IT’S ALL ABOUT FOR CITY’S TOP CONTACTS BOSS ROSS
WALK and talk meetings, laptop days and a playing style overhaul – Oxford City boss Ross Jenkins says it’s the little wins that have helped make club history.
The Hoops will sit at NonLeague’s top table for the first time next season after a scintillating National League South promotion final performance saw them sweep St Albans City aside.
At half-time it was 4-0 on the biggest occasion arguably in club history. Jenkins’ players delivered and the former Watford midfielder couldn’t have been prouder after a season where demands were high and the success deserved.
“We train Tuesdays and Thursdays – I watch every minute of every training session and every game,” Jenkins says. “Friday I am on the laptop at the club and trying to speak to staff. Sometimes I forget they have normal jobs! It shows how well the staff have juggled two jobs. I know it’s part-time, but the way I communicate with them is like full-time. So everyone has to take big credit because the demands have been really high.
Development
“Even if we didn’t get promoted, a win would have been how we’ve changed the feeling and dynamic of the club, the style of play. There’s loads of little wins – player development, player performance, player style, team style, fan engagement – as in, do they like watching Oxford City now?
“There’s been loads of little wins but we’ve managed to wrap all of those up into a big win. It makes the little ones feel even better and worth it. It’s now trying to manage being part-time in the National League. It’s full of clubs who are full-time. It’s going to be a challenge.”
At 32, Jenkins will be the National League’s youngest boss next season having stepped up following David Oldfield’s departure to Weymouth in February 2022.
Last year they made the play-offs, falling to Dorking Wanderers. This year they saw off Worthing and St Albans, with Jenkins feeling it was the most complete performance they could wish for in a play-off final. But it’s that sticking to the process that has got them to this stage throughout the season. And it all starts with maximising their time together.
“We’ve changed a lot off the field,” Jenkins says. “We do a lot more video analysis. We have a lot more team discussions. It’s important we don’t just turn up, train and go home because we don’t get enough contact time.
“We have to have more group meetings, we have to talk more, because we don’t see each other enough. So we’ve held more discussions, more meetings and casual chats – walk and talk around the pitch. Myself, the staff, if anyone looks a bit down, we will get some contact time and talk to them on the pitch to give them that reassurance.
“Contact time is important and at part-time you sometimes lack that. It’s important you make up for it somewhere. It could be five minutes, but five minutes of a week is nothing.
“The team is what’s going to get the success. So we have to get as much information into them as possible without loading them or stressing them.
“I’ve learnt along the way. In the full-time game you get all day with a player to speak. We have Tuesdays-Thursdays so what you say has to be very specific.”
Heavyweights
Jenkins recalls pre-season and explaining to his centrebacks they needed to be the fittest they’ve ever been to implement the style he wants that often sees them in the opposition’s penalty box.
Next up will be to take the plan up against the National League heavyweights.
“We’ve got players who have played there – we haven’t got a team of boys picked from the park,” Jenkins says. “We’ve got some experience in there, players who have been in and around some decent clubs, boys with league games under
their belt – and we’ve got some boys who did come from the park!
“It’s an interesting mix. Footballing wise, I am confident in our ability. I watched a National League game this season and it was like a basketball game – you have it, we get it, run up the pitch as quick as we can and try to cross it, you have it. It was end-to-end, counter-attack any moment you can get the ball and it lasted all game.
“That’s the complete opposite to us. We have to try and control the game ourselves because, the physicality side of things, we’re against boys who have dropped out of the league who are machines. We’ve got electricians and plumbers!
“But if we can control what we can control, then we have to survive with whatever is thrown at us. The boys are fully pumped for it.”