Hawkes wants Swifts post
Heybridge Swifts caretaker-manager Mark Hawkes says he hopes to talk with the Ryman League Division One North club’s chairman in the next couple of weeks about taking the job on permanently.
Hawkes has been in the hot-seat since Wayne Bond was sacked in the second week of January.
Since then Hawkes and his head coach Barry Lakin have seen Swifts lose just twice in ten league and cup games. The team are unbeaten in five Division One North matches and are second in the form table for February.
Hawkes revealed: “I hope to sit down and talk with chairman Nick Bowyer in the next couple of weeks. When we came in, we were told to steady the club and I think we’ve more than steadied it.
“We’ve climbed from seventeenth to tenth, going five unbeaten and that’s taken a lot of hard work and effort. It will take a massive effort for us to now stretch that run for another five games.”
Swifts’ charge up the table will be helped by Leyton’s expulsion from the Ryman League, which was officially confirmed at an extraordinary general meeting of the league’s clubs last Sunday.
It is expected to be confirmed that Leyton’s results will be expunged from the record books.
Swifts are one of a handful of clubs to benefit from the points deduction having not played Leyton this season. However, Waltham Abbey will lose four points and Potters Bar Town will lose three, meaning Swifts will leap-frog these teams into eighth.
It will leave them three points off fifth, the final play-off spot, with a game in hand on most of the teams around them.
Hawkes said on the situation: “With us not playing Leyton I kind of see it as us losing six points, but things will even themselves out over the course of the season. We’re one of a few teams to benefit.”
Swifts face one of the teams they leap-frogged, Potters Bar Town, at Scraley Road on Saturday.
“It’s a very important game for us against a team around us,” said Hawkes. “They just faltered a bit in the last two or three games and were heavily beaten 4-0 at home to Waltham Abbey on Tuesday.
“After that result they should be fired up to get a result against us, but we’re at home and I fancy us beating anyone at home.”
Swifts earned an excellent point on Tuesday night as they played out a goalless draw at leaders Needham Market, becoming only the second team to take points off the table toppers at their Bloomfields ground.
“The league table doesn’t lie after twenty-nine games, they’re a good side,” said Hawkes.
