Gary Frost admits that he’s been shocked by how difficult a job he’s facing at Holbeach United.
The former Boston Town boss, who replaced club legend Phil Barnes in the Carter’s Park hotseat almost six weeks ago, is amazed by just how far the Tigers have fallen from grace.
Frost is finding it very difficult to recruit Uhlsport UCL Premier Division North standard players, given Holbeach’s current position as basement boys in the league.
But he also feels the club’s plight hasn’t been helped by what he believes to be an over-reliance on youth in recent years, something he reckons has made the Tigers go from being the most desirable Lincolnshire team to play for at Step Five of the non-league ladder to one of the least.
An angry Frost has also called on the current players to make themselves much harder to beat, citing the example of Premier League side Burnley as a model to follow if they are to end their 14-game winless run in the league and escape relegation.
“I’ve really struggled to get people to come here,” bemoaned the Holbeach boss. “I’ve got to be honest, I’m very surprised by that.
“We’re offering players good money to come and play for a team that I’ve always thought has a great reputation locally.
“I’m talking local players here of UCL standard. I wouldn’t expect anybody to drop down a level to come here, but players at equivalent clubs aren’t interested.
“I remember during my time at Boston Town, Holbeach was always the club people seemed to want to go to. I don’t see any evidence of that any more, it’s exactly the opposite really.
“I’ll always be confident in my own ability to build a team and be competitive. But it’s very hard when players don’t seem to want to come to the club.
“It’s very weird. I do think that the recent policy here of replacing seasoned UCL players with young players wasn’t an ideal move.
“You’ve seen very good UCL players leaving this club gradually over the past few years and you can’t fill every hole with a young lad. One or two is fine, but not six or seven.
“Too many youngsters were thrown in too soon and now you see the results of that when you look at the league table. The decline here is there for all to see.
“I’ve got a few more approaches in for players and I am hopeful we may have one or two new players for the weekend.
“But the players that are here need to stand up and be counted too. We’re so, so easy to beat. That has to change right now.
“I don’t know if it’s this modern thing were players go through some academy somewhere and think they have to play this tiki-taka football that is so popular now.
“But, if you’re bottom of the table, what I want to see is a team show some fortitude and make themselves strong, organised and hard to beat.
“Look at Burnley in the Premier League. They aren’t the best footballing side and aren’t the most desirable team, but they work hard and are very rarely thrashed and they’ve stayed up for a long time.
“That’s the kind of approach we need at this moment. Who we’re playing next is irrelevant as we’re losing to everyone at the moment – we need to look at ourselves and do much better.”
Winless and rock-bottom Holbeach, who still have the worst goalscoring record of any non-league side at step five and six in the country, will have to pull off one of the upsets of the season if they are to secure a first win of the season on Saturday.
They welcome third-placed Loughborough Students to Carter’s Park (3pm) and are looking for a first league goal since August.
Key men Aaron Eyett and Stacy Cartwright, who missed the 4-0 loss at Sleaford Town (see page 29), could return to bolster the squad.
