New Manager

[AFCRD_Dan]

I’m happy with the appointment. His first interview is both reassuring that he won’t be looking to change a lot, and promising.

[Three of Diamonds]

My glass is completely full, it's a terrific appointment. He has the contacts, the experience of playing and my full support.
FFS shake yourselves out of this malaise and get behind him and the team.

[Formic]

It's amazing how people read these threads in different ways. I can only see one negative post since the appointment! It was just unfortunate that was the first post after the appointment.

[SimonHillington9]

I have my reservations about new manager. It has all been too hasty. It will only work if Tim and Biff are on board which I have serious doubts that they will be. Saturday is going to be a very interesting day.
All this seasons hard work could be blown away.

Not sure why people seem to be so confident in Tim and Biffa, have no issues with them and they seem good lads. But at the end of the day they have about as much experience as Andy in this situation. Somehow we lost our long term manager and top goalscorer and everyone was still optimistic yet a change between 2 managers of similar standard and we are worried?
Havant always seen eye 2 eye with the board, but suportive of this

[rdusher]

I'm pretty happy with that to be honest, and more so after listening to the interview.

He's got a connection with the club and I think fans will be behind him.

He'll have great connections at local clubs like Luton and Oxford so can hopefully grab us a couple of loan signings to bolster the squad for the remainder of the games.

The only negative is that he does lack experience of men's competitive football, but he has experience in other roles at a host of massive clubs.

Overall, I think we've got to look at this as a positive, and if things work out well we may have bagged ourselves a manager for the longer term.

Really looking forward to Saturday

[gibston]

Thought burge spoke brilliantly. Glad he's looking to keep staff involved too. Full credit to all involved after a crazy 10 days! Now it's down to everyone to pull together & play our part.

[FOOTYMAN]

A fantastic appointment. Obviously, he will work with the current staff and players, not much needs to change and as he said in his interview, he's looking to continue with what Peaksy had started, with a view to a successful end to the campaign.
I think it might be the perfect club to start his career in management.

[train]

I remember this.

There’s only one Andy Burgess, one Andy Burgess, there’s only one Andy Burgess.

So so looking forward to Saturday.

[davealbon]

I see nothing but positives with this appointment. Although he has no management experience in the men's game, he's managed at a good level in the women's game, and held a number of different roles within several professional and semi-pro clubs, which I have no doubt will be beneficial in this role.

I don't think the Tim and Biff combination was ever intended to be anything other than a very short term stop gap - as has already been mentioned, Tim doesn't live locally, and while Biff has been with the club since the start, there's a big difference between coaching and managing, and his only experience above UCL level has been with us. I'm delighted they're both staying on though, as having some continuity at this stage is vital.

From the players' point of view, we have a lot of youngsters in the squad, and the opportunity for them to learn from someone who played at a good level within the professional game can only be a positive.

And finally, Burge was a hugely popular figure at the old club, and I wouldn't be surprised if a few old faces who've drifted away over the past few years are encouraged to make the effort to get to a game or two before the end of the season.

(Now I've said all that, I'm fully expecting us to get spanked in front of 250 fans tomorrow!)

[Adrian]

I think it's a great appointment

Yes he lacks managerial experience in mens football - as did Mark Starmer but they have to start somewhere, there are decent managers out there who started at non league level.

Andy Peaks had very little managerial experience and did well, lots of playing experience though which is also what we are getting with Andy Burgess.

Biff and Tim don't have lots of league/non league playing experience so for me they are more naturally suited to coaching and that's why I'm glad we didn't go down that route.

It's an appointment that will definetly make the older fans happy from the original club days, let's see how it pans out, a manager who left for a higher club leaves an easier job to walk into than a sacked managers job as we are in a good position and there's no need to re invent the wheel as it were called, the aim of the job is simple... keep calm and carry on.