Steve Roberts admits he knew it would be tricky to attract players to Pickering Town, but he’s happy with his collection of summer signings.
Recruitment is notoriously challenging for managers of Pickering because of the club’s geographical location.
Ex-Scarborough Athletic first team coach Roberts replaced Denny Ingram earlier this year and instead of struggling for bodies, he has managed to raise eyebrows with some impressive captures.
Quality and very successful Non League players Wayne Brooksby, Jack Johnson and Leon Osborne have joined, but Roberts agrees that the announcement of former Harrogate Town and Scarborough star Dave Merris as a marquee signing was a pivotal moment.
“It is difficult because you have to make people travel (because of the location), but I’m pleased with the recruitment,” Roberts told Non League Yorkshire.
“Luckily through my time with Scarborough I have built up contacts and a network of players and I’ve kept in touch with players from Scarborough and have never been on bad terms.
“When I was allowed to (when lockdown restrictions were relaxed), I drove to meet players for coffee in places like Doncaster to outline my hopes for the club and to show my enthusiasm. That’s really helped me bring players in because over the phone it is hard. Face-to-face is much better.
“There’s players who are used to travelling and they have been at every training session. There’s a good group from that area like Dave Merris, Jack Johnson and Leon Osbourne who can all travel together.
“The biggest journey is one hour twenty minutes. Realistically anything over that, you’re not going to get them. It has been difficult and I think people look at where you’ve finished in the last two seasons and you have to try and explain that you’re trying to change that and progress the club forward.
“I had conversations with Dave Merris and Ben Clappison, a really good player who I wanted to bring in and you tell them that ‘if I get you in, it makes it easy to get the next one in’.
“Dave Merris was the first one and the conversations after that became a little easier. You build up two or three and Leon Osborne came because of knowing Dave Merris.
“Then you can say Dave Merris and Leon Osbourne have signed for us. The first one is key and it helps with the pulling power.”
Roberts has cast his net far and wide to assemble his squad for the new NPL Division One North West campaign.
He also agrees that there is good enough players in the nearby Step 7 leagues, but many are reluctant to commit to the time and travelling involved in the NPL.
“I think there is players are out there in those leagues,” he said.
“It is difficult to find them as you don’t have the time to watch games (in those leagues because they on Saturdays) which would be nice.
“I do try to if there is a fixture that I can get to. Touching on Jackson Jowett, I think he’s a really great player with potential.
“I had him when I was with Scarborough under 19s and he was just a local player playing for a local side. I always said to him ‘you’re far better than that’.
“So he came on trial at Scarborough and now I’ve been to lucky stumble back across him at Pickering. I really enjoy working him and he’s proof that the players are out there (in Step 7).
“I think some players (in Step 7) do prefer an easy life and don’t want to commit to the travelling involved in Non League.”
Although the NPL season does not start until the 19th September, Pickering were one of the clubs involved in FA Cup extra preliminary round action on Tuesday night.
Pickering endured a nightmare start at Penrith as they were losing 3-0 after half-an-hour. Adam Warrilow and Wayne Brooksby gave Pickering hope, but in the end they ran out of time.
Roberts conceded that the disastrous first half cost his side.
“We spoke about how to start the game brightly, but they were just quicker to every ball and we didn’t manage the game well,” he said.
“There were individual errors and to go 3-0 down after 25 minutes was the worst start possible. It is hard to come back from that.
“We got a goal before half-time and I made a change at half-time as I brought Jack Johnson on.
“As daft as it sounds, I thought the second half was the best we have played since we started pre-season. We did dominate. We were making chances and I thought we’d equalise after making it 3-2 on 56 minutes.
“To be fair to them they defended well. They put bodies on the line and their goalkeeper made some good saves. They deserved to go through really. I have to take the positives from the second half.”
If you have enjoyed reading Non League Yorkshire over the past few months, please consider making a donation to the not-for-profit organisation NLY Community Sport which provides sport for children and adults with disabilities and learning difficulties. CLICK HERE to visit the JustGiving page. There is a video at the bottom of the page showing our work.
NLY Community Sport, run by James Grayson and Connor Rollinson, has always had combatting social isolation at the top of our objectives when running our Disability Football teams. As we slowly return to ‘action’, our work will play an important role in reintroducing our players, who have disabilities and learning difficulties, back into society.
We have six teams, a mixture of Junior and Adult teams – Nostell MW DFC, Pontefract Pirates, Selby Disability Football Club and the South Yorkshire Superheroes (Barnsley) – across Yorkshire.
We have enjoyed great success over the past three years. Several of our players have represented Mencap GB in Geneva, including Billy Hobson from Selby and Greg Smith, whose story is quite inspiring.
Like most organisations, we have been affected financially by the Coronavirus and because of the cancelled Lucille Rollinson Memorial Tournament, we are down on projected income for the year and we have incurred losses in the last few months.
We have not been hit as badly as other organisations, but we do need raise £2000 to put us back at the level we were at in mid-March and enable us to make a difference once again to our players’ lives in the future, without having financial worries. Several of our players are suffering from effects of the lockdown and we are determined to be in the strongest position possible to provide services for them.
Any amount raised above £2000 will be put towards new projects (when the world returns to normal) designed to further benefit people with disabilities and learning difficulties. You can learn more about the organisation HERE and on our Facebook page.
Watch the video below to see highlights from our three years as an organisation. The video was produced for our players at the end of March to remind them of good memories from the last three years.