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Interview with Davidl, Winner of the Jason Ivy Cup

Written by LarryPampushky

An interview with Davidl, manager of Woking Wednesday, who has just won this season's edition of the Jason Ivy Cup.

You joined Hattrick in December 2004. How did you hear about it?

A fellow Sheffield Wednesday fan reckoned that Hattrick needed more Wednesdayites, so sent a write-up to a supporters club mailing list. I don’t think that he plays any more but I’m just about still here.

Your team name suggests connections to Woking and Sheffield (nothing escapes me!). If you had to save one of them from a nuclear bomb, which would it be and why?

Haha. I’ve lived in Woking throughout my HT career and am currently sat at my PC here. In other words, I have a pretty strong incentive to save Woking. The world would miss Sheffield, where I was born and raised, more though.

After being knocked out of the main cup in round 4 you were parachuted into the Jason Ivy Cup. At that stage did you plan to win it?

I don’t really have a training regime now, so there was never going to be much downside from trying to win. At the start Matt was the top seed with the best team, and I was seeded second. There were maybe a dozen other teams that could give me about a 50-50 match. I knew I would have a chance if I got a bit of luck along the way, or some teams focused more strongly on the league.

In the final you were up against Rockingham Arms FC. What were your thoughts going into the match?

This was our fourth season together in the same II, and I’ve finished above them each time, so I suppose I should have been confident. I was pretty nervous though, and signed three new players shortly before the game. That was partly due to looking at my team a bit more carefully than normal and picking out some deficiencies. All of the signings will help me eke out a couple more seasons with my current squad and its 33yo inner mids, assuming I want to keep it going. But, I was also looking at in-form players who wouldn’t risk a TS hit coming into the club. I was pretty keen on winning at this stage.

You have spent an impressive total of 12 seasons in division II. Would you trade your Jason Ivy Cup win for promotion to the Premiership?

Promotion to the prem is definitely a “bigger” achievement in the game, but I don’t think my team would really be able to take advantage of playing there now and so I’m very happy to have a national trophy on the shelf. I’ll stick with what I have thanks.

As mentioned in the previous question, you have an impressive club record. What single tip would you give to a newbie?

Things that make intuitive footballing sense will not necessarily make for good game strategies.

The capacity of your stadium is 60,763, which seems a little small compared to other stadiums at your level. I'm sure you've thought about it, so what mistake have your rivals made?

To be honest, I try to let the financial side of the game take care of itself as much as possible. Serious budgeting seems a bit too much like work for my taste. So, I wouldn’t be at all sure that my ground is the right size. That said, I suspect that some managers may extra keen to guarantee that they never miss out on a ticket sale. It's also worth bearing in mind that home cup games are completely off the table from any teams from about Div III & up.

You have a couple of very good homegrown players in your squad. Is that something that is important to you?

I get attached to my players, and I’ve always enjoyed the long term team-building side of HT. Hagen (317596199) in particular was a great youth pull, and training a top class player from cradle to grave has been a lot of fun. It was certainly something that kept my interest in HT while the team was rebuilding and losing every week. A bit of a shame that circumstances meant he missed out on international (especially U20) recognition.

If your team had a song to run out to, what would it be?

Obviously its hard to choose between the range of fine music paying homage to the Wednesday, but after much consideration I’m going to pick We Are the Owls: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQvofIFrt6s).

What was the last book you read and would you recommend it?

What if: serious scientific answers to absurd hypothetical questions, by Randall Munroe. (http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRVMxNEToP1amrprE4l9SpqdK766sMyOEvg-qWWvMICNWOjCwTl) Great if you want to find out things like how many Yodas would be required to make Earth run on the Force instead of electricity. Highly recommended, though I think a lot of it is available free on (https://www.xkcd.com).

Please tell us about how you met your other half (or last conquest), and how they feel about your Hattrick addiction?

My right hand plays an important role in communication with the team.

What question should I have asked you that I haven't? (And what would your answer have been?)

Q. Is that enough questions? A. Yes