BIG INTERVIEW
A new pitch – but there’s nothing artificial about our ambitions
Andy Morrell on the big build at National League North club Tamworth
JUST a quick glance at the National League North is enough to give any manager sleepless nights.
AFC Fylde have switched to fulltime, Harrogate Town have strengthened well, Kidderminster Harriers have ambitions to bounce straight back to Step 1 and FC Halifax are signing up half the North Ferriby team that won promotion from the division last year.
Then, there are the new kids on the block, Darlington 1883 and Salford City, who both come into the league with the momentum of promotion and are well backed. It promises to be a thrilling title race.
Andy Morrell’s Tamworth have designs on Non-League’s top tier themselves, and the former Wrexham boss knows the division is going to be tougher than ever.
For two seasons on the trot, the Lambs have finished just outside the play-offs.
“It’s getting harder and harder,” he says. “The budgets that are coming into our league are good. Halifax, Kidderminster, the clubs who have come up, like Darlington and Salford. All their budgets are very competitive. Then there are the teams in our league you expect to do better than last year – the Brackleys and Telfords, teams like that – so it’s going to be very difficult and very even.
Mainstay
“Solihull went on a run last year and were out of sight with ten games to go.
“They were the strongest team in the league by a distance last year, physically and mentally. Then they had the goals to back it up.
“I’m not sure there will be a team like that who are miles away but I could be wrong. I hope it’s us!”
Morrell has four new faces in his squad so far.
Jack Lane has made the short switch from Nuneaton, Steph Morley has arrived, Greg Mills has signed from Corby and the boss has added a former mainstay of his Wrexham midfield, Joe Clarke.
“I’m fairly happy with the squad,” Morrell says. “I could probably do with a striker and a winger, just to finish us off, but I’m not in any rush, really. We’ve got a few irons in fires, but a fair few are going in full-time training and on trial, so we’ll see how they pan out in a couple of weeks’ time.
“We can be patient. They don’t get paid until the start of the season when they’re part-time. People want to play full-time. If you’re a footballer, that’s where you want to be. So, ‘off you go, have a go and if it doesn’t pan out then keep me posted’. We’ll see what happens.”
The major overhaul at the club this summer isn’t ON the pitch – it IS the pitch. Tamworth, relegated from the Conference Premier in 2014, are installing 3G.
“They’ve levelled it. All the fine stone is down, so this week the underlay goes down before the
‘grass’ gets put on top of it,” Morrell says.
“It looks really good – it’s flatter than it was! They’ve really gone to town on it and the chairman has made sure we’ve got real quality.
“I spoke to a couple of managers to see how the land lies. They were really positive about it and say it’s the best move you can make.
“First and foremost, we were training all over the place last year. We had no base with lights, so we were over in Birmingham, Nuneaton, Cov and Burton and all that chasing our tails trying to find part of a pitch to train on.
“This will stop that.We know the nights we train and off we go. That will be a whole lot better.
“We’ve got Coleshill around the corner, who have gone 3G. We had a training session up there last year and a game for the scholars. It’s just brilliant. You’re not allowed to walk on it in shoes. You’ve got to have boots on.
“Referees who want to go out for a walk on the pitch have to go and get their boots on first. It’s very important you look after it to get the maximum use out of it. The other nights we can hire it out and get a bit of revenue back on it. Fingers crossed, we will be able to play some half-decent football.”
They will be able to get the ball on the deck at home at least.
During his research, fellow managers in the know pressed home the importance of needing to adapt to winter pitches when playing away.
“A few of the other managers said, ‘Be ready for other teams to come and really have a play on it because they can’,” he says. “You might watch them one week and they might be hitting long balls. Then, they will come to you and try to play out because the surface dictates that.
Boasted
“So be ready for that, but also you’ve got to go away and play on pitches that do have bobbles.
“You’ve got to be aware of maybe having slightly different game plans. I’ve always liked to play anyway. So, wherever we are, if we can play, we will. But we will need a Plan A and Plan B.”
While the foundations are being laid for their new surface, Morrell is hoping to build on the solid base created by his defence last season.
They boasted the best record in the division, but he knows his ten-goals-a-season strikers need closer to 20, his midfielders to chip in regularly, and his defenders get on the scoresheet from set-pieces more often, so they can bridge the gap to the top five.
“I could do with a Liam King, who scores 18 from midfield and blows everyone away!” he laughs, about the man who has followed manager Billy Heath from Ferriby to Halifax.
This will be Morrell’s second full season after taking over in September 2014. His first management job was at Wrexham, when he went from playing with his team-mates to managing them. Already he’s won an FA Trophy in his short managerial career, taken Wrexham to the FA Cup third round and nearly took the Welsh club back into the Football League.
Tamworth has been a different challenge, but he’s enjoying the remit to put his own mark on the club.
“I think we’ve completely changed the mentalities of a lot of people in Tamworth, really,” he says. “When I came in there was just the first team. In the season coming up, we’ll have youth teams from U8s to U16s, a scholar programme that my assistant, Mike Fowler, is going to be running and we’ll have an U21s side as well. “So we’ve pretty much got a full pathway from eight years old if you want to play football in Tamworth. It’s something to be very proud of. Setting it up wasn’t easy, but I think it’s gone down well with the local community.
Community
“It’s a little step up from the junior leagues they’ve got in Tamworth. There’s a good crop of players around here who aren’t quite good enough for West Brom, Villa and Cov. Hopefully, we can be that net for them to get good coaching, play some decent games and progress. .
“We’re really pleased with what we’ve got and it’s now [a case of] running that properly and hopefully getting a player. We had three U21 players sat on the bench at the end of last year and one of them got on, so it works.
“We’re looking to be strong in that environment because it links you to the community a bit more than we have been, which hopefully gets a few more people through the door.
“The 3G pitch can help with that, too, because there will be a lot more people around the ground who know all about our fixtures.
“It’s a club going in the right direction. In the space of a yearand-a-half, that’s where we’ve moved the club to. It’s taken hard work, but it was different coming in and putting your stamp on it. I’ve really enjoyed that. Between us, we’ve put a lot into it and it’s now about maintaining a standard we feel does us justice.
“People can see we’re trying.We really want to take this club somewhere. Now it’s on that pitch. If we get a good brand of football, then we’ll get good support.
“Last season, we were tenth in the attendances in North and South divisions, which is very good, but I think we can get better.
“If we can be entertaining with the football, as well as winning, I’m sure we can regularly get more than 1,000, which will be great.
“We want to kick on now and try to go better than we did last season and get in those play-offs.”