The Big Interview

Our weekly chat with Rovers people, on and off the pitch

Now to the BIG INTERVIEW – For the Festive week we chatted with Rovers Assistant Boss Peter Buckingham (Bucksie), to get his thoughts on the Boxing Day game at Dawlish and also his thoughts on the season’s progress so far:

So Bucksie, what about the Sandy lane trip? “A tough game for sure. My thoughts on Town’s season so far is very much akin to ours. Even if they are set to lose another heavyweight in terms of goal scoring (the Jules Emati-Emati switch to Blue Square football), they have an abundance of talent. None more so that Dean Stevens who has, without doubt, one of, if not THE, best left peg in the Western League. His delivery at set pieces with that left foot of his is top drawer and we will need to keep an eye on the sort of set piece situations we leave them with given his deadly ability. It’s no surprise to me that he (Stevens) has reached double figures with goals this term – and from a mid-field berth too.”

Are there any other opposition players you will be needing to look after?: “Look, they are all good players and whatever side they put out down there will provide a serious test for us. From a County point of view I’d have to say I am very interested to see just how the young full-backs perform. Michael Broome and Luke Martin are a pair of teenagers who are very much within range of the County side and I am looking forward to seeing them over 90 minutes on Boxing Day.”

So how about where Town currently sit in the Toolstation table?: “Again similar to us, just off the pace and that is no bad thing. Both ourselves and Dawlish are very capable of mounting and indeed sustaining a push for the top honour and I do feel that this is a very strong Devon campaign this term in as much as the North Devon pairing of Bideford and Ilfracombe, together with ourselves and Dawlish, offer a real Devon threat to the title. Often to win titles you are best sat tucked in behind the top two or three and then mount a challenge from mid-March through to the end of the season and, more often than not, that sort of surge can deliver glory.”

Now to matters Rovers and how you have settled into life at Silver Street?: It’s a fact that I was becoming restless after a spell out of the game. There’s only so many Saturday afternoon shopping expeditions a footballing fellah can put up with – anyway it’s better for domestic bliss if ‘er indoors spends the money on her own on a Saturday afternoon!!!! Clive (Rovers boss Clive Jones) and I have been friends for longer than I suspect both of care to think – if we did we’d know how old we should own up to being – and in football terms we are twin like. It’s uncanny is as much as when he gives a team talk I’d have to be honest and say it’s very, very similar to the sort of talk I’d give! We have very similar views as to players, formations and what we want to achieve and you could say it’s a football relationship made in heaven! That said I am sure it irks with him that I am slimmer, taller and better looking, but as I tell him, he’s the gaffer and you can’t have everything in life!”

So what about the chances of 2010 being one of glory, glory for Rovers followers?: “It’s no secret that I feel that this current side are still only at 80%. I don’t mean that as a negative, quite the opposite. Consistency is the key. Both up at Ilfracombe in the League and then that awesome first half against Welton I the FA Vase, the team showed the heights they are capable of reaching and then there’s the Street home game when we looked a pale shadow of the side who done wonders previously. I have no doubt what so ever that if we can find a consistent standard then we will go mighty close to serious glory this season. Carl Cliff-Brown holds the key for me, his addition to the side this season has been a real key and I am personally very excited at the prospect of seeing a certain Danny Baily back in the fold. Danny has already stepped up his personal work and I have seen a real hunger in his eyes, clearly keen to get back involved and with Joel Hawes also showing that he knows (a) how to work his socks off and (b) where the goal is, we could arrive at the business end of the season with three strikers of quality and that is football utopia in my book. No there’s no doubt that the phrase that applies very much to this current Rovers side – “opportunity knocks’ – and there’s no doubt they are good enough to go on and make a slice of club history – now they need to prove it!.”

The previous BIG INTERVIEW : this time we speak with Rovers stopper Brian Cann who has been at Silver Street for some 14 years. We started by asking ‘Canny’ what he made of the FA Vase win over Welton Rovers: “Unbelievable, Mesmeric, how good was that – it was certainly not what we expected and the manner of the victory was truly amazing. Let’s face it, they (Welton) probably played the better football, they certainly had as much of the ball as we had but it just seems that every time they attacked our superb back line slammed the door in their face, and every time we attacked – we scored – it was awesome finishing that’s for sure”.

So how good is this current Rovers team: “Given that I have been with the Club for 14 years I would have to say that this current side is up there with the best of the side’s I have played in at Silver Street. The word is BACKBONE – this current Rovers side has a solid and reliable back bone. We have two towering centre backs, a cultured and intelligent midfield in which David Steele has, in my opinion, been delivering the goods on a consistent basis and up top, in Carl Cliff-Brown we have what you could probably call as the ‘final piece of a masterpiece jig saw’ – He (Cliff-Brown) brings so much to this side and, from my point of view, I know that if the ball gets lumped forward and CCB is the target then the ball is either going to stick or indeed be shuffled on and into the others teams final third of the pitch. He is a giant of a player I every sense and for me, the type of player that previous sides I have played in have not had.”

So with this current Vase run breaking new ground for all at Silver Street, how far can the side go in the competition? “We can win it, now that’s not meant to be a brash and big headed statement, far from it. Why shouldn’t Willand Rovers win the FA Vase? Yes, I know when one is stone cold sober you might question my logic but the fact is the Vase has 32 teams left in the hat, all of whom play in and around our standard, there are no sides from a higher level in terms of the football pyramid so why shouldn’t Willand Rovers be considered as a side who could indeed go ‘all the way’. Is it just a dream? I don’t think so. Certainly in terms of remaining ambition in the game, winning the Vase is most certainly still in the Canny line of sight and I know that vision is shared by the Manager and players at Silver Street.”

Away from the Vase, you are now 44, how much longer does ‘Canny’ feel he can keep playing? “Obviously when you get older people ask that question but, hand on heart, whilst the birth certificate says 44, I do feel 34, and I would like to think I have a season or two, at least left in me. What I do know is that I would like to think I have the sort of relationship with the manager at Rovers that cometh the hour, cometh the word, and the boss (Rovers Manager Clive Jones) will be the first to take me to one side and say that’s your lot son. But I feel good and I think my current form justifies the faith the Management have shown in me.”

When that dreaded moment does arrive what will you do? “That is very much the million dollar question. After such a long association I would have to say that I am terrified of the day I will no longer be between the Rovers sticks. It’s very much a part of my life now and I am really not quite sure what I would seek to do when my playing days end. I know it would hurt big time to see ‘somebody else’ wearing the goalie shirt for Rovers. But I also accept that the day will come and I am pretty sure I myself will know when the dreaded day has dawned, and then we will have to just see how I feel.”

What about coaching and/or management when you hang up your boots? “I don’t think that would be for me. I honestly don’t think I would have the temperament for it. I have enormous respect for the work that Clive (Rovers Boss Clive Jones) does in his job at the club, but I can’t see me in that sort of a role. As for Coaching, I am not sure if I could do that either. I don’t have the all round game perhaps to impart things to the young. I am not the best of kickers, catching yes, and I could indeed help youngsters but I am a great believer in if you are going to do something, then do it properly and for me coaching is being able to put across every single aspect of the game at a very high level. However I also accept that every club SIMPLY HAS TO HAVE the Peter wards, Mike Mitchell’s and Mike Mares in the ranks so perhaps that’s where Brian Cann will eventually be cast. Let’s face it, as things stand it is a massive worry as to what would happen to Rovers when the likes of the afore mentioned trio arte no longer doing what they do. New blood will always be needed in the positions over and above the actual playing side at Silver Street and maybe that is where the long term future of a certain Brian Cann will end up!”