‘I want Clanfield pushing for the top six of the Hampshire Premier League season’ – boss Lee Blakely

The 2019/20 campaign was his first season in charge of the Hampshire Premier League Senior Division club, having arrived as a coach midway through the previous season.

It was the 36-year-old’s first managerial role.

The previous season, 2018/19, Clanfield had finished third bottom, five points ahead of relegated QK Southampton and with just five wins from 30 games.

One of those was in their last outing, at home to QK. Had they lost, they would have been relegated. But Harry Potter struck four times in a 4-1 success in what was the ultimate six-pointer.

Blakely oversaw an improvement - Clanfield were 10th out of 16 when 2019/20 was halted, having won eight out of 22 matches.

They also won through three rounds of the Hampshire Trophy before losing to Shanklin on penalties at the quarter-final stage.

Clanfield didn’t beat a single team that finished above them, though - all their wins were against teams in the bottom six, including doubles over Chamberlayne and Winchester Castle.

Blakely, who played for Petersfield, Fleet Town, Liss and Fareham Town, said: ‘The season before we’d only just survived.

‘The club was at rock bottom, and I wanted to get some professionalism back, I wanted more commitment - and I felt we got that.

‘We were pushing for a top half finish. I was really pleased with the progress.

‘But we’ve got a new management team now and I want to push on even further.’

Pete Hamilton and Ross Betteridge, who were at Horndean Reserves last season, have come on board after the Deans scrapped their second team.

Hamilton will be Blakely’s assistant manager with Betteridge head coach. Matt Whittle has also returned to the club as goalkeeping coach.

‘I had tried to build good bonds with clubs like Horndean and Petersfield,’ said Blakel. ‘I’d spoken to Pete a few times so when I heard he was leaving Horndean I knew I wanted him to get involved.

‘The club had been content just to get whoever they could out to play a game, but I want to be better than that.

‘I want us to compete with clubs like Bush Hill and Infinity, but we need some professionalism to do it.

‘I don’t want us to get left behind. Next season I want us pushing for the top six.

‘We’ve got a new chairman in Mark Graham and a new vice chairman, Matt Spalding. The council are helping us a bit more, things are looking good.

‘The Hampshire Premier is a bit like the Premier League - there’s the top teams, the teams in the middle, and the bottom teams.

‘I felt we were the best of the bottom teams, pushing for a mid-table to top half finish.

‘We didn’t really have any recruitment last summer, we brought players up from the reserves and they adapted well.

‘The commitment and attitude was a big plus - a lot of the players wanted to play every week rather than choosing to go and watch Pompey or whatever.

‘We changed the mentality, I was really happy with the lads.

‘The team wasn’t a second choice anymore. It was the main focus - training in the week and playing on a Saturday. I was really pleased with that.’

Blakely is using Hayling United as a template, the Humbugs seemingly on the up after ending 2019/20 with eight successive league wins.

‘I’m good friends with Dan (Bishop, manager) at Hayling, he’s doing a great job and got his team playing the right way.

‘That’s a club I look at and think that’s what we need to be doing.

‘I know we can do it on our day. We drew 2-2 twice with Paulsgrove last season and both times they equalised in the last five minutes.

‘We just need more consistency, to do it over a period of 30 games. Last season we weren’t consistent enough, and that’s why we need to improve.’

Clanfield certainly have some goals in their squad.

Owen Milne struck 16 times in 21 starts last season while Elliot Sills netted 13 times.

Oliver Glover struck nine goals, including five in a 9-2 home win over Sway.