Ian Nockolds: “I’m delighted to be joined by Brett Partner, the Manager of Radstock Town.
“Brett, thank you for taking the time to speak with me. Unbeaten in the League since 4th of October: you must be happy with that.
Brett Partner: “Yeah, it’s really good to be undefeated. You do need to look at the fixtures; we have missed quite a few games, but the games we have played show we’ve been pretty dominant and we haven’t lost.”
IN: “Well I want to talk to you about that dominance, because in the last two games you have scored a total of nine goals. You really do find yourselves in a rich vein of form. As you mentioned, you have missed a few games, and in fact, you haven’t played since December 6th, so how frustrating has that been for you?”
BP: “You know you want to get a bit of a run of games. If you don’t play those games, you don’t want your players to fall out of form, and recently, like you said, we’ve scored quite a lot of goals. I think we’re top goal scorers in the League.
“So, missing games is crucial to our form, and I’m hoping that it doesn’t affect it. I’m hoping that the game on Saturday is on, but obviously it is weather dependent and even Boxing Day as well.
“We are training now for about two hours, instead of just the one hour, to keep the fitness up and keep everything ticking over. It’s fantastic form we’re in; the players are really doing what I want them to do, and it’s showing in our results.”
IN: “Training is something I wanted to talk to you about, because I know from our previous conversations that the way you want to set up your team and the style of play that you want to implement, is very important to you. Do you feel that the extra time you’ve had on the training ground has enabled you to do that? Obviously, you’d prefer to put it in practice in a match, but some managers might feel frustrated that they would rather their players were playing games.”
BP: “In the pre-season, we were training three days a week, two-hour sessions, so that’s six hours I would have from my players. The way I want to play football is a hard way to play, so I had to really beast them in the pre-season, not just to get them fit, but to understand the way I want to play, because it’s a very hard way.
“There’s a lot of running, a lot of pressing, a lot of attacking flair, but also it needs to be structured so we know what to do when we don’t have the ball. So, working with them three times a week for two-hour sessions has really helped us. But now, training is getting down to the finer details of the philosophy, so pre-season was just “this is the philosophy,” “this is the structure,” “this is what we do when we’ve got the ball, this is what we do when we haven’t got the ball.
“Now, it’s just going into what type of runs we need to do, what do you need to do when the ball is on this side, going through each player, so each player knows exactly what they need to do in these types of situations. For me, I think the best way of defence is attack, so most of my sessions is attacking philosophy, always attacking, always keeping the ball moving, which shows in the League.
“But again, we are very good with our structure in our defensive side, we’re very hard to break down, we’re very resilient. Every game I go into you’ve got to give me 110% and you’ve got to win every single one on one. It’s really good, but training is massive for me, because I can get my philosophy out and they can put it into practice.”
IN: “You’re absolutely right that you’re doing very well in the League, you’re fourth at the moment, so obviously the good work is paying dividends. That would actually put you in a promotion position, because it will be the top four in the division that would go up this season; so is promotion something that you’re targeting?”
BP: “First thing, I had a team meeting with the whole club; even the Reserves and the Under-eighteens, alongside the First Team, and I was saying every team wants to win the League and for the First Team, that is exactly the same. The main objective is to win the League, and if we can’t do that it’s just to get promotion. We’ve still got two games in hand which will take us, I think, one point behind first.
“We want to win the League and we are playing the type of football to be able to do that. I had said around Christmas time we didn’t want to be first, to put the pressure on us, we want to be in and around the top four and that is a ticked box for us.”
IN: “Now, if we look at the other sides that are likely to be in the mix-up, many of them you’ve already played of course – Cheddar, Wincanton, Longwell Green, Sherborne. Which of those sides have impressed you the most? Which teams do you think you’ll be fighting it out for at the top of the table this season?”
BP: “I’m very surprised with Longwell, we did beat them 4–1, but I think they’ve recruited a few more players and they’re playing very well – compliments to them.
“Sherborne are a fantastic footballing team as well, they were very hard to play against. Cheddar, I don’t think they’re showing what they did last year, I’m not sure what’s happening there, but again, they are still a very hard team to play against.
“But out of all those teams you’ve mentioned, I’m very surprised about Calne; we played them in the first game and they were very good. I thought we competed well, and they beat us, they’re very good. I wasn’t too sure if they could keep that up, but fair play to them. Again, every game is hard, you’ve got to beat what’s in front of you and the League is showing now that anyone can beat anyone. You’ve really got to be the best one on your day, otherwise you could lose against a bottom team and that will affect your promotion chances.”
IN: “That is certainly one of the hallmarks of the Western League First Division; it is that there are banana skins. For yourselves, you’ve drawn with Almondsbury this season and you lost to Lebeq.
“Now, for our long-suffering Miners’ fans, and I know you’ve been associated with the club for longer than just this current managerial spell, they will have seen that Radstock historically have played a good brand of football. Unfortunately, if they’ve had an Achilles heel, it has been their consistency, you could almost call it being ‘Spurs-y’ if you like. Now, the question for you, Brett, is how are you going to stop Radstock from being ‘Radstock-y’?”
BP: “I think we’ve got a bit of a philosophy, we know what to do, we have a structure now, which I don’t think the club had before.
“There’s always been this type of “oh, Radstock, good football,” but there’s never been a structure.
“I think it’s just been a load of players put together, and they’ve been very good players, they’ve done a good job. But, I think now there is a philosophy, there is an identity, there is a structure. The players are there, and there is a Manager in me who demands the best from everyone and sets very high standards, and those standards won’t drop.
“The players do know that and are showing they are getting better with each game; either with how many goals we’re scoring, goals conceding or just individual performances. And for me, that’s my job to keep it going, and you won’t find a Manager more determined and more motivated than me.
“So, I think Radstock is just going to keep pushing on; we’re not going to drop off, we’ve got a really good squad as well. The players that do come in for other players, they do exactly the same job as the other one, so it’s really good. Sometimes you get players who come in, don’t do quite the same job as the other one, and you wait for the other one to come back. It’s a really hard task to pick a team now, because everyone’s doing a really good job and everyone’s doing exactly what I want.
“They have just got to keep that going, keep being hungry, and I’ve just got to keep setting those targets of “we need to win this League, there is no ‘if’ or ‘doubt’ about it.
“We have to win the League or be promoted; it’s one of those two. For me, I want to win the League, I want some silverware at the end, because I think it will be good for the Radstock fans to enjoy that, and the club as a whole.”
IN: “One of the next big milestones on the horizon is the Boxing Day game, the Coalfield Classico. We know how important it is to the people of Radstock and of course, to the people of Midsomer Norton.
“Can you give us an idea, within your playing squad, and indeed within your own managerial team, how important is this match to Radstock Town Football Club?”
BP: “It’s a massive derby that’s been going on for years.
“When it comes to derby games, form goes out of the window, philosophy goes out of the window, and it’s just who wants it more. I want us to keep our identity, I want us to keep our philosophy and play the way we do, because if we do that we are going to win this game. There’s no doubt about it.
“It’s when the players do start to have emotions run higher than a normal game, that’s when things tend to be more 50-50. In past derbies where I’ve played, it’s been “let’s go hard, let’s beat them,” and yes, that’s great, but you’ve got to keep a cool head.
“For me, I want to beat them, they’re our nearest rivals, I don’t want to lose against them, simple as that.
“It’s just another game to us, another step to win the League. But it’s such a big game for the fans, it’s such a big rivalry, and I’d hate to lose it.
“I went to watch Welton the other week, just to have a scout and see how well they’re doing, and I’m pretty confident.
“No disrespect to them, but I’ve looked at their style of play, and looked at ours, and I think we are technically better in a few areas than them. I’ve identified a few areas of weakness that they’ve got, so I’m hoping if we stick to our game plan, we’ll win.”
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