Paul Barnes started his Greenwich Borough management career by presiding over a hard fought 1-0 victory over Herne Bay.

Although less than a week into his role, he was pleased with what he saw and felt the result was well deserved. “It was good to see the boys come out and impose themselves.” Barnes said. “I thought that we should have been out of sight by half time. In the first twenty minutes, I thought we were superb, the tempo and intensity that we played at..

“But then we took our foot off the gas and the last ten minutes of the first half, I thought we dropped off. Then in the second half we allowed them to get on the front foot but I thought we defended superbly. We kept going and took our chance and I thought that we should have had another one in the second half.”

Jack Barham scored the only goal and Barnes was quick to praise him. “Jack keeps popping up week in and week out with goals. It’s no wonder that clubs are looking around and thinking about taking him because he’s a natural finisher. He’s anticipating all the time and that’s a good sign for a centre forward or anyone as a front player as they will always score goals.”

Herne Bay’s spirited performance came as no surprise to Barnes. “I know the lads at Herne Bay well. We played them when I was at Ashford and John (Embery) and Jermaine (Darlington) have done a great job with the squad they’ve assembled and they look like they’ve got a bit of freedom to express themselves, which they did at times.

“They can be a dangerous team to play against and I think we defended really well. We denied space in key areas.” he continued. “Anything that was played into dangerous spaces, I thought the midfield did really well. ‘Pritch’ (Bradley Pritchard), ‘Corney’ (Sam Corne), Ali (Fuseini) in the first half, and Jack Sammoutis who came on in the second, did really well.”

Explaining his decision to omit Sammoutis from the starting line up, Barnes said “I know what he brings to the table. He was a little bit disappointed not to start, understandably, but I wanted us to have a foundation and I wanted to have options on the bench just in case we needed something else then he can come in and effect it and I thought that was exactly what he did.”

Coming into a new club and taking the team into a game after just one training session can be difficult but Barnes was familiar with many of the team and was ready to get involved. He said “I’ve had a few jobs now. I know a few of the boys. I’ve worked with them in the past. I know their strengths and their weaknesses. It was exciting to come into a new side and set up but also nice to see some old faces.

“It wasn’t like there was an awkward period of getting to know everybody and we’ve hit the ground running. I came in on Thursday and we didn’t do much. We had a team meeting where I could just introduce myself, have a chat to the boys and gauge their feedback. We did a sharp session just to get the boys out there then afterwards I had a chat with each player individually, to gauge their thoughts about what’s happened and our aims and objectives for the rest of the season.”

Despite the club’s well publicised budget cuts, Barnes is not looking at using that as an excuse. He said “It’ not what it’s been in the past. I’ve been in environments where budgets haven’t always been brilliant. For me, it’s going to be a challenge but we’re going to get value for money out of the budget. What we’ve got in the changing room is good enough to achieve what we want but if we picked up an injury, we might have to look to re-evaluate things.”

The club runs an under 23 side but Barnes is unsure about how many of that squad are ready to step up. He said “I don’t think that many of the boys have got any experience but that’s a risk you take. From my point of view, the players are only going to get the chance to impress if you give them that chance.

“What I’ll be doing, I’ll be including more of those lads within training sessions as well so that they get up to speed with what we want to do and I can get an eye over them. We’ll be working some loans so that I can get out and watch them playing for other senior sides.”

Having been a bit of a whirlwind appointment, he has no assistant manager at present but is not going to rush into bringing one in. “I’ve come in and it’s just me at the moment.” he said. “I’ve been blessed with ‘Hus’ (Huseyin Torgut), who’s the physio(therapist). He’s been the glue that’s kept everyone together for the last week. He’s a top man.

“At the moment I’m looking to bring in an assistant It’s not anyone I can bring in straight away because I don’t want to jump into making a decision. I’m going to bring in an assistant who can play also, so that we can maximise the budget. The people I’m talking to are playing in leagues above so they’re under contract and they’ll have to have discussions (with their clubs). Also, they’ve got to make a decision on whether they are willing to give up a certain standard of football.

“It’s not something I’m going to rush because at the moment. Between myself, ‘Hus’ and the other people who are around, we’ve got some lads who are out injured and part of the squad that aren’t available at the moment, everyone’s helping and kind of mucking in to make sure we put in what we need to get out of things.”

When the season started, Barnes was not attached to any club, explaining “I started out saying that I wasn’t going to be involved in Non League Football this year. With my full time job that I took on, it didn’t allow me to commit. I did have some offers to stay involved, I won’t name clubs and people.

“I could have gone and worked in the Conference this year, which would have been a brilliant opportunity for me. I just felt I couldn’t commit to it, the level they needed. I was just going to concentrate on my full time role and my boy has started playing football as well so I was going to be just ‘Dad’ but football changes so quickly, and if someone comes knocking, and if all of a sudden it’s something that interests you, it’s food for thought.”

After three months of the season had passed, Barnes took up an assistant manager post at Ashford United. “! went there at the beginning of November.” he said. “It wasn’t like I was looking, they approached me and it interested me. The project really excited me when they sold it to me and I could see why when I went in. I was blown away by the potential there. There were some really good people and I thought we were doing really well.

“I didn’t expect to get a chance to have a go at management so soon. I thought, hopefully, my plan was having that chance next season because that’s something I’ve been working towards, to be patient, and it’s understandable. There’s lots of good people out there looking for work. I feel very appreciative and fortunate that I was offered the opportunity here.”

Despite the budget cuts, the club still has the same ambition. Barnes confirmed “Play-offs has always been the aim and objective. That doesn’t change for me. I still believe that what we’ve got in the budget, we can manage and manipulate to make the play-offs. What I’ve still got in the changing rooms is good enough to make the play-offs. It just depends on injuries. You just need a bit of luck sometimes.”

On the chances of exceeding expectations with a championship challenge, Barnes said  “We’re five points off top. We’ve still got to play them (Lewes) and I back us. We’ve still got to play Cray (Wanderers) who are four points ahead so I think the title is still wide open. Play-offs is the target, anything above that, I’d be over the moon with.”

Pictures supplied by Dave Budden.