Guernsey Press

From Priaulx rubbish heap to giants in five years

SHOULD poor old Bels want some end-of-season solace then they should look at the graphic to the right.

Published
Rovers’ home dressing room whiteboard tracks the progress of the club and carries some key words in their vocabulary for success. (21370734)

More pertinently – the set of figures in the top-left hand corner.

Well, believe it or not, that was Rovers – newly-crowned two-time FNB Priaulx League champions – just five years ago.

A season later they were one place off the bottom, three seasons ago finishing in mid-table, second the following year and now double champions.

What else?

The figure 901 (centre) relates to the number of days Rovers went unbeaten away from Port Soif as Jez Robin’s men proved relentless – one of the coach’s favourite words – on a remarkable run.

Regardless of today’s Upton result, where do Rovers go next?

Onwards and upwards and not back to where they were in 2013, is Robin’s obvious response.

He knows it won’t be easy, especially as he promises to stick to the philosophy of recent seasons in giving self-developed players a go. The latest was Thiago Rodrigues, 16, who played an encouraging 90 minutes in the Rossborough FA Cup this week.

‘Five years ago it was very much a case of not who do we pick from, but can we get a team out, really.

‘We had to pull out of the Jackson League because we wouldn’t have enough players for two divisions. Every game was basically damage limitation.

‘But in the background there was everything going on with the minis and the youth set-up and it has been a plan that if we can keep kids involved, the success of the minis will attract minis, the youth attract youth,’ he says.

At senior level the club found impetus under Karl Addis, but it was not until Robin took over at the top that it began to fly at senior level, having previously begun to win things at development level.

‘It’s just evolved, I guess. We were also the first ones to introduce the single-year age-group teams. That took a lot of hard work and we had a lot of push-back from the committee at first, as they didn’t really want to do it.’

Robin agrees that the club must not lose its identity in a desperate search for winning more.

‘The difficulty we are going to have now is accommodating players. There will be lads coming out of the U18s and thinking they should be playing Priaulx.

‘It wasn’t the case years ago and it shouldn’t be now. You had to serve your apprenticeship in the other leagues. But there will be other clubs knocking on their doors and saying “come and play in our Priaulx’’, so we might lose some.

‘But as long as we keep them seeing success and doing the things the right way, the hope is they will stick with the club and we will be a strong club for years to come.’

The match kicks at the Track off at 1pm.