James Kinsey | Interview with Wythenshawe Town Boss

Wythenshawe Town boss James Kinsey is pleased his side are finding their clinical edge in the North West Counties Premier Division, after brushing aside Vauxhall Motors last weekend.

Positive, but not perfect start

Kinsey’s side breezed to a 5-0 home win and had put the game beyond doubt at half-time, with two goals from Matty Bryan and a goal each for Deane Smalley and Jan Palinskas capped with a late fifth for new signing Harvey Whyte.

Town have made a positive start to the season, winning three of their four league games and progressing in the FA Cup with victory over Thackley Town in the extra preliminary round.

The result leaves Wythenshawe second to Charnock Richard only on goal difference, who destroyed Ashton Athletic 9-1 on Saturday.

“It’s a great result. I wanted us to be more clinical and on Saturday we did that.  We’re trying to build on clean sheets, something we’ve achieved frequently in the past couple of years. We’ve had some good results against Vauxhall in the past couple of years, and we thought we were the better side. We’ve started games slowly, so the Vauxhall game was really pleasing. Second half performances have won us games at Padiham, Ashton Athletic and Thackley. We’ve got to start faster and we were 4-0 at half time, and honestly disappointed it only finished at 5. Vauxhall are a well established side so it was a brilliant result.

“It’s good to bounce back with a win from an unfortunate result on Wednesday night. It’s a good start, but not a fantastic one because I believe we could have won all four,” he said.

Defeat leaves sour taste in the mouth

Town’s only defeat so far came away to Northwich Victoria, losing 3-1 and having a first-half goal questionably chalked off for a foul in the build up.

Joel Bembo-Leta’s headed goal was ruled out for pushing in the box, but by this stage Wythenshawe were already 2-0 down and chasing the game.

“It’s a major frustration because we really didn’t deserve to lose that game, and had a blatant goal disallowed. It’s not even debatable. I’ll admit when we’re well beaten. At this level, clubs like Northwich will punish you for mistakes,” he said.

Top six ambitions

Given their results so far, it’s easy to forget this is Wythenshawe’s first-ever season at this level, having won promotion to Step 5 thanks to their combined good record in the two abandoned Covid hit seasons.

This hasn’t stopped the clearly-ambitious Kinsey from setting his side a target of reaching the top six in their first season. This isn’t a manager who will be happy with mere survival.

“This season is all about being solid and learning the league. I don’t read anything into the table at this stage. There’s not much of a difference in standard between this league and our last. We’ve had no issues beating higher-ranked teams since I’ve been here, including Curzon Ashton and Skelmersdale United.

“We’re going into games blind really, as we don’t know much about the opposition unless we get to watch them.

“If we achieve top six, that will be a great year. We’ll give it a really good go in year two,” he said.

Young, experienced manager

Kinsey is only 29, but already has 10 years of coaching experience. After taking on a coaching apprenticeship at Oldham Athletic aged 18, he progressed to working for the Manchester County FA at a national level working with talented young players from clubs across the region.

He continued to gain valuable experience at East Manchester FC, where he worked with current assistant manager Daniel Whiteside. The pair made the move to Wythenshawe in 2018, with their former club third in the Manchester Premier League.

“It’s going pretty well to be fair! Coaching just came naturally to me. I played when I was younger and ended up working full time at Oldham, and it took off from there. I feel 29! It is stressful, but I have a great team around me. I knew Dan initially as a friend, we played together years ago. We take opposite approaches to deal with things, but it works. The lads have a massive amount of respect for all the coaches Gav Salmon and Grant Spencer, and it’s great to have them on board.”

Wythenshawe continue their season on Tuesday night away at Runcorn Town.