Jimmy Ginnelly has seen more than most in over four decades involvement in the game as a player, coach, manager and Chairman.
He started out as a young hopeful, plying his trade in the youth and reserve teams of his hometown club, Nuneaton Borough.
A series of knee injuries forced his early retirement at the age of just 23 and his focus soon shifted to coaching as a means to stay involved in the game that he was so passionate about.
An opportunity to manage his local pub team got him a first foot on the managerial ladder and it soon led to him taking over the reins at Stockingford AA, where he was to spend a successful decade picking up many local honours.
This then led to a move into the Southern League with Atherstone Town in 2004 where he got the club on an upward trajectory and lifted the Southern League Cup in 2009.
His next role took him to Barwell for the first time where he was briefly assistant manager before taking over in the hot-seat and leading the club to their highest-ever League finish during an eight-year stay where he became an extremely popular figure amongst players, staff and supporters.
The lure of a return to his hometown club, Nuneaton Borough, proved too great to resist at the backend of 2018 as he took on the challenge of the manager’s role in what was proving to be another difficult period for the club.
He stated at the time that it was the only job that he would have left Barwell for, but the task was to prove a lot more difficult than he could ever have envisaged and it wasn’t long before he was combining the role of manager with that of Chairman as he battled to steer the club out of choppy waters after years of broken promises and false dawns.
Despite all of the demands, and alongside his family and business commitments away from the club, he was able oversee a place in the Pitching In Southern League Premier Central play-off final at the end of last season where they agonisingly succumbed to Rushall Olympic following a penalty shoot-out.
Various off-the-field issues continued to grip the club during the first half of the current campaign and at the turn of the year Ginnelly ‘sacrificed himself’ in the hope that a resolution could be found to a situation that saw Boro locked out of their home ground by the landlord.
Sadly, in January, Nuneaton Borough resigned from the Southern League, but for Ginnelly the opportunity arose for a return to Barwell, initially as caretaker-manager, before recently agreeing a deal to continue in charge of the club for the 2024/25 season, an opportunity that he is looking forward to.
“I am very happy to be able to commit to the club,” the 60 year-old told us. “Dave Laing [Barwell Chairman] is someone who I became good friends with during my previous time at the club.
“We enjoyed some fantastic adventures together with our little village club securing a number of top ten finishes during my eight full seasons at the helm and also making it to the first round of the FA Cup when we featured on the BBC’s Match of the Day.
“Hopefully we can replicate some of these successes this time around; the club is growing off the pitch and we have to be able to match that with the team that we put on the pitch.
“My planning for next season is already underway. There are a few players that I would like to bring in to help what is already a good group that I have inherited. If I can convince some of the targets that I have in mind to come here, then I am hopeful that we can have a very competitive season.
“If I’m being honest, I thought that the team I had previously put together would kick on more than it did after I left the club. I’m not knocking any of the other managers, but the football side of things hasn’t progressed as much as it should have.
“As I say, things have come on in leaps and bounds off-the-pitch; having a superb 3G surface to play on and rent out to the local community is a fantastic asset. When we arrive for training and see all those youngsters getting the benefit of it, it’s so great to see and something that I was screaming out for during my previous spell at the club.”
With the team sitting 12th in the Pitching In Southern League Premier Central table, there is little threat of relegation but by the same token a challenge for the play-offs is out of reach, so Ginnelly will be using these final weeks of the campaign to continue to get his philosophy across.
“The players have responded well since Guy Hadland [assistant manager] and I arrived in February,” he continued. “My aim for the rest of the season to continue getting the players to play my way and to see them enjoying their football, both in matches and training sessions.
“This is a strong League and has been for a number of years. A big indicator of the strength is when you look at how well Tamworth have done at the higher level after winning the title last season. They are about to win their second successive title and go into the Vanarama National League, whilst a number of our clubs have enjoyed good runs in the FA Cup and FA Trophy.
“We are enjoying the challenge of it and pitting our wits against much bigger clubs. We face each new challenge with determination and relish.”
We ended the interview by looking back on his time at Nuneaton Borough where, despite all of his experience and knowledge in the game, he learned a lot in just over five seasons with the club.
“The main thing that I learnt is that the bigger the club and the bigger the fan base, the more critics there are,” he said with a wry smile. “The majority of the fans were brilliant towards me and the team, but there was an element that would criticise absolutely anything and everything.
“You could win 4-0 and they would say it should have been five or six, or we could get a crowd of 700 and they would say that we should be pulling in 900.
“These days it’s so easy to be a keyboard warrior and sit behind a computer or mobile phone. They’ll never appreciate or understand how hard it is to deal with all of the non-football stuff let alone all of the football-related stuff on top of it; the amount of hard work and the hours that goes into running a football club and a football team from so many people.
“It’s certainly not just 90 minutes on a Saturday or Tuesday!
“It was my dream job and seemed the perfect fit, but you soon learn that the grass isn’t always greener just because you are moving to a bigger club. Dealing with the egos and those that would happily stab you in the back for their own ends.
“The bigger the club the more political it becomes. Take this tip from someone who has been managing for the past 35 years; if you are working at a well-run club, run by good people, don’t always think that the grass is greener elsewhere because it most certainly isn’t!”
Jimmy Ginnelly takes his team to Kettering Town on Saturday before they host Long Eaton United on Monday.
IMAGE: Barwell FC
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