Billy Barr’s departure from Rovers has been confirmed – with the club’s Under-23s boss leaving to take up a first-team post Salford City.

Barr will assist former Rovers boss Gary Bowyer who was named permanent boss of the Ammies in the summer after an 11-game temporary spell at the end of last season.

It will bring an end to Barr’s decade long stay at the club, the last two of which have seen him lead the Under-23s, including last season’s impressive fourth-placed finish.

Barr took on that role after Damien Johnson stepped up to the first-team set-up in 2019, but he will return to senior football with Salford having previously worked on the coaching staff at Sheffield Wednesday, Carlisle United and Wrexham.

Barr said of the move: “I’m delighted to be here, I was flattered when the Gaffer made the call to see if I would be interested, then let the clubs talk about the timing between and it’s gone quite quickly in the end. I’m delighted and hopefully can be part of something that everybody’s going to be successful with.

“We were at the same club but we never really worked together, Gary was with the first team and I started at Blackburn in the academy, youth development then Under-18s and Under-23s coaching so we didn’t really work together but we stayed in contact when he left, then when he went back to Derby we saw each other at games and that. 

“As I say, when the phone call came, I’d more or less made my mind up that I wanted to be a part of this amazing project and the reason I’ve come here is for us to be successful.”

Salford start their League Two campaign with a home game against Leyton Orient next weekend. 

Rovers will now begin their search for a successor, with three weeks to go until the start of the Premier League 2 season.

Barr wasn’t in the dug-out for Friday night’s win over Wigan Athletic as Rovers claimed their 20th Lancashire Senior Cup title.

They defended their crowd in the delayed 2019/20, coming from 1-0 behind to beat the Latics.

It was a comfortable night’s work in the end for the Rovers youngsters, managed by Under-18s boss Mike Sheron who will be among the contenders for the Under-23s post.

It was one way traffic from the off, but Wigan did take a shock lead through Chris Sze’s header, but Rovers weren’t behind for long as Sam Burns equalised with a close-range finish.

Joe Nolan put Rovers ahead moments after the break before a counter-attack saw Burns seal the victory which would have been by a much bigger margin were it not for an impressive display from Wigan ‘keeper Owen Mooney.

On the victory, Sheron said: “We told them to enjoy, it’s a cup final and you want to win any game of football you go in to.

“We wanted to try and dominate the ball, I felt we did that. We didn’t know what the opposition was going to be like, we knew they had a first-team game, but we wanted to do what we can to the best of our ability and I did think we dominated the game which was really pleasing.

“To get so many opportunities and chances to score goals, I feel the nearer the season gets the better and sharper we’ll be for it.”