The third in a new series of interviews with our local football managers about their highs, lows and hopes for their club.

Next up is Wendron United manager Jack Greenwood.

Greatest achievement?

My proudest moment was probably being manager when we had our first game under floodlights, because no-one’s ever going to take that away.

Probably my greatest achievement on paper was getting to the Senior Cup semi-final [in 2019], and I’m not trying to water that down, but actually the greatest achievement was keeping the squad we assembled last year and keeping the number of players and keeping us competitive with limited resources, being in a remote area and having lots of big clubs around us - to still be out competing week in, week out.

It’s a bit of a long-winded answer but probably this season has probably been my greatest achievement in terms of where we are in the league, in the top league in Cornwall, and being competitive at this level.

Stand-out game?

The Porthleven win last year in the Senior Cup sticks in my mind. The way we played that day was very, very good and that will always be a very fond memory.

There were a couple of comebacks we had: There was one at Bude where we went 2-0 down and won 3-2 and Justin Searle scored a hat-trick; There was one when we were 2-0 down to Plymstock at home and won the second half 3-0 and won the game 3-2 and Ben Allen scored a screamer.

I suppose the Porthleven game was probably the one that sticks in my mind as a special one, because to know you’re going to go through to the semi-finals after that, to beat your local rivals and to also do it so comprehensively and play so well.

Strangest/most bizarre memory?

After that Plymstock game when we won 3-2 the other manager broke the door afterwards, that was quite bizarre, in such a rage he did that. When we went up to their place we had a cheque waiting for us, and then we went into the communal showers and the door handle from our changing room fell off and it just seemed like too much of a coincidence!

Yeah, their manager properly dented our door because he was in such a rage because we won the game 3-2 having them been 2-0 up.

Hopes for the future?

I’d definitely like to win something, whatever that is. It’d be great to win a cup, it’d be brilliant just to have that day out as a final and go and win a trophy for Wendron.

It sounds a bit defeatist but I’d like for us to never not complete a season, because I know Wendron have had that in the past, and I’d like for us to never get relegated. If I could achieve those three things that would be incredible.

What makes Wendron special for you?

The people. It’s just a special club. I know lots of clubs are but just solely run by volunteers and from what it’s grown into, which is basically just a field in the middle of nowhere. Pete [Thorne, chairman] makes it special because of his dream and what he’s managed to achieve.

I just think the fact that we’ve won so many awards for our facilities and our pitch with just such limited resources by basically just sheer hard work and determination.

It’s the people around it that have created such an impressive looking club and facilities, and to be able to field four teams each weekend is huge.

I think that’s what probably makes it special. There’s just an unrelenting desire by everyone there to keep the standards up and to make it as good as club as possible.

I walked into the kit room the other day and someone had bought a rail and hung all of the kit up to dry in shirt order with shorts and training tops behind it because had noticed that the kit was a bit dirty or had a mark on it, so someone took it upon themselves to change the system of how the kit’s washed and just did it.

There are just so many people behind the scenes there that just make it a very special club.