WE DESERVE TO GET RELEGATED Pride has taken a hit, says Jamie
ALTHOUGH his plucky part-timers have gone toe-to-toe with some heavyweight names of the Non-League game this season, Chorley boss Jamie Vermiglio says it is difficult to look back on this truncated campaign with much pride.
Sure, Vermiglio can take solace from the fact that only seven National League teams kept more clean sheets than his Magpies side in a season which saw them battle to 14 draws.
However, ultimately, the table doesn’t lie and when football was brought to a halt, Chorley had been cut adrift of the relegation battle, finding themselves 17 points off safety.
“There’s no satisfaction to take from it,” the former midfielder told The NLP. “I am the manager of a team that are sitting at the bottom of the league. That doesn’t sit well with me one bit. We are in a relegation place and to be honest, we deserve to get relegated.”
But with talk of the National League season potentially being declared null and void, the Lancashire club have been given a glimmer of hope of retaining their position in Non-League’s highest tier.
“If we are saved by a global pandemic then so be it but it won’t be something to be proud of and maybe it wouldn’t sit well with a lot of people,” the boss added.
Pressure
“Nevertheless, some assumed we were doomed but that’s not true. In 70% of our games we have had more shots than the opposition, we have been competitive in the majority of matches.
“We were creating opportunities. I have been in teams that have suddenly clicked into form and what’s to say that we weren’t capable of stringing a few results together?”
Moving to the National League as a part-time club brought with it a wealth of challenges, not least for Vermiglio himself who combines his managerial dutites with his role as school headmaster.
“It’s a fair assessment to say that we possibly underestimated how difficult things would be,” he reflects.
“Mentally, it was tough. Some weeks we would be training on a Thursday, travelling on a Friday, playing on a Saturday and often getting back home having lost in the early hours of Sunday morning, all while juggling fulltime jobs.
“I would go without seeing my family from Wednesday to Sunday. I’d be lying if I say I didn’t ever consider my options.
“At the end of the day my career is being a head teacher and that is a job which involves a lot of responsibility and pressure.
“There are only so many hours and maybe sometimes the football was compromised a bit.
“Could someone else have given more time? When I ask myself that question, one of the main things I have in my favour is having a superb assistant in
Andy Preece. He is so experienced and I am so lucky that I have been able to call upon him, he’s been an absolutely massive help.”
For the moment, though, Vermiglio’s mind is far away from football as he ensures his school continues to be a pillar of the community during these unprecedented times.
“We have still been open to the children of key workers and we need to make sure that we continue to give every pupil as much of an education as we can,” he said.
“There are a lot of things that we need to keep control of and organise. There are vulnerable children who may live in households where there has been a history of domestic abuse or mental health problems, so we have to keep in touch with those groups.
“A large proportion of the children are also on free school meals so we need to get food vouchers out to around 100 families and we have also provided a lot of devices to the community so lessons can carry on online.
“I love talking about and working in football but that can’t be the most important thing at this exact moment. We need to get through this with as many people still alive as possible.”