As Ascot United gear up for another season in the Isthmian League South Central Division One, manager Gavin Smith took time out to catch up with Jack Craske about the season ahead.
It will be former Yella, Bracknell Town and Godalming Town midfielder Smith’s second season in charge at the Racecourse Ground – he will be assisted again by Victor Ocansey and Dan Bailey – and the boss is candid about what can be improved upon in the 12 months ahead after a 25/26 season that saw the Yellas avoid the drop.
You’ve been at Ascot United for a full-season, how was it for for you?
Going in there, I didn’t know exactly what to expect, though you always hear things through the grapevine. In all honesty, getting sacked by Badshot Lea was disappointing, but it opened up the opportunity to go to Ascot, which is a very good club. From the outside, our management team had always looked at Ascot as a great place to be. We wondered if we could get that job because we had faced similar struggles at Badshot Lea – they didn’t have loads of money, but it was a very well-run club. The two clubs are actually very similar.
Everyone at Ascot United was incredibly welcoming, which is exactly what you want from your football club. It’s full of good people, so it was pretty much as we expected. It was a slight improvement on what we had at Badshot Lea in terms of finances, and the facilities are great.
We felt it would be a good place to be, and luckily, they trusted us to come in and do a job. We started the season really well and got the players we wanted. Everything felt fresh, new, and exciting. Then we lost a couple of key players who pushed on to higher levels for more money.
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To be honest, they were difficult to replace because we had been lucky to get them on the wages we were paying. After that, we went through a difficult patch and hit a terrible run of injuries. I’m not trying to make excuses because every club goes through it, but at one point after Christmas – which was the turning point in our year – we were just outside the playoffs and then lost nine players to injury. We couldn’t really recover and just couldn’t win games of football. We were searching for answers, and within a matter of weeks, we found ourselves looking down at the bottom end of the table.
It wasn’t great, and I didn’t see it coming. You always think you’re going to find a way out, and we weren’t even playing that badly, but we just couldn’t buy a win.
Ultimately, all it took was one good result and a couple of new signings to flip things on their head. We ended up having a strong finish to the season. At one point, we were looking at it thinking we could get relegated, so turning it around is a massive credit to the players who kept believing. From our point of view, it was still a disappointing season overall because we expected so much better.
It’s great to be given another crack at it this year, but we face the same difficulties competing against teams with a lot of money. We’ll get there in the end, but it might take a little bit of time.
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Taking you back to the very start, what was it that sold the project to you? Obviously, you played there previously and knew the club well, but was there anything in particular said in those initial discussions that sold the dream to you?
There wasn’t one specific thing. My management team – myself, Dan, and Vic – had always kept an eye on Ascot. When you lose a job, you naturally look at local clubs that tick all the boxes because we all want to stay involved in football. Ascot is local – it’s only 20 minutes away from me, Vic, and Dan. It’s a great setup.
We applied, gave it a shot, and had a meeting. There are always other managers in for these roles, but we made it down to the final two. The club believed that who we were and what we stood for fitted exactly where they were at that moment. That’s why we got the job, to be honest. They didn’t really need to sell the club to us because no matter what situation it’s in, Ascot is a good place to be.
Obviously, you had previous managerial and assistant experience at Bracknell Town and Badshot Lea, as you mentioned earlier. Is there anything you’ve taken from working with people like Carl Davies your time at Bracknell – alongside other well-known faces in the local game?
When I went in with Carl, I had just literally dipped my toes into management with Godalming Town. Me and Jon Palmer went in there, but in hindsight, it was too early. The club was in a bad state, bottom of the League. You always feel like you can turn things around, but we struggled and got relegated. I’m pleased to see they’ve gone back up to Step 5 now, which is great for them, but looking back, we just couldn’t turn it around.
`So when Carl offered me the chance to come in with him at Bracknell, it was a no-brainer. I had been playing for Bracknell and knew most of the players. I also knew Geoff Warner, who is probably the person I still talk to the most; he has been a massive help to me. Carl was too busy playing at the time, but he was very good at creating a great changing room environment because he’s a real character. That isn’t really my personal style, but we worked quite well together.
Unfortunately, that came to an end when Carl stepped down. The club didn’t feel I was capable of managing on my own at the time, which, looking back, I’d agree with. It was all too early, and managing isn’t easy.
I needed to gain experience at a level where I felt more comfortable, and getting the opportunity to go to Badshot Lea was brilliant. I knew the chairman, Mark Broad, and went in alongside Dave Ford, who had a lot of experience managing them. Dave was a massive help. Having someone to bounce ideas off and guide me on how to handle certain situations was invaluable. I stayed at Badshot Lea for about eight years. When we got promoted, Dave left and Vic came in.
You always try to take little bits from everyone you work with. Looking back, I probably learned the most from the managers I played under – sometimes learning what not to do based on their actions. Now, Vic helps me out a lot as my assistant, and Dan acts as a great sounding board. Vic is quite different from who I am as a person, but it works. I just try to be honest with the players and keep things in order. We all have different ideas, but as long as we are on the same page about where we want to get to, it works well.
That actually answers my next question about managerial styles, so thank you. Moving back to this season, you’ve been back in pre-season for a few weeks now. How have you found it? Like most managers, you probably don’t look too much into pre-season results, but I’m sure you’ve had a chance to look at some new faces, especially after losing a few players over the summer.
Yeah, we’ve lost more than just a couple. We’ve lost nine players in total from the squad that started last season. They’ve pushed on to Step 3, which is great for them, but it leaves us in a position where we have to recruit a brand-new squad. That is never easy.
There are plenty of clubs in the exact same position, all fighting over the same pool of players. We’re all waiting for players to make their minds up while they try to play at the highest level possible.
All we can do is be patient and give people opportunities. We’ve had a lot of players come in during pre-season and, to be fair to them, they’ve all done well. Their attitudes have been absolutely spot on.
Finally, have the goalposts changed from the start of last season in terms of your expectations? Obviously, as you said, it’s incredibly hard to analyse things right now with all the squad uncertainty, but are the playoffs still your main goal like they were last year?
To be honest, going into last season, we knew the core group of players we had were more than capable of playing at this level. We had kept a strong spine from the season before that Jamie Tompkins had built, and we added to it.
Looking back, we fell well short of what we expected. Like I said, we can look at the injuries and the departures and figure out how we could have dealt with things better. One mistake was that we did a lot of waiting around last year. We waited for injured people to come back rather than actively going out and replacing them, which is definitely a lesson learned. In terms of this year, with so many squad changes, I have to be realistic.
If I told the players we are definitely pushing for the playoffs, I’d be lying. I can’t sell them that dream right now. You always hope you can overachieve if everyone completely buys into what we are doing, and the goal is always to finish as high as possible. The club is fantastic and doesn’t put pressure on us by saying, “You must achieve this or that.” Even when we were struggling last year, the board meetings were entirely positive.
So, our target this year will be exactly what it was when we were at Badshot Lea: get to 40 points as quickly as possible, and then see what we can achieve from there. It’s a very tough league with a lot of good teams trying to do the exact same thing, so it’s going to be a real challenge.
