NOT DONE YET!
Tranmere Rovers are still in the National League promotion race, says striker James Norwood
IN the two days after their promotion final no-show, Tranmere Rovers’ James Norwood watched back the defeat to his former club Forest Green Rovers three times.
What had gone wrong for Micky Mellon’s side? Why had they been so outplayed and why had his own performance fallen below the levels he’s so often set?
Staying over at team-mate Andy Mangan’s house, he hardly left his bed.
“I didn’t so much feel sorry for myself,” he says. “I just thought, ‘20,000 people came down to London to watch us’. If we’d played well no-one would have cared, but we just didn’t do ourselves justice.
“I watched it back three times in the first two days. I looked at everything. We had meetings, said what I thought to the gaffer; we just didn’t turn up. I was looking to play well and I wasn’t in the game.”
Norwood spent the summer back in his hometown Eastbourne. Friends helped clear his head, stop worrying about football, before returning to the north-west ready to fulfil the burning desire to put it right.
This isn’t meant to be dwelling on last season, rather it’s the context for their current campaign. For most people they were going to be the team to beat from the off. Having collected 95 points last season and been beaten to the fin- ishing post by a relentless Lincoln City, who could do no wrong, the National League title was surely theirs.
But mixed results plagued their start. A win on the opening day against Woking was followed by four games without one. They’ve bounced around. Dropped to 18th, up to 14th and back down again. Ahead of this game-less weekend they were 11th – the highest position since the opening week of the season. Killer pass
Slowly, but surely, it seems to be coming together and Norwood explains how a group meeting has seen them reset how they’re looking at a division no one is running away with. Something that has kept Rovers firmly in touch.
“We’ve kind of stopped looking at the table and instead we’re looking at the points,” Norwood says. “So instead of seeing that we’re 11th or 12th – or wherever we are – instead we’re saying, ‘We’re eight points off the top’.
“We had a meeting before our form picked up. The gap was nine points, it went up to ten or 11 and now it’s back to eight. That’s all we’re looking at and I think that’s the best way. Instead of saying, ‘Jesus, we’re 11th,’ we focus on the points. I couldn’t even tell you how many points we are off the playoffs because that’s not what we’re looking at. But there’s a long way to go and we’ve all got to play each other.
“We sat down together and asked what people think. Ultimately the gaffer said, ‘You’re the best team in the league, we need to do something about it, what do you want to do?’ We decided we’d just look at the gap. We talked about where we want to be by Christmas.
“I just don’t think we understood each other as a team early on. We were trying to play the same way we finished last season. Our creative players have now got the licence to play the killer pass rather than keep the ball for an extra four or five passes. The gaffer has told us to
go for it if we see it. Si ince then I’ve been getting in a bit more, Cooky (strike partner And dy Cook) has, and we’re linking u up and underer standing each othe a lot better now. I saw someo one tweet the other day that wheen we’ve both scored we’ve wonall six games. So we need to do that more often!” Norwood feels Meellon’s style of giving his players oownership of the task is workinng, with the squad fully aware ofthe responsieturn bility they have to rethe club to the Football League.
Solutions
“On the first day he walked into the football club he said he would take his door off its hinges if he could,” Norwood says. “He gives the seniior players a voice to ask questions and say what we think about games. We analyse games the first day we’re back in training and hhe wants us to come up with the solutions to probes lems. “He says if it coming from him
then it’s just us being told and we may not agree. So he puts a lot of trust in his players. Last year his team-talks would basically be, ‘Just go out and play,’ because he had so much confidence in us. We’re getting back to that.”
A promotion is also important for Norwood’s personal ambitions. The former Exeter City youngster is desperate to play in the Football League again.
Last week’s 4-0 win against Maidstone United marked the former England C captain’s 100th appearance for Tranmere and the two goals took his Rovers tally to 45.
“This is my eighth or ninth season at this level and I’ve finished tenth to second in the table,” Norwood says. “I’m still missing that medal. I’ve seen lots of friends do it, go on and play in the League and do really well.
“But it’s also for the fans who turn up. The amount we get is unreal. They deserve something for turning up in their thousands.
“We want to give them something to shout about.” JUSTIN EDINBURGH says he had no hesitation returning to Non-League football for a club with the history of Leyton Orient.
The 47-year-old former Tottenham defender has been charged with turning around the beleaguered Orient’s fortunes.
Life in Non-League has not got off to a good start for the O’s after hopes the ownership change in the summer would also signal an end to their tough times.
The proud club had spent their entire 112-year history in the Football League before last season’s relegation that came on the back of a tumultuous era under the infamous Francesco Bechetti at the helm.
But despite reaching second place in the table after eight games, 12 matches without a win has seen them slide down the table – a run that coincided with manager Steve Davis losing his job.
Edinburgh has been out of work since leaving Northampton Town at the end of August, and the man who guided Newport County into the Football League in 2013 had no qualms about dropping back down for the huge challenge.
“I’m really excited about the opportunity to come and manage Leyton Orient,” he told The
NLP. “The pull of the size of the club, the history – here and now it’s the only job I would have taken in the National League.
“And that’s not meant with disrespect, people know me, that I’ve worked at the levels below and I had no worries about that. But, as of now, Orient are the only club I would have stepped back down for.
“I certainly felt I needed a little rest. But the last two or three weeks I’ve been ready to get back in. I have the appetite for it – there’s no better opportunity and challenge than the one I have on my hands.”
Edinburgh began his managerial career as player-boss at Billericay Town in 2003, won promotion to the Conference South with Fisher Athletic in 2006 and, after a spell at Grays Athletic, nearly took Rushden & Diamonds back into the Football League.
After Diamonds had gone bust, he took over a struggling Newport County, who he guided away from relegation as well as FA Trophy runner-ups to Wrexham at Wembley.
A season later, the Exiles returned to Wembley to win promotion into League Two. In 2015 League One Gillingham came calling, but his most recent job was at Northampton Town.
He’s had three months to recharge his batteries and says he hasn’t forgotten what Non-League football is all about.
“You look at the league, the teams still in it, the people still in it, the advancements it’s made – I always