Southern Paulton’s new manager relishing prospect of play-offs push
The squad’s looking good... we’re aiming to finish as high up as possible
NEW Paulton Rovers manager Craig Loxton has challenged his players to show they have the appetite and attributes to stay in and around the play-off equation as he seeks a prized first league victory in charge tomorrow.
The one-time aspiring Bristol City professional takes his team to Dorset tomorrow for a duel with Hamworthy United, who loiter fifth on the Division One South ladder yet a side Rovers can draw level with on 22 points if a win can be attained.
Loxton and the trusty partner he brought in with him from Shepton Mallet, former Hengrove Athletic boss John Durbin, have already enjoyed that sweet first taste of victory in only their second appearance in the Paulton dugout together, and in dramatic circumstances too.
Mike Ilea’s penalty decider in a 5-4 shootout success at Toolstation Premier Division strugglers Keynsham Town on Tuesday night was just enough to see them through to the third round of the Somerset Premier Cup after being held to a 1-1 normal-time stalemate.
That outcome provided a welcome tonic after the management pair’s maiden outing at the Paulton helm ended in a slender 2-1 league defeat at Evesham United on Saturday.
Loxton, 38, is clearly a man on a mission, having enjoyed a playing career high up the non-League chain as a wholehearted box-tobox midfielder with Forest Green Rovers, Weston-super-Mare and Clevedon Town, not to mention three seasons at Paulton under the watchful eyes of Andy Jones, Mark Harrington and Nick Bunyard at separate times.
Now, having served seven positive years as Shepton Mallet’s supremo in the Toolstation League’s top flight, Loxton is eager to demonstrate he can cut the mustard as a leader at the higher levels of semi-professional football.
He reasoned: “It’s going to take a bit of time for everything to blend as it always does when there are changes. Despite the defeat, I felt we did very well at Evesham for our first game.
“I began my management career quite early with Shepton at the age of 31, and now I’m ambitious to take myself and Paulton, a great club, as far as I can.
“The squad’s looking good and positioned well in the table. We’re aiming to finish as high up as possible in what is a tough and tight league.
“If we can just stay in the play-off mix up until Christmas, we can use that as a platform to try and have a right good go at cementing a playoff place. It will be a challenge; but it’s one I’m relishing.”
Loxton did quickly lose the services of prolific striker Kyle Tooze, who had taken over at the helm in overseeing Rovers’ 1-0 away defeat by Bashley in the interim period before joining his former Paulton boss John Rendell at Yate Town two days later.
Right-sided midfielder Will Harvey is the only other Winterfield Road performer to have exited the club after announcing his intention to return to his native Australia, where he’ll be turning out for Western Sydney side Mount Druitt Town Rangers.
Unfazed, Loxton has raided his previous club Shepton for striker Joe Morgan, along with their 30-year-old team captain and versatile defender Nick Hewlett, and 18-year-old England Schoolboys international centre-back Joe Paradise, who was raised through Paulton’s youth system before making 15 first team appearances.
The new Rovers boss hopes also to have “creative” ex-Keynsham Town and Larkhall Athletic midfielder Jack Dancey aboard from Mangotsfield United in time for tomorrow’s Hamworthy trip.
Loxton said: “Joe (Morgan) was brilliant for me at Shepton over the past seven years. He’s local to the area and is quick, versatile and a defender’s nightmare.
“Nick can play at centre-back and right-back. He’s an intelligent defender who prides himself on clean sheets.
“I’m also delighted John Durbin came with me to Paulton as part of the (management) team. I’d first got in touch with him a few years ago to ask him to come to Shepton, and he has been excellent. We work really well together.”
Bristol Manor Farm bid to pick up where they left off before Willand Rovers beat them 4-0 in Devon on Saturday to call an abrupt end to three straight Division One South wins.
It means Farm sit fourth from bottom heading into tomorrow’s game with a Melksham Town outfit without a manager following Richard Fey’s resignation, citing his relationship with his chairman Darren Perrin “untenable.”
Farm manager Lee Lashenko accepted: “We didn’t deserve anything out of the (Willand) game. We’d been on a good run, and even in defeat the performances had been good. This was the first time in a while I felt our performance was poor all round. We have to make sure we win our next game and try and get on a run again.”
Meanwhile, Yate Town’s own new managerial pairing of John Rendell and Paul Tovey celebrated a precious first victory in their third game at the Lodge Road rudder.
Tuesday night’s 3-0 success at Bracknell Town came hard on the heels of an encouraging 3-3 first game draw with Harrow Borough and Saturday’s 2-0 away defeat by Swindon Supermarine sandwiching a tight 1-0 county cup loss at the hands of a strong Cheltenham Town unit.
Uplifted assistant boss Tovey, whose buoyed Bluebells travel to confront another mid-table side in Salisbury tomorrow, smiled: “They say a week is a long time in football. After two solid, hard-working, performances since we took over, a midweek trip to Bracknell was not the most obvious game we’d have wanted next. Yet it turned out to be a really good night for us and our band of hardcore travelling supporters.
“Although we began well, Bracknell really went on the attack with a front three, a tactic our back line dealt with resolutely.
“Tom Richards, in his first start back for us after injury, scored with a well-taken finish, and then Kyle Tooze scrambled in our second after Ben McLean’s free-kick had caused havoc in their defence.
“Bracknell threw everything at us over the final ten minutes of the first half, but we held firm. We started the second half well and looked reasonably comfortable, despite Bracknell throwing bodies forward and winning corners.
“Our ‘keeper Martin Horsell didn’t really have a save to make. At the other end, Kyle scored again midway through the half, and we saw the rest out well. It was a proper team performance, giving us something to build on for the tough games we have coming up.”
There’s more good news for Yate as they build towards a vital preChristmas period, with Alex Lambert, Ioan Richards, Khari Allen, Tyler Ashmead and Jack Stanley all soon set for returns from injury.
Of Saturday’s Supermarine setback, a clearly exasperated manager Rendell reflected: “We more than matched Swindon and I was really pleased with our first-half performance.
“The whole thing was ruined when Darren Mullings was unbelievably sent off two minutes before half-time with the game goalless. It was a very poor decision by the referee and a travesty from our stance.”
That early bath for Mullings means he misses out on a return to his former Salisbury stomping ground tomorrow as he starts the first of a three-game suspension.