“The toughest week I’ve experienced since being at the club” says Bevan after whirlwind few days for Fairford

Fairford Town Director of Football Jody Bevan has described this week as probably the toughest week he has experienced at the club after a dramatic change of management.

On Thursday the Hellenic Premier side announced that Sam Collier would be stepping down from his position as Manager, citing an exodus of players leaving him in a position he felt was not one he could do as well as Fairford needed, with a re-build needing to take place.

The Red Arrows moved swiftly to announce that Ryan Souter would be the new First Team Manager, alongside Assistant Nathan Wallace and the returning Lee Randall.

Speaking to Severn Sport after the dust had started to settle, Bevan talked us through a whirlwind of a week from the club’s perspective.

“it’s probably the toughest week I’ve experienced since being at the club,” admitted Bevan. “As a committee we’d been quietly going about our business since the end of the season focussing on a number of infrastructure projects that we have planned and also recruiting a new reserve team manager.

We were delighted to appoint Mark Simpkins as Reserve Team Manager last week Then last Friday I got word from Sam saying there appeared to be trouble on the horizon.

By Monday I sat down with Sam and Alan Griffin and learned that a few more players were leaving but also a couple more were committing. Sam was understandably concerned, but I was still very hopeful of rectifying the situation and even got on the phone to speak to a number of players myself.

By this time we’d started hearing rumours going around regarding financial issues relating to the club that I wanted to dismiss out of hand.

I’d agreed with Sam that we would give it 48 hours to see where we stood and on Wednesday lunchtime I met with Sam again and a couple of the players that had said they were likely to stay suddenly decided to do a U-turn and I think that was the final straw for Sam.

We spoke for an hour and I really felt for him to be honest. It was very clear he was incredibly proud to be our manager, and did not want to give it up, however he was also adamant that he must take responsibility for the situation.

He wanted to be manager of a club that was challenging at the top of the league and he now didn’t think he’d be able to deliver that. Admirably he said he would not leave us in the lurch but he thought there would be better options than himself to conduct a rebuild.

He even recommended we talk to Ryan and Nathan which we subsequently did later that day. That was agreed pretty quickly and then it was a case of managing communications over Thursday and Friday.

It’s safe to say once we released news of Sam leaving my, phone went into meltdown! It’s safe to say it’s been an incredibly busy week and I’m lucky to have a very understanding wife who I barely spoke to for 4 days whilst this was all going down! So much for an off season!” Bevan added.

As Bevan mentioned, the news of Collier’s potential departure was being sent around local football on Wednesday night, with rumours eluding to the cancellation of the Fairford Air Tattoo, an annual money spinner for the club, had seen the budget cut at Cinder Lane and that was why players had decided to leave.

The former Fairford Manager reiterates that the cancellation of the Air Tattoo, whilst affects the club’s yearly revenue, it has not left them in a worse position in terms of a playing budget for the coming season.

“There is no getting away from the fact that the Air Tattoo is a major revenue generator for not just the club but the whole town, so it’s a blow that it was cancelled for everybody,” said Bevan.

“However it was hardly unexpected and it’s not as if it hasn’t happened on more than one occasion before – particularly during COVID. In many ways it was good to get certainty well in advance.

Whilst it ultimately generates income, it also requires a lot of expenditure which we will not need to fork out on now. We are a registered campsite throughout the year and we have taken a lot of bookings not just for RIAT but also for other events.

We will remain open throughout, with campers remaining welcome, and we will have a weekend of entertainment and live music along with the conclusion of the World Cup.

We are also working on a few commercial deals and have received some investment into the club as well so in reality we are no worse off this year and will not have any of the stress or work of RIAT weekend,” Bevan added.

Souter and Wallace return to the club after working with the Reserves and U18s sides previously, whilst Lee Randall steps back into the dugout to be a crucial third man in the management team – with the three incomers joining Sports Therapist Olly Begley as part of the First Team set up.

Bevan admits that it was crucial to not only bring in individuals who knew the club, but also work well together – whilst questioning whether the FA can re-evaluate the current post season processes to allow clubs to actually expeirence an off season.

“To lose your manager and bulk of your playing squad two weeks before coming back for preseason is never ideal,” Bevan said.

“Our Chairman ,Stuart Pike, and I both agreed we had to act quickly. Every season it seems the non league merry go round gets worse and worse.

You used to be able to switch off for a month once the season has finished, but clubs are seemingly announcing player signings and retained lists as soon as the season ends.

I personally think it is bonkers and just adding to a general feeling of anxiety generated by social media for anybody connected with a non league football club. Managers and club officials are dealing with more and more season after season.

We need time off to switch off and relax before going again, but modern methods and demands are starting to make that impossible. There needs to be a reset.

The FA could help with this. Instead they made it possible to sign players from 1st June rather than 1st July which has just exasperated the problem.

Unfortunately it’s just another example of the FA being out of touch with the reality of the actual repercussions of some of their decisions.

In Souts, Nath, Rands and Olly we have a great team that will compliment each other perfectly and not just that but perfectly align with the vision that the committee and I have for the future of the club,” added Bevan.

With pre-season set to start in two weeks, local football fans on social media have questioned the level of squad Fairford Town will be able to get together ahead of the 2026/27 season and whether the new management team will automatically mean a younger side – with players from the Reserves and U18s given First Team opportunities and Bevan .admits that it is likely to see a number of opportunities for the club’s younger players to make an impact for the First Team this season.

“At the moment it is too early to tell [whether it will be a young Fairford Town side this season] but you only have to look at the success that Ryan and Nath have bought to the club over the last few seasons to realise that there is likely to see that they will look to develop and bring a younger dynamic to the club,” said Bevan.

“Just over 12 months ago they were so impressive in winning the South West Counties League with a very talented group and some of that group stayed and formed part of the squad that won Wiltshire Senior Division One last season and others went and got experience of senior football elsewhere.

I am sure a lot of those players will be in the thinking, but we also know that we cannot simply move forwards with an under 20s side if we want to be successful. We will need to add experience to the squad. It’s going to be difficult but I hope we can retain a few players from last season and also bring a few new faces in.

There is always a shake up just before or after the season when players who thought they were going to be first choice suddenly find themselves on the bench or not in the squad, so we will be watching developments eagerly.

What I can say quite clearly though is that Fairford Town remains a great club to be part of and I think the vast majority of players that have experienced the club over the last decade would say how much they enjoyed the club and the people behind the scenes,” Bevan added.

Fairford Town are inviting prospective players to attend the first pre-season session ahead of the 2026/27 campaign on Monday 22 June, with the session starting at 19:00. Any individuals who are interested in attending can express their interest to the club, Ryan Souter or Jody Bevan directly beforehand.

Cover photo courtesy of Fairford Town FC