Pic: David Purday
THE BOTTLES of bubbly must have tasted pretty sweet at Ebbsfleet United last Saturday. After all, this is a club that is accused of losing its bottle when it comes to promotion.
Even during last week’s play-off final, 1-0 behind to Chelmsford and down to ten men, the wisecracks were out on twitter.
“Ebbsfleet bottling it again,” was the general gist. How wrong they were. On the ropes no doubt, they dug deep and turned it around through Dave Winfield and Darren McQueen goals to seal a return to Non-League‘s top flight.
Now, that’s bottle. There’s no doubt the Fleet are a different beast since the last time they were there. As they slipped out of the league in 2013 there were serious doubts about their existence. In debt, on their knees, the obituaries were being written.
Dr Abdulla Al-Humaidi rode to the rescue and invested heavily, much to the dismay of some people, who clearly preferred the club when they didn’t have a pot to you know what in.
It’s actually a very shrewd investment. The area is being rejuvenated, new housing and mini towns popping up all around, increasing the catchment area, and the club’s potential. Money is a fact of life. It’s boring to bang on about it. In nearly every major team sport, there are the haves and have nots.
To say Ebbsfleet bottled the National League South last year is an insult to Sutton United and their brilliant season. To say it this year is a kick in the nuts to how good Maidenhead United have been.
McMahon deserves this glory too, not least because of his rotten run in the play-offs at different clubs.
Knowledge
He’s an intelligent, thoughtful coach, who has accumulated 180 points (96 this year) in his first two seasons as a manager. Having known him for many years as a player, there was always clearly a manager’s brain in his head.
His knowledge of players and clubs is impressive. Hugely respected and popular on the pitch, it’s the same in management.
When Maidstone United beat them in the play-off final last season, Stones boss Jay Saunders made a point of how much time he has for the 33-year-old.
Ahead of this campaign he consciously streamlined his squad and was finally able to move players on the contracted players who had left him hamstrung in year one.
He’s actively given younger players time in his first team and in Jack Powell and Darren McQueen he has two exciting talents we should look forward to seeing in the National League next year.
Like any team moving up to Step 1 they will need to make improvements, but from the noises coming out of the club, and knowing McMahon’s character, it sounds like it will be a sensible approach.
They can enjoy the pressure being off next year. Expectation is something lots of clubs have to cope with. It was interesting to see the videos of FC Halifax’s squad celebrating their promotion final win against Chorley. Ironic chants of ‘Heath Out’ show how much players pick up from the terraces and how they can use their own fans as motivation.
A story popped up in the week that one fan had been heard saying he still wanted boss Billy Heath gone. What more does he want? The club have bounced straight back to Step 1 following relegation 12 months ago.
Should Heath ride around the technical area on a unicycle while juggling knives? As always, it’s a noisy minority but you have to wonder about this everything yesterday culture.
Heath deserves his shot in the National League too. He’s hugely experienced having built a management career up from the bottom of the ladder. Starting out at Hall Road Rangers, not many can match his success of recent seasons.
At North Ferriby he won two promotions as well as the FA Trophy against Wrexham. Last summer he made a brave decision to leave the Villagers and stay in the National League North.
He, and the players who did the same, hoped it would be for one season only. But with the strength of clubs in the division, it could have been more.
Ebbsfleet bottling it, Heath out – I’ll drink to that.
