DEAN’S READY FOR A REPEAT
Play-off platform can launch Hemel
THE last time Hemel Hempstead lost in the play-offs on penalties, they clinched the title by ten points the following season – and manager Dean Brennan isn’t ruling out lightning striking twice.
“There’s a lot of similarities if I’m being honest, the World Cup was on as well!” he recalls of their Southern League triumph in 2014.
Since then, Brennan, regarded as one of Non-League’s most promising managers, has overseen club-best runs in the FA Cup and Trophy before finishing fifth in National League South last season.
“I think we’ve progressed every season on and off the pitch,” he said. “We lost on a lottery in a penalty shoot-out but full credit to Braintree, who went on to be promoted. We’ve definitely got to improve on that.
“Every year our wage budget has steadily grown. When we finished 12th a couple of seasons ago, the chairman had a project off the pitch so our budget had to stay low. I understood that and the plan was to stabilise the club and keep it in the division. With that, last year especially, we’ve got a little bit more of a budget and hopefully we can sustain a title challenge next year or definitely improve.”
The straight-talking Irishman, 39, has seen nothing but success since he took over in 2012. Two years earlier he had his first taste of management at on a caretaker basis but once his playing career as a midfielder, which saw him turn out for a host of Non-League sides including Hitchin, Grays, Halesowen and Dunstable, ended, he returned to the Tudors with a lot on the line.
“I knew from my early twenties that I wanted to manage, it was just being able to get that opportunity,” he adds. “I wasn’t athletic as a player; I had to use my brain. I try to build teams I would hate playing against, people that could run all over you.
Sacrifices
“You’ve got to marry in to the football club. I moved to Hemel and made big sacrifices. I worked for little or no money in the first year just for the opportunity. I lived on the breadline, I’d have to say. It’s paid off.
“You can go to a football club and be gone in a heartbeat. I think the most important thing is your relationship with the chairman. We never spend what we can’t afford to spend. I’ve always lived that way which was installed in me as a kid. We can’t go shopping in Harrods, we have to go to Aldi.”
Brennan hasn’t been on holiday this summer. This stage of the season is too important, he says, having finally completed the signing of Sanchez Watt after months of discussions.
The former Billericay winger is almost the final cog in the wheel for Hemel, who have been able to keep the majority of their squad.
Yesterday they started preseason with the players voluntarily choosing to train four times a week before reverting back to two nights once the season starts.
Continuity
“We’re in the best financial position we’ve ever been in, we’re happy with our budget, we’re happy with the club off the pitch,” says Brennan, who took over the club following a reprieve from relegation. “This is probably the best summer we’ve had recruitment wise, we haven’t had a large player turnover.
“We’ve brought in Steve Cawley, Phil Roberts, Sanchez Watt and Charlie Sheringham. We’ve got a whole new front line. I think if we had scored more we’d have got in the title race. “Last year was the first time we never
sold anyHemel body – I think we’ve sold 21 players since I’ve been here. It was reflective of the financial situation we were in at the time; we could never hold a strong squad together. Now we’re in a better place, we can have continuity.” The secret to their success? “It’s just hard work and honesty with each other. We tell the players how it is, whether they’re in the team, out of the team, how they can improve. We don’t complicate it. “Some players you sign you get totally wrong but that’s where we’re honest. That’s my responsibility, there are no excuses here. I’ve got a lot of things wrong. You have to look at yourself, especially if you’re asking questions of your players. “I remember a game last season where I got it totally wrong – Dartford away. We were 2-1 up with five minutes to go and we lost 3-2. I made two substitutes and they were wrong. I said to the players straight away it was my fault. As a player you don’t want a manager coming in and b ******** ing you. Ninety per cent of managers I played under in NonLeague football would blame someone else. “I want to go as far as I can and I’d love to do it with Hemel. If we keep going the way we do and we’re lucky enough to get promoted, a town like Hemel could have a Football League club in the next ten years with the right investment.”