Mark, as we head into the final game of the season, I’m sure it’s ending frustratingly too soon for you, having just come back.
It’s been great coming back. But, hard work lies ahead. It will be a busy summer, putting together a team we can be proud of. So, I’m enthused by the challenge and really looking forward to next season.
How fair is it to say that, given us being a semi-professional club, that we need to create headstarts for next season in advance?
We need to use our challenges as fuel for our fire. We want to see where we’re at and go toe-to-toe with the best. We certainly don’t want to be hiding from any challenges.
Some things don’t happen overnight, but we’re going through a process of trying to learn and get better. There will be some ups and downs, but it’s important that we stick together and make our community proud.
We’ve spoken to a fair amount of the players over the course of this season, and, unsurprisingly, they would love to take the club as high up in this league as they can.
We were wondering, are they any main personal objectives you would like to achieve with this side?
Listen, you have to aim high all of the time. Otherwise, what are you in the game for?
My staff and I are very process-driven. We have long-term goals, which we keep quiet, but we like to look for small, marginal gains on a weekly basis. We just look to be better than we were the week before. That’s how we’ve always worked.
Compared to just narrowly missing out on relegation, how fair is it to say that the lads should be proud of being part of a great shift in progress this season?
Look, the game never gets easier. This league is getting tougher, with more full-time teams and a lot of big budgets. But, as I’ve said before, tough is good. We never had a big budget when I was here before. We were built on hard work, attention to detail, and good people. That’s what I’m looking to recreate.
Moving onto Saturday, with the game finally being in front of the home fans, on the last day of the season, the atmosphere should be buzzing, particularly with it being the final game of the season.
Definitely. We can’t wait to get back home. We’ve been away for what feels like a long time. Watching the Yeovil game, the atmosphere was fantastic. It would be great to see everyone out in force again and show what a great club we are. Hopefully we can all get together one last time before the summer.
Seeing the atmosphere when Yeovil came here must have given you the desire to try and create that for every home game.
Without a doubt. That was a special game, but can we do that against all teams?
That’s up to us. We need to give the fans something to be proud of. If they see effort and endeavour, they will get behind us, because they will see a team that’s working hard for the shirt. We will need to stick together, rain or shine, and I’m certainly looking forward to building that relationship with our community.
For a team like Farnborough, who have scored and conceded many goals in almost equal measure, this should make a fairly interesting game, perhaps one where the players have an opportunity to express themselves?
Definitely. We’re learning as we go along. We’ve had a tough end to the season, and we’re just looking to end it as strongly as we can.
Farnborough will definitely be tough. Like you said, they’re free-scoring and still within a shout of promotion. They will be all-guns-blazing. We know the quality they have.
