Image by Chelmsford City.
Chelmsford City Vs Weymouth
National League South, Melbourne Stadium, Saturday 21 December, 15.00 GMT
A new era begins today, Terras fans.
Tuesday evening saw the unveiling of our brand new manager, Warren Feeney, who was chosen by the board after an extremely thorough assessment, which saw him beat six other candidates.
The Belfast-born gaffer takes charge of his first game this afternoon, and is keen “to win games” for us as we start our remaining “26 cup finals” in the league.
Standing in our way are Chelmsford City, who sit in the mid-table of 15th with 25 points in 21 games.
The last time these two sides faced each other was in February this year, with a single goal by Finley Barbrook being enough to seal all three points for The Clarets.
However, we would need to better that result with a win this afternoon should we wish to move off the foot of the table, as we sit two points behind 21st-place At Albans City.
WARREN FEENEY
Warren arrives at our club with an impressive journey in football despite his relatively young age of 43-years-old, having had coaching roles in Northern Ireland, the National League South, Bulgaria and the United States as recently as this summer.
His travels have seen remarkable achievements too, some of the most notable involving him taking Bulgarian outfit Pirin Blagoevgrad up to their “First Professional Football League at the end of the 2020/21 season.
The job itself was an ambitious one, having arrived in the birthplace of Dimitar Berbatov after initially being convinced to do so by “a good friend.”
But for a man who “grew up in Belfast during The Troubles” and made the move across the sea to Leeds at the age of 16, it is clear that our new boss is not one to take the easy path.
In his own words, he “love[s] a challenge.”
So his choice to also take charge of a struggling Welling in March 2022, who were then sat 20th in the table with 10 league games remaining.
Put simply, Warren had an almighty task on his hands.
Though he achieved exactly what he set out to, not only keeping them up that year by two points but further securing their sixth-tier status the following season as they comfortably survived in 16th-place.
Perhaps a manager as driven as Warren is exactly what we need.
But if anyone doubts his desire to sort things out, they only need to look as far as what he said to us yesterday.
Describing his philosophy as “winning,” he expressed some plain-spoken statements that made clear that if people “don’t want to run you will not get in [his] team.”
As for the players, they will know exactly where they stand with their new manager…
CHANCING CHELMSFORD
As Warren said to us yesterday, his Welling side were battling Robbie Simpson’s side in the trenches as both teams fought to stay in England’s sixth division three seasons ago.
Much like The Wings, City survived by the skin of their skin, five points being the difference between whether or not they would be playing us the following campaign.
Though for The Clarets’ faithful, staying in the league would be the least of their worries once the 2022/23 season came around.
They began that year unbeaten in their first six games, including four wins, hardly the form of a team who had previously struggled to find form.
Ultimately, they found themselves behind only four teams by the time their final game had been completed, earning themselves qualification for the league’s promotion play-offs.
Though an extra-time loss in the quarter-finals at home to St Albans City marked a heartbreaking end to a stellar season, there was now plenty of promise shown by a team who had proven their worthy sixth-tier status.
So when they finished in an even better position of second place the following year, their form was now less of a miracle and more of an expectation.
Unfortunately, though, their season once more ended cruelly, and again in extra time.
One stage further in the play-off semi-finals, they had remarkably come from two goals down in stoppage time when Jermaine Francis and George Alexander scored twice in as many minutes.
But when Jayden Davis strengthened the Iron’s grip on the final once more, City were unable to claw back an equaliser as their National-League hopes were diminished for a second successive season.
This time round today’s hosts sit in 15th, closer to the drop zone than the play-offs by a single point.
But as Warren said, they’re still one of the league’s “seasoned” teams.
Beating them will take some doing…
