At the end of a disastrous 2008 – 2009 season Prescot Cables were inevitably relegated after a campaign that saw them fail to win a single match on a Saturday.

Manager Andy Gray whilst having served Prescot for 4 years as Manager and a period before that as Assistant, decided it was time to move on.

Four Managerial Teams were selected for interview and Joey Gibiliru and Dave Ridler emerged triumphant. Both having been involved with Cables, Gibiliru as a player/manager and Ridler as a player.

Having now reached the half way point of the season and with Cables having achieved mixed results Gibiliru agreed to speak about his appointment and results so far - “It meant a lot to me to return because I had enjoyed my time as Player/Manager, I really wanted to return and enjoy success at the Club”.

The timing of Grays exit was perfect for Joey who had just left Winsford Town after having successfully avoided relegation - “I find the set up at Prescot is very good, everybody seems to work together to keep the Club going, this includes both the Directors and the Supporters who put a lot of time and effort into raising funds and always support and attend any events in the club, it’s a real credit to the town”.

Joey seemed to be well aware of the challenge that he faced in taking on a role at the club - “When I got the job at Prescot word spread and I soon had players phoning me wanting to play for Prescot, I think because they knew me and of the good reputation of Cables throughout the North West. However, you need to have a baseline to start from and fortunately I had six players that had played for me previously”.

Gibiliru’s first game in charge was a baptism of fire, an away fixture to promotion hopefuls Lancaster which resulted in a heavy defeat. When asked how that affects confidence he was quick to respond, “the game was frustrating, losing through a number of general team mistakes that caused the goals, but either way I had to pick a team upon which to build. Whilst it wasn’t the start I’d hoped for you have to put it behind you and move onwards and upwards”.

In this league prolific goal scorers, or ‘Foxes in the Boxes’, as Joey calls them, are extremely hard to come by. A player that Joe admires as a striker left Cables at the end of last season and he openly admits that he, “"Would have liked Darren Byers to have stayed from last seasons squad but unfortunately he left for Burscough. But I would have to say that a number of younger players in our squad, you can clearly see, have the potential to do well at this level and then progress further."

"I am comfortable with the first half of the season, we are in a decent position in the league although I would have liked to have still been involved in a cup competition. Games that stand out for us were the Halifax and Skelmersdale fixtures as we weren’t really expected to win. On the other side I feel we really should have won games at both Atherton and Ashton.”

With regards to the second half of the season Joey said “Well I hope and expect the second half of the season to continue to improve for Cables with positive results and importantly good football and if I had to pick a game, I am really looking forward to the rematch against Halifax at their stadium”.

Most of Joes life has revolved around football or playing football and whilst he considers his best sporting achievement to be his own selection for England School Boys he is looking to the future. He sincerely hopes that his most memorable sporting achievements are yet to come with Prescot Cables in some form or another.

He is looking forward to a run of games, however, like many non league managers he has been frustrated by the recent bad weather, the inevitable disruption to training and the difficulty in maintaining momentum during the enforced break.

Nevertheless Joey expects that due to fans having been starved of football, with Cables having not played since the 12th December, a good turnout is expected at the Home game against Wakefield on Saturday 30th January.