Corbet playing middle man

TIME really does fly.

It seems incredible to think that it is 18 years since Phil Corbet (pictured), whose Vale Rec team host Bels on the opening day of the Division One season, was last coaching a club team for a full season.

But other than a doomed short spell back at North four or five years ago, it is a fact.

So is he enjoying the return to full-time club management?'

'Very much enjoying it,' is the answer and he is quick to confirm that he is putting as much time and effort into the role as at any time he was coach at North, simply because you have to.

'I believe you have no choice. You've got to have you finger on the pulse if you are to do the job properly.'

He won't say it, but Vale Rec needed Corbet to step in when he did, just as much as they needed Dave Dorey to return to the club and give it direction behind the scenes.

The result is that, in no time, the club are picking up players rather than leaking them and there is a sense of very organised optimism again down at the Corbet Field.

There won't be a quick fix, but at least the bucket is no longer spouting from unplugged holes.

Corbet does not give a timescale as to how long he will be the main man pitch side.