours later, however they could be immensely proud of their campaign.

Ian Long and Richard Colwell join Stourbridge with immediate effect and the remainder of his backroom staff will be confirmed in due course.

Chairman Andy Pountney commented: "We are delighted to welcome Ian and Richard to Stourbridge. Ian was among 40 applicants for the vacant manager's role and I have to say we had some very strong candidates with interest from far and wide in this country. It was heart-warming to see. I would like to thank everybody who contacted us about the post. I am sorry that I haven't been able to get back to them all, but I have spoken today with the other candidates that we have interviewed in the past few days to tell them that they were unsuccessful on this occasion.

In the end we couldn't get away from what Ian had achieved as manager at both Tividale and Alvechurch. His record speaks for itself and we know only too well from recent experience what a strong and competitive side he was able to put together at Alvechurch without having the level of resources at his disposal of some of the other clubs in the same division last season. I, and my fellow directors look forward to working with Ian, Richard and the rest of his team and hopefully the news of this appointment will be exciting for our supporters as we look ahead to next season."

Photo - Richard Colwell (pictured left) and Ian Long (right)