Former Yellows boss Mark Beesley returns to the Cal.Delivery Stadium to face Warrington Town for the first time since his departure in September 2024.
It’s not the first time Bees has had a taste of the away dugout - back in 2015/16, he was manager of Burscough and inflicted two defeats on the Yellows, who went on to win the league title that year, including a 3-1 win at our home ground.
The 44-year-old’s connection to the club dates back to 2012, when he scored three goals in a brief five-game loan spell, but he will be most remembered for his successful stint as manager, leading the club to its highest-ever league finish.
After serving as assistant manager to Paul Carden during his first spell at the club, Bees stepped up to be manager in November 2021 when Carden departed for Telford. In his first league game in charge, the Yellows beat Lancaster City 5-1 courtesy of a hat-trick from Jordan Buckley, now at FC United, who will also line up against the Yellows for the first time since his departure.
He led the Yellows to the play-off final that year, his 10-man side losing agonisingly 2-1 away at Scarborough Athletic.
However, the following year his side went one better, recording a club record 22-match unbeaten run on the way to a memorable 1-0 play-off final victory over Bamber Bridge, courtesy of Isaac Buckley-Ricketts’ 90th minute winner.
The 4-1 play-off semi-final win over Matlock Town is widely regarded as one of the best performances ever seen at the Cal.Delivery Stadium.
After earning promotion, Bees’ side held their own in National League North, winning 4-0 away at Southport on the opening day and then having a solid season, always being around mid-table and sometimes flirting with the play-offs, before finishing in 12th place.
Across his 139 games in charge, Beesley oversaw 59 wins and 36 draws, scoring 212 goals at an average of 1.53 goals per game. His win percentage was 42.4%, with his biggest win coming in the 6-0 thrashing at Buxton.
Although his tenure at the club came to a premature end last September, following the 2-1 FA Cup defeat to Radcliffe, his side had still managed two wins and two draws from their eight games at the beginning of the National League North campaign.
Since being at FC United, Beesley and former Yellows assistant Dave Raven have led the Reds up the league table, and they currently sit second in the Northern Premier League, with games in hand on the league leaders.
Beesley remains good friends with Carden; they both played together at Chester and Cambridge United during their playing careers, and then worked as the Yellows’ management team together from 2016-2021, leading the club to play-off final victory in 2019 before the cruel super play-off defeat to King’s Lynn Town.
Ahead of the two facing each other in the dugouts on Tuesday night, Carden said: "It will be strange (going against him). We speak three, four, five times a week; we used to speak two or three times a day when we worked together.
"I’m glad to see him doing well. When I left to go to Telford, Toby said, 'What should we do?' I said we don’t need to move anything about, the squad’s in a good place, and you’ve got a good person who knows the club and knows the runnings of it to hand
the baton to, and he did brilliantly.
"He’s done well with FC, got them out of bother last season, added a few good players and got a good, balanced squad with experience, and they’ve been winning games and won manager of the month, credit where it’s due.
"He should get a good reception. It wasn’t just about his time as manager; it was all the work he had done in the five years before he got the chance to take the reins. He deserves to get a good reception for his contribution to the club, and I’m sure
he will."
It will be the first meeting between Warrington Town and FC United since January 2023, when the clubs battled out a 1-1 draw.
There will be plenty of familiar faces returning to the Cal.Delivery Stadium tonight too - FC United’s squad contains former Yellows Buckley, Andre Wisdom, Matt Grivosti, Charlie Munro and Dan Atherton.
