Barnsley have today announced the appointment of Chris Hutchings as Danny Wilson’s assistant manager.
The 56 year old has many connections in Yorkshire after playing for Huddersfield and Rotherham and serving as assistant manager at Bradford.
Hutchings helped Chris Kamara guide Bradford to the old First Division (now Championship) in 1995-1996 and was assistant to Paul Jewell when they won promotion to the top flight for the first time in 77 years in 1998-1999.
When Jewell left Valley Parade in the summer of 2000 to join Sheffield Wednesday, Hutchings was put in charge and despite leading them to the semi-finals of the Intertoto Cup he won just one of the club’s opening 12 Premier League fixtures and was axed on the 6th November.
Hutchings then linked up with Jewell again in 2001, becoming his assistant at Wigan and again the pair sped through the leagues, winning promotion to the second tier in 2003 and then the top flight for the first time in the club’s history in 2005.
After guiding the Latics to safety on the final day of the 2006-2007 season Jewell left and Hutchings once again succeeded him as manager, but unfortunately he floundered like at Bradford.
He managed to win two of his first three league games of the 2007-2008 season but he was sacked on the 5th November (a day earlier than at Bradford in 2000) after a run of six straight defeats.
Since then Hutchings has been assistant at Derby but had a much longer spell as manager at Walsall, winning 31 out of 98 games between Jan 2009 and Jan 2011. He led the club to 13th in League One in 2008-2009 and 10th in 2009-2010, but was fired on the 4th January 2011 after a 4-1 defeat at Peterborough left the club bottom of the table.
Another reunion with Jewell was next for Hutchings just 13 days later when he joined him at Ipswich.
Most recently Hutching was helping out at Northern Premier League Division One South side Market Drayton but has teamed up with Wilson, presumably until the end of the season following the departure of Micky Mellon last week.
Wilson told the club’s official website:
“Chris has been a friend and confidant over many years since playing together.
Chris has done very well with clubs at all levels that he has worked at.
“His experience will be invaluable as we go into the final ten games of the season and I am delighted that he has come to help us out.”