How do you measure success? Is it the amount of trophies won? Is it starving off relegation for another year? Is it reaching the play-off’s or is it simply about surviving?
Every club, manager, player, fan will have their own view as to what they perceive as that level, ultimately only one team can win a title, three or four teams generally will be relegated and four teams will enter the play-off’s, but what for the rest?
I’m picking out a few managers this week whose clubs have finished much higher than I anticipated and some who have probably hit their target spot on, one or two as well who might feel they didn’t quite get there; a few of these guys are well known to me but have a read and let me know what you think.
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We’ll start down in Step 5, Luke Carpenter at Tunbridge Wells. I spoke to Luke before the season began after his move from Chatham to take charge at the Culverden Stadium, a new side to be built after Rich Styles and Dan Morrin headed to the coast and Whitstable Town with a majority of the players following them.
The recruitment was pretty good, strong keeper, centre half and striker, but as with a lot of new sides coming together the gelling can take time and so was the case here. At one point however things looked like they were coming together, a thumping of champions Erith & Belvedere at their Park View Road home the highlight but the usual raft of postponements for the Wells at home I feel halted momentum and the side finished in 8th.
Knowing how driven Luke is, frustration probably his key word, a top six finish or even higher no doubt was his aim and quite conceivably the same for the club, over 20 goals for Trevor McCreadie was no surprise, finishing below Rusthall probably was, I expect them to go well again next year but be in that play-off mix.
At Step 4, Littlehampton Town under Mitch Hand and George Gaskin enjoyed a mid-table finish in the club’s first ever season at that level, despite a rough ride towards the end, they secured a second year in the Isthmian League South East Division with games to spare.
No big budget used here as the club needed to rightly spend the money on ground improvements to ensure they complied with the regulations. They were flirting with the play-off’s on a few occasions, no doubt if they had won those games a few new conundrums would have presented themselves heading straight for a higher level. Next season however I wouldn’t be surprised to see them push on further, as mentioned they weren’t a million miles away from the end of season party at times and with a more settled side over the new campaign they could well be in the mix.
Within their division Sevenoaks Town looked to be the underachievers of the season. Much was expected of Harry Hudson’s side after their barnstorming end to last season which saw them all but relegated before his arrival and a miraculous escape.
Did the excellent FA Cup run distract too much leaving the Oaks with too much ‘catch up’ to play? Maybe so, a good calibre of player at The Bourne Stadium should have propelled them upwards but for whatever reason it didn’t happen. Whilst it was a very competitive division and one where there are a lot of derbies for any of the sides within it, Harry I’m sure will want to improve massively on this year.
Stepping up one level to Step 3, Neil Smith and Cray Wanderers in the Isthmian Premier Division. The year before last Smudger was brought in with six games to go and two days before the signing on deadline to stop the Wands being relegated.
Squeaky bum time wasn’t the word as they survived on goal difference on the final day of the season, having looked a couple of weeks earlier like the timeframe was too short to stop the slide.
I didn’t expect them to be in any danger this time around as Smith and Tim O’Shea rebuilt the side with only two players remaining from the previous year, but what happened smashed records all round for Cray Wanderers and a transformation from that final day escape to a place in the play-offs.
At one stage the side were in 2nd place and despite a blip which all teams go through at some stage in the season where they looked to have fallen away they secured a play-off place on the final day of the season, a huge turnaround from 12 months prior.
Incredible? Absolutely, Smudger might be a very good mate of mine but that is some difference and to get players gelling so quickly to produce so often takes some man management. I called their division the hardest one to predict all season.
From the 24 clubs in the Isthmian Premier Division I reckoned 12 thought they could win the title or be in the play-offs, 4 were looking over their shoulders at the bottom and the other 8 were looking at mid-table, that first part I don’t think I saw any other division with that many clubs in with a shout, and I don’t think I was wrong either!
Not until around 4-6 weeks left did it start to thin out a little and some of those 12 fall away but my word what a competitive league that was. Cray were still short of a few key components throughout the campaign and although budget and wages are a consideration once you’ve had a good season it’s a more attractive proposition and with so many players out of contract from the Championship down to the National League there will be plenty of players pushed down even further with clubs holding much smaller squads.
Step 2, Worthing. Predicted 8th, one place outside the playoffs, I thought good enough for a first season. Adam Hinshelwood: Hold my beer…….take 4th place and miss 3rd on goal difference?
Well, not so bad was it for Rebels fans? I’ve seen plenty of the South Coast side over the last few years too, I’m not surprised they went better than I expected, Hinsh has that winning and want to do better mentality, it’s no wonder he is talked about in circles above.
A level they really should have been at a couple of years ago Worthing made their mark this time around and like a few others above the second season where it can go spectacularly wrong! However, good backing, good pitchside support should see them go well again despite the likes of Yeovil, Torquay and Maidstone Utd to visit and compete against.
We’ll finish by pushing into Step 1, and two I’ve picked out here. At the beginning of the season I had Wealdstone in the bottom four, naturally picked all the part time teams bar Dorking to go down. The reasoning being the National League is getting tougher to survive year on year and that edge full time teams have is getting greater too.
Under Stuart Maynard they made sure I was suitably wrong, flirting with the play off places on occasions too but tailing off when the run was needed to make the top seven. However, they’ve excelled for two seasons running but with two more full time sides at least coming up from Step 2 they’re going to have their work cut out again to repeat the feat.
Last up, Dean Brennan and Barnet. 18th two seasons ago, everyone set for a little improvement around 12th-16th, so smash that out the park and finish 5th instead and reach the FA Trophy semi-finals.
Not a bad effort at all and with considerably a smaller budget than those around them, totally unexpected but a massive turnaround in an ultracompetitive league. Like all above the second season after an improvement is the acid test, was it a blip or can it be part of an ongoing resurgence for some or the next step along the road.
As you can see, none of these clubs won a trophy, none of course suffered relegation but in most cases many achieved more than they possibly set out to at the beginning of the season, success or just what was expected? I’ll let you decide that……..
