Why I Believe In This Team More Than Ever

Three games. Three defeats. There is no point pretending otherwise and I certainly won’t hide from it. Results are ultimately what we are judged on in football.

But if you ask me how I feel about this group of players after the opening three games of the season, my answer might surprise a few people.
I believe in them more now than I did three weeks ago.

This is my 17th season as a manager. I’ve experienced plenty of good times, difficult periods, promotions, relegations, winning runs and losing runs.

I’ve been around football long enough to know the difference between a team that is struggling and a team that is close. I genuinely believe we’re close.

A Summer Of Work

I’ve probably never worked as hard away from the pitch for a season as I did this summer. Last season hurt me. I’ve spoken about that before and I won’t keep looking backwards, but it made me question everything.

What could I do better? What could we improve? What type of squad did we need? How could training improve? How could we create an environment the players wanted to be part of?
We started working on this season almost immediately.

Recruitment. Retention. Training. Pre-season. Standards. Organisation. The environment around the team. And I loved our pre-season.

Not simply because we won football matches. We had difficult nights as well. I loved it because I watched a group beginning to come together.

Training was excellent. The attitude was excellent. We had players pushing each other. We had quality throughout the squad and some of our football in the friendlies showed exactly what this group is capable of.

That hasn’t disappeared because we’ve lost three competitive games.

Give The Opposition Credit

Sometimes in football you also have to acknowledge the opposition. Warrington Rylands were excellent against us on the opening day. They took their opportunities and deserved enormous credit for their performance.

We then travelled to Dukinfield Town, the reigning Manchester Football League Premier Division champions. That’s a very good football team. We competed with them, took the lead and pushed them all the way before eventually losing 2-1 late in the game.

Then came Upton. They arrived at Banky Lane in excellent form and played really well again on Saturday. They deserve credit for that.

But so do my players. We were 2-0 down.We responded.

We were 3-1 down. We responded.

We were 4-2 down. We responded again.

We got ourselves back to 4-4 and kept going right until the final whistle.

We lost the game 5-4, and we know there were moments that cost us.

But I saw something in my players on Saturday that matters enormously to me. They refused to give in.

Players Stepping Forward

There are individuals who deserve recognition as well. James Matthews has been outstanding in front of goal. He finished pre-season as our leading goalscorer and has carried that straight into the competitive season with three goals in three games.

Alfie Howarth has started the season superbly. He’s showing maturity, consistency and becoming an increasingly important player for this team.

And then there’s Mike Woolley. Mike has now become Mersey Valley’s all-time record appearance holder. I’ve managed Mike for a long time and I know exactly what this club means to him. At this level, that sort of loyalty should never be taken for granted. Records like that are earned through turning up, competing and being there for your teammates year after year.

But I could go through this squad and find reasons to be positive about every one of them.

What pleased me most on Saturday wasn’t an individual statistic. It was the attitude of the group.

My Team. My Players. My Responsibility.

I want the players to understand something very clearly. There is no pressure coming from me because of three results. None.

That doesn’t mean we’re accepting defeats. Far from it. Nobody will demand more from this group than I will, and nobody will work harder to turn performances into results.

But I’m not going to spend an entire summer building something I believe in and suddenly question it after three games. That’s not how I work. These are my players. This is my team. When we win, we win together. When we lose, we lose together.

And ultimately the responsibility for everything this team does sits with me.I’ll protect this group, I’ll challenge this group and I’ll keep demanding more from them because I know how much quality is in that changing room.

We will make mistakes. I’ll make mistakes. Players will have bad games. We’ll have difficult Saturdays. That’s football. What matters is what we do next.

Something Worth Building

Mersey Valley has always meant more to me than putting eleven players onto a football pitch on a Saturday. It’s the people.

It’s the volunteers who give up their time. The committee. The coaches. The sponsors. The supporters. The families around the pitch. The junior section. And the players who pull the shirt on and represent all of them.

One Community. One Club. Stronger Together.

Those words have to mean something when things aren’t perfect, not just when we’re winning.

We’re three games into a long season. Three defeats don’t change what I thought about these players in August.

If anything, seeing the fight, character and togetherness they showed on Saturday has strengthened it. We need to improve. We know that. We need to cut out mistakes. We know that too. But we’re not miles away. We’re close.

And when it clicks – and I genuinely believe it will – I think people will start to see why I have so much faith in this group.

Number 100

Saturday will be a special one for me personally. Cheadle Heath Nomads are a club I know incredibly well and one I will always have a huge amount of affection for. I worked with some brilliant people there and have some fantastic memories from my time at the club.

But Saturday will have another significance. It will be my 100th competitive game as manager of Mersey Valley.

When I took the job in July 2023, I don’t think I ever really considered milestones like that.

Management consumes you at times. There are the matches everyone sees on a Saturday, but behind them are countless hours preparing training, speaking to players, recruiting, planning, worrying, questioning yourself and trying to make the football club better.

You experience some incredible highs and some horrible lows. And then you turn up and do it all again.

That’s why reaching 100 games means something to me. But I don’t want Saturday to be about me. I want it to be about us. My 100th game isn’t something I’ve reached on my own. It’s been players, coaches, committee members, volunteers, supporters, sponsors, friends and families giving their time to this football club.

Most of all, it’s about the players. Past and present. I’m incredibly proud to manage Mersey Valley Football Club. I’m incredibly proud of this group. And despite the results at the start of this season, I genuinely believe we’re building something worth believing in.

So there is no panic from me. There is pride. There is belief. There is work to do. And on Saturday, for the 100th time as Mersey Valley manager, I’ll stand on that touchline believing completely in the players wearing our shirt.

My team. My players. My responsibility. And whatever comes next, we face it together.