Carl Darlington (born 30 December 1981) is a Welsh

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

coach Coach may refer to: Guidance/instruction * Coach (sport), a director of Athletes' training and activities * Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process ** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers Transportation * Coac ...

, currently head of academy coaching at Everton. He won three consecutive

Welsh Premier League The Cymru Premier, known as the JD Cymru Premier for sponsorship reasons, is the national football league of Wales. It has both professional and semi-professional status clubs and is at the top of the Welsh football league system. It was found ...

titles for

The New Saints The New Saints of Oswestry Town & Llansantffraid Football Club, commonly known as The New Saints () or TNS FC, are an English professional football club that play in the , but are based completely within England, in Oswestry, Shropshire. They a ...

from 2012 to 2014, twice winning the

Welsh Cup The FAW Welsh Cup (), currently known as the JD Welsh Cup for sponsorship reasons, is a knock-out football competition contested annually by teams in the Welsh football league system. It is considered the most prestigious of the cup competitions ...

for a

double Double, The Double or Dubble may refer to: Mathematics and computing * Multiplication by 2 * Double precision, a floating-point representation of numbers that is typically 64 bits in length * A double number of the form x+yj, where j^2=+1 * A ...

. He was

caretaker manager In association footballing terms, a caretaker manager or interim manager is somebody who takes temporary charge of the management of a football team, usually when the regular manager is dismissed or leaves for a different club. However, a caret ...

Conference Premier The National League, officially known as Vanarama National League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in England. The National League is the first division of the National Leagues and step 1 of the National Le ...

club

Wrexham Wrexham ( ; ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in the North East Wales, north-east of Wales. It lies between the Cambrian Mountains, Welsh mountains and the lower River Dee, Wales, Dee Valley, near the England–Wales border, borde ...

in 2015.

Career

Born in

, Darlington was an assistant manager at

Cefn Druids Cefn Druids Association Football Club () was an association football team based in the village of Cefn Mawr, Wrexham. The club reformed in the 2024–25 season to play in the . Before, the club played in the Cymru North after being relegated fr ...

and

Airbus UK Airbus UK (formerly EADS UK) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Airbus, based in the United Kingdom, which produces wings for Airbus aircraft. When Airbus (at the time known as EADS) was incorporated as a joint-stock company in 2001, BAE Systems t ...

before joining

in May 2010. When Mike Davies was promoted to

director of football A sporting director, or director of sport, is an senior management, executive management position in a sports club. The role is well known as a manager role for European football clubs, which are sometime also "sports clubs", offering many typ ...

in April 2011, Darlington succeeded him as head coach. In 2011–12, Darlington's first full season as manager, TNS won the

and the

, becoming the first team to win the

since their own achievement in 2005. In November 2013, Darlington's team achieved a full calendar year of home victories in the league at their

Park Hall Park Hall is an area near to the south-eastern edge of Walsall in the West Midlands of England. It is considered that the area near to the local Park Hall Primary and Infant schools and the Gillity Village shops are classed as Park Hall. Park ...

venue; they scored 55 goals and conceded 3 in 14 games. The 2013–14 season saw him win another double. In December 2014, with TNS 12 points ahead in the league, unbeaten in all competitions that season and unbeaten at home for over two years, Darlington left for

, his hometown club that he had supported all his life. He was named first team coach under

Kevin Wilkin Kevin Wilkin (born 1 October 1967) is an English manager and former professional footballer. He is the manager of AFC Telford United. Playing career Born in Cambridge but raised in the Cambridgeshire village of Milton, Wilkin started his caree ...

. Wilkin was sacked on 30 March 2015 after losing the

FA Trophy The Football Association Challenge Trophy, also known as the Isuzu FA Trophy for sponsorship reasons, is a men's football knockout cup competition run by and named after The Football Association (the FA) and competed by mainly National League ...

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final examination or finals, a test given at the end of a course of study or training *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which d ...

, with Darlington taking over at a team 15th in the

. The following day, he drew 1–1 at home to higher-ranked Dover Athletic on his debut, while stating that he did not want the job permanently. After his eight-game spell saw the team rise in the table, he expressed shock at being released in May with a year left on his contract, as new manager Gary Mills wanted his own coaching staff. Darlington returned to TNS in December 2015 as first team coach under Scott Harrison. In May 2017, he left and rejoined Wrexham to coach for

Dean Keates Dean Scott Keates (born 30 June 1978) is an English professional association football, football manager and former Association footballer, player who was most recently the manager of Wrexham A.F.C., Wrexham. During his playing career, Keates pl ...

. His contract at the

Racecourse Ground The Racecourse Ground (), is a football stadium in Wrexham, Wales. It is the home of Wrexham A.F.C., Wrexham AFC. It is the largest stadium in North Wales and the List of football stadiums in Wales, fifth-largest in Wales. It is the world's o ...

was not renewed in June 2021, after missing out on promotion to the

English Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional association football, football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, it is the oldest football league in Association football around the world, the w ...

. In September 2022, Darlington was hired as head of academy coaching at

Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...

club Everton.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Darlington, Carl 1981 births Living people Sportspeople from Wrexham Welsh football managers The New Saints F.C. managers Wrexham A.F.C. managers Everton F.C. non-playing staff Cymru Premier managers National League (English football) managers