A tough job but I’m ready for it
IT’S been a rough summer for Burscough FC who had seen a number of backroom changes including the exit of last season’s manager Mark Beesley.
Dave Powell has taken over as manager and the former Prescot Cables boss has been joined by John Filan as first team coach and Dave Sutton as Director of Football.
The Burscough manager knows it’ll be a tough season but is embracing the challenge and is already looking forward to their first fixture against Trafford on Saturday, 13th August.
“First of all, I’m delighted to be given the opportunity,” said Powell.
“I’m fairly local and it’s an ideal situation for me in terms of locality and the standard of the challenge.
“It’s a fairly difficult job to come into but I’m up to it and I’ve had experiences of similar challenges in the past.
“It’s been an unusual situation for a manager to come into as all the staff has seen movement and there are a lot of changes. It’s a difficult job. I’ll just roll my sleeves up and get stuck in though.”
Ahead of the new season, Powell calls for ‘patience’ from the club and he recognises some fans will be frustrated given the squad has had to do a complete overhaul.
“There’s got to be some patience and understanding of the situation,” said Powell.
“There are some people who don’t believe the owner has the right intentions on improving the football club but I do and I’ll be hoping to show that too.
“Last year’s success was down to a few years’ worth of hard work and the team that did so well last year was in making for some time.
“Patience is the key and there needs to be support for the management team and the players that are put on the park.”
This summer, Burscough players have gone through a type of trial period in order to build their squad.
There will be a lot of new faces under Powell and the manager admitted he’s looking forward to building his new squad.
“I’ve brought on board some good people with me for backroom staff,” said Powell.
“Burscough have now got some great coaches and assistants who I’ve worked with previously at Prescot and other clubs.
“They all know the level of football here. We’ve also got a new goalkeeping coach, physio and kit man who are important to the club.
“The pre-season friendlies have been like trialists games really. I’ve had to try and make some judgements on whether the players are good enough in a short space of time,” he added.
“It’ll be like building a team from scratch. Most of the lads who I’d have liked to have come with me were already committed to other clubs as it was already three weeks into the preseason campaign. “But we’ll just crack on and do the best we can. “Any proven Evo-Stik players we’ll be looking to bring in and attract and it’s an open book at the moment. “I can mould the team exactly how I want to. “That’s not necessarily a bad thing but it’s an unusual situation and an exciting challenge.” As well as building his own squad, Powell hopes to add identity and his own philosophy to Burscough – hoping to implement this during their first game against Trafford. The boss has also been pleased with how the current players have settled in and he’s stated he wants ‘committed players’ at Burscough for the future. “I like to play a fast, aggressive type of football. I like to see lots of energy and commitment from the players. I want us to get the ball forward quickly and with quality.
“I like having committed players and I want to develop younger players between the ages of 18-23 – that’ll be the bulk of my team and experienced players will fit around it.
“The lads who have been down so far have been brilliant and their attitude has been great.
“We’ve got a good nucleus of players currently at the club and they’ve applied a terrific level of commitment already,” he added.
With the start of the season looming, Powell hopes his side are willing to do their best and build upon the progress they’ve made throughout the summer.
“I know quite a lot about the Trafford play.
“We’ll take the first few games how they come and try and build upon things.
“We’ll show commitment and work hard and see what happens. Hopefully we can stabilise things and do our best and just crack on with it really.”