Phoenix Sports manager Steve O’Boyle was delighted as his team claimed their first victory in the five weeks following his return to the club, at the expense of Burgess Hill Town. 

Shortly after the final whistle, he said “It’s been a tough five weeks. Recruitment’s been tough. Where we are in the league, no-one’s really wanted to come in and play for us. I could felt sorry for myself and given up but I‘m not that kind of a person.”

“I like to think that I‘m a winner and my personality won’t allow me to do that. As you can see, we’re building a half decent side here and that’s just the start. Teams had better start looking over their shoulders because we aren’t going to give up.”

Since O’Boyle’s arrival at the club, there has been a turnover of playing staff. He confirmed: “A lot of players have gone out of the door. I want people in that dressing room who are going to fight. We’re in a scrap and I want people who are going to go out there and give me one hundred percent and that’s what they’ve done today. They’ve taken instructions on in the dressing room at the start of the game.”

Calvin Poku had a dream start scoring four times. “What a great debut by Poks.” purred O’Boyle. “He’s done exactly what I wanted him to do. I’ve been trying to get a centre forward in here from the day I walked in and he made a massive difference to us today.”

“He’s played for me previously and I know all about him. His hold up play was fantastic and there’s one more forward coming in. I think we’re going to be a handful going forward.”

Although teams always enjoy wins, there does appear to be a good spirit building in the team. O’Boyle agreed and said: “The last few weeks training, it’s been really good.”

“I’ve got a fantastic back room staff behind me who’ve got an affiliation with the club. I’ve got two A licensed coaches standing next to me. They aren’t just nobodies, they are massive who I’d trust with my life.”

“They’ve been brilliant and training has been very, very good. They know the game, they know the level and I can’t thank them enough. They’ve come in here and they’ve been just as important as anything going on at this club.”

After all the recent players ins and outs, O’Boyle is more comfortable with the squad. He said: “I‘m not one of these managers that chops and changes anyway. I was very successful here before and a lot of it was down to stability. That is the nucleus of what we’ve got.”

“We’ve got another striker coming in, maybe another couple, but other than that I want to keep what I‘ve got and we want to work with what we’ve got because I think that if we work with it, I think we’re only going to get better. Once we’re more organised and we train and we work hard on the training pitch we’re only going to improve.”

Steve Phillips made one excellent save at a crucial time in the first half. “I signed him here when we were in the Kent league.” said O’Boyle “He’s a legend at this club and I want a few more legends this season.”

Whilst some may have been surprised when hearing the result, O’Boyle was not one of them. “I thought that it was coming.” he enthused. “We were unlucky against Three Bridges. We equalised in the ninety-fourth minute and they scored in the ninety-seventh. If we‘d had Poku at Hythe we would have won.” 

He finished by saying: “What a great day. I‘m absolutely buzzing. Do I think that’s enough? No. We’ve got to keep on going. We‘ve got to go on a run now and I do honestly think that we will win matches.”             

Picture supplied by Dave Budden.