Bascome taught me well, says new boss Parsons
Boulevard's new coach Michael Parsons has vowed to use the knowledge passed down to him from former boss Andrew Bascome and win the Premier Division title this season.
It has been a turbulent campaign for Blazers who saw Bascome quit because of a row over poor training attendances and were threatened with being booted out of the league unless they found a home venue.
But adversity seems to bring out the best in Blazers and Parsons, who lost his first game in charge against Dandy Town last week, believes the club's never-say-die-spirit will be crucial if he is to finish off the work Bascome started by winning the much-coveted title.
"There are absolutely no bad vibes between Drew (Bascome) and the club," stressed the 28-year-old.
"All the players give him the same respect as we did when he was our coach.
"There are a lot of things from him we all have learned from the training ground, observed his methods and I am taking a page out of his book and putting it back into the team.
"I spoke to our former assistant Richard Todd (now coach at St.George's) a few days ago and he reminded me of the saying that hard work does pay.
"In life you have to think that no matter what your problems are someone around the world has had it worse than you – that has to be the club's mentality.
"We do not have any pressure on us, but if we had won our game against Dandy Town we would have put pressure on the other teams."
The former Bermuda Hogges defender decided to sit out the Hornets match in order to focus on his coaching duties and, as a qualified C Licence coach, he reckons he was the best available man for the job.
"All coaches involved with the clubs have to be certified and I think that comes into effect soon," said Parsons, "I have everything sorted out so I felt I should stand up.
"Because of the Bermuda Football Association ruling which stats that only people who are licensed coaches can be on the touchline, we really didn't have anyone else that could do the job.
"I think the guys will relate to me more than someone else coming in now anyway.
"We are a team and as a team we are all coaches in our own right.
"It is not like I'm this high person who will takes the credit if we do well.
"I am just trying to keep us sharp and ready for what lies ahead this season."
Blazers' bad training habits were the reason Bascome walked away from the club and Parsons admits there must be a change in attitude towards practicing if they are to achieve anything this term.
"If I only get 10 or 11 guys to training that is fine as we do not have players who are paid to be footballers, so I understand," he said.
"But when 30 players show up to play on matchday and yet you only had eight guys training throughout the week, well, something has to change."
Blazers take on Southampton Rangers at the Southampton Oval on Sunday.