By Matt Badcock,
Peter Adeniyi believes Carshalton Athletic are seeing exactly why promotion back to Step 3 was so important.
The Robins won the Bostik South title last season and have adapted well to life in the Bostik Premier.
Player-boss Adeniyi admits they’ve had to learn the demands of a higher division quickly but believes they’re showing they belong.
“It was really important we got to this level because it enables us to attract potentially better players,” Adeniyi said.
“We constantly have players asking to come down and it’s much easier to have that conversation this season because players would rather play Bostik Prem – which is understandable. The higher up you go, the better players you can attract. So for us as a club it’s important we keep growing on the pitch.
“The chairman (Paul Dipre) is doing a fantastic job off the pitch. So the key is for us to work together as a football club. There’s no point having a fantastic facility and great work off the pitch if on the pitch isn’t reflecting that.”
Adeniyi also believes it was important for the existing crop of players to challenge themselves higher up the ladder.
Carshalton have a reputation for good football with some exciting young players and they’ve been given the chance to show their worth.
“It’s two-fold,” Adeniyi says. “Everyone wants to be successful, don’t they? Managers and players. Being my first job, success comes by winning games and gaining promotions with the club you’re at. That’s what people recognise.
Opportunity
“For the players it’s no different. Our aim last year was promotion, which we achieved, but it also means the boys play higher.
“It’s part of the reason we kept faith with them – they earned it. Our conversation was, ‘You’ll be given the opportunity at this level. I’m pretty sure you guys want it, you deserve it, and it’s up to you to prove you can play at this level’.
Obviously I was going to add one or two but they’ve all been given a fair opportunity to show they can play at this level, which they’re now showing.”
Adeniyi will turn 39 in January but he’s still doing the business on the pitch.
But for a first job in management he couldn’t have got off to a much better start.
The former Dulwich Hamlet, Lewes and Bromley midfielder says he’s grateful to all the managers he’s played under – highlighting the support of Hamlet duo Gavin Rose and Junior Kadi – but also believes he’s got one of the best alongside him in the dug-out in Keith Boanas.
Journey
“He coaches coaches,” Adeniyi says of the former Tooting and Estonia Women’s national team boss. “Every game we go to, the opposition manager or a coach will say, ‘Oh yeah, Keith did my UEFA B’. I say, ‘Is there anyone you don’t know in football, Keith?’
“For me personally as a developing young manager and coach, I’ve got a coach’s coach working alongside me.
“The chairman’s ethos for my personal development was to get somebody who can help me along that journey.
“I feel like I’ve landed on my feet and I’ve started at a brilliant place. I’m so happy with everything around here – the club is progressing on and off the pitch.
“It’s just a brilliant place to be.”
