Top six finish will be classed as a solid season, says Orpington boss Byron Beard

Beard, 30, was preparing for relegated Farnborough Old Boys Guild’s campaign in the NRG Gym Kent County League Division One West campaign when he accepted a call from Orpington secretary Phil Alder to take charge of the club.

Sean Glover guided the club to a top-five finish in the Kent Invicta League last season, while Beard’s Farnborough finished in bottom place in the Kent County League Premier Division last season.

“Firstly, I would like to put on record that I wasn’t looking to move despite what people have said,” insisted Beard, who has played for Dartford, Thamesmead Town, Erith & Belvedere, Orpington, Phoenix Sports, Beckenham Town and Glebe.

“I had been quietly building a squad and had been in discussion with a couple of potential coaches to join me at Farnborough when I was approached about the Orpington vacancy and my thoughts on it.

“Now anyone that knows me and where I have played knows I played for Orpington FC for six years during their most successful period in their history, getting promoted to the Kent County Premier finishing runners-up to both Holmesdale and Norton Sports (now Woodstock Sports) and the club is one I have always had an attachment to.

“I spoke with Phil Alder about the club and where they were looking to take it and following on I was asked to meet the committee and discuss my current situation and the role at Orpington.

“It sort of snowballed from there really and after a couple of discussions with Phil Alder, I was offered the role at Orpington.

“Farnborough Old Boys are a great little club who, under the right management and structure could be playing in a much higher league than they find themselves in.

“My decision to leave was purely based on the opportunity to manage a club I had previously given so much time to as a player.

“I turned down an assistant role with a Step 5 club before the offer as I wasn’t looking to leave Farnborough OBG.”

Beard admits to being busy during the pre-season period at his new club.

“Busy and sometimes hard to cope to put on a good session with the numbers,” he said.

“Anyone that tells you Orpington aren’t a club that can pull in the players are wrong! We have consistently had over 40 people at training across the first and reserve teams and probably 30-odd on trial.

“Myself and my assistant Dan Kelly (previously with Sutton Athletic) came along three weeks into pre-season after Sean announced his decision to leave.

“I was on holiday for two weeks so between Dan, Chris Champ (coach), Jon Sargent (goalkeeper coach) and me on the end of a telephone we managed to keep together what we consider to be the core of the squad from last year.

“We have added probably eight or nine to this and just finalising what we consider to be our squad.

“If you were to ask any player at pre-season what has changed, I think the one thing they would agree on is that training has been much better.

“Dan and Chris have put on some excellent sessions and feel that we have caught up on the couple of weeks we lost not being there.”

“The players both new and old have been excellent and are taking on board what we are trying to do.

“We are trying to change the way they have played over the last two years, from the channel ball and physical approach to actually enjoying playing with the ball at their feet.

“In general our pre-season games have been going well. We have played a couple of Kent Premier sides, beating Holmesdale 5-2 and losing 1-0 to Greenwich under 21/first team mix and I think the guys have surprised us.

“Many of them are better than we thought to be honest. When you have played a certain way for two or three years many people don’t remember that those players can actually play with the ball on the floor.

“We have worked on scoring more goals and that certainly seems to be working.”

Orpington kick-off their Kent Invicta League campaign with a trip to newly-promoted Sheppey United on Saturday 9 August.

Kevin Hake’s side finished runners-up in the Kent County League Premier Division with 64 points from 28 games, but were promoted because champions Metrogas (who collected one more point) failed to meet the ground grading criteria.

The Ites chalked up a comfortable 7-0 win over Erith 147 Sports on the last day of the season and striker Dan Bradshaw took his goalscoring tally for the season up to 37 goals with a hat-trick.

It will be a tough test for Beard’s first game in charge at a club that appear to be going places.

“This is a great game to start the season,” said Beard.

“Hopefully they will have a little bit of a crowd down there, which will add to the occasion.

“Farnborough played them last year and held them for 80 minutes at 2-1. They seem to play quite direct and have a couple of wingers who used to play with Lewisham Borough a couple of years ago that were quick, very quick!

“I think we will be fine and being the first game everyone is going into it hoping not to lose.”

When asked about his aspirations for Orpington this season, Beard said: “Of course we would like to push on and challenge but we need to be realistic.

“We have changed half the squad, lost a couple of players to other clubs and changing the way the whole team play.

“I think if we can finish top-six and possibly have a couple of good cup runs, myself and Dan would class that as a solid season.”