Mike Thompson and Beverley Town are a marriage made in heaven.
Both have talk of ambition pouring out of the mouths and both have their eyes firmly set on being in the Toolstation NCEL – ideally together.
Thompson, an NCEL stalwart from playing spells with Bridlington Town, Bottesford Town, Hall Road Rangers and Barton Town who played under some very successful bosses, wants to manage there. Humber Premier League outfit Beverley are aiming to reach the NCEL for the first time in the club’s history, if they get floodlights installed in their Norwood Park home.
“100% I want to manage in the NCEL, if the opportunity hadn’t come up at Beverley, I’d still be working with Bridlington Town,” Thompson, who was player/coach in Brett Agnew’s Bridlington management team until taking the Beverley job, tells Non League Yorkshire.
“To leave Brid, who had given me my first opportunity, it had to be a project that something interested me. It wouldn’t have been any old club and Beverley Town contacted me. They wanted to speak to me and they sold to me where they want to go and how they want to progress as a club.
“The majority, if not all, of my playing career was in the Northern Counties East League and I know it well and I feel I know the players well and I know what is expected. I believe in myself and my abilities, but I also thought I’m a young guy, a young manager and I have no experience.
“So if I have to take that step down and prove myself at a club which is progressive and a club that wants to be in the NCEL, I’ll go do that. I’ve had that backing of the guys at Beverley and I’m going to make sure we repay them by the football we play, the mentality of the boys.
“Everything we do is going to be professional and made for making that step up.”
The ex-defender, 33, replaced Rich Jagger during lockdown and he can take comfort from the fact that Beverley has previously been a successful breeding ground for young managers.
His old Barton Town gaffer Dave Ricardo who cut his managerial teeth with Beverley by leading them to consecutive Humber Premier League title in 2013 and 2014, with just one league defeat in each season – the club’s only Humber Premier League triumphs.
The unprecedented success propelled him into the NCEL with Selby Town in 2014, an opportunity Beverley could not give him as their Norwood Park home did not meet ground grading standards.
Times are changing and provided the club are successful in the HPL and the planned floodlights receive planning permission, Thompson hopes to get his chance in the NCEL with Beverley.
“The only difference to that I would mention is Beverley Town as a Football Club; where they are at now, is a lot different to when Dave was in charge,” Thompson says.
“The club is nearly ready to make that step up. The ground has changed an awful lot. They’ve had £200,000+ spent on the pitch from a Football Foundation grant. There’s a new stand which was put in place last year. The plans are in place with the local council to get the floodlights as a part of the last bit for the ground grading for the Northern Counties.
“I don’t want to disrespect the club and say I would be using them as a stepping stone, but if we can get things into a Northern Counties mindset while we’re playing in the Humber Premier League, there’s no qualms I would have about taking them forward and into that league.
“Dave had to move on to manage in the NCEL, but I believe we can challenge for the league and take the club into the NCEL. That’s the remit I got when I sat down with the board and committee members.
“I was pretty resolute that I wasn’t leaving Bridlington for just anybody. The plans had to be in place that the club was ready-made to make that step-up if we get the playing side right and we go out and win the league or do what we need to do.
“Behind the scenes everyone is doing their bit and we’ll do our bit on the pitch and we’ll get the team ready to progress through the league and play Northern Counties football in the coming years.”
All the talk of ambition and promotion to NCEL coming to fruition boils down to success on-the-field, but also floodlights.
“Everything hinges on the floodlights and I would be looking for them to be good to go in the next 18 months to two years,” he says.
“I believe if we can get through the planning phase then it could be quicker. That’s down to councillors and approval from the local community. There’s a couple of houses that back onto Norwood Park that potentially could have something to say.
“A lot of hard work is going into making sure there is a community feel to the club and the people around Norwood know it is a community facility which can benefit them, their families and their children, and of course the local economy and area.
“We want to work with a lot of local businesses to offer sponsorship opportunities and give something back by giving them a level of football the town has never experienced, but really deserve. You look at the population size compared to Goole and Bridlington, it is on a par so I believe they deserve a lot more and the committee is working hard to make it happen.
“There’s big potential and we’re trying to build that mentality on the pitch as well. We’re not just trying to create a team just good enough for the level we are at. We’re trying to create a team and a core of players we know that we can work with at a higher level. The majority of the squad from last season have definitely that ability and I have brought in four or five who only add to that. We have a real opportunity as alongside the experience we also have a core of young lads who can progress with the club as well.”
Despite his lack of managerial experience, his playing record and his previous managers, plus his appointment of his mentor Gary Allanson as his assistant, suggest he has the making of leading Beverley to success.
Dave Anderson was Thompson’s first men’s football manager. That was at Westella & Willerby in the Central Midlands League. Around 2011, Bottesford was the next port of call for several years before stints with Hall Road, Brid (twice) and Barton.
“My main highlights was right at the end when I won my first bit of silverware – the East Riding Cup with Bridlington,” Thompson says.
“There was a season with Bottesford when we were very good when we missed out on promotion to Shaw Lane (2013/14). We lost one game between August and February and we lost six games between February and April.
“Another real highlight was skippering Barton at a time when the club was really struggling (in 2017). The club was going through a bit of a transition. Dave Ricardo was the gaffer and Gaz Allanson was working alongside him and from being bottom of the league around October-time, we went on a 16-game unbeaten run and we finished the season around tenth or eleventh.”
Knees problems forced retirement in 2019, but there was no break from Non League Football. Brid boss Agnew drafted him into his management and Thompson is indebted to him and Brid chairman Peter Smurthwaite.
“When I said I was retiring because of my knee and I had surgery, some clubs got in touch (about management), a couple of the Northern Counties and a couple from the Humber Prem as well,” he said.
“Brett and Pete Smurthwaite were first rate with me when I said I was going to stop playing. I said to Brett that I wanted to be involved with a club and he gave me my first coaching role.
“From stopping playing in the May to coaching the lads in the August of the following season was massive to me because it kept me in the game and at the level I had been at for years. It was fantastic faith that they showed in me.
“Working with Brett and Bows (Anthony Bowsley), we had a great year last season. I spoke to Brett about management and said it was something I wanted to do, but to leave Bridlington Town it would only be for something I saw as a progression.”
Whilst success was lacking in his playing career, what Thompson benefits massively from as he prepares for his first season in management is the fact he played for a succession of quality and very successful Non League managers from Anderson, John Corbett, Ricardo, Allanson to name just four.
“I’ve worked under some good managers and when I look back at who I have worked under and the experiences I take from those guys, a lot of it has shaped the way I am,” he says.
“Dave Anderson, John Corbett, Dave Ricardo, Gary Allanson, Brett Agnew, Curtis Woodhouse as well for a short period of time at Brid Town. I saw the way he does things from coming the professional game was interesting.
“I can’t pick many faults in them and I think that’s why I have not moved around much. I loved the way they did things at Bottesford. John’s a local guy and he did things well and he had Andy Sharp alongside him who had a lot of experience.
“Dave Ricardo, won an awful lot and has a lot of accolades. Gary speaks for himself, he’s won the Northern Counties Premier Division with Brid and he’s played a great level and coached at Hull City academy. If you can’t learn something from guys like that, you’re struggling. There’s a lot of success around those guys and if I can emulate a small amount of that I’ll be a happy guy.”
One masterstroke Thompson has already pulled off in his short time as Beverley boss is persuading Brid’s 2010 title-winning boss Allanson to be his assistant.
“Gary has been a massive influence on me,” he says.
“I’ve worked with Gary since I was young. He was my coach as a kid, he was my academy coach at Hull City and I worked with at nearly club I was at in the Northern Counties.
“I’ve been around Gaz for a lot of years and I said to him some time ago when I knew I wanted to get involved in management that I wouldn’t do unless he was involved. The way I want to work and the way I want to progress these lads is borne out of experiences I’ve had with Gaz. It wouldn’t have happened if Gaz hadn’t agreed to come alongside me.
“We had a really in-depth conversation about that he had been a manager and he had done the hard work, the unlimited amount of phone calls and he just really wanted to coach. That worked perfectly for me. In this area you won’t get many more people more experienced than Gaz Allanson.”
Thompson and Allanson have three weeks left until the new HPL season is due to begin. Former Selby Town midfielder Jason Crisp and goalkeeper Adam Nicholson are two of their signings. Nicholson won the league with Beverley during a previous spell.
Title-winning experience also arrives in Gary Collins and Andy Stott who both won the HPL with Chalk Lane in 2018 and 2019. The other signing is Stu Oliver and Thompson feels ready to go.
“We started training a little earlier than we should have done, but a lot of the lads were so eager to go having not played any football since the end of February or start of March,” he says.
“We did a lot of social distance training which can become really monotonous really quickly and the got a little frustrated.
“Running the team and having Gaz alongside me, we have really started to drill the lads now and they understand our want’s and desire’s are and how we have to play to be successful at this level. They’re really starting to buy into that and the training sessions are fantastic and the boys we have got are of great calibre and we have a great squad. We’ve brought some new players and it is about making sure the ethos is right and the mentality is right.
“Beverley Town had a great core. What the previous manager Jags had built over a few years was good and they were always there or there-abouts.
“But I wasn’t leaving Brid Town to be there or there-abouts so we needed a little more quality what I believe we’ve brought in. So we’re just looking forward to the 19th and getting going.”
If you have enjoyed this interview, please consider making a donation to the not-for-profit organisation NLY Community Sport which provides sport for children and adults with disabilities and learning difficulties. CLICK HERE to visit the JustGiving page.
There is a video at the bottom of the page showing our work.
NLY Community Sport, run by James Grayson and Connor Rollinson, has always had combatting social isolation at the top of our objectives when running our Disability Football teams so now as we slowly return to ‘action’, our work will play an important role in reintroducing our players, who have disabilities and learning difficulties, back into society.
We have six teams, a mixture of Junior and Adult teams – Nostell MW DFC, Pontefract Pirates, Selby Disability Football Club and the South Yorkshire Superheroes (Barnsley) – across Yorkshire.
We have enjoyed great success over the past three years. Several of our players have represented Mencap GB in Geneva, including Billy Hobson from Selby and Greg Smith, whose story is quite inspiring.
Like most organisations, we have been affected financially by the Coronavirus and we have incurred losses which we cannot recover. We have not been hit as badly as other organisations, but we do need raise £2000 to put us back at the level we were at in mid-March and enable us to make a difference once again to our players’ lives in the future, without having financial worries. Several of our players are suffering from effects of the lockdown and we are determined to be in the strongest position possible to provide services for them.
Any amount raised above £2000 will be put towards new projects (when the world returns to normal) designed to further benefit people with disabilities and learning difficulties. You can learn more about the organisation HERE and on our Facebook page.
Watch the video below to see highlights from our three years as an organisation. The video was produced for our players at the end of March to remind them of good memories from the last three years.