"Taking that next leap"- The Bostik Friday interview

By Ian Townsend

Gary McCann, manager of league leaders Hendon, gives an achingly honest account of his time at the club- and his ambitions for the future.

In football, even at our level, managers tend to come and go. Early success is often followed by a lack of consistency, disputes over finances damage relationships, dressing rooms are ‘won’ and ‘lost’- the only certainty for a football manager tends to be uncertainty. Taking all of that into account, when Hendon manager Gary McCann reached the milestone of 700 matches in charge of the Greens last month perhaps there should have been more fanfare. This is an unusual and unique achievement, particularly as it has happened at a club who have spent much of his managerial reign as nomads without a home of their own, with little in the way of finance and struggling to hold on to their players.

Gary’s achievement is unique on another level, too. The relationship between managers and supporters can be fraught- positive when things are going well, poisonous when then opposite is happening. Things are different at Hendon, however- every supporter interview, even after a defeat, tends to end with a statement along the lines of ‘in Gary we trust’- something which is both unusual and heartening.

We caught up with Gary today as his side sit top of the Bostik Premier Division, their form a far cry from the relegation battle that dogged last season, to ask him what had changed, what had gone wrong during the last campaign, to present him with a number of questions that came directly from the supporters and talk about that unusual manager/supporter relationship.

So Gary, fourteen matches played and top of the league. After the trials and tribulations of last season, even the most optimistic Hendon fan must be surprised. Are you?

On the back of the finish we had last season we started this campaign with some momentum. We’d taken eighteen months to get the squad right, but we really found some form over the last ten to fifteen matches and I wasn’t really surprised when we hit the ground running. Did I expect us to do as well as we have? Well you have to go into a new season with optimism, but we have a young squad and I thought it would take us a little longer to grow into the league than it has- but they’re fearless. We’ve stood toe to toe with every team we’ve faced, and that’s astounding when you look at the age of some of them. All that said, it’s been a pleasing start, but it is only a start.

Last season was difficult for you, wasn’t it? Yet one of your supporters, Matt Shotter, has stated that your ‘Great Escape’ at the end of the season was your greatest managerial achievement. Would you agree with that?

A lot of people have said that, but I don’t agree. We got ourselves into a precarious position and we stayed up by the skin of our teeth. I don’t think that’s an achievement as such, I just think it was job done. There were times when we looked down and out, a beaten side, but whilst the turnaround was perhaps as good as that of any team I’ve had, to get to the last forty five minutes of the season and still be likely to get relegated tells its own story. I thought we’d get out of it, I had a lot of belief in the group towards season end, but an achievement? No.

What happened last season, then? You used fifty-two players, more than any other team in the league.

We struggled to get the balance right. We had around seventeen different partnership at the heart of our defence and that statistic in itself tells you that we had no continuity or stability in the side. I don’t think it was just last season we had that problem, either- if you look at the last eighteen months it was difficult. The play-off final team was broken up almost immediately, and I hold my hands up, I didn’t get it right afterwards. We had a certain style of play and I didn’t have the players to play it. It took me eighteen months to fix it, and I’m embarrassed that I used so many players, it’s my responsibility. We have limited resources so when I see that a player can’t give me what I need then I have to make changes quickly, and we’re shopping at very much the lower end of the market, bringing through youth and picking up players from lower levels. If you have the finances to bring in tried and tested performers at the level you’re in then you need to take fewer chances with players who might or might not make it. I’m not in that position, and I get it wrong sometimes. Only in the last ten or fifteen games of last season did it start to come together.

For all of your difficulties over the last couple of years, the level of love and respect you get from supporters at the club is almost unprecedented. You’ve still got another year and a half on your contract, yet one of the questions that has come in from Hendon fans expresses concern that you might not sign a new one! You’ve been at the club for twenty years- are there any signs that your time there might come to an end?

Eighteen months is a long time. We’ve had a really difficult period over the last six or seven years, lived a nomadic lifestyle, and none of it has been easy. We’ve worked continually towards stability, keeping ourselves afloat, and for the first time we’re perhaps there. We have a new home and we’ve finally made it our own, the crowds are up, and the club is moving in the right direction, but I’m ambitious. It’s important to me that the club’s ambition matches mine. I want it to go forward, to progress, to get into the division above at the least, and that’s a challenge. We don’t have unlimited resources, and the supporters work tirelessly to make the budget competitive, but I want to be successful.

If the club’s ambition matches mine then I won’t be going anywhere.

What do the club need to do, then, to match that ambition- that they’re not doing now?

It’s not so much what we’re not doing, it’s more about what we still need to do. We need to have a budget that’s competitive. The one we’re working with at present is in the lower reaches of the division, and we’re perhaps over-achieving with it, but we need to add to it if we can. That will take a lot of hard graft off the pitch- we’re a supporter owned club and we’ve a fabulous group of supporters under Simon Lawrence who work tirelessly to make things happen- but we’ve got to be looking to move the club forward. It isn’t enough just to tread water, to stand still. Getting the club to take that next leap is going to take a bigger budget; we can’t overspend but we need to spend enough to progress. We’re lucky, though, that the supporters are fantastic.

The relationship between you and the supporters seems incredibly strong?

They know I’m committed, devoted and loyal. We’ve always been in it together. Everything we’ve achieved we’ve done as a unit. The supporters know what I’m working with, they know the difficulties, they know the efforts that everyone at the club makes because they are the club. They appreciate me and I appreciate them. I’ve always stuck with them, and they’ve always stuck with me through success and difficulties. That is a bit unique, I suppose, and I never stop being grateful. I’m really lucky- I don’t think any manager, anywhere, gets the support that I get.

The last major event you were involved in, and one that still gets spoken about regularly, is that play-off final against Margate in 2014/15. One of your supporters put it thus: “Gary was robbed of the chance to take the club up by overzealous decision making.” Is he right?

He’s absolutely right. Aaron Morgan was sent off for a challenge that in my opinion didn’t deserve even a yellow card, never mind a red one. We appealed the decision afterwards and it was overturned, which proves quite conclusively that the referee got it wrong. We had to play seventy two minutes with ten men, entirely incorrectly, and we were playing the big spenders of the league and we still matched them for most of the game before losing by a single goal. To end the season ten points above Margate and then to lose out on promotion to a decision like that…it was a testing time, mentally, a bitter pill to swallow. And I was so sad for Aaron, he’d had a fantastic season, and for the supporters. When you’ve worked so hard…it was a season we were very proud of, a team we’d worked on for two years, a team at the peak of its powers. We’d stood toe to toe with two very well financed sides, Margate and Maidstone, and only came up wanting due to a poor decision. It was very tough to take.

Back to the present day, then. Last season, your first at Silver Jubilee Park, you seemed to suffer from ‘Spurs at Wembley’ syndrome. This year you can’t seem to lose. What’s changed?

Any club that goes into a new stadium seems to struggle at first. Spurs at Wembley, West Ham at the London Stadium, Arsenal at the Emirates- it’s almost a given. Perhaps it takes time for both players and supporters to get used to new surroundings. It’s not new for me- when we were sharing with Wembley FC, our first season was the worst, when we were sharing with Harrow Borough the same thing happened. I was confident that once we got familiar with the place we’d improve, and we did. We do have an advantage in that we play on the surface we train on, we’re familiar with it, and it suits our style of play- as well as generating an income when we aren’t using it.

Is the reliance on that surface the reason why the away form is perhaps less consistent?

Actually I think that’s a little unfair. I’ve heard that a few times, but look at who we’ve lost to away from home. Enfield is always a difficult place to go, we lost by the odd goal in seven at Billericay, we lost at Tonbridge on the first day. We went to Dulwich Hamlet and won! If our away form hasn’t mirrored our home form that’s more down to the quality of the opposition than our performances- even when we lost at Brightlingsea Regent we went down to the type of goal you just can’t plan for, a fantastic finish.

What have been your standout moments, then, during your time at Hendon?

This might surprise you, but although I’ve enjoyed things like cup final wins, and our success in the 14/15 season, the most satisfying thing for me is when a player gets a serious injury and gets themselves back into the team through hard work and dedication. They’ve got a good support network- Mark Findley our physio, who has been with me for ten years, does an exceptional job- but to see a player work tirelessly to recover from serious injury and get back out there as good as before is inspirational. That’s my biggest reward.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, my worst moments are when players get a serious injury that they can’t manage to come back from. Elliott Braithwaite, recently, is an example- four lots of surgery and he’s had to give up the game. Footballers want to play football, and to have to retire early when you’re at the peak of your powers is awful. I had to retire through injury at 27 and it still upsets me when I see my players having to go through that.

I’ve been lucky though, most of my memories are good ones.

One of your supporters has asked, as a former goalkeeper for the Greens, what was the best centre-back partnership you ever had in front of you?

I’m not sure about partnerships, but the best centre back I ever played with was Curtis Warmington. Whenever he was there I knew I could rely on him, he left everything on the pitch when he was out there, wore his heart on his sleeve. He was a fans favourite and the type of player that any goalkeeper would be glad to have in front of him.

Another question was about your favourite ground?

I loved managing the FA Cup tie we played at Aldershot in 2012, although we got pipped right at the death. They were a league side at the time, the atmosphere was fabulous, and we were a bit unlucky. But more recently I’ve enjoyed going to Billericay Town and seeing the transformation there. Glenn Tamplin gets a lot of criticism, for example that it’s not fair on the rest of the division that they have such investment, but as much as the man has done on the pitch he’s done off it. The transformation of the facilities- I was knocked off my feet. Yes they have a fantastic side and they should go on and win the division, but the facilities are fabulous, the atmosphere was superb. He’s transformed that place almost overnight.

Finally, and back to the present day, what are your hopes for the rest of the season?

We’ve got a side that plays without fear, a fabulous attacking set up that will cause all of the defences in our league problems, and if we can keep the side together, give the youngsters freedom to express themselves, then we can do well. I don’t want to put them under too much pressure, but I’d love to stay around that top five. It won’t be easy, but it is achievable- although there will be ten, fifteen clubs thinking the same.

That said, at the moment I’m just focused on Worthing tomorrow. They’ve improved massively over the last few weeks and they’ll be looking for that first win, in front of a big home support. It might be bottom versus top but if we go there thinking it’s a guaranteed three points we’ll come unstuck. We need to prepare properly if we’re to keep our good run going.

Hendon take on Worthing at Woodside Road, Saturday at 3PM. Dulwich Hamlet host Burgess Hill Town, Leiston host Folkestone Invicta, and Billericay Town entertain Enfield Town. By five PM any of these four could realistically be looking down on the rest. Gary McCann is extremely realistic about the challenges he will face if he is to keep Hendon at the summit, but he’s not about to stop pushing his side to reach new heights.

Twenty years at Hendon. Who would bet against him celebrating his Silver Jubilee at Silver Jubilee Park in 2022?

Headline image- Gary with the August betting.net Performance of the Month Award, earned for Hendon's 6-0 victory over Harrow Borough.

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