Coaches hope for DK fortunes
Gordon Bannatyne hopes the dawn of a new year and the appointment of two new coaches will result in a change in DK's Midlands One fortunes.
Gordon Bannatyne hopes the dawn of a new year and the appointment of two new coaches will result in a change in DK's Midlands One fortunes.
One suspects the latter will prove much more likely than the spurious nature of the former but in DK's perilous predicament grasping onto anything resembling a fresh start is treasured.
Neil Shillingford and former DK skipper Mark Lockley, who both played for the club during its halcyon days in National Three South, and also trotted out at Twickenham for the NPI Cup Final in 1999, have been promoted from Colts coaching duties to run the first team.
They will take charge of the club's trip to Longton this weekend where they will look to improve on the most dismal of first halves to the season.
DK pushed Longton close at home, going down by two points in a 10-8 scrap and Bannatyne, like the rest of the Heathbrook faithful, hope that the new coaching duo can turn the tide.
"They were the two we wanted," said Bannatyne.
"In an ideal situation we wanted Neil and Mark to take the job on because they are DK through and through and they have the utmost respect of the players.
"They have stepped into the breach and will take over from this weekend. If anyone can change our fortunes around it will be those two."
Having coached the club's Colts all season, a role they will not be giving up, Shillingford and Lockley will know only too well about the malaise of mediocrity that has infested itself in DK performances hiterto this season.
They have won only once having finished the league in second last season and narrowly missed out on promotion back to the national leagues.
In real terms, DK's position is slightly misleading.
The side has been on the end of some bad decision and of the several tight games they have been involved in have failed to come out winners on any occasion, the last time being a one point loss in injury time to mid-table Kenilworth.
Scorelines suggest some tinkering and tweaking rather than a mass overhaul is needed to get the DK revival on track.
But Bannatyne warned: "They are not miracle workers; they are not going to come in and wave a mgic wand and our problems will go away.
"But they do have the total respect of the players and we are hopeful that they can get us to be on the right side of those tight games."
