Cod Almighty | Article

by Simon Wilson

4 August 2004

It's a balmy night in Halifax as we wait hopefully in the tunnel for a cursory chat with the new Town manager, Russell Slade. A Halifax Town employee has thoughtfully made sure we haven't left anything in the opposite stand; moments later the floodlights start to shut down, until one dimly illuminates a corner of the pitch to our left.

A few Town players finish their warm-down and file past us into the relatively brightly lit and dazzlingly white-walled tunnel. Slade is talking thoughtfully with Trevor Green of the Grimsby Telegraph, carefully shaping his sentences, adding convenient breaks for the journalist's writing to catch up. The interview ends and Slade brightens up, turns and takes two steps down the tunnel. 

"Er, Russell. Could you spare a couple of minutes for an interview with a Town fanzine about your thoughts for the upcoming season?"

Slade turns round and his smile breaks into a perky: "Of course! Is this Town Halifax or Grimsby?"

"Grimsby."

"Grreat! Go ahead..."

Totally out of practice at this lark, and therefore equally ill-prepared, I blurt: "Erm, so what are your thoughts on the upcoming season?!" Slade and I laugh in unison at the obviousness of my question.

"I can't wait to get going," says Slade, in far livelier manner than he takes with professional interviewers. "I'd have liked a couple of weeks more because getting the side together has obviously been hard work and tricky. And then once you get them together it's a matter of working with them."

My mind switches to reports about Michael Reddy: there seems to be confusion about his injury and whether he will be fit for the start of the season. "It was a ligament injury," Slade enlightens me before going into immense detail on the types of ligament injury and their treatment. "Reddy's wasn't broken; it needed stitching, and the surgeon was happy. Thereafter you just have to build the muscle up round the knee joint, involving a lot of gym work, which is the work he's been doing. And then you can only come back to do work on twists and turns and all that at a certain stage." 

It's not Reddy's injury that has waylaid him today though. "Reddy has done some heavy running – I wasn't with them Saturday as I was watching Darlington – and they've done some hill work and he's sore on his hamstring. Not his injury – that's fine – and he trained again this morning but didn't want to risk it tonight. He's very, very close. If we had one more week Reddy would start [on Saturday] – that's how close he is." 

Talking of injuries, Slade concedes that, because of Ronnie Bull's absence with a slight thigh pull ("I'm not going to risk a player tonight who's feeling a bit sore") his strongest side won't get a run-out together for the first time until Saturday at the earliest, and that is while the hunt for more players goes on. Different trialist strikers began each half of tonight's game, and Slade not been overly impressed with what he's seen. "We'll have to get another player in before Saturday but [tonight's performance] has not helped me." There is almost a sense of defeat in his search when he says: "I've got three days to work with what I've got." But when asked if he is looking for a forward on loan or a permanent deal, he suddenly beams: "No, sign one permanently, definitely!"

In his time at the club so far Slade has rebuilt the Town squad almost from scratch – so where does he keep getting these players from? "Contacts, networking – whether it's an agent, coach, manager, that's how I pick them up." His search means he needs a 24/7 commitment to the job at the moment: "I never switch off my phone. It's mad!"

What about the connection with Sheffield United? "I've always had a bit of link with them, even when I was at Scarborough, because I had three and a half years there, so that's helped with the [Ashley] Sestanovich situation. I've not got another one from Sheffield have I?" Like the kid in the class who's always trying to outfox the teacher, I pipe out the name of Andy Parkinson. "Parky! Of course, of course! But I didn't know Parky when I was there, so there's not a link that way. Parky will be a good asset. That goal he scored tonight wasn't offside!"

And with that we return to discussing tonight's game. Slade wasn't impressed with the referee. "I think he was poor," is his blunt assessment after seeing a number of dubious offside decisions against Town, but his thoughts are concentrated mostly on his team. "We dipped tonight. I've never seen a side really flying in a game before they kicked the season off. I think they're thinking, "Hang on – it's next week, the game," and stuff like that, whereas for [Halifax] I think it was: 'Come on, can we take a scalp?'" With David Hodgson, the manager of Saturday's opponents Darlington, watching in the stand, maybe it was a shrewd move to turn in an understated performance and not give any tricks away. "Exactly. Hopefully we've give him a few wrong ideas." Let's hope so and let's hope it was a case of Town playing within themselves.

Preparation for Slade's first league game in charge of Town has already been discussed, but I try to get him to elaborate, first with Slade setting down his team's objective. "You get as much information about any side, but you've got to not get beat away from home," he says, sharing the belief David Moyes expressed when Everton surprisingly finished seventh in the Premiership during the 2002–03 season. 

"I think sometimes I'm not bothered if it's not pretty away from home. God, I love to play, I love to pass it about, I love to score goals like we scored tonight, including the one we had disallowed. To be fair we've four great chances second half: two one-on-ones, [Stacy] Coldicott from ten yards, and then the free header. Even tonight, we could have won away 4-2, say, and you could say that's not bad then." Sensing that work remains to be done, Slade draws a line under tonight's performance by adding: "But I'd rather come away knowing we have a lot to work on."

Despite seeing these shortcomings, is he confident? "Yeah. Slowly but surely things are fitting into place." I take it by the past few comments he means the team aren't quite ready. Does he think it will take a couple of games to get going? "Yes, definitely. The hardest games will be the first ten or twelve. One, adjusting to life in the third division. Two, the players getting used to it, gelling together. That's critical, the chemistry of my side, and getting the balance right. And me knowing what you're going to do when you get there and what type of ball that you want to receive there. It's just the understanding."

It won't just be the players though, will it? The fans will need to adapt to the new division. "Definitely, and what it takes to win a football match. The thing is we all want to pass and things like that. To me, we've overpassed tonight, dwelled on the ball instead of shifting it, moving it quicker. In the second half it was all them smothering us a little bit, because we weren't getting the ball forward and behind people. And in the third division you've got to do that because at times they'll smother you. I picked Halifax as it's a good fixture for us to prepare for that."

"Of all the letters I've had in, the biggest thing is wearing the shirt with some pride and some commitment. I'd say 90 per cent have been that. They've had enough losing. The fans will take on their chin a loss if they work their bollocks off, and that's the way it will have to be. In terms of that, I think tonight there were one or two who were looking after themselves and all that. I'll take that tonight, but I won't fucking take it on Saturday. We're not winners if we don't win headers, if we're not putting tackles, if we're not putting on a run, if we're not chasing lost causes, if we're not doubling up. If we're not doing that I'll be going crazy. I'll be going crazy. You won't ever see me sitting down."

By now, Slade is hitting his stride and doesn't need much prompting. It is reassuring to hear a manager talk with such obvious passion for his work. I try to gauge what he considers to be an acceptable performance. "Our best performance has been Willem at home." Was it more enjoyable playing a team who pass it around on the deck more? "Yeah, but there won't be too many of those in Division Three. Yeovil maybe, Mansfield maybe – they'll pass it around. Northampton maybe." This short list ends here. "But there'll be a lot who are direct and you've got to grit it out. My lads have got to learn to grit it out and, you know, not think they're too good to try and get it down and pass instead of hooking it out; and hitting long; and pressing; and scrapping for the next ball; because that's what life will be like at times. And that's what we will have to appreciate. 

"I think we have, and will have the ability, but we've got to win the battle. You've got to win the war first, you've got to conquer all that first in the third division. You can't go out and say, 'Well, I'm a better player than you, I've got more ability than you,' and simply win the game, because that just won't happen. We have the ability, I know that. In Thomas [Pinault] I think we've got an excellent signing, a good player. To be fair, the two who are looking more likely in the centre of the park are [Terry] Fleming and Thomas because they blend, with Stacy a little bit behind. But two from those three ain't bad and we've got some competition for places.

"I have given all the players the opportunity pre-season, to stake a claim for a shirt, old and new players. We need that little bit of luck with injuries. At this stage we have enough strength and depth, and there's a bit of potential in the building. If we have the strength and depth later on... I don't know; that is the big question mark. I have a lot of young players who are going to have grow up quick."

With a number of young players retained from last year's squad, will Slade give them a fair go – or are they just there to make up the numbers? "I think I've given them a really, really good chance pre-season." Ashley Hildred provides evidence of this, particularly with a very positive second-half performance tonight. "I will go with what I think will be the side that will win me a football match on Saturday, because I will always try to win a football match. It will then be up to them to try and break through. Circumstances may dictate that when they get the opportunity – which they will, because we've got a small squad – they've got to take it. What remains to be seen is how well they take it. I am sure that the opportunity will come to them; it has to because we've not got a big squad."

Does that mean when injuries and suspensions reduce the number of available playing staff, the club won't be looking at loans, as was the norm in recent years? "There won't be a lot of resource as we're nearly there in terms of the budget. But you would hopefully wheel and deal and exploit the loan system or give a youngster a chance. There's different ways to skin a cat, or to try to strengthen the squad. Otherwise we'll have to go with me cat, won't I!" Several members of the Cod Almighty team offer that if such a situation was to occur we'd more than gladly bring our boots to Blundell Park for a game. Which is where we end what was going to be our brief chat. 

We thank the manager, and he asks if we're going to the game on Saturday. Phil says definitely, Miles says no. Before tonight's game, even straight after it, I was unsure about making the trek up the A1 from my home near Leeds. But this chat with the new man in charge has buoyed me up – from being considered, verging on pensive, in my thoughts, to starting to be a little drawn in by Russell Slade's manifesto. It could be a very involving season.