Thank you to Woking FC Supporter Glen for answering this weeks questions!
Thank you to Woking FC Supporter Glen for answering this weeks questions!
How Long Have You Supported Woking FC?
My Dad took me to games when I was baby, so I could easily say ‘all my life’. But I’m 23 now and when I was at school, like most kids my age, I supported a Premier League club (Liverpool) over my local team. I’ve probably considered Woking to be the ‘number one’ team I support for about eight years – stretching back to the season we got relegated from the Conference. I think it was around that time that I realised clubs like this really need the local people to get behind them or they just won’t be able to survive. To be a part of something where it feels like your support matters and is valued, is a lot more rewarding than when you’re just one number listed on a Premier League club’s database.
Last Season’s League Finish?
We finished twelfth – a more than respectable outcome considering the well-publicised issues we endured on and off the field last season. When you lose your best player – Scott Rendell – after 40 minutes of the season, you know it’s going to be a tough year. We still started the season brilliantly. Dan Holman came in on loan from Colchester and was excellent and everyone started getting excited again. But then we lost our best defender, Ismail Yakubu, to another season-ending injury; Holman went to Cheltenham and won them the league, and our season fell apart with his departure. The players looked visibly unhappy on the pitch, something I’ve not seen at Woking for a very long time, and it was only a surprising upturn in form to end the season that saved us greater embarrassment.
What are your proudest and most embarrassing moments as a Woking FC supporter?
Proudest moment has to be winning Conference South in 2012. We did it comfortably in the end, but you never feel completely safe as a supporter until it’s mathematically impossible for anyone to catch you. I never thought anything would top sitting in front of the television as a 12-year-old, watching Liverpool win the Champions League in Istanbul, but this really did. The close affinity I felt for the club – being able to go with all of the other volunteers and lift the trophy – it felt like we had all contributed to us winning that title and it was brilliant.
Most embarrassing moment… I could probably pick any number of results or performances, but the one that sticks in my mind is a Surrey Senior Cup semi-final against Whyteleafe. It was cold and it was raining. We rested a number of first team players and we lost 1-0 after extra time. Ordinarily results like that shouldn’t matter too much, we’d won that trophy many times before and our manager at the time used it as a glorified reserve competition – but I had invited a couple of friends to see the game – they had come despite their better judgement – and we were truly woeful. There was nothing I could do to defend that performance. I remember their fans, probably about 10 of them; jumping up and down in the corner like they’d just won the FA Cup… somehow I couldn’t bring myself to be happy for them. From memory they got thrashed in the final so my bitterness was at least somewhat satisfied.
What Do You Think Of Your Manager?
I honestly believe he is the best manager in non-league football. When he took over five-and-a-half-years ago we were in the bottom-half of Conference South, with a squad devoid of confidence and a fan base at an all-time low. Crowds were down and prospects were bleak. He took us from a potential relegation battle to fifth place in five months! He overhauled the squad in the summer and we walked to the title the following year. Since then, he’s achieved four top-half finishes – including a seventh place finish in 2015 – back in the Conference, an incredible achievement considering our budget, squad size and part-time status.
In hindsight, he got fans on side from day one by bringing in an old favourite in Steve Thompson as his assistant, and I have no doubt that above all else they’ve got the best out of each other. Only once, during our darkest moments last season, do I think his position has ever been questioned – and even then the vast majority of fans saw sense and realised that he was doing the best that he could do in an impossibly difficult situation. We’ve come out of the other side of that now and things are looking up again. Thankfully, the people that make the big decisions saw sense and kept him on. He’s only got one year left in his contract now, and I hate to think what would happen if he went, so I like almost all other Woking fans will be keeping their fingers crossed for some good news sooner rather than later.
Hopes/Expectations This Season?
If you’d asked me this question six weeks ago I think I probably would have said we’d struggle to avoid relegation. But, as always, Garry and Steve have done a great job pulling together a competitive squad on a low budget. I really don’t know how they do it. Pre-season has instilled some new found confidence is us fans, having seen us draw with Watford and Luton, beat Swindon (and Gosport), and remained competitive against Leyton Orient and AFC Wimbledon. We all know that you shouldn’t judge a team on pre-season, but I think if we’d lost four or five of those games as some might have expect us to then you’d be getting a very different answer to this question. Honestly, I think we’ll finish in mid-table again, although the optimist inside me says perhaps we might spring a surprise – we’ll have to wait and see.
One(s) To Watch?
We’re very confident that our defence will be the cornerstone of any success we have this season. Yakubu, along with Brian Saah and Joey Jones, are all good players at this level. If we can keep them fit then I hope we won’t see too many goals flying past us every week. Kieran Murtagh is one with a point to prove. He’s an excellent player, but his form and fitness have always let him down and prevented him playing at a higher level. Considering the departures we’ve had this summer, he’ll be a key figure in midfield and someone that we will hope will be able to control games sitting in front of the back four. His experience in a young team will be pivotal.
Lincoln fans will no doubt remember Jake Caprice and Delano Sam-Yorke, who should both be regulars for us this season. Jake was in and out of the team last year but has looked good in pre-season, particularly going forward, and we’re all hoping he’s going to continue that improvement when the real games start. For Delano, it’s something of a homecoming for him having started out in our academy. He’s probably not gone on to have the success many people excepted of him, but we’re pleased to have him back. Looking at his record, his problem has often been that he doesn’t score enough goals as a striker, but he’s already shown in pre-season that he’s a hard worker and it won’t do us any harm to have someone to do the dirty work up front – running, chasing, harrying etc.
In terms of flair players, everyone is very excited about Dennon Lewis, who recently arrived on a season-long loan from Watford – where I understand he is very highly rated. He has certainly looked a classy player in pre-season, being able to play anywhere on the right-hand side or up front, and I would expect him to start on the opening day.
How did the issues at Boardroom level i.e. potential takeover and a budget cut, effect you being able to retain and sign players during the close season and the summer?
I don’t know if the takeover was ever particularly likely. I think there are only a handful of people that know the truth about what happened, the rest of us can only speculate. It certainly had a damaging impact last season, but thankfully everything was resolved early this summer – there were a few personnel changes and I think it’s gone back to business as usual really, I don’t think it’s made much difference to players staying or going.
The budget cut has obviously had more of an impact on this. I think, of the players that left, there are a couple (Mark Ricketts, Giuseppe Sole) that we were sad to see go due to their long affiliations with the club – but I think that they were both probably ready for moves regardless of the financial situation. I think only the goalkeeper, Jake Cole, along with John Goddard and Scott Rendell will be sorely missed. With Goddard, we always knew it was likely he was going to be leaving. He’s earned his move to League One with Swindon and we’re all very pleased for him. We got a fair price, something that’s probably helped finance our squad this season, and we’re glad he’s stepped up rather than moved sideways for the money as others have done in the past.
Cole and Rendell were a little harder to stomach as they moved to our local rivals Aldershot, the latter case being particularly hurtful after the fans helped fund Rendell’s rehabilitation last year, but ultimately I can’t begrudge either player for thinking of their future or their family and taking a better wage elsewhere. We’ve got two very good goalkeepers in over the summer with Michael Poke and Brandon Hall, and arguably we’re better off now than we were before. DSY will be looking to fill Rendell’s boots, which will be a hard task for him, but after a year out injured there were no guarantees that Rendell was going to come back the player he was and with our budget we can’t afford to be sentimental. As always, I trust that Garry and Steve have made the right decision.
Top Five Predictions?
I went with Tranmere, Forest Green, Eastleigh, Wrexham and Woking – although the latter was obviously more out of hope than expectation.
Bottom Four Predictions?
Boreham Wood, Solihull Moors, Guiseley, North Ferriby.
Considering the players you lost during the summer and the players signed to replace them, do you think you will have a better or worse season than last time?
I’d like to think better. We’ve actually got more players contracted this season than we did last season, and that’s without taking into account the fact that we lost two of our biggest earners within the first six games of last season. The group look fit and are showing an encouraging togetherness thus far, which is particularly pleasing considering the issue we had last year. I think we’ll finish around the same position in the table, but hopefully without the huge dip in form we had last year.
Thoughts on Lincoln City?
I’ve got a lot of time for Lincoln. For someone I consider to be in that group of underachieving ex-league clubs, what’s refreshing is that you don’t seem to have the same delusions of grandeur that others – I’m thinking Luton, Grimsby, Cheltenham etc. – have had in the past. Speaking from experience, when we went down to Conference South a lot of our fans thought we were too good to be there (and were quite vocal about their opinion). It wasn’t until the whole club, including the fans, woke up and realised we were at this level because we deserved to be there that things started to turn around. I’ve never got the sense that Lincoln have ‘looked down’ upon anyone and they’ve always been appreciative of opposition clubs and players, however small in reputation.
You’ve got a great manager now in Danny Cowley, who worked wonders at Braintree and always did well against us, and I know that the budget and the squad are stronger this year than they’ve been in recent seasons. I wouldn’t be surprised to see you in and around the top five come the end of the season, although sometimes a lot of new faces take a while to blend well together. We shall see.
Plus, we tend to get good results against you, so how could I not like you!
Score Prediction?
I remember watching a fairly dull 0-0 between our two clubs on the opening day a couple of years ago. A similar result wouldn’t surprise me at all. I’ll go with 1-1.
Random Fact About Your Club?
We once got a shout out on the Channel 4 comedy – ‘The Inbetweeners’ – when Jay said he took Woking to the Champions League on Football Manager.
Can you please see your way to not beating us this time?
Hopefully we’ll continue our good record and break our duck against Cowley!
Do you have a Supporters Trust and what role do they play at the club?
Our Supporters Trust play an integral role in the running of the club. From everything to Boost the Budget, to the club website and programme, to the various programmes for our young supporters and much, much more. The club could not exist without their hard work.
Which of your own players would you wish on Stevenage or Aldershot?
Well, let me start by staying I bear Stevenage no ill will. Our rivalry was always a competitive one, rather than a geographic one, and when you’ve not been in the same league for close to a decade it’s hard to maintain such feelings. I grew up hearing the chants on the terraces about us not liking Stevenage, but I’m not really old enough to remember why. I struggle a little more with Aldershot, but my future mother in law was born there so I have to watch my words.
As for which of my players I would wish upon them, you have to remember that we only have five players left from last season, and I’d be gutted if any of them followed Cole and Rendell to Hampshire! If you’re looking for someone from last season, I’d imagine many Woking fans would be amused to see Chris Arthur lining up at left back, and I personally wouldn’t be shivering in my boots if I was playing against a couple of the strikers we had on loan last season (Holman aside).
You can discuss this on the Forum RIGHT HERE.
Not going to the game on Saturday? Join us on Vital Lincoln City for Team News, Match Updates & Photos RIGHT HERE.
