THE 154 travelling fans’ voices weren’t to be drowned out, not even by the strong sea wind that was blowing right into their faces in Blundell Park’s Osmond Stand.
“There’s only one Kevin Wilkin,” sang the Nuneaton Town fans as their side seemed to stroll to victory in the first half of the trip to Grimsby. Appropriately, they continued the familiar ditty explaining that they, too, were “Walking in a Wilko wonderland!”
That has been the case ever since they dropped down to Step 4 in 2008 and he started the new club’s ascent back to Conference North, where they had played their final five easons as Borough, and beyond to Non-League‘s top-flight, which they last inhabited in 2002-03.
The second half of last season, their first in a now predominantly full-time division, was impressive as they finished in a respectable 15th position.
Their form at the start of this season has been immense – four wins and two draws from a tough-looking opening six matches that included big-spending Forest Green, high-flying Barnet, last year’s runners-up Kidderminster and beaten play-off semi-finalists Grimsby – rightly earned Wilkin the Skrill Premier’s first manager of the month award of the season.
And it certainly caught the 45-year-old on the hop, as he told me: “I automatically assumed the manager at the club top of the table would get it, so it’s a pleasant surprise. We’re only one of the smaller clubs in this league so you don’t expect to be up there challenging for such awards.
“But it’s a credit to all the players and officials at the club, not just me. We’ve had a great start, but that’s all it is. We’ve got to maintain it now to see how far we really have come.”
On their trip to Cleethorpes, Nuneaton looked to have come a long way since their promotion from Conference North 16 months ago. Their record of having lost just three times – to Kiddy, Mansfield and Newport – in 22 games since February 16 certainly suggests so.
“Hopefully we’re better at managing games and closing them out now than we were 12 months ago, but it’s a progression that doesn’t stop,” says Wilkin, who will celebrate seven years at the Boro helm of new and old club, after an initial two as Roger Ashby’s assistant, at Christmas.
It’s a spell that has seen chairman Ian Neale recognise that the state of the finances he inherited at the old Manor Park ground were irretrievable, and that the best thing for football in Nuneaton was to reform in the Southern League Central Division.
With Ken Gillard as his assistant, Wilkin won three promotions in four seasons to reach their current level. With Gillard having taken a full-time coaching job at Crystal Palace, he now has Mickey Moore at his side as they look to make the next step.
“It wasn’t easy for the chairman initially, and it can be difficult to establish yourself at whatever level,” says Wilkin. “Certainly in the early days, it wasn’t plain sailing for us by any stretch.
“We were a big fish in a smaller league and we had to find players to play at that level. You can have players who’d been playing at Conference North and South standard, but are they the players who can go and do a job at Southern League Division One Midland level?
“I’ve been lucky having good people around me, who have remained focused on the job. The chairman stuck with me when he could have had a wobble up and got rid of me, because there were times there when things weren’t going quite as expected.
“There’s been a bit of continuity about what we’ve done and we’ve steadily built on the achievements that we’ve had.
“It has been difficult for us to establish ourselves in the Premier, and I don’t think we are established yet. But hopefully we get through this season, coupled with what we did last year, and look to move it on again in coming years.”
Wilkin says that the steps taken inevitably become smaller the higher the level the club plays at. But however tiny they are, those fans will still be walking them in wonder of Wilko down Liberty Way!
GRAFTER RHEAD’S GOT THE RIGHT FORMULA
IT WON’T have gone unnoticed at Kidsgrove Athletic, Nantwich, Congleton, Eastwood and Corby Town, I’m sure, but the whole of Non-League should doff their cap to Matt Rhead on scoring his first goal in the Football League.
The burly 6ft 4ins striker tapped in Mansfield’s third goal in their League Two win over Dagenham & Redbridge last week, and that it’s taken him until the ripe old age of 29 should give hope to every part-time player out there.
I was about to retire at that age, but Rhead has kept plugging away every Saturday and Tuesday night – after a hard day’s graft building diggers and bulldozers at JCB – before finally going full-time last summer with the Stags, and then helping them into the League.
As he journeyed around grounds like Clough Hall and Coronation Park, he drew inspiration from Tom Pope, the former Biddulph Victoria hitman who was signed by Crewe Alexandra in 2005 and moved to Rotherham before Port Vale, where he scored 33 goals in League Two last term.
“I used to play against Tom when we were teenagers in Stoke,” Rhead told me this week.
“I played for The Butchers Arms and he was at Sneyd. One year we shared the golden boot award for the Potteries & District Sunday League.
“The Kidsgrove manager picked me up after we’d played Tom’s side in a final. He got a hat-trick and I scored a couple, but they beat us. He went on to the Football League and I went into the UniBond, so he’s been someone for me to look at and try to emulate ever since.
“I got there eventually and thankfully I’ve got my first League goal. I’m hoping it’s the first of many.”
Anyone who’s ever come across the likeable man mountain Stags boss Paul Cox describes as “on his day unplayable” will be hoping so too!
