I'll never walk away from the club I love, says Cray Wanderers boss Ian Jenkins

IAN JENKINS says he will never walk away from his beloved Cray Wanderers.



Jenkins, 45, first wore the amber and black back as a player back in 1993.  He holds a personal record of scoring at least one goal for the club in fifteen consecutive seasons and was captain when the club won the Kent Senior Trophy under Eddy Davies in 1993.

Jenkins was appointed manager in 1999 and during that time he has won the Kent League championship twice, the Kent League Cup and the Kent Senior Trophy and were promoted to the Ryman League in 2004.

After five progressive years in Division One South they gained promotion into the Ryman Premier League when a superb free-kick from Simon Osborn sealed a 1-0 win over Metropolitan Police in the play-off final in 2009.

Jenkins admitted he is gutted that chairman Gary Hillman hasn’t been given the go-ahead to build a new stadium at Sandy Lane – after being turned down unanimously by Bromley Council back in September.

“I’m gutted to be honest with you,” said Jenkins.

“If I see some of the planners and have a chance of a one-to-one chat with them I’ll tell them how it is!  I’ll tell them what they’re talking about?  I can’t understand that they haven’t let a club like ours who haven’t had their own ground for over 40 years’.  I just think it’s a no brainer.  Even if they can’t give us a place we want why can’t they sort us out somewhere?

“They know we’ve got a passionate chairman who’s prepared to put in the money – to me it’s a no brainer. It’s disappointing.”

There were fears about Mr Hillman’s future at the club when the bad news broke on the eve of the club’s FA Cup tie at home to Thamesmead Town.

But Jenkins said: “Plan B is already in motion. I think C and D are in motion as well!

“Gary ain’t going to let it go so he’s got a lot to put in yet. He ain’t going to let that go. It will happen. Whether it will happen in two or three years’ we don’t know but it’s taken him four years’ to get this far, he ain’t going to just throw in the towel.”

Jenkins added: “I’ll never walk away – unless a club came in with a lot more money for me but you never know do you.  I’ve never been offered that.

“I’ve been at the club a long time.  If other clubs have been interested, I don’t know.  I love the club. I’ve been here all the time. It suits me how it’s run. It’s run how we want to run it.  I’ve got two great assistants, Joe (Francis) and Blado (Paul Blade) who are a part of it. We love it and the players’ enjoy it as well.”

When asked how he keeps going, Jenkins said: “You’ve got a good chairman and vice-chairman (John Woolf). They are with me if I’m trying to lift the players, they try to lift me so we’re just a big group here. 

“When you get in the dressing room you’ve got some funny players’ in there.  Players’ who I have known for years’.  They give me a lift as well and when you see them go out there and they perform how you want them to perform playing football then as long as they’re doing that I’m not going to get the hump with it unless they start smashing it long and going direct.  Keep playing how I want them to play then that will never happen.”

Cray Wanderers’ unbeaten away record came to an end yesterday when they went down to a 1-0 defeat to Canvey Island yesterday.

The Wands return to Hayes Lane on Tuesday night when fourth-from-bottom side Wingate & Finchley are the visitors’.

Cray Wanderers go into the game sitting in eleventh-place in the Ryman League Division One South table on 21 points from 15 games.

They have won only two of their seven games at Hayes Lane this season, something that Jenkins wants to change.

He said: “We need to sort our home form out. It’s not like we’re not playing bad at home but we should be getting results that our performances are rewarded.

“We’ve got a few games on some of the Sunday’s over the Christmas period, which is a little bit different.”

Visit Cray Wanderers’ website:  www.pitchero.com/clubs/craywands

Cray Wanderers  v  Wingate & Finchley
Ryman Premier League
Tuesday 11^th December 2012
Kick Off 7:45pm
at Hayes Lane, Bromley, Kent BR2 9EF