Danny Glover believes he can ‘100%’ save Hednesford

Hednesford Town manager Danny Glover believes he can ‘100%’ save his side from relegation in the Southern League Premier Division Central as they sit bottom with 12 points from 24 games.

Glover, 33, was announced as the new boss at Keys Park on the 20th December alongside Guy Hadland as the club’s assistant manager and Garry Walker as the fitness and nutrition coach.

The bottom of the table Pitmen are winless in three league games with one win from their last six as the Staffordshire side travel to Bedford Town this weekend hunting their first league away win of the season.

Glover who took over just before Christmas has enjoyed the role so far saying: “The welcome has been really good, obviously I’m no stranger to Keys Park.

“I’ve had a lot of nice messages and conversations with people who are all happy to see me in the role.

“The first few weeks of the job have been absolutely crazy, there’s a lot of effort you have to put in.

“I’m really enjoying it though, it’s a difficult situation that I’ve been brought into. There’s a lot of things that you don’t really see until you’re in it in terms of the situation and things that are going on.

“My staff and the staff at the club are one big unit and we are working well together.”

The Pitmen have won just two league games so far this season with 16 losses. Glover, no stranger to the side, boasts many appearances for them from his spells at the club as a player as well as taking charge of the club as caretaker manager during his third spell at the club a few years ago.

Despite the mess that the club find themselves in Glover remains positive with belief he can keep the side up.

Asked if he can he said: “100%.”

Adding: “I’ve got to believe that or else I wouldn’t have taken the job. I’m here past next season anyway in my contract but I’m not really thinking about it.

“I spoke with the chairman, we aren’t going to speak about it until it’s inevitable.

“If we have a chance staying up, that’s all we are thinking about.

It’s the aim, there’s games for us to do it. We’ve just got to try and gel quickly and get an idea of what we want.

Glover was left disappointed with the sides performance against Rushall Olympic yet is encouraged by the positives signs shown since then and the progress made.

“I wasn’t happy with our performance at Rushall, I really wasn’t happy.

“Within the space of a week, we improved. It was like chalk and cheese.

“I can take the Nuneaton loss, even though we can’t have many, because there was only a couple of errors, and we were well on top of the game.

“Everyone gave me everything and, on another day, we would win that game and people would start having a bit of belief.

“We’ve just got to dig in and keep going and let’s hope we can do it.

“We’ve got to take it a game at a time, and we are all in it together, the staff and everyone around the club has got the same mentality as myself. They want to get us out of this mess that we’re in.”

This is Danny’s first official managerial appointment in his footballing career, bar the time spent as caretaker manager at the club.

The former striker and Port Vale player looks forward to hopefully success off the field too.

“I don’t want to come in as a manager and not have a successful career.

“I’ve looked at doing for a number of years, I’ve always been excited by it, and I’ve put it off for the last couple of years.

“I’ve had a couple of opportunities and kept putting it off thinking I wasn’t ready. It got to the point where I felt if I didn’t take the risk I was never going to know if I was any good, and if I could do the job.

“It came at a time when I felt I was prepared.

“There were a lot of more experienced candidates that came in for the job, but I managed to get myself to the top of the pile and get the role.

“I’ll give it my all, I can’t guarantee anything but what I will guarantee is I will give everything to keep the club in step three football.

“It’s a tough ask but I feel I’ve got the right people around me and the right advice to give it my best and a really good go.

The Pitmen announced on Tuesday the signing of Stanley Asomunga along with the departures of Adam Livingstone and Tom Hewlett.

Asomunga joins Pitmen: https://t.co/m2jdp8bpJ9

— Hednesford Town FC (@Hednesford_Town) January 3, 2023

It appears some players aren’t up to the fight at Hednesford to try and survive, and Glover insists he only wants players who are up to the task and willing to take it on, giving everything.

“The new signing has been training for a bit now, he’s impressed me since I’ve come in and I feel that he deserves an opportunity.

“I said to the lads when I first met them ‘it’s a clean slate and anybody can state a claim for the shirt. I’ll give you all an opportunity.’

“Some lads have started to take it and some haven’t so much and I’ve got to make tough decisions.

“I’m not a man that wants to keep chopping and changing but I do need players that are my players, and I am willing to work with players that are already there because there are some quality ones.

“It’s about gelling and getting the right mix that I think can win games at this level. I’ve been at this level a long time now, so I know what it takes to win a game in this league.

“It’s a difficult scenario because it’s the middle of the season and hard to attract players that you need or get players that are on a bad run of form or lost confidence motivated and confident for winning.

“With Adam, it was announced it was on his own according and that he didn’t want to be here. There was nothing I could do about that.

“I know fans will be disappointed, I was very disappointed, but I can’t have players that are not up for the fight and don’t want to fight to get us out of this situation and wear the heart on their sleeve.

“There’s no point me trying to get them to stay because I haven’t got that time at the current moment.

“He came and had a chat with me and I was really disappointed that he didn’t want to fight and try and get us out of this mess.

“We just have to keep rolling with it and giving it our best and seeing whether we can get enough points to keep us up.”

Glover’s side travel to Bedford Town this weekend who they lost 2-1 to back in August looking for a much needed three points, sitting 11 points from safety as it stands.

Bedford of 15th in the league have lost six home games so far this season which may be encouragement for Glover’s side.

The Pitmen boss who is determined to lead the side to safety hopes for maximum points saying that’s all his team will go to play for.

Asked if this is a chance to claim points he said: “Definitely.”

“It doesn’t matter whether it’s at home or away, for us we haven’t won enough games, that’s a simple fact.

“We will be going there to try and win the game. I’m not going to say we are going to go and look for a point, I’ll never go somewhere with my team wanting to play that way.

“Bedford are a decent team and they’ve had some good results with big wins and tricky defeats.

“The league this year is open, anyone can beat anyone on their day. We need to start winning and get a bit of confidence and when we do, we more than match teams.

“We’ve just got to try and do that this weekend.”

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