When Richard Styles took over at Tunbridge Wells last summer, no one could have predicted the events of the past couple of months, and that the SCEFL season would be over before Easter.
Speaking to KSN, Styles admitted “It’s been the most surreal season that I think I’ve ever been part of as a player or a manager as we started very well at a new club – we’ve been in and around the top five the whole of the season.”
“At the turn of the year we were in the mix but had problems with our pitch which meant that we didn’t play at home very often, but we still managed to keep pace with the others at the top whilst playing away the majority of the time!”
“And then as we come into the last six weeks of the season where we think we’re going to be overloaded with games – looking at the size of my squad going into that last push – and then it all gets taken away from us!”
“It’s all very unfortunate but I fully understand why – health is more important than football, but at the same time it’s not a very nice way to end the season, what I thought was a very successful one.”
“I don’t really think that we’d have got the games in. Whether the FA should have waited for the Premier League and the EFL to make a decision before they should – it seems as tough a lot of decisions are still being made sporadically across the Leagues and the different steps.”
“But it was nice to know rather than be left hanging and not knowing to be honest; our boys were preparing for three weeks initially; then it was the end of April and then trying to keep the boys going with that sort of mind-set was tough. And so, to know one way or the other that it was over and finished for the season, I would rather have known!”
One of the top four that Wells have been trying to catch are of course Corinthian who still potentially are involved in the FA Vase.
But Styles is wary about what might yet happen. “That could or couldn’t happen! Obviously, it’s the Semi Final and there’s a lot of travelling; you’ve got players who haven’t played for a number of weeks – there’s a lot of things that come into context with that,” he said.
“I’m not sure what the FA will do to be honest and I don’t know what the right thing is to do for all parties, but hopefully the FA will make a decision that suits and benefits everyone!”
Styles’ “day-job” is with the Charlton Athletic Academy which leaves him in something of a unique position, although he was the first to agree that we’re really heading into the unknown at the moment.
“No one has ever had it before,” Styles told us.
“No one has ever experienced it before; no one’s ever been through it before – the youngsters are doing things at the moment that they’re not really used to, because if the season finishes, they’re off to post-season for a couple of weeks before back in for pre-season.”
“But of course we’ve got boys who are on lock-down so we’re trying to keep their minds active and bodies as active as best as possible – we’ve given them training plans, we’ve given them plans to work through at home with the trust that they do it.”
“We’ve given them little competitions for them to compete at home so they can keep themselves active. We’ve also done sessions by video-link which again is something that we’ve never done before, but you have to adapt to your needs – it’s as simple as that!”
“We’re all at home, we can all get in front of a screen even if it’s in the garden so they can get out and do bits. Mentally it’s a different kettle of fish because you’re at home for long periods of time with your families so there’s a lot of things to take into context, but we’re just trying to make the best of things that we can.”
“And what I’ve tried to do is to emulate that type of programme from the professional set up over to the semi professional game at Tunbridge Wells where we’ve done a similar thing.”
Three weeks into the lockdown we finished by asking the Wells boss when he thought he’d be back in the dug-out; he told us, “I would love to be back for pre-season towards the end of June – I’d love that because we could just prepare for the new season as normal.”
“But if you’re not going to do that, then you’re looking at July, but at that time, your pre-season is either going to be very short or the season is going to have to be delayed when it starts. And obviously anything after that, the season will be delayed and have to start later instead of August, it’ll start September pushing October.”
“I really can’t see a light at the end of the tunnel at the moment though, I think me saying June is very optimistic, but I think July looks more preferable, but then again I think that we’re still going to be in pre-season come August and starting the season come the end of August if I’m being really honest!”