Archived News from November 2005
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BARKER RULES HIMSELF OUT OF ASSISTANT MANAGER JOB
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Barker rules himself out of upstairs job
CHAD website, 03 November 2005 RICHIE Barker has ruled himself out of the assistant manager's job at Mansfield Town. The Stags striker, with eight goals already this season, wants to concentrate on producing the goods on the pitch. "I never actually said I wanted to be assistant manager," he said. "I just said I was happy to give any help I could if it was needed. "Peter is now in charge and we are all very pleased. I have spoken to him and he feels it is difficult for someone to coach and play and, at 30 I want to carry on playing for several seasons yet." ------------------- mansfieldtown.net, 03Nov05 Skipper Richard Barker speaking on behalf of his squad of players was delighted at the appointment of Peter Shirtliff as the new manager of Mansfield Town FC. "We were all absolutely delighted at 'Shirty' getting the job. And with the last four league games (Won three, lost one, scored ten and conceded one), if he didn't get the job after that then I suppose you would have to ask questions - it is brilliant news and we are all pleased for him. "He has a two year contract and we all need to knuckle down now. Now that the uncertainty has gone we can settle down and concentrate on the football. We have been with 'Shirty' for three or four months, we know him and he knows us and we know what he expects from us so we are not looking over our shoulders all looking in newspapers to find who is coming and going. We know basically for the next few months that we are going to be here for a while" he said When asked whether he would be interested in the assistant managers job Barker said: "I have never said that I wanted the job, I said that if Peter needed any help I would help him out. I am still only thirty and I would hope that I could carry on playing for a good few years yet and I have spoke to him about it and he (Peter Shirtliff) thinks that it is difficult for somebody to play and coach at the same time which is fair enough and besides that the way things have gone for the last couple of weeks we are some kind of role and I wouldn't want to do anything that was detriment to me or the football club. " I have set myself little targets and if it meant that taking on a coaching role would get in the way, especially at the age of thirty. I am not sure if that is what I would want for myself or the team so for now I am happy carrying on with what I am doing. But as I said if he needed my help I would be quite happy to help out." Obviously Barker is delighted with his own form at the moment netting four goals in a week and seeing strike partner Simon Brown find three "I am delighted with this week it has been amazing I scored four in the week and Simon got three giving us eight a piece. But we can'' score goals if people do not create them for us. Adam Rundle has played a big part in a couple of my goals so far so hopefully we will carry on. It is always nice if a teams strikers can get the chances but most pleasing is that we have been keeping clean sheets. "if you have two strikers that score 20 goals a season and everybody else chipping in as well you won't be far away at the end of the term. But I am aware that you have good weeks and bad weeks with spells when you can't hit the target so when you do have a good week you can't too carried away." Looking forward to the weekend's trip to Rotherham. Richie is looking forward to putting one over on his former club: "It would be nice to score up there. I am looking forward to returning to Millmooor. There have been quite a lot of changes since I was there with a new manager and only six or seven players that were there when I was. And they are redeveloping the stadium so it will be quite a different place from when I was playing. "But I am looking forward to looking up a few old faces . I hope that I can score on Saturday but the goal is not the most important thing to me it is the result and the performance. After all they are in the league above us. They are struggling a bit at the moment but it will be an upset if we manage to beat them." |
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