BOVEY Tracey first team manager Will Small has made an exciting addition to his coaching team in the run-up to the 2023/24 South West Peninsula League Campaign, writes Josh Goodman.
Joining the team on the touchline is Tony Radford, who arrives at Mill Marsh to start a new post as both a player and assistant manager ahead of what is shaping up to be an exciting season at the foot of Haytor.
‘It’s an exciting time,’ Radford said. ‘Bovey is a well-run and established club and it has everything there, and I just want to add to it if I can.’
Radford was most recently in charge of Elmore, where he was thrust into a managerial role in a trying campaign at Horsdon Park. With his hand being forced to field teams of very young players, Radford worked wonders to lift Elmore off the bottom of the South West Peninsula League table in the dying embers of the season by claiming six points from five matches in the space of 11 days.
‘On the back of a tough season for myself and Elmore I was a little skeptical about anything happening for me but Will was the first person to get in contact,’ Radford said.
‘I had a few after him too, which was nice, but I spoke with Will for about 45 minutes and he sold what they are after and what they’re looking for.
‘I do know a couple of the players already and [I was attracted by] the setup of Bovey and the way it is with the pitch, the clubhouse and the amount of help that is there from volunteers – that’s massive for me because it makes it a bit more of a community club which is a big sell.’
Like many around Mill Marsh, Radford has a real sense of ambition for the club going forward. After a fifth-place finish in the last campaign – just three points off the top four who were initially all to be promoted – Bovey are looking to take their challenge to next level.
‘[My ambitions are] in line with Will’s,’ Radford explained. ‘We’ve got to look to try to win the league.
‘Bovey had some sticky patches last season just after Christmas, which brought them off just a little bit, but I think we will be really competitive this year.
‘There’s some strong sides in there but I don’t think there’s any reason why Bovey can’t be right up in the mix of top three and pushing for the title.’
Radford will be joining a growing management team with Small still the man at the head of the table.
‘Last season, I think he did a great job at Elmore with a young side and – in theory – did well to keep them up and finish where he thought they needed to finish,’ Small said of his new coaching partner.
‘They were unlucky in the end to get relegated in the way that they did. But I was impressed with the job he did up there last season and I knew of him previously being a player, so it was a no-brainer for us.
‘A couple of the lads know him, so as soon as he became available and I saw he’d left Elmore we spoke on the phone at length, met in person, had a good chat and sounded each other out on where we wanted the club to be and what our thoughts were, and that went well.
‘He will be a great addition to the club: on and off the pitch, he will be someone the lads can listen to and lean on for experience, and that will be vital with the young lads. The lads have really taken to Tony and they were all really impressed with him in training [last Wednesday].
‘We’re really glad that we’ve got him on board and we see it as a massive coup for the club to bring him in.’