My Greatest Game: How Simon Houghton turned Pontefract into a force with no budget

Simon Houghton was manager of Pontefract Collieries between 2008 and 2011 and is credited as the man who built the initial foundations for the success the Colls have enjoyed in the last five years

SIMON HOUGHTON is one of the most highly-rated NCEL managers of the past 12 years.

Although he has no trophies to his name as an outright manager, his work has constantly received great acclaim. He has drastically changed the fortunes of Glasshoughton Welfare and Nostell Miners Welfare, created a successful team at Shaw Lane and won promotion as an assistant with Glasshoughton and Athersley Rec.

But it is his achievements with Pontefract Collieries that make him stand out. Between 2008 and 2011 Houghton and his assistant Darren Smith, along with chairman Trevor Waddington, rescued a lost cause and turned them into a force to be reckoned with.

The club was on its knees. The Colls had just finished bottom of Division One with one win and nine points. The solitary victory had come on the previous opening day – ironically a 1-0 win at Rainworth Miners Welfare thanks to a Craig Elliott goal – so the Colls had gone 31 games without a league win.

The club’s committee wanted change and they turned to a young and ambitious manager in Houghton, then in charge of Kinsley Boys. He arrived and in his first season, with literally no budget, he guided Pontefract to ninth and the Wilkinson Sword Trophy final which they lost to Staveley and future Millwall striker Lee Gregory’s penalty.

Helped by star men such as Nick Handley, Craig Rouse, Michael Long, Mark Lafferty, Ben Gilbert, Gareth Lewins, Dean Lackie and Carl Turner, Houghton and Smith planted the very early seeds for the unprecedented success the Colls have enjoyed in the last few years.

In the latest ‘My Greatest Game’, Houghton traces his route to the NCEL touchline and looks back at his first season managing Pontefract and the Wilkinson Sword Trophy semi-final victory over Rainworth which put the Colls into a final for the first time in five years.

Pontefract Collieries (Craig Rouse 11,23 penalty, Michael Long 59) 3-0 Rainworth Miners Welfare – Tuesday 10th March 2009

Future Pontefract assistant manager Craig Rouse in action for the Colls in 2008. He scored twice in the 2009 Wilkinson Sword Trophy semi-final win over Rainworth.

“It is not an achievement from a trophy point of view, but to finish ninth and get to the Wilkinson Sword Trophy final with nothing for a budget, it is up there. Especially with it being my first season at that level of football and the sides we were coming up against like Scarborough Athletic and Rainworth. Scarborough won the league with 92 points and were 14 clear of Rainworth. They were paying massive money and battering teams. We gave them two tough games. We didn’t beat them, but we matched them. 

“In terms of my path into management. I played football at school, but I didn’t get into it properly until I was 13 or 14. Even though I’d known about my dad playing for Barnsley in the 1960s, for whatever reason it was much later when I started playing. I knew as well at an early age that I wasn’t good enough to follow in his footsteps. 

“I actually went onto play for Pontefract when I was 21 when Jim Kenyon was the manager, but I did my ankle. It was never right and it always niggled me. I didn’t have an operation on it until I was 25 or 26 to sort it out and I used to go and watch Barnsley on a Saturday.

“I played on a Sunday for Royston Pockets and that’s how I got into management. The manager had left and I was asked if I would leave too to go to a club in a higher league, but I was quite loyal and I said I’d go to one more training session. So I went to this training sessions and there was nobody there. I went to the clubhouse and got talking to the committee members and one suggested I took over. I was 26 at the time so I thought I was a bit young. But I was the captain wherever I had been and I took it on and we did quite well and then I went to Kinsley Boys.

“I had a fantastic four seasons with Kinsley. I think in the previous two years to me taking over they had finished in the bottom two or three. In my first season there we finished second in the league and got to a couple of cup semi-finals. We finished second again in the second year, but won two cups, a Sheffield FA cup and the League Cup. 

“I was only 31 or 32 when Pontefract approached me. The season before I took over they had finished with one win and nine points. I knew it was going to be a big step up and in his first game of the season at home to Rainworth I wasn’t there because my daughter was in hospital and we lost 4-1 and got taken apart. I thought ‘we’ve got a job on here’. In the end we had quite a good season. We never panicked and after that first month we could do well with the players we have got. In the first month we got more points than the club got in the whole of the previous season.

“I brought a lot of the lads from Kinsley who I thought was good enough and then over time we just added to it. At the beginning we had people like Nick Handley and Craig Rouse who went onto to achieve a lot on the playing and management front at Ponte. There was Sean Hammonds, Dean Lackie, Andy Joburns was the goalkeeper and there was Paul Staniforth, Dean Helliwell. We didn’t get him at first, but Mark Lafferty who was my captain at Kinsley, came and he was a big signing. We signed Ben Gilbert and to get Ben Gilbert through the door and play for us from Nostell was a big moment. People took notice of us. What a goalscorer was Rousey that year. He was brilliant alongside Ben Gilbert. They both knew where the net was. Rian Sykes was around in the first season, but I think he was injured a lot. Young Connor Rollinson was there too. He was only 16 and he was part of the squad which stood him in good stead for where he is now. We were taking risks on a lot of players and seeing if they could step up. A lot of the lads who played that year weren’t used to the travelling and being out of the house for so long. To get nothing for it as well it was tough and it really tested commitment levels.

Michael Long in battle for Pontefract during the Simon Houghton era
Team spirit is a big reason why Pontefract were successful under Simon Houghton. The photo is from Houghton’s final season at Pontefract. You can see the likes of Paul Haigh, Carl Fothergill, Luke Smith and Lee Garside.
Pontefract on the attack in Simon Houghton’s first season
Pontefract celebrate a goal
Darren Smith, best known for being Craig Elliott’s assistant at Shaw Lane, was a big part of Pontefract’s success under Simon Houghton

“We had a really good side and the reason why we were successful was that we had a great team spirit. The team spirit has to be so strong to achieve things with no money. Darren Smith helped heavily with that. He brought the likes of Nick Handley, Craig Rouse and Dean Lackie in. Myself and Daz were a good duo. I can be too serious sometimes and Daz divided that. He always has a smile on his face. The social side was good, we had some great nights out and it was a good time. The expectations were low, it was just a case of finish as high up the table as you can. We couldn’t do any worse and we did all we did with literally nothing for a budget.

“Pontefract have done so well in the last five years because every single person at the club all believed in what they were trying to achieve and were all pulling in the same direction. In our first season at Pontefract it was just the same. Everybody was together and we all knew where we were going. Looking back now it was a very important season for Pontefract and we built some foundations for the club to progress onto where it is today. People like Trevor and the two Craig’s (Parry and Rouse) have taken it onto a fantastic level. I’m delighted to see where they are.

A later team photo of Simon Houghton’s Pontefract
A later team photo of Simon Houghton’s Pontefract
Nick Handley was Simon Houghton’s Pontefract captain. He went onto joint manager with Duncan Bray when the club won promotion in 2015
Way back when: Simon Houghton during his first stint as manager of Kinsley Boys
Simon Houghton left Nostell Miners Welfare along with Jason Dodsworth
Joe Thornton played for Simon Houghton at Pontefract

“Back in 2008 we totally changed the mindset of people’s perception of Pontefract Collieries. Because of where they had finished at the end of the previous season, it was hard to attract players, but once as we went on a run during the October and November (2008), it was a lot easier sell. Players wanted to come and play for us. Over the following two years, people like Danny Frost signed for us. Jason Bentley, Joe Thornton and Josh Wright came later and we built a really good side. The league also took us seriously again. Teams used to come to Pontefract and think it was an easy three points and it probably was. We changed that straightaway and we had players who would roll over and die. Teams had to roll their sleeves up to get a point or win against Ponte. 

Simon Houghton’s Pontefract beat Rudy Funk’s Rainworth in the 2009 Wilkinson Sword Trophy semi-final

“The Rainworth semi-final was the biggest game at Ponte for years. Rainworth got promoted that year and they battered us on the opening day and then we got a point at their place with a scratched side over Christmas. People know what Rudy Funk’s sides are like, they’re big, they’re strong and they’re organised and difficult to play against. To play them with the side we had and to beat them so convincingly ranks up there with the most pleasing wins I’ve had.

“We changed it tactically and the tactics were spot on. Rainworth played three at the back and we played Craig Rouse up front on his own with two players out wide to stretch them. I think we put Gaz Lewins in the hole and sat two midfielders in front of the back four so we soaked up what they threw at us and battled. It just worked so well. Generally we played 4-4-2. I don’t remember the full team, but Joburns would have been in goal, Stani at left-back, Nick at centre-back, Carl Utley and Carl Turner in middle of park, I’m not sure who else played that night.

“There was no pressure on us as we were major underdogs. We had a dream start and I remember one of Rousey’s goals because he hit one from 30 yards and thinking ‘what are you shooting from there for’ and then it was in the back of the net. That’s what Rousey was like. 

“With the way we were set up, we were solid and it was hard to get in-between our lines and as long as we defended well, they weren’t going to trouble us. I remember that they didn’t have much pace up-top which helped because we could press a bit higher and compress the game. We were good value for it. Once as we got the third thanks to Mickey Long, it was all over.

“Everyone was absolutely delighted and there was a great atmosphere in that clubhouse afterwards. It is always nice to see Trevor smiling and he was smiling that day. There was only 40 people there that night too and it shows how the club has evolved over the years with the crowds they get now.

“We played Staveley in the final and I don’t have many regrets from the two legs. We drew 1-1 in the first and then lost 2-1 in the second so we lost 3-2 on aggregate. Lee Gregory scored the decisive goal from the penalty spot. He was on a different level. You knew he would go higher because he was unplayable. His touches, his movement, his strength, everything. He’s probably one of the best players I’ve managed against. He was superb.

“They were both tight games. The worse part about it was that we conceded four penalties over the two legs. They only scored two of them, I think Andy Joburns saved two and it was a combination of bad defending and dodgy refereeing as to why we conceded that many. It was a bit of both, but then in the last minute of the second leg, Rousey got took down in the six-yard as he was about to pull the trigger to score and the referee waved play-on. If he had scored and he would have done because he wouldn’t miss from there, we would have won on away goals, I’m sure of it. I’m sure that was the rules. 

“But we did so well, especially when you at the players they had. They were paying good money to some top players and I remember looking around their pub (they didn’t have a clubhouse at the time) and knowing the kind of the money they were getting and then looking at ours and thinking ‘they’re not getting a bean’. We’d just given them a right game.

“We did do well to keep hold of the team throughout that season and we didn’t lose anybody that we didn’t want to lose. People stayed because they liked the environment, but I don’t think there was as much money around in those days as there is now. The NCEL is more awash with money nowadays. If anyone had moved for money it would have been only for maybe a £10 win bonus if that, not £40 or £50 that you can get now in the NCEL. There wasn’t much money branched about. Now it is life-changing. It can help you pay your mortgage. 

“I managed Ponte for nearly two more years. I am all about progression and we had a little bit of money in the second season and we finished fifth.

“If I had been allowed to finish that third season with Pontefract that would have been my best season. We were right in the mix and loads of games-in-hands and I think we would have gone up. We were top at Christmas and then we didn’t play for two months because of the weather and other teams were getting games on. We weren’t. It left a bad taste for a few years because I didn’t see it coming. Sometimes there is signs, but there wasn’t.

“I’m really proud of what we achieved at Pontefract. Because we had no money and what we achieved, that first season is one of the most enjoyable I’ve had.”

Simon Houghton was interviewed by James Grayson

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