There is something about the club, it just sticks with you.
An Interview with Paul ‘Batch’ Batchelor – By James Knight
I had the absolute pleasure to have a chat with Aylesbury United Manager Paul Batchelor or 'Batch' as we all know him, to learn a little more about his journey in football and what he loves about the club. We also looked towards Aylesbury United's next fixture against Takeley in the FA Trophy.
Batch's road to managing the club was a long one, but worth it to now be in the position that he is in:
'I kind of stopped playing at 19 because I had a cruciate ligament injury after coming back from coaching in America for a couple of months. Then, yeah, I kind of tried to keep playing until I was 26 but it just wasn't working.'
After these roadblocks in his playing career, Batch used his time in the States as a stepping stone to enter the world of coaching professionally on his return to England. Batch went into part-time academy coaching at Wycombe Wanderers for a few years and to Aldershot Town FC before they subsequently closed their academies due to budget cuts before recent restructures.
Ben Williams, the current manager of Thame United, got in contact with Batch after a year-long stint at Oxford United's academy to come down to Aylesbury:
'Ben Williams, current manager of Thame United, has been a friend of mine for many years. He was a coach at Aylesbury United at the time under the former manager, and then he asked me to come in and be a first team coach.'
'So, I was there for about five years and then took a few games as caretaker when Ben resigned. Left there, and I thought I want to have a crack at management myself, but I wanted to work my way up rather than just go straight in at step four'.
Batch then went to Holmer Green FC, a club a bit closer to home – during his time there, Batch kept them up after taking the job whilst the team were in the relegation zone. He then returned to Aylesbury:
'I pushed to get the job back at Aylesbury because it's a club that I've been in and around for years...started my coaching career at the former ground at Buckingham Road. So yeah, when I knew there were some issues with the previous manager, I kind of got on the phone and was messaging Graham Reed, the chairman at the time, to be like, get me back, basically, because I wanted the job.'
'It was a bit of a whirlwind last season for sure because of how the club was at the time, you know, on and off the pitch, but yeah, I find myself here this year, we've had a pre-season, and yeah, we'll see what happens!'
I asked Batch about what he likes about the club and what made him push so hard for the job when it became available, and he gave me a delightful answer. Batch highlighted the rich history of the club and what it means to him having been so key in his career as a youth player and coach, he also complimented the fans loyalty in troubling times:
‘I played for the club as a youth player, and as I've said I started my coaching career here. So, I don't know what it is. There's just something that kind of sticks with you. I can't even put it into words, I think it's just the history. I started my coaching career; those things just draw you to the club.’
‘The fact that obviously they've been out of the town for so long and they have such loyal fans and people that have kept the club going is remarkable. Like you know, there's not many teams I hear of around the country that can keep a club going for that long without a ground. I think it's incredible.’
On the 28th of August Aylesbury had a triumphant, comeback victory against Sittingbourne at the Meadow to progress into the FA Trophy Second Qualifying Round. I asked Batch about how much this 6-4 win helped the team’s confidence and how he feels about our opponents Takeley this week in the second round:
‘I know Sittingbourne's history at our level and in the FA Trophy is good, so they’re a continuous playoff team. They're always in the playoff places come the end of the season and for the past three seasons they've been in the top five of their division.’
‘So, I travelled all the way down to Whitstable to watch them play in one of their night games, I was hoping the two centre backs that played against Whitstable for them would play against us, and they did. So, I was fortunate because I wasn't keen on them and I didn't think they were great.’
‘So, I think in the first half performance and every game we've played so far, we're in the game, we've created chances, and you get it at our level, but individual errors are the one things that are costing us the most at the moment. And if we can try and smooth them out, we'll be a half decent team.’
‘So yeah, going into that game, we got kind of a triple whammy of them taking their almost three chances that they had to get that one back before half time. We should have gone in at 3:2. It was good because it gave a little bit more positivity to the group and something to work towards.’
‘We are quite young because sometimes the budget dictates that now with the level we're at because there is crazy money in the league. I think there's a group here that will stick together, hopefully, and really grow together to get even better. So yeah, the second half comeback was amazing. But that's the hardest thing in football, replicating that level of performance. As we saw against Hertford, we can't always do it. But yeah.’
Looking forwards to the rest of this season, I asked Batch about how he thinks we’ll end up come next April battling through the winter conditions and busy winter schedule:
‘I'd like to finish higher than we did last year because that is instant progress, personally I think a top 10 finish is realistic, if we can be in the top 10 around Christmas time then we’ve made progress already. I feel like since I’ve come in, we’ve bought a better brand of football to what was being played before’
‘We have a young squad with great talent and if we can build on that then there is no reason why we can’t finish higher – but they must start learning quickly, whether its finishing chances, being more robust, intensity in pressing – if we can do that as a unit there is no reason, we can’t finish higher’
‘Some teams have played two, some have played five so there is lots of points to be had, if we win our next league game against Royston, we could be in the playoff places, albeit after four games, but from a psychological point of view, being up there makes you say wow we are here now stay up here.’
Batch was as determined and attentive as ever in conversation with me and is really excited at the prospect of a cup run and high league finish this season, with his work behind the scenes and loyal support from the fans there is nothing that his Ducks cannot do this year!
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