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

Next up is Penryn Athletic manager Harry Pope.

Favourite moment so far?

When we played Falmouth away on Boxing Day I think would be the best one. That’s the one that springs to mind because we went down there and it was horrible, horrible conditions. I don’t think the game should have been on.

It was a bit of a tight first half, 1-1 at half-time, and then we put five past them in the end. The celebration in the changing rooms after the game, that would probably be my favourite moment

Biggest achievement so far?

It’s hard to say because it would have been getting promotion, but obviously we haven’t got that! I think getting a good campaign together last season even though it was painfully cut short, to go from the disappointment of having the St Piran League get in the way of our promotion from the Combo.

The way we started the season would probably be the highlight, getting 11 straight wins, and then to mount a good title challenge and we were right in it up until the end.

Hopes for the future?

I think the initial short-term aim is to get promoted to the Peninsula [League], that’s the sole aim at the minute, and long-term is to get promoted and just to see what we can do at that level really.

To make Penryn an established Peninsula club again would be my target, but then for the club as a whole, getting Glen Patterson running our reserves, I want to try and create two winning teams at Penryn.

Hopefully, he can get them in the St Piran League and us in the peninsula west league, that’s the long-term ambition.

What makes the club special to you?

When I was a youngster all of our youth football finals were at Kernick Road, so throughout the season when you’re a youngster and you’re at school and you know you’ve got a cup semi-final on Saturday or Sunday, you wanted to get there because you knew the final was going to be at Penryn.

It’s quite a big pitch now and I’m a grown man, but when you’re an 11-year-old kid, that pitch is massive and that was the place you wanted to play at. I think we played five cup finals down there as a kid; we won three and lost two.

Now I get to call that pitch my home, so that’s pretty special.

The people behind the scenes as well, they’re pretty nice. They’re passionate about the club and they help me out with whatever I need. It’s almost like a family-run club behind the scenes, and they’ve invited me in and let me do what I want basically and they’ve supported me throughout the whole way.