Ex-Weymouth boss Brian Stock speaks out on exit

In a full transcript of his interview with Echosport's Neil Walton, he looks back on his final game against Southend, reflects on his reign, whether he had sufficient time to turn results around, inner belief, his future in football, communication and professionalism at Weymouth and a message to the fans.

NW: "The club didn't come out and say: 'Thank you for your services' straight away, it was quite abrupt. What was your take?"

BS: "I think it was definitely done suddenly. It was done on the Tuesday night and they told me on the Wednesday morning. That’s their dealings with how they want to announce things.

READ MORE: Weymouth interim boss Paul Maitland takes blame for 1-0 loss at Dartford

“I was wondering myself if anyone from the club was going to contact me. Paul Maitland (interim boss) did that and I’ve got the utmost respect for Paul. He works extremely hard for the club and continues to do so. He’s someone that if he wasn’t in the role that he does, I think I would’ve certainly struggled to get any communication between the board and the club and the chairman.

“He did a lot of work for me. He got a lot of things over the line in terms of finances and stuff like that. When you’ve got no full-time member of staff, you’re trying to get stuff done. He was always on the end of the phone.

“Unfortunately, he had to break the news to me, which wasn’t nice because we’ve become friends. Obviously, the fans spoke (last) Saturday and that was probably the point where the board felt they had to make a decision. Although I’ve not had an explanation, it’s more they want to go in a different direction, which is fine.”

NW: "So you haven’t had an explanation from the board as to why you’ve left the club, it’s just been a phone call to say this is what we’ve decided and we’ll part ways?"

BS: “Yep, exactly that.

“Quite a lot of managers I’ve spoken to since have questioned why I wasn’t told face-to-face, which is more of a professional way to do it.

“Probably having the guy that you work closest with, having him break the news to me, isn’t ideal. It was something out of my control. I was expecting that phone call to be about what we’re doing next, but I was told I was sacked.”

NW: "It goes back to the part-time, hybrid-time thing. You’ve spoken many times about the communication between the playing side, management and the board. Do you feel that is adequate enough for a club in the National League right now?"

BS: “No. To not have a full-time secretary, although Pete Saxby works extremely hard, there are so many things. We don’t have a training ground, we share a pitch with Blandford United on a Tuesday night. Those are things that over time I’ve had to try and rectify.

“We wanted to introduce another session on a Wednesday, which last year we had about five Weymouth players turn up and the rest were loan players. Now, it’s only one or two players that can’t make a day session.

“So, we flipped the playing side on its head. We trained Monday, Tuesday mornings and left Thursday for the evening. A lot of hard work went into trying to identify the players, to try and get players to join.

“The attraction is National League football but players have got to uproot and probably the one thing we were lacking was experience. That comes at a cost and to attract somebody, who has a family or a relationship, to Weymouth proves difficult unless you’re lucky and get a player who lives locally or is coming back to the area.

“The realisation of that probably will have sunk in by now. When you look at the task ahead of us, we’re in the bottom three. King’s Lynn are behind us – we haven’t lost to them. Maidenhead are above us, we beat them four times last year and this. We’re not a million miles away.

“When you dissect the seven games I got sacked on, quite a lot of that is something I can’t do a lot about. I can’t stop a player getting sent off – that happened twice. I can’t legislate for an individual error, which happened probably on four or five occasions.

“When you look at the bones of it, it is disappointing to lose your job on that basis.”

NW: "Do you think you were given enough time to turn things round, particularly this month given the fact you had signings coming as well?"

BS: “Well, I signed Jordan Greenidge and didn’t get to play him.

“When you look at what we had at our disposal in terms of staff, all our staff are not far off doing it for expenses, if not out of pocket. With that comes a lot of sacrifices and every one of them have jobs.

“When you have Sean O’Driscoll who comes to the table and had managed at every single level and probably more, in terms of England Under-18s, he’s been there and done it, seen it. Even he was scratching his head to think: ‘How can we compete in this league as a part-time team?’

“But he came in, put a few things in place which helped the players. One or two coaching ideas were excellent in order to get the best out of this group of players.

“When you look at the games he’s had to work with, one was Hungerford which was absolutely spot on in terms of preparation and tactical game plan. We win the game 1-0.

“Eastleigh, where we should’ve got something from the game and conceded late and ultimately Southend. Somebody with the experience he has and my playing experience, and Louis Langdown – he’s got a Masters in Sport Science.

“When you look at the players throughout the course of the season, we’ve stayed away from injury. For a part-time team to do that, there’s a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes. All those I’ve just mentioned have played a big part.”

NW: "Managers always have an inner belief that they’re going to win games, you must’ve felt in the bottom of your stomach that you were going to turn results around in January?"

BS: “Yeah, the issue is that the expectation outweighed the realism of the job in hand.

“When you look at the next few games, we’ve got Boreham Wood away and Dagenham at home. And we would’ve had Dartford. There are opportunities to try and turn the season around.

“I understand the frustration with the fans, they want to go and see their team winning and walk away with smiles on their faces. Ultimately, they don’t care how that’s done as long as you win.

“Although a lot of work goes into it, you’re up against some giants in this league. The last seven games, we’ve had Wrexham away, Chesterfield away, Altrincham at home with 10 men, Eastleigh away, last year’s team in Torquay that should’ve got promoted and who for me were the best team last year, and Southend who three years ago we were four divisions apart (from).

“Two years ago, we were in the Southern Prem. When you look at the infrastructure behind that, we aren’t far off what that is. If you want to go down the route of budgets and training grounds – you don’t even have an office to work out of. All these things go into the mix.

“I’ve not said these things as excuses, these are things that are always against us. You’re fighting a daily battle to try and get a group of players that are desperate to do well and want to kick on in their career, bring in a calibre of player that could potentially make the club some money as well. I think we’ve done that.”

NW: "Where does this leave you in terms of your future in football?"

BS: “I’ve had one or two people come to me with potential opportunities. I’m just going to take some time out, given what I’ve had to go through.

“It would’ve been nice to have celebrated early success wins away at Stockport, those are things that we didn’t have the interaction with fans (for).

“If we’d have had that, it would’ve built up that relationship. When you look at the culture, the midweek fixtures, I feel we’ve turned a corner and become a lot more competitive compared to last year when at home we didn’t pick up any points and conceded three goals almost every single game.

“There are a lot of positives, a lot of things I’ll go away from here and evaluate. There’s a lot of people I’d like to say my gratitude for their hard work and dedication. That’s down to volunteers.

“We stayed up on merit last year and we had to furlough players – we went to Hartlepool with one fit sub. We had to try and save as much money to give us a fighting chance for this year. There’s a lot of good times – we knew it was going to be a tough task.

“Ultimately, I’ve lost my job and when you dissect it I’d like to think I can walk out of here with my head held high. I’ve given everything I’ve got and more. I’ve sacrificed a lot to do this. It’s disappointing that it’s had to end the way it’s ended. I’ll walk away with a lot more experience under my belt.

“When I go into my next job, whether that’s coaching, managing or whatever it might be, I’ll be better for the experience at Weymouth.”

NW: "One of the things you’ve sacrificed is the Brian Stock Academy. Are you tempted to restart that while you wait for your next job?"

BS: “Maybe, I don’t really know yet. (The Weymouth job) comes with a demand. This wasn’t a full-time role, this was a full-full-time role. With that, you give up your academy, you walk away from AFC Bournemouth where you had job security, into the lion’s den.

“I wanted to come in and give everything to the club and I really do feel I’ve done that. The amount of messages I’ve had from players, managers, staff members, people at the club, that’s been really humbling to receive and it gives me some sort of comfort that I fought for this set of players and tried to give as much as I could to them when everyone knows it was a very tough task.

“There are so many people I’d like to thank at the club. When you’ve got volunteers and you’re asking them to do a job, accountability for jobs can almost be: ‘Please can you do this?’ rather than ‘Can you do this?’

“There are a lot of good people at Weymouth Football Club so I wish them all the best for the future.”

NW: "There were some fans, off the back of last Saturday’s result against Southend, who said perhaps there’d been a disconnect between the players, management and fans. The pandemic has had a part to play with games behind closed doors, but do you feel they have a viable case when they say that?"

BS: “Yeah, it’s been difficult. We had red zones in place.

"When I was a player you’d interact with fans and know everyone’s name – not single every one – but those loyal fans.

“The away support this year has been absolutely brilliant. There are some fantastic fans that understand the situation and the task at hand. Interacting with the fans is tough because there’s a lot of players that have been on the end of people not necessarily being supportive. The players then, are fully aware of stuff that goes on and things that are said. That’s been a frustrating one for everyone.

“Having a fans’ forum at the start of the season was excellent. It got me the opportunity to speak to the fans and lay down the foundations of what my ideas were. I felt that was a real success. Ultimately, that was probably the only time I got the opportunity to do that. It’s been tough but sometimes when the going gets tough that when you want the fans to get behind you and most importantly the players.

“I can take that abuse on the sidelines but it’s only going to affect one thing – the players. I felt that did have its effect in the second half with Southend.”

NW: "You haven’t really had the chance to say goodbye. What would you say to everyone connected to Weymouth Football Club after your departure?"

BS: “Well, I’ve met some really good people at the club, some good fans who I’ve enjoyed one or two drinks with after the games. I’ve met some good friends and I wish them all the best.

“Paul works tirelessly but behind the scenes he’s a good friend of mine. I’ll take that friendship on with me.

“The chairman (Ian White) comes under a bit of flak from the fans but he’s a volunteer at the end of the day. He’s a Weymouth supporter. He deserves all the support he gets. He comes under a lot of criticism but he’s been nothing but supportive for me the whole time.

“Quite a lot of the board members as well, they’ve been very supportive. But ultimately, I wish all the players the best. There are some really good characters. Like I said, it’s been really humbling the amount of people messaging me. I’ve received messages and calls off every single player, which is nice.

“The staff, obviously, are doing it for little to nothing and working tirelessly behind the scenes – no-one else sees. Those are the people I’d like to thank more than anyone.

“What I will say is that from now until the end of the season, the players are going to need support from the fans, regardless of whether they’re winning, losing or drawing. It might be that they stay with the players right to the end, to the 95th minute and that might be the difference between the players gaining a point, all three or at least fighting to the end.

“If they can do that in the two years previously that they’ve had success, you need that through the good times but more importantly for the bad.”