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The head of football at Sittingbourne’s FA Trophy opponents has known Brickies manager Ryan Maxwell since he was a boy.
Legendary boss John Still is part of the management team at Southend United these days, helping boss Kevin Maher.
Maher, Maxwell and Still’s son, Robert, went to the same school in Essex and the 74-year-old knew of the young Northern Irishman as he was growing up.
Maxwell was even briefly at Dagenham in 2005 when Still was the manager, although he never made a first-team appearance.
“I knew of him when he was a boy,” said Still, whose club host Sittingbourne in the last 16 of the Trophy this Saturday (3pm).
“I would go and watch games that he would be playing in because it was in my area.
“We were in the Ilford area at the time and I knew of him because lots of people would say ‘That boy, Maxwell, he’s a good player, there’s lots of club looking at him’, so I thought I better have a look at him myself.
“I think he was at Crystal Palace then, or it might have been Chelsea, but as a kid he was a very good player.
“As you do in this game, when you get to a certain age, I never knew where he was or what he was doing but every now and then a name comes up that you know.
“I know he’s been at Sittingbourne for a couple of years and he was at Braintree for a year or two and he also managed at Walthamstow, so I know a little bit of his history.
“When you see a name come up, you think ‘I know them’ and you check out how they’re doing.”
Maxwell is going great guns at Sittingbourne, who are on a 27-game unbeaten run in all competitions going into the Trophy tie at Roots Hall.
He led Walthamstow to the top of their league and saved Braintree from relegation in National League South but has clearly found the perfect match in Sittingbourne.
“I don’t believe in luck because otherwise you start to use it as an excuse when things don’t go right,” said Still, who remains the only man to have won the Conference three times, leading Maidstone, Dagenham and Luton to glory in 1989, 2007 and 2014 respectively.
“But I do think managers need to take the right jobs.
“It’s easy to take a job that you’re not in the position to fulfil what the club want but everyone has to work and I understand that.
“Sometimes people take jobs and they’ve got no chance of achieving anything, so I think it’s good if people find a job that’s ideal for them and particularly the first job.
“That’s got to be the right job because sometimes you don’t get another chance.”
Southend, 11th in the National League, are big favourites to beat Isthmian South East Sittingbourne.
But Still has been around football too long to assume anything, with a place in the quarter-finals at stake.
“What cup competitions have taught me over the years is take nothing for granted, seriously,” said Still.
“Would it be any more amazing for Sittingbourne to win than it was when Tamworth played Tottenham a couple of weeks ago in the FA Cup and it was 0-0 after 90 minutes?
“I know Tottenham aren’t having a great time but you’re talking about Premier League players, international players, against Tamworth and over 90 minutes it’s 0-0.
“That was incredible. I don’t care who you play, if you aren’t bang on it, it can go wrong and I’ve always felt that.
“History proves that, doesn’t it? What chance did Hereford have against Newcastle in the FA Cup all those years ago, yet they won. It’s football.
“The quarter-finals are next so it’s a great opportunity for both teams.”
Southend were in the Championship as recently as 2007 but find themselves in non-league now.
They’re rebuilding under new owners following much-publicised financial problems under the old regime.
Still is helping to lay the foundations for the club to rise again, supporting Maher and assistant manager Darren Currie.
“There’s been lots of changes, which it needed, but the owners have made it clear they’re not throwing money around,” said Still.
“The stadium was falling down, it needed a lot of money spent on it, they’ve explained that to the management team.
“At some stages last year, we had 15 players, we were under a transfer embargo, we had nothing.
“But we’ve come through all that and things are beginning to change.
“A lot of money is going into getting the ground up to the right level, so the budget isn’t unbelievable, but we understand the situation and we work with what we’ve got.
“This year, in all honesty, is probably a free hit for the management team.
“There’s no expectation until we get things to where they can be and then it’ll start.
“It’s gradually improving weekly. We have 8,000 crowds - we won’t have that on Saturday - but it reminds me of when I was manager of Luton in this league and Div 2.
“We’d sometimes go to away games and have more support than the home team.
“We’ve got incredible support.
“It’s a big club and it should be in the Football League.
“Everything was there and they’re striving for everything to be there again.
“It isn’t at the moment but it’s getting back to that way.
“There was no timescale put on getting back to the league when we first met with the owners and they explained where they are and what they do.
“They’re pretty much aligned to getting the infrastructure right so we’ve got a base to build the club on but by the start of next season, lots of things they want to have in place will be in place.”