Managing... it’s such a stress test
Shay Stadium, Saturday, October 16, 2004. I can’t tell you the exact time but I would suggest it was somewhere around 5.20pm on a miserable afternoon in the foothills of Halifax and west Yorkshire. Post-game interviews are still to be completed following Farnborough Town’s humbling 2-0 defeat. Chris Wilder has been and gone, but the verbal volley coming from the visiting changing room suggests Dean Austin, the Boro boss, may not be out for a while…
At the time, Austin was only nine weeks and 14 games into his managerial career. Farnborough was his first job, and despite some shaky results his team were busy and could never be blamed for lacking effort and character. Young and naïve, yes, but more often than not they played with the chief ingredient needed at that level: pride.
Despite such a short-lived tenure in the dugout, Austin always wore the face of a tired man. From a journalist’s point of view, he was very likeable. He never ducked questions and never shirked responsibility. Even on that day at Halifax, when he did finally emerge from giving his players a changing-room roasting, he was the only one to blame. Austin always supported his players. He wore the wounds for them, and the job meant so much to him.
Pity he never had the same level of support from his superiors. Caught in the crossfire of a three-man board dispute, he was constantly swimming against the tide. One of the directors publicly backed him, while the other two simply didn’t want him around. They made no secret of their disdain for him, and everyone knew that if they were to take a majority share in the club then Austin was as good as gone. When that happened four months later, he was sacked within minutes.
That was his one and only job as a number one. I always felt he would go on and put the experience behind him, start again and build with another Non-League club before being snapped up in the Football League. But it never happened. He went back to coaching. Now at Reading, he has established himself as a fine number two where I imagine he still doesn’t suffer fools gladly.
I used to think of management as an easy game: you picked your best players and it was down to them to put the yards in. But Dean’s story and many others’ down in the lower leagues does nothing but counter that argument. It is a 24-hour job and the emotions take their toll.
Managing in Non-League is the ultimate breeding ground and aspiring gaffers will soon know whether they are up to forging a career out of it. From dealing with slippery board members to a mid-season injury crisis, from addressing the fans at fiery forum meetings to making sure you have enough part-time players for a Tuesday night fixture – it’s all-consuming.
He was only in the game for six months, but Dean Austin probably learnt more from managing in the Conference than he did from his 150 games playing at the top level for Spurs. It’s just a shame he didn’t find another job or give it another go. Mind you, he probably learnt that managing just wasn’t for him. For all the crap he had to deal with, I don’t blame him. Alex Narey Editor – @anarey_NLP