Portrait photos taken by ©Stuart Richards. Graphic and interviews by Neil Hocking
The Fishermen will welcome Falmouth Town to Wall Park in their first ever Western League game on Saturday afternoon (3pm KO). New signing Josh Parry, goalkeeper Grant Fisher, captain Kieran Parkin and joint manager Tim Porter provided their thoughts ahead of a historic day for the club.
Josh Parry
What type of a player are you?
I play out wide, and am probably best known for being quick and direct. That’s how most people would describe me.
Why did you sign for Brixham?
I was at Brixham two years ago, and then I moved on to Tavistock, where I’ve been for two years. When I left, I made a deal with Couchy and Potts (joint managers Jason Couch and Tim Potter) that if they ever got promoted, I would consider coming back. Last year, I didn’t get the game time I wanted, and then Brixham got promoted. They asked me to join, and I thought it would be the best decision for me and because I can help the team.
What will players need to quickly get used to in the Western League?
The physicality. That’s what I noticed when I stepped up: every team seems to have a few absolute units. They will also change up the game a lot. One minute, they will be playing short, and then they will kick it long. And I think Western League clubs are just that bit more streetwise than the league below so there’s not really an easy game. In the Peninsula League, you get a few games you think you can win so you will rest a few, but in the Western League, you don’t really get that. It will be a good challenge.
Which games are you particularly looking forward to?
Bridgwater is always a good one. I remember when I was at Brixham two years ago, we played them in the FA Cup or Vase – one of the two – and we had a good couple of games against them, so I’m looking forward to that one. And obviously Buckland. That’s local, so that’s always a good game. I had good games against them when I was at Tavistock.
How important will ‘fortress Wall Park’ be this season?
Home form is really important, especially in the Western League because teams travel, and they’ve got to come quite a long way sometimes. But it’s not the end of the world if you lose a game at home because sometimes you’ll go to an away game and they might have a better pitch, or there might be better weather, and then you can get payback really.
How well can Brixham do this season?
Looking at the league, and because I’ve played in the league two years ago, I think we could get top six and push on even a bit more. That’s my aim, anyway. Top six, or I will be disappointed.
Grant Fisher
How critical was your role last season?
The lads are probably the best people to ask what an experienced goalie looks like behind you, but I wouldn’t say I was heavily relied upon if I’m being brutally honest. The team in front was absolutely outstanding. It was more about having to come up with key moments at key times. Keeping it one-nil to us or not going one down. In all fairness, the lads made my job super easy, and I was just a good groundskeeper really, keeping everything safe and sound behind them.
As one of a few Brixham players with experience at Western League level (and higher), what will be different at this level?
The fact that there’s no truly easy game. No team in the Western League will be a pushover.
It’s a completely different physical challenge. Teams are much more physically prepared, and everyone thinks they’re capable of beating everyone on their day. Last season, you would know that you’re probably going to deal with the bottom six teams. The bottom six in this division will beat you and slap your backside if you’re not on it on the day. That is the biggest danger in this division, for sure.
Are you looking forward to the games against Buckland Athletic?
No one can disguise the fact that those games will be brilliant occasions for both sides. I just truly hope everyone gets behind us and supports us massively because it will be a brilliant two spectacles, potentially three with the FA Cup if we both win our first games, which is brilliant.
They’ll be looking to put one over on us, we’ll be looking to put one over on them, but quite frankly, we’ve both got jobs to do before that, after that and in between that. There are so many big games for us now. Falmouth coming for the first game of the season will bring a load of fans down. That’s going to be massive. With Bridgwater and Barnstaple there are connections between many of us.
What is Brixham’s biggest strength?
Everyone is together. There’s no greater power than togetherness. It’s not just the team but the club. Everyone mucks in, everyone believes, everyone wants to be on the same journey. There’s nobody who’s bigger than the football club. There’s nobody pulling in a different direction, and you don’t win leagues or win things by being different. You all have to be on the same page. This club is truly unique in the way it runs, and without a shadow of a doubt, our complete togetherness as a football club is our biggest strength.
Kieran Parkin
How long have you been with Brixham?
This is my second spell here. I did three years before I went to Buckland, so this will be my sixth year here, and I’ve been captain for about three years as well.
How will you prepare your team for the tough mentality needed in the Western League?
The work rate isn’t really an issue for us because it’s something we pride ourselves on anyway. Last year, even if we weren’t at the races technically, we knew that we could outrun teams. Don’t get me wrong, I know that the Western League is going to be a lot more physical, with fitter teams, but there’s no reason why we can’t have that same attitude and still try to outwork teams.
What are the best and worst aspects about being the skipper?
The best thing is what we’ve built here, which is obviously credit to Jason and Tim. We’re just a good group of lads. We all enjoy being around each other, so it makes it easy to entice people to come to the club, like with Josh coming back. He obviously knows what we’re about. He knows we’re a good bunch of lads which obviously helps long-term.
The tough side is trying to drag people through games when we’re not quite at it. Sometimes it’s not nice how we do it, but sometimes that needs to be done to try and get people through games and in the right frame of mind.
What is the most important attribute for a captain?
Being honest is probably the main one. I’ve grown up around some pretty ruthless captains, and they don’t sugar-coat things. Sometimes, I might take things a little bit too far, but I think the lads understand where it’s coming from. It’s not malicious in any way. It’s just that we want to win that game of football. That’s the bottom line. That’s why we’re here: to get three points and enjoy a pint afterwards.
Where can Brixham realistically finish?
That’s a difficult question to answer. We’ve got everything within the squad to beat any team in this league. Obviously, a lot of other clubs pay a lot of money, so that may play a factor. But even with the squad that we’ve got, I think it would be silly not to say we should be going for the play-offs. I know people are thinking that we just want to stay up, but that’s not the group of lads we are. We’re all mid to early twenties, with a couple of experienced heads, and no matter what eleven’s on the pitch, we’re going to think we’re going win that game of football. It would be nice to be in the play-offs. That would be a great experience to have, and a little bit of added incentive for the lads: just to be a part of something new for all of us.
Tim Porter
What are your thoughts going into this historic season?
It’s a difficult one because you’ve got your expectations that you automatically bring forward from winning the Peninsula League. That is no is no mean feat because plenty of teams have tried to win that and not been successful. You might think we did so well last year, surely we can just replicate that because the players were that good. But you’ve got to temper your enthusiasm a little bit.
We watched a few Western League games, and you see teams where you think you would be better than them. But when you think about it over the course of a long season, it’s a big step up, and some of those games coming up. will be a huge challenge.
Falmouth, who we play in the first game, have done so well in their transition going from the Peninsula League to the Western League, while some other clubs have really struggled to make the same sort of ground and be as competitive when they’ve moved up. I think Saturday’s game will be a good grounding for to see where potentially we’re going to sit throughout the season.
There’s enthusiasm, absolutely. And a bit of nervousness, in terms of the ‘what ifs’, but we’ll face them when they happen.
What personnel changes have there been over the summer?
We’ve taken the positives from the fact that we’ve really only lost one player: Tom Dunlop. He made us aware towards the back end of last season that he wouldn’t be prepared to do the travelling, which is fair enough.
We’ve brought in a number of players. Josh Parry’s come back into the club from Tavistock, which is a really big signing for us, and we’ve signed Ben Aldous who had a really successful season with Torquay United under-18s last year.
George Dandridge has also come back to us. He played here a number of years ago. He’s arriving from Dartmouth, but he’s got Western League experience. We’ve also signed a couple of youngsters in Charlie Stevens and Danny Frankum, who are only 16. So we’ve bought in some young players (and Josh and George are young still as well). We’re looking to build on the enthusiasm of the younger lads and we’ve been careful to not bring in too many outsiders into the group that wouldn’t really mix in.
Is this a step up for you and Jason, too?
Yes. I played in the Western League, many years ago, for Ilfracombe and Dawlish, but neither of us have gone up into that domain before. So it’s new for us, and we have the excitement of challenging ourselves against people who probably have got a lot more credentials and certificates than us.
How has the club prepared in the off season?
The club has done quite a lot of work and worked as hard as it possibly could have had with the volunteers available. They’ve put some brand new fencing up, and some new netting behind the goalmouth which has spruced the pitch area up quite nicely. The changing rooms have also been decorated.
The challenge is going to be maintaining that level of work, with the small group that we’ve got, to enable the club to grow to the levels we want to grow to. And that’s not going to be a known challenge until we really get into the nuts and bolts, probably around the winter time, when the weather’s bad and if results get a bit iffy. But everyone’s pulling in the right direction which is a good thing.
How will the reserves be integrating into the first team?
Andy Raybould is taking over the reserves this year, which is a really good step for us because he was managing the under-16’s last year. By him bringing forward quite a lot of those lads into the reserve team this year, it gives us a good platform for the ones who aspire to play for the first team (which we hope is all of them). If we can create that platform for them to do that, that’s even better for us.
Some of the young lads that we’ve signed this year have been playing locally, but have really only just started playing men’s adult football. Hopefully, we can bring some through into the first team as well. We’ll train together as much as we possibly can, which is obviously a positive step.
How long have you and Jason Couch worked together – and how do you approach management?
This is my fifth season here, and maybe Jason’s 13th. We are joint managers and do everything together. We often have the same thoughts, but every now and again we don’t. Then we’ll talk for hours and hours every day discussing the nuts and bolts of it all to come to the final decision. So yeah, we’re pretty good. Or else we would have stopped it by now!
Finally, what would you say to those considering watching a game at Wall Park for the first time?
Brixham AFC is a nice, inclusive, family oriented club When you step in here, you will see lots of smiling faces regardless of the result. And we welcome the away fans as much as the home fans.
The other beauty for people who come and watch us is they know that the people on the pitch wearing the blue shirt will always put in a proper graft for 90 minutes. One of the things we pride ourselves on is our work rate ethic. When people can see lads putting a real shift in, that often encourages them. We’ve had lots of conversations over the last couple of weeks with people who want to get involved more because they saw how much the lads put in in terms of effort at the back end of last season.
So if you come here, you will have a good afternoon – and under the lights is even better!