Charlie Horlock

I recently spoke to Charlie Horlock and we had in depth discussion which covered how he became the club captain, his philosophy as captain, his views on how the club have been performing, what he thinks of Hitchin and its supporters and how he has had to cope with a family bereavement.

Charlie played his first game for Hitchin in November 2014 and despite spells at Eastbourne and Hastings he is now a fixture between the posts for Hitchin and is closing in on 200 appearances. He is popular with both the supporters and his fellow players and is undoubtedly one of the’’ good guys’’. He often stood in as captain last season if Dan Webb was unavailable and with Dan retiring Charlie spoke to manager Mark Burke in the close season about the captaincy position. But while he wanted the role. Charlie told me he did not just assume he would take over from Dan and put no pressure on Mark. He would willingly have stood aside if Mark had alternative plans. He said it was not just about him but as it was Mark did give the captaincy to Charlie and he was proud to accept the role.

I asked Charlie if being a goalkeeper made it harder to be captain, but he said he liked other players to take responsibility during a game and you do not need to be a captain to be a leader. Charlie’s priority is to organise the defence, but he said that as captain players do acknowledge the armband and will listen to him. There is a fines committee at Hitchin which consists of Jack Green, Josh Coldicott-Stevens and Charlie himself. They decide on fines for players and organise social events and the committee is voted on by the players, so Charlie is not there because he is captain, but he says it helps to give consistent messages.

As to how Charlie carries out his role as captain he told me he is always happy to have one to one conversations particularly with the younger players. He feels younger players are less likely to open up so he will approach them. One thing Charlie is keen to monitor is players who may not be in the team on a regular basis. He tells them that he knows how disappointed they feel as he spent a lot of time on the bench at Wycombe, but he tells them to keep positive and to be a team player and particularly to be positive on a match day. He advises players to be open and to discuss matters with the manager rather than create a bad atmosphere.

Charlie has three main strands to his captaincy—empathy, honesty and timing. With empathy Charlie will try to relate to any player and the problems they may have and will discuss these in an open fashion. Honesty means he will not sugar coat situations and will tell a player if he is not working hard enough or if he is letting the team down. Timing means that when Charlie does need to criticise a player he will do it at the right time and not in the heat of the moment. Charlie gave me the example of a player last year who was not being picked for the team and was creating a toxic atmosphere in the dressing room. Charlie showed empathy to the player and spoke to him to get his point of view. Charlie was honest with him and told him he was creating a bad atmosphere and the timing was right because it was not on a match day. After their discussion Charlie said the player wanted to work with the other players so it was a successful exercise.

Charlie also showed empathy with Lewis Barker after his recent sending off at Bromsgrove. It was a very harsh decision and Charlie encouraged LB and told him not to change his style in a one-on-one meeting. Charlie says the current group of players are all good people and there are no bad apples causing problems. They are all behind each other which makes Charlie’s captaincy job easier and they are working hard. There is a positive culture and Charlie cited how Jack Morrell has been really supportive despite his injury problems

Charlie says that he demands intensity and hard work from the players. These are facets of the game that are totally in your own hands regardless of the quality of the opposition and Charlie feels he has every right to demand this from his teammates. In the close season the coaching staff analysed where we had gone wrong last season and worked out a strategy to ensure this season was better. The intensity and hard work were essential and we needed to be more difficult to beat. Charlie said there were no thoughts of going for the play-offs pre-season but if we were hard to beat and ground out results we would see where this would take us. In pre-season the management worked hard with the players to instil this ethos and ensure all players knew their roles and Charlie is convinced it will stand us in good stead.

There will always be blips in a season and Charlie addressed the Bedford game. He thought everyone tried their best and there was no lack of effort, but we failed to stick to the principals that we set pre-season and certain players were below their normal levels. After the game the players were told where they went wrong but the positives were also given. Charlie assured me the players hate losing and are very keen to put things right. The training session after the Bedford game was very intense and the players really gave everything and are determined to put things right. The players react well to adversity and Charlie is optimistic for the future. Yes, there will be turbulent times but when the current injuries clear we will become stronger and now is no time to panic.

I asked Charlie about how he felt about the club and the supporters. He says he loves the club and is impressed by how everyone pulls together. He likes the way Hitchin is off the field and he appreciates what the many volunteers have achieved and how the stadium has improved. He thinks the supporters have been superb as they could easily have turned on the players last season but instead remained supportive and he was impressed with how attendances increased. Charlie says he is desperate to reward the supporters for being so loyal.

Charlie suffered a terrible blow recently when his mother passed away. It was a devastating blow to Charlie and his family and it is remarkable that he has been able to produce such excellent performances despite how hard it has been to concentrate on football. The funeral was the Saturday before the Bedford game and Charlie admitted it affected his preparation and he was not in the right frame of mind mentally but being the good club-man he is he was not going to let the club down.

We are very lucky to have Charlie as our goalkeeper and club captain. There are few better keepers in the league and as a captain he really is the ideal role model. I never fail to be impressed by Charlie when I speak to him, and he is keen to keep in touch with the supporters so has agreed to give me a monthly interview which will give further insight into what is going on in the dressing room. In the meantime Charlie is coaching with the academy teams and at certain local schools. He feels the coaching has made him a better keeper than he was at Wycombe as it has given him more tactical awareness and he has seen a bigger picture in games.

BY ROY IZZARD