Pics: Don Walker
NIKKI BULL wasn’t ever supposed to be the manager of Margate. Even when he did get given the job last year, he was told by the chairman that he fully expected the team to be bottom of the table going into February.
Ye of little faith. Told to step in and not just steady the ship but stop it from sinking all together, the Gate goalkeeper thankfully didn’t pay much attention.
Second-from-bottom when Terry Brown was relieved of his duties, Bull took charge of his first game six days before Christmas after player-power left millionaire owner Bob Laslett with no alternative but to hire the untested Aldershot legend.
The club under real threat of leaving the National League South through the relegation trapdoor are now in danger of escaping from the other end.
Momentum
Last Saturday’s 2-1 win over Basingstoke took them up into sixth place – it was their 23rd point from the 30 available under Bull’s stewardship, and their fifth win from six.
Following the 3-2 win at Chelmsford and the 1-0 home defeat against Eastbourne Borough, they are just two points adrift of the play-offs.
All this after he was told not to worry when the team were sat bottom of the table.
He said: “Looking at those first seven games I had to take, if you would have said we’d be sixth after ten you would have been carted off and carried away by the men in white coats!
“I remember them saying to me that I would be supported because the likelihood of us being bottom going into February was high. When I took over the fixture list was terrible – Gosport, Maidstone twice, Dartford away and Ebbsfleet away. They didn’t expect us to really get much as we had no confidence and the teams we were playing were all very good, but I knew if we started well we could build some momentum.
“When Terry was sacked they asked if I could take training as we didn’t have a game for a fortnight. The chairman said by the time the Gosport game came around we would have a new manager in place so I just got on with it.
“The players liked what I was doing and word reached the board that they wanted me to be given an opportunity I never expected. The players are responding to what I have asked of them and it’s been a really good start for me all things considered.”
And that’s down to a change of approach. Brown’s philosophy is self-styled ‘risk football‘. Easy on the eye, but it leaves you easily exposed.
Bull, 34, says making Margate tougher to beat was his first objective and although the side may be a little less aesthetically pleasing, it’s winning football – and that could take them far.
Desire
He said: “Terry’s record at clubs playing total football was brilliant, but I just thought the no-risk approached suited us better as teams were figuring us out, giving us the time we needed in certain areas and cutting us off where it mattered.
“We were too open but now we’re defensive minded and we run on the players’ desire.”
Bull is aware of the need to make the most of his unexpected opportunity, adding: “The reality is that no other club would have given me this chance – and I wouldn’t have stepped into management anywhere else as I still loved playing.
“The table isn’t true at the moment, clubs have games in hand and it would be a huge stretch to reach the play-offs. But if we keep winning, you just don’t know.”
