Matt Fry says a huge part of his reason for leaving Concord Rangers to join Braintree Town was the appointment of manager Danny Cowley.

Cowley left the Beach Boys to link up with the Iron at the end of last season, with centre-half Fry (pictured) following in his footsteps after the departure of Alan Massey.

And he says the impact Cowley has had on his career is huge, with individual training programmes drawn up by his manager to ensure he wasn’t affected by a number of injuries suffered earlier in his career.

Fry said, although leaving Concord wasn’t an easy decision, he was delighted to link up with Cowley once again.

“It’s no secret that I have a good relationship with Danny,” said the 24-year-old.

“I turned down some pretty good offers before I came back to Concord last summer and it was a good move for me.

“Danny was one of the main reasons behind that and all the boys will tell you how much of a pleasure it is to play for him.

“When he got the job he gave me a call but it was all professionally handled and it was a move I was keen to make.

“Even though I didn’t have a contract I was still a Concord player and I wanted to respect that.”

See this week's paper for the full version of this story.