Tommy Warrilow is back in management and cannot wait for the challenges ahead as he looks to guide Faversham Town to possible promotion from SCEFL Premier back to the South East Division of the Isthmian League. 

Speaking to us for the first time since his appointment at Salters Lane, Warrilow underlined just how delighted he is to be back in management.

“It was a nice start to the New Year!” he admitted. “I had a lot of things to sort out off the pitch last year after the disappointments at Ashford which took priority.”

“But come the New Year to get a call out of the blue from Gary (Smart, the Faversham Chairman) was a really nice surprise and something that I think most managers in Kent would have liked a phone call from, as everyone knows what’s going on at the Club and it’s a fantastic project going on at a great club which I’m now a part of!”

“Delighted to get back, but not just to get back in properly and somewhere I can get my teeth stuck into and hopefully, with lots of hard work, we can push on with!” 

“We are sitting second in the table behind Glebe, and everyone seems to have loads of games to play and until they all level out, can you really say who is where in the table?”

“At the moment we really do not know where we are… The Club were relegated last year and this year they wanted to make the change in managers and unfortunately that is what happens in football.”

“We played Deal this week and they have five games in hand on us!” Warrilow said clearly highlighting his point! 

In his first games in charge, Warrilow has already faced Deal and Glebe and told us, “Against Glebe we should not have performed the way we did second half and come unstuck.”

“But they have been together a while and I do believe that that is crucial to this or any level and that is to get consistency in your side.”

“Just look at the other teams at the top – Glebe, Corinthian, Deal they have all been together a while, whereas I have inherited a fairly new team, even though on paper it is a great team, but it has not clicked as a team yet! And we are trying to get that over the line!” 

“There’s an old saying in football – the lower you go the harder it gets! And I think it’s shown this year, as on paper and ability-wise Faversham could play in the division above or the one above that, but you go up against players who aren’t as “big” names as them, but they give their all and cause problems and as a result you get scores every week thrown up that you wouldn’t normally see!”

“In football you cannot take anything for granted – you must approach every game as you would, whether the opponent is top, middle, or bottom and not have the attitude that “we’re playing them and they’re down the bottom!” 

After Warrilow was announced as the Lillywhite’s new boss, there was no real surprise when he reached out to an old friend and “football partner” to join him at Salters Lane – Alex O’Brien – as his assistant as the boss explained.

“We go back together when I finished playing at Leatherhead and took the player-manager’s job 23 years ago – he was my first captain!”

“I’ve not only known him as a player and a team-mate, but he’s a mate and he’s a number two – he’s been through the good times and the bad times with me – although we haven’t had that many “bad times” as we’ve always gone somewhere, given our all, enjoyed ourselves and always had a very good changing room collectively as well as individually and we’re hoping we can have the same input at Faversham!”