|
|
BILL WILLIAMS' MANAGERIAL REIGN
Ok, so Bill Williams will be remembered as the manager who
couldn’t even beat Brockenhurst. The manager who changed an entire squad of players
and replaced what he had with even worse. The manager who spent Kingstonian’s
last pennies on Steve “pass it to my feet or don’t bother passing it” Brown, Steve
“you’re a disgrace you lot” McKimm and Stuart “not able to make the commitment”
Munday. And rightly so.
For those of you who missed Mr Williams’ reign (you especially
Mr Editor) – we were awful. The high point had to be the four-one win at home
to Billericay, but that’s easy. There were but four victories for the Williams
K’s and two of those were secured by just a single goal.
However the low point is fairly easy to spot too. Defeat at
Brockenhurst was embarrassing, painful and sickening. When news broke of the financial
problems just days after, that defeat looked even worse. Putting all of your eggs
in one basket is one thing, but putting them all in one basket and handing it
to a man who has never got past the qualifying rounds of the FA Cup is quite another.
But this is becoming all a bit unpalatable. If nothing else,
Bill Williams was (and presumably still is) a very nice guy. He knew what he wanted
and he went out and got it. And if one thing is certain, it is that he didn’t
deserve to be sent back to Dover for more “financial difficulties”. If ever there
was a man with a reason to look forward to the new year it is he.
And anyway, he did have some good times in KT1. There were
the friendlies of course. Our first glimpses of the “new-look” hoops were certainly
encouraging, but the pre-season successes probably just added to the weight of
opinion that the league would be a walk-over. Of course it was never going to
be anything of the sort. Three defeats, one huge brawl and one scrappy win at
Maidenhead from the first four games put K’s in seventeenth at the end of August,
and the pressure was on.
Yet as the month of September got going, K’s tried to do the
same. Handing Hitchin two early goals wasn’t the best idea, but the fight-back
was encouraging – as was the similar performance at Purfleet. By now some of the
youngsters who will presumably play such a part this season had made their entrances,
and Bashiru Alimi and Greg Ball certainly looked to know more than some of their
more expensive counterparts.
The centre-forward’s hat-trick against Billericay finally gave
the (ever decreasing) home faithful something to cheer, and two early goals as
home to Grays seemingly confirmed the fact that the season had finally got going.
Yet that really did turn out to be the beginning of the Williams’ end.
Three goals gave the visitors the three points, the confidence
disappeared and defeat at Hendon became a mere formality. But nobody really thought
that Brockenhurst would be that much of a problem. They are, after all, some way
below K’s in the pyramid, and we all had our recent memories of the 2000/2001
cup run to look back on.
But in the end it didn’t quite turn out as expected. Those
who don’t know what happened – don’t worry about it. The fact that they weren’t
actually very good doesn’t matter. The fact that K’s missed several guilt-edged
opportunities doesn’t matter. We lost. Nothing else matters.
Those who waited around after the game did so for just one
reason – to find out if the manager would fall on his sword. He didn’t, but just
three days after his last game in charge (a three-nil win at home to Bedford)
he was pushed onto it, along with nine of his charges.
Quite how Bill Williams will be remembered is unclear. There
is obviously no point comparing him to the man that he replaced, but when some
more time has passed it may be that it is the ex/new Dover man who gets some of
the credit for bringing “the youngsters” through. It may be that it is they who
hold a chunk of the future of this club in their hands, and if that proves so
then perhaps we should all say a quiet thank you to him. And just think of the
money we’ll all save on FA Cup ties this year.
Gary
back up top
|
|
'ERE MATE, WHO DO YOU SUPPORT?
This question has formed the opening gambit in thousands of
conversations, usually although not exclusively held by men, in pubs, clubs, the
workplace, trains, etc. You name the place, the question’s been asked there. It
is most often the first question in the forthcoming battle for territorial advantage
as one supporter locks horns with other supporters. It differentiates, an opinion
usually held by the questioner, the men from the boys (sorry ladies) and can often
cause aggression or total embarrassment depending on the answer.
I attended my first football match in about 1954, at the age
of eight. The game was held at Richmond Road between K’s and someone else, my
memory fails me here. I must have enjoyed it as I have been hooked ever since.
At the same time I was given a Charlie Buchan’s football book as a present and
decided I should pick another team to follow in addition to the K’s. No TV or
Internet then so the book was the only option. Having looked through it, I decided
that I liked the colours of Manchester United and so started a love affair with
that club as well as K’s. I have always felt fortunate that I did not like the
colours of Accrington Stanley or Scunthorpe. Having said that, I now live closer
to both these sides than K’s so perhaps it would not have been such a disaster.
So, whenever the question has been asked of me, “who do you
support?” I have always answered Kingstonian and Manchester United. Until a couple
of years ago, this answer has always resulted in the retort “ who the f… is Kingstonian”.
How times change! Thanks to Geoff Chapple the majority of true football fans now
know the name of Kingstonian FC and so my level of embarrassment has diminished
with every success in tandem with my increase in pride. Strangely enough the first
FA Trophy win gave me far more pleasure than United’s treble win. Possibly because
I expect United to win every match whereas with K’s I just hope and pray.
So having decided to support a team, how does the human race
display this affection or illness, as some perceive it to be? Well, we buy the
club scarf, the club shirt, the mini shirt for the car, the tie (more for the
elder supporter this one), shares in the club and of course any literature pertaining
to the club of one’s dreams. In the case of K’s this one is not too expensive
as to the best of my knowledge, very little has been published up to now. Ok,
so I have got the K’s scarf and the K’s shirt; the shirt looked particularly good
in the Costa Blanca although I received a number of quizzical looks. I have got
the ties and the mini shirts for both teams, got the K’s mug at work and the United
mug at home, and finally to prove my total insanity, I own shares in both clubs.
Unlike many supporters who become totally obsessed with their
own team, I also like to think I am a football fan and visit many other clubs,
except of course United where I can never get a ticket. So much for being a shareholder.
I once attended a business meeting at the police station in Liverpool where I
was advised to remove the United shirt lest my car windows were kicked in. The
K’s shirt was perceived to be that of St Helens Rugby Club so I made no attempt
to correct them.
My two teams are at opposite ends of the footballing spectrum.
The one being a financial empire whilst the other is struggling to be a financial
outhouse. However the difference is best illustrated in the way that the smaller
club becomes a part of your family. I remember having a particularly long chat
with Geoff Chapple at Chester prior to the game that saw us relegated. He was
so approachable and made me think about the last time I was able to discuss the
team tactics with Sir Alex. Yep, you’ve got it, never!
One of the benefits(?) of being a shareholder is that you receive
the accounts of both clubs. At one time I determined to undertake a financial
comparison between the two clubs, more out of morbid curiosity than for any fiscal
reason. However when I realised that the sale of programmes at Old Trafford dwarfs
the total turnover at Kingsmeadow, I gave up.
So that’s why I support them both. They have both given me
joy and fits of depression, none more so that at the end of last season, but I
carry on ever hopeful.
I started this article at the commencement of the new season
with a combination of hope and expectancy. I am now concluding it after the Aldershot
game when we were comprehensively stuffed 3-0, and we were lucky to get nil. So
what has happened?
The club is now in administration, I understand, and the newly
heralded manager has gone. We have a board that would plainly be unfit to run
the finances at a WI Jumble Sale. If they made a profit they would quite probably
lose the money on the way to the bank. We have a young manager in his first job
running a club who could well fold in the very near future. I bet he wishes he
were still playing. We have a defence that clearly cannot defend. A midfield who
cannot create and a strike force who may well be very effective if they ever get
to see the ball. And they say, “the only way is up”. Hope they are right. Come
on you K’s.
Rory
back up top
|
|
SPOTLIGHT ON STEVE SEDGLEY
A dismissal. A relegation. A departure ‘by mutual consent.’
Another departure ‘by mutual consent.’ Nine sackings. Bankruptcy. Little more
than six months after arrival, Steve Sedgley is the part time manager of a Ryman
league club, in the hands of administrators. The events that have led to his appointment
have, to be put it mildly, been inauspicious. To an equal degree, however, they
have been outside his control. His optimism after such trials speaks volumes.
No bitterness, no ego, no backbiting, no regrets. Just an eagerness to prove himself
and a youthful excitement about his first managerial position.
"Despite everything, I’m now where I want to be. I’m calling
the shots. I’m making the decisions… My ambition now is to take Kingstonian to
the Football League. No one else has managed to do that. That’s got to be the
objective. I’ve won two FA Cups; but to get promoted, to win a championship, that’s
got to be the best."
The financial plight of the club has decimated the squad. The
list of sacked players is depressingly familiar but Sedgley prefers to talk about
the fourteen contracted players that are still here, "The players that are left,
I personally, would have kept anyway. I’ve played with Premiership and first division
players and a few here could potentially play at that level, because when you
play with better players, you become a better player yourself."
"One for me at the minute, without putting too much pressure
on him, is young Bash (Bashiru Alimi) - he’s been outstanding and the find of
the season. Then there’s young Max (Hustwick), Greg (Ball) and little Johnny Leacock."
He is, though, realistic about how far the current crop of
players can go this season. "No other side in the League is playing is playing
eight eighteen year olds and one seventeen year old every week. It’s a credit
to the club that we can do that… but youngsters are going to have off days. It’s
going to be slow progress but potentially they’re a very good side."
Sedgley arrived at Kingsmeadow following the controversial
sacking of Ian McDonald. The justification given for the change by Alan Kingston
was that the club needed new ideas and coaching methods. Sedgley admits that it
never quite worked out that way, "When I got here, I found out that I had no coaching
sessions…it was three games a week, so effectively I couldn’t do anything. Geoff
asked my opinion once or twice, but I was the new kid on the block, so to speak,
so I just came to the ground for the games, tried to give them a little team talk,
and that was it. It was a very frustrating time and I thought of packing it in."
"There was talk of coming in extra nights and that, but it
didn’t materialise - well, that was down to Geoff. When you’re a coach, you don’t
make the decisions."
The circumstances of his appointment were hardly ideal. The
team were involved in a struggle against relegation and many of the players felt
aggrieved at the board’s decision to sack McDonald. But Sedgley maintains that
he was only contacted after McDonald had departed, "First night I felt very unsure.
I’d never been in that situation before…and from the outside I suppose it didn’t
look good, but I’m not that sort of person at all, and I wouldn’t stab someone
in the back… All the lads spoke highly of McDonald but I never got the chance
to meet him."
"It did feel difficult; it felt weird for me, coming from being
a player to a club where someone had got the sack, I didn’t know what to expect.
Yeah, it was weird."
Relegation and Chapple’s departure followed. Under Bill Williams’
tutelage, Sedgley stayed on, ‘I learnt so much off Bill. He’s been such a great
help and I still speak to him on the phone.’ But after a poor start to the season,
Sedgley suddenly found himself thrust into the Manager’s office, with the club
in dire financial straits, "People might say I’m too young, but I’ve always wanted
to be a manager. I’ve got a lot to learn, and of course I’m going to make mistakes
along the way… Only time will tell. My Dad was a non-league manager so I grew
up with it. It’s in my blood."
Regardless, he has been forced to adapt quickly, and to reassure
the current squad. "We get on with playing football. I said to the players that
what’s going on has nothing to do with us. We all come here for a reason; because
we enjoy football. We have a laugh and a joke. They’re still getting paid. Getting
paid and playing football - what’s the problem?"
The recent sacking of the core of the squad, including club
captain Simon Stewart, and long serving defender Colin Luckett, has led to harsh
criticism of the board’s conduct, particularly in regard to claims by Stewart
that he first found out about his dismissal through a local paper. Sedgley is
quick to absolve himself and the board, "I was told to call in the players in
question here at the ground before training. Simon Stewart was the only one who
wasn’t told in person because he was ill. It got out to the lads on the night
so Simon found out the next day from the press before I could speak to him."
"To be honest, I was very much in the dark like everybody else.
We only knew late Tuesday night that there was a problem - after the Bedford game
- we got in on the Thursday and Bill was leaving. I’ve never felt so…well, I’ve
never seen anything like it in my career. I wasn’t told about budgets or anything.
I mean Bill protected me right until the last day."
The future of the current board is far from clear. Sedgley
is aware of past problems but professes to have encountered none himself, "I’ve
experienced no backbiting like some people say. I know when I used to talk to
Geoff going to away games, without elaborating too much, (that there were problems).
I know the feelings of the supporters. I know the feelings of Geoff (Chapple)
about what had gone on before… I heard all the rumours like you have. But that’s
something I had nothing to do with and something I could do nothing about. What
are we going to gain by talking about it now?"
He is frustrated by my insistence on discussing the past. Perhaps,
he is right. With recent history already well discussed and documented, and the
future open only to the gods (and the administrators), Steve Sedgley is concentrating
on the present. And that seems to suit him just fine.
Season - Club - Games - Goals
1988/89 - Coventry City - 31 - 1
1989/90 - Tottenham Hotspur - 32 - 0
1990/91 - Tottenham Hotspur - 34 - 0
1991/92 - Tottenham Hotspur - 34 - 0
1992/93 - Tottenham Hotspur - 22 - 3
1993/94 - Tottenham Hotspur - 42 - 6
1994/95 - Ipswich Town - 26 - 4
1995/96 - Ipswich Town - 40 - 4
1996/97 - Ipswich Town - 39 - 7
1997/98 - Wolves - 19 - 0
1998/99 - Wolves - 44 - 3
1999/00 - Wolves - 38 - 4
2000/01 - Wolves - 05 - 1
Taimour
back up top
|
|
ADMIN
I have spent much of the months since the last issue of WIAO
mulling over what to write about. Many topics came, and even more went once Kingstonian
was hit by that fateful day - 5th October. The not quite so unexpected (in some
quarters) bombshell of the whole administration thing struck the club, and struck
it hard.
There has been a lot of criticism of Geoff Chapple - for earning
too much money and buying the wrong players for too much money. However, surely
it was the board, admittedly not all of the current one, who negotiated his contact.
Surely once a manager recognises a player he may wish to buy he approaches the
board for the money and they ultimately have the final say in how much there is
available to spend. Geoff Chapple didn't sign the cheques, if he did then something
was seriously wrong.
Ok, so he made a few duff signings - everybody does, but he
made some excellent ones as well. Dave Leworthy was worth more to our club than
we could have ever paid for him, and bringing in our fabled three England stars
on frees was a masterstroke. For a club who do not have a wonderful record of
selling players for vast sums of money, he brought in a lot of transfer revenue
- be it mostly on one player. Gavin Holligan was plucked from obscurity (sorry
Kim) to missing a sitter at Anfield in half a year and swelling the clubs accounts
by a cool £150,000.
What won't be forgotten is the success on the pitch achieved
by Chapple and his coaching team(s). Despite the concerns regarding crowd levels
last season, the initial success had almost immediately doubled crowd figures
at Kingsmeadow. Two FA Trophy victories at Wembley brought unrivaled success and
exposure to the club. Strong showings in the FA Cup culminated in last seasons
wonderful cup run, which brought the biggest pot of Sky money yet - a cool £150,000.
So, the income was just as extravagant as the outcome was supposed
to have been. But after a bad run lasting most of last season, we found ourselves
relegated. Crowds and interest would plummet, but we were promised that the wage
system would be adjusted accordingly. Considering that the youngsters had new
contracts signed after relegated and that Bill Williams brought in a whole bunch
of new players, it's pretty grim to hear that our wages were significantly higher
than the £5k most decent Ryman Premier sides spent. So, the club continued
to get deeper and deeper into debt. We would probably would still be in administration
anyway, but the sums wouldn't be quite so ugly.
Well as far as I am concerned the buck has to stop with the
directors - be they current or former. Chapple may have earned too much and the
player contracts may have been too lucrative, but it is the directors who are
the ones accountable for the running of the clubs finances and they should be
the ones who admit that fact. Instead of trying to direct the blame to others,
what is needed is a simple apology for the situation that we find ourselves in.
It won't help the club financially but it would at least help us learn to trust
them more.
Rich
back up top
|
|
EVERYBODY'S FREE
Everybody's Free (To Support Kingstonian)
To the words by Mary Schmich and the song recorded by Baz Luhrmann
Ladies and gentlemen of the class of Ryman: Support K's.
If I could offer you only one tip for the future, supporting
K's would be it. The long term benefits of supporting K's have been proven by
scientists, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own
meandering experience. I will dispense this advice now.
Enjoy the power and beauty of Phil Wingfield. Oh, never mind.
You will not understand the power and beauty of Phil Wingfield until he has faded.
But trust me, in 20 years, you'll look back at photos of Wingers and recall in
a way you can't grasp now how much possibility lay before him and how fabulous
he really was. Sammy Winston is as fat as you imagine.
Don't worry about next season. Or worry, but know that worrying
is as effective as trying to convince the taxman to go away. The real troubles
at Kingsmeadow are totally a result of little things that you or your neighbour
will never know, the king that directors discuss at 4pm on some idle Tuesday.
Do one thing every game that scares you.
Sing.
Don't be reckless with other team's mascots. Don't put up with
other team's mascots who are reckless with you.
Disco.
Don't waste your time on hating Woking. Sometimes you're ahead,
sometimes you're behind. The race is long and, in the end, it's only Woking.
Remember compliments you receive. Forget the insults. If you
succeed in doing this, tell Eddie Saunders.
Keep your old matchday magazines. Throw away your old season
tickets.
Drink.
Don't feel guilty if you don't know what the board are doing.
The most interesting K's fans I know are people who didn't know what the board
were up to 22 years ago. Some of the most interesting board members still don't
know.
Get in plenty of Grolsch.
Be kind to Phil Wingfield. You'll miss him when he's gone.
Maybe we'll get promotion, maybe we won't. Maybe we'll win
the cup, maybe we won't. Maybe you'll stop going at 40, maybe you'll have a disco
when Wingers scores his 100th goal. Whatever you do, don't congratulate K's too
much, or berate them either. Most of our goals are half chances. So are everybody
else's.
Enjoy your 10% discount. Use it every way you can. Don't be
afraid of it or of what other people think of it. It's the greatest instrument
you'll ever own.
Disco, even if you have nowhere to do it but the clubhouse.
Read the manager's programme notes, even if you don't follow
them. Do not read beauty magazines. They will only make Andy Riley appear more
ugly.
Get to know Chris Kelly. You never know when he'll be gone
for good. Be nice to Phil Wingfield. He's your best link to K's past and the person
most likely to stick with the club in the future.
Understand that players come and go, but you should always
give free transfers to carthorses like Steve McKimm. Work hard to bridge the gaps
in geography and lifestyle, because the older you get, the more ridiculous Patto's
Farnborough salary will appear.
Live in New Malden once, but leave before it makes you hard.
Live in deepest Surrey once, but leave before it makes you soft.
Travel (to away games).
Accept certain inalienable truths: Admission will rise. The
ground will rot. Ronnie Green, too, will get old. And then you'll fantasize that
when you were young, prices were reasonable, K's won trophies, and Ronnie Green
did play at Wembley. Respect Ronnie Green.
Don't expect anyone else to support us. Maybe we'll be floated.
Maybe we'll have a wealthy benefactor. But you never know when either one might
run out.
Don't mess too much with your hair, or by the time you're 40
it will look like Dean Hooper's.
Be careful whose players you buy, but be patient with those
with serious knee injuries.
Graham Westley is a form of nostalgia. He is a way of fishing
the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling
it for more that it's worth.
But trust me on supporting K's.
back up top
|
|
IVOR BOWNTAPIK TELLS IT LIKE IT IS
Due to un-popular demand, Ivor Bowntapik is back with more
inane drivel...
Do you want to know what gets my goat? What really makes my
blood boil? Well I’ll tell you. It’s nothing to do with the money – even if my
old Gran, whose been dead thirty-eight years this coming Christmas, could have
done a better job than those “directors”. Directors? What the hell direction were
they aiming in then? I ask you. My old Gran would never have bet her life savings
on us beating that pile of crap Brockenhurst. Brockenhurst? What the hell league
are they in anyway? I ask you.
But no – it’s not them I’m worried about. Nor is it this new
bloke Sedgley. What’s up with his neck anyway? Did that Gazza bloke used to swing
on his head or what? So what if he won the FA Cup? Never played for England did
he? Didn’t even play for Ireland. I ask you.
So anyway, no, it’s not him. It’s all those pesky kids that
that Sedgley bloke has brought in. And they’ve got no respect have they? None
of them. Take that Greg bloke for one – a few weeks ago he had a half-way decent
game, then at the end he nicked the match ball!! In my day we’d have got a good
clip round the ear and been fined a week’s wages – and let me tell you, in my
day that was a loss to be upset about. It used to last us a whole week back then
– not like these kids today. One pay packet lasts them a whole month. Over-paid?
Course they are. Bloody well over-played too if you ask me.
But see there’s the problem right there. All these young kids
have been brought in, but there’s nobody with any brains left is there? These
kids today get told a bunch of crap when they’re young. “Learn to play with both
feet”? What the hell’s the point of that? If you’re a left winger what do you
need your right for? I ask you. “Eat a balanced diet”? What the f***? In my day
we’d eat steak and chips for dinner on a Friday, steak and chips and an egg for
breakfast on Saturday and steak and chips with a pint of bitter just before kick-off.
And it never did me any harm now did it? Course not. And I can’t see many of these
veggie boys getting stuck in when it’s blowing a gale. Steak and chips lads –
that’s the way forward. I ask you.
Anyway, you’ve got to feel for that Williams bloke haven’t
you? I mean there he was, playing a pub side’s reserves in the New Forest – New
Forest? What the f***? They said it was new when I used to go there for my holiday
with my old Gran. And she’s been dead thirty-eight years this coming Christmas.
Anyway, I know why we lost I do. They were too nice to us. Honestly.
Well did you get a cup of tea there? F*** me. I did, and I
tell you – best cup of tea I’ve had since the great tea-bag boom of 1936. And
they gave it to us in a mug didn’t they? That’s the sort of hospitality you want
here Kelly – not like those bloody plastic things those girls give out. I ask
you. Real china we want. Anyway, must go. The wife’s telling me my evening cup
of tea’s ready. I tell you – those mugs will last years. And who cares if it’s
got a picture of a Badger on it? Not me. That Williams bloke might not like it,
but I couldn’t give a toss.
IB
back up top
|
|
|
