Malin: I will unearth players to play for nothing - EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW

Sunday 15th October 2006

After spending five years at Slade Green without a playing budget, Terry Malin is relishing the same kind of challenges at Kent League rivals Erith Town, writes Stephen McCartney.

The 46-year-old from Bexleyheath, has been appointed assistant manager to player-boss Mark Tompkins at the north Kent club, but since being at the Dockers the side have lost three games despite a good start under their new boss.

Malin now begins the search for players who don’t demand financial gain whilst playing Kent League football, something he and former colleague Phil Miles, now coaching at Greenwich Borough, had to achieve at the Small Glen.

But the pair did unearth two gems, wingers Dave Martin and Ryan Hayes, who are both terrorising full-backs in the Ryman League for Dartford. Both were given the chance after being plucked out from reserve team football.

And Malin admits he has to work hard to give other youngsters the chance at first team level.

Speaking in an EXCLUSIVE interview with www.kentishfootball.co.uk Malin said: ““I like the challenge. I offered to come down to help Mark, had a look at it and thought I’ve been out for a little while, I’ll give it a go.

“I’ve been in this situation with Slade Green. No money, trying to attract players is very difficult to get a player.

“You have to have a look round but I will speak to Mark over the next couple of days to get one or two in.

“We need to add some players to the squad. We’ve got five or six injuries, which are unfortunate because obviously three of them would be regular first team players.

“That makes it difficult, but I’ll have a chat with Mark and try to get hold of two or three players to try to bolster the squad.”

But without a playing budget Tompkins and Malin will find it very difficult to attract players to the club.

Malin said: “I would say 90% of players now in this league are picking up money so to get a player to come for nothing you’ve got to be lucky.

“I’ll have a good look round and see if I can unearth one or two and we’ll go from there.

“At the end of the day it’s a challenge but I’m good with a challenge. It’s the ultimate challenge and I’m not frightened of a challenge.

“We can all sit here as a sob story. We don’t pay money so it we all look like that nothing will happen.”

But Malin has past experience enticing players to play Kent League football for nothing.

“We done it at Slade Green, a few times we got ourselves up in the top ten, 11 , 12, which is great. I’m sure with the way we went about it there we can do it here,” he said.

“It’s not going to be easy. I’ve watched quite a little bit of Kent League football, you hear about wage bills but there’s quite a few quid floating around, so we’re under no illusions as we are in for a tough time.

“I’ve had this conversation with various people. Yes, if you want to compete you have to pay money because if we look at a player wherever he may be, and we say “come to Erith Town,” we can show him the pitch, the facilities are good but if the likes of Thamesmead or someone comes in and look at him and say “we’ll give you £30, at the end of the day he’s going to choose them teams all the time, so your pool of players is very limited.

“Five years ago when we started with Slade Green, we were looking at half the league perhaps paid money and half the league didn’t.

“Now 90% of the league pay money and Slade Green, us, Sporting Bengal maybe, but if you look at the league table Sporting Bengal are (second) bottom, we’re third from bottom, Slade Green are fourth from bottom. Tunbridge Wells are bottom at the moment but they won’t stay bottom will they, so it doesn’t lie.

“The facts are there, look at the Kent League, look at the Premier League. Teams who have all the money at the top and teams who ain’t got the money at the bottom.

“So it’s a challenge but you’ve got to have a wealthy benefactor who is prepared to put their money in and get absolutely, other than the kudos of winning the league, or doing well in the cup, be prepared to throw money away, or a healthy sponsor.

“If they haven’t got the money to pay you can’t pay. There’s no good bemoaning the fact, you know where you are at the start so you have to get on with it. Everybody would like to be working with £500-600 a week.

“At the end of the day teams like Erith Town and Slade Green, if you can produce youth or reserve team players and then that way you can see the benefits because that’s nice.”

But Malin, and Miles, must take credit for giving Martin and Hayes their chance to impress, which resulted in Dartford boss Tony Burman signing the pair.

“I’m glad you brought them up. I may put that on my CV. We found them, gave them a chance and there’s boys there,” said Malin.

“There’s always Dave Martin’s and Ryan Hayes’ around the corner. You have to work a little bit hard. You have to watch reserve games, that’s where Dave and Ryan came from. There’s players like that in reserve sides. I’ve done it before and I’ll do it again.”

The Dockers make the short trip to VCD Athletic (Oakwood, Old Road) next Thursday (19 October) in the Kent League.