ROBINS’ REBUILD REQUIRES PATIENCE
PATIENCE is the key this pre-season, according to manager Jody Banim, as Ashton United make their return to National League North.
It was fourth time lucky for the Robins last month as they ended their play-off hoodoo with a 2-0 win over Grantham Town to earn promotion to the second tier.
The Manchester-based side have begun preparation for life at Step 2, 13 years after they became founder members of the division but were relegated in their first season.
Ashton had a bottom-half budget last season and will be up against it in a National North filled with big names, but the 40-year-old is hopeful they can compete.
Banim told The NLP: “It’s a massive achievement for a club the size of Ashton. It’s well documented the size of the budget and the infrastructure. To be competing in the Conference North next season is massive but for the players, the staff and everyone behind the scenes it’s a really exciting time.
“Last season we found it tough to recruit players in the Evo-Stik Prem because every player we went in for we were getting outbid wages wise.
“Now we’re looking at Conference North players and we’re going up against even bigger clubs. It’s tough, we’re going to have to bide our time player wise. We’ve lost three players to Chester and one to Barrow. Unfortunately from last season’s squad we can’t compete with contracts on offer.
“We weren’t expected to be promoted last year. Football is more than budgets; you can’t put your budget on the pitch. It allows you to bring certain players in but I like to think we got the best out of the players we had last season for not massive money – and I’m confident we can do the same again this year.”
Compliment
Banim is already tasked with rebuilding his defence after John Pritchard and Dominic Smalley joined league rivals Chester while Josh Granite has stepped up two divisions with Barrow.
“We’ve just got to be patient in pre-season now and wait for the right players to come available,” added the former Manchester United youngster. “We’re not everybody’s first choice. I’d love to be able to contract 20 footballers like Chester or Altrincham or Kidderminster, but we’re not in that position unfortunately.
“We have to be patient, we have to wait for players to go and see if they can get deals somewhere else and if they don’t we have to be waiting in the wings.
“This is the first preseason we’ve really lost players that we wanted to keep. It’s part and parcel of football and management. I’ve got to take it as a compliment really that other clubs are looking to take my players because they played so well last year. “
Banim certainly made an impact in his first year in charge. After turning out for the likes of Shrewsbury, Burton and Altrincham, he took four years out of the game before signing at Ashton under Steve Halford and Paul Phillips.
Responsibility
When they moved on to Stalybridge Celtic, Banim took over with another senior player, Will Haining, but went alone last season.
Going into management took some convincing but Banim has been a good fit.
“It’s gone well, we’ve been used to winning,” he adds. “That may change next year. I’m not going in there expecting to be beat every week but we’ve been used to dominating games. Mentality has to shift a bit, not too much.
“It wasn’t an issue for me going alone; I wasn’t worried about having the sole responsibility. It’s good to have that as a manager, with the help of my management team.
“I’ve really enjoyed but it’s only the start, there’s no point in achieving something for one year and then stagnating.”
“IT’S TOUGH, WE ARE GOING TO HAVE TO BIDE OUR TIME PLAYER-WISE” – Jody Banim