Geary ready to reap rewards
DESPITE being a man under pressure to deliver the Combined
Counties League division one title,
Geary, in his third season in charge at the New Defence, has
been told he must lead Horley to the championship at
the first attempt and bounce back following relegation last term.
Put simply, nothing else will do.
League bosses deemed the ground lacked sufficient facilities
to stage premier division football, but Horley have
made the necessary improvements subsequently, closing in on making an immediate
return.
And Geary has praised club chairman Mario Renou and vice-chairman Nigel Abbott for masterminding their renaissance.
Geary said: "If there is an award for team of the
season then it should go to Mario and Nigel rather than our team on the field.
"Their achievement behind the scenes has been bigger
than ours on the pitch with the club aiming to go all the way to the Ryman
League eventually.
"Mario is focused in what he wants for the club and
they have really turned things round at
"It has been a collaboration of people which has
enabled brave and hard decisions to be made for the club's benefit and
"It has been well documented that the club had problems
previously but the current board-room set up has made for harmony and it has
helped that Mario has had more time on his hands as club chairman."
Horley have found their feet this
season, enjoying an outstanding defensive record which has underpinned their
success under the direction of club captain Anthony Jupp.
Geary remains confident of becoming
champions. He said: "We have got a good chance of winning the
title, although there are a handful of other teams in the championship chase.
"But we are in the driving seat and the fact that the
play-ers have messed it up before in this sort of
situation helps us as we just keep on reminding them and now the countdown is
on."
And it has been the emergence of promising youth team
players, used sparingly at senior level, which has made the campaign so far
even more satisfying.
Liam Cox, 16, and 17-year-olds Kieran Laverty and Sean Branton have all been blooded successfully in the first
team, while centre back Ben Hurdman, 16, is another
prospect to have caught the eye.
But Geary has adopted a horses for
courses policy in giving his youngsters such vital experience.
He said: "The lads haven't found it too physical at
"Probably the only good thing about our demotion was
that it gave these boys the chances to make their mark in the first team and we
identified which ones we wanted to play at the start of the season."
Success has a habit of encompassing clubs and while Abbott's
U18s have been making their mark at Southern Youth Level, manager Mark
Gilbert's reserves have been holding their own in the Suburban League south
division.
And Horley's second string booked
a local derby visit to Lingfield in the Surrey
Premier Cup quarter-finals by beating
Geary singled out strikers Dave Powell and leading scorer
Toby Gilbert for their significant contributions with Powell paving the way for
many of Horley's goals.
Success is such that Geary remains confident that even the
absence of striker Elliott Lyward, who does not
return from his five week holiday in
And even the recurrence of an ankle injury which saw
defender Danny Guscott stretchered
off as a precaution during Horley's home abandoned
league clash with Feltham recently did not prove to be too serious.