CHECK! BISHOP MOVE OK FOR COLLI
CLUB legend Paul Collicutt is back in the Bishops Cleeve dugout – but only after an overdue heart-toheart over his sacking nine years ago.
The Mitres soared from Hellenic Division One to the Southern League and enjoyed a record-breaking FA Cup run before Collicutt’s decade-plus reign was brought to an abrupt halt.
Cleeve returned to the Hellenic League Premier Division during their old gaffer’s five-and-a-half-year stint up the road at Evesham United and when Steve Cleal, in charge at Kayte Lane for the past six seasons, left for Cinderford this week, chairman Dave Walker went back to the future.
“Out of the blue I had a call from Dave asking to meet up,” said Collicutt.
“He said he’d love to offer me the job and me being me I asked why, pointing out he had sacked me nine years ago.
“To be fair to him – and it surprised me a little bit – he said it had been a big mistake on his part and that he had regretted it for a long time.
“In those nine years I have been back to the club to watch games or when I was with Evesham and we never spoke about it, not really.
“It was quite emotional, I could see he felt remorseful and it put a lump in my throat.
Chuffed
“I had put 12 years into the club and worked my socks off, it came as a massive shock and I was gobsmacked. It ripped the guts out of me.
“A lot of water has gone under the bridge since then and as you get a bit older, life gets shorter. You haven’t got time to mess about.
“I said I would sleep on it and here I am. The biggest thing is the geography, I can be at the ground in four minutes!
“I am looking forward to it, it has certainly put a spring in my step and if we can have half the success we had when I was last there then I will be well chuffed.”
Collicutt expects “two, three, maybe four” players to follow Cleal, adding: “We will look at what we have and it will be my job to get the right players in.
“There are three or four teams you would think are going to be favourites, the obvious ones being Westfields.”
Eye opener
It ends a year of helping behind the scenes at Stratford Town, a less formal role that Collicutt says has served him well.
“Stratford is a lovely club and the chairman Jed (McCrory) has some really big ideas,” he said.
“It was a blessing in disguise to take a bit of a back seat with football, it suited me because I had a lot going on with my business and it was an eye opener.
“When you leave a club, especially after being sacked (by Evesham), you question yourself.
“It did me a lot of good and I will always be grateful for the time I spent there.”