DK: Start off with you, Gaffer, that must have been an absolute mental occasion.
KH: Yeah, there was a lot of emotion and to finally get over the line is massive, like little old Needham. Probably no-one gives us a chance outside of this football club and to perform how we have done consistently over the season after, and I keep mentioning it in interviews, I don't know why I do it, after the Stratford game 6-1, you wouldn't believe this would be possible, but we believed, we knew, me and Tom know what we've got in the dressing room and the lads have been fighting and they deserve all the credit they get.
DK: Absolute scenes in the clubhouse right now, it must mean a lot to you as well as everyone.
KH: Yeah, this is massive. Obviously, I've been asked about highs in my career and this is better than any.
As a player, I think you can affect it physically, but to work with players and then to listen and learn and take it onto the pitch, obviously we've had to improve in certain areas. We've created history in terms of cup competitions in seasons gone by, but me and Tom have spoke about it and this year we wanted to improve our league form and be up there and be contenders, which we believed we would be. Did we think we were going to win it with three games to go? Probably not, but the lads have been brilliant and we'll enjoy tonight and then probably Tom, knowing Tom, is probably going to be in my ear in a minute about planning for next season.
DK: Did today unfold in the way that you predicted it would, Tom, with your tactics?
TR: No, probably not. Obviously, we didn't take our chances and then I thought fair play to them. Obviously, once they got the equaliser, it looked like they would probably go on and win it.
But again, the changes that were made, I thought, helped us. Milzy coming on and then Jamie going through as the nine changed, whether it changed the game or the second goal changed the game, I don't know, but it definitely helped one way or the other. And then we went on and won quite comfortable in the end, really, which at 1-1 definitely didn't look like it was going to happen, if I'm being brutally honest.
But again, that kind of sums up, I think, what we've done this season and what we've shown this season, I think, as Kev talks about what amazing lads they are. And I think the biggest change for me this season is we've always had ability, we've always had good players. I think the biggest change this year is that we're so resilient.
We've got so much. Most teams, they lose the first game of the season 6-1, they're probably going to lose three or four games after that and then you're questioning what's going on. But every setback we've faced this season or every game where we've been up against it, we've just reacted and come out the other side of it.
That's probably the most pleasing. I've always known we could play football. I've always known we could score goals, even though at times we didn't maybe always score our chances that we created.
But I think this season, the biggest change for me is just our mentality has been phenomenal all season.
DK: You spoke about the Barwell and the Premier Cup final last year, about how this has to change or you wouldn't be here anymore. Look where we are now.
TR: I meant at the end of the day, all of us turn up because we want to enjoy it and we want to be successful. Ultimately, if we don't do well enough and last season we didn't do well enough, obviously there's always mitigating factors, there's always that, but you can't hide behind it. I meant every word I said.
If we wouldn't have been better this season, I wouldn't have been here because my own personal moral compass is that you've got a job to do and you've got to do it to the best of your ability. I felt we did that last season, but ultimately, when you're not getting the results and you're not doing as well as you can and should, then they're going to look at Kevin, they're going to look at myself as the first two-points of call where you look at them. So last season wasn't good enough.
I always felt we would be better, but it's one thing saying it and one thing doing it. If I'm being brutally honest, I set out every season trying to win the league, whatever team I'm involved in, but there has to be reality within that and I still think us winning this league, I don't think anyone would have given us a chance and I think even if me and Kev were honest, we would have said if we get in and around the play-offs, we'd be happy with that because there's huge clubs with huge budgets and I just think for us to win the league, a village club where we're based and the travel that we do, I think it's an unbelievable achievement. I think the lads have created history throughout the past four seasons with Kev, but this speaks to anything that we've ever done.
It might mean anything by quite a distance as well.
DK: What was going through both your minds when we got to stoppage time?
KH: I was going to ring Ben and get a picture of me and Tom, like I did at Hitchin. There was emotion.
I got emotional at the end and it's been a tough year for me personally, but the reason obviously I left the academy and it would have been easy for me to have walked away with everything, what was going on. The reason I stayed and I don't mind, I don't mind bad, but I stayed because of Tom. I stayed because of the staff and the lads. That's the reason I stayed and I'm glad I did because it's proved that there was something special. I always knew there was. Not only good players, but there was, I say it, there was something different.
You can't actually see it, you can't explain it, but this group, I knew there was something special within them. I played in promotion teams before in my career and they had that as well. I sensed it was there.
I'm glad I stuck around to see it through and for the lads to kick on. The lads will get all the praise, of course. People will try and throw praise on me. We wouldn't have got promoted without Tom. Tom is the backbone of it all and we're a partnership. In many ways, I see us as joint managers.
I listen to him and we bounce ideas off each other sometimes. I go with what I think and sometimes I think, Tom, you're spot on and we're a partnership. None of this would have happened without the lads, obviously, and the good players.
I know full well none of this would have happened without Tom being at this football club. Tom deserves as much praise as anybody.
DK: Tom said about how at one point it didn't look like it might not happen, but like you've said, this just sums up our season. We found a way.
KH: Yes, and that's what we've done. We can win ugly now. We can play teams off the park, but we dig in. Look, I don't know how many goals we've conceded this year. Is it 26?
TR: There's six at home now.
KH: It's not many and that gives you a platform to go on to win games of football. People have questioned us in the past about not having a recognised number nine and in truth we probably still haven't. We've got an emerging one in Seth, but goals have been spread out. The lads stick together. They've got a willingness to win. They can win ugly and they deserve to be champions of this division. There's no doubt about that.
DK: It just feels surreal to be sitting here like you lot have all said, let alone Needham Market step two.
TR: Yes, like I said, in our wildest dreams, at the start of the season, we're hoping we're going to be more competitive and we'll be in and around the play-offs. I'll be honest, we've always got our aim to win the league.
I didn't think we'd win the league, to be honest, because I just think to win the league at this level normally takes a lot of resource and whilst our budget's okay, I think if we're honest it'd probably be midtable-ish and I just think that's testament to that.
KH: That's that other extra thing that I'm saying about. So the budget's great, but with a big budget comes pressure. So it's that extra something and I think that comes from lads respecting the environment we train in, the environment we create. They're respecting what me and Tom are saying to them. It's a collective.
It's a player and management team coming together and there becomes, I don't know, something else implodes and it creates opportunities that have happened today.
TR: It's not even the biggest of squads either, is it? That's the thing as well, do you know what I mean? So we had a really tough spell probably seven, eight weeks ago where we had quite a few players out. I remember going to Long Eaton and we had a patched-up team that day, didn't we? And then obviously Jake got injured, which turned out to be the fracture of his leg.
Keiran was out, I think, if I remember rightly. So then Hammo ended up at centre-half and we were three at the back, do you know what I mean? So we've been quite fortunate with injuries. We've had that one spell where we were really struggling with injuries.
Generally the squad stayed fit and again, we've had to manage that, haven't we? There's been times of training where we've still trained but it's been light because one to protect the players and one to make sure that we don't get any other knocks. But you look at the squad, I don't want to single anyone out, but you look at the back four and the goalkeeper, the base that they give you and then in front of that you've got Hammo, Dylann and players like that. And then Jamie's definitely kicked on this season, Seth's kicked on this season.
KH: Tev Allen, you can go on.
TR: Tev Allen's been an unbelievable signing, even better than me and Kev probably realised who he was going to be if we're being brutally honest. I just think everyone's had such a good season. I mean, we spoke about it briefly, didn't we, the other day about picking a player of the year. I mean, I don't even know how you start.
KH: I don't even want to pick it.
TR: I don't know how you start because there's been so many, you know, everyone's played their part and everyone's just had such a good season, you know, from one to 18, 19, 20, whatever we are. Yeah, even down there now, Patch has been injured all year. You know, I think that was good business in the summer.
You know, we kept him involved, he's been doing the warm-up and, you know, and obviously he's tried to get back playing but, you know, you see him now with the lads, he's starting off the cheers, he's, you know, he's doing sliding skids in the bloody change room, sliding through the floor, doing dives, like, Klinsmann dives. You know, he's been brilliant with the lads as well, do you know what I mean? It's just, there's been so many, like Kev said, there's been so many factors and I think that, like I said last season, that was my frustration last season. I knew we was better than we were but I probably still didn't think we'd go on and win the league, if I'm honest, but, you know, it's...
KH: Obliterated the league?
TR: Yeah.
DK: How are you two going to celebrate tonight then?
KH: I don't know, yeah, we'll have a chat. I think first and foremost, I need to get Tom to agree to staying for years, as long as I'm here, because I couldn't do this job without Tom. So we'll probably have a quick chat and say, yeah, we'll stay as long as the club let us and then we might have a cup of shandies in this, mate.
TR: I had a beer, yeah, so it's got to be easy but I'd have to have Yorkshire tea in there somewhere, I reckon, just to keep things on a level keel.
DK: You say about you both staying here, you signed a three-year contract last year, you've still got two more years left.
KH: I signed a three-year contract in the academy as well, mate (all roar in laughter). No, look, I don't obviously want to leave here. I've said that openly to Graham. I've said in interviews before, my driver this year was, and I'll openly say it again, was Tom, the lads, obviously Bex and Graham Emerson. That was my driver, so I don't want to leave anywhere. I can't do the job without Tom, so he's got to agree as well.
TR: I think Graham's already messaged me and Kev, so I'll reply back to Graham. I don't think it happens without Graham.
DK: Just lastly, how do you lot enjoy it, but don't enjoy it so much that you're already ready for Tuesday?
KH: Flip-flops are on, mate. To the National League, we're on our way. We're on our way, we're on our way.
To the National League, we're on our way.
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