This was a great piece of man management and I left his office feeling 10 ft tall.
Pre-season could not have gone better and I couldn’t wait for the first game of the season. I was, without doubt, in the best physical shape of my short career.
The curtain-raiser for the 2000/01 season was against Kettering at home. It did not quite go according to plan initially as I managed to have a penalty saved and Roy O’Brien (a debutant and one of my former Arsenal colleagues) got sent off – all in the first ten minutes! What pleased me though was, unlike in previous seasons, I did not let my penalty miss affect my performance and I went on to play an important part in our 2–0 victory.
The season continued encouragingly as we beat Woking away 3–2, after being 2–0 down. I managed to score the winner with a dipping volley from just outside the box.
At this time however I’m not sure which was more exciting – my social life or my football career.
Almost everyone in the team was either in their late teens or early twenties and single. After the majority of games, be it a Saturday or Tuesday, we would meet up for a night out. This helped bring a great sense of spirit and camaraderie to the team and, in my opinion, definitely contributed to our success. Playing away at Woking on a Tuesday night held no difference to us; we rushed straight back to Yeovil and caught the last couple of hours in ‘Gardens’, our favourite midweek haunt.
People in rural outposts such as Yeovil do not get to see many celebrities, other than the odd nightclub appearance from luminaries such as Paul Danan (of Hollyoaks fame) or ex- EastEnders man Dean Gaffney. As a result, and it felt strange, we used to be looked on as minor local celebrities.
Now I know as well as you do that myself and my fellow lower-league footballing friends were absolutely nothing special but it did not stop us suddenly getting a lot more opportunities on a night out with the opposite sex than maybe we should have been used to. Suffice to say I was nowenjoying the fruits of my labour both on and off the pitch – our formerly untainted rented accommodation was now becoming quite the opposite!
The early season optimism was tempered slightly by a 3–0 spanking in our third game of the season at Haig Avenue against Southport – never a happy hunting ground for me. The result was compounded by the fact I managed to strain a medial ligament in my knee, which ruled me out of the next game.
Any feeling that the wheels were falling off was removed by the fact we bounced straight back and won our next four games. Even more pleasing for me was, even though I lost my place for one game through injury, the manager was desperate to get me fit and put me straight back in the side. No manager had ever been so eager for me to play and it made me feel great.
What I really liked about David Webb was that he simplified the game. Training took the same pattern most days: a warm-up and then some sort of possession or small-sided game mixed in with some organisational work when we got closer to a match day. Even though the pattern of the sessions was repetitive, they were never boring. In fact, I’m not sure I’d ever enjoyed training so much. It wasn’t anything revolutionary, but the difference was in the intensity. The manager didn’t let anyone slack off, irrespective of how well we were playing.
He made it clear what your job was as an individual and did not ask any player to do something they were not capable of. My job in his team as a central midfielder was to go from box to box: when we had the ball I had to always be available to receive a pass; when we were out of possession I had to compete with my opposite number to win it back. I also had to take all the set plays.
No grey areas.
If you were not doing what he asked of you, he told you what he thought in no uncertain terms. I got my first real taste of that treatment after a sloppy performance at home against Chester
Pre-season could not have gone better and I couldn’t wait for the first game of the season. I was, without doubt, in the best physical shape of my short career.
The curtain-raiser for the 2000/01 season was against Kettering at home. It did not quite go according to plan initially as I managed to have a penalty saved and Roy O’Brien (a debutant and one of my former Arsenal colleagues) got sent off – all in the first ten minutes! What pleased me though was, unlike in previous seasons, I did not let my penalty miss affect my performance and I went on to play an important part in our 2–0 victory.
The season continued encouragingly as we beat Woking away 3–2, after being 2–0 down. I managed to score the winner with a dipping volley from just outside the box.
At this time however I’m not sure which was more exciting – my social life or my football career.
Almost everyone in the team was either in their late teens or early twenties and single. After the majority of games, be it a Saturday or Tuesday, we would meet up for a night out. This helped bring a great sense of spirit and camaraderie to the team and, in my opinion, definitely contributed to our success. Playing away at Woking on a Tuesday night held no difference to us; we rushed straight back to Yeovil and caught the last couple of hours in ‘Gardens’, our favourite midweek haunt.
People in rural outposts such as Yeovil do not get to see many celebrities, other than the odd nightclub appearance from luminaries such as Paul Danan (of Hollyoaks fame) or ex- EastEnders man Dean Gaffney. As a result, and it felt strange, we used to be looked on as minor local celebrities.
Now I know as well as you do that myself and my fellow lower-league footballing friends were absolutely nothing special but it did not stop us suddenly getting a lot more opportunities on a night out with the opposite sex than maybe we should have been used to. Suffice to say I was nowenjoying the fruits of my labour both on and off the pitch – our formerly untainted rented accommodation was now becoming quite the opposite!
The early season optimism was tempered slightly by a 3–0 spanking in our third game of the season at Haig Avenue against Southport – never a happy hunting ground for me. The result was compounded by the fact I managed to strain a medial ligament in my knee, which ruled me out of the next game.
Any feeling that the wheels were falling off was removed by the fact we bounced straight back and won our next four games. Even more pleasing for me was, even though I lost my place for one game through injury, the manager was desperate to get me fit and put me straight back in the side. No manager had ever been so eager for me to play and it made me feel great.
What I really liked about David Webb was that he simplified the game. Training took the same pattern most days: a warm-up and then some sort of possession or small-sided game mixed in with some organisational work when we got closer to a match day. Even though the pattern of the sessions was repetitive, they were never boring. In fact, I’m not sure I’d ever enjoyed training so much. It wasn’t anything revolutionary, but the difference was in the intensity. The manager didn’t let anyone slack off, irrespective of how well we were playing.
He made it clear what your job was as an individual and did not ask any player to do something they were not capable of. My job in his team as a central midfielder was to go from box to box: when we had the ball I had to always be available to receive a pass; when we were out of possession I had to compete with my opposite number to win it back. I also had to take all the set plays.
No grey areas.
If you were not doing what he asked of you, he told you what he thought in no uncertain terms. I got my first real taste of that treatment after a sloppy performance at home against Chester
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