Ahead of Erith and Belvedere’s home F.A. Cup tie against Alford F.C. on Saturday it seemed appropriate to look at their progress on and off the pitch.
Towards the end of February there was a shake up in the boardroom. Paul Springett, explained “Four of us new directors have come on. Me, Sam (Prett), Jim (Lyons) and Adrian (Deane). We’ve all come on and we’ve all played for the club. I think we might have four or five hundred appearances between us so it’s close to our heart really.”
Since arriving, they have been very busy. They started by having to recruit a new manager when interim manager Stuart Webb left the club at the end of February after four heavy defeats. He had stepped in when previous manager Owen Jones left with almost the entire playing staff.
Del Oldfield was appointed as the new manager and a whole new squad being signed. He has been joined by Owen Price as assistant manager, Marlon Patterson as player coach and Larry Hays as player liaison officer. Springett stated “The manager really came from myself. I worked with Del at Phoenix and I really liked his ethos.
“Not only that, one night I couldn’t attend training and he told me categorically,’sorry, if you’re not at training, you can’t play’. I had dropped down from the Bostik to play at the reserves where Del was and that stuck with me. He’s a good guy, knows his stuff, great tactician, and he’s got a history of playing with the youth, and trusting them. He was absolutely the man we wanted at the football club.
“We’re excited with the management team we’ve put in place, the players look to play an attractive style of football, and I’m looking forward to pushing the club on to the heights it once was at.”
On the field, Springett’s brother, Steve, brings some experience to the team and he joked “I’m a little bit gutted that I retired eighteen months ago. In my twenty year career, and he’s had a ten year career, we’ve only ever had a handful of games together. I think there was a few games at Cray Valley and that was it, so it’s a little bit of a disappointment not to be on the pitch with him but it’s good to have him back. He’s not even turned thirty so hopefully he’s got another eight years in him like I had”
Away from the field, the club have been equally busy with work having been taking place throughout the summer. Springett is excited about the club’s future, enthusing “A lot of renovations have gone on.
“We’ve done extensive renovations internally. We’ve got the external renovations to go. We’re also building a whole youth structure, which is important, so the future’s bright.”
They are keen to be more involved with the community. Springett said “We’re giving free season tickets to NHS workers and if you take one of those season tickets you get a free coffee or your first beer or wine and that’s running throughout the whole season.”
Images courtesy of Dave Budden