Simon Houghton says he has been overwhelmed by the messages he has received since being made an assistant at Pontefract
Simon Houghton admits missing being involved in football was a key factor in his decision to return to Pontefract Collieries to assist his former captain Nick Handley.
Houghton’s surprise appointment was announced on Monday, nearly two years since he was sacked by Shaw Lane Aquaforce – his last role in the game.
He was previously the manager of Pontefract between June 2008 and March 2011. His tenure ended when he was infamously axed by the then-chairman in his own kitchen, 60 seconds after handing him a can of lager out of his fridge.
Speaking about his return to Pontefract, Houghton told Non League Yorkshire: “I’ve had a load of messages and I have been taken aback by how many I have had.
“I’ve never had as many. My phone ran out of battery (on Monday). It went mental.
“I’ve been missing it for the last month, but up until then I hadn’t been.
“It has been good to have some family time and it fits for me because I can’t commit on a full-time basis this season.
“I have done it for a lot of years, nearly 15 years. People don’t realise that I was managing sides before I came to Ponte.
“I started at 26 and I wouldn’t like to think how games I have managed. It got to the stage (at Shaw Lane) where I wasn’t enjoying it anymore.
“Shaw Lane was the right club, but for me personally it was at the wrong time. My dad was ill, my mum was ill and I had problems with the children and it was too much.
“At the time I didn’t think it was the right decision, but it definitely was because I wasn’t committed as Craig’s been and look at them now.
“All I have done since is spend time with my children and do things I wasn’t used to be able to do. On a Saturday we would be going away for weekends.
“The other thing in management is that you have the constant phone calls on a Friday night and then when someone lets you down on the Saturday you have to find a replacement.
“I’m coming back into it slowly and there are only two clubs I would have gone to and Pontefract is one of them.
“I got the phone call from Nick the other day and a couple of sentences later, I said: ‘yes’.”
Pontefract were a troubled club when Houghton and his assistant Daz Smith arrived in 2008 as they had just finished bottom of the Toolstation NCEL Division One table.
The pair swiftly turned their fortunes around and by the second season, Pontefract were genuine promotion contenders.
The Colls were fifth when they controversially sacked with two months to go of their third campaign.
Promotion wasn’t achieved until last May under Handley and Duncan Bray.
Houghton returns to a club now in the Premier Division and one with better facilities than he inherited back in 2008.
The former Glasshoughton and Athersley assistant boss said: “They got nine points in the previous season so the club was in the doldrums.
“It was used to losing and we got nine points by the end of August in the first season.
“There was no money to pay players. The ground wasn’t in the best state and so wasn’t the pitch.
“Nothing was in a good state and that was why they were bottom of the league.
“In the first season to get them to a top half of the table and to a cup final and to look where they are now is fantastic.
“I know it has taken a long time to get into the Premier Division, but a lot of credit goes to the people who got them there on-and-off-the-pitch.”
But, will he be making the same mistake of inviting a Pontefract official around to his house to discuss club business?
Houghton quipped: “No and I don’t drink Stella anymore!”
Pontefract are away at Thackley tomorrow.