Wood manager Bob Makin has steered the club to the most successful period in its 50-year history. He looks back over last season and to the challenges ahead with DAVE RAWLINGS.

Boreham Wood FC boss Bob Makin completes five years in the hot seat at Meadow Park this month.

In that time, he has presided over the most successful phase in the club's 50 year history, leading them further before in both league and cup.

Employed outside of football as a senior accountant with the Dagenham Motors auto group, I recently met him at his Stevenage offices to assess his time with the club, and look ahead to what could be a momentous season to come.

Although Makin delights in writing new pages in club history, backwards glances are not really in his remit, and I asked him, as a fellow spectator at the recent FA Umbro Trophy Final at Wembley, how far Wood were currently from competing at the highest level in non-league football.

"I think potentially we have improved over the past three to four seasons, and we're not that far away at all.

"Cheltenham of course won the Trophy the other week, and we played them, and other Conference sides Rushden and Slough over two games last season, as well as Hayes.

"These are among the top teams in that division (Cheltenham and Rushden finished 2nd and 3rd) and I think that obviously if we got into their league the expectation level would be higher, but I don't think that we would struggle to hold our own."

But, I asked, how would the playing staff cope with the switch to near-full time football, with the distances involved in away matches, etc?

"We would have to reassess who could handle the change," he replied, "but I feel we're getting close to that situation now."

It was true to say that the amount of games the club were forced to play in the last six weeks of last season meant that they were close to playing full-time football anyway, but did Makin feel that the sheer weight of matches prevented his side from winning the title?

"I don't go along with that common theme," he said, adding: "The squad of 19 players was a good one, we didn't have too many long-term injuries, and I felt that we were strong enough to handle the workload.

"With five games to go, we were on course, and if we hadn't lost that Thursday night to Heybridge in the circumstances we did, we would have gone on to win those games.

"After that match was lost, mentally rather than physically, we felt, for the one and only time, that we'd lost that opportunity.

"I don't think that we would have lost to Hendon on the Saturday if we'd won on the Thursday. Against Swifts I made six changes, because of the amount of matches the team was being forced to play.

"I felt that the Hendon game was to be the more difficult, and some key members of the side needed the break."

He added: "I felt justified that, until the moment's indiscretion (the sending off of Alan McCarthy), with us at the time winning 2-0, we would have gone on to win that game comfortably -- and it would have given those players a much-needed rest.

"But despite that, I feel that I must commend all the players for showing the mental and physical toughness to keep going over a long season."

However, Makin observed that the major factor in his view that prevented the Championship trophy resting in the Wood boardroom was the sheer number of chances missed by his men over the campaign.

"I can't believe that there was another team in the top half of the Ryman League that missed as many chances as we did!", he ruefully observed.

Nevertheless, Makin's team contained in Shaun Marshall the highest goalscorer in non-league football.

"Although in fairness he did miss four penalties, you don't associate Shaun with missed chances. He's got a good instinct, and his conversion rate is very high. A 45-goal total speaks for itself."

Did the cup runs ultimately affect the assault on the league, I asked, again finding Makin unwilling to agree.

"I don't put any store with that," he quickly replied, but conceded: "It's amazing though that it so often works out that way. But if you're doing well the whole time, you want that to continue -- players enjoy winning games, and I will never put out a team to lose.

"We used the Herts Senior and London Challenge Cups to play squad and fringe players, and ended up reaching the finals of both, winning one!"

What of the coming season, with the advent of the Conference Division Two, is this to be Wood's last as an Isthmian League club?

"Hopefully!", Makin laughed.

"If the Conference second division was happening now, and not, as it appears, in a year's time, we'd have to be invited, having finished second in the Ryman. It is possible next season that a club would have to finish in the top half and satisfy other criteria to become eligible for inclusion -- but we intend to finish in the top one!"

All this high profile success that he has enjoyed at Meadow Park has undoubtedly alerted other clubs to Makin's managerial talents, and after an initial, unconfirmed enquiry regarding his availability a year ago, it would seem that Wood boss, who works without a contract, has recently been receiving further phone calls.

"I was contacted in March by a senior representative of a major non-league club and asked if I would be interested in talking to them about their manager's job -- but only talking about it at this stage.

"The current incumbent there was overseeing things on almost a caretaker basis, and had a brief to identify a successor who would come with a proven track record.

"My name was put forward and accepted as the best candidate.

"The answer I gave them was yes, I would be happy in talking to them."

Added Makin: "It was nothing to do with being unhappy at Boreham Wood, and nothing to do with money, or anything like that. The benefits I enjoy at Wood are wonderful, and I have an exceptionally good relationship with Phil Wallace, better than I believe that I could have with any chairman.

"The only factor that disappoints me is the lack of crowds. I think things have improved since we started holding the 'Friends of BWFC' meetings though, and if the jump in gates was maintained that would be great."

Makin said that, as a consequence, he had started recognising faces at away games as well as at Meadow Park, and that is heartening both for him as well as the players.

I asked him whether this third party interest had been discussed with Wallace, and he answered in the affirmative, but remained puzzled as to where the 'leak', if that is what it was, had come from.

"Obviously Phil had been horrified when he found out, because we have a good arrangement and a certain understanding, which means that I have overall control of team matters."

It is certainly this freedom that Makin so enjoys, but he remains very focused, despite all the other developments currently going on at the club.

"I don't need any involvement in anything else other than the team. It's all I'm interested in -- the players are my sole concern, getting them and playing them."

It is this autonomy, coupled ironically with his chairman's grand design for Boreham Wood FC's future, that has meant a polite but firm 'thanks but no thanks' from Makin to the interested club, as he committed himself to Meadow Park for at least another season.

"It's a measure of Phil's faith in me that I asked him what he would do if I lost the first 12 games of next season," said Makin.

"Would I still be the best man for the job then?"

Wallace replied that indeed he would be, although he did not believe that would happen!

Wood have achieved more under Makin and his staff than any combination in their history, and stand on the verge of further success.

Wallace allegedly said upon hearing news of the outside interest that he needed to know that Bob Makin was still going to be manager at Wood next term.

I think that is a sentiment that will be echoed by everyone with the club's best interests at heart.

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