Tonbridge Angels‘ boss Steve McKimm is carefully calculating the odds as he looks to keep his side out of danger at the foot of the Ryman League Premier Division.
With games running out and the Angels still within touching distance of the drop zone, McKimm knows that after three games without a win he simply cannot afford to make any slip ups. Managerial careers come and go on the back of end-of-season slumps in form.
The former Sutton United boss has vowed to keep his side ‘plugging away’ until they are mathematically safe but recent 1-1 draws with Harrow and Bognor Regis Town have done little to ease the nerves.
Studying the form, calculating the odds
Like anyone studying the odds, McKimm will be perfectly aware that achieving the sort of mathematical certainty he is striving for is easier said than done. And that is all the more true of a job such as McKimm’s where he is only indirectly able to control the ebb and flow of events where and when it matters most – out on the pitch on match days. As the likes of big name former players Phil Babb and Marcus Gayle have discovered recently, management is a difficult game to master.
In the short term the good news for McKimm is that his defensive resources are well supplied. Laurence Ball, who suffered a nasty facial injury against Bognor Regis, should return before the end of the campaign. And Jon Heath and Jerome Sobers are also now on the road to full fitness. A further boost has arrived in the form of Simon Cox joining Angels from Farnborough until the end of the season.
Indirect control
But McKimm’s problems go beyond the matter of personnel. In the same way that a roulette croupier is only notionally in charge of a roulette wheel, McKimm’s personal success or failure will be decided by events that are beyond his immediate power to control. He may have the maths down to the third decimal point, and have all the variables he can imagine attended to, but there is always the possibility that the fates will turn against him. Players do not – or sometimes simply cannot – do what a manager asks of them. McKimm’s job is as much about leadership as it is management, pure and simple.
Like any gambler, McKimm is looking to make the most of what he has available to him in the weeks ahead. Key to that equation is the experience that his squad boasts. But when the pressure is on – as it will be right up until the point when the Angels have finally made themselves safe – what will be needed above all else is cool heads.
A cause for concern
But just like the unpredictability of that roulette wheel, there is no guarantee that McKimm’s players will be able to maintain their composure when the pressure really is on. Certainly, they were guilty of failing to maintain the sort of tactical discipline that McKimm had called for in the game against Harrow.
As McKimm admitted after a game that he had entertained realistic hopes of taking maximum points from, his side’s eagerness to get the ball forwards meant that they fell into the trap of playing kick and rush football. Even though Angels took a first-half lead, they were on the wrong side of the divide that separates being composed and in control and letting all three points slip through their fingers.
Pressure building
But as anyone who has ever tried telling their partner to “relax” will know, that little bit of composure is not something that can simply be summoned up on demand. And making the suggestion may do more harm than good.
With so many sides battling for survival in the division, and several of them due to face the Angels in the run in, there are not going to be many stress-free situations for McKimm’s men to develop the sort of poise that he is calling for. Far from it.
The points let slip in those home games against Harrow and Bognor Regis, and especially the manner in which they were lost, will not have gone unnoticed by the other managers in the division. Just as McKimm might look to exploit the tension and anxiety shown by other struggling sides, his own troops’ mental strength will be targeted in just the same way.
A game of poker
The run in to the end of the season often has the character of a game of poker. It is a test not only of what a manager can bring to the table in terms of the personnel at his disposal, but of how cool he can remain under pressure and how well he can instill his strategy through every facet of his team. Great managers all have great poker faces. Sometimes it can be enough to convince your opposition that you have more in the can than is really the case.
McKimm’s preferred approach is for his side to sit deep, prey on the anxieties of opponents and then hit them on the counter. It is the classic counter-attacking strategy, and it is one that – on paper – looks perfectly suited to the challenge facing the Angels. There is only one problem. Just like that perversely independent roulette ball, footballers have a way of doing their own thing when the chips are down. McKimm’s complaint in those recent draws was that his players were too eager to get the ball forward, too direct and too hurried to be able to apply his strategy successfully. Composure is a key aspect of control, and with the pressure mounting with every passing game it is getting harder and harder to achieve.
The challenge for McKimm over the run in to the end of the season is to find a way to exercise that all important – and famously elusive – measure of control over his players’ reactions out on the pitch. Like predicting just where that little white ball might end up on the roulette wheel, it is far easier said than done.
