‘Fighter’ Danny Glover vows to dig in amid Hednesford Town crisis

The Pitmen’s chairman and vice-chairman, Graham Jones and Hayden Dando, released a statement last week announcing they would quit at the end of the season and gift club debt-free to a suitable person, organisation or consortium.

Glover’s men sit 21st in the Southern Central Premier ahead of today’s bottom-of-the-table clash at AFC Rushden & Diamonds, 14 points adrift of safety.

Despite the circumstances, Glover insists he is still up for the fight and to remain in his position with his heart firmly with the club.

“I don’t think I could’ve been thrown into a more difficult situation,” said Glover. “I’m a fighter, I’m an honest guy, and I would never run from a challenge.

“I’m willing to embrace it and fight a relegation scrap but with everything else on top it is very difficult. I’m doing the best that I can in the circumstances and everything that’s going on in terms of players, the chairman, to the instability, the budget cuts, the money in terms of getting the outgoings down.

“If this is the start of my managerial career, then hopefully it’ll stand me in good stead. I genuinely believe if I get the opportunity going forward, I can make a positive impact.

“I’ve highlighted many things which I think have been issues over the years. The unstableness of the club from top to bottom has been an issue. There’s no quick fix. If you want one you’ve either spent mega money or you’ve got lucky. It does take time to get what you want and with everything else going on we need someone to stand still and say ‘no, listen I will be here’.”

Glover explained the difficulty of the situation at the club as he struggles to attract players and keep the current ones up for the fight.

“Graham and Hayden sat me and the team down and we had a chat for a good couple of hours,” he said. “We expressed everything that was peeling and the reasons.

“It’s taken a few days to sink in, it’s a bit of a shock. You have to respect their decision – they took over at a really difficult time regarding Covid.

“It’s difficult because it leaves the club in an unstable position. You can’t be working week to week, all the plans go out of the window.

“You don’t know whether there’s going to be a club and you can’t attract players.

“We’re in a relegation battle, it’s hard enough to get players to come on board and fight as it is. I’ve found a few in the camp that have given up the chase, and in terms of some players that’s why they’ve moved on, they couldn’t deal with it.”

The Pitmen boss speaks highly of the fans and feels for the supporters with the current plight.

The announcement that the club will be given away comes just two weeks after a forum took place between the owners and fans.

Glover said: “I feel it’s a difficult situation for the fans because they don’t get all the background knowledge and information.

“They just want their club to be there. They want their club to be achieving what they feel it should be. At the moment, it’s not and I get why they’re disgruntled.

“I can honestly tell them that no matter how hard it is, how difficult it is, how much I’m hurting and that it’s not going as well as I’d have wanted it to, I’m going to be here.

“I’m going to do the best I can for the club and for the fans. They’ve got to find it within themselves to stick in a bit like myself.

“I think they will though because that’s the good thing about the club and what I like about it so much is that there’s a core group that will be here when the club succeeds again.”

This weekend Hednesford visit AFC Rushden & Diamonds, who are bottom of the league, a point behind them.

Glover hopes his team can stop the rot and end their poor form to claim three points against another struggling side.

“I’m not one of these people who starts shouting from the rooftops that we’re going to win, because it doesn’t happen,” he said. “We’ve had good games and good performances in this run that I’ve been here and then brought nothing away from the game.

“With our current crop of lads and the group it’s trying to get them to mould as quickly as they can. Hopefully they go out and give a good account of themselves.

“We’ve got to give everything, compete, do the basics and hopefully come away with some positives and a positive result.”