Bringing on Back the Good Times

TIVVY assistant manager Connor Sidley-Adams is determined to help restore pride and success to the Yellows.

Connor has resumed a partnership with new gaffer Rob Dray that spawned plenty of success at Taunton Town and wants to replicate that at Ladysmead, although he realises that first base is stabilising a club that is too close for comfort to the Pitching In Southern League Premier Division South.

Connor said: “Now’s the time for us to bring the good times back. We are very aware of the history of the club, the fantastic FA Vase successes that the club have had. Ultimately we want to bring that success back to Tiverton Town, although survival and driving up the league is the number one priority.

“I spent three years at Taunton with Rob and we had a great time there, creating some wonderful memories in winning the Southern League Premier Division and getting to the first round of the FA Cup.

“Ultimately it’s now our time to bring that to Tiverton Town and bring that success to the town and the club.

“We really want to push on up to the higher reaches of this league, but also create that national success in the FA Cup and the FA Trophy in taking us to the next level.”

Impressively, the new management team have come into the Ian Moorcroft Stadium and hit the ground running. It helps, of course, that Connor and Rob know each other’s ethos well.

“The thing that’s clear is we’ve got the same kind of philosophy when it comes to football,” said Connor. “We know that all the players are people first and we believe in having a person-before-player environment.

“We know that, in non-League football, lot of them are not full-time professionals. In terms of their roles, we realise that they’ve got a lot going on and we’ll try to bring the best out of them on training nights and match-days.”

After the hurly burly of arriving in a new environment, Connor was delighted to get on the grass with the first-team squad on Thursday night ahead of their visit to Hungerford Town on Saturday. First impressions were more than favourable.

He said: “It's a huge club, fantastic history, fantastic fan base and there's a great group of lads here. That togetherness is clear to see – a really close-knit, tight group of players, which is brilliant to walk into. It's an unbelievable set-up, so we're looking forward to get going.

“We had an excellent little session with the boys. They were really at it and we laid out some core principles of how we want to play, what we want to look like going forward, and they’ve bought into that already. Ultimately we want to get going on Saturday at 3pm  and, when we cross that white line, we’ll be ready to go and win.”