Robson returns as new Petersfield boss

The highly-experienced boss is returning to the club for a second spell in charge – he was previously at Love Lane during the 1980s when he took the Rams up into the Isthmian League.

Robson’s immediate task is to guide the club away from the bottom end of the Evo-Stik League Southern division one central table – but he has set his sights higher than that in terms of his future aims for the club.

‘It’s good to be back in football and at a club which is near enough to home for me to walk to,’ said Robson.

‘I am happy to be here and I am happy and grateful to have been asked to be manager of this football club.

‘I have some great memories of my first spell in charge at Petersfield and hopefully we can create some more this time around as well.

‘I have got a lot of respect for what a friend of mine, Ian Saunders, did in his time as manager here and I hope to maintain the status at the level he got this club to.

‘My target is to definitely stay in the league and improve on where we currently are and then I would like to go on to try and get us to the next level.

‘I would ask the supporters to give us two or three weeks to look at things and see what we have already in place, and then we will look to improve what we have already in the club and bring in any extra resources we need.’

Robson is well known and well respected in non-league football across Hampshire and Sussex.

He has had spells in charge of Gosport Borough, Winchester City, Andover Town, Blackfield & Langley, Worthing and Dover in a long managerial career.

Chairman Graeme Moir is delighted with the appointment.

He believes Robson’s arrival will allow the club to move away from the relegation zone and build for the future.

Moir said: ‘I’m really pleased we have got John on board and I am fully confident we will now move away from the bottom end of the table.

‘John is vastly experienced and everyone I have spoken to about him has nothing but praise for what he has achieved in non-league football and his credentials for taking on the manager’s role here at Petersfield.

‘He is exactly the candidate we were looking for – vastly experienced and well connected so he can make a real difference to our current situation and also take us forward in the future.

‘In many ways he is similar to our former manager Ian Saunders – when you sit down and talk to John about football he knows the game inside out.

‘There is no player, coach or chairman John does not know about and his contacts within the game are extensive.

‘However, John is his own man and will do things his way.

‘He wants to look at the players we have currently in the squad and assess their ability before rushing out and getting anyone else in.’