Manager Jones fears for Druids' future
Wednesday 17 February 2010
Lee JonesELEMENTS Cefn Druids' joint manager Lee Jones says things have to change if the club is to regain its top flight presence in the future.
Facing certain relegation to the Cymru Alliance at the end of the current campaign, the Ancients were hammered 7-0 at Port Talbot on Tuesday night in a record-equalling Welsh Premier defeat for the Plas Kynaston outfit.
And a candid Jones told the club's website: "From a personal point of view, if I'm going to be here next year, then there's a hell of a lot of things that have got to change - not just the finances but the overall structure of the club.
"At the moment, whether the club moves to a new ground or not, we won't get back into the Welsh Premier League with the team we've got now in the next season or two.
"We've had decent a result against Neath and decent performances against Bala and Bangor but I think they've papered over a few cracks.
"I think as a club, with the constraints we've got put on us, what's happened could become the norm. We've come across a team in the top five who, once they got a goal in front of us, steamrollered us."
Jones also expressed his displeasure with arrangements for away games and the shortage of personnel in the backroom staff.
"We've come to Port Talbot not under great circumstances, as we did at Neath," he added.
"The manager was driving the minibus. How many other managers do that? We went to collect the minibus at 1.45 and it wasn't there - we were due to leave at 2.00. We've got no physio or kitman.
"We shouldn't be asking the opposition to borrow their physio. Yes we have financial constraints and we don't have much money to play with, but if the constraints are going that far down then, if I'm being honest, we haven't got much hope.
Jones revealed that his frank views were not a knee-jerk reaction to the heavy defeat.
"Yes it might sound that we lost seven-nil and I'm blowing my top," he said, "but I'm not, because that's how it is. It's something I could have said weeks ago."
"Although I'm not happy with it I'm not considering my future," he added. "But things need to change if I'm to be here next year."
"The only reason I do it is for the lads," Jones continued. "They've been fantastic. They've come in, done a job and stuck together. It all boils down to inexperience, though.
"If we want to do anything in the league below next season, with what we've got in respect to young lads, it's not going to be anywhere near enough. If the club has got ambitions to get back into this league then it has to invest a lot heavier than it is doing now.
"I've heard people saying we've got enough to get back up with what we've got. We haven't. We're nowhere near. The unfortunate fact is that with young lads you do get inconsistency."