​Former Aston Villa, Burton Albion and Doncaster Rovers star excited by new management role at Buxton

​McGrath has been in charge at Mickleover for the last eight years, where he has overseen great progress that culminated in a Southern Premier League Premier Central play-off semi-final defeat to Telford last weekend.

That came after his side had won all of their first 13 games of the season, albeit they ultimately lost out to Needham Market for the title and were hampered by a late season 12-point deduction for fielding an ineligible player.

McGrath, 44, is a former Republic of Ireland U21 midfielder, who enjoyed a distinguished playing career which started in his homeland before he joined Aston Villa at 18-years-old, and also led to him playing over 200 games for Burton Albion, whom he captained during their successful rise up the pyramid.

Speaking to the club’s media channels following his appointment, McGrath says he can’t wait to get started in his new role.

He said: “Buxton play a good style of football and have a very supportive chairman, and with them playing in the league above where I’ve just come from and also being about to go full-time, it’s something I’m really looking forward to getting my teeth into.

"Having day-to-day access to the players is important and I hope we can build and mould a squad to challenge in the league we’re in.

"It was a massive attraction to go full-time and be supported by a chairman and board that want success.

"I had a great eight years at Mickleover and have some really good memories from there but I want to progress, as I always did as a player, and this is my next natural step.”

McGrath says he is now keen to get to work on establishing his backroom staff and also the playing squad.

He added: “We’ve already got Jon Stewart here as goalkeeping coach and Jake Lofthouse as analyst, and I’ll be bringing Pablo Mills as my first team coach and then Ricky Ravenhill will be my assistant manager.

"We want to build a competitive squad that can challenge in this division. I want to play an attractive style of football as I did at Mickleover, and we’re speaking to players every day to try and gather a squad for pre-season.”