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Tommy Warrilow looks back on his time as Tonbridge Angels manager

Former Tonbridge boss Tommy Warrilow would love to see Angels promoted back to National League South this season.

The club had three years at that level under Warrilow but this is their fifth campaign back at Step 3.

Warrilow was succeeded by Steve McKimm in 2014 and he's still there.

Tommy Warrilow pictured during his time at Tonbridge Picture: Barry Duffield
Tommy Warrilow pictured during his time at Tonbridge Picture: Barry Duffield

"I spoke to Macca when he took over from me," Warrilow said. "He's doing a good job there.

"The first year was going to be difficult and this year, again, he’s had a little dip but now he’s coming out of it.

"Hopefully now they’ve got the perfect run-in and they're picking up a bit of form.

"Tom Derry’s a good signing for them so hopefully they can sustain that, make the play-offs and get back in National League South."

Warrilow, appointed Angels boss in 2007, led them up via the Ryman Premier play-offs in 2011 having lost in the semi-finals 12 months earlier.

He said: "Going into Conference South was a massive jump.

"I loved that because it was like being in a pro club again. When you went to away fixtures, you saw how set-ups were and at Tonbridge, we were learning from that but we couldn’t get the funds in to get the players to sustain a push in that league.

"To survive for three years was a massive achievement. At the end, the fans were a bit despondent because we were losing a lot of games but we lost Frannie Collin and Lee Worgan to Maidstone, who were growing massively.

"I understood that because I probably would have gone there as well if I was them but those two left a massive void to fill with the money we had.

"I brought a lot of players in that went on free transfers. A lot went to Wimbledon – Lee Minshull, Lewis Taylor - and I even sold Scott Gooding to Fisher Athletic when they were full-time and we got him back for nothing.

"It was always a little bit of wheeling and dealing but we knew we had a lid we could go to and Conference South wasn't really a big lid for those players.

"I said to the chairman I was going to leave even if we stayed up. I had a chat with him at Christmas because I’d been there seven years.

"The club’s about family and about old players coming back. It’s that friendly environment you’ve got to get."

Warrilow was talking on this week's KM Football Podcast which you can listen to below:

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