Lee Ashforth admits joint-managing Campion with James Bicknell has given him his love for Non League Football back.
Ashforth became the joint manager of Campion last summer and he admitted to Non League Yorkshire last August that he had planned on giving up management following difficult spells managing Harrogate Railway, Ossett Town and Clitheroe.
Joining Campion, one of West Yorkshire’s progressive Non League clubs, represented a different challenge and Ashforth says agreeing to work with Bicknell was a correct move and he hopes to win promotion with them.
“My batteries have been massively recharged and a lot of that is down to James Bicknell,” Ashforth told Non League Yorkshire.
“He asked me to go in as joint manager with him and you’re always a bit vary that it won’t work particularly well and you’ll have disagreements. Honestly, it has worked absolutely brilliantly.
“During the season, James was doing what I’d call the running about stuff. He was signing players and speaking to players and on a match-day we worked it well between us.
“It has really got me going again for football and I said this to James a couple of months into the season when we had a pretty poor start, but had kicked on and were pushing and challenging for the promotion places.
“You can imagine I got a fair bit of stick from my mates when we were winning. A couple of them kept saying I must have been in the opposition changing room giving them a team-talk!
“It was nice to get a few wins on the board. I always say that the jobs I’ve had have been tough jobs where I’ve been fighting fires. The only club who have asked me to leave is Clitheroe.
“I kept Ossett (Town) going when that could have easily folded by not having a team on the pitch for the last three months of the season when they were merging.
“Harrogate Railway was always going to be tough following Billy (Miller), but I took it on and took chance. Whilst I haven’t been up there challenging for promotion, I feel I have done well with the budgets I’ve had.
“You move on and it is nice to be part of Campion and it is stress free. Working with James is a massive plus because there is two of you taking that stress.
“I got to know the lads which is always tough when you go into a club which had just missed out on promotion and I feel they all play for me and James and they all have one ambition which is to get Campion promoted.
“That’s the aim again when we restart. They missed out on the last game of the 2018/19 season and if last season had been decided by points-per-game we would have gone up. We also think we would have stood a good chance of going up during the run-in if Covid hadn’t happened.
“It wasn’t to be and we hope to be up there competing again when the season starts.”
Harrogate Railway pair Aiden Kearsley and Paddy Sykes are currently the only two brand new signings at Manningham Mills. Eight of last season’s squad are currently registered with the Toolstation NCEL.
Two or three new faces could follow, admits Ashforth who expects to see a change in player wages and movement.
“We spoke to all the current players in March and we spoke to four or five of our targets,” he said.
“As it has got towards the first of July when we can officially send the forms in, we have managed to keep the majority of last season’s squad.
“I think players have to be more realistic this year about travelling expenses or wages, whatever you want to call it. Clubs are going to struggle with sponsorship and bringing income in. You’ve no idea where things are going to go so if we did start behind closed doors, where’s your revenue coming in from?
“We’ve had a number of conversations with players where we’ve said that the money side of it is not going to be the same as it has been in previous years. Clubs who are promising silly money won’t know where they are going to be in three months’ time. You can’t plan budgets, especially clubs who are basing their budgets on bar takings or the 100 people who come through the gate.
“I think this year you will see less moving about than you have seen in previous years. There’s not much loyalty in Non League Football and this year because players won’t want to be travelling round different people, they’ll stick with the same club as we’ve found at Campion.
“There doesn’t seem to be as much movement this summer and I think that is good for the game. Certainly for teams like Campion, if you can keep the base of your team and you can build on it, you’re in a good position. The teams that have to start from scratch always find it a lot tougher.”
Campion are one of a number of clubs who have began training. The club are following the FA guidance to the “letter of the law” and Ashforth says one of the main reasons why the club are training is to give their players an opportunity to leave their houses.
“Some clubs are training twice a week, us ourselves are back in once a week until we have got a date for the start of the new season,” he said.
“When we have a date we’ll probably ramp it up to two or three times a week.
“It is difficult one for all clubs and as long as people stick to the FA guidelines, it is worth training to get the lads back together as best possible to their fitness levels up.
“Training also gives the lads an opportunity to get out of the house. The mental health aspect is a massive thing. For a lot of lads, football is their hobby and they have had four months without that hobby which is really difficult and it means you have to fill your time with other things.”
The prospect of Campion playing Skegness Town in midweek either home or away has been used as an example of why restructuring now rather than next summer.
But Ashforth is not a supporter of such an idea.
“You know what league you’re going into and you have to apply to go into the NCEL so if you weren’t happy with the travelling you wouldn’t apply in the first place,” he said.
“So for me, you know this year that you’re going to have to travel to Skegness. If that happens to be on a Tuesday night, it is on a Tuesday night. It works both ways, they might have to come to Campion on a Wednesday night.
“Whatever the fixtures throw up, it is what it is. As managers, as much as you’d complain about going to Skegness on a Tuesday night, you’d just get on with it.
“When I’ve been in the leagues above, I’ve travelled to Bridlington on a Tuesday night. When I was at Clitheroe, we were travelling up to areas of Durham in midweek sometimes. It was the same at Brighouse and Ossett.
“I’m not one for complaining about fixtures. I’m more about looking for fixtures that I look forward to like Harrogate Railway. I don’t get caught up with the travelling. The players who sign know who we will play and they know the travelling we have got to do.”