The potential of Garforth Town persuaded Paul Marshall to leave the golf course and move back into the dugout.
The former Harrogate Railway and Tadcaster Albion manager replaced Rob Hunter last month and has enjoyed a stunning start to his reign with four wins and a draw in the Toolstation NCEL Premier Division.
He was reluctant to return to management, but given Garforth’s proximity to the M1 and A64 he felt it was an opportunity not to be missed.
“I do think I can do without the hassle like the cold nights, the phone calls,” Marshall told Non League Yorkshire.
“When I wasn’t managing I never had any phone calls. Now the phone is going all the time and I haven’t played golf for three weeks because I’ve been fully-focussed on managing Garforth.
“I was happy playing golf. I’ve had to stop playing golf now so my handicap has gone back up, so that’s a bit of a problem.
“But if it was just about survival in this league I wouldn’t have come here.
“(Owners) Craig (Bannister) and Brian (Close) expressed that they would go up if the team was good enough and I believe that.
“The club is set up for the BetVictor. The location is the key thing because if you need players you can get them from anywhere.
“I struggled at Pickering because you were limited to where you could get players from on a limited budget. It was amazing that we got them up.
“You couldn’t players. Games were too far away and we didn’t pay enough money. That was one of the problems. Here at Garforth I don’t have that problem because there’s Leeds, Wakefield, Harrogate, York.”
Marshall, who if he is still in charge of Garforth next season will likely reach 1000 games in management, left Pickering Town in February ten months after leading them into the BetVictor for the first time in their history.
“I’ve always said (when I left Pickering) that I’d either go to Taddy or Garforth,” he said.
“If things didn’t go so well at either club, I thought Garforth and Taddy would be the only club I would come to.
“I wouldn’t have gone anywhere else because it would have been too far to travel.
“I came and had a word with Garforth and they made me feel so welcome
“Brian and Craig sold it to me and I thought it is a club that’s only 20 minutes from my house.
“I just want to bring back smiles to the faces of the people at Garforth because they have a great group of people working here and they deserve a bit of success.
“You can never say that this is my last job because people think I can get teams doing well at this level. I’ve won a few promotions at this level so I know how to do it.”
Marshall has made two signings since arriving in East Leeds – Sam Leach and Sam Denton – and the four wins have taken them to eighth.
The victories have revived the pre-season optimism that loomed over Garforth and Marshall has faith in his troops.
“Points-wise it is an amazing start and we have to be happy with that,” he said.
“We have moved from 16th to eighth. We have totally changed the season around and we’re looking up the table.
“Everyone is sticking together and I’ve had lots of enquires from players who are interested in playing for us, but like I’ve said to the players if they keep performing and we get wins, we’ll carry on working with them.
“Why do we need to change the team when we’re winning? If we can winning I’d like to think people will get behind us. I know you could get 200 people in watching us. The top three is not out of reach.
“Everybody is beating each other.”
Garforth are due to play at Eccleshill United in the West Riding County Cup tonight.