The club has been starved of success, says newly-appointed Whitstable Town boss Jim Ward

WHITSTABLE TOWN joint-manager Jim Ward says he wants to bring success to the club.


Ward, 63, was appointed along with his younger brother Danny last Friday, after Nicky Southall quit the club on 7 May.

The club finished their 46-match league campaign in the bottom five (20th place) in the Ryman League Division One South table with 53 points but did enjoy their best ever run in The FA Trophy when they were defeated 2-1 by Conference South side Ebbsfleet United in Second Round last December.

“We’ve been offered three different jobs and the three different jobs just wasn’t right for me and Danny,” revealed the former Ramsgate, Maidstone United and Sittingbourne boss.

“This one came up and it’s a club I’ve always admired, always gone about things the correct way and I’ve always been close to the chairman and the committee over the years.

“I didn’t have much hesitation in accepting the role.  I’m really excited about the prospect.”

Ward will sit down with the club’s players this week to see who wants to stay or leave the club before the new season kicks off on Saturday, 9 August.

Since Marc Seager guided the club to the Kent League title in 2007, the club has not finished in the top thirteen in the Ryman League in seven attempts.

“Well from my point of view, that’s one of the exciting things,” said Ward.

“The club has been starved of success.  They’ve done very well in the FA Trophy last year and every time when they played on those games they were very well supported.

“They’ve got a great bunch of fans at The Belmont and for seven years now since Marc Seager had them when they won the Kent League something’s that’s been missing – let’s hope it’s me and Danny that’s been missing!

“We have a bit of a track record of doing alright.  We won ten trophies for Ramsgate and three for Maidstone and turned Sittingbourne round so let’s hope we can do the same at Whitstable.”

Ward will sit down with the club’s playing staff this week to ask if they’d like to stay at the club.

He said: “It’s been a bit difficult because most of the lads have been Magaluf and are just getting back now so we’ve texted them and they’ve sent texts back.

“We’ve got meetings Tuesday and Wednesday with certain people so we haven’t really ventured much elsewhere.  We’ve been speaking to people, that’s what you do. We’re going to walk before we run.”

Ward revealed that he doesn’t use social networking sites like Twitter to approach free-agent footballers.

“It’s not for me – I wouldn’t know what Twitter is! People think I’m a twit, that’s the closest I get to Twitter but Danny does a bit of that.

“We don’t approach people that way. It’s the old fashioned way.   Everyone’s a free agent at the moment unless they’re on contact.  You’re not doing anything wrong by speaking to players.  No doubt the Whitstable players are being spoken to by other clubs so it’s an open market.”

The Oystermen are one of seven Kent clubs in the Ryman League Division One South next season.

There will be three promoted sides in the division with East Grinstead Town (Sussex), South Park (Combined Counties) and Whyteleafe (Southern Counties East Football League), while Carshalton Athletic were relegated from the Premier.

“It’s a very tough division,” said Ward.  “Every game, no game’s a gimmie.  You’ve got to be organised, you’ve got to be fit like we will be and you’ve got to have the right players, which hopefully, again we will have.

“There’s only one Kent club (Folkestone Invicta) that made the play-offs and who was next? Hythe, in eighth so it also shows you it’s not only the Kent clubs but the Sussex clubs and that are all striving for it.”

Ward hopes the weather is kind to his club next season after non-league football suffered through the loss of income during the wettest winter for 250 years last season.

He said: “I saw something on TV last night about this extreme weather. It’s either too hot, too wet, too frozen or too snowy. We seem to be going through those spells at the moment.

“It effects budgets because if you’re not playing for three or four weeks at a time if affects all the clubs being able to get people through the turnstiles.

“It is a concern at the moment.  It’s been like that for seven or eight years now.  Every year seems to bring up some sort of problem.”

Whitstable Town report back for pre-season training at ten o’clock in the morning on Saturday 28 June.

Ward said: “We start training on the last Saturday in June at 10 in the morning at The Belmont.  Everybody’s welcome but any new comers that want to come along want to get in touch with the club first or phone me and Danny directly.  You can’t just turn up!

“There will be a lot of people there on the first day. If anyone wants to have a go at the Ryman League either contact me or Danny or the secretary at the club.”

Visit Whitstable Town’s website: www.whitstabletownfc.co.uk