"We've come a long way": WARREN BURTON INTERVIEW

We caught up with Warren as we wrapped up our pre-season schedule to find out how he has enjoyed his first few weeks as Corinthian-Casuals manager, and get his thoughts on the fixture list, beginning with a trip to his former club Fleet Town…

How has everything gone since you’ve come in as manager?

I think we’ve come a long way in the four or five weeks from the start. I think we’ve done really well, although the performance at Woking Academy was a little bit of a backward step.

I felt we set the standard against a very strong Whyteleafe team and up to that point we’d improved every game.  But it’s so hard with friendlies because you’re trying to test players out, work out how you’re going to play, both in shape and personnel, and you’re also giving people a game to see them.

How pleased are you with the composition of the squad you’ve put together at this point?

There’s always room for improvements, but I think we’ve got some good players in place. But it’s important to look for an improvement all the time so people don’t get complacent like I think they did on Tuesday evening. I’m always looking to improve, but some of the boys who have come in have done really well.

I’m not unhappy with the situation, but like I said to them at full-time on Tuesday, “We’ve got Westfield on Friday night and then it’s the first game of the season… and we need to improve.”

Can you introduce us to your backroom staff?
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I’ll start with Simon Payne, who’s my assistant manager and was with me in my previous roles, then Jackson Broome is my first-team coach, having worked at Raynes Park, Chipstead and Croydon before. And Carly Doyle stays on as physio, which is great news.

​How are you getting to grips with the club as a whole?

I’m loving it, really enjoying it. We’re putting a lot of effort into making it nicer for everyone in the changing room – Simon does a lot of work behind the scenes and it’s really nicely tidied up. It’s a lovely place to be. The atmosphere has been great, the support has been great, so I’m really enjoying the first month of being here. It’s a fantastic club and it’s a pleasure and a privilege to manage here. I’ve just got to do a good job now.

Looking ahead to the start of the season proper, you go straight back to your former club Fleet Town for our first league fixture this weekend…

Yeah, you couldn’t write it really. It’ll be good to go back there and see some of the people there. Like Corinthian-Casuals, it’s a fantastic club, with lovely people. It was so funny when I saw the fixtures come out, but we’ll go down there and enjoy it. They’re building a new team and so are we, so it should be a good game.

How excited are you to get going with the competitive games now?

Oh, yeah, I can’t wait. I’m not sure about having nine games in August! There’s no need to have nine games in one month, and then you have five in September and five in October. Players’ bodies aren’t ready yet to do nine games in a month like that – you need to allow for a bit of recuperation. I just think it’s too much, but that’s down to how they do the fixtures.

Finally, what has the welcome from the fans been like for you here?
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Yeah, lovely – they’re really nice people. You can’t ask for better support and better fans at this level. I think we’ve got one of the best – or the best fan base at Corinthian-Casuals. Everything so far has been positive, which is nice. But the ultimate thing is we’ve got to get the results from our games. That’s it. And that first month’s going to be tough, so we need to be ready.