Pat Rayment insists that he never had any intention of leaving his role as Spalding United manager.
With Rayment deciding to watch Tuesday’s 3-0 Evo-Stik League First Division South loss against Shaw Lane Aquaforce from the stand, the Tulips felt compelled to release a statement denying any “rumours” that their boss was stepping down (click here to read it).
The Spalding supremo admits that he is a little confused by the events, as he’d never discussed or contemplated quitting his post.
He admits to wanting to watch the game from a different perspective after a couple of indifferent performances, leaving player/coach Danny Hussey and director of football Bob Don-Duncan to man the bench.
Rayment has confirmed that it’ll be business as usual at home to Daventry Town on Saturday (3pm) – and quipped that his players will be pleased to have him back in the dressing room.
“I’m a little bit surprised by this week’s events,” admitted the Tulips chief. “I wasn’t aware of any rumours that I was leaving the club.
“I’m sorry to disappoint whoever may have started such a rumour, but I’m still here!
“Tuesday was all about getting a fresh perspective. Marcus Ebdon (assistant boss) is away at the moment and I felt somebody needed to take a look at things from a different position.
“I was still decked out in club colours and very much involved. But I just wanted to step back and see if I could learn something new about the team. It’s not like I was wearing casuals and taking no interest in the match, is it?
“The way I look at it, I can’t keep saying that we haven’t got started this season and that there’s more to come. It needs to happen now. So I was simply attempting something different in a bid to address the problems we’ve had on the pitch.
“Danny and Bob were in the dugout, so it’s not like nobody was there. You behave differently when you’re there, well at least I know I do.
“I have to give credit to Shaw Lane, they were the best side we’ve played all season. But for 20 minutes at the start we battered them.
“It’s not bad luck that we didn’t score, though. It’s another symptom of our recent problems.
“We can’t keep spending 60 to 70 percent of a game defending, either. I’m expecting a few things to change against Daventry on Saturday – and I’m sure the lads missed me! It’ll be back to business as usual.
“I’ve never lost three games in a row with Spalding United and I don’t intent on doing it now.”
Rayment does admit that there needs to be something of a change in culture at the Sir Halley Stewart Playing Field, though.
By his own admission, his reign as Spalding boss has been synonymous with the club paying big wages to attract players to a club that was previously an unattractive option due to years of under-achieving.
The former Peterborough United professional is adamant that Spalding will no longer pay players big money – especially when they aren’t performing.
He added: “It’s well documented that we’ve paid good money in my time here. Whether you agree with it or not, it was done for the right reasons.
“We’ve had to spend to help the club progress – and I think we’ve done that. The club has never been on sounder footing and there’s now an infrastructure in place that allows us to be a step four side that can have aspirations of promotion.
“I do think we need some sort of restructure at the club with a ceiling on the wages being paid.
“We’ve had good experiences with paying good money to bring in players with big reputations here, but we’ve also had a few bad ones too.
“I think we need to re-assess what kind of player we look to bring here moving forward. It certainly won’t be an easy pay-day for anyone, that’s for sure.
“The club is healthier than it ever has been and perhaps now is the time to make a change to how we’ve been doing things.
“I suppose it’s a measure of how far we’ve come as a club that there’s a lot of talk about us losing two games in row. Before I came here, that was pretty normal.
“This league is also getting stronger. Last year we perhaps had the third biggest budget – now I don’t think we’re even among the top six.”
Spalding, now tenth in the table, welcome back keeper Michael Duggan for the visit of 13th-placed Daventry on Saturday.
The Tulips are just six points off the top three and very much in the play-off mix despite suffering two losses on the trot.
