Former Premier League defender Alan Rogers tasked with saving Skelmersdale United

FORMER Premier League defender Alan Rogers has been tasked with saving Skelmersdale United from relegation to Step 4.

Skem announced at the end of last week that they had parted company with long-serving manager Tommy Lawson following a difficult first half of the season.

Lawson had been working with a very limited budget but the club felt a change was necessary to keep Skem in the Evo-Stik NPL Premier.

They have turned to 40-year-old Rogers as Lawson’s replacement with the former Nottingham Forest man bringing plenty of experience to Stormy Corner.

After beginning his career at Tranmere Rovers, Rogers moved to Nottingham Forest for £2.5million and helped them win Division One in 1998.

Stints with Leicester and Wigan followed before a return to Forest. The defender then ended his career with Hull, Bradford and Accrington Stanley.

Rogers moved into coaching, serving as assistant manager at Irish side Sligo Rovers as well as at Tranmere. He recently served as a youth coach at Premier League side Burnley and now faces the tough task of turning Skelmersdale’s season around.

Skem are rock bottom of the Evo-Stik NPL Premier and have won just three of their 28 league games so far, leaving them 13 points adrift of safety.

A club statement read: “Skelmersdale United would like to announce the new man at the helm is former Premier League player Alan Rogers.

“Alan is a former professional footballer who spent many years in the game making over 200 appearances for Nottingham Forest and winning the Championship title with the club in 1997-98.

“His coaching credentials include assistant manager at Sligo Rovers alongside Micky Adams and a spell as assistant at Tranmere Rovers, he also was caretaker manager in 2015.

“He was recently youth team coach at Burnley FC. We as a club would like to welcome him to Skelmersdale United and wish him every success.”