TOM KILLICK hasn't much enjoyed the Southern South & West league this season. The Poole Town manager has been enviously peering over the garden fence and thinking what might have been.
Having seen his Dolphins blow a gasket in last season's play-off final, when veteran striker Steve Claridge struck a late Gosport Borough equaliser before scoring in extra-time on the way to a 3-1 win, Killick has been hurting.
He wanted Poole to be in the Evo-Stik Southern Premier but, in his words, “failed”. So when they secured the title on Tuesday evening without kicking a ball after Swindon Supermarine were beaten 3-0 by Shortwood, it was the perfect antidote to the heartache felt 11 months ago.
“To be blunt it has lingered throughout this season,” Killick says. “Without being disrespectful, almost every week you can't help but have the feeling that we could have been out of this league and in the one above.
“It's not so much that we lost in the play-offs it was the manner in which we did it. We were in the final, we were ahead in stoppage time – we were so close.
“I don't know what psychologists would make of this, but I always thought it was important to dwell on it and refer to it. That huge disappointment.
“Throughout this season we've spoken about it a lot, the fact we didn't want to be in that situation again.
Resources
“We almost used the pain of that defeat as a constant reminder to drive us on. Perhaps people would say you should distance yourself from that but we did the opposite.”
Killick, who played for Poole during a successful Non-League career that saw him win the FA Vase with Wimborne at Wembley and win the Non-League Player of the Year in 1992, even said he'd quit if they didn't get up.
“Psychologically for me personally it would have been difficult to have another year trying to motivate players to get out of this league if we failed again,” he says.
“I'm repeating myself but I've always said that managers often try and protect themselves a little bit by publically setting out low targets and playing things down.
“But why shouldn't we get out of this league? Everyone knows we're financially strong in terms of the resources we've got in this league so as a manager I should be looking to get the team promoted.”
Killick's love for success has been evident from the beginning. He took the managerial reins in 2004 when the club were in the then-Wessex League Division Two. Promotion was secured in his first season at the helm and after a couple of seasons of steady growth the titles really began to flow.
The first Wessex League Premier triumph was in 2008-09, but it took two more successive top spots before their Tatnam home was passed fit for Step 4 football in 2010-11 – the same season they reached the FA Vase semifinal.
“When I came, I don't want to be disrespectful, but we were pretty much a glorified pub team,” says Killick, who highlights stability behind the scenes, as well as the signing of local Non-League stalwart Steve ‘Taffy' Richardson in his first season to help attract players, as key to the team's achievements.
“The way the club has progressed has been an amazing feat. Because of the work people have done we've managed to get better and better with the players we were attracting and the way the club conducts itself.
Pressure
“We're at a point now where we've got some exceptional players. We've got ex-professionals and people who have played at a decent Non-League level.
“The club is now very professional and well run – it always was, just at a much lower level than the club wanted to be at.”
Planning permission for a new home has been given, finances are still being raised, but Killick is plotting more on-field progress.
“Poole is a big town and we feel it warrants a football team playing at a good level. We're happy to be in the Southern Premier but in the longer term, facilities allowing, we want to get the team in the Conference South.
“It's a bit difficult to get beyond that because with Conference National teams you're talking full-time and significant financial investment.
“That's probably unrealistic, but I think it is realistic in the short to medium term to think the club can get in the Conference South. It's important you are honest with yourself in terms of expectations.
“This year I wanted us to get out of the league and that's what we've done. If we hadn't done it I would have been prepared to be criticised.
“Whilst I've put pressure on myself I've done it with my players as well. I told them they're expected to get out of this league. That might add pressure to them but that's life, that's the reality of our situation. I'm not going to pretend different.
“We're going to have a regroup over the summer, and an exotic trip to Butlins in Bognor, but I want to be challenging at the right end of the league above. I'm not going to let the players off the hook by saying, ‘Oh let's go and find our feet'. I
want to compete and be in and around the play-offs.”
At the very least Killick will be taking on the league he was so desperate to be in. For now.
