Wealdstone boss loving ‘every minute’ of new challenge
Wealdstone boss Bobby Wilkinson says he’s ‘loving every minute’ of his time at the club, having endured a promising start to life with the Stones.
Since taking over from Gordon Bartlett in late August, the Stones have been in excellent form, losing just two of their ten matches under Wilkinson’s stewardship so far.
The Stones, who play their home games in Grosvenor Vale, Ruislip, now sit in 12th place in the Vanarama National League South, having been fourth from bottom when the former Hungerford Town boss took over.
Wilkinson said: “I’ve been at Wealdstone for about five-and-a-half weeks and I’m loving every minute of it. It’s a challenge. But I’m really enjoying it.
“The local area is brilliant. I still live in Reading, so it’s only an hour’s journey. I love the area, the club and all the people and it’s been a pleasure working at Wealdstone during the last few weeks.”
Goals from Wealdstone’s Danny Green and Abobaker Eisa secured a 2-1 win over Whitehawk at the weekend on Non-League Day and Wilkinson was delighted with the performance of his players.
He said: “It was a fantastic performance against a very difficult Whitehawk side, which had ten new players and a new manager. I was just really pleased to get the win and we made that four wins on the bounce at home.
Credit: Steve Foster
“I found out that’s the first time that has happened since Wealdstone have been in the Conference South, so I’m really pleased about that. That is a little bit of history for the club. To win back to back games is really good and I’m really pleased.”
The Stones are back in league action this weekend against Chippenham Town away from home, a team who sit just one place below the Ruislip based side.
Wealdstone’s opponents are one of the divisions new boys, having won the Southern League Premier Division last campaign, and Wilkinson is expecting a tough test when the teams face each other on Saturday.
He said: “Their home form says it all. I don’t even think they lost at home last year and they’ve got another great home record this year. They’re not brilliant on the road this year, but we are in for a real tough game. But we’re looking forward to the challenge. We are going there to win and we’ll see how we get on.”
Talk has now turned to where the Stones could finish this season, after their promising start to life under Wilkinson.
With four wins and four draws from Wilkinson’s first 10 games, Wealdstone are one of the form teams in the National League South and they currently sit just seven points off the play-off places.
However, Wilkinson refused to be drawn on talk about a play-off push, insisting that he is taking it game-by-game at the present moment.
He said: “I’ve been around the game too long now to start predicting where we are going to finish. What I would say though is that I’m going to take it game-by-game.
“I want to win football games for this club, the supporters, the board of directors and especially my chairman and vice chairman. It’s just important to win games and where you will be, you will be. It’s going to be hard work and I know that.
“I’m quite pleased with the progress we’ve made as when I took over, we were fourth from bottom and now we are twelfth. That proves that there has been a good improvement. I’m really pleased for the football club in that department. But, I’m never going to say where we are going to end up, because when you say that you could be shot down.”