If it goes ok, I may ask the chairman if I can have the job, says Joe Dowley

SITTINGBOURNE caretaker manager Joe Dowley says work commitments may force his hand when it comes to applying for the vacant managers job at Bourne Park, writes Stephen McCartney.


Dowley, 28, was appointed caretaker manager following Richard Brady’s departure to Leatherhead last week and took charge of his first game on Tuesday night – a 2-1 win at Kent rivals Whitstable Town.

“I really enjoyed it actually,” said Dowley.  “We went 1-0 down, I didn’t think we deserved to be one-nil down to be honest at half-time, but we came out second half and I thought we bossed the game to be honest.

“Everyone played quite well, which is good.  Pleasing for the first game.”

Dowley admitted he wasn’t expecting to turn his hand to managing at such a young age.

He said: “I’m only 28 so it possibly came a bit sooner than I wanted.  It’s something I wanted to be, a player-assistant, so it’s come about pretty quickly.  Whilst I’ve got my chance to do it, I might as well give it a go actually.”

When asked whether chairman Andy Spice has given him a timeframe in his new role, left-back Dowley said: “No, he hasn’t!  We’ve left it and we’ll see how it goes for a couple of weeks, pretty much play it by ear sort of thing.

“Obviously he’s got applications coming in, quite a few people have applied for it.  I don’t think he’s in any rush to make big changes from his point of view.  We’ve got a good squad already and he doesn’t really want someone else coming in and making wholesale changes so that’s probably why he’s asked me to do it.”

When asked about his future, Dowley said: “If it goes ok, there’s no reason why I can’t go to him and say I want to take the job full-time.”

“I am registered to play but there’s no need to play as we’ve got Dan Palfrey playing at left-back whose started the season very well so there’s no need for me to get involved at the moment.

“I said to someone yesterday, I wasn’t aware what goes into it.  I’ve been on the phone pretty much for the last five days.  It’s a bit of a shock.  I’m not too sure whether it’s something I can commit to just because of work.  I work for a law firm up in the city so it’s quite intense.  It’s something I have to take into account but for the moment I’ve only been doing it for a week so I can’t really say how it’s going to go to be honest.”

Sittingbourne kick-off their FA Carlsberg Trophy on Saturday with a home preliminary round tie against Northwood, who sit in eighth place in the Evo-Stik Southern League Division One Central table, with five wins and two draws from 11 games.

When asked what he knows about Northwood, Dowley said: “I don’t to be honest!  I’m trying to find out but I don’t really know anyone to speak about them so I haven’t got the foggiest to be honest!

“I’ve had a look at their results but there’s not a lot I can do to find out anything about them but if we turn up on Saturday we’ve got no worries about them, it’s more about us.  I don’t know anything about them. It’s a bit of an unknown.”

Sittingbourne return to Ryman League Division One South action next Tuesday with a trip down to play Burgess Hill Town, who are third from bottom in the table with one win and two draws from their first nine league outings.

“Well, all the time I’ve played down there about five or six times it’s always a difficult game to be honest,” reflected Dowley.

“I think I’ve only won one down there as a player, it’s always a difficult game.  I’ve always found it tough down there especially on a Tuesday night as well.  We seem to get that journey on a Tuesday.  I’m not too sure why but there you go.”

Visit Sittingbourne’s website: www.sittingbournefc.co.uk  

Sittingbourne  v  Northwood
The FA Carlsberg Trophy Preliminary Round
Saturday 8^th October 2011
Kick Off 3:00pm
at Bourne Park, Central Park Stadium, Eurolink Industrial Estate, Church Road, Sittingbourne, Kent ME10 3SB