Football management at grassroots level is difficult at the best of times, with so many distractions for the modern-day young footballer.

Cheddar manager Michael ‘Dangerfield shares the issues he faced, and continues to face, at the Toolstation Western League Division One side as he heads into a second full season at this level.

Faced with an almost complete rebuild, a couple of weeks after being appointed in the club's hotseat, it was nothing less than a baptism of fire.

So how did Dangerfield go about his first managerial appointment? Just a few short weeks after being appointed, Dangerfield went about his monumental task, on the back of the nucleus of the team from the previous season taking the decision to stand down from that level of football. 

It was almost akin to a manager - at any level - being thrust into a position of leadership and responsibility with both hands tied behind his back, so it was at best, going to be an uphill struggle.

So, what were Dangerfield’s objectives?

“Simply put, our objective was to stay up. And we achieved that didn’t we!” Dangerfield said.

“Our plight was more challenging in knowing that 95% of the previous season’s squad were retiring or stepping down from this level. Added to this were unbeknown further issues that I had to contend with in that Ethan Reed {who had such an outstandingly promising season last term, being diagnosed with a groin injury. Additionally, my captain [Oli Hucker] had expressed a desire to go travelling, as did Kris Bell and Owen Griffiths, and the loss of these ‘big’ players was to be acutely felt.

“I had little option other than to promote from within. It wasn’t possible for me to put together a decent pre-season.  Little option presented itself other than to ‘blood’ players to Western League Football who had little or no previous experience at that level. 

"Players were being asked to ‘produce’ who had previously been playing at County League level.  An immeasurably difficult ask for some of the youngsters, and my concern was, would they measure up.”

But measure up they did, producing a string of outstanding performances during the season, finishing in a creditable 18th position. 

There are number of players who can be singled out for their efforts, but Lewis Chappell, with 16 goals, a notable feat in his first season at that level, and captain Kieran Webster, of whom Dangerfield rightly records as  his ‘rudder’ of the team stood out.

Dangerfield added: “Kieran is an absolute gentleman, a big voice in the changing rooms, a brilliant role model and leader, especially for the younger players, a fantastic captain.”