FANCIED OUT OF LEFT FIELD
AFTER 40 years of competing in the Combined Counties League, Westfield will line-up in the Bostik South Central Division this season aiming to sneak into the top six.
The Field stormed to the title last term, winning the league with 106 points and a staggering 145 goals scored to put them into Step 4 for the first time in the club’s 65-year history.
Manager Tony Reid has taken Westfield to new heights since his appointment in 2016 and he’s still striving for more.
“How do I look back on last season?” he says. “Disappointed because I wanted to break all sorts of records, really. We won it with six games to go, mentally players switched off and I can totally understand that.
“When you’re trying to achieve a lot of things you’re still driven by that success, but I think once I had that break and you hear compliments from other managers and teams, you then become very grateful.”
When the former Eastbourne Town and Walton & Hersham manager took over, Westfield were sleep walking towards relegation but he steered them into the top half.
The following season they finished second and won the Premier Challenge Cup before going one better this time.
Success rate
“You wouldn’t believe that was the same bunch of lads third from bottom when I came in that came second in the league and won a cup final,” adds Reid. “We got them to gel instantly and got them playing. It has been enjoyable. There were some ups and downs that you experience as a manager.
“This summer is the busiest I’ve ever had. I didn’t realise that winning a league would bring so much attention. I don’t think I’ve experienced it ever. Football has become a full-time job basically. You’re always speaking to people: players, reporters, radio, agents, your friends in football are calling you, the committee, the board.
“The last two weeks the dust has really settled so I’ve had a bit of time out to relax and look at things from a different light.”
Reid will have to replace Max Blackmore’s 48 goals after the striker moved on to Southern League South side Met Police but he hasn’t changed much about his side.
He added: “I guarantee strikers or the forward line goals. Max was brilliant, fantastic. We have to move on from that now and the next striker that comes in or fills that role will have the same sort of success rate. If he takes his chances they can end up with 30 or 40 goals.
“I’ve kept a lot of last season; I’ve lost about three or four. I’ve had about 30 or 40 players turn up for each pre-season session, so I can’t complain.
“I know what I’m looking for. The hardest thing is turning down people from coming to training because you never know there could be a gem in there.
“Top six I think is very realistic. I think the players are very capable of stepping up. There are quite a few teams that are favourites. I’d like to keep it that way and stay under the radar. You hear clubs signing x, y, z of good calibre but I always say it’s the unknown you’ve got to be worried about.
“Because of all this hard work we’ve put in I want to see a reward from it. It’s now going to get harder and tougher.”