Football
Robins Review - All change at the Jubilee Stadium

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EVESHAM United player coach Neil Mackenzie writes for the Observer

IT HAS been a very eventful couple of weeks at the football club, which have seen many changes both on the playing and management front.

After the home defeats against Winchester and Didcot, it was agreed that Clarky and Elmsy would leave their positions as manager and assistant manager and, whilst I can speak on behalf of all the players in expressing my regret that it reached this stage, the bottom line is football is a results-centred business and I am sure both Matt and Rob would be first to say that these two results in particular were unacceptable.

Knowing them both as I do, they are proud, honest guys who would have realised that this could not carry on so, as disappointing as it was, an amicable decision was reached which meant they left the club after the Didcot game last Tuesday night.

As the saying goes, the show must go on, and a familiar face has stepped into the void that has been left, with Paul West taking charge of the team again in a caretaker role at present after two previous spells as manager.

Our first game could not have gone much better with a resounding 3-0 home win against FA Cup giant-killers Yate Town, with Simon Fitter returning to the club (for about the ninth time!!) and playing a pivotal role in the victory with an outstanding performance and a tremendous goal to get the ball rolling and put us 1-0 up, from which we went on to win the game comfortably with another couple of goals coming for Palms (Marcus Palmer) who now I believe is top scorer in the league.

Ok, so Yate are bottom of the league at present, but they have played fewer games than other teams due to their excellent FA cup run which has just seen them beat the team currently top of the non-league ladder in Newport County, so make no mistake it was a tough game and one which we should take great confidence in the fact that we won so easily in the end.

I did not know Westy before this week, but he has come in and instilled a bit of belief and confidence into the players, and training has been intense but enjoyable, so hopefully this can continue and we can start clawing back some lost ground and get back amongst the top teams in the league, and with the Christmas period coming up the games will be thick and fast so it's a great time to put a run of wins together.

We play Bridgwater at home on Saturday, a team who have so far struggled for form, but won on Tuesday night at home against Bishops Cleeve, so will be on a high.

This season has proved that it does not matter about league positions, every team can beat each other on their day and if we are not right we will come unstuck, so it is vital we approach the game in the same manner as we did against Yate, starting with the whole team working very hard and making sure first and foremost we are hard to beat.

If we do that I am confident our ability will shine through and we will be successful, not just on Saturday but for the rest of the season.

On the player front, Tommy Warmer and Liam Hughes have departed and everyone at the club wishes them the best for the future.

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