Ex-West Ham coach Searle has big hopes for Hastings United – and gets perfect start

Searle brings a wealth of experience to the role, having previously managed at Braintree, Aldershot and Ebbsfleet United in the National League as well as holding the position as Head of Coaching at West Ham United.

He has also managed Waterford In Ireland and been assistant manager at Czech Republic first division side Banik Ostrava. Despite these roles, Searle has dropped down from professional football to manage the Us – and he revealed what attracted him to the club.

Searle’s first game in charge of the Us brought a 3-2 win at Chichester City courtesy of goals by Fin Chapman, Jack Dixon and Davide Rodari.

Speaking before that game, Searle said: “I've been fortunate to have some good roles and and I think that when you go to meet boards, clubs, staff and what-not it's really important to get a feel for the fabric of the club and I was really excited by how excited they are for the club.

“I think that when you're going to work with people on a weekly, daily or yearly basis however long these these relationships last, you want to be working with people that have got equal passion for what you're trying to achieve – and they they've got an abundance of that, so for me it was a no-brainer.”

Searle took a rare opportunity to complete his UEFA pro licence despite only managing 156 first-team games. He has spoken about his career so far from coaching youth football to the present day.

“I was coaching at a really young age and I've been fortunate to work at some bigger clubs and spent a long time in that development process of my life and the itch was there that I wanted to make a step into into the first team environment.

“That led me to to doing my pro licence which is a fantastic achievement as I didn't have a massive playing career so to be given the opportunity to work in that sort of environment with those sort of people was fantastic but management wise I've been fortunate and I've had some great clubs and some great challenges.

“I'm still developing as a manager. I've done 175-180 games now as a manager but I still feel in my infancy and opportunities like this and having the chance to to cut my teeth in a level I don't really know that much about, I've watched a lot of football at this level but actually working in this environment on a part-time basis is the first part-time I've had.

“So I'm excited about it because I'm hoping that I can adapt to the fact I'm working with part-time players but also bring an element of that full-time professional environment into the club that can improve not just the players but the environment that we're working in.”

Hastings sit 18th in the table after the win at Chichester – their first in six league games – and Searle was impressed with his new players’ attitude after their 1-1 draw with Carshalton three matches ago.

He said: “ I was quite impressed with the desire of the players against Carshallton coming off the back of the result on the [previous] Saturday (9-0 loss at Hendon) because it was not a good day for the club and I think everyone was hurting from that one.

“They put up a fight and I was quite impressed with Carsharlton because they tried to play and I thought there was times in the game where they [Hastings] could have easily surrendered if they were in that mindset but they didn't and they kept fighting.

“Overall I think the draw was probably a fair result, I thought they both had chances to nick the game so there's some characters in there which I think that we can enhance and improve and there's definitely some tactical stuff we need to get better at as well.”

Searle’s first home game will be on December 21 when they face Bowers and Pitsea but he first has to deal with two more away games.

“I want to work, I want to be in the dugout, I want to be on the grass with the players and I think that people say to you all the time that football is hectic, it's busy and that's something that I thrive on.

“I'm trying to think of ways I can get to do more work with the players so we haven't just got Tuesdays and Thursdays.

"We're trying to look at ways in which we can grow the club so that we're creating a much more professional environment and that's not to disrespect anything that's gone on previously but evolution is important in football and we've got to evolve as a club and hopefully I can be a part of that process and and that busy Christmas period is just the start of it.”