Jenkins marks his tenth anniversary in charge of Cray Wanderers

Thursday 01st October 2009

IAN JENKINS marks his tenth anniversary as the manager of Cray Wanderers on Saturday and will be handed a presentation by his chairman half-an-hour before the game against Waltham Abbey at Hayes Lane in appreciation for his efforts, writes Stephen McCartney.

Club legend Jenkins, who hails from Sidcup, first joined the club as a player in 1993, having played under George Wakeling at Leyton-Wingate and a two-year stint at Collier Row.

And no other manager in Kent has enjoyed the amount of success that Jenkins has had at one club.

His reign as manager dates from his appointment when he replaced Fabio Rossi after Cray lost 7-1 at home to Ramsgate on 2nd October 1999.

In that game, striker Jenkins put Cray one up with a shot past Micky Simmons (who later went on to play under Jenkins) before the Rams responded by scoring seven.

Cray Wanderers were floundering at the bottom of the Kent League table at the time, but Jenkins’ rescue act as manager succeeded in steering Cray to a finishing place above the re-election zone and since then it has been literally onwards and upwards for the Wands under his command.

“Jenko” has presided over the most successful era in the club’s history. Cray won the Kent League championship in 2002-03 and 2003-04, gaining promotion into Ryman League Division One South.

Five years later, in May 2009, Cray won promotion into the Ryman Premier via the play-offs, taking the Club to the highest level it has ever played at.

Cray won the Kent League Cup in 2002-03 and the Kent Senior Trophy in 2003-04. Jenko also led the Wands to the Kent Senior Cup final for the first time in over 100 years, courtesy of a memorable 6-1 victory over landlords Bromley in the semi-final at Hayes Lane.

The Wands have also enjoyed their furthest ever runs in the F A Cup (4th Qualifying Round) and F A Vase (quarter-finals) during his reign.

They have also made an impressive start in the F A Trophy, reaching the final qualifying round three times in five attempts.

Jenkins has won six Kent League ‘Manager of the Month’ awards and four in Ryman Division One South.

Jenkins , who originally joined Cray as a player in 1993, has made 481 appearances and has scored 78 goals for Cray as player or player-manager.

He holds a Club record of having scored a first team goal in 15 consecutive seasons. He served as player-manager during season 1998-99, the first season of ground-sharing at Hayes Lane, before Fabio Rossi’s brief spell in charge at the start of season 1999-2000.

Jenkins was joined by Joe Francis as assistant manager and coach in 2001, with Paul Blade arriving in 2006.

Together with his management and coaching team, Jenkins has built up an especially good reputation for signing and developing young local players, most notably Sam Wood who is now in the Brentford first team.

The continuity and co-operation with reserve team managers Sam Wright and nowadays Mark Hanscombe has played a major part in the first team’s progress, together with the successful establishment of the Cray Wanderers youth set-up and many of these players have progressed into Jenkins’ first team squad.

Among the other highlights of Ian’s reign was a Club record run of 13 successive wins in 2003-04, a 28-game unbeaten run in the Ryman League in 2007-08 (a season in which the Wands won the Ryman ‘Fair Play’ award) and the feat of the team scoring over 100 goals in six seasons out of the last seven (in the other year they only managed 99!). The 2-0 win against AFC Wimbledon in 2004 ended the visitors’ British record run of 78 league games without defeat and chairman Gary Hillman was interviewed over the telephone by SKY Sports on the telephone after the game.

Jenkins, speaking to www.kentishfootball.co.uk today , says he is very proud of his achievements.

“It’s a very proud moment,” he said of his tenth anniversary. “You don’t get many managers in any level of football that’s done ten years! I’m well proud and happy to be part of it.

“We’ve had some good moments, we’ve had quite a few bad moments early on, but a lot of successes in the last six or seven years.

“Since I’ve had Joe Francis on board with me has made a massive difference to myself and with the way we’ve played.

“I’ve had a lot of loyal players wrapped around me as well over the ten years, which has been brilliant.”

Not many managers can say they have completed ten years in charge of a side and Jenkins, alongside Sir Alex Ferguson (Manchester United) and Neil Cugley (Folkestone Invicta), are a rare breed.

When asked what the secret for his longevity is, Jenkins replied, “There’s a lot of loyalty involved with me. I’m a loyal bloke, I’ve only had three clubs in my career! Collier Row was the least after two years the manager got changed and every single player was offloaded from the team. Other than that I’ve had just two long serving clubs, Leyton and Cray Wanderers.

“I’ve had a good chairman wrapped around me as well, Gary Hillman, who sticks with everything, who has believed in me and Joe Francis, finances us as well with John Woolf and we’ve had a lot of success in ten years, which helps!

“The amount of money he’s shelved out in ten years, I think any chairman would want success with that. Fortunately he’s had that and I’m quite happy with that.”

Now playing at the highest level that the club has ever played at - the Ryman Premier League - Jenkins insists he is not too concerned about their current league position.

The Wands go into Saturday’s home game in the bottom four - but Jenkins quickly pointed out that the Ryman Premier League is once again a tight division.

“There’s a long way to go and the league is tight and we’re not going to rule (getting into the play-off’s out) but staying in this league is good but we’ll have a fair season,” said Jenkins.

“Saying that, I think we spoke about that after the game at Hendon about the start that we’ve had but in another division three wins and a draw will probably get you a bit further up the table in another league.

“It’s quite close our league, I think we’re only four points from sixth place, so if we go on a run of games we’ll be right up there - I’m not too concerned.

“We kick-started (our season) against Hornchurch. We came back well after the loss at Hendon. I don’t think we deserved to lose at Hendon, you said that in your report. We went to Hornchurch, we’re really solid, scored two deserved goals, could have won by more, so that’s the start we needed and hopefully we can continue that on Saturday at home.”

Meanwhile, Cray Wanderers’ home game against Boreham Wood has been put back 24 hours and will now be played on Wednesday, 14th October (7:45pm) - a game that will be covered by www.kentishfootball.co.uk.

Visit Cray Wanderers’ website: www.craywands.co.uk

Cray Wanderers v Waltham Abbey

Ryman Premier League

Saturday 3rd October 2009

Kick Off 3:00pm

At Hayes Lane, Bromley, Kent BR2 9EF