FORMER York City coach Adie Shaw is the new manager of St Vincent's national team.

Shaw, sacked along with ex-City boss Terry Dolan in the summer, will fly out to the Caribbean island on Saturday to start his new job.

And one of his first tasks could be to persuade former Premiership star Julian Joachim to join Rushden striker Rodney Jack in the Vincent side.

Coventry midfielder Joachim qualifies to play for the sunshine-soaked island despite having played for England Under 21s earlier in his career and Shaw would be delighted to call on his services.

He said: "People of his quality would obviously be an asset and I'll be looking at players' backgrounds because St Vincent is a small island and you can't close any doors. We've got five players in America's top league and a couple in Portugal and Canada, as well as the main group of 25 or 30 that are based in St Vincent."

The island has a population of 150,000 with banana, nutmeg and coconuts its main exports.

But now Shaw is hoping that St Vincent, which is a 30-minute flight from Barbados, can also display its footballing talents to the rest of the world.

World Cup qualifiers are due to start in March with Canada, Puerto Rico and Honduras among Shaw's new side's rivals for a place at Germany in 2006.

He said: "People who know me know that a successful campaign would be to see if we can win the group but, until I get out there, I don't exactly know what I have to work with. I'm not taking another coach with me yet because I want to see what I need first.

"The job is also looking at developing St Vincent football in general from the national side down through the U-21, U-19 and U-17 teams and taking the game into the schools as well."

Shaw will be St Vincent's first English manager but was recommended for the position by former Bradford City and Scarborough defender Cec Podd, who coached neighbouring island St Kitts before ex-Barnsley caretaker boss Eric Winstanley took over the reins.

"Cec knows what I can do and about my coaching ability," Shaw said. "I'm meeting the country's delegates in London tomorrow morning before moving over there lock, stock and barrel at the weekend.

"It's all happened very quickly but I'm looking forward to the experience. It will be my first job abroad even though I have taken other teams to different countries.

"We were very successful at York with the youth team when we brought a trophy back from Holland."

Shaw was unwilling to comment on whether his new post would effect any compensation claim for loss of earnings after his dismissal at Bootham Crescent with one year left to run on his contract, only saying: "That is up to other people to sort out. I would just wish Chris Brass all the best.

"I think they will be successful because they have got a good set of players there."

City communications director Sophie McGill said: "York City wishes Adie Shaw all the best for his future career in the Caribbean and we hope that any potential pursuit of compensation will now be dropped."

Updated: 11:22 Monday, October 20, 2003