First published in December 2023

As the season’s halfway mark approaches, manager Micky Nathan has his sights firmly set on closing the gap to the top five and pushing for a play-off place.

‘Without a shadow of a doubt,’ he says. ‘At the start of the season we had the goal of being right up there and I still think that’s the case. We’ve played a lot of teams at the top and we’ve done okay. We have games in hand and the squad is getting stronger now. I definitely feel that because it’s getting harder to pick the 16 for a matchday, so the goal is the play-offs.’

The 5-0 defeat against Real Bedford a fortnight ago was a setback but not a result or performance to derail the team. ‘It was a tough one, because we prepped them the right way and we all believed we could get something out of the game,’ Micky says. ‘We’d watched them and knew they were a very good side. They work at what they do and they’re good at it but we set out 4-5-1 and wanted to be a bit more compact. The early goal was a bit unfortunate. We were a bit slow in getting across the pitch to shut them down but for the next 70 minutes I thought the players were doing what we asked them to do, which was to be disciplined, stay in shape and, if we did get opportunities – which we knew would be few and far between – we’d try to capitalise.

‘While it was 1-0, I felt we had a chance to get something. Anything can happen in football, especially at 1-0. We could have got a deflected shot, or picked up a misplaced pass, and might have nicked one at the end. If we had, they [Real Bedford] would probably had said, quite rightly, that they’d deserved to win but if we’d have walked off with a point that’s football. I felt if we’d stuck at what we were doing, not got bored, we might have got something. Players want to play, I understand that, but good teams know when to attack, when to commit and when to just hold the shape.

‘What you can’t do is go away from the basics. We brought on fresh legs and perhaps went attacking a bit much and gave them the space to get the second goal. From there, perhaps there was a bit of naivety. A couple of experienced players had come off and Real Bedford took advantage.

‘But look, we don’t get too high when we win and we don’t get too low when we lose. I’d have taken a 1-0 or even 2-0, even though it wasn’t the result we wanted, but to concede four in, what, 18 minutes? That’s not what I’ve instilled in the players and, to be fair, they didn’t need me to tell them that afterwards.

‘That’s gone now. Football is all about how you respond to mistakes and setbacks, whether you learn, and so we have to take the things we’ve learned from that game and apply them to the rest of the season.’

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Micky joined Harpenden Town as a coach during Martin Standen’s short spell as manager and was then asked by chairman Roman Motyczak to take over when Standen left to join Bedford Town at the end of January 2020.

Just six weeks into the job, the pandemic stopped all football. The following season was cancelled after just 11 league games. In his two full seasons in charge, Harpenden have finished fifth and 11th and although those two league positions might not suggest it, Micky believes the club has been progressing constantly on and off the pitch.

‘We are building something,’ he says. ‘Players move around a lot at this level – it’s an ever-revolving door, especially with the money some clubs at this level have to throw at it. We don’t have that luxury but we do have quite a stable squad with a core of players who’ve been here a while and we’re starting to add to that now. Having a core of local players is important – Jake Collins, Ryan Plowright and George Robinson are local and have been here longer than me –but wherever the players are from they know they’re representing the club and the town.

‘It is an exceptionally tough league but off the pitch we are generating more money, which helps. I want to create a team that wants to push higher and achieve something. The chairman and all the volunteers have worked tirelessly and the players are very aware of that. When I first came here we’d get 30 people and a couple of dogs. Now we’re getting close to 200 and a couple of dogs. That shows everything is moving in the right direction. I remember playing against Harpenden when we used to warm up on the car park, which was grass, and then walk through the bushes to get to the pitch. So the transformation has been incredible.’

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Micky looks back at an FA Cup tie with Aveley when football resumed in September 2020 as an example for the club to follow. ‘They were Step 4 then, just one division higher than us, but they beat us 3-0 and I thought they were excellent. They had two big centre backs who’d head it about 40 yards but they also got the ball down and played their football. They have gone on now and are doing really well in National League South at Step 2. I feel they are the sort of club for us to emulate. On the pitch they’re who we want to be.

‘I want us to be confident enough to play because we have got some really good players. When Steve [O’Reilly] and Swanny [Rob Swan] set up the coaching drills, it’s all about what you can do with the ball at your feet. Can you move it quickly and under control? Can you play in tight spaces? We have to do the basics, of course. We have to defend and our work-rate has to be exceptionally high without the ball, but I’ve always wanted to play football. I want to get the ball into midfield, get it wide, get it into the strikers’ feet. I believe football should be enjoyable whether you’re playing or watching.’

The new pitch helps the style of play. ‘It does,’ says Micky, ‘but we have to adapt because every other week we’ll be on a grass pitch away from home and you get good ones and bad ones. We can’t switch off away from home or blame a bad pitch. We have to be able to play whatever the conditions.

‘But at home it is already an asset. It’s starting to attract players because people want to play on it. The whole set-up has taken the club to another level. Mark Ducket [Real Bedford’s assistant manager] said a couple of weeks ago “I don’t recognise the place.”’

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As a boy, Micky was at Chelsea, then Leyton Orient, before dropping down and playing non-league for the likes of Hertford Town and Broxbourne Borough as a striker. ‘I was a striker, I played up front most of my career. As I got older, a bit wiser, the legs started to go but the head was still there so I dropped back into central defence. I was quite quick. There was nothing of me – I was 10 stone wringing wet so I a quick and nimble player and had two decent feet. I loved playing football. I still love it. If I could play now I would.’ After playing, he got into coaching and management with Broxbourne and St Margaretsbury before joining Harpenden.

Micky, who describes himself as 43 going on 23, has a strong bond with his coaching staff but knows there’s an even more important backroom team behind him – his wife Michelle and their nine-year-old daughter Lexi. ‘My commitment is my family’s commitment,’ he says. ‘My wonderful wife Michelle is a massive supporter of me and what I want to do. We met when I was playing so she knows what football is all about. She doesn’t quite love the fact I am a manager, with all the time it takes up, but she understands it’s what drives me. Lexi is nine so she loves the fact I’m a manager and I get to tell the players what to do. She loves the club, loves the team and the players and wears her Harpenden Town FC beanie with pride. She tells me what I should be saying in the team talks!

‘We live in Waltham Abbey, so there’s a lot of travelling, coming round the M25 three times a week. Me, Steve, Swanny and James are always talking. If we’re not training or playing, we’re planning training, communicating with the players, watching the opposition. It’s constant but I wouldn’t want to do anything else.’ GREEN&GOLD