Bracknell Town have a new manager in Jon Underwood. The former Slough Town joint-manager knows expectations are high, but stability is required after what has been an unsettling time.
Football in Berkshire were granted a sit down with the new boss ahead of his unveiling and ‘Unders’ doesn’t disappoint. From what he learned during his first stint with the club to going it alone with the Robins – and how important his National League South network will be in the new job.
Watch the full Jon Underwood interview, listen to the full interview here or read it in full below:
Tom Canning (TC): Welcome back to Bracknell Town Jon. What does it mean to you to be back at the club? Because you’ve had some big impacts on clubs, but this one, is this one more special? Less special?What does it mean to you?
Jon Underwood (JU): It means a lot. It’s a club that I’ve always had a place in my heart for. As I said, really enjoyed my time playing under Alan Taylor, and obviously then did a short stint at management and assistant management to Alan. It’s become a club that I always kept an eye on. I lived in Bracknell for a time. I worked in Bracknell, and I still only live 15 minutes away. I managed here with Sandhurst as well at Bottom Meadow, where we play now.
So lots of links, and always a club that I kind of thought maybe one day I would go back and manage. And obviously, this opportunity has come up, and it was really too good for me to turn down. So when I saw that the job was available, I put myself forward and really, really pleased to have been given the job.
TC: You’ve been out of the game for not that long, three or four months you left Beaconsfield Town?
JU: I’ve had a summer off, which is unusual for me, and as a family, we took the opportunity to get away for a longer holiday in August, which I never get to do. So I’ve got a little bit of a suntan, feeling refreshed. I’ve been back watching a few games, and this opportunity, to be honest, you don’t really expect an opportunity to come up, at the beginning of September. It’s quite unusual. So, yeah, I wasn’t, wasn’t expecting it, but it’s come up, and I’m delighted to have got it.
TC: You started your managerial career with Bracknell, I was there. It was, it was tough, wasn’t it? I never knew what went on behind the scenes, but it was tough wasn’t it? It was a tough situation to be thrown into.
JU: Yeah, it was. It was a difficult time for the club, a period of transition, if you like, and probably not the ideal first stint in management in turn, but in terms of lessons learned, it was huge, and I think that’s all you can do. I think now I’m reasonably experienced in management, I’ve had some difficult times, I’ve had some great times, and I think as long as you learn from from all of those, it makes you a better person, a better manager. And that’s kind of where I feel I am now.
TC: It feels like everything you’ve done since then has been successful from the outside. Did that job turn out completely differently than you expected? Or was there something specifically that you learned that you, that was kind of the catalyst for going on? Because you could quite easily have just gone ‘Actually, this isn’t for me?’
JU: I think at the time, you take it really hard. I know when I when I left, I really struggled. And yeah, you do doubt yourself. But sometimes those lessons, you don’t realise you’re learning them at the time. But then when you reflect back, you do learn. I went into Sandhurst actually, just to help out Pete Browning and Steve Stairs at the time. They were very good. They said, look, come in and stay involved [in the game]. I really enjoyed it. We had a great group of players, and then when, Pete moved on I took it over and was relatively successful. We had no budget really at the time, and we were competing against sides that do, local sides, so it made hard to recruit. But I think I left the club sixth or seventh in the league, and we were well established in the league at that point, and then obviously moved onwards and upwards
That, as you know coincided with myself starting to work with my best mate Neil Baker, and we went into Godalming Town and had two and a half seasons there. Two play-off campaigns, which we didn’t get promoted and then we got the opportunity to go across to Slough Town and that was where things really took off.
TC: I was going to ask this later, but whilst we’re talking about Mr Baker, is there any temptation to reunite with him, either at Bracknell or elsewhere. Did you talk to him about coming to Bracknell?
JU: We talk every day. We obviously talked about this opportunity. And I think he’s really enjoying his time at Farnborough at the moment, assisting there. I think taking a step back from being the one who the results sit on, he’s quite happy with that at the moment, it’s local for him. He lives in Farnborough, and it’s obviously a great level of football in the National League South. We did talk, and I think at some point we will get together again and manage again. It’s not like we’ve had a big fallout or anything.
We speak all the time, and he’ll be of value to me in this role. I advise him on things, he advises me. That’s what mates do. Yeah we talked about this, and I’m sure at some point we will, like I said, we’ll get together but for now, for the moment, it’s myself, and I’m really looking forward to it.
TC: As an aside, and I’m not really asking for comment, but Farnborough have certainly had an interesting week, haven’t they?
JU: Yeah, I heard that that was happening, and I think Spencer [Day] has a hasn’t got a lot of love for that competition, but I won’t comment. Everyone will have their views on that!
TC: Very well put. You’ve competed against this particular Bracknell side, although they have lost a couple of players and there were some changes in the summer, but you’ve competed against them recently with Beaconsfield. You actually beat them last season with Beaconsfield. Does that help you hit the ground running?
JU: It does. I know the players, obviously, a few of the newer players that have come in in the last week that I didn’t know, but I did get to the game on Tuesday at Marlow, which was really valuable to see the squad playing. I know most of the squad. I managed, Joe Dandy and Gabe George when I was at Slough so I know those two very well. But there’s a lot of the players that have been regulars here for a few years I’ve come up against. I’m looking forward to working with them now and getting to know the ones that I don’t know so well.
“Clearly the the squad needs a little bit of work and probably a little bit of love and a little bit of stability now, and hopefully that’s what I can bring”
TC: I was just putting together something for the for our own website, and very quickly noted that one of your former players, Dan Roberts, has recently just left.
JU: He’s left before had a chance to come in. Maybe he heard the rumors and ran a mile, I don’t know. Obviously, he had his reasons for going, and a few others left last week. Of course, they’re all players I would rather were still here in the building. It leaves some, some work to be done in terms of recruitment, but that’s what I’m here to do, you know, steady the ship, add to what we have here, and try and improve us. It’s normal you go in, if you go into a job in September, you’re normally rock bottom of the league with a point or two. Pleased to say that I think we’ve got 10 from seven, which is a decent start. We’re in the top half. So it’s not a crisis. But clearly the the squad needs a little bit of work and probably a little bit of love and a little bit of stability now, and hopefully that’s what I can bring.
TC: I also noted there’s a there’s a core of players there that have been there quite a long time. That was something that you cultivated at Slough as well, players that were there for a long time, and perhaps occasionally went away to try their luck slightly higher and came back. I imagine that’s something you’re very much used to.
JU: I like loyal players, obviously, I like ambitious players, and I never hold players back. But I think if you’ve got a core of players that where the club means something to them, I think that is the case here, then I think that’s something you can tap into and build on. I think it’s likely there’s going to be some change in the next month. That’s typical as well. When one manager goes a new one comes in, there might be a couple more that decide they want to go elsewhere. It’s pretty normal when this sort of situation happens that the vultures circle and other clubs put approaches in for players., either legally or illegally, and so you’re a bit vulnerable as a club. That’s I think why it’s important that the club were able to get this done fairly quickly, get somebody in, and hopefully, you can hold on to all the best players and add to that group.
TC: Just circling back to something you just said, in that respect, it’s possibly slightly easier when you’re bottom of the league with no points. Then there’s no one circling!
JU: That’s perfectly true. But some good players have left, there are still some very good players here. And I said at Marlow I felt for the lads on Tuesday. They put in a really good effort and Marlow came back and nicked a point right at the death. Sadly, there are not two more points on the board, but I can’t complain in terms of the league position, where I come in, in a good position.
The important thing is we’ve got a 10 day break now, so we’ve got some work to do for me to get to know the players and hopefully strengthen the squad. Got a nice easy opener a week on Saturday against AFC Totton who are top of the table. I know what’s coming. They’re a very good side, I came up against them last year, and they’ve only improved this year, so that will be a baptism of fire. But I look forward to that. Look forward to the challenge.
TC: Just Charlie Austin up front there.
JU: Nothing to worry about at all. No.
TC: Is it too early to ask what your aims are for the season.
JU: I think the aims of the club, after two play-off campaigns, was to go again and challenge for the play-offs. There’s a chance, maybe. The way the season started, not just necessarily in terms of results, but in terms of the changes that have happened might derail that slightly, and that’s my job is to try to make sure that doesn’t happen, and that we stick in and around that top half. So ambitions are exactly that.
Let’s stay competitive. Let’s try and get some wins on the board. There’s going to be a transition period over the next month or two where the squad is going to evolve a little bit but you need to pick up results while that’s happening. I won’t have the squad that I want in a weeks time, two week’s time, you know, it’s going to develop over the season, but all of these players will get an opportunity to build on what they’ve done in the last two games that.
The last game that I saw Tuesday there will need to be incomings to steady the ship, try and get some more wins on the board so that we go into the New Year still in with a chance of doing it, because it’s all about momentum second half of the season. I don’t want to be to bold in predictions and say we’re going to be this, we’re going to be that. There is a lot of work ahead of us, and there might be a couple of low points in the next month, but my job is to make sure we come out stronger.
“I’m not one who wants to put a team together of loan players. I want a core that that are our players”
TC: I did notice that Slough have suggested that Matty Lynch might be available to dual register somewhere?
JU: I read that also. Listen, I will be speaking to all the managers I know in the game, and that would obviously include Scott Davies. I speak to Scott pretty regularly, and I might look to call in one or two favours, whether that’s him or others. I’ve got some good relationships in that league. This time of year you get players that maybe picked up injuries in pre-season, haven’t been playing, and there might be players available. I’m not one who wants to put a team together of loan players. I want a core that that are our players. But it may be in the coming months that one or two additions of that type of nature, players coming back from injury from a higher level, would help us. And if that’s the case, then I’ll look to do that. But you know, the sooner I can get a core of Bracknell Town players, rather than loans the better.
TC: What can supporters expect from your team? They’ve gotten quite used to being successful, almost just as standard in recent seasons, so expectations on you are going to be quite high.
JU: Of course. And they should be, because the club’s had a successful couple of years in the League and FA Cup. Obviously the FA Cup isn’t an opportunity now we’ve gone out of that. I understand the expectations will be high. I think hopefully they also understand that we’ve lost some players that are important to the club, particularly at the top end of the pitch. We’ve lost the three strikers that were at the club. They’ve all gone so they might need to be a little bit patient while that transition happens, but what they can expect from one of my teams is a team that’s together, that works hard, an attacking team. I want to attack.
I’ve looked at the team Tuesday, and they were very short of attacking options. Ethan Burden, who’s a full-back by trade played as a left winger, and he scored two in two. So maybe he’s got a new position there, but there were limited options going forward and that’s hard to win games with that being the case. There’s some reinforcements needed at the top end of the pitch before we can really look to be winning games, otherwise you do end up being a little bit defensive. I think the team had seven defenders in it on Tuesday. I don’t want to be a defensive team, but I think that the guys who set the team up Tuesday did that in the exact right way. They did what they could with the resources they had available. And I just need to try and give us more options now going forward.
TC: Maybe away from football, you started a new career in the summer. Does that allow your football ambitions a bit more space to grow? I ask this because I remember some years ago I heard you and Neil on the BBC Non League show, I think you suggested that you wanted to manage, you had an ambition to manage in the Football League. Is that what your new career allows? Does that allow that ambition to become a thing or is it, was it purely just what you needed?
JU: I worked in a of corporate environment for 25 years. I took voluntary redundancy April last year. I just had had enough of that, and wanting to do something I was more passionate about. So my passion is football, obviously, and fitness as well. I’m doing a PT qualification and I’ve got a small business FootballFit, so I’m doing sessions a couple of nights a week for people that want to get fit playing football.
I have more flexibility in my day, definitely, than I used to when I worked for a big corporate company. When it was me and Bakes, he probably took more of the workload than I did, if I’m honest. It’s a hard job being a non-league football manager, it takes a lot of time. So I do have more flexibility now with what I do now. I do different bits of coaching. I also do some coach football coaching at Eton College a couple of days a week. I think I am more flexible, and I think that will help me in this job to be successful.
I’d still love to manage full time, but when you said Football League, that might be out of my range, but I want to manage as high as I can. I love to manage in the National League South. I think it’s a fantastic league that one. And I think you know, what I was really looking for realistically, was for me to get back and manage at Step 3 and look for a club who’s ambitious, who wants to get into that league. I’ve done that promotion before, from four to three and three to two, so I know what’s required.
That’s not me saying that we can do it this year. Obviously that would be fantastic. But if we can’t do it this year, it’s ‘Can we do it next year?‘ The club, I know, is ambitious, but they want to do it in a sustainable way. I’m not looking to jump from club to club every year. I want another home like I had at Slough, and to build something so if it takes us 3, 4, 5 years. I know Andy [Hunt] the chairman wants to get this club up a level as soon as we can. So that’s my ambition. I’d love to get back and manage Bracknell in the National League. Fantastic.
TC: Do you have any idea of who your staff might be?
JU: That’s an interesting one, because I’ve probably had five or six conversations with different people. I’ve got people that are keen to come in. I’m just taking my time because there’s no game Saturday, and I’m taking my time to get the right balance of people in the management team. I do need to do that. My plan is to probably have that in place by the end of the weekend. I’m taking training tonight. We’ll do a session on Saturday with no game, which I will take, and I’ll use that time to sort of finalise what the management team looks like, so that we can hit the ground running, Tuesday, Thursday next week. I don’t want to rush into that, but I’ve got a number of people that are keen, whether they be assistants or coaches or, you know, different types of people. And I just need to, I want to get that right. I want to take time to get that right.
TC: If it’s good enough for Lee Carsley picking up the cones before an England game..
JC: I’ve done that. Yeah, no problem!
TC: Finally, just to, just to wrap up, I guess there are probably a few familiar faces amongst the supporters still around the club that you may recognise. Do you have a message for them? I know you preached patience a little bit in this, do you have something you’d like to say directly to them?
JU: Just that I’m really proud and honoured to have the opportunity to manage this Football Club. As I said right at the beginning, it’s a club that means a lot, but it never means as much to anyone as it does the supporters and those long-term supporters that I know, there’s a few that I’ll recognise and I look forward to seeing them and having a drink after a game soon.
I can just promise I’ll give you everything to make the club successful, and build on some of the great work that’s been done in the last couple of years here. If I can take that on and take it one step further. That’s my aim, and that’s what I’m I’ll be working night and day to do.
