The Bostik Friday Interview: Playing Darts

The last time that Burgess Hill Town got to the 4th Qualifying Round of the FA Cup was three seasons ago, and their reward for beating Sutton United at Gander Green Lane was an away tie at Princes Park against then National League Dartford. They put up a good fight but fell at that hurdle, before an excellent FA Trophy run two months later came to an end at the hands of the very same side. Back in the Fourth Qualifying Round again this weekend, of course Tony Incenzo and co at Talk Sport HQ only went and paired the Hillians against the Darts once more.

With that tie on our minds, we caught up with the manager at the Green Elephants Stadium, Ian Chapman, to talk about consistency, FA Cup dreams, the impact of new skipper and former Worthing manager Gary Elphick, and which was better- Non-League or the professional game.

I suppose when the draw for the Fourth Qualifying Round was made it just had to be Dartford, didn't it? You must be rather sick of the sight of them?

It'll be a really difficult tie. We know about them, obviously, having lost to them in the Cup and the FA Trophy three seasons ago, but on our day I think we can beat them.

They are in very good form at the moment- they've won six from the last seven- so what's your gameplan, if that wouldn't be giving away trade secrets?

We'll approach the game the way we approach any other. You're right, they are a good side, they've got continuity- the manager has been there a long time- and they are perhaps a better team now than they were when they beat us three years ago. But we're a better team, too. We've been involved in a number of cup games over the past few years where we've beat sides from a higher level. It's a one-off, a cup tie, and anything can happen- as we showed when we beat Wealdstone in the last round.

What are your abiding memories of those two matches from 2014-15 then?

The first match- in the cup at their place- I thought we were a bit unlucky. We had a player sent off after about half an hour, they got a penalty and went two up, but we fought hard and stayed in it. If I remember rightly they got a third, then we pulled one back, and after that we hit the post and put them under real pressure but it wasn't to be. Then in the Trophy at home we matched them all the way, but they caught us on the break right before full time when we were 1-1 and pressing for a winner, and we didn't have time to get back into it.

Ian Chapman and his Hillians celebrate a victory

The tie on Saturday will be great for the football club, and we're going to give it a real go. The last two matches don't matter, it's all about what we do this weekend.

You've never got to the First Round Proper before. How would it feel if you made it this weekend?

It would be great. We keep equalling the club record but we need to get over that hurdle. More than that though, it would be important to the club in terms of prestige, exposure and income. That extra money would really help us to progress.

Is it fair to say that you're still searching for consistency this season?

Absolutely fair. We have to fight for every point in this league, and if we have a bad day we get beaten. It's that simple. We've only been at this level for three seasons, and whilst each of these seasons has been better than the one before you get nothing for a poor performance. The season we won the South Division with a record points total we could play badly and still scrape a victory, but in the Premier Division you can't do that. On Saturday we took on Lowestoft, and although they haven't started too well they are a bigger club than we are, with good players. We didn't turn up, and they were excellent. This season we've been smashed twice, by Lowestoft and Billericay, and conceded fewer goals in all of the other matches put together than we did in those two. We need to be more consistent, we need to stop pushing the self-destruct button when we go behind to a bigger club. If we can do that we'll be ok.

Back in the summer you said that you were still learning about the Division after two seasons in it. What has this season so far taught you?

We've got a bigger, more powerful squad than we had. That's been a deliberate choice, we learned that we needed to be able to cope better with physicality. But we don't have the finances to go out and bring in ready made players, generally we have to bring them on ourselves, sometimes throw people into the side who we think might be good enough and give them the chance to prove it. We try every week to improve, but we're taking small steps. I can't go out and buy five players who would take us to the next level because we can't afford them.

Your average attendances are up twelve percent on last year. You must be delighted with that?

We've got really good supporters at Burgess Hill, they're a fantastic bunch and they are starting to understand how difficult it is at this level. Perhaps the first two years, given we'd had sustained success over three years in the division below, they had expectations that we'd do better than we did. We used to be a County League side not too long ago, but the standard at this level is miles away from the County League even though it's only two steps higher.

The supporters are an integral part of the club. Some of them have only been here three or four seasons, some much longer than that, but we're a team and when we get beaten we all hurt- whether on the pitch or in the stands. I believe that we can break into the top half of the league this year, and I desperately want to do that for them, but I'm under no illusions about how difficult that might be. If we want success, as you say, we'll need to be more consistent- we can't be beating sides 5-1 on Tuesday and losing 5-0 on Saturday.

You've now got Gary Elphick, the former Worthing manager, in the centre of your defence and wearing the armband. Towards the end of his spell at Worthing he seemed a little as if the light had gone from his game- has he got that back?

Gary is a young man, still only 31, and I can assure you that if we had eleven Gary Elphick's in the team we'd be at the right end of the table. His attitude, his commitment, his honesty is exemplary. He's played four games for us and has been our best player in three of them. It can be difficult as a manager, you never switch off, and sometimes it gets in the way of your enjoyment for the game, but Gary absolutely has a zest for life at the moment. He's a terrific lad and already you can see that our players look up to him massively. I hope he'll be here for two or three years.

Is that likely, then? He's not looking to go back into management?

I've spoken to him and, at least for the time being, he just wants to play. He took the job at Worthing, and did really well- promotion, good cup runs- and, perhaps, had they not lost Omar Bugiel to a professional club, Kane Wills and Lloyd Dawes to Eastbourne Borough, and been able to play at their own ground things might have been different. The standard we're at you can't afford to lose your best players. I lost Greg Luer to Hull City a few years ago, and we've never replaced him if I'm honest. If you're a top side you might have a ready-made replacement, the likes of us and Worthing aren't usually that lucky.

Are you happy with your squad at the moment?

Happy enough, but we'd like to have two players for every position. I'd like players to be on their toes knowing that they've got competition, as that will make us more consistent. I hope to add one more before Saturday (yesterday they announced the signing of ex-Macclesfield and Whitehawk midfielder Javier Favarel). Perhaps I should have shaken the team up before last Saturday- they'd been great against Wealdstone and Kingstonian and I thought I'd give them the chance to continue, but too many of them were flat. They might not all get the chance to play this weekend!

Talking of your squad, Pat Harding recently scored his hundredth goal in a green shirt- five for the season. He seems to have been at the club forever, and is still an integral part of your squad. What's his secret?

Clean living! He looks after himself, he understands his body, his diet, and carries no excess weight whatsoever. He's- if you like, the most professional semi-professional you're ever likely to work with. We have to help him a little- we tend to play him from a wide position rather than asking him to lead the line these days- although he was never necessarily known for his blistering pace, more for his football brain and his finishing ability. He's so disciplined, a managers dream. He doesn't like to be left out, but if I do leave him out he tells me he doesn't need an explanation as he respects my judgement. The younger lads look up to him, he trains properly, he's a pleasure to be around. I hope he'll be here for years yet, although obviously we all need to adapt when we get older and I have to help him.

Finally then, given your experience in Non-League and the professional game, which is better?

For me, personally, being a professional footballer is the best thing in the world, but perhaps you become a bit arrogant and think the world revolves around you. The game at that level is a lot bigger than when I played in it. I think perhaps that when you support a big club you're blind to the money in the game, but when you're outside of it the whole thing seems a bit obscene. When you watch football at our level, and the players are on fifty quid a week, one hundred quid a week, whatever, working their socks off after a week at work, the supporters can relate to that. If you come and watch the Non-League game you can actually get to build a relationship with the players, have a beer after the game with them- the professional game has lost that. The Premier League can be a fantastic spectacle, and it's magnificent that Brighton & Hove Albion are in it, but I think there's a gulf between the spectators and the supporters. Non-League is still a personal experience.

Burgess Hill take on Dartford at the Green Elephants Stadium tomorrow at 3PM, so why don't you come along and enjoy that personal experience? It will be our #bostikmatchday feature- so come back here for a report and supporter interviews tomorrow evening.