ROGER HERRIDGE has given the strongest hint yet that this could be his final season in charge of Binfield.
The Moles boss has admitted that the thought of walking away has been crossing his mind during the recent 10-match winless league run which saw his side tumble down the Hellenic Premier Division table.
Binfield arrested their slump to clinch three victories on the spin, one of which booked a spot in the Floodlit Cup semi-finals, to steady the ship before losing 1-0 against Abingdon United at Hill Farm Lane on Saturday.
And Herridge, who took over as Binfield boss in September 2014 having initially served as assistant manager to Mark Tallentire for a season following a switch from Wokingham and Emmbrook the previous summer, admits it might be time for a change.
“I’m certainly not a quitter,” Herridge told The Wokingham Paper.
“Too many managers walk away from it when they’re having a bad run.
“I’ll be there until the end of the season and between now and then I probably need to give it some thought as to whether I’ll be there next season.
“Sometimes things just need freshening up and that normally means a new manager. Whatever happens, I think I’ve done a good job in my time at Binfield.
“I took over a side that was going through a transition in terms of players were getting a little bit older.
“I’ve been affected by the Bracknell thing down the road, a bit of a resurgence there and the resources that are available there. That has certainly made my time as Binfield manager tougher than I would’ve liked it to have been.”
He added: “Binfield’s a fantastic football club. It’s got one of the best chairmen and definitely the best secretary for a long, long way even at a higher level.
“I’m still in two minds whether I’ll be the man to be taking them forward next season.”
Around Christmas time Binfield were looking in decent shape to turn 2018/19 into Herridge’s best campaign in charge.
However, the long run without a win saw the Moles dragged towards the relegation zone before recent wins over Flackwell Heath and Ardley United have lifted them back up to 10th.
And Herridge admits that winless stretch left him questioning his management.
“The trouble is, losing becomes a habit,” he said.
“As a manager you get sick of your own voice in the dressing room. You’re saying the same thing and do the players believe in what you’re saying and do you believe in what you’re saying?
“In that 10 game spell there were certainly games we deserved to win but when you don’t, you’re thinking crikey where’s my next win going to come from?”
He added: “Anybody who wants to go into step five management and do it for as long as I have, all I can say is don’t!
“There’s a lot of young pretenders out there but they do it for one or two years and then they go.
“Whatever happens to me come the end of the season, I’ll look back in terms of my management of Binfield and Wokingham and I always put a competitive side out and we regularly reached cup finals.
“At Binfield we’ve only won one but at Wokingham we won a few.
“Sometimes you have to experience the bad times to appreciate the good ones and that’s not been any different but over the last couple of months, it’s certainly been more apparent that’s for sure.”
Thoughts of possibly walking away this summer brings into focus Binfield’s run-in.
The Moles have seven league games remaining, starting at home against Tuffley Rovers on Saturday (3pm). Just one of Binfield’s remaining opponents are currently above them in the table and there is also a cup semi-final on the horizon.
But Herridge says the campaign feels like a missed opportunity.
“It’s an absolutely mad league this year,” said the Binfield boss.
“You haven’t got Bracknell, Thatcham or Highworth but the fact is anybody can beat anyone in this league.
“Whatever happens come the end of April, I suppose it’ll be another season of what if.
“We looked at it at the end of December and thought we could go on and maybe challenge to win the league. But the fact is injuries cost us.
He added: “We’ll certainly look back at it as a bit of a season of frustration.
“The fact is we haven’t won as many games as we should’ve done this year and ultimately that’s going to hurt us in terms of league position.
“We’ve got to make sure we win as many games as we can between now and the end of the season and we’ll see where that takes us.”
