Three months is a long time in football
On Saturday 24th October, following a 3-1 away win at big-spending Gainsborough, Stalybridge sat at the top of the Conference North after 14 games played.
Three months on from that date we’d played just 3 more games in the league (picking up 7 points from them), whilst most other teams, particularly main promotion rivals Southport, managed to fit in up to 8 games extra compared to Bridge and opened a huge gap at the top. If we won all the games in hand we’d be sitting very pretty at the top though, and, for a team unbeaten since mid-August and looking very much like title contenders, even a few dropped points would see us in a two horse race with Southport for the one automatic promotion spot. It’d be a tough fixture list – we had just one spare midweek remaining until the end of the season – but it was looking like it might be a wonderful centenary season for Celtic.
Then, a fortnight ago, manager Steve Burr was poached by Kidderminster.
Burr had been appointed in summer 2007 during a big period change at Bower Fold that saw current chairman Rob Gorski take over the club. Almost every player at the club was new and only 3 or 4 of the previous season’s team were re-signed. That season we finished 3rd and were beaten finalists in the Conf North playoff final and it was a brilliant period to be a Bridge fan.
Burr’s brand of football was great to watch and often involved playing a quite ridiculous 4-2-4 with four strikers on the pitch, two operating as very ‘direct’ wingers. The defence was normally a bit of a joke, mind. Burr himself was a great guy, always responding to ‘Burry give us a wave’ chants with a hearty full-armed cheer, always came over to applaud the fans at the end of a game and always happy to sit and chat in the clubhouse afterwards.
As one of the best-respected managers in non league, the approach itself was not a surprise – but after two years of turning down offers and a brilliant chance of leading the team to the title, Burr leaving was a real bolt of disappointment. The job for the time being has been given to Burr’s assistant Benny Philips and, with him already appointing his own assistant and signing a player, it looks to be Benny’s job til the end of the season at least.
The illegal approach has apparently led to ‘considerable compensation’ from Kidderminster (reported to be more than they received from their own manager leaving for Cheltenham in December) and a clause has been added that Kidderminster can’t sign any Stalybridge players until February 2011 – so at least Burr’s players can’t immediately follow him out.
The two games since Burr left have been poor though – a 0-0 home draw with 10-man Hinckley and a 4-1 away defeat to Blyth – and apprehension about our ability to carry on the good work has definitely already set in. Saturday’s postponement against Northwich means we now play Sat-Tues-Sat every week until the end of the season and any more postponements will mean some Sat-Tues-Thurs-Sat weeks – not so bad when you’re winning and becoming a super-fit machine, shite when you’re losing confidence by the game. Which of these it’ll be remains to be seen…
So long Steve, it’s been a great two and a half years.
