Football Greening: Ground improvements key to Shire’s future

❝ My grandad Dennis was a life member there and I played under my own dad Ikie at Shire for my first few years of senior football, starting at 16

NEW Shirehampton manager Liam Greening is adamant club and community can benefit from ambitious plans to progress on the pitch.

Shire, fresh to the Marcliff Gloucestershire County League this season following their summer switch as long-serving and successful members of Somerset County League Step 7 equivalent on the non-League scale, are eagerly and anxiously awaiting the outcome of a council planning verdict concerning proposed installation of floodlights and 50-seat stand at their Penpole Lane headquarters.

A decision is due to be taken “early January” and Greening said: “While I know there’s likely to be sticking points with this, we as a football club firmly believe if we work closely together with local community groups, everyone can benefit.

“We are the only club in the Shirehampton area ready to progress to a higher level, which we hope in our case will be the Toolstation Western League in the next few years.

“That can only be a boon to the entire area with all that football at an improved standard, and a facility like ours, would provide, which is why it is so important we get these floodlight and stand plans approved.”

The fledgling supremo admits he is still pinching himself that he is in sole first-team charge at Shirehampton, having been named manager shortly before Christmas in place of loyal long-serving boss and still-chairman Pete McCall.

Greening had a few weeks earlier left his post as trusted assistant to Andy Gurney at Toolstation Premier Division outfit Roman Glass St George in order to focus on recuperation from knee surgery, a process he admits is “slow and ongoing.”

“Pete rang me up about two hours after it had been announced I’d left Roman Glass,” said Greening. “I told him I wasn’t in a position to do anything at the time due to the operation, but promised that once I was back on my feet in some way I’d speak with him again.

“Back in October when I left Roman Glass I’d not even considered the possibility of going to Shire, even though I had family history there.

“My grandad Dennis was a life member there and I played under my own dad Ikie at Shire for my first few years of senior football, starting at 16.

“As the days went by during this latest lockdown, and I was missing football more and more, it increasingly came into my head that there was potential at Shire, for me as a manager for the first time and for the club, to do well. In the end, I talked myself into it!”

Greening added: “I’ll be giving it a good go, although who knows what’s in store for the rest of the season with all the uncertainty and confusion around still?

“The County League stated they’ll be looking at the prospect of a fixture resumption on a week-toweek basis but I really wish the league would be strong enough to either say they’ll be carrying on, or that they’ll end the season in due course, with time running out.

“That said I know it’s hard making the right call; deciding the best thing to do.”