WE’LL RESTORE OUR CITY PRIDE
Claridge heads Salisbury’s community role
IT’S fair to say it’s been a difficult few months for the people of Salisbury.
Home of the unsuspecting novichok poisonings, the natives in this usually peaceful Wiltshire city have been shocked to the core.
Just how the city moves on remains to be seen, but in Steve Claridge they have a local hero offering a source of solace for residents and a means of re-generating pride and spirit in the community.
After promotion last season, the city’s football club, managed by the former Leicester, Portsmouth and Birmingham striker, were comfortably nestled in the Southern Premier South play-off positions before this weekend and Claridge believes that his side are capable of going even further.
“I think the football club can play a vital role in getting people to talk about the city for all the right reasons again,” Claridge told The NLP.
“It’s not a big city but it is a real footballing place and we want to build a team that the local residents can be proud of.
“The campaign has started well enough but to be honest I believe the performances that we have put in warrant a higher posi“In tion in the table.”
Claridge has been in charge of The Whites since the phoenix club were founded following the demise of Salisbury City in 2015, overseeing two promotion-winning campaigns.
Expectations
Emphatic victories over Gosport Borough, Chesham United and Merthyr Town in recent weeks have helped Salisbury climb the table and Claridge believes that his side may have finally clicked into gear.
“We are usually slow starters because more often than not we have to rebuild much of the team over the summer,” he added.
“At this point last season we had lost touch with Taunton Town already but at the moment nobody in the league seems to have got away from us. We are already looking far better than how we
started last season and we are now beginning to secure results that match our performance levels.
“We are approaching a crucial point in the season where we are facing some of the top teams in the league over the next few weeks so we will soon know a lot more about how the season may shape up. a few weeks’ time people will either be saying what on earth was that Steve Claridge talking about in the paper or they will be thinking he had a point actually, that Salisbury team are looking good!” Managing expectations is a problem, however, for Claridge, especially with fellow phoenix clubs like AFC Wimbledon and his former side Aldershot Town having risen back to where they started. “This is a completely different club, with far smaller resources than what Salisbury City used to have,” he warned. “It has been really difficult to get people to realise that we can’t be thinking with the mentality of a Conference club at this stage. “We have a very restrictive budget and no overdraft so every year has been a struggle for us and these last few seasons have been some of the toughest that I have experienced in football. “A lot of people see the crowds and the ground that we play at and assume that we are flush with cash, but that is simply not the case. “With the resources we have, Step 3 is probably the right level for us. “However, I am an ambitious person and if we can keep stringing results together then you never know what can happen!”
“WE CAN VITAL ROLE PLAY A GETTING PEOPLE IN ABOUT THE TO TALK RIGHT CITY FOR THE REASONS” – Steve Claridge Salisbury boss