We want players who want to play for the club, says Coney Hall director of football Chris Tucker

CONEY HALL director of football Chris Tucker says he is meeting with a potential new management team next Tuesday following Arron Tarry’s resignation last week.



Players Scott Booth and Danny Tanner have both been put in temporary charge for the time being following Tarry’s decision to quit the Tiepigs Lane outfit.

The club are presently sitting in seventh-place (of fourteen sides) in the Haart of Kent County League Division One table, with four wins and two draws from ten games.

Tucker said: “Arron Tarry has left Coney Hall Football Club as manager after a bad string of results that have seen them slip slowly down the table.

“Promotion was our main aim this year and he actually resigned – he wasn’t pushed.

“Scott Booth and Danny Tanner will be in charge for the Christmas period and I’ve got a meeting Tuesday night with possibly a new management.

“If they don’t come then I’ll take over for the first two games in January. 

“The two people are very experienced, very good coaches, very good man-managers and have managed at a higher level and have coached at a lot higher level as well.”

Tucker explained why he scraped the club’s reserve side.

He said: “We folded the reserve team, so we’re looking to get the season back on track really.

“The decision behind that was that they were run poorly from top to bottom really. Some of the blame stems with me and ultimately it was my decision to fold them as of last week.”

Tucker revealed the club’s players pay £10 per week subs and he wants them to have a smile back on their faces so they can start climbing up the league table.

He said: “They’ve had a very good start, I think they were unbeaten for the first four or five games but slowly but surely our season has been on a downward spiral and we need to get it back.

“We need to get the players’ back on track with the winning mentality again. If they keep on this downward spiral it’s not good for this club.  This team is more than capable of winning this division.

“At the moment something’s not right and we have to get to the bottom of why they’re not winning games.

“We don’t want to write the season off yet because they’ve got a tricky three games coming up before Christmas.  It’s just unfortunate that we couldn’t get anybody in before Christmas.

“We’ll see what we can do. It’s a shame but I think the club could push on from this but we’ll see.

“It certainly gives us a platform to build on. I’ll be sitting down with hopefully the new management team on Tuesday night and hopefully rebuild the club up for better times but it’s a shame so early on after only three months that the season hasn’t finished, but it’s slowly deteriorating to something that it shouldn’t do.”

When asked whether the players at the club are committed to the cause, Tucker replied, “They’ve got a good bunch there. They’ve got a good set of lads there who train week in week out. They pay their subs. It’s not cheap, it’s a tenner a game to play.  They don’t miss paying, they train once a week.  As much as anything, they’re a good bunch of lads, a group of friends as well.  Once you get that, first and foremost you’ve got to enjoy it.

“You have to enjoy playing together and you have to enjoy it. If you’re getting beat you don’t enjoy football. I don’t care who you are.

“Once they get that winning mentality and they enjoy it and they get a winning mentality and that run goes on and that’s what wins trophies and leagues but they have to get into a winning mentality and enjoy it.

“You have to play on a smile on your face and enjoy playing football.  You don’t want to turn up on a Saturday and get beat because you walk away with a headache and you don’t want to play.  You just turn up for the sake of turning up.

“We want players who want to play for the club. I want people who want to enjoy it. I’ve always had players wrapped around me who enjoy playing football. If you don’t enjoy playing football you shouldn’t be there.

“You have to play with a smile on your face in and around the place. Have a bit of banter in the changing room, on the football pitch and in the bar afterwards, good camaraderie. If that ain’t there, you ain’t a team, so we have to get that back, we’ll see, all is not lost.”

Tucker, meanwhile, has ruled out a permanent return to managing the club.

He said: “If I return to the helm I’ll ring you and let you know – but I doubt it!

“I’ve asked Scott and Danny to do it on a temporary basis just until we can find somebody.  I’ve got a meeting on Tuesday night.  We was going to open it up for applicants but I want people who I know I can work with to build this club up. The two people I’m meeting I know very well and if that doesn’t work out then I’ll support Scott and Danny until the end of the season and we’ll see where we go from there.”

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the division, former Tunbridge Wells players Sam Phillips and Steve Ashmore are both turning out for Hildenborough Athletic.

Coney Hall travel to basement side Tonbridge Invicta tomorrow.   The Swanmead outfit were defeated 5-1 by Milton & Fulston United last weekend – the home club’s first game back at Sittingbourne’s Bourne Park ground.

Visit Coney Hall’s website: www.pitchero.com/clubs/coneyhallfc  

Tonbridge Invicta  v  Coney Hall
Haart of Kent County League Division One
Saturday 8^th December 2012
Kick Off 2:00pm
at Swanmead Sports Ground, Swanmead Way, off Cannon Lane, Tonbridge, Kent TN9 1PP