NLWFC Podcast
The official podcast for Newton le Willows FC with reviews and previews of matches from all age groups, player, coach and fans interviews as well as fun features #ForzaNewton
NLWFC Podcast
NLWFC Pod - 'ere we go....'
The very first episode of the brand new podcast for all things Newton le Willows FC. In this episode we welcome Club Chairman Andy Tither and Men's Open Age Manager, Dan Farell to the pod.
Andy gives us an overview of the current and future plans for the club whilst Dan gives an overview of pre-season as well as the amazing start to the season so far.
Both dish the dirt on those with the worst taste in music in dressing room and who takes the longest getting ready for a game.
Dan also calls out a challenge to one of his team....who is it?
Thank you.
SPEAKER_01:Hi and welcome to an all-new Newton& Willows podcast, the podcast for all your club news, previews, reviews and facts. For our first ever episode, I'm delighted to welcome club chairman Andy Tither and men's open age manager Dan Farrell to the pub. Welcome gents, how are you doing? Thanks for having us,
SPEAKER_00:how are you? Thank you. Really nervous.
SPEAKER_01:Really nervous, no need to be nervous. There's some nervous energy about, but look, we've got a brand new podcast dedicated to the football club.
SPEAKER_00:Good? It's good. I'll speak from a club perspective first we've wanted to do this for a while and not known how so thank you for sliding into our DMs and offering your services it's something that we've been really conscious about our marketing our communication methods and our appeal and obviously we're going into a bit of a younger generation and there are more mediums to get it out there so yeah really excited about this we've got a number of ideas in our head and And I'm looking forward to getting to hear from some of our players, actually, not just me, but hearing off from me to get some of the players on.
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely. Well, everybody's got to contribute, right? So it's got to be players, managers, and thankfully we've got one with us today. But I think the fans have to come along and do their bit as well at times. It's got to be done because we've got to share that workload. So, Dan, how are you feeling about the podcast coming to the club?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, I think it's pretty exciting. I'll just echo what Andy says in some way. which is it's always good to get, you know... getting out on a bigger platform out to a wider audience that's always an advantage I think
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely and I must admit until I come down to the club two weeks ago there was a meeting and a forum I didn't realise how big the club was just how many teams across age groups how many people involved the amount of volunteers and to be fair the amount of work that the managers have to go through as well I really didn't realise and I'm not going to you know big it up too much because Dan will get a big head and we'll never get him out and all that sort of stuff. But it's good that, you know, people need to understand that, I think, and I hope that this will bring that format to everybody involved with the club.
SPEAKER_00:I must admit, for the first time, I've not actually counted how many teams we've got this year, but we've been in and around the 40 teams mark, ranging from under sevens in our junior section up to and including under 18s in the junior section. And then we have two men's teams in the open age so actually you only have to be 16 to play open age and we do have a few 16 year olds I'm pleased to say and we have a ladies team as well so yeah circa 40 teams around about 600 players and I would say upwards of about 150 volunteers if you include team admins and coaches and trustees and various subcommittee roles it's turned into a bit of a beast
SPEAKER_01:it sounds like and it takes organising doesn't it it doesn't just happen overnight and I can imagine the WhatsApp groups going off and all that good stuff but look the club's got a great facility but to host 40 teams 600 I know different teams play at different places and all that but we're very fortunate down at Newton aren't we
SPEAKER_00:I just love it here on a Saturday and a Sunday when you bump into cricket and you bump into rugby league you bump into rugby union bump into tennis and apologies if I've missed anyone out there but I don't think that I have and it just feels like it's a really good community and the sections for me I mean I'm privileged as well that as part of my club chairman role that I am on the sports club kind of committee and I get to go to the meetings and we're working in harmony and every section seems to be wanting to grow and push forward so we are definitely stronger together and it's absolutely buzzing here on a Saturday and it's a good vibe in the bar as well
SPEAKER_01:I absolutely and I've been testament to some of those and walked out of here a bit worse so we're on a number of occasions probably not as much as you boys to be fair but we've got the autumn coming up as well so the rugby union will kick off being a southern boy I'm looking forward to that but I know they endorse it here at the club which is hard to find in the northwest
SPEAKER_02:yeah
SPEAKER_01:yeah really hard to find so it's a win-win for me as well so Andy as part of your role you've been associated with the club for how long
SPEAKER_00:I started when I was seven years And I'm a little bit older than that now. I'm 39 recently. So I would say 32 years as a player. And then I became a referee, had to stop playing. I wasn't any good anyway, so it was no loss to the game. And then I became a coach. And then I became a committee member as I wanted to get more involved in kind of shaping... the kind of like pathway for junior footballers and coming into our adult section and then we became a charity so that effectively transferred us from being a committee member to a trustee and then latterly for the last three years I've been chairman after Jeff stepped back and my wife told me that I had to do it Fair play So yeah it's been the club you know really means an awful lot to me and I think I'm really I really feel like this is a bit of a pivotal moment in kind of not just the club's history but in terms of where it's heading and this is the reason why I wanted to bring Mr Farrell with us because from a senior point of view I think it's fair to say that the football club has always had a good reputation of being a very very well established well oiled junior section and we've also got an adults team that plays for us now it's not been like that for a few years but I've slowly but surely seen the culture of our football club change to really having that focus and that senior focal point those role models that are playing such wonderful football at the moment can only be a good thing for our juniors actually to add to that so rather than it being a junior team with an adult section we're one football club but ultimately the goal of going through that junior pathway is to play for our adults team and for them to aspire to play for our adults because they're playing at a really good level
SPEAKER_01:How nice is that as well like the lads come down in and around the club they see the results and Dan to be fair a great start to the season you probably couldn't have gone any better but we'll come on to that in a little while how long have you been associated with the club? So
SPEAKER_03:I started playing for Newton when I was about 19 so I originated from Manchester I won't give you my life story but I sort of split myself between Manchester and Newton when I was about 10, 11 and then I split my sort of teenage years across Manchester and it was just soft parents and family and all that and then it was pretty much as soon as I got a car and I had the ability to drive I started playing for Newton and then god probably three or four years after that I had a bit of an injury and then that was when I got introduced into coaching asked by a chap called Dave Smith to help out with a junior team which my younger brother played on that was when they were under 9s under 10s and then yeah I alongside a couple of mates Big Ant and Hutchie and Woodsy and Co then took those that junior team right throughout to under 18s when they aged out I sort of got back playing as well at the same time and then probably about 6-7 years ago I sort of reluctantly hung my boots off which wasn't an issue for anybody and took up coaching the Open Age team as well managing so I was sort of doing both across the weekend which was pretty challenging managing on a Saturday and on a Sunday but yeah I've had a brilliant sort of time with the junior team having you know been privileged to take them right throughout the age groups and then they aged out and effectively become part of the Open Age team so yeah really really proud of that to be honest So you've
SPEAKER_01:seen their development and their journey a long way through there and seeing what they're doing today
SPEAKER_03:Yeah yeah still still it's probably half a dozen of those lads that were started off with myself and the other guys that under nines under tens are still playing with us which is hopefully a testament to that we're not complete idiots
SPEAKER_01:Well no but as well when I think about the club there's some commitment in there from those lads and I'm sure they could have had opportunities to go elsewhere not because other clubs are better or necessarily but mates and family and all that but they want to stay at Newton and that must be really really good for you that must be amazing for you to witness and be a part of
SPEAKER_03:I honestly can't be prouder of sort of I know it's a bit boring and it's not necessarily as well it isn't as good as trophies and league wins and all that but the player attention we've had over the past several years has been ridiculous I've be very surprised if there's many other clubs in and around the area that have had the player retention that we've been lucky to have over the past decade really.
SPEAKER_01:And that's something you can't advertise or buy can you? It's culture and it has to come from people within the club like yourself Andy, like yourself Dan and I'm sure many many others that have built that.
SPEAKER_00:I think just about that culture point for me the way that Mr Farrell here runs that open age set up it's very easy to fall into a trap of first team reserve team right it's one squad right so there are people who will get fair chance of progressing and you know I use the term help out very loosely in the fact that Dan takes the training on a Wednesday Dan gets all the grief about where they want to play and etc etc I get given a match day squad as the reserve team coach with Ant and you know we do our best with that but actually from our point of view it's really pleasing to see some of the lads that started out in the reserves have actually become an established first team regulars and that's testament to you and how you manage that group and the fact that you know when you're asking for availability you want availability for the first and the second you're not allowed to just vote for one unless there's a genuine reason so there is no divide in that squad and And I think that harmony is just, it's wonderful to see. I think it's in a really good place at the moment.
SPEAKER_01:That's good to hear. And for those that may be coming through that reserve squad, looking up at others and going, well, yeah, they do get a chance. It's real that we can see the players there today. That
SPEAKER_00:must be inspiring for those as well. And, you know, by the same token in the area of balance, there's never a problem when, you know, in inverted commas, someone drops to the first team because it's not deemed as that. It's a case of... This is our availability. You know, some people might need more minutes or you're coming back from an injury or just the fact that the competition with places is so fierce that get your chance, take it and let's have a conversation, right? So it's that good competition is breeding, I guess, the success. The success off the pitch is breeding the success on the pitch.
SPEAKER_01:Well, the success on the pitch has started amazing this season. So Dan, could you tell us a bit before we get to this season, how's pre-season been?
SPEAKER_03:it was pretty much like every other pre-season in so much as it's bloody hard work pardon the French and that's not just for us that's for every other team in terms of holidays rightly so and player availability and sort of opposition availability and even facility availability if I could have a pound for every message we get saying are you available for a friendly in pre-season can we use your pitch I'd be a very very rich man but again it's the same for every club it's not just us we sort of I've never been one of those sort of types of managers who insists on having six, seven, eight games in pre-season because inevitably come November and the lads are goosed and they'll sort of go well that's because you flogged us in summer so we sort of try and focus on getting three, four max five friendlies for each of the teams but yeah it was hard work with teams but pulling out at last minute and again it sort of works both ways of course we didn't necessarily have availability for two squads every Saturday and I think yeah we played five, six games a couple of wins one draw a couple of losses but it's fine I never ever read too much into pre-season I've done that in the past where we've won every game thought we were the best team in the world start the league and we get beat or on the flip side we sort of lose every game and think this is going to be an absolute disaster and then it goes well so Yeah, pre-season was pre-season. It was, yeah, struggle with availability and stop-start training. But yeah, we're blessed in the fact that we can sort of draft in a couple of guys to help us run a couple of fitness sessions, which I think that the lads really, really appreciate and certainly, well, it appears so given the attendance. And I think that's a real boost and a real... something that's really helpful in pre-season.
SPEAKER_01:And it's hard, isn't it? To ask players to do their own thing is one thing, and I'm sure they do, but if you're not professional, the discipline may not be there. And it's the same for everybody. So to put that on and to get their lads fit and make sure that they're doing something, they would appreciate that, I'm pretty
SPEAKER_03:sure. Yeah, absolutely. We can't dictate what they do, how outside of the hour we have them on a Wednesday and a couple of hours on a Saturday but we always just try and say behave yourself try and keep yourself into a decent level of fitness otherwise it fundamentally is those individuals that might actually you know be impacted really if they don't necessarily keep up with the rest of the group but no we're looking so much as that we've got you know quite a fit bunch of lads and yeah quite a level playing field in that respect Good
SPEAKER_01:and would you say you're fit for purpose for the season so You started the season amazingly well. Pre-season, you know, you've had the same challenges as anybody else, but the start of the season, you'd say, we're firing on all cylinders. Would you say you're all right for the rest of the season at this stage?
SPEAKER_03:I'd like to think so. I mean, if there's one thing I will take away from sort of grassroots managing is that you never know what's around the corner. I think in terms of the overall squad, as Andy touched on, you know, we don't have a first and a second. We have an overall collective group it's the best probably you know group of players we've ever had and that's hopefully showing in terms of results we've had so far I don't want to get ahead of ourselves just yet because we're only into September but yeah I think it took toward you know barring any major injuries or anything like that we should hopefully hopefully have a decent season to look forward to
SPEAKER_01:Good and did you set out any specific goals or anything think before the season started you know some people say I wanted to finish in a certain position or or have you just left it and see where you get to no
SPEAKER_03:I say again that's something I used to do and then if it doesn't happen, you feel as though you've got a bit of egg on your face. So I know it sounds a bit cliche and a bit boring, but we just say as long as we can progress every year, we'll be happy. If we can be what we did last year, if that turns into anything more tangible, then great. But yeah, listen, I would be naive to say we wouldn't like to be promoted or have a good cup run, and that's for both teams. But let's see how it goes.
SPEAKER_01:Good. It's nice to have that level-headed approach, especially after that amazing start to the season. But are there any fixtures this season you're really looking forward to? Anyone you're really looking forward to playing?
SPEAKER_03:I mean, with respect to the rest of our opposition teams, not necessarily. I think what is good is being able to go to the sort of I mean, we're lucky with these leagues in so much as that a lot of these teams have great facilities. Some of them have mini stadiums, for want of a better phrase. So some of the new teams that have joined us this year, I think it'd be really a really good experience to go to their place and their ground. But yeah, again, with respect, we've tended to play a number of teams, a number of the same teams over the past four, five years so it's always nice to go somewhere a bit different, play new teams and experience new players and yeah, no individual team stands out but yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Brilliant. And talking of new, Andy, I know there's a number of new things you want to bring to the club or are bringing to the club this year, sorry, not want to. It's happening, right? Pathways and this maybe and other things. How excited are you for this season for the club?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I really am because it's dangerous when I get time to think because that usually means work for somebody else. So I have these ideas and, you know, out of 100 ideas, 99 of them might be rubbish, but there might be one little gem in there. The first thing to say is that us as a football club, we have got 15 trustees that sit on the board, which is the max that you can have constitutionally. And we went through a bit of an exercise in the off-season to look at the roles and responsibilities. We'd onboarded three new trustees in Amy, Lee and Chris, who bring loads and loads of different skills and qualities. And it gave us a real opportunity to just audit what we've done because we've been doing it for so long with an established bunch of trustees that you naturally just fall into the trap of, well, I can do that. Oh yeah, do you know what? I'll do that. And so we mapped out our roles and responsibilities. And what we found was that I was the busiest fool in the football club and probably didn't need a matrix for anyone to come to that conclusion but I kind of a legacy thing of what I was doing before being chairman and then just saying hey we could do this but put your money where your mouth is so let's do it I'll do it and what we've done is we've kind of shared the roles and responsibilities and it's not a workload thing it's more about getting the right person for the right job because they can do it better and social media is a fantastic example of this so yes this podcast is really exciting because do you know what I wouldn't know where to start you know what you're doing right so I'm here and I'm happy to be well okay within reason better than anyone else at the football club anyway Rob don't be so modest but there is a changing world out there and I mentioned about social media so I started social media 12 years ago when I came onto the committee we started with Facebook because that was the only one that was around and you know we kind of advertise and we've grown the page to 4,000 followers. But I've kind of felt like when I've kind of sat back and reflected, we're still doing the same things more often than not than we were 12 years ago. Well, we weren't very Instagram savvy. We weren't using Twitter or whatever we're calling it these days to best effect. We talked about doing TikTok and YouTube and VO highlights for the seniors on our YouTube channel. And all of a sudden, this media team has kind of assembled and I've had to take a little bit of a step back for the progress of the football club and it's in its infancy but I can already see a difference and I can see our members engaging in different ways and I can see more followers on Instagram and more interactions on Twitter so that's really really exciting but that aside we are a football club so let's talk a little bit about football so if we look at our kind of offering to the community and you know we are a community based football club we've got ambitions of advancing up football pyramid but we know our place so we talk about our junior section under 7s to under 18s we've got our two men's teams first and reserves and we've got our ladies first team and effectively an under 18s girls team which will either integrate into ladies or form a second team within their own right in due course but it's what you do around that because that is kind of how it's always been within the football circle so we introduce the academy so the academy is for boys and girls that are in preschool reception year one really we're trying to grow all over the game they're so young there's no seriousness to it but it's been fundamentally the growth of the football club because we're producing three teams each year we then introduce wildcats because whilst boys and girls are welcome to attend with us on a Sunday there are some girls who would feel more comfortable in an environment with just girls and that's absolutely fine and actually we encourage them to do both and so they get double football. So Wildcats runs on a Friday, and that's for primary school children. Outside of that, we then thought, well, what if you come to a football club? Or what if you like football just a little bit later on? And what do you do? Well, you go to a team and it might be really established and that might be daunting. Why don't we do an older version of the academy? So for kids that are in primary school that have found football a little bit later than under sevens when you start playing games. So Football Fundamentals was born. So we're ticking that box. That's great. Then Squad Girls is for 12 to 14 year old girls. Again, riding on the crest of what the Lionesses have been doing, people finding football that little bit later. We introduced that programme with the FA. That's fantastic. And where I'm getting to is we looked at our offering and thought, we're doing loads and loads of good things and we want to be football for all where we can. And we as a board of trustees looked at some gaps of where we're not hitting a demographic. So what we've introduced this year, a few things. Firstly, we've got a Just Play session. Now, this is an older version of fundamentals. So this is for high school kids that perhaps are not in teams and don't want to be in football teams, but actually just want an organised kickabout. You know, five-a-side in a safe environment with one of our coaches, turn up and play. Pay as you play, no problem whatsoever, right? No obligation to go into a team, just turn up and have fun. We've also introduced walking football, right? And walking football is even too fast for me, so I'm not going to play, right? but it's for people who are of not necessarily an age right because we've said 35 plus because if they're any good I'm going to refer them to Ian and Dan if they can do a job on a Saturday or a Sunday if there's space but it's for players who are ex-players that have still got a love for the game but don't want that kind of combative competitive game of football right semi-competitive game of football and we're doing that for men and women because it's really really important that there's been loads of interest in that so far so I'm excited to see that and then the final thing that we've introduced is specifically for our reception and year one boys and girls because next year the game is changing and the FA have been really clear about this at the minute under sevens football starts with 5v5 but they're introducing that to be 3v3 and the idea is that more touches of the ball more kind of decisions to be made a faster game and it will eventually then transition from 3v3 into 5v5, 7v7, 9v9 until the traditional game kind of hits us at a later level. So in order to kind of prepare us for that, we've again introduced a scheme called Just Play and it's 3v3, right, and there is no training drills, no exercises, we've got mini nets, we'll have loads of pitches, you turn up, you pay your money, you just play 3v3 for an hour, you go home very tired, right, but it's just preparing for that kind of next level. So we kind of hide identified those areas as they're missing from our offering to the community. And I'm really, really pleased that we'll be launching them all in October.
SPEAKER_01:Mate, I've got to be honest. If you was in a business setting now and they say, what's your strategy for next year? What are you going to focus on? You just nailed a load of elements to bring into the club, but also the sustainability. So you're talking about those younger levels and getting up to the teams that Dan and the ladies are playing at now. That's great for the club, you know, and any member of the club, a trustee or whatever, must sit there and go, it's in good hands.
SPEAKER_00:It seems to me, and when we say hands, let's be really clear about it. I'm the brain-ish. No, sorry. Let me retract that. I have an idea and the people around me really help me to execute it. Otherwise, I just come out with loads of ideas and nothing happens. So the board of trustees is fully behind that. We've got a development plan that we laid out with the F as part of our three-star accreditation application. And we're executing it. So that plan isn't dormant. It's not just sitting there gathering dust. We've looked at it and we've kind of made provisions for these. So I think the next phase for me is, yeah, I feel like structurally we've got the correct platform so that if someone from the Newlyweds community or surrounding area says, I want to play football, where can I go? I think we do it all, right? But so with that in mind that's great now it's about right you're part of this club now how do we get you integrated into the seniors right and when I say integrated into the seniors I'm not saying that you need to run under sevens like training sessions or anything like that what I'm saying is I want those under sevens to say can I go and watch Newton at the weekend and you know when I'm older I want to be like Flynn Bickerstaff I mean that's your brother right has anyone ever said those words never never can we cut that bit out Rob because it get a big edit but we're trying to create a role model right so under sevens they're really clear our senior men's play on a Saturday our senior ladies play on a Sunday you're going to turn up it's going to be a nice atmosphere it's going to be good quality football and effectively when they go to play their game next week they'll learn something and the coach might learn something and go oh that was really good actually and that's true integration and that's not having a junior section and a senior section working in in kind of different, going on different journeys.
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely. And you're saying about the YouTube channel and, you know, we can see highlights of the seniors games and, you know, kids nowadays, they do sit at home, they're on devices. Whether we agree or disagree, it's part of the world. And if they're watching those highlights, that's going to be great.
SPEAKER_00:Do you know what was really pleasing about that is, so kudos to Mr. Aaron Potter, who's our goalkeeper. He's done an amazing job with the VO. He's adapted so well. so well to it and with his very limited time you know he's kept it alive and he's done an amazing job and we invited Aaron to come to our kind of new media team meeting if you remember because I very much want Aaron from the men's and I want Lauren from the ladies to very much feel a part of it because we are putting a focus towards the seniors for all of those reasons that I've just mentioned but in relation to the VO one of the most pleasing things was that the three under 13s players have offered their services to help and edit the VO so that Aaron and Lauren can then load it on their platforms the open age kind of Instagrams and X and we might have commentary and it's just it's TikTok it could be on TikTok it could be those TikTok yeah that's it so again do they know what they're doing absolutely this is their world right if you ask me well I'm older than you so if you ask me I'm not going to drag you down with me but if you ask me to do that I would never claim that um so you know how great is it that three of our under 13s boys from our under 13s rangers want to get involved in our seniors but for the men's and the women's to edit that each week and upload it to the YouTube channel I just think that's brilliant
SPEAKER_01:well we talk about sustainability you've got not just playing you've got people that want to support the club and do more and I suppose earlier I said the club's in good hands it's healthy it's stable and healthy but it goes wider than that doesn't it so it's a number of sponsors associated with the club in and around Newton and some really well established companies as well businesses and ones that well as people in the community we like to go to and that can only be great for them as well doing podcasts doing TikToks doing whatever because no doubt they'll get shout out
SPEAKER_00:we can't do it without them and whenever we bring on board a sponsor I actually I actually don't use that term I say partner because ultimately there's got to be a reciprocal kind of relationship I mean it was mine and my wife's anniversary recently so where do you go well I went to Panshy and Panshy does beautiful food right first and foremost but I walked in there and there was the Newton shirt there and Toph you know said you know what when we opened we wanted to get engagement with the community we had a conversation and we sponsored you first and foremost because we wanted to play our part in the community. And it really took me back, actually, because what my objective selfishly is, well, we need a kit sponsor, right? We've got a team that's in need. So that's great. But he was looking at it through a different lens and going, without the community, we've got nothing. And that's why I'm really keen to work better with our partners. And, you know, I'm looking outside here at Newton Sports and we've got probably 80 partners that we regularly engage with probably could do a little bit more with and thankfully Craig is doing a little bit more now he's taking over the social media side of things you've probably seen recently that he's given a shout out to sponsors and that's brilliant and you know we launched a new kit range after probably 10 years we had the plain navy and green and yellow and the excitement and the buzz about this new design and how we're so overwhelmed with sponsors that want to get involved and become partners and friends of the football club. We genuinely can't do without it because our subscription model is If we were to buy a kit for every one of our children, and there are some clubs that do this, right? Some clubs will charge upwards of 30, 35 pounds. That's everything. You might get a drill top, you might get your playing kit, et cetera. But we don't want to price anybody out of football. So our model is 22 pounds, but it's with the caveat that you will go and find a sponsor. And the kits range from 500 pounds for maybe an under sevens squad of eight to ten to our open age which is probably upwards of 800 quid and everything in between so the sponsors the partners just allow us to kind of fulfil one of our objectives which is nobody should be priced out of football and without them we would have to ultimately raise our subs
SPEAKER_01:That's amazing it evidently works and it works for everybody and you know we were saying about the men's they started really really well and I can't imagine that you know without those partners that you won't be in a position you are today, Dan. And, you know, you've got a lot of players to pick from every week, but a lot of players to organise and a lot of kits to hand out and a lot of drill talks. And, you know, it must be, you guys work hard, right, as managers. Let's make it real. And there's a lot of organisation that goes on behind the scenes and there's so many people who won't do it for that. Okay. But it must be nice to know that the club have got your back and you don't have to worry about that side of it. you can just focus on the players and everything that comes with the admin of the match day and all that and let somebody else worry about it.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, yeah, yeah. Listen, it's not often I give too much credit to the man on my right here, but he pretty much single-handedly went out and sought two sponsors for two new kits for the Open A's teams this summer, which is a massive boost. It might sound a bit daft, but when you're stepping out in that first game with a brand new kit on looks the bees knees it does make you feel better it does make you play better so yeah no kudos to Andy in that respect but yeah as you say it allows us just to focus on the football side of things whereas the sponsorships and everything like that is not something we necessarily get involved in day to day but knowing full well that it's being covered by the guys
SPEAKER_00:behind the scenes it's quite funny in pre-season Rob actually because it set me a bit of a challenge and sales is my background right so you know challenge accepted and I think within 24 hours I contacted a few local establishments and said we've got a great relationship with Panshy and then Ehands also a fantastic curry house on the high street were great and sponsored us so we got home and away there and I remember ringing Dan and saying I've got some good news and some bad news right bear it in mind this is pre-season so the good news is I've got us two sponsors he's like right what's the bad news well you know all that work you've done in pre season we've got to have two socials and it's on a curry night right so let's not do it both in September let's space it out but you know immediately as part of that kind of sponsorship deal and you know Dan may or may not talk about the kind of the social element which I think is really really important to what we're trying to achieve but we said to we said to the guys look thank you for investing in us what we would like to do is one of our socials we'd like to have a night out with you we'll all have some lovely food it's just kind of our way of putting and something back in the pot. And for both of those sponsors, well, we ordered an extra shirt and we're going to frame it and we're going to have pride of place there. So it's very much, we don't want it to be a thanks for the money and, you know, we'll see you again in two years when we need a new kit. We're trying to work with these people because it's really important. And yeah, the socials, I think it's, we've had a few good socials, haven't we, to be fair? We can't talk about it. I'm not sure this is the
SPEAKER_03:fourth I
SPEAKER_00:think we'll just skip past that. We'll just say we went out for a curry and nothing else happened. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:But it must be nice for both those as well, because they're local establishments. So people like seeing those curry houses full makes you think it must be a good place. And then it's word of mouth and the players say, look, we had a great night. And, you know, you don't get in any trouble when you go to these places either, allegedly. But it feels for someone that's new to being in a restaurant, the club so really really new it feels really vibrant there's a lot of energy about the place and you know you can see what's happening in the future but the sustainability at the other end is coming through as well so you wrap that up in a package I'm sure there'll be a load of clubs in the local area look at Newton and go you know you're the envy
SPEAKER_00:or we're the envy of a lot of other clubs Do you know what as the years have gone on I mean I was forever stalking the different clubs just to see what was going on like what am I missing and I've really changed that recently because I thought well how much energy am I wasting on looking at what everybody else is doing why not focus on what we can do right we've got a plan we've got great people here where do we want to get to how do we do it and it doesn't happen overnight right so you know the men's have had a great start to the season but I actually think that it's been probably a couple of years in the making in terms of naturally were you finished in that kind of Cheshire League and continuous improvement and kind of laid a real good platform to go and have a crack at this it's not like we've just come into the league and you know we think with this and we think with that and we start that you know it's been a gradual kind of like journey and you know the same for the ladies they entered the Liverpool League a few years back and they established themselves first and foremost and they ended up getting promoted Then we changed to the Cheshire League. They actually won that league. They've gone up to a really good standard of club and are acquitting themselves really well as well. So again, we'll talk about pathways and we'll talk about platform, but we don't want to just get there quickly in the wrong way. I believe that we've got the junior players at our football club to come through the system and effectively add to the quality. And we've spoke, haven't we, about the thing that we would like to get for both the men's and the women's is an under 21's team so just kind of bridge that gap between under 18's straight into the first team or that environment and you know we've got a lot of junior teams coming through so it's just kind of that natural bridge of you've got half a foot in junior football and you've got half a foot in senior football and there may be opportunities to kind of come into that fold or do training or whatever so I think in the next few years that's our natural kind of progression really that's my thoughts anyway
SPEAKER_01:now that sounds good and it gives people an opportunity to aspire to something else and maybe give that extra little bit of effort or you know go and talk to some of the players that are in the first team and say what do I need to do what advice so no all good stuff right we've done a lot of serious stuff and that's good look we could go on for days I'm sure there's lots of history here there's lots to focus on but we need a bit of fun all good clubs have a bit of fun so here's your opportunity to absolutely rinse some of your players all right uh now this this really does depend on how much you want to upset them or how much of a giggle you want don't worry about that he's happy to
SPEAKER_00:upset anyone
SPEAKER_01:so just a few just few throw out their questions don't think too hard on it down and then and you can jump in if you if you want but i want you to go with the first thoughts okay and let's see how much crap you get on your text later once this goes out But who takes the longest getting ready before a match?
SPEAKER_03:As in, well, obviously I'm not privy to how long they take at home, but I would suspect if that is the question, then almost certainly it's Owen, Flynn and Ricky. Maybe Beko looking in the mirror wondering why his arms are the smallest in the squad. But if it's in the changing rooms, physically getting the kit on and everything, I think I could give Charlie Eden three three hours to get ready. And even when I'm saying, look, we're getting out now, lads, he'll still be putting his socks and shin pads on. So yeah, that just flowed off the tongue.
SPEAKER_00:There's a lot of candidates.
SPEAKER_01:It's only two players. Easy pickings. Easy pickings. No worries. Okay. So which player do you think would make the best manager one day?
SPEAKER_03:To be fair, a few of the lads have already sort of experienced that in so much as sort of junior coaching and indeed sort of on a Sunday. So we've had, I think Matty Hart's done it with his lads, I think obviously Ben Crowe, Joe Charlson has helped the seconds out in parts this year. I know Kane's got, I think a young dog, I'm not sure if he's involved in junior coaching there. Percy's an amazing coach, whether he'd want to be a manager. Probably Yeah, probably one of those guys. There might be a handful of the others shouting at me now, but yeah, probably one of those chaps.
SPEAKER_00:Can I throw a curveball in there? Flynn likes to use chat GPT after the game for manager comments, doesn't he? Yeah, but Flynn is brain dead, so he can't
SPEAKER_03:be on the manager team day by day. So we've got to embrace technology. He's already had too much air time in, so let's... I
SPEAKER_01:tell you, when this goes out, your WhatsApp's just going to fly up, isn't it? Okay, interesting for both of you in this one. If the club had a mascot and an animal, right? Not a usual one. What would it be? I know you're putting in it. A person. So, no, what animal would the club have? Yeah. Yeah. And then who's going to put the costume on? Who are you going to chuck in there?
SPEAKER_00:Well, I would say on our badge, we've got a ram. And I've thought about getting Ronnie the ram. Okay. At some point. Ronnie? Yeah. Yeah. Rob, maybe. Maybe we could put you in it. You'd have to be a big bloody
SPEAKER_01:ram.
SPEAKER_00:That's a big old ram, isn't it, man? Yeah. The ram is part... new to the Willows in terms of its identity. So I think it would be fitting. Who would we put in there? John Barron? Johnny would do
SPEAKER_03:it. Bobby Crumb? Both of us. My dad?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, he'll
SPEAKER_03:even present.
SPEAKER_00:Barry would, yeah. Barry would be up for it. Yeah, there's a few candidates, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:It's typically, generally, and I'm going to actually stick to you boys, aren't I? It's one of those people you just want to get away from,
SPEAKER_00:you know, the high of. Definitely put my dad in that
SPEAKER_01:bracket. You want to be part of the club, but just go
SPEAKER_00:with it, Aaron. for me they're they're absolutely diamonds the three of them and and the one of those were if you if you gave them a job they would they would nail it they would execute it they'd be really i'm not saying anyone's going to be honored to dress up as a ram but what i'm saying is if you were if you said to them would you help out those three without even thinking about the answer they would just be an instant yes okay so we've got to get the ram on we've got to get the ram yeah i'm going to go on amazon later see if there's a six-fold ram the wife going to be worried about what my search history is on Amazon.
SPEAKER_01:Well, she did tell you you've got to take the chairman's role. This is
SPEAKER_00:it, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Is that just to get the remote control over? It's basically for
SPEAKER_00:peace and quiet. I think I annoy the living daylights out of this.
SPEAKER_01:Alright, last one. Who has the worst music taste in the dressing room?
SPEAKER_03:how long have you got I mean obviously I'm a bit of an old boy now so I'm not necessarily the forefront of modern music but some of the stuff the lads put on is absolutely honking any of them just have a look at the squad list and pick a name and their music tastes horrific what I do want to say is though is a slight tangent to this a couple of lads obviously we have a nominated DJ before every game and some of the lads have sort of been a song on and then it's let slip that it's been an advert so it's those cheapskate you know what don't have Spotify premium we've got Spotify free who could name it but I'm not going to do so we'll put them instead of a bad music taste if that's alright
SPEAKER_00:I've got one for this as well Rob so we had a bit of a social which you know we won't go into the sordid details but involved hey not racism quite a few beers now that presentation has kind of come a little bit of a thing with karaoke so I'm not going to He's got an awful taste in music, but Ethan Appleby's version of American Pie will live longer than that. He actually got booed off. I mean, let's bear in mind, none of us are oil paintings or great at singing, but that was a particular travesty, wasn't it, really? That was shocking. Has anyone got any good taste in
SPEAKER_03:music? As I say, it might be me who has the bad taste and all those boys have got the good taste, but honestly, some of the stuff is shocking.
SPEAKER_00:The one good thing, we all like Hey Jude, don't we? don't we?
SPEAKER_03:We do, yeah, yeah. It's the Armin van Buuren Tiesto scooter stuff they put on before. We just want ABBA. But again, that's
SPEAKER_01:probably more of a reflection than anything else. Fair play. Listen, we want to bring some light and entertainment and a bit of fun to the podcast as well as everything. You know, your WhatsApp groups are going to blow up on that, but we will give those players an opportunity to get you back at some point on there. So, you know, that's what goes around comes around,
SPEAKER_00:it's got to be fair, right? It's going to be a busy podcast if you're getting all the people we've named in your
SPEAKER_01:network. Well, yeah, I might be inundated here. What if someone wants a fan, a player, a coach, what if they want to come on? How are they going to contact us, Andy?
SPEAKER_00:I think the easiest way of doing it is through social media, first and foremost. I mean, look, whoever's listening to this, whether it's, you know, Open Age, Under 7s, all of those different pathways that I've mentioned, you know, Disability Funding, football that we've got on Wednesday I think what we're trying to say is that anyone is welcome to come on here and we want to hear from you the last thing people want is to hear from me once a month I mean they get a managers meeting or you know a comms out from me so you know it would be great to have other people on here so either get in touch with your coach or your lead or if you would like to come directly to the football club use Instagram use Twitter use Facebook it'll come through to us and we'll absolutely what you're booking in.
SPEAKER_03:Brilliant. Go on, Dan. I just want to put a challenge out there, actually, because I'm not sure any of my lads would be willing to take this on. So if there's any of the lads that are actually listening and have got to the end of this and listened to it all, if they want to come on this, I'll pay for their night of pronunciation. I'll go to that for a deal.
SPEAKER_01:I tell you what, that's fair play. And
SPEAKER_03:that includes Antoine and I was going to say Brownie then, but I'm not sure I've got enough money in the bank to
SPEAKER_00:satisfy Budweiser's credence. I was going to say, they won't have enough in stuck on a Monday night. But there you
SPEAKER_01:go, just throwing it out there. That's great. I think we should make this a feature, a challenge. So whoever the guests are, someone's got to throw a challenge out. And then if that person backs down, they get called out on the podcast. Is that fair? 100%. Brilliant.
SPEAKER_00:Well, Bazza and Lou will just fine them. They've got, you get fined for everything. So if you're late by a minute, right, if you're not wearing your hat at the perfect angle, if you wear shorts So, you know, 50p, 50p, one pound. And it's built up to quite a pot, which is utilised fairly well, I would say. It is, yeah. It's a bit fun.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, it's a bit fun. It's very much tongue-in-cheek, even though I would suggest otherwise at times. But it is very, very much tongue-in-cheek. But it does, you know, it does add a little bit of discipline to things. But all that money goes back into the socials. So it's, yeah, no, it's a really good thing.
SPEAKER_01:Amazing. Well, let's make sure that we get them called out and then out them if they don't. accept and that's fair that's got to be fair I love that you've done the first one well gents look is there anything any last any last mentions you want to shout out before we wrap up
SPEAKER_00:I think for me I would just like to again for anyone that's made it to the end of this podcast and you know realised that I was on it just shut it off immediately they might want to listen to you to be fair but this has been a really really busy off season so what people don't know understand about the football club is that when the games stop the hard work for the trustees starts like we've got to start again we've got to do affiliation we've got to register 600 players we've got to set the subs up we've got to there's lots and lots of things to do so to my board of trustees and relevant subcommittees we wouldn't have been able to start this season without them so there's a lot of people who know what they've done to effectively put Newton and Willows FC in such a really great space so I would just like to say thank you to them. We're all here for a reason because we love football and we're good community minded people. So to the coaches and to the admin staff, thank you for getting the boys and girls in the best shape that they can. Thank you to the senior managers who their season started a little bit earlier. But I suppose the unsung heroes are the ones that are off the field who are effectively giving these coaches the platform to do what they do. So yeah, thank you.
SPEAKER_01:Well, Well said. And Dan, good luck for the rest of the season. We will be having you back on despite your protests. And yeah, Forza Newton. Forza Newton. Cheers, Rob. Thank you.