Aussie-born Boss Says He’s Already At Home In Woking

The first day of pre-season last Saturday had been a long time coming for the 34-year-old after being appointed in May, and having since captured nine new players and re-signing five others.

And now the opening weekend of the season on August 5th is the next eagerly anticipated date for Limbrick, who has previously coached at Southampton and West Ham’s successful academies.

With potential investment on the horizon, the Woking board felt they weren’t able to offer their experienced and successful duo Garry Hill and Steve Thompson a contract extension after keeping the club in the National League on the final day of the season.

Hill and Thompson were relieved of their duties six and-a-half years after they joined and following the announcement of a partnership with Blackbridge Sports, Limbrick was appointed.

Former Stevenage and Boreham Wood assistant Jason Goodliffe will be joining Limbrick in the dugout as his number two.

On Saturday, the new Cards boss will take charge of his first game when Premier League Watford visit the Laithwaite Community Stadium.

“We’re looking forward to the game and it will be a good opportunity for the fans to see the new players and our type of style and the philosophy that we’re trying to get across,” Limbrick told the National League.

“I can’t wait personally for it as well. It’s also Marco Silva’s first game at Watford.

“We wanted to get a lot of our players we were looking to recruit in early so we could work with them during pre-season and get them all playing together.

“We’ve created a young-ish, hungry squad who want to achieve and do well. They were a lot of our key targets and we’re happy with our business so far. We’ve still got two or three to do in the coming weeks.”

Limbrick feels his early steps into football management have been made slightly easier with the encouragement the club has given him.

He added: “What sort of surprised me, in a way, was the amount of support I’ve had from the Woking board and fans. They’ve been absolutely fantastic to me, having come into the job as my first management role.

“The board have been great in implementing the extra training programme and supportive with the players we’ve signed.
“We had a fans’ forum quite soon after I was announced and I was quite shocked at the turnout, in a good way, and how important the club is.

“I knew from the outside it was a big club at this level but then when you’re working in it every day and you see the fans around, it shows how much support there is.

“With this club especially, if you do the right thing and work hard, I think they respect that.

“It was a real eye-opener as to how supportive everyone has been so far.”