With it being almost two months since Leon Broadhurst took on the role as our assistant manager, the former Sporting captain has spoken about life in the Bromsgrove dugout thus far…
It’s a privilege to be a part of this new stage at Sporting; being a local lad, I know what is expected off the field from the club and what the players need to deliver on the field.
Hopefully I can use my experience of being a part of the club for a couple of years as a player, and also what I learnt as manager of Stourbridge, to try and enhance the performances on the pitch and support Tim as much as I can.
It’s lovely to be back, but the ambition is to progress year on year and we want to make sure we’re driving that every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.
It’s more nervewracking being in the dugout compared to being on the pitch – I think one thing is, on the pitch, I always tried to be the best player I could be, to make sure we delivered for 90 minutes. Being in the dugout, you theoretically do all you can before that whistle goes and you hand over the baton to a bunch of lads that you can trust – and they’re taking us in the right direction.
I think it’s fair to say that we’re improving – it took a few weeks to get the lads up to the required fitness levels that is expected of Step Three football. We’ve worked hard on maintaining the enjoyment, whilst enhancing their fitness and giving them a programme whilst they’re not in the football club.
Performances are getting better – but there is still a long way to go to where we want them to be. The improved fitness levels were evident in the late goal versus Barwell and the late rush against Stamford, where we had the better chances and probably deserved all three points – and that’s a credit to the boys, for listening to how we want to play and what we want to deliver.
We’re coming into the critical part of the season now – we are where we are in the table and I think February will be a defining month – especially with three home games. Performances have improved over the last couple of games and we haven’t been far away in a number of games, where we’ve either drawn or lost by a single goal.
The support will be a critical part of how well we do this month; I’ve played when the fans have been fantastic – they know the importance of a result and how it can boost the confidence of the players. If we can make our home ground a fortress for the remainder of the season, and the players know they’re going to be backed by a big crowd, then we have everything that we need to maintain our league status going into next year.
Overall, we’re very confident that if we keep progressing from now until the end of April, hopefully that will be enough. If we can rally the troops and maximise our support, that would be fantastic.
