Abingdon United have appointed former Wantage Town boss Richie Bourne as their new manager.

Bourne, 37, takes over with immediate effect at the Zamaretto Southern League Division 1 South & West club, and replaces Andy Slater who stepped down after seven years.

As a player, Bourne, who was born and still lives in Swindon, was on the books of Gillingham and Bristol Rovers FC, and played in the Southern League before retiring from football aged 30.

A qualified FA coach in 2000, he took over at Wantage five years ago.

Abingdon club secretary John Blackmore said: “We had a very good response. We had around 20 applicants and we whittled that down to six.

“When we interviewed them, Richie’s passion and enthusiasm shone through.

“He also fits into the Abingdon manager mould, because not every manager is suited to that.

“He is fairly new into football management, we accept that, but if you ask anyone connected with Wantage about him and they will tell you he did a terrific job at the club.

“We had two or three really big names who were interested, but we can’t really divulge who they are as some of them are still at football clubs!

“Richie played a lot of his football in the Southern League, so he knows a lot about it.”

Blackmore said they had not set any specific targets for the new boss.

“His brief is to move the club forward,” he added. “We started off as a club in the North Berks League and worked our way up through the Hellenic League and into the Southern League, so we are always looking to progress.

“So we wanted to bring in someone who had hunger rather than get someone who had been there and done it.

“The club is always looking for promotion, which is fine for us, but we’re not going to say to him ‘get us promotion this year or you are out’ we are just looking for him to make progress.”

Bourne will be replaced at Wantage by former player-coach Andy Wallbridge where he will be assisted by former Abingdon Town player Ellis Langford.