"Muscle memory" key for boss Bartley as Marlow look to climb again

Marlow boss Mark Bartley has said ‘muscle memory’ will be key for some of his players as they look to climb again following their demotion to the Southern League Central Division.

The Blues are in the process of adding quality players to an already solid base as they look to hit the ground running this season, but it’s been a rollercoaster for Marlow fans of late, with their club experiencing the high of promotion through the play-offs in 2024 before succumbing to relegation from the Southern League Premier South last season.

A dreadful campaign was hamstrung by uncertainty as key players departed, and the Blues could never quite shake the lacklustre form which kept them pinned to the bottom of the table.

 That is all behind them now, however, and they’re in the process of adding a raft of quality players to an already solid base of players they’ve managed to retain.

Those retained include top scorer Naheer Nawaf, Chris Ovenden, Alex Salmon, Mitch Parker and Josh Masters, while Bartley has moved to sign lots of new players including Kickie Dzimba, Shamar Moore, Nikolay Popov, Flavio Gyawu-Kyem and Darnell-Joe Luke.

Bartley said: “I’m pleased with where we are to be fair. We knew there would be some change. When you come down some players want to stay at the level.

“We’ve tried to help them to do that, but we’ve also worked on some names that we wanted to get in when it became clearer that we’d be back at step 4. In the main we’ve got most of the targets we were after so we’re progressing quite well.

“The boys have been grafting and now it’s a case of getting them into a more cohesive unit, but yeah, so far, I’ve been really pleased with them.

“When we talked about what we could improve on, having players like Josh Masters, Chris Ovenden, Alex Salmon, Toby Raggett, Naheer Nawaf, Mitch Parkers. With those guys returning we knew we’d have a good base.

“We’re also still in conversations with Josh Smith and hope to get him involved as well, and then all of the sudden you have the core of a team, barring Josh, that were the team that got promoted a couple of years ago.

He added: “They know how to stay the course and what the environment is like. They can set standards and what we’ve been able to do is add names around them. Signing players like Kickie Dzimba. There was a lot of competition for him locally. He’s a good goal scorer at step 4.

“We were pleased to get him over the line. We’ve also signed Shamar Moore, he’s not been announced yet, but we got that done last night. He’s ex Bracknell and has been at Basingstoke Town as well. He’s another player who adds real quality to the front end. He scored in his first start last night as well.

“Ryan North we’ve signed from Slough. He’s featured for us a couple of times in the past two years and has done well at Slough. He’s very accomplished. He’s very assured. Local player as well. A few of the other guys are typically players who have played in this league before, because it’s a slightly different league.

“Darnell -Joe Luke, played for Kings Langley last season. Everyone recognises he’s a good player at the level. Jacob Wilson is another player who’s played for Thatcham and Holyport, physically very good.”

Manager Mark Bartley believes the muscle memory of their promotion from step 4 - and the experience of playing at a higher level - will hold them in good stead as they bid to compete for promotion from the Central Division.

They’ve also made a good start in pre-season, even if friendly results often prove irrelevant. On Tuesday night they defeated Thatcham Town 2-0 away and were 5-1 winners over AFC Aldermaston.

“Muscle memory is a great thing,” added Bartley. 

“I think the players will be better for last season and we’re already seeing that. In the friendlies, watching someone like Naheer is playing with a different level of confidence.

“He looks more accomplished than he was a couple of years ago when he was instrumental in getting us promoted. He was good. The players can use it (last season’s relegation) to their advantage. When they land back at step 4, we’re used to winning games at step 4. Last year was tough, but at step 4 we’re used to winning games and we know what it’s like to go out with the pressure to win games. A lot of the players will benefit from it, I think they’re mentally stronger and they want to get back to step 3.”