After his ninth Suffolk Premier Cup triumph, and his third in a row with Needham, I spoke with goalkeeper Marcus Garnham to get his thoughts on the season and the cup final.
DK: Nice to retain the cup again!
MG: Yeah we did well, Stowmarket did really well, I think it was a good game of football, not the best for defending, but attacking wise I thought it was an entertaining game. All credit to Stow, they did really, really well. We had a funny five minutes in the first half where they got on top and we were rocking a little bit, but we managed to compose ourselves and get ourselves back in the game, and yeah then it went to the lottery of penalties and we came out on top, luckily, so that's all good.
DK: Did you always think the game would end up at penalties?
MG: No way, I didn't think it was gonna (go to penalties), I thought one moment to be fair that Stow were gonna romp it to be fair, they put us on an immense pressure. All credit to them to be fair, they've got some great experienced players in their team and really showed their quality tonight, and yeah we managed to hold on and and we came into it second half and kept the ball really well and they kept trying to catch us on the counter attack, the rest is history.
DK: You're quite experienced, we'll say, in terms of penalty shootouts, but you still get nervous?
MG: Yeah when you look at the the penalty takers for them, some, you know, League footballers, know what they're doing, very experienced, very good players. So yeah, it was a lottery and fortunately I won the lottery today so it's all good.
DK: Unusual though for you to not make a save in a shootout.
MG: Yeah I thought their penalties were good, they waited for me to go last minute, and they finished it really well, so we can't save everything but luckily luck was on my side tonight and they missed at the end and we won the game.
DK: Yeah, you have been here for the hat-trick of wins as well.
MG: Yeah, so I won it before with Leiston and I've carried on winning that with Needham, so yes it's really good so it's a nice thing to end the season on positive note, after a bit of a disappointing League campaign, but yeah it's good. It always leaves a good taste in the mouth at the end of the season when you you retain the cup or win something.
DK: Yeah, this is obviously the main highlight of the season would you say?
MG: Yeah, that and the FA Cup run was really good, but that seems like such a distant memory, there's been a lot of downs this season really, so we've got to pick ourselves up, be better, raise our standards, and go again next season.
DK: Again Cup competitions have been the key to like making our season really.
MG: Yeah, but that's that's not good enough, that's not acceptable in my book. I think the league table doesn't lighten the season, and we were nowhere near good enough. And it's all right turn up against the big boys and and working hard, but you've got to work hard every week and not just think you can turn it on, because you you beat a couple of Conference teams, that you can just switch it on on and off and when you're like. You've got to keep working hard all the time, you see all the top teams in that League they all work extremely hard, all the way to the end of the game and that's what we've got to take into next season. We've got to raise our standards and go again.
DK: Might be hard to pinpoint right now but looking across the season and what are your top three of highlights?
MG: Burton away was good, I thought I played alright that game, I've enjoyed tonight and yes. I've enjoyed the season, a lot of downs obviously, but I enjoy my football. I wouldn't travel three hours after work, on my own, to get to away games if I didn't enjoy it, and I still do, and I look forward to what next season brings.
DK: In terms of the league though, the most disappointing, frustrating bit, more so, is the fact we beat Tamworth home and away, yet it was more the teams towards the bottom that we kind of struggled a bit more.
MG: Yeah 100%, I think it's just application, not thinking you're better than you are and just working your socks off, that's the minimum, and I think we didn't even hit that minimum in some games, we were really disappointed in some games. We need to have a good hard look at ourselves next season and dust ourselves down and hit the ground running pre-season, do the basics well and the rest will come. Because we've got the quality but we're not doing the basics well enough to be able to be up part of the league.
DK: Ranking this year to last year, is it about the same for you, worse, better?
MG: It's about the same, yeah, I think this year we've been a lot more solid at the back, I've been a lot less busy, there was a period of time in the season where we kept a lot of clean sheets and the defence was doing a fantastic job, because as opposed to last year I think I was a lot busier. But yeah, I'll take the positives, kept a lot of clean sheets this year, we just haven't stuck enough in the back of the net. We can't rely on just one person to score all of our goals, we've got to spread the goals a bit more, and more people got hit double figures. If you've got one hitting 20 and the rest are on single figures you're going to struggle. So that's something we need to address next season, I'm sure Tom and Kev will.
DK: Another big thing that's happened today is the fact you and some others have announced your new contracts!
MG: Yeah I got spoken to a couple of weeks ago, and to be honest I was thinking about dropping down maybe, but I have enjoyed my time at Needham and long may I continue! And I feel I still put in performances and still giving a good account of myself. I know I made a couple of mistakes this year, especially against Alvechurch - both games for some reason - but I like to think I've had overall a positive season, and take that positive end to the season into the next season as well.
