The striker was Chris Hardy’s first signing of that campaign, as the Blues boss looked to bolster his attacking options following frustration in the previous season in advanced positions.

However, despite being the club’s first signing, Coffey wasn’t seen by Town supporters until November as he made his way back from injury, making his debut against Grangetown Boys Club in the North Riding Senior Cup.

It was a dream start for the former Bradford City and Marske United man, as he notched against the North Riding Football League side in a 6-1 win.

Noted for his hard-working ethic, Coffey soon featured in league action, appearing against Nantwich Town in a 1-0 defeat.

It took a further two sub appearances for the forward to make a full league debut, taking to the field at Farsley Celtic in front of his family. Rather than finding the net, however, he introduced himself by picking up a yellow card for a heavy tackle inside five minutes in a 3-1 defeat.

While no longer officially in the record books due to the opposition folding, Coffey registered a hat-trick in a 6-1 win over North Ferriby United, and went on to score once more that season, in a 2-1 win over Grantham Town, before departing the club to join Swedish side Huddinge IF.

I caught up with Ashley to see how he has taken to life in Sweden with his new club…

On the whole, how did you find your time at Whitby Town?
I enjoyed it on the whole and learnt a lot about myself during my time at Whitby. I felt like I was always playing catch up as I was out injured a very long time and didn’t have a proper pre-season to really get fit. Jeff Miller helped me so much whilst I was injured and I will always appreciate what he did for me.

How did the move to Sweden come about? And how are you finding it?
I just wanted to try something new. I had been living in Middlesbrough for 7 years (University) and felt I needed a change. In order for me to take the football seriously I need to be training pretty much day in day out and that’s exactly what it’s like over here. I’m really enjoying my time in Sweden so far - I did pretty well playing in Division Two and thankfully I got a move to a Division One team for the upcoming season.

While at Whitby, how much impact did talking to the likes of Dale Hopson, who had previously played in Sweden, have on your impact to make the move?
I spoke to Dale quite a bit about it and he highly recommended for me to go and try it out. I also spoke to James (Munch) Risborough a lot who also advised me to give it a go.

In terms of your first season, you seemingly had a huge impact - were you expecting this level of success when you first made the move?
To be honest I didn’t know what to expect when I first came over. I signed for a Division Two team called Huddinge IF and made a pretty good start in Sweden, scoring 12 in the second half of season. I just wanted to use my time with Huddinge IF as a bit of a stepping stone to hopefully getting picked up by a team from a higher league, and thankfully I did that.

That success led to a move to Division One with IFK Haninge - you're currently on preparing for the new season, what are both your expectations and the club's expectations for the new season?
I actually scored a hat trick against IFK Haninge in the last game of the 2019 season, which led to the move there. They had already won the Division Two title with a few games to spare and as soon as the season was pretty much finished, they were in contact for me to sign for the 2020 campaign. We’ve started slowly in terms of pre-season but we are improving with every game now. There are a lot of talented lads in our team; hopefully we can push on this season and finish as high as possible.

In terms of football, what differences have you noted between football in England and Sweden?
England is a lot more physical than Sweden. There are so many big centre halves in non-league that just want to head and kick whereas in Sweden it’s very tactical. They want to play a lot more than in England which is a part that I’m enjoying about Swedish football.

Outside of football, what are you currently doing work-wise?
I’m working for an International English School. I’m absolutely loving working there as a lot of my colleagues are English, which really helped me settle in. I’m working with students with behavioural problems, as well as working one-to-one with students that are struggling in some subjects. The days are very long, going to work all day and then straight to football pretty much every day, but it’s the structure I need to take my football as seriously as I can.

I just wanted to say thank you to all the people at WTFC. There are some great people working behind the scenes and wish them all the best for the future.