The Bostik Friday Interview: Driving Glenn to distraction

The town of Leiston might seem, to the casual observer, to be rather unremarkable. The Suffolk Tourist Guide, asked for information, begins by describing its leisure centre with Olympic size swimming pool- you’d almost think that the author was Gordon Brittas. Search for local events and the most prominent is the visit of Ryan Gooding, Psychic Medium, to the Sizewell Sports and Social Club; you probably won’t be going, but then of course Ryan already knew that. It is four miles from Minsmere, where keen nature lovers might spy a lesser-spotted Chris Packham or a long-tailed Michaela Strachan, four miles from Aldeburgh, where you can visit the former home of composer Benjamin Britten and eat some of the best fish and chips in the world, and four miles from the nearest railway station- Saxmundham, which is perhaps as difficult to pronounce as it is to reach. It is very much in the centre of nowhere.

And yet, there is something rather remarkable about Leiston. It has a football club who are currently ranked one hundred and seventieth in the English football pyramid. That statement, on its own, might not mean very much, so here are a few comparisons. Warrington Town are similarly in fourth place in the Evo-Stik Northern Premier, although have a population thirty times that of Leiston. Slough Town are a place behind Leiston in the pyramid- Slough has a population twenty eight times larger. There are other examples closer to home- Worthing, twenty times bigger, Basildon, nineteen times, Hastings- seventeen, Harlow- fifteen; yet it is Leiston who sit, undefeated, in fourth place in the Bostik Premier Division.

Glenn Driver has been the manager of Leiston FC since May 2016, and in his first season took the club to its highest ever league position, missing out on the play-offs by four minutes and one point, a late equaliser from Enfield Town consigning them to seventh place. But is he content with that? In a recent interview with the East Anglia Daily Times it seemed not. ‘I don’t feel we are punching above our weight anymore, quite honestly. In fact, I get a bit sick of hearing it.’

We caught up with Glenn earlier this week, to talk about his hopes, his football philosophy, forty-two goal striker Matt Blake-and to once more revisit this elephant in the room.

The only unbeaten side in the Premier Division, twice coming back from two-nil deficits to fancied clubs, and in fourth place despite a large squad reshuffle in the summer. You must be happy?

Very happy. We lost six players since the end of last season and we’ve brought seven in, and the new boys have made a big difference. We felt that last year we didn’t have enough legs in midfield when we didn’t have the ball, we were exposed and hit on the counter-attack far too often, and we needed to do something about it. The midfielders we’ve brought in work as hard without the ball as they do with it, and that’s what got us through the games against Margate and Dulwich.

At Margate we were two behind within eight minutes, but we stuck at what we do best, fought back strongly and were outstanding. Speaking to Steve Watt afterwards he felt we played like the home team, and that was an enormous compliment. Against Dulwich at home we showed them too much respect- I thought they, and Bognor, were the best sides we faced last year, outstanding- and their movement was excellent. They were two nil up, and it could have been three, but we scored on half time which gave us a lifeline, and then we stuck at it and nicked a late equaliser. Last season we’d have lost that game.

In the squad for the Lowestoft game you had only nine players who had featured last season. That’s a very large turnover- fifty percent of the side?

It is. We had four under-eighteens on the bench. We don’t have the budget to have a large squad, and we had three established players out, including Matt Blake. To go to Lowestoft and come back with three points with such a young squad was outstanding.

But things have changed a lot from last season. We had five lads travelling in from the London area, and they were great boys, did everything we asked of them, worked really hard- but how do you build a team spirit on that basis? You build relationships by spending time together, but we hardly ever- for example- got to travel as a team, as it would have made no sense for them to drive to Leiston then get a coach back in the direction they’d just come from. All the lads we have now are local. They’re here with us all the time, we all travel together, the bond is stronger- the chemistry, the togetherness. That was a deliberate tactic.

Speaking of Matt, you must have been surprised to keep him?

I wouldn’t say that surprise was my biggest emotion, I’d say it was disappointment. I want to see my players push on and play at a higher level, and Matt deserved that opportunity. Forty-two goals is a heck of an achievement, particularly given he stepped up two levels. We expected the phone to ring, I was actively looking for a replacement, and I’m astounded he’s still here. But for him then to sign a new three-year deal is a credit to him- with our budget he could have earned a lot more money elsewhere but he decided to stay.

He turned down Billericay last season, didn’t he?

He did. We agreed a fee. But he decided he didn’t want to go and we were delighted.

We heard all sorts of rumours about professional sides looking at him- Portsmouth, Yeovil, a couple in the Conference National, and he took a bit of a gamble by deciding to wait because I expect the money he could have earned at Billericay would have been life changing, but he’s never been the type to be motivated by money. He plays for the love of the game. He had three years at Norwich United during which he scored one hundred and nineteen goals, and for some time he turned down bigger and better offers because he was enjoying his football. We really had to work convince him to step up to the Premier Division, but look how well he did; he was breathtaking.

He may have signed a three-year deal, but are you worried that you’ll get to around Christmas and there’ll be a National League club on the edge of the play-offs, or perhaps a Football League club fighting relegation, who will decide that he might be their talisman?

We’ve said all along that if he gets a move we’ll support it. We’ve got a couple of good strikers in the under eighteen side, a couple at a lower level we’re watching who might be good enough to step up, we’ll cope. We absolutely would not stand in his way; that’s not the way this football club does things. We want to nurture and develop our players and if they get the chance to go on to bigger and better things we’ll be proud. We’re glad to still have him, but if he was to go then that would be good for him and allow us to invest the fee.

In a recent interview you said that you were sick of hearing that you were punching above your weight.

Yes, it does my head in!

I thought it might, but that doesn’t make it any less true! Leiston are currently one hundred and seventieth in the English football pyramid. Yet you come from the one thousand, three hundred and seventh most populated town in the UK. So you patently are, like it or not, punching above your weight!

When you just have a first team and no infrastructure you’re forever paying out silly money just to stand still. We needed to build that infrastructure. When Tony Kinsella (Head Coach) and I joined the club three years ago and there was no under eighteen side, the reserve side had finished second from bottom of their league, and we needed to do something about that. We’ve all worked hard to change things, to build a youth strategy that will make the football club sustainable.

When Tony and I agreed to take responsibility for the first team, we did it on the proviso that we’d be allowed to continue with the work we’d started; to continue to build that progression. We’ve now got an under ten side, an under twelve, two under fifteen teams, an under eighteen side, a reserve and first team. We used to just be a first team, we’re now a football club. Perhaps the initial success of Leiston FC was built by doing things the wrong way, and now we’re doing things the right way. I explained to the chairman that with nothing coming through to replace injured players or those wanting to leave we’d just be throwing money at the first team. We’re not doing that any more- we’re an established Bostik Premier outfit with a solid infrastructure, so we’re not punching above our weight! And we’ve been at this level for six years!

It’s funny, and a lot of people don’t perhaps know this, but Tony and I applied for the job previously a number of years ago, and we were turned down in favour of a chap called Carl Chenery. Now Carl did well with the first team so that’s not a complaint, but at the time we said that we’d only take on the job if we could start an academy, and the club disagreed. I speak to the chairman now, and he’s clear that had they thought differently at the time then the football club would probably be further forward than it is. But everybody pulls together.

Nobody would argue that you’re not an established side in our Premier Division, nor try to detract from that, but you have the one hundred and seventieth best side in England in a town with a population of five and a half thousand. You’re getting more than five percent of that population through the turnstiles on a Saturday and that’s both phenomenal and growing, but how do you push on from there? How do you avoid reaching a plateau?

We’ve increased attendances because we’ve changed the way we play. Tony and I want to play free-flowing attacking football, and last year we were the highest scorers in the division. Gates are up remarkably compared where they were two years ago, and the club are really proud of that. But I understand the point you’re making and I hadn’t really thought of it in that way. Our plan is to get the younger children involved in the club and then to get them to stay, to bring their parents. We’re trying to make ourselves an integral part of the local community, the place to be if you want to play or watch football. We never had that before. We think the crowds are growing as the town realises that this is a football club that wants to demonstrate what is best about Leiston- it isn’t just a first team hoping for support, it’s a community coming together.

For us, the youth side of the club is more important than the first team, as that’s how the club remains sustainable well into the future.

Moving back to the first team then, you’ve been twelfth, ninth, ninth, eighth and seventh. How will you do this year?

Last year we set a target to reach seventy-two points. We managed seventy-three and it wasn’t enough. We had a terrible, terrible February and it was our own fault- we looked at the fixtures and thought we’d get fifteen points, and then we took one point from twenty-one. That cost us our chance of the play-offs. We’ve got to be looking at fifth, fourth this season. Everyone is clear that Billericay should win the league, and I’ve no doubt that Dulwich, Margate, Leatherhead will all be up there, Staines won’t be far away. We need to avoid making the mistakes of last season, but if we can make the play-offs that will be an unbelievable achievement.

It’s a cliché, but we need to look only at the next game, so at the moment I’m focused on the FA Cup on Saturday.

Is the FA Cup a priority?

It’s massive. Absolutely massive. We had a fantastic run last year, including beating Hungerford- who are a league higher- away, but then we went to Westfields, the lowest ranked side in the competition, and lost. How we lost that match I will never know, it still haunts me now. Saturday’s match is crucial, not just because it’s the FA Cup, but because we need the revenue from a good run in the competition. That money would be spread across the club, it would allow us to strengthen every part of it. We made eighteen thousand pounds from our run last year, and for a club of our size, a community our size, that’s so important. When you think that a side like Dulwich could potentially make that kind of money through the gate for one home game, and it would take me six or seven…we need to show Aylesbury real respect, but my goodness this is our biggest game of the season so far and we’ll approach it accordingly.

It’s difficult to predict the future. Leiston FC have been on a tremendous journey over the past decade, and now, thanks to a lot of hard work and a fabulous vision, the club has a sustainable system and is widely respected in a footballing community that perhaps hadn’t even heard of them until comparatively recently. Will they achieve their goals? Will they be able to hold on to Matt ‘Steak Bake’ Blake? There are too many variables in football for anyone to be sure, but you don’t need to be a Psychic Medium to forecast that Glenn Driver and his team should not be underestimated, and that this tiny community in Suffolk has much more to be proud of than an Olympic sized swimming pool- no matter what the tourist authority might think.

Images courtesy of Leiston FC