TT BLOG

Clive Hayward – @Byehorse

Clive blogs about Neil Warnock’s presser

TITLE HOPES NOW GONE

INJURIES REMAIN A BIG ISSUE

NEIL WARNOCK LIKELY TO OVERSEE AT LEAST 3 MORE GAMES

The Manager

Interim manager Neil Warnock gave his first full press conference this afternoon, wearing a black and green TUFC polo shirt. He looked a little tired, but there is still a twinkle in his eye. After over 1600 league games it looks though his second spell at Plainmoor will cover at least 4 more, because he told us he expects to be in charge for the long trip to Ebbsfleet on Saturday plus one and possibly both the games next week (home fixtures against Salisbury and our good friends Chesham).

He also (as good as) confirmed that his long-term assistant Ronnie Jepson will be helping him out (saying he would find out for sure tomorrow). Jepson was in the stand on Tuesday and Warnock understandably said he had felt lonely on the touchline.

Neil & Ronnie have been a double act for a very long time, sharing spells at Crystal Palace, QPR and Cardiff, to name but three. Having also worked under the volatile Stan Ternent, Jepson, 62, will have seen it all and I would expect him to be well able to tell players some home truths when necessary. Warnock described him as: “very, very good tactically.”

Injuries and Availability

There is no news. Which means only bad news.

The team picked up a few knocks v Farnborough on Tuesday. It doesn’t sound as though any of the injured players who missed Farnborough are available for Ebbsfleet.

Centre forward Cody Cooke, who went off on Saturday with a dislocated shoulder, should find out the extent of the damage tomorrow.

So we will head to Kent on Saturday minus our two first choice centre backs (Jordan Dyer not yet fit after his hamstring tear and captain Sam Dreyer still with no return date from his ankle ligament damage). Further forward, we will almost certainly have no Cody, or our “out for the season” midfielder Callum Dolan, who Warnock again described as being as good as anything he has seen in the league this season.

The interim manager put the bravest face on it that he could:

“It’s obviously difficult when your best players are out.”

“When I was a young manager, I worried about injuries cos they were always your best players, and they are here really. But it’s an opportunity for people coming in to grasp.”

Ebbsfleet (a)

Under Paul Wotton we got very used to hearing that our next opponents will be tough. Often we smiled and shrugged it off as something they have to say to be polite.

It feels very different now, on a current run of 2 points from 18. Given United’s current travails, Warnock was quick to acknowledge that playoff rivals Ebbsfleet will start as favourites on Saturday. He also stressed that it will be important to hit the ground running:

“If we have 10 minutes like we did at the start of the last game we’ll get turned over before we start,”

He ruled out United as realistic title contenders:

“I don’t think we’ll have any shout in that.”

He described the team as “a little bit fragile at the moment” and said his job is to try to give the players confidence. He said, given the lengthy run without a clean sheet, that he wants Torquay to try to give Ebbsfleet problems.

Farnborough (h)

There was praise again for Ed Palmer, and a gag about wanting to get a haircut from our big South Hams-based stopper. I don’t know whether Ed will want to get a tattoo of Warnock’s tribute:

“He’s limited but he does what he does as well as he can”

Warnock feels that Farnborough upped their game at Plainmoor and dominated the first 15 minutes. He is still upset that their opening goal was disallowed. He felt that at 1-1 we were on course to get a win, and was pleased with the second half performance, but:

“You don’t envisage their second goal”

Many fans I spoke to on Tuesday felt we could have tried to get the ball down and play more, so I asked about that. He said that you can talk about tactics all you like, but it’s confidence that players need. Confidence to take the ball more and enjoy it, and not worry about mistakes.

“You can’t tell me that Worthington doesn’t play when he wants to”

Interestingly, he said that he thinks our midfielders sometimes “over-play, for me.”

I’m not sure we will be singing “Brasil from the Westcountry” again any time soon.

The Armband

Matt Worthington took over the skipper’s duties again on Tuesday, meaning that Louis Dennis’ captaincy only hasted one game: the 0-5 humbling by Chelmsford on Saturday. The rationale for this, Warnock explained, was that he believed Worthington was the best man for the job, and that he doesn’t fancy forwards in the role.

Everything goes in cycles, so we now have Paul Wotton’s original skipper back in charge, despite Worthington having been stripped of the armband for disciplinary reasons before Christmas.

Paul Wotton

It’s probably best to finish with a word about our recently-departed gaffer. Warnock remains staunch in his defence of his protegee. When discussing the likely procedure for appointing a new manager, Warnock was at pains to point out that you would struggle to find someone with better stats in National League South than Paul. He was certain that Wotton will be back in the game soon, and I’m sure everyone at Plainmoor will echo that.