WOODLEY UNITED boss Michael Herbert says an “unbelievable” team spirit has been key to his side’s flying start to the season.
Herbert, who only took charge of the team in the summer after a spell managing Mortimer, has seen his side lose just once in the league all campaign.
And they produced arguably their greatest result so far at the weekend with a 1-0 win over previously unbeaten Hellenic Division One East leaders Penn and Tylers Green to jump up to second in the table.
But it is not only on the pitch where Woodley have been making headlines.
Throughout the course of the season a number of players from the squad have been filmed on social media singing and dancing, most notably Jake Nicholls and Josh Drew, who earned national coverage when they were forced to perform for the cameras after leaving a Woodley game early to go to a Justin Bieber concert.
And Herbert says that kind of camaraderie off the pitch has been key to the club’s great form on it.
“That’s the main thing,” the United boss told The Wokingham Paper.
“It was a big lesson I learnt from Mortimer.
“I had some very, very good players there but I think at this level you do get a few people who have a bit of an ego so that was one thing that we wanted to make sure we cut out here.
“The players that we’ve got are brilliant.
“A lot of them are a good group of friends and six or seven of them played together before.
“The team spirit is unbelievable.
“Even when we had our first loss, against Wokingham, that was evident straightaway.
“We just moved on and the team spirit helps you do that.”
Herbert has had a steady rise through to taking the Woodley hot seat.
After spells playing in the Reading FC academy and also for Henley Town, Herbert turned out for a number of sides in the Bristol area, where he went to university.
But his main focus is now on coaching, following on from managing the university team in Bristol by spending two years at Mortimer before moving to the Kestrels.
At 30, Herbert is one of the younger coaches at this level and he admits his tender age often takes rival managers by surprise.
“A lot of them shake my hand and think I’m a player!” he said.
“And then when I say I’m the manager they’re a little bit confused by it all.
“We probably bring a different approach to a lot of them which is good because that’s what football is all about, dealing with different aspects of the game.
“I’m really enjoying it.”
Woodley’s first season after merging United, Hammers and Town to former Woodley United could not have gone much worse with a rock bottom finish in Division One East.
But Herbert and a fresh set of players have already won twice as many games as last year’s crop.
However, he insists he is not getting carried away with where they might end up by May.
“At the beginning of the season our target was top six,” said Herbert.
“A lot of our games have just one goal in it so we’re not expecting that to change.
“We know every game we play is really difficult and I’m sure we will suffer some defeats and draws along the way but we’re really pleased at this stage of where we’re at.”
He added: “I’ve been around football for a long time and I know that you can do really well for six months and then you can struggle for three.
“We’re still looking at top six, keeping our feet on the ground and see where that takes us.
“We’ll take it game by game, week by week and see how we get on from there.”
