After a difficult week at Radstock Town, new Miners manager Ryan Child was interviewed by former Somer Valley FM Sports Show host, Ian Nockolds, for the Toolstation Western League Podcast. The interview, featured in Episode 7, can be listened to at http://toolstationleague.com/podcasts/. Alternatively, a full transcript of the interview is available below:

Ian Nockolds: I am delighted to welcome, for the first time, to the Toolstation Western League podcast, the new Radstock Town manager, Ryan Child. Ryan, thank you very much for taking the time to speak to us. You won 5-0 at the weekend against Bishop Sutton, this management lark is a bit easy, isn’t it?

Ryan Child: Not too difficult. It was a good reaction from the lads. We were all very keen; myself and Tom (Pawley) who has come on board, to just set some standards and go from there, hopefully the results come, for want of a better cliché. It went well Saturday, but we’ve got a very long season, as we all know. It’s a good start, but we’re certainly not holding onto it much longer than even if we’d lost, to be honest.

IN: Was the nature of that victory a bit of a surprise to you, then? Clearly you haven’t had a lot of time with the players, I suppose the big advantage for you is that you are a player, certainly up until this week you have been playing in the squad. Was it a tweak here and a tweak there, or is your philosophy fundamentally different to they way you have been playing your football this season?

RC: Even if it was fundamentally different, and I think there are differences, I have definitely tried not to give everybody too much information. It has been just little tweaks so far and I think slowly, slowly we’ll kind of get there. The main thing was the style of play that we wanted to and how we’re going to go about it in a very simplistic way. We have got such a talented squad that it was just a matter of having very simple information put forward and then going from there. You’re right, it has helped that I know and have played with all the boys for a while now and I’ve done a lot of running around for Radstock Town. I think that’s probably the starting point, it’s to say ‘look, if you can run around as much as I used to. You know that I wasn’t really that good, but you know that I always looked okay because I put the hard work in. So, if you start there, I think we’ll all be okay’ and that’s what they did. They did just work very hard and that reflects in the result because it could have been 2-0 to finish, but they pushed and pushed and pushed and didn’t stop really until the ninetieth minute. That wads probably the most pleasing thing about it.

IN: It’s been a very swift turnaround for the club in terms of the managerial position. Obviously, Nathan only stood down as manager last week. Can you talk us through from your perspective as a player one minute to a manager the next, what were the events of the last week like for you?

RC: Well, extreme panic set in on Tuesday when I was asked to do it. Then there was the game against Cheddar which was fairly impossible to prepare for. We had a pretty big squad, so I also had to say to players that I was playing with the week before ‘you know we’re not really going to be able to give you any game time, so you’re going to have to find that somewhere else’. That was probably the hardest part of it, and then it’s just changing the mindset, and also just thinking ‘well hold on a minute, I’m thirty, I was planning on playing this season and suddenly is that me done playing football?’ That was something I’m still kind of thinking about, actually. Then it was just chatting to the players and being very honest saying ‘look, this is where we’re going to need to work on something, and maybe you’re not fit enough, and maybe we’ve noticed this about you’ and just starting from being extremely honest with the lads. It’s difficult letting people know that you’re not going to be their mate on the pitch any more, you have to separate away and say ‘I know we go out for a beer and stuff like that and we’ve been playing, say, centre-mid together for the last couple of years, but actually we’re looking to get someone else in’ or whatever, that is what is difficult. It’s difficult but I guess you have just got to be honest with people from the start. That’s what I’m going with, I’m not saying it’s the right thing to do but that’s going to be the starting point.

IN: You have mentioned that you were obviously considering playing this season, was management something you were thinking about when you hung up your boots?

RC: Yes definitely. So I got my UEFA B Licence with the PFA (Professional Footballers’ Association) a couple of years ago and I’ve been coaching quite a lot. I’ve coached with a couple of Total Pro Soccer teams up in Chippenham and also down in Yate, and I’ve also taken sessions before with the first team so it’s something I was looking at and it’s something I’m extremely interested in doing, always have been but I just didn’t expect for it to be happening so quickly. I have to say I’m happy that it has, I was looking to do one or the other in the next couple of years and this has just sped it up, really. I’ve even read Pep Guardiola’s book, taken nothing from it, realised I’m a complete idiot, so, yeah. It’s something that I’ve wanted to do for a while, I’m happy to be doing it but it’s a bit quicker than expected.

IN: It’s been a funny old season for Radstock Town obviously with Brett Partner standing down, I know he was very well thought of at the club. On the pitch you really did look set for a top four finish last season, so you had the disappointment of missing out on promotion as well, at the end of last season. Do you think that has added to the challenge that you face at the club this season?

RC: It could do, but I think that it’s a way of us to be motivated. I think that a lot of the players that were at the club last year, and we’ve still got most of that team, feel like we were hard done by on a number of occasions. I mean you look at the fixture list and how many games we had to play compared to other sides, I think we played eight games in a month or something like that, I mean it was ridiculous. Then, of course, we were not put into the FA cup and all these types of things that, actually, I think it’s really important that we get our backs up about it a little bit and say ‘okay, well we’re going to make a stand against this and make sure we make it happen this year’. You can sit back and feel sorry for yourself but what will happen is that you’ll just get beat, and that’s no good. So I think with things like that, we’re going to look to make that a positive, definitely.

IN: Given all the disruption that’s going on this season, and all the changes, where do you want this Radstock side to finish come the final knockings?

RC: Is it a stupid thing to say as high as possible? It probably is but we’ve got the talent in the squad to get promoted out this league, there is no question about that. We had a very up-and-down start to the season, and that’s not been helped with the management changing and stuff like that so far, but we are going to look to settle down a little bit. Potentially add a couple of players, but certainly not add players that aren’t going to come and improve us. I would be surprised if we’re not in amongst it come the end of the season, we’ve already got Corsham to go back to, we beat them 7-2 last year and then they invited us back down to their place and put twenty men behind the ball, sat back, got us on the break and beat us 2-0. I’m not saying we’re going to do that against them, but we’ve certainly got a bit of revenge to get from them because it was an embarrassment what happened to us against them early in the season. It hurt me personally, I was just so, so disappointed with it. We’ll be building towards getting a result at places like that and going to Calne and these teams that consider themselves hot prospects to get out of the league. We’ve got a game against Calne in a couple of weeks that I’m hoping, with training, we’ll be ready for.

IN: Looking at the league table, you’re only four points off the promotion places. I know this is still very early in the season but it’s not as if you’ve come in to do a firefighting job, you haven’t come into a team that is adrift at the bottom of the table desperate for a win. So, mathematically, there is still every reason why you can be optimistic. I’ve been fortunate enough to be up at the club a couple of times this season, and the work that has gone on off the pitch, improving the facilities at Southfields would suggest that both on the pitch, if you look at last season’s form, and off the pitch, you’re a club that’s really looking to start moving in the right direction.

RC: Yeah, and then they go and appoint me, Ian! The club has got massive ambitions and they have got an unbelievable staff, they’re volunteers but you can call them a staff, behind them and who work so hard, right from the Chairman to all of the committee. Really putting the work in with grants and getting the funding during Covid when the bar was closed, and we weren’t bringing any money in. Loads of people put a load of effort in. We had players back at the club doing all of the flooring, this is a proper squad of players that are invested in the team but also in club and have really put the work in. That’s not just the first team, that’s lads on the reserves and on the youth team as well, so there’s a real collective feeling behind the club but it does start, essentially, with results with the first team as well. We need to get the club in the highest position it could possibly be in, it’s going to be a process but like you said, it’s not like we’re suddenly firefighting. A couple of things need to be put right, a couple of players need to be told exactly where we are going and if they want to come along for the ride then that’s great and if they don’t we will just get other players in. We’re going to have to be ruthless in that regard, but so far the players have reacted unbelievably well, and I’m just excited to be working with them as a manager now. I have to get on the pitch now and then, which should be interesting, but it’s exciting times for club for sure and we are hoping to push on this year.

IN: It’s Portishead up next, they have had a good start to the season, but you could go above them if you beat them. That’s going to be another important test for your side.

RC: Portishead are a good footballing team, they really knocked it about well last year when we played them. I think we beat them 4-1, but they looked like a really good team, I think we got a couple of early goals and that’s always massive in this league particularly. They looked like a good team so we are not going to take anything for granted, I mean they are above us in the league. Again, it’s about standards, we will do the basic things correctly every single week from now on, and then that means that we can just maintain a level. We’re hoping that level is going to be good enough to beat most of the teams in this league including Portishead on Saturday.

IN: Because then it’s Calne, and you have already mentioned that that’s is going to be a test, but you do you think it’s a nice problem for you to have, it’s something for the boys to focus on?

RC: Of course, of course. Last year our standards lowered sometimes, and then we played Calne and beat them 2-0, it’s because we were so on it. Same thing happened with Bishop Sutton last year, they beat is 3-1, and we were hurt by it, we were really hurt by it, then they came to our place and I think we beat them 3-0. It’s all about mentality, and again that is a thing with this league, a lot of teams have good sides. I was talking to Craig at Cheddar when they beat us on Wednesday and he was saying the same thing; they’ve got really good players but Covid has made it difficult for lads because some of them are maybe not certain in their work, some of them are trying to work out what is going on even with family members who are isolating. All these things have made it really difficult for teams, so there is a big mental side of it this year to get people right, so that’s half the challenge. We’re excited about Portishead, we’re excited about Calne, I think we’ve got Longwell Green the week after. Anyone can beat anyone in this league, and we’ll just keep our standards high and whoever we’re playing, they’ll just have to beat us, that’s the big thing for us.

IN: Well I’m looking forward to Boxing Day, I think the game between you guys and Welton Rovers this season could be an absolute classic, so that’s probably a theme we will be returning to closer to Christmas. Ryan, thank you very much indeed for your time, and the very best of luck to you.

RC: Thank you Ian, and can I just mention again that I should have got man of the match in that game and you gave it to Lloyd Edgell and I’ll never let that die.

IN: Alright, fair enough, let’s just hope I don’t make the same faux pas in an interview with you, eh?