SAMMY ON BOARD TO RAISE THE BAR HIGHER
SAMMY Moore is convinced he will lead Potters Bar Town to safety – and then push the club to a brighter future.
The former Leatherhead, Concord Rangers and Hemel Hempstead Town boss has thrown himself into an Isthmian League Premier relegation battle.
Moore agreed to become the Scholars new manager after seeing them lose 7-0 to Folkestone Invicta on a watching brief last weekend.
The 34-year-old took charge of his first game on Tuesday night against relegation rivals Cray Wanderers which ended in a late defeat after Potters Bar had led 2-0 for 60 minutes.
But the ex-AFC Wimbledon, Dover and Leyton Orient midfielder believes he can turn the club’s fortunes around.
“Within five or six week’s time we’re going to be a completely different animal,” he told The NLP. “I’ve got no doubt that we stay up, we just need a few wins to get us going.
“We haven’t got the time of a pre-season to implement how we want to play, the condition of the players is not great. I found that out on Tuesday night where for 60 minutes we were good and then we simply ran out of legs. That was the most alarming situation we need to sort.
“This season is just about staying up, whether we do it on the last day or whether we do it with five games to go, then rebuilding and really kicking on next season.”
Moore has already begun reshaping the squad with eight new signings this week including experienced left-back Frazer Shaw and talented Tottenham U23 loanee Kacper Kurylowicz.
“I’ve watched games and kept my knowledge up of players,” said Moore, who signed for Folkestone in 2020 after leaving Hemel. “I know I can attract Conference South players to the club because we do things right and we want to progress.
“Once we get going we’ll have an identity, they’ll be hard to beat, honest, hard-working and it will give us a real platform to build from.”
Moore has had to bide his time in returning to management and although it’s at a lower level than his last job, it’s a challenge which he is relishing.
“I had three or four offers to go back in but I felt I needed to focus on my coaching business which has certainly paid off,” he said. “I didn’t want to take an easy challenge. Sometimes you have to take two steps back to go forward. I’ve been luckily enough to manage some fantastic clubs.
“There’s a project there and as a manager that’s what I want. I don’t want to be staying at a club for one season, I want to be staying four, five, six years trying to build a club that can progress up the levels.
“I’m still young, learning, I’ve picked up so many positives and negatives in every job I’ve had. You learn from that, you make mistakes along the way but it’s about coming back a better manager.”