By Matt Badcock
Neil MacFarlane has challenged his Kidderminster Harriers players to get over the National League North promotion line at the third attempt – and the new boss is busy preparing his squad for the ride.
Former Hearts midfielder MacFarlane took over at Kiddy in the summer following John Eustace's departure to be on Steve McClaren's management team at QPR.
While it's the 40-year-old's first job as a No.1, he has plenty of experience as an assistant alongside Steven Pressley at Coventry City, Fleetwood Town and Pafos in Cyprus.
MacFarlane is already relishing his new role – but he knows a return to Non-League's top flight won't come easy for Harriers.
“From day one the players have shown a brilliant attitude to what I'm trying to put into them, with a good degree of quality,” MacFarlane told The NLP.
“It's mine and the staff's responsibility to improve them as players, but obviously finally making sure the team functions properly when it comes to a Saturday. It's a great one for me; I'm really looking forward to it. They've obviously not got up in the last couple of years and that's what I said to the players, ‘Can we now go that extra step?'.
“I'm of the realisation, as the club are, that when there's only one automatic promotion spot it's not easy. I don't think it should be one, I think it should always be at least two – for everybody in the country. That gives all the clubs a chance of progression because this league is getting tougher and tougher. Clubs like ourselves are doing things properly so should be given the opportunity. But, listen, our aim is to be there and hopefully we can be.
Preparation
“What we have to do is give ourselves the best chance of always being up there fighting for that and being around the play-offs.”
Pre-season began with a day at University of Birmingham that was covered by Sky Sports News with the club striving to give the players all the tools they need to get the best out of themselves.
MacFarlane says that was a big part of the attraction of taking on the role.
“On a personal note, I'm really enjoying it – six years I've been an assistant, you learn a lot and now you take your own views, plan the way you want to plan and prepare the team the way you want to prepare them,” he said. “It's been great, but we know the hard work still lies ahead.
“I always had a burning ambition to do it (be a manager). It wasn't something where I wanted to sit as an assistant for the whole of my career. But it had to be the right time.
“Last season I was out in Cyprus with Steven and that was an amazing experience – a really good one just before I went into my first job. That was massive because I learnt a number of things like how to work with players who don't speak English, along with many other things.
“When this came up, I felt it was the right one to give me a platform to hopefully go on and do well in management.”
Since relegation out of Step 1, Kidderminster have had a reputation for playing good football and developing young players.
“They are building and looking to improve whether it be the training ground or the educational system down at the training ground or the potential plans for a new stadium – they are always looking to progress and that's a big thing for us all,” MacFarlane said.
“On the coaching side, my history is working with young players even when I take it back to when I was in Scotland with Falkirk. We played players when they were 16 or 17.
“The club is trying to improve underneath and making that U18s, U23s buffer stronger. Then hopefully in a few years' time the club is in a really strong place in terms of that and league status.”
This article originally featured in The @NonLeaguePaper which is available every Sunday and Monday
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