Powered by Ogi

It’s great to sit down to talk with you today Tony to discuss your time so far at Haverfordwest, you’ve just hit the 500 day mark at the club - when you came into the club what were your expectations and goals?

I didn’t necessarily set any specific goals when I first came in, to be honest. The club’s goal is always to finish in the top six, but with the amount of injuries we’ve had over the last two years it has been difficult. It was bad last year, but this year it’s even worse.

It was a cracking result you had up in Connah’s Quay (a recent 2-1 victory), considering the amount of players you had out.

Yeah, not many people saw that coming, to be honest. A great effort from the team we had out. 

This year we’ve had four key players who haven’t kicked a ball. Take four senior players out of any team and it’s a tough ask for the lads across the season. We’ve got a demanding fixture list, playing week in, week out with the youngest team in the league and that often shows when playing the more experienced teams.

The goal of finishing in the top six didn’t happen last season but it turned out to be a blessing in disguise with Haverfordwest going on a European adventure after winning the bottom half play-off to qualify, and to get a win in Europe too, you couldn’t have envisioned that when you first came in to the club?

Definitely not, especially with the start to the season that we had. There was a period where we thought we had hit a wall but then we came strong towards the end. That last part of the season, where we were aiming to finish 7th and win our group, we ended up doing it quite comfortably in the end.

Once we were in that cut-off group, that was always the goal, to finish top and go from there. We had two tough away games, a really tough ask with the play-offs but fair play to the lads and we managed to get certain players back towards the end of the season and you could see we were a lot more competitive as a squad.

You’ve recently signed a one-year contract extension too, but this season you’ve had similar frustrations with injuries - what are your goals for this campaign?

Top six again, but the draw the other night (1-1 versus Cardiff Met) has made that a really tough task. No we would have to win four out of our last five games - which of course is still doable until it isn’t, so that’s the aim. But certainly the draw has made our main objective extremely difficult now.

And should you find yourselves in that bottom group after the cut-off, you can try and get European Football again through the play-offs.

That’s the aim, but when you look at who else is going to be the bottom six then it’s going to be tough, the league is a lot more competitive this year.

One of the questions we had planned was about the quality of the Welsh Leagues, you had a brief spell at Aberystwyth previously, a long time ago. Would you say the quality of the league has increased in recent years with the number of recognised internationals or former international players like Jazz Richards now playing?

The standard of football has definitely improved since I played in the league back in the early two thousands, but unfortunately in many ways the league hasn’t really moved on. We’ve still got a lot of the same grounds, the same places we go to, not much has improved. 

The league needs money, investment. I’m not saying that clubs need to move down or anything drastic but proper money put into the infrastructure of most clubs really.

Where does that need to be coming from? From the FAW? Because we’ve seen the Welsh National Team have plenty of success over the last decade or two, the sides in England enjoying football at a high level.

I can’t remember the last time we had funding off anybody, but you’d have to ask the people who’ve been here longer than me. I’m not just talking about our club, but I look around at the clubs around us and in the divisions below and everything the same as it was twenty years ago when I was playing in those divisions. So I don’t think real money has been coming into the league, so I don’t see anything different happening to what we’re seeing now.

Moving on to a little bit about Pembrokeshire, I know that you’re living in Haverfordwest nearby and you’ve been sharing content on social media about the county - is it fair to say that you’ve settled in well in the area and that was a factor in extending your stay?

I do like it, it’s a bit quiet but I don’t mind that really. I’ve made some good friends since I’ve been down here and its a really nice part of the country. I’m living five minutes away from the ground and its easy to go and visit my parents in Swansea, that helps as well. Yeah it’s nice to experience different places.

Are you a Swansea City fan?

It was growing up supporting my hometown team. I used to go to the Vetch back in the day when I was a kid. Getting the opportunity to work for Swansea was something special for me as well, especially towards the end of their time at the Vetch, to experience that last season and get promoted out of the league too was a great experience for us all really, especially for the local boys. It was somewhere I worked for nine years, it’s somewhere I always look at the results.

Growing up, who were the players you enjoyed watching, who were inspirational to you?

You won’t know them, you’re too young probably! Ray Clemence was probably my favourite player, fellow goalkeeper. I was really fortunate, I worked with his son —

— I thought you were going to say Neville Southall —

I liked him, but Liverpool was the team I liked as a kid. Clemence was the player I admired and I was fortunate enough to work with his son at Hull, a bit of a surreal moment when I met him.

Steve Clemence, he’s now manager of Gillingham, that was when he was First Team coach at Hull with Steve Bruce.

Kenny Dalglish, now he was a special player.

Then you look at the Swans, the Swansea team that went through the divisions. Robbie James, Alan Curtis, they were Swansea lads as well.

I might be young but I love hearing stories about old footballers. My grandad was a professional footballer, Mike Metcalf, who played in the Fifties and Sixties for Chester and Wrexham. He’s actually in the Chester Hall of Fame, scored a lot of goals for them. I’ve got a photo of him with Ferenc Puskas and a match programme from an FA Cup game against Manchester United, I should have brought it down. 

Wow, he played with Puskas?

It was actually a charity game. They were building a hospital in Liverpool and they wanted to raise money, so thought who’s the most audacious player we can ask? So they asked Pele and he wrote a letter back saying he already had a game on that day but to get in touch with Puskas, who to their surprise flew over from Hungary for the game. 

I can’t see that happening these days! (Laughs)

That’s it, it would be like getting Messi down here.

Getting Puskas, that’s some draw up for that game.

What happened then was they set up the game, it was a sort of International XI versus a Football League XI. So the Football League side of it has players like John Charles, Billy Liddell and then my Grandad. Even though he was playing in Division Three. He actually scored in the game too and Puskas bagged a hat-trick. The other memory then is a cup game against United in the early Sixties, I’ve got the match programme at home from when he came up against an 18 years old George Best.

Wow, those are incredible stories.

Moving back on topic, you’ve mentioned a little bit about your time at Hull. What were your main takeaways from that experience working there?

I had a brief spell with the First Team in the Premier League with Mike Phelan. When Mick got the sack, Marco Silva came in, I left the club.

That’s when I went to Aberystwyth, had a few games. Then I went back to Hull after he left and I was there for five years then.

I was first team coach there then and it was a great time.

You’ve brought Dan Hawkins in from there - what was your relationship there?

Dan was a kid at Swansea when I was there, he’s the same age as my lad. I have a good relationship with some of the staff from Swansea, could see who was being released. He went to Salford but then was injured last year so I go in touch to see if he could come training and he ended up staying here.

With the transfers, do you have a lot of input there or are there other people at the club who deal with identifying the targets, bringing in players?

There’s me, the Chairman and one of the board members who’s an agent and works for an agency. We work together and a number of players come through but ultimately if I don’t want to sign them, they don’t sign.

So for example, Luke Tabone, how did that come about?

Through somebody I knew, yeah.

I remember reading at the time that you were an admirer and it certainly seemed like a bit of a coup for the club. The last few years you’ve had some big names, Dan Hawkins, Jazz Richards, Martell Taylor-Crossdale.

With Martell, Luke and Dan, they’re all quite young lads trying to kickstart their careers. Obviously with Jazz it’s a bit different, a different part of his career. He had retired from football and then was convinced to come here. 

These boys, they’re looking for a springboard to get back to a higher level of football and you know, that’s where we try to help them. They’ll get a kickstart if they perform well for us, then other clubs will come knocking.

A double-edged sword for you then, you must be happy to help develop them an advance their careers but obviously you’ve got to replace them too when they do leave. Do you always have a set of live targets that you monitor, planning ahead to bring in? Or is it always constantly changing?

We’re always looking. Always trying to identify who could come and strengthen the squad. We’ve got a lot of boys out of contract at the end of the season so we’re prepared and have spoken to a lot of them about signing contracts but until January it’s difficult to nail things down.

It’s a nightmare manager Haverfordwest on Football Manager, with all the players going out of contract constantly.

You sound like my Chairman who plays Football Manager all the time. You wanna do my job! (Laughing)

Yeah it’s hard enough on a video game, I can imagine you’re often stressed.

Most people you speak to don’t even know where Haverfordwest is, that’s the issue. 

I was going to ask about that, coming down here, what was the point of contact and the approach like?

It was just a conversation with Rob (the Chairman) really. At the time I think the job was earmarked for somebody else but that fell through and the club got back in touch with me. So Gary Richards, the assistant, I worked with him in Swansea and have known him for years. We had a long conversation and I did a presentation for the board and they offered me the job, so that was 18 months or 500 odd days ago.

You’ve got a strong relationship with Rob then, always in contact?

Yeah, Rob’s great. We’re always speaking a number of times a week. He’s away on business at the moment but even then he’s contactable. 

From the outside looking in he seems very committed, very involved in the club, caring about what’s going on. 

Yeah, there’s Rob then a number of board members. They’re all really approachable and give me help when I ask for it. We’re trying to build something here and hopefully that continues and we keep moving forward.

As a manager, what’s your schedule, what does a normal sort of week look like for you?

We try to train three times a week but at the moment it’s difficult with the facilities available to us. We have to use an artificial pitch and travel at times.

We train Tuesday and Thursday locally and Wednesday in Carmarthen. Not all the lads train all three nights, Tuesday and Thursday is only some of them. There’s probably only half the boys that train across the three nights.

With the injuries we’ve got it’s difficult too, we can’t risk injuries all the time. At times we’ve had five kids on the bench and the Cymru Premier is a tough place for 17, 18 years olds. 

Saying that, we’ve had two start in the last few games and they’ve been fantastic for us.

Harri John has been fantastic for us, I saw him training last summer when I first came to the club and he stood out straight away. He just settled in straight away to the standard we want for the first team. He’s technically very good. He’ll get stronger but he’s a footballer first and foremost and I know that’s the way I want to play. 

It’s not just Harri, Jacob Owen has come into the team now, he signed for us in the summer. There’s other boys too, Dan John, Harri’s brother, Lucas Davies, Ifan Knott the goalkeeper, he’s only 19.

He had a great performance recently, saving a penalty. With Zac Jones ahead of him, he must learn a lot from him.

Yeah, I’d like to think so.

Are these players all in and around each other often?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. We all train together. Like tonight we train with the Nineteens (Under 19s squad), we work closely with the Nineteens’ staff. They’re second in the league at the moment having a great season. I think the fact we’ve integrated so much of the them, it helps them when they are called upon to play for us.

How helpful is it having local players like Ricky Watts still playing such an important part in the team?

He signed a new contract to have another year. He’s been exceptional for us and in Europe too. We just have to wrap him up in cotton balls to be honest and Ricky won’t mind me saying that. He’s getting on a bit and has a physical job too, but he’s a cracking player for us and has been a great servant for us.

And popping up with important goals recently too.

Ricky can turn up every Saturday and put a shirt on for me, that’s how good he is. That’s how important he is to the team. A humble guy as well. When he can’t play, you know, you trust him, he knows his body but when he is able to play he gives you everything and that’s all I ask for.

I knew of him before I came into the club, how highly people spoke of him. I’m big friend with Wayne Jones (ex Haverfordwest manager) and him and a lot of other people were always signing Ricky’s praises. He’s been extremely consistent for me no matter what position I’ve played him in.

Boden: He used to play up front when we were kids, he was a bit of a dead ball specialist.

I haven’t seen him take any free-kicks here (laughs).

Preparing for this weekend’s game (versus TNS, which was later postponed due to the weather), you’ve still got a handful of players out?

We’re missing seven for the weekend. Obviously Dylan (Rees) is out for the season, Kyle Patten’s had a back operation, Jazz has been out all season. Jack Wilson’s injured at the moment, Elliot Scotcher hasn’t played all season. Key players.

That’s our experience, take that out of any team and it’s going to be tough. Sometimes we just need that bit more experience on the pitch to help the youngsters.

I think I know what the answer is going to be, but have you got any favourite moments so far, favourite goals?

It’s got to be Jenks (Lee Jenkins’ 89th minute winner against Shkendija in the Europa Conference League) hasn’t it?

It has to be that one.

Sorry Fawcy (Ben Fawcett), Fawcy scored the goal in the second game but Jenk’s goal got us there.

You were unfortunate in the next tie, with that penalty decision. Obviously you don’t have VAR in the Welsh Premier, but have you got any opinions on the direction the game is going? The penalty PSG were awarded last night (against Newcastle in the Champions League) - shocking.

Hasn’t helped the game in my opinion, it’s made it worse.

The definite are the goal line technology and offsides, those are what it should be used for. There’s too many opinions, they’re still getting decisions wrong left, right and centre. Just let referees make mistakes.

You’ve got the sin bin, that works in Rugby.

I can’t say I’m an angel on the side of the pitch, it is hard, sometimes emotions can get the better of you. You see the abuse referees take from managers and players though, something has to be done to stop that. Rugby, different game cricket, different game. No wonder we can’t get referees.

We’ve played Welsh Cup games this season where there has been no fourth official. No disrespect but at the level we are at we should have a fourth official.

Talking about football in general, what are your favourite memories as a fan?

I remember Mark Hughes scoring an absolute worldly for Wales against Spain back in what would have been the late eighties.

I’m showing my age now, Justin Fashanu scored a goal against Liverpool when he was playing for Norwich, think it won goal of the season, wow.

Do you find yourself getting the chance to go and watch many games?

I’ll always try to get to a game on Friday night, at whatever level really. I’m always watching games.

I love going to watch games live. I’ve been everywhere this year, I think the only team I haven’t seen playing live is Canaerfon. I’ve seen everyone else.

Thanks for taking the time to speak with us today Tony. What’s the plan for the rest of the day? Training tonight?

Yeah, just doing the prep now for TNS on Saturday, finishing off stuff.

We have a meeting before the game. I’ve tried all different ways of sending videos up to the boys but you don’t know who’s watching them properly so I’d rather do it when we’re all in the dressing room, before the war.

It’s been great to speak with you Tony, good luck for the weekend.

It’s been great lads, thanks for coming down and all the best with Connect: Pembrokeshire. Your magazine is fantastic, I’ll be using it for my scouting (laughs). It’s great to see young lads working hard to provide new sports coverage in the county.

Photo Gallery (click to view in full)