ROD MAKES IT SIX OUT OF SIX
100% start for the new Blues manager
BRENTWOOD Town offered Rod Stringer the perfect op- portunity to get back into management – and he’s rewarded them with a perfect start!
The Isthmian League North side have won all six of their matches under their new boss while reaching the FA Trophy first round - yesterday - for just the second time in their 67-year history.
Stringer, appointed last month, had been out of work since leaving Chelmsford City in January 2020 before getting his patience tested during the pandemic.
But his local club Brentwood gave him a long-awaited chance and he’s grabbed it with both hands.
“It’s a nice club, good people who run it, the owners are football people which is something I’ve missed and really appealed to me,” Stringer, who took Braintree into Step 2 during a successful spell, told The NLP. “It’s a good changing room at the minute too. Coming back into my first job after the lockdown, it’s quite refreshing to be around this environment. It ticks a lot of boxes.
“I’ve not had that for a long time where a club really wants to progress. I still want to manage again at the highest level but it’s small steps and Brentwood is the perfect club for me to give the best shot I can give them.”
Stringer has only been working with what he inherited having signed just one player since taking over.
Momentum
The 54-year-old is looking at bringing in a couple of new additions but doesn’t want to halt the Blues’ momentum. “On our current form there’s no reason why we can’t be aiming to be in the play-offs,” he said. “We played Dereham, who are second, last Saturday and beat them 2-0. We need to try and become slightly stronger without disrupting what we’re trying to achieve.
“I love working with the lads. The pitches are the same size, the balls are the same size and it’s 11 v 11 - I’m still as happy managing at this level as I was in the Conference South.”
Stringer is no stranger to the Step and he has approached it full on.
“It’s a level that I grew up through, I’ve been used to learning the trade in the lower divisions,” he said. “I did well at Aveley back in the day and I was at Barkingside before that in the Essex Senior League and Barking.
“To me it feels no different; the feeling of winning a game still feels the same. I haven’t changed as a manager just because I’m manging at a slightly lower level, I still want 100 per cent from the boys and professionalism.”