'There's work to be done' says new South Park boss ahead of Hartley Wintney clash

Rob Kember has admitted “there’s work to be done” at South Park after taking the reins at the Reigate-based club last week.

The former Crawley Town and Woking midfielder was last in charge at Chipstead, but he left the High Road club at the end of the 2022-23 campaign.

Since then he has been biding his time, looking for his next managerial move, and Kember, 43, believes South Park are a “great fit” for him.

He said: “A couple of weeks ago the club approached me and sounded me out as to whether I’d be interested in the job.

“I had a good chat with chairman Ricky Kidd and other board members and it seemed a really exciting proposition. I thought it would be an ideal opportunity to get back involved in senior football.

“Since I left Chipstead I’ve watched a lot of games, as well as coaching juniors. I’ve had a couple of interviews at other clubs, I won’t mention names, but there weren’t that many jobs out there that interested me.

“But once I had spoken to South Park, it felt like a really good fit.

“I’ve only had one training session with the boys, which was Thursday, but seeing the facilities and the set-up they are keen to progress, and it feels like a good place to do so.

“It was nice to have a break and have a season off but it’s nice to be back as well.”

For Kember’s first game in charge, a 2-0 defeat at Portsmouth-based Moneyfields, there were many faces in the dugout who would have been familiar at Chipstead’s High Road in recent seasons.

As well as former Chipstead defender Danny Dudley on the Sparks bench, Rob Smith and Dean Sammut are among Kember’s coaching team.

Kember said: “Smudge is my assistant manager and comes with me wherever I go and Dean was my first team coach when I was at Chipstead. But we’ve kept Matt Dilger for a bit of continuity.”

But Kember admitted Moneyfields “caught us cold” in the first half of Saturday’s 2-0 defeat in the Isthmian League South Central Division.

The Sparks parted company with former manager Tom Cope last weekend, with Kember being announced as his successor later in the week, enabling the former Chipstead boss to get one training session in with the Reigate team before Saturday’s trip to Portsmouth.

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But it was a toothless performance from the Sparks on the south coast with the home team scoring through Jack Lee on 18 minutes and then Callum Laycock on 83 minutes.

By the time the second Moneys’ goal went in, the Sparks were down to ten men, Conan Torpey having picked up a second yellow on 57 minutes.

“We felt that we didn’t get to grips with the Moneyfields way of playing to start with,” Kember explained.

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“We thought Moneyfields were going to set up a little different to how they did and they probably caught us cold in the first half.

“They were inverting their winger, quite narrow and creating an overload, and the midfield three were playing quite well and we just didn’t quite get to grips with it in the first half.

“We altered things at half-time and I felt for the first 10 or 15 minutes of the second half we started to nullify what they were doing and get a foothold in the game but unfortunately the sending off meant that went out the window.

“But I thought the boys adapted well to going down to ten men and we managed to
keep a decent shape about ourselves.

“We didn’t trouble their goalkeeper too much in either
half but that was probably to be expected in the second half once we were down to 10 men.”

The Sparks, who parted company with Tom Cope after the 2-0 away defeat at Binfield earlier this month, have been languishing near the Isthmian League South Central Division relegation zone.

After the defeat to Moneyfields they sit 17th, with 13 points from 13 games – although 12 of those points have come at home.

But Kember is confident a few wins will propel the team up the South Central table.

He said: “The boys are new to me and we only had one training session before Moneyfields – there’s only so much information you can give in one session.

“There’s work to be done. We have two more training sessions and thankfully no midweek game before Hartley Wintney come to South Park next week.

“We will try to get a little bit more of the style and shape we want to play into the boys this week and then watch this space.

“With Danny Bracken, Danny Dudley, Jack Tucker and Ryan Healey there is a good core to the squad already here.

“They are a good, honest, hard-working bunch and with a bit more structure and detail moving forward over the coming weeks, I’d like to think we will start improving.”

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But Kember is not getting carried away.

He said: “I think the league is still quite tight, although I’m not going to throw out wild ambitions of a finish in the play-offs.

“But two or three wins will move you up the table quite swiftly. So first and foremost we need to put some wins on the board and move away from that bottom four.”