There`s No Smoke Without Fire

Micky (Turka) Taylor, Author and Non-League Football Pundit

There`s a big gap between being a player at a football club and being a manager, no matter what level in non-League football you are involved in or any level come to that.

Despite that, and for what reason I could never find out, players seem to know what’s going on behind the scenes more than the management team!

Well, that’s my theory anyway and that can only come from my own personal experiences as a manager.

So, with that in mind, I now take you back to the John Crumplin situation and how I faced my mistake and got him back to St Leonards and gave him his first game in the team away to Eastbourne Borough in a Sussex Senior Cup second round replay on October 24th, 2001.

I had to release a couple of players again to balance the books but still brought in good replacements, wanting less money, which can be a bit of a problem when you are trying to build a side in a strong league with constant changes, but I had to work within a budget.

Back to the game with Boro and with both clubs fielding their best teams it was going to be another close encounter.

The conditions that night were awful, with the pitch at Priory Lane barely playable and a gale-force wind.

There was a good crowd in the ground and both the Southern League teams served up some good football with chances at both ends until the 13th minute when Eastbourne took the lead from the spot after new signing Dave Chatwin had brought down Matt Allen.

Daren Pearce made no mistake with the penalty and the game stayed high tempo.

St Leonards were always in with a shout up until the half-time whistle and as with all managers, I asked for more from my players in the second half as the tie was finely balanced.

If we stepped up a gear, we could go on and win the game, but we had to find that equaliser which should have come but we missed chances and when that happens you know that when you are chasing the game the other side will get chances too.

Eastbourne did just that when Matt Crabb held off the challenge of John Crumplin to fire home their second goal and put the tie to bed, despite us having again created enough chances to have found the net and at least draw level.

To Eastbourne’s credit they held onto their lead to win the tie to progress to the next round.

I was not a happy man by any means, and I let the players know that after the game, but the events of the next half hour or so were going to make me even angrier as I will explain.

As I said at the start of this story, a manager sometimes does not know all that is going on behind the scenes and when the chairman wanted to see me in the changing room after the players had gone, I knew something was not right.

I was spot on as he informed me that he had re-signed Steve Smith for a second spell with the club and again I was going to have to cut my playing budget and some players would have to go to make way for him.

I was absolutely flabbergasted that he should do such a thing to his manager.

Talk about making feel as though I was not even the manager anymore was an understatement!

Don’t get me wrong, Steve Smith was a very good player, and I would have had him in my team any day, but that should have been my choice not my chairman’s.

Obviously, I let my feelings be known at his behaviour and how he made me feel but the deed was done and I either played him or I had no choice other than to walk away from the club.

I had worked so hard not only as manager but in the season before bringing in players on loan and in the end taking up the role as assistant manager and in doing so helped them avoid relegation.

I decided not to walk away and to play Steve Smith or, as he was known to many ‘Smudge’, away at Stamford on the Saturday.

He was a big asset in terms of his experience and a very strong player who could help our younger players improve on their game.

Now onto the game at Stamford on October 27th, 2001.

After a long journey north and another re-shuffled team, it was a tough place to go to get a point let alone all three, But I was always confident in my teams, more so than any chairman.

We started slowly and it was Stamford who looked like taking the lead, but keeper John Odlum made a couple of fine saves as we started to get back into the game.

We gave as good as we got until we broke the deadlock when Des Boateng ran from midfield to fire home in the top left-hand corner leaving Stamford keeper Steve Corry no chance.

The Saints’ joy was short-lived, however, as Stamford levelled after some poor defending leaving Robbie Blowers to score from close in.

Despite all of the problems of the week we battled away and took the lead again just before half-time when Dominic Barclay headed home after a perfect cross from Danny Fletcher.

I remember at half-time reminding the players that I was the manager of this football club, and I was in no mood to see our lead slip away as Stamford were there for the taking so go out and take them.

We did exactly that and shortly after the restart it was another Fletcher cross that led to Patrick Ankrah scoring his first goal for the club which put us firmly in the driving seat to see out the rest of the game and take three valuable points back down the A1 and job well done.

Of course, still in the back of my mind was the situation with the chairman and whether I was about to lose my position as manager after all the hard work I had put in or was I going to call it a day and jump before I was pushed?

Was it just a case of me over-reacting? But again, those words kept ringing in my ears ‘there is no smoke without fire’ so I decided to carry on and watch and wait and see what happens over the next few weeks.

Why worry about football as there are much more important things in life.

For example, two of the players in the team that day, Steve (Smudge) Smith and Patrick Ankrah, both died in separate tragic circumstances a few years later - Steve at the age of 36 and Patrick, aged just 34.

(Micky Taylor`s excellent book `Non-League Football - A Roller Coaster Ride To Beat Any` is available to buy from Amazon priced £12.99 (Kindle version £3.99. All proceeds to Cancer Research)