Caretaker role is the major honour for me (From Worcester News)

Caretaker role is the major honour for me

12:12pm Wednesday 27th January 2010 in

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EVERYTHING I achieved as a player with Worcester City has been eclipsed by being named caretaker manager of the club.

I considered it an honour to play for, and captain, City during a time which saw us win a couple of trophies, including the Dr Martens League Cup in 2001.

But all that has been surpassed by me being asked to take over following the departure of Richard Dryden.

Since last Tuesday morning, the phone hasn’t stopped ringing and I have also spent a lot of time making calls and speaking to people about various things.

It was a hectic few days and I needed to settle the players down on Thursday at training so we were ready for Saturday’s match against Weymouth.

We got a great result at the weekend, winning 3-1, so I was able to have a relaxing evening but then it was back to it on Sunday morning preparing for last night’s match at Carshalton Athletic.

Going into coaching is something I had considered in the past and I became assistant to Richard in December 2007.

I enjoy management. My job away from football is a management role and I take a great deal of satisfaction from that.

Therefore, going into football management was always something I thought was a natural progression but sometimes these chances come when you don’t expect them.

However, the opportunity has come about and I was more than ready and willing to take it.

I couldn’t have hand-picked a better club.

Worcester was the only club I would have wanted to manage.

There were many times in my playing days when I could have gone to another team but I was settled at Worcester and enjoying my football.

I had developed an affinity with the club and it became a huge part of my life — that’s not changed now.

I think it’s important we remain calm and stay focused on the task in hand as we battle against relegation in Blue Square South.

It’s not as if we are 10 or 12 points adrift at the bottom of the league.

We are in the mix and know we have to get positive results to stay out of the relegation zone.

We have a reasonable squad of players who have possibly underachieved this season.

Given our league position, clearly there has been something wrong and that could be down to the balance of the team or the tactics.

Whatever the reason, I am optimistic we can change things for the better and try to find a level of consistency where we are getting the results the performances have sometimes warranted.

I was pleased for both defender Tom Kemp and striker Marco Adaggio to get on the scoresheet against Weymouth on Saturday.

It will have given them confidence that they can do it more often.