Ready to go again – Billy Heath prepares for his seventh season at Alfreton Town

About to oversee his seventh campaign in charge at the Impact Arena, Heath is again looking to assemble a squad that will challenge at the top end of the National League North, the last two seasons having seen them beaten in the play-off stages.

Heath maintains that when looking at things purely on a financial level, the Reds are consistently over-achieving in a division where money talks a lot louder every year and more and more teams either turn professional, or already are professional having dropped from the higher levels.

But that’s a situation he’s fine with.

"Money isn’t the be all and end all,” he said.

"It’s about having a squad built of the right people. It’s not just about good footballers – there are lots of those available but they have to be the right characters and fit into the football club.

"It’s all about hard working here, first and foremost, and they know from day one how hard they have to work.

"I want to see us work as hard as we did last year, that’s the key, then hope we can compete in a league that is getting stronger every season. Clubs are throwing copious amounts of money at it to get where they want to be.”

Heath, 52, has an impressive non-league CV in his pocket, with promotions and an FA Trophy win among the achievements he can boast.

But whilst that might make him coveted by clubs higher up the pyramid and maybe beyond, the challenge he takes on at Alfreton every season is one he relishes, particularly given how at home he feels there and how well he gets on with owner and chairman, Wayne Bradley.

He said: “The challenge is there every year but the club is a good fit for me and vice-versa. I get on so well with Wayne because we talk straight and don’t go round the houses. There aren’t two, three or four people calling different shots, it’s just Wayne and I and we have a great relationship.

"It’s a good fit. The club is underestimated at times – we are often the underdogs but that isn’t our mentality.

"We have the desire to go and prove people wrong every season. At too many clubs, the owners and/or chairman are there calling the shots but that doesn’t happen here – the playing decisions have to be the manager’s, otherwise they are just coaches.

"You need to be in charge of your own destiny. If someone else picks the team or signs the players and they don’t perform, it’s still the manager who gets the sack anyway, so you may as well be in charge of that side of things. But football often isn’t like that anymore.”

​Heath’s relationship with Bradley comes from mutual respect of each other’s roles, skills and influence, which in turn has then spawned the successful team on the pitch.

Heath added: “Everyone needs help but the main thing is that I can speak to Wayne and have a straight and direct relationship. We talk straight and he trusts me on players.

"Crucially, Wayne also knows football inside out, so he knows he has to give me the time to get things right and that’s why I’ve been here six years.

"You have to have time to change mentality. When I came here, Alfreton were a losing team, now we expect to win every game. Even if we’re having an indifferent season, the mentality is the same and that side of things is so important.

"We need players to have an affinity to the club and each other. We’ve got good experienced players, and some really good young players too and that mix works so well.”

As is always Heath’s modus operandi, he got the vast majority of his summer squad-building done early on, although that largely entailed pinning down most of last season’s squad that had carried the Reds to a fifth-place finish, only for them to ultimately lose to Boston United at home on penalties in the play-offs – the Pilgrims eventually going on to be promoted despite having finished sixth overall.

Heath said: “The biggest thing for me was keeping a lot of the lads from last year as it always gives you a strong base, and to do it early is key too so there’s no panic late on.

"Of course there will be additions and the signings of defenders Max Hunt [from Buxton] and Adam Anson [from Southport] were crucial. There should be one or two announcements to come before the friendlies start [former Chorley winger Billy Whitehouse was announced as having signed after our interview with Heath] and we’ll have a look at some trialists too.

"Obviously we want to aim at the play-offs again – I never like making too many targets because it’s such a hard league, but we’ve got there twice in the last two seasons and we were ninth the year before that.

"We want to be competitive. We have to do that in an ever-expanding league where finances are playing such a part, and I feel our priority is to get value for money from the players we have.

"We are difficult to play against, or at least that’s what so many other managers say, and that is a key factor.

"Wayne is fantastic and provides the best platform we can have. But there are limitations that continue to make us underdogs for the season.”

Last season’s achievements were all the more impressive given a run in the FA Cup that eventually saw them knocked out by League Two side Walsall in a second round replay – the first of the games having been shown live on television.

Heath added: “It’s great to have those runs, from a financial perspective and for the supporters and the prestige, and it’s nice to be in the spotlight and have everyone talking about us.

"But people don’t realise how they can impact everything else. Particularly in a physical sense, the extra games can take their toll on such a small squad.

"We run on small numbers compared to other clubs and some of them played well over 50 games. That has an impact.

"So whilst we were disappointed to lose to Boston, getting to the play-offs and having that cup run was a fantastic achievement.”

The Reds’ pre-season schedule gets going this weekend with the visit of Sheffield Wednesday’s first team, with Notts County then following next Tuesday night.

There will be other games against sides including Chesterfield, Barnsley, Rotherham United, Grimsby Town and Mansfield Town, as well as a Nottingham Forest XI, Ilkeston Town and Matlock Town. All ten of Alfreton’s friendlies will be played at the Impact Arena.

Heath said: “They’re tough friendlies by design. We’ll get a lot of work done off the ball which is really important because it gets you into a good defensive shape very early. That was paramount last season and you could see the effects.

"It’s a difficult pre-season but I’ve always preferred that than going away to a side three levels below and winning seven or eight.”

The new Vanarama National League North campaign will commence on Saturday, August 10, with fixtures due to be released next Wednesday (July 10) at 1pm.