BANBURY TOAST TITLE GLORY
BANBURY UNITED still had six minutes to play when news filtered through they'd clinched the Southern League Premier Central title last weekend.
Coalville's result meant Andy Whing's Puritans could enjoy the final moments of their draw with Tamworth before the inevitable outpouring of emotion at a club that has experienced a remarkable turnaround in recent years.
“Seven years ago they obviously got relegated to the Southern League Division One,” boss Whing, 37, says. “They had problems with the previous owners, the club was on its knees and a group of supporters made it into a community-based sports club and took it over as supporter owned and they've brought it back. Mike Ford, who was previously there as manager, did a fantastic job to get them back up into this league.
“The FA Cup runs have been unbelievable – big, big moments for the club to be in BBC iPlayer last year and ITV this season against Barrow in front of 2,500 fans.
“To top it off to get to Step 2 for the first time in the club's history is brilliant – and testament to those guys who took a gamble seven years ago and made it a supporter-owned football club.”
The locals have certainly taken to Whing's side with an average home gate of more than 1,000 since Christmas while 1,800 watched them seal the deal last weekend.
Zoom meetings
They got off to a flyer with 13 wins and three draws before they lost in the league, which was then followed by nine wins on the spin before a second defeat in January, their last before title glory.
Last season's curtailment after just 13 games allowed Whing, in his first No.1 role, and his staff to go to work. “It got me to see the league,” he says. “It got me to see what type of people we needed at the club, what type of player. When you first get in you think, ‘Big, strong, 6ft-odd, who is going to be tough away on a Tuesday night'.
“I kind of went against that. I thought, if I'm going to do it, I'm going to do it how I want. If I fail, I've only got myself to blame. During Covid times we had loads of zoom meetings to say, ‘How, with a smallish budget, can we push at the top end?'
Mentality
“We didn't think we'd be standing here 20 points clear with four games to go! But we wanted to be mixing it around the play-offs.
“There are teams with bigger budgets, how can we bridge that gap? We got everything spot on.”
Whing says having players who want to get better has been key and highlighted the experienced head of Kelvin Langmead who, even at 37, as someone who has epitomised that mentality.
Whing, who played under managers like Gordon Strachan and Chris Wilder, and has worked alongside QPR coach John Eustace and Russell Slade, and his staff have squeezed every drop out of their own professional knowledge. They've looked for the clues left by other success stories at the level, and aimed to think like a club at Step 2.
“It was hard work getting players in –I felt like a salesman,” Whing says. “You're trying to sell a project to people. Some don't believe it. Some aren't bothered and would rather sit comfortably in mid-table.
“We weren't going to be the biggest payers but why go where you are third or fourth choice just because it's the league above when you can be main man here and progress.
“I always said, if you don't progress at this club, we want an environment where you can progress on your own.”
Keeping a small close-knit squad has been the aim. The fact fitness coach Aidan Hawtin even pulled on his boots when they were low on numbers shows Whing wasn't prepared to bring people in for the sake of it.
“It was a lot of hard work – even to sell it to the board,” he says. “You have to fight for it. They've been absolutely magnificent, the whole club has.”
