Our last game at The Rockingham Triangle was always going to be a bitter sweet affair for manager Graham Drury. The Gaffer has many happy memories of the ground but pulls no punches if you ask him if he will miss it…

“I am not sorry to be moving because I think the distance between the stand and the pitch is awful and the playing surface has always been awful as well! I think the whole atmosphere suffers as a result of that distance and I don’t think it is a footballing ground at all really. I live in Grantham and they have exactly the same set up with a running track around the pitch and all their fans say the same thing as well.

“I have heard all the excuses from fans saying they don’t come and watch because of the running track, and all the excuses from the players associated with that as well, but there will be no excuses when we make the move to the new ground and I can’t wait for that. I am looking forward to having a decent surface where we can coach teams to play instead of always having to hook the ball forward and look to turn teams all the time.”

Unsurprisingly, when asked about what he sees as the highlight of his time in charge at the existing ground,Graham is answering the question before we had finished asking it:

“Hugging Chairman Peter Mallinger at the end of the Southern League campaign was fantastic,” Drury said without hesitation. “We had a fantastic work ethic and had kept ourselves right all the way through the season and played some great stuff, especially after Christmas. We brought some good players in, good characters like Jason Lee.

“I remember that day when we won it; I had a letter from Peter after saying he couldn’t believe how calm I was on the day. But I think it was a situation where I walked in like any other matchday and I saw him looking flustered and I said ‘Chill out Peter. We’re going to win the league today.” He knew from that moment that I was calm and that that would come across to the players.

“Mind you it took us 43 minutes to score a goal! We hit the bar, hit the post and then Leon Mettam got a cheeky header in to put us in front. From that moment on it was exhibition stuff. Joe Francis and Jason Lee were outstanding that day.To have 2,000 people on the pitch who had watched Corby for so long was a real pleasure and I was a very proud man to be able to lift that trophy.

“The players deserved it because as the season went on Farnborough were panicking and we were gaining all the time.They came here and we beat them 3-0 and even though they were still seven points ahead of us with a game in hand they were all talking about the play-offs and we were talking about winning the title. We went on an amazing run and only lost one game, to Gloucester, after Christmas. It was a fantastic achievement.” 

It is very much a time to look forward as well as remember the past and the pragmatic manager can’t wait to get started in pre-season:
“We don’t have a massive benefactor or huge resources so we know what we have to work with and that we need to bring youngsters through but sometimes that can work in your favour. We have a three-year plan and are trying to build success instead of buying success.We set the expectations really high here but with everything that has happened we have done well to compete.

“We have used 37 players which is partly because we got moved from the Southern league to Blue Square North and that has an effect because the southern players don’t want to travel.Then Peter’s death was a massive setback for us all.

“We have been competitive and will need to do that next season as well.We have given players games under their belt this season who are all under 20 and picked up kids for next to nothing. They will learn from their mistakes and will get there and lose that inconsistency as they grow as players.”