Tony Reid was announced as the new manager of Corinthian-Casuals on Sunday, and after posing for his unveiling photo shoot pitchside he sat down in the home dressing room for an interview with Dominic Bliss about his new role and his footballing journey to this point…

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Tony, welcome to Corinthian-Casuals. How does it feel to be appointed manager of this historic club?

Words can’t explain, actually. Being at Step 3 is where I wanted to be, so I’m relishing the new challenge. I haven’t slept since it was confirmed yesterday – even though I’m a Liverpool fan and they obviously lost the Champions League final – because I’ve been on Cloud 10. I woke up extra early this morning, immediately started thinking about my plans and what I’m going to be doing. So, yeah… it’s back to work for me!

What attracted you to this club?

The history. I used to play here when I was a youngster, so I know the history of the club inside-out. I came here in the youth team, then I shot straight up into the reserves and in the end I managed to get a couple of games of first-team football.

I was a left-winger back then – that was before I was even a striker, that’s how young I was. I remember the striker in those days was Westy [Cliff West], and he was an absolute beast up front!

When you’re young, you’re quite naive to men’s football so I didn’t really interact with anybody. I just used to come and train, play football, do what was required. I remember leaving to go to another club, but I came back here on loan later and I had a good start – I scored a few goals.

Then, more recently, I’ve come to watch a few games here when I wasn’t in a job, just to watch the football, and I’ve always liked the atmosphere, the crowd, the fans. It ticked all the boxes for me.

So it was a case of being affiliated to the club, coming back here and having good memories. During my interview for the job, they said it was a family club and I love it when people say that. It’s not about themselves, or a business. When you mention a family club it’s quite sentimental and that attracted me as well.

Tell us more about your background in non-league. You’ve got vast experience as both a player and a coach.

When I was a player, would you have said I would become a manager? No. I think a lot of people would say I was an ugly player. I was a bruiser, yes. I was ugly. I was a big, strong, powerful centre-forward – that description fitted.

Falling into management happened by fluke. I was just in the right place at the right time. I was still young, I was learning my trade, but you learn from each experience you have, and you take it on to your next role. Every time I’ve progressed, I’ve learned something about myself and I think where that became evident was at Westfield, where I went in at the bottom and we came up.

I played numerous teams from Step 5 all the way up to National League in that period and a lot of people complimented my footballing style, how we played and my ethics. I get embarrassed and reserved about it when people do that – I’d rather somebody be horrible about me in a way because I’ll stand up to that! If you’re going to be complimentary to me, I’m quite shy with it. I’m quite a humble guy and I think I have to work harder than anybody else because I put a lot of pressure on myself.

It all drives you on, though, presumably…

It drives me on, because I want more. I’m like a player in the sense that I like to wear my heart on my sleeve. This is my next project, my next venture. I’m here for the long haul, and I’m already putting pressure on myself. I know where I want to be, what I want to do and it’s whether the players can do it now. I’m quite confident, but listen, time will tell.

​How will you approach the task of putting together a squad, in terms of working with the people who are already here and bringing people in?

The player side of things, I think, is relatively easy. Of the squad that’s here, and that I hope to inherit, I hope that some will stay. I know there have been a few rumours and people are always going to be a little bit apprehensive about it, but I will assure everybody that they will get the opportunity. I will work with them, I will raise their game by 10-15 per cent. They probably won’t like my training regime, especially with fitness!

Why’s that?

[Grinning] I’m hardcore when it comes to fitness. I’m so hot on fitness. It’s one of my strongest points – I like a fit team, because the way we play is quite high-intensity. Everybody can play football but what they forget is that it’s about their fitness as well. We’ve all done it as a young kid, we get a football, we’ve kicked it against a wall, learned our trade, how to do stepovers, Cruyff turns, et cetera. But one thing they don’t teach you is your fitness, how to control it and how to manage it.

If a player doesn’t do a full pre-season, you will find that he will break down at some stage during the season. So to prevent that I like to build their strength and their physical conditioning up, so they can try and last a full season. The only way they will have something will be a tackle, or a strain, or a pull, which is to be expected, but that’s the emphasis I put on the player and what is required of him physically as well.

There were some parallels between what you experienced at Westfield and what we’ve experienced here over the last few years under James Bracken’s management. You took over a team in the bottom half of the table, got them up the table, achieved promotion and then stabilised at the next level up. In that sense, you’re walking into a club that’s experiencing something you’ve previously been a part of.

Yeah, so it just matches right. You’ve got to give credit to James for what he’s done here, and each time a rumour mill has got going when there was job at hand, me and James have always been mentioned in the same bracket. We’re different personalities, of course, but I think we’ve both got the same mentality about where we want to be in football. We’re winners. I’m a winner, a serial winner at that, and that’s what I will bring to the club.

How are you going to tackle the challenge of managing an amateur team in a competitive semi-professional league?

[Laughs] It’s going to be second nature. It’s going to be no different to the other clubs I’ve managed – all it’s going to be is a different calibre of players, better players.

It’s easier to attract players to Step 3 than it is to Step 4 or Step 5, for the simple fact that they want to excel themselves, whether it’s reaching the National South, the National League, or pro football. This is a better standard of starting point for them, so…hey, let’s see the rollercoaster!

So the league we’re in, coupled with the club’s identity, is enough of a pull?

Oh massively. I was only appointed yesterday and I’ve already had phone calls saying, “I want to stay,” or, “I want to come back.” Or, “Oh, you’ve got the job – congratulations!”

Automatically, there’s a pulling power straight away here. Would I have got this at Step 4 or Step 5? No disrespect, but I don’t think I would.

The lower you go down… you’ve got to have money to attract bigger players, but when you’re at a good standard like this you don’t have to have the financial resources because you’re there already. I think that’s the pulling power, and with the history that Corinthian-Casuals has, it just makes a bit easier for me.

You’ve mentioned that the atmosphere here was part of the attraction for you. What’s your message for our supporters?

I know for a lot of fans it’s going to be the unknown, with a new manager coming in, and I can only talk so much about what I’ve done before. The past is the past, it’s what I do now that matters, and how I go forward with it. I’ll let the football do the talking and I will win them over, without a doubt. With the football that I will bring to the club, we will create something really good.

[Gesturing to the board behind him, depicting the fans as the ‘12th Man’] I hope they will be our 13th man because I’m going to be the 12th man! I want the fans to stick by us because we’re going to have our ups and downs, it is football. I’m not going to say that we’re going to win every single game, because it doesn’t happen like that, but I’m not going to lose many.
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Corinthian-Casuals are delighted to welcome our new First Team Manager, Tony Reid to the club. Tony was the preferred choice of over 30 applicants following the departure of James Bracken after seven years at the helm.

Tony brings considerable experience and knowledge with him to the United Business Group Stadium. Reid is a former Manager of Walton and Hersham and Westfield with whom he won promotion to the Isthmian League for the first time in the club’s history, amassing a record points tally in the process. His style of free-flowing, high intensity football has earned Tony a wealth of high-praise over the years.

A former player at King George’s, Tony was also at a number of clubs including fellow Isthmian Premier outfits, Carshalton Athletic and Kingstonian, where he lifted the Surrey Senior Cup alongside former Casuals Assistant Manager Martyn Lee.
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Please join us in congratulating Tony on his appointment and we look forward to the season ahead with him in charge. A full in-depth interview with Tony will be published over the course of the next week.

by David Harrison

Corinthian-Casuals are very sorry to announce that manager, James Bracken is leaving after seven seasons in charge – certainly the most successful period the club has enjoyed since the two founding fathers, the Corinthians and the Casuals came together in 1939.

In his seven seasons James Bracken has taken the club, from languishing in the lower levels of the Isthmian League, through play-offs, up a division to the Isthmian Premier in Step 3 where in the season just ended Casuals finished a comfortable 14th.

“The Club is greatly saddened by the departure of Manager James,” writes Chairman Brian Vandervilt. “However he leaves with our heartfelt appreciation of his success with us. He is a man of integrity ,enormous work ethic and man management. He has all the attributes that makes us certain he will succeed at a much higher level. We extend to him our greatest respect”
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James came to the club in season 2015/16 after multiple highly successful seasons with Sutton Utd steering their reserves to three consecutive Suburban Premier League titles. He picked up no less seven trophies in 2015 with Sutton as well as winning the Ryman Youth ‘Champion of Champions’ in 2016.

During those years James was named by the Non League Paper as one of the best young managers in the country. At Corinthian-Casuals James’ younger brother Danny has been a major ally. Danny had already been at the club for three season when James joined. As first team goalkeeper and club captain he has made over 500 appearances.

James is now 38, Danny seven years younger. Danny recalls how James was a gifted player, “better than me”. As youngsters both had been on the books of West Ham, James from the age of 10 for three years as a promising right winger. He went on to Wycombe Wanderers for five years as a sweeper then played right wing back at Woking.

But James injured his back working for his father’s building firm and started coaching at Sutton United, then in the Conference South, and then went on to Corinthian-Casuals.

Danny assessed his brother’s managerial qualities. “His knowledge of the game is outstanding, what each individual and the collective team should do. He’d talk to his assistant Dan Pringle all day on a Friday about the team make-up and tactics. Dedication is the word.”

In September 2017 James was named Mitre Manager of the Month for an unbeaten four week run while Danny was awarded the Bostik League South Safe Hands Award after Corinthian-Casuals conceded only a single goal in four league fixtures. That is the measure of their joint contribution.

Micky Stewart knows Corinthian-Casuals better than most. He was a First Team player, won an amateur international cap, turned professional with Charlton Athletic, was First Team Manager for 5 seasons in the 70s and is now Hon Club President. All that alongside his professional cricket career, Captain of Surrey for 15 seasons, Test match player and Manager of both Surrey and England.

“James Bracken put Corinthian-Casuals F.C on the map,” says Stewart, “through sheer hard work and hundreds of hours of graft to take them into the Isthmian Premier. He created an atmosphere of enjoyment in training and in matches that many players have shared – and so stay with the club. He has done this while always aware that when achieving success as an amateur club he’s going to lose key players. What he and his staff have done over these seven years is remarkable”
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James wrote his own farewell message on the club website: “Corinthian-Casuals is a special club. You learn that very quickly when you’re there and understand what it represents. It’s unique and very much a collective. For that reason, I say thank you to Corinthian-Casuals. For the opportunity. For the support. For the experience. For everything”

We are now accepting applications for the position of First Team Manager.

​Please send your CV and supporting information to [email protected] by 5pm Friday 20th May 2022. ​

With another exciting season ahead, Corinthian-Casuals are looking for enthusiastic volunteers to help run our wonderful, historic club to the best standard we can.

Not only will you be joining a wonderful team of fabulous people, helping a big part of our community, but all of our volunteers can expect free entry to all home games, and some away matches where available. Also free boardroom drinks and post-match food as well as other perks where possible. Some roles will also offer you a place on our Management Committee and a potential for commission-based compensation.
 
Matchday Secretary
To assist in the matchday administration for the club. The responsibilities and roles will include the liaison with match officials & club opposition and the completion of matchday paperwork and some reports following games. This is a voluntary post and will require you to be available for the majority of home and away games, all with free admission.
 
Commercial Manager
The Commercial Manager shall take primary responsibility for aspects of the Club’s revenue generation. This includes corporate sponsorship deals and generally pursuing and converting income generating opportunities for the football club. Includes maximising sales in areas including perimeter boards, programme advertisements; match sponsorships, match day hospitality and event organisation and implementation. Commission opportunities available.
 
Membership Secretary
Responsible for managing the annual renewal process for all members and dealing with all new enquiries. To respond to all enquiries from potential new members in a timely manner and to collect renewal membership on an annual basis from existing members. Also, maintaining an up-to-date database of members and issuing new members welcome packs and newsletters on a periodic basis.
 
Match Reporter / Matchday Social Media
The match-day reporter will be responsible for match reports for the website and potential for sending to local media outlets. Also desirable would be matchday updates on social media platforms. We’re keen to boost our video output too, so an enthusiastic videographer capturing elements of the games and other content would be fantastic.
 
Women’s Team General Manager
At present Corinthian-Casuals do not have an adult women's team and we are keen to rectify this. We’re looking for an enthusiastic person to champion this project. With full support from the Committee, you’d head up the process of forming and administering a team, market it and form ties with the local community. You would be supporting a long-term project to bring women's football to one of the world's most historic football clubs.
 
If you are interested in joining our team for any of the roles listed above or in any capacity you believe would be of help to us, please make yourself known to any of the committee on a match day, or email our Secretary, Hanna Newton at [email protected]

It is with heavy hearts that we tell you our record-breaking, history-making manager James Bracken is stepping down now the season is over.

The last seven years with James at the helm have been fantastic. His drive, ambition and achievements are second to none and his unwavering involvement with everything from the ground up has been given with integrity and charm. James is part of the very fabric of this club, so it is a sad day all round.

James has been more than just a manager for us. He's a friend, a big part of our CCFC family, and a club stalwart. He's given us more than we dreamed possible as an amateur club and we are very thankful for everything he's done both with and for us.

James, we wish you the absolute best in your next steps and look forward to seeing where your pure talent and exceptional hard work takes you in the years to come. Thank you for everything, we'll miss you, our door is always open.