InterviewJoeGib180110

At the end of a disastrous 2008 - 2009 season Prescot Cables were inevitably relegated after a campaign that saw them fail to win a single match on a Saturday. Manager Andy Gray whilst having served Prescot for 4 years as Manager and a period before that as Assistant, decided it was time to move on and secured the Burscough job. Cables needed a Manager. They also needed players, with a number having left either to try pastures new or to maintain their status as Unibond Premier League players. Any thoughts that a relegated club without a team might fail to attract a number of quality candidates were soon dashed. Ultimately the Directors whittled the applicants down to 4 teams comprising of Managers and Assistants and Joey Gibiliru and Dave Ridler emerged triumphant after a challenging structured interview process.

Having now reached the half way point of the season and with Cables having achieved mixed results we now speak with Joey Gib and take stock of both team progress and how Joey has found his first half season since returning to the Club. When you speak with Joey you always feel that he is genuine and he tells you as it is, so when I asked him what it meant to return to Cables, I felt he was sincere when he said, "it meant a lot to me to return because I had enjoyed my time as Player/Manager, I really wanted to return and enjoy success at the Club".

The timing of Grays exit was perfect for Joey who had just left Winsford Town after having successfully avoided

relegation. He had previously spoken with ex Shrewsbury Town and Cables defender Dave Ridler about working together in management and they already had one eye on Prescot when they saw the position advertised on the website. They just had to pass the interview which Joey considered was fair and very professionally organised. "I find the set up at Prescot is very good, everybody seems to work together to keep the Club going, this includes both the Directors and the Supporters who put a lot of time and effort into raising funds and always support and attend any events in the club, it's a real credit to the town".

Joey seemed to be well aware of the challenge that he faced in taking on a role at a club that had just been through a very depressing and demoralising season, but was up to the task, "I was quite happy starting from scratch, in some ways it has made it easier as I feel that I have built my team, myself with Dave. When I got the job at Prescot word spread and I soon had players phoning me wanting to play for Prescot, I think because they knew me and of the good reputation of Cables throughout the North West. However, you need to have a baseline to start from and fortunately I had six players that had played for me previously".

Having been present and very impressed for the first training session of the season I wondered how matters had progressed.