WILKO IS READY TO GO AGAIN
Boss Bobby wants to rock with Robins
BOBBY WILKINSON isn’t about to start predicting where his Bracknell Town will be in the running this season – the former Hungerford and Wealdstone boss is just happy football is back.
The Robins kicked off their Pitching In Isthmian Division One South Central campaign at home to Chipstead yesterday ahead of Tuesday’s FA Cup trip to Ashford United.
Wilkinson has been pleased with his off-season additions with the likes of former Oxford City and Thatcham attacker Felipe Barcelos, ex-Farnborugh striker Perry Coles and ex-Chippenham Town man Alex Ferguson joining, while winger Seb Bowerman re-signed.
The boss’ arrival at Larges Lane in December sparked a sudden upturn in fortunes before lockdown brought the season to a halt.
Now the man who guided Hungerford Town from Step 2 to the National League South, is ready for the challenge.
“Everyone knows what my ambition is like,” Wilkinson told The NLP. “I’ve built a good squad but it’s going to be a difficult year still.
“I know a lot of people will say we should be up there and hopefully we are. But I make it very clear, I’ve not looked at being up there, I just look at building a good squad first and getting a team ready to complete. I never predict where we will be – it’s just that we will be fit, organised and trying to win games.
“That’s never changed from when I was at Hungerford or Wealdstone. It’s just trying to do the right things for my players to win games of football.
“Like all managers, it’s been a strange period since the coronavirus pandemic – but he was sure to keep in touch with his players as often as possible.
“I laugh because I’m useless on a laptop but I’ve had to learn how to adapt to it with Zoom conversations,” he said. “I’m proud of everyone around me.
“We’ve all done our best in hard situations. My wife is in the NHS and so is my mum so I know first hand what has been going on.
“So my main thing was everyone’s safety. I looked after my players – we went back as oneon-one sessions, then groups of three, then four, we didn’t come back together until the government said we could.
“We’ve done fantastically at the football club in making sure everything is sorted – one-way in, the away changing room is more or less outside with extra seats for them so they don’t have to come in the building. There are ways of doing it and the football club have gone the extra mile to make sure everything is done safely as best we can.”
And Wilkinson says getting the season underway, starting with the FA Cup last week, has been the boost that everyone in football needed.
“That hunger and buzz is back now,” Wilkinson said. “We’ve seen fans in the ground and that’s lovely to see and good to see people smiling. I know it’s funny to say but just seeing people drinking tea and coffee was nice.”