Non-League management – I bet it isn’t like this for Sir Alex!

I manage a small town football club in England called Wilton Town. One of our very kind sponsors is this very website. We play in Wiltshire League Division Two which is the third division of the seventh tier of non-league football in England, or as I prefer to think of it, just eleven promotions away from the Premier League!

We play our second pre-season friendly tonight when we travel to take on Warminster Reserves, who are two divisions above us. It’ll be a tough game as we lost our first friendly 6-0 to a team from just one division above us. It could be a long night!

Washed

I’ve collected the team kit from the launderette and I’ve blown up our practice balls. I’ve washed the training bibs and the warm-up tops and I’ve put the drinks bottles in the dishwasher. I’ve phoned the Warminster manager to confirm the details and I’ve sent text messages to all of my eighteen first-team squad players to arrange meeting up and travelling to the game. Of course, only about half of them have replied and I have had to send follow up messages to at least six or seven of them.

I’ve got the training cones at home ready to put in the car so that we have the necessary equipment to have a decent, organised warm-up before the game. I’ve decided on my starting line-up and I’ve written out my plans for attacking and defensive corners and free-kicks.

Ready

All in all, I’m ready to go. I’m ready for tonights game, I’ve organised our Thursday evening training session, I’ve written some of this article and I’m ready to go to my full-time day job.

I have to say that writing all that down has made me question why on earth I do it! I don’t get paid, in fact, it is quite the opposite. The football costs me a fortune.

The answer as to why I do it, of course, is that I absolutely love it. I might not think that this evening if we go four or five down, but by tomorrow morning, I will be as excited as I can be about our next training session and our next game.

Pyramid

I know that our club is of no relevance to the wider football world but we are new, ambitious and keen to make our way through the non-league pyramid. Like thousands of small clubs around the world, for a small but dedicated and determined group of forty or fifty people, our little club is the most important club in the world.

I do sometimes dream of what it must be like to manage a football team at the very top of the game. For example, I don’t suppose Sir Alex has to pick the United kit up from the launderette!

Millions

Where the job is similar is during the ninety minutes of a game. Obviously, for me, there are not millions of pounds riding on what happens on the pitch, but the basics of organising the side, deciding on the tactics and formation and trying to motivate the players to give of their best, are pretty much the same at whatever level of the game you look.

The desire to win and be successful is still strong at our level of the game and the lower levels of skill and fitness that are displayed should not take away from the fact that these players are keen to do the best that they can.

Update

On occasions through this season I will update on how we are getting on and maybe try to give an insight into what it is like to manage a club like Wilton Town. (Assuming, of course, that we don’t lose our first five games and I get the sack).

It might not be Manchester United or Barcelona or Milan or Bayern Munich, but it is the very lifesblood of the game of football and it is yet another reason why I love this game.