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Geoff Record takes charge of Sheppey United for one last time this Saturday and is glad to have fulfilled the wishes of the legend he replaced.
Ernie Batten led them to back-to-back seventh placed finishes in his two full seasons in the Isthmian South East and they’ve once again been knocking on the door of the promotion race this term.
When Batten’s health worsened, Record took over as manager and they head into their final game of the season with a top-10 finish assured and seventh place once again within their grasp.
It’s “job done” as far as Record is concerned, as he bows out 45 years after his first association with his home club.
Record said: “When Ernie was unwell, I would ask him, ‘What are you doing next week then?’ It got to the point where I think he had enough of me asking and he said, ‘You don’t need to ask me if I’m doing it - I’ll tell you if I’m not doing it’!
“Before he did step back I was standing next to him in training, watching the lads play a small-sided game and he said to me, ‘If I have to step back, what you have to do is get us as high as you can in the league, a creditable position, because we’ve only been in the league three years and some have been here 20!’.
“‘Stick with the lads who have stuck with us, those who have shown loyalty to us, and if you can incorporate a couple of younger lads, and rotate them on the bench and stuff like that, that’d be a good little opportunity for them to get involved’.
“I said. ‘All right’ and he then said, ‘But you’ve got to keep the costs down!’ If you’re up there, Ernie, job done!”
Record is in his second spell as manager. He watched the team with his dad when he was young, then played for them and was in charge the season they had to fold.
He said: “What could I do? I only knew a few days before we played Canterbury City, over at the old Bourne Ground where we were ground-sharing. Me and Ernie were still pretty fit, because he was my assistant then.
“When I knew it was going to fold. I think I was 41, Ernie would have been 43, and we both played! I thought, ‘Well, if this is going to be the last game, then we’ll play!’”
The club was eventually reborn and are now thriving in the Isthmian League after their title success in 2021/22.
“It's brilliant now,” said the Record. “(Former boss) Kevin Hake had it for about a season and then Ernie came back from Gibraltar and within a few months we were back in business again!”
Record stepped back from the club for a time during which the club achieved their promotion from the Southern Counties East Premier Division, with Marcel Nimani as their no.2.
Nimani left the Ites ahead of the 2022/23 season and is in charge at Sevenoaks, the club who host Sheppey this Saturday.
Record said: “He’s got a bit of history. I’m sure he’ll be wanting to get one over us and we’ll certainly want to get one over on him!”
Isthmian South East table
Record went back to the club in the summer of 2023 and said: “Ernie phoned me up out of the blue and said. ‘I’m the only one here! Everyone’s jacked - the chairman’s gone, the manager’s gone, the coaches have gone! Any chance of giving me a hand for a while?’”
The Ites head into the final game of this season in good form, winning four in a row before a goalless draw with second-placed Sittingbourne on Easter Monday, with a crowd of nearly 1,000 at Holm Park to watch the Swale derby.
“It was a magnificent crowd and a fantastic atmosphere for what was my last home game,” Record said.
“Games between Sheppey and Sittingbourne, for anyone who knows their history, is a fiercely contested game. To have that as my last home game was absolutely brilliant.
“We’ve one more to go, away to Sevenoaks, so hopefully we can get a win there and we’ll be doing our best to do that.
“Against Sittingbourne, it was a brilliant performance from us, physically, because it was a physically hard game. A lot of tackling, a lot of running. We had a lot to deal with. It was one of them games where we cancelled each other out.”
That game followed a 3-2 win at relegated Steyning Town on Good Friday.
Sheppey were twice behind but Rhys Wyborn got on the scoresheet from a free-kick and Record claimed an assist from the bench as Aaron Archibald levelled it up on 83 minutes.
The Ites had been 2-1 down against a team reduced to 10 men after a red card, scoring a wind-assisted goal from halfway to put them back in front.
Recalling Archibald’s equaliser, the manager said: “There’s not many times where you can claim an assist from the bench but we had a corner, it got half cleared and went out wide.
“Aaron, our young centre back, for some reason came out of the box and I bellowed at him to get back in. He didn’t go at first, so I bellowed at him again! He went in the box and can you believe it, the cross came straight to him and he hit a volley into the ground and it bounced over the keeper right in the top corner!”
Sheppey pushed for a winner and it came from Gil Carvalho in stoppage time.
Record said: “Gil did his usual, coming up with a winner, with about a minute or two left. The times he's done that... I think he’s got 14 goals and 14 assists and I gave him my player-of-the-year.”
Carvalho also picked up the supporters’ player-of-the-year for the club while Wyborn took the players’ player award and Lekan Majoyegbe won the young player trophy.
Record, who received a special award himself, said: “Rhys’ award was thoroughly deserved and people don’t realise how young Lekan is because he’s a 6ft 4in man mountain!”
There was also a clubman award won jointly by club photographers Marc and Paul Richards.
