Steve Joel took over at the start of the 1996/97 season and enjoyed a great start to his managerial career seeing the club sitting top of the league after five games. A rapid decline in fortunes saw the club slip down the table and Joel was replaced after a run of bad results culminating in seven games without a win, the last of those being a 5-1 defeat at Northwich when the crowd turned against him. As a player Joel made one sub appearance in the Football League in the Boxing Day match at Darlington which we lost 3-0. Also made 14 NL appearances with 8 as sub and scored 3 goals between January and September 1992.