ROLLERCOASTER RIDE

VASTLY EXPERIENCED NON-LEAGUE PHYSIOTHERAPIST GAVIN BLACKWELL REFLECTS ON WHAT A SEASON AT THE COALFACE IS REALLY LIKE

A season’s highs and lows

FOOTBALL seasons seem to get longer and longer. Evening training, travelling and going through a range of emotions together all take their toll. It can be a 24/7 existence for ten months of the year. In addition, the playoffs keep the season going for many clubs with an extra fortnight tagged on.

There’s hope in the air at every club in pre-season. Players know that it’s a fresh start and whatever went on last season is behind them. Everyone is full of optimism at this stage. Friendly fixtures might give an indication of how the manager is thinking but everyone will get a crack and gain vital match time.

As the opening day arrives, players are more than ready and raring to go.

Stage two begins and the season starts. The sun continues to shine and the pitches are looking like you’d want your lawn to look at home.

Teams slowly settle into their new challenge. Managers with early success will guard against complacency setting in amongst players and staff. There’s a long way to go, it’s a marathon not a sprint. Managers of struggling teams will tell supporters not to read too much into it. There’s a long way to go, these are early days.

Teams will hopefully be injury-free, expectations will remain high and there will be a small gap between top and bottom of the league table.

The arrival of October brings the next stage. Clocks go back, pitches get heavier and the sacking season begins - the early hopes are beginning to fade.

Managers might not have reached the goals set during the summer, perhaps the players brought in aren’t delivering for one reason or another or you lose your better players to bigger clubs.

After the winter darkness, the months of March and April put a spring in the step. It’s getting lighter and milder now and the hour has gone forward.

Weather-ravaged pitched are on the mend and you might finally get back on the training ground for the business end of the season.

There will be three scenarios facing clubs at this stage. They will either be hoping to go up, aiming to avoid relegation or be somewhere in between. In my long career, I have sampled all three.

Experiencing relegation is simply the worst experience ever. It has happened twice to me at Hednesford Town and now at Halesowen Town.

This is the other side of the coin. You just feel flat, you want the season to end and to get away from the club. It affects people in many different ways.

However, you’re part of the family and have got to try to take it on the chin, and learn from it.

Attention to detail is massively important. No matter how minor something might be, it can grow and influence the bigger picture far more than some people think or imagine.

There are a number of factors that contribute to relegation and you’ve got to analyse them all. You can’t be a bit pregnant or professional, you either are or you’re aren’t.

As the 2018-19 season fades into the memory banks, there are a small minority of clubs who have achieved, others have plummeted while the majority live to fight another day.

It’s time for everyone to enjoy a rest, regroup and go again next season. Let’s get ready to do it all over again.