Wayne Hatswell has returned to Gillingham to take over as first team coach.

He joins the management team following Steve Lovell’s exit at the end of the season.

Hatswell, a UEFA A Licence coach, was briefly with the Gills at the start of last season, joining as under-18 boss to replace Darren Hare, but left at the end of August for a new role elsewhere.

He has been working with the Welsh FA as a coach educator and mentor.

On joining the Gills, the 41-year-old told the club’s website: “It’s a brilliant opportunity for me. I’m really pleased to be back. It doesn’t feel like I’ve been away.

“Once the opportunity came up, I didn’t feel like I could turn it down.”

Hatswell’s playing career including spells at Oxford, Chester, Kidderminster, Rushden and Cambridge United.

He took on a player-coach role at Irish side Dundalk in 2010 and netted for the club in the UEFA Europa League.

He left the club at the end of the same year to join Edinburgh’s coaching team at Newport County.

He left Newport at the end of the 2011/12 season for financial reasons and a brief spell at Conference North Brackley Town was followed by a spell as manager of Stamford AFC in the Northern Premier League, winning promotion in his first season.

Hatswell returned to Newport following their promotion to the Football League, as first team coach, in a move that Edinburgh described as key to their plans.

When Edinburgh left his role as manager to join the Gills in February 2015, Hatswell stepped up to assist acting manager Jimmy Dack until the end of the season, when he was then released.