Rowley: I want to excite the fans

New Yeovil Town manager Billy Rowley has said he wants to “excite” the club’s supporters as he begins life in the Huish Park hot-seat.

The former Chelsea and Fulham youth coach was unveiled as the club’s fourth manager on Tuesday replacing Richard Dryden who has taken charge of the first-team affairs since the end of September.

He takes over a side without a win in eight matches in all competitions ahead of the visit from Boston United to Somerset on Saturday.

Speaking to the club’s social media about his managerial style, Rowley said: “I want football to be played in the opposition’s half, I am a massive advocate of build-up play and controlling the game, but fans want to see goals, people shooting and running in to the box. One thing I really want to do is excite this tremendous group of fans and get some goals and hopefully that can start on Saturday.”

He added: “I just want the next few weeks to get the fans proud of watching the team play, play with a lot of energy and I want teams to come here and fear to play us for a few different reasons, what we do with and without the ball.”

The club’s announcement on Tuesday morning made no reference to the future of either Dryden or his assistant manager Jerry Gill, but Rowley said he had been told by the club’s owner Prabhu Srinivasan that he would be supported to bring in new players.

He said: “The aim is to get back in the Football League and both the owners and I believe this group of players are almost capable of that. I am looking forward to seeing the players up close and seeing what they are capable of. The owners have said they are happy to bring in some new faces, but I am a firm believer in providing a lot of clarity to players and giving them a real structure and identity of how to play.”

The Glovers’ rumour mill began linking the 43-year-old with the job after his departure from Southern League South side Walton & Hersham was confirmed on Monday afternoon. He has guided them to top of the Step 3 division, two below the National League Premier Division in the football pyramid, and earned high praise for his attacking style.

Walton confirmed an approach for their manager came whilst they were playing out a 0-0 draw at home to Hungerford Town on Saturday, at the same time as Yeovil were held to their own goalless draw at Morecambe. Rowley was handed a contract until the end of the 2027-28 season on Tuesday.

He admitted the rapid rise up the footballing divisions will be a learning curve, saying: “I am pretty sure we can start progressing up the table. It is going to be a challenge and I am going to have to learn this league and about this fan base very quickly. I feel I am a quick learner, I have experienced a lot of challenges in my time as a coach and manager, but the aim is to give these boys a real blueprint of how I want us to play, press and score and I look forward to getting out with them and helping to get us on an upward trajectory.”

He added: “I have been speaking to the owners for the past 24 hours and we very much aligned in everything I see and feel about football. It is a massively community-based club, the history of the club is incredible and I know a few boys that have played for this team down the year and they cannot speak highly enough of it. One of my best friends is from the town and he bleeds green-and-white, so it has been an incredible 24 hours and I am just looking forward to getting on the grass with the lads.

“I cannot speak highly enough of the people I have worked with at Walton, but when a club like Yeovil calls you up, it is incredibly hard to turn that down. When you pull up to the stadium you instantly get grabbed by the club and this is the type of team, club and ownership which I want to be a part of. I am excited and very humbled by this and I need to treat this job with an immense amount of humility but also with confidence in what I do and my management team can do.“