Lessons From Poch And Koeman Aid Limbrick's Education

Southampton’s former youth team coach is in his first year as Woking manager and it appears to be a challenging debut season to summarise.

When they are good they are good, but as supporters will tell you when they aren’t they are often put on edge.

The club seemed to be chugging along quite nicely until recently, and they found themselves in a period that saw form turn as quickly as the weather.

No win in seven and five unwelcome defeats later, the Cards are suddenly looking over their shoulders.

What more could they want than a visit from the National League leaders? Macclesfield Town are up next on Friday, a game broadcast live on BT Sport.

“I took a lot from the experience of working with both Ronald Koeman, Nigel Adkins and with Mauricio Pochettino, you try a take something from every person and every experience,” Limbrick told us.

“They are three very different types of people and everyone has their different ways but they all have similar philosophies. You’ve got to learn, especially from people like that. My background is youth football, and I think we have got one of the youngest sides in the division.

“We gave six squad numbers to academy players this year. The fans have already seen Charlie Carter flourish - they sing that he’s one of their own and we know they want to see more. We do too, we’ve got to do things a little differently.

“We’re going to be spending a lot of time together. The players are in on Saturday after Friday’s game, and we’re leaving for Torquay on Sunday before we stay over. We’re not quite full-time and we’re not quite part-time - it’s somewhere in the middle but we’ll be together for five or six days straight. It can only help.”

Woking’s form isn’t pleasing, but one thing of their side is their home form - and ability to get results against teams at the top. Like, well, Macclesfield.

“It’s just what you need, a game against the league leaders when you haven’t won in seven, isn’t it?” laughed the Australian.

“They’re a good side, they pass the ball well and they give a lot of us hope that hard work and a really good group can really take you places.

“But we’ve already shown we can beat them this year. September seems a while ago now but we did win 3-1 up there and the way we defended was fantastic to see. We’ll have to be even better on Good Friday.”

Limbrick knows how important the club’s supporters will be - although he warned they aren’t safe yet.

“Nowhere near,” he said. “The teams down there are putting results together and we’re not. We’ve got total confidence in the squad but we’re four points outside the bottom four we we know we need points.

“The supporters have been great. The atmosphere against Wrexham here the week before last was absolutely electric. I’m not a believe in the fans needing to get the players up, it’s the players needing to inspire the supporters.

“We’ve spoken about our duty and we think if we’re all pulling in the direction on Friday then we’ve got a chance.”