NEW Callington Town boss Matt Hayden is targeting a top-10 finish in the South West Peninsula League Premier West division next season – and has not ruled out calling on the services of some of his former St Blazey players to do so, writes Nigel Walrond.

The highest position that Callington have ever achieved in the SWPL is 11th.

They were lying third from bottom of the table, with only one win and one draw from their 13 games, when the 2020-21 league season was halted due to the coronavirus pandemic and lockdown, so on paper it seems a tall order – and they have effectively been managerless ever since, with chairman Steve Blatchford stepping into the breach after the departure of player-boss Sam Borthwick earlier in the season.

But Hayden showed during his time at St Blazey, where he was joint manager with Shaun Vincent, what he is capable of.

St Blazey were in 16th place when the campaign ended, but they had only played eight games due to a whole host of reasons, such as COVID call-offs, floodlight failures and rain-offs, and had a stack of matches in hand on the teams above them.

His time at St Blazey ended amid national newspaper headlines, when the players and managers were involved in a Christmas COVID-19 breach in Plymouth, following which games against St Austell on Boxing Day and St Dennis on the Bank Holiday Monday were called off due to ‘COVID issues with the St Blazey squad’.

But he admits lessons have been learnt from that situation, and he is now relishing a new challenge, which he admits will be a tough one.

“I am excited by the job,” said Hayden, who is only aged 30 and was forced to give up playing due to a number of injury problems.

“They have had a tough time over the last few years.

“To me, it is a completely fresh start and a clean slate for everybody, so I am looking forward to getting going, and hopefully bringing some success to the club.”

After leaving St Blazey in January, Hayden moved on to the management team at Wadebridge Town.

However, that was shortlived as another attractive job offer came up, but that failed to materialise, leaving Hayden without a club.

“There are great people down at Wadebridge, they are a great club and they have a lot of potential to do good things there, but I had a call when I was there asking to go somewhere as a joint manager, and for me personally it was an opportunity I couldn’t really turn down,” explained Hayden.

“I left Wadebridge for that role, but a few weeks down the line, it didn’t actually materialise for a few reasons, so I ended up being without a club then.

“But literally, a day or two after that didn’t come through, Steve Blatchford rang me up and asked me if I would be interested in the Callington job.

“We had a good chat about things, put all our cards on the table, and both parties were more than happy, and a few days later I accepted the job.”

Callington have some good facilities, but are looking to put a team together to match it.

“Steve puts so much time and effort into it, and you can tell he is a really passionate chairman, and he wants the place looking spot on,” said Hayden.

“I just think, over the years, they have possibly, and no disrespect to the other people, they haven’t had the right people there to help with the footballing side.

Concentrating

“But in my eyes, I don’t just go and deal with the footballing stuff for 90 minutes.

“I am organising kit and tracksuits and making sure everybody is happy, and making sure everything is organised, during the week we are concentrating on what we are going to be doing, and then match-days on Saturday, I really come alive then.”

One of the keys to success for Hayden is going to be his ability to attract good players to the club through the contacts that he has, and that could mean some of the players he had during his three years at St Blazey.

Many of them left Blaise Park after the Christmas party fiasco and joined Vincent at Plymouth Marjon, where he is now the manager.

“The club needed some stability, structure and organisation, and then it is just a case of providing a foundation to build from then,” said Hayden.

“I am confident I am going to have a very good squad next season.

“Callington’s highest ever league position is 11th, and I have already set a target to finish 10th and above, and for them personally it is going to be a good success, I can already feel it, but I am going to keep pushing until I see a trophy in the cabinet to be honest.”

Hayden added: “The boys are absolutely fantastic, they have all stuck together, and they don’t care about money whatsoever, hence why they went to Marjons with Shaun.

“We will have to wait and see, but I think a few of them are interested in coming across.

“I am in conversation with a couple of them but nothing has materialised as such at the moment, so I don’t know what’s going to happen. But myself and Shaun were joint managers down at St Blazey, and we get on really well, and I said to him I am not going to go after the boys – just out of respect I am not going to do that – but if any of them want to move over, it would be silly of me to turn down a good player.

“Pre-season is still a long way, away yet, we will probably start training in June, and nothing is really going to be finalised for me until probably mid-July, when we start looking at preparing for the first game of the season.”

One area that Hayden has tackled immediately is sorting out pre-season friendlies for Callington to get them ready for the new campaign.

“I usually sort them out around February time, just so it is done and organised and in before other people so I can get the slots that I want, but when I took this job on, they didn’t have any pre-season games booked in,” explained Hayden.

“Player-manager last season, James Baker, has been so busy starting up his own business, and Steve has been flat out with everything away from football, and they said they needed someone to come in and take it by the horns and get some structure there.

“I have filled July now with a load of pre-season games.

“I have got one blockbuster fixture for the club – not a pro side but not far from it – on July 13, and then the rest are more against good local teams because all the other sides are near enough already booked up.

“But either way it is game time for the boys, it is minutes in the legs, and sharpness, and no matter who we play, it is still going to benefit them regardless.”

The fixtures are all confirmed, but Hayden is keeping them under wraps until towards the end of this month.”

With his time at St Blazey ending due to non-footballing reasons, Hayden admits he has some unfinished business.

“My aspirations go miles above the SWPL level. I love this league, I love the standard and I have played it myself, but me personally I want to go as far as I can, so because it wasn’t footballing reasons that we left St Blazey, I am looking forward to getting back into this role, and carrying on from where I left off at Blazey with the way I do things, and to prove to everybody that I am good enough to be here and that I can do things at a good club.

“I went into Blazey when they were rock bottom and we managed to pull them out of the hole they were in, and now they are competing around the top six in that league.

“I have had to pass the baton onto someone else, they are in good hands now (Phil Lafferty is their new manager), but I am going to be looking to do exactly the same coming into Callington, pulling them out of the hole they are in and pushing them up towards that top half of the table.”

Hayden is looking for some coaching help, but he is keen to take his time over who to bring in as his assistant.

“My number two needs to be someone I can work with, someone I can trust and I don’t want to get halfway through the season and think ‘this isn’t quite working’,” he said.

“I need to make sure it is going to be the right person for the role, so I am not going to be jumping in appointing anybody.

“As regards to the coaching staff, I have got a couple of coaches who are going to be coming in helping me out in regards to training and warm-ups, etc.

“I will also be bringing in a physio, and make sure there is a general manager on match-days, just to make sure the paperwork is sorted and everything is organised, and the kit is there, so I haven’t got to run around on a Saturday morning and make sure all of that is done. If I can get someone who is happy to do it, it makes my life on match-day easier and I can just concentrate solely on the football.”