Pant VJ
27 Oct 2010

Over the last few weeks Pant has gone through a real difficult time in regards to the number of players who have chosen pastures-a-new. We would like to thank them all for their contribution in the time they have spent with us. Special mention must go to both Anthony Norbury, Dean Davies and Dean Warner for the stirling service they have given the club for the past 15 years and we wish them all the best. Dean Davies has decided to retire and both Anthony annd Dean Warner has chosen to keep playing football for Pant's other side.
Other players have also decided to to try a different changing room to the one which they experienced at Pant, which is fine but there is a few things which wish to say in relation to this.
Pant, I have established over the last 10 years is a different animal to which I have experienced in my time in playing. It is a very close knit community and has had very close knitted teams, which has been like this for many a year. It has become a very successful area for football in the last 20 years second only to the Bluebird sides which have pretty much dominated the league for over 15 years. Great sides have come out of the Pant area and basically won every trophy which has been on offer, and here lieth the problem. Complacency,Age, lack of comittment, lack of hunger, the grass is greener on the other side scenario are words and phrases which fill my mind when i think about Pant football and some of the players i have encountered in that time.
In order for people to become better players they need good coaches/managers and not necessarily going to a more successful team, which is something a lot of players seem to think. Past glories can't be replicated ever, this is again a common reason why players leave clubs as they have this nostalgic view of years gone by of playing with certain team mates or being managed by certain people. Any successful side has to be formed over a period of time, fact has told us the sides who have gone on to continued success have been the sides which have been together for many years. Courthouse, Swansea Rd, Blubirds, Quarrymans, Pant VJ and Hills Plymouth are just some of the examples we have seen over the last 20 years.
Lastly and more whats more sadly, once these decisions have been made by the players to leave the club they can't take them back, basically they have made their bed and now need to lie in it, and I think this is more damning of the player's character when the team is struggling. One last thought, Bill Shankly once said " My wife could run the side when things are going well, but I wouldn't wish managing the side on my mother-in-law when things are not going well". It just means judge the team not when trophies are being won and the side is being successful, but when they are struggling, and its how the players/management respond to that which counts and nothing else.

Shaun Cronin
Pant VJ Manager