Sports duo speak

On Wednesday, only nine days after they had left the club, Hullbridge Sports announced the reappointment of manager Darren Manning and Assistant Manager James Wakeling. In an interview with Hullbridge Sports TV, which you can watch in full here, they explain exactly what happened to first make them leave, and then return.

"There was a division within the committee which affected our job and how we did things," explains Darren. "We just couldn't carry on with that division there, but now it's been resolved and it's back to the happier place that it was before." James added; "When you go to work you want to be in a happy environment, and towards the end there were frictions and it was becoming a bit hard for me and Darren and became a bit of a toxic environment. It hadn't been like that when we arrived. We said that if it could be resolved we'd be back in a heartbeat, and thankfully, here we are."

"It was nothing financial," Darren went on to explain. "If anything we're coming back with a lower budget than it was towards the end of the season. It was just that we weren't happy. But now those issues have been resolved hopefully we can just kick on. The club are extremely ambitious. They say jokingly that they want to be in the National League in five years, but when you look at them you know they're not joking- they want to go as high as they possibly can, and they've got the ground and facilities to do that. If you look where we've come from two years ago you wouldn't recognise the club, and they want to do that again over the next two years. They want us to push on, and hopefully we can do that."

The interview then goes on to cover squad recruitment, and suggests that their target next season would be top ten, but that "the playoffs aren't out of the question." Follow the link above to hear all.