David ‘Bart’ Lorimer focusing on positives after answering Stowmarket Town’s SOS call after Richard Wilkins and Alex Rossis depart over budget cut
New Stowmarket Town player-manager David ‘Bart’ Lorimer admits it will take a ‘bit of a miracle’ to save the financially troubled club from relegation but along with assistant Liam Hawkins they will do their utmost.
The good friends had no hesitation in stepping up together to answer the club’s SOS call after a sizeable cut in the playing budget led Richard Wilkins and assistant Alex Rossis to resign last week.
Despite eight first-team players departing – with Jake Clowsley and AFC Sudbury academy graduates Brad Byrne and Jack Ladbrook following the five previously announced – they were left drawing plenty of positives from the display a very young side put on in a 3-0 defeat at Heybridge Swifts on Saturday.
But a 4-0 victory for Grays Athletic at home to third-bottom Enfield on Saturday, coupled with Stow’s home fixture with the latter being postponed on Tuesday, leaves them now nine points from safety in the Pitching In Isthmian League North Division ahead of third-placed Brentwood Town’s visit on Saturday (3pm).
Former Bildeston Rangers promotion-winning player-manager Lorimer, 33, joined as a player in the summer with the aforementioned village side pulling out of the Suffolk & Ipswich League over a sharp increase in pitch fees.
Of his appointment with the club’s long-serving under-18s coach Hawkins, he said: “They rung me up and offered it to me and I said 'look, I won't do it without Liam, can we come in and have a chat?'
"We went in and within five to 10 minutes we agreed the only way forward was to knock our heads together, Liam with his knowledge and links to other clubs and me with previous management experience.
“We thought we might be able to pull together and help the club move forward instead of potentially the club disappearing which nobody wants. And being a local boy I especially don't want to see that happen.
"It was a no-brainer really and the positive side of it is the club's in a sticky position, not just financially but in the league, and me and Liam have got nothing to lose.
“We've just got to go in and give a good account of ourselves, try and save them from going down which would be a bit of a miracle but you never know what can happen with new faces in the door.”
He added: “We’ll bring in a couple of experienced heads and see where it takes us.
“All we've got to try and do is try and stop ourselves getting battered on social media and embarrassing ourselves and as long as we give a good account of ourselves who knows what can happen?
"If the club goes down it's not the end of the world because Step 5 is still a good level and we can rebuild but if we can stay up it's happy days."
He ended up taking five of the club’s under-23s players to Heybridge on Saturday, handing first-team debuts to forwards Cameron Taylor, Luis Fernandes and wing-back Mileeq Banya.
Sam Bantick gave the play-off chasing hosts the lead in the 30th minute and added a third in the 71st after Quba Gordon Quba Gordon had doubled their advantage on 63.
Lorimer, who remains sidelined for a few weeks with broken ribs, said: “My oldest player was my goalkeeper at 22 and all the rest of were under-19. My captain was Zach Gayfer who is 17. But it was really positive as the opposition fans clapped us off the pitch to say we gave a really good account of ourselves.”
He also revealed Ipswich Town midfield loanees Seth O’Neill and Ben Haddoch have both agreed to stay on.
Lorimer added: “We have already changed the system.
"Liam's one of the best footballing coaches around. I know he's mainly coached academies but he's a UEFA B coach and brings something completely different.
"It's very tough and very unlikely (to survive) but who knows? We go into it with a positive with nothing to lose and just do what we can to make the club work.”
