Mark Yates left Crawley Town on 25th April 2016, having been appointed manager on 19th May 2015.  Before this, he managed Cheltenham Town.

Yates entered management in the Football League for the first time after 3 years with Kidderminster Harriers on December 22, 2009.

He also represented Cheltenham as a player as well as Birmingham City, Burnley, Lincoln City, Doncaster Rovers and Kidderminster.

Yates was part of the Birmingham City side that won the 1991 Leyland DAF (now Johnstone's Paint) Trophy final at Wembley.

With Cheltenham he played a key role in promotion to the Football League and promotion to League One in 2002. It was during his time with Cheltenham, that Yates won caps for the England semi-professional team and captained the Robins to their only appearance to date in the fifth round of the FA Cup in 2002.

He began his coaching career assisting Steve Cotterill at Burnley before taking his first management job back at Kidderminster.

In his first season in charge he led the club to the FA Trophy final against Stevenage Borough - the first competitive match at the newly re-built Wembley Stadium. In the 2008/09 season he guided Kidderminster to sixth place in the Blue Square Premier only two points outside the play-offs.

He later enjoyed a fantastic season with Cheltenham in 2011/12, after he led the club to the npower league two play-off final. During the season, the Robins also spent five consecutive months in the automatic promotion places and were top of the table in January 2012.

Another play-off appearance followed in 2012/13 as Cheltenham finished 5th in League Two.

At the time of his departure in November 2014, Yates was the 3rd longest serving manager in English football.

Yates is also a graduate of the LMA's Certificate in Applied Management.