Couch sitting proudly at the top of Western League

In just their second season as a Western League Football Club, Brixham AFC are sitting at the top of the table, and the view is very pleasant.

Led by the management team of Jason Couch and Tim Porter, the Fishermen have lost just once in their opening 14 league fixtures and head into the midweek trip to St Blazey looking to extend their winning run to nine matches.

For everyone at Wall Park, the current position is a source of great pride, a success built on solid foundations, while understanding there is a long way to go.

“This is the highest the club has ever been, which is fantastic, but it is also very early days,” said Couch. “We’re not even a third of the way through the season but the lads are on a roll.

“There have been a lot of games, we did alright in the FA Cup and played a lot of football.

“We pride ourselves on work rate, our teams will work as hard off the ball as they do on it. It is a pre-requisite to being in our dressing room and playing for the team.

“The other thing is we have a core of seven or eight lads who have been at Brixham for a long time, they’ve grown up together, played football together, so the team spirit and desire to do well for each other comes naturally.

“Our success is based on players wanting to represent Brixham and taking pride in the club. We want to build something where, no matter who is in charge, the right mindset and attitude continues long into the future.”

To win eight games in a row, at any level, requires a combination of defensive discipline and potency in attack.

In the early weeks of the campaign, Brixham struggled to score goals, a spell that brought three successive 0-0 draws in the league, but they have now rediscovered the scoring touch and maintained an excellent defensive record, conceding just three goals in the eight-game run.

“Historically, we have always done well defensively but this season has gone to another level,” added Couch. “We don’t set out to be hard to beat, we set out to win games, so our team talks aren’t all about sitting in for clean sheets.

“As we’ve progressed this season, the lads are taking huge pride in keeping the ball out of the net, they celebrate clean sheets as much as they celebrate a goal.

“It is something that has developed and they keep striving to achieve that every time we play. We weren’t scoring enough goals at the start of the season but we’ve got some lads back from injury, some fresh faces, and the goals are coming as well.”

In a division as competitive as the Western League, Couch and his team are acutely aware how quickly things can change, and the challenge that every game brings is a source of inspiration for the Fishermen.

The Western League is packed with strong clubs, proud players and determined managers, which all adds up to a long hard slog to the end of the season, but a slog that will be great fun to watch. 

“It’s great for the club and the supporters to be top of the table, but it means nothing at this stage,” said Couch. “Our aim is to finish as high as possible at the end of the season.

“Nobody gives you anything in the Western League, you have to fight for everything. We beat Nailsea 2-0 on Saturday, they were down to ten men for a long time but they were still always in the game.

“There are some very talented and very honest players at this level. If you speak to any manager coming up from the Peninsula League, they all agree that the big difference is the fact every team has a chance in every game.

“It’s what football is about, and I love it, because you can never relax as a manager. There are probably eight teams that could be top and some of those have games in hand on us, so we know how competitive the challenge will be.

“All we care about is where we finish in the table at the end of the season. Our supporters are loving the fact we are the highest team behind Torquay United in Torbay.

“For us, all we care about is what we can achieve and we’ve done this without some key players through injury. Lads have come in and grabbed the shirt, which is testament to what we are building at the club.”

Everyone at Brixham AFC and the Torbay Weekly would like to send their best wishes to midfielder Jacob Chisholm, who suffered a broken arm in the weekend win over Nailsea & Twickenham. Get well soon Chis!