In the second of a three part series, Gareth Ainsworth and Andrew Howard talk about their quest to give High Wycombe a team and club to be proud of

The pair gave their perspectives on a successful season for the club on and off the pitch, the challenges presented over the course of the campaign and their vision for the future. 

Read the second of the three part series here...

Does it defy belief that you finished fourth in League Two considering how small the squad is?

GA: Your DNA is being winners, so to say it defies belief probably goes too far but it was definitely a surprise that, one, we gelled so quickly and, two, that we maintained our consistency throughout the season. It’s what we preach and what we want but it was tough after last year. Without going back too much we just wanted to deliver what we were asked to deliver. It’s a surprise but, when you work with the boys everyday and you get to know them, after a while you think ‘there is something special here and there is something different’. The confidence that Andrew’s put in me and the pressure he’s taken off me, which I in turn take off the boys, allows them to play this free-scoring football. We didn’t finish second top scorers in the league for nothing. It’s a culmination of factors but of course it’s surprising we did as well as we did.

AH: Don’t underestimate the talent on the pitch. It is a talented squad we have but it’s also a very young squad. If you harness talent with heart it amplifies talent. You watch these lads and they don’t know when they’re beaten, and that’s all we ask. I stood on Wealdstone’s terrace with a few fans and we were getting a bit of grief as you do ‘club officials are there, let’s have a ping’. We hadn’t kicked a ball yet and I had a long chat with the lads about the price of coke and all sorts and what came across was that they just wanted the lads to give 100 per cent until the final whistle. We got a lot of those lads together to have a chat with them before the last home game, because we wanted them to support us like nobody’s business in that last home game, and we asked them ‘have we delivered what you asked?’ All of them said ‘yes’ and I think that’s what your fan expects. Your fan expects win, lose or draw that your players give 100 per cent. And how often do you hear ‘overpaid footballers poncing around’, you can’t say that about our boys.

GA: Some of our players would love to be as well paid as the lads in the Championship and Premiership. Some of the boys here would run through bricks walls for you and it’s never been about the money – that’s a brilliant thing that we’ve achieved at the club.

AH: It’s the loan players as well, not just the contracted players. When we played Northampton and it got a bit spicy their players weren’t interested. The amount of times I’ve watched the opposition and they’re not interested. It was our loan players that were defending each other. It just seems to be that, irrespective of whether you’re contracted or on loan, once you pull on that jersey you genuinely join the clan and you give everything for it. That’s impressive and that comes from the top.

In an interview you gave at the start of the season, Andrew, you spoke about uniting the club with the phrase ‘one Wycombe’ a prominent feature, do you think that’s been achieved?

AH: I think it has. More importantly, I think it’s emanated off the pitch onto the terraces, into the boardroom and into everyone involved. We’re not there yet, properly not there yet but the one thing I would say that was a core objective for us was to end up with one group of people and I think we are massively down the road with that. It comes from the pitch. Once the players do it then I think people respond to that. We’re never going to make everyone happy and, unfortunately, with what you’ve got to do when running a club and a business you’re going to upset a few people. We only do what’s best for the club and it strikes me now that have a fantastic family, single focused club. There’s still a lot to do and it will be interesting to see what happens in the future if we have a run that isn’t quite as impressive. That’s the time when people have to dig deep and support the long term objective of what we’re trying to do.

Do you think you’ve given the people of High Wycombe a team and a product that they can support and get behind?

GA: The buzz is back around the town. It’s not a buzz that I like, I’d like a much bigger buzz, I’d like a lot more interest, I’d like kids to be wearing shirts with the names of their heroes on the back but you are talking realms of fantasy sometimes with the clubs that surround us. It’s just starting again to bubble under the surface and tomorrow night (Thursday) will be a good indication of that. Like Andrew says, we’re miles off the end product but we’ve got some ingredients that have come out that we thought we’d have had to work harder on. We’re still getting some unhappy people and there always will be on the terraces. You’re never going to keep everyone happy ever, ever. You’ve got to accept that as a manager, as a team and as a chairman. Andrew’s realised really quickly that some people will moan no matter what and sometimes it’s about the people who don’t. The ones that moan seem to make the most noise but the content ones are quietly happy, and it’s good that there are more and more of those. That bubble is just stirring in the town and hopefully we can give Wycombe something to be proud of, football wise, because it hasn’t had that for a while.

AH: We have to also publicise what Wycombe is and what it stands for. What I’m hoping for is that we as a brand – and we are a brand – have a core message and that people understand that. That sounds really corporately poncey but your fans want to know what your club stands for and I think we’ve demonstrated this year what the club stands for. I think it’s hard. I’m a northerner and I’m from a place where you grew up fanatical about your football team, the whole town knew about your football team and the whole thing. That’s partly our job. It’s our job as a marketing team, as a company with a brand to publicise that brand and engage. We want to do much more engagement and work harder with the community going forward, but it’s about supporting the football club and the players. We want to make Wycombe proud of what we do but we also want to include Wycombe. We want to spend more time with youngsters so that they can grow up appreciating what they have on their doorstep. We are the biggest professional sporting entity in this area and we want everyone to know about it. Whether they choose to come afterwards is up to them, but at least if we let everyone know about it they can make their own choice. We are the best kept secret in Bucks at times.

You can read the final part of the interview here.