SWINDON Town hero Paul Bodin is itching to get started after being named as assistant manager/first team coach at League One Port Vale.

Former Wales international Bodin, who was also a youth team coach at the County Ground, will work under Rob Page at Vale, who finished 18th in League One this season.

The 50-year-old has worked in the Welsh national set-up under Chris Coleman and will continue to do so in the short-term.

Prior to his work within the Welsh set-up Bodin was working with academy at Southampton and he is now looking forward to getting started in a first team environment again.

“Excited about it, looking forward to it, I can’t wait for pre-season to start,” Bodin told the Advertiser.

“I’m there to assist him, help Rob any way I can and coach the team.

“I really enjoy my Welsh commitments and I will continue to do that with the Under 21s as I started the campaign and Rob’s keen for me to do that. He did that himself and I filled in once.

“We’re both very proud Welshmen, we want to help the Welsh cause as much as we can and develop young players there.

“Predominantly now it’s a full-time role with Port Vale, it’s something I’ve wanted to do for a while and something I can get my teeth stuck into. This is the best opportunity, Rob’s a great lad, very ambitious and it’s nice to work with someone who has the same philosophy as myself.

“Rob did a lot of work in his own last year and he felt he needed to get an assistant in. So it’s kind of a fresh start, as he started midway through the season, so it’s like a clean slate. I can go in there now and give him some fresh ideas and he can rebound some stuff off me.”