A-WASH WITH NEW TALENT!
ST IVES TOWN was where Conor Washington began his rise to football fame – and the club are just as eager to make a name for themselves.
Striker Washington impressed for Northern Ireland in the Euros after working his way up from the Saints to QPR via stints at Newport County and Peterborough United.
When he was working as a postman and banging in goals for fun at St Ives, the club were playing in the United Counties League Premier Division.
But after beating Rushden & Diamonds in the Evo-Stik League Southern Division One Central play-off final a couple of months ago, Saints are now preparing for life two rungs further up the ladder than in Washington’s days. Yet the 24year-old’s tale is still very much one that resonates at St Ives.
Manager Ricky Marheineke said: “I wasn’t at the club when Conor was, but I know him really well. He comes down and is a big supporter of our scholarship programme and youth team. He does some publicity work with us and I use Conor quite a lot as an example to our younger players to tell them that dreams can come true.
Target
“His is a fantastic story and it sends out a message to any young player: if you have the ability and you go about things the right way, anything can happen. I’ve seen his rise and I’m a very big supporter of youth – if players are good enough they will get an opportunity.”
The Cambridgeshire club are now preparing for life in the Southern Premier – and know it will be a searching examination after their recent surge up the Pyramid.
Marheineke said: “I’m expecting it to be very different in terms of physicality, quality and standard of management. We are looking forward to it, but we know we’ll have to be better as a management team and players.
“We have to prepare ourselves the best we can to give ourselves the best chance of being successful.”
A batch of seven signings, including the recent additions of Cambridge City pair Lee Chaffey and Buster Harradine and Histon striker Sam Ives, has given Marheineke reason for optimism.
The boss, who turns 35 today, said: “I now feel we are in a position to set a target of 48 points to stay up, but hopefully with the signings we’ve made we can get there as quickly as possible and then set new ones.”
Target-setting doesn’t always work, but St Ives couldn’t have done much better last term. Marheineke put forward a plan to achieve 77 points, which he felt would get them into the play-offs, breaking it down into 11 points from every chunk of six matches.
In the event, Saints won 6-1 at basement dwellers North Greenford United on the last day of the season to reach 78 points and secure fourth spot.
After overcoming Egham Town on penalties in the play-off semi-final, they then beat Rushden 2-1 after extra-time to win promotion – not that Marheineke enjoyed it much.
The former Huntingdon Town boss and Histon assistant manager added: “Getting promoted was very surreal, but there was so much pressure that you almost don’t enjoy the occasion when it’s happening.
“Of the 120 minutes in the play-off final, I couldn’t tell you much about what happened apart from the key incidents. I didn’t enjoy it one bit – at the final whistle it was a feeling of relief. A couple of days later it started to sink in what we had achieved.”