Vince Matassa had a fruitful season in England where he was a regular fixture in the starting eleven at Conference League outfit Woking. Out of favour at Basingstoke, the one-time national Under-20 custodian joined Woking in October and quickly established himself as an integral part in the team which climbed out of the relegation zone to end the recently-completed season mid-table. This week we caught up with the Perth born 28-year old to get his views on Woking's season, the standard of the English Conference, and his future ...

How did the offer to join Woking come up?
After returning from Australia at the end of the 1999/2000 season, I moved house to central London and was finding the travel out to Basingstoke a bit difficult so I requested a transfer but it was knocked back. I understand that Woking had already made an offer for me in the off-season, which was rejected, then when a second offer was made in October Basingstoke accepted it. I was delighted at the move as it was a higher level of football, and it cut my travel time in half.

I believe you were a regular in the Woking side for the best part of the season ... how did the winter pan out for the club?
Woking - who were one of the strongest teams in the Conference in the mid-1990's - have been struggling over the past few years. They just escaped relegation in 1999/2000 and when I joined they were second bottom with only three wins from their first seventeen games and things were looking a bit hazardous. We won my first two matches and over the next few months slowly moved up the table including a run of only one loss in thirteen games stretching from January to mid-April. We finished fourteenth (out of twenty-two) and, although slightly disappointing, we were well clear from relegation which meant we could relax in the last month of the season for a change!

That about for you personally, were you happy with your season?
On a personal level, I was very pleased with the way the season went. I received four of the five trophy's at the end of season presentation - Player of the Year, Supporters Player of the Year, Sponsor's Player of the Year, and Junior Supporters Player of the Year - so I guess the club and supporters were happy as well.

You were also named in a representative game during the season ...
Yeah. My form was such that I was selected in a F.A. XI trial game in early December, but suffered an injury the week before the trial which meant I couldn't take part. As a result I wasn't selected in the squad for the England Semi-Professional team that played Holland in March. It was disappointing, but I am not sure whether I was actually eligible in any case being Australian!

What is the Conference like?
The English Conference is a very tough, physical League. There are now eight full-time teams, mostly teams that have been relegated from the Third Division in previous years, so, as one of the remaining part-time teams we find it quite difficult to compete over a full season with them. With only one team gaining promotion to the Third Division each year it means a bad start gives you nothing to play for except to avoid relegation and try to progress as far as possible in the F.A. Cup. As shown during the early rounds of the F.A. Cup each season, teams in our League can compete very well with professional teams from higher divisions. In fact, Kingstonian, who defeated Brentford, Southend, and drew with Bristol Rovers in this years competition, ended up being relegated from the Conference at the end of the season as they were not good enough.

Having played for Gippsland Falcons and Perth Glory in the N.S.L., how would you say the Conference holds up compared to Australia's top League?
I think that the N.S.L. is a much more skilful league than the Conference, and as more and more teams in Australia turn full-time this will continue to improve. However, with 70-80% of players in the Conference having once played for higher division clubs, I think the Conference is a much faster, physically tougher league to play in. In fact there are ex-First and Second Division players in the Conference who claim that it is the physically toughest league they have played in, although not quite as fast paced as those leagues above.

I also find that we do not train as much as I used to in Australia, partly because we are not a full-time team and also because we usually have midweek games. With a successful Cup run you end up playing between 50 to 55 games in a season which is about double what we were playing in the N.S.L., so you can see why it is much more demanding.

What about off the park, how do the clubs in the Conference compare with those in the N.S.L.?
In terms of facilities and professionalism, there is a big gap between the top and bottom clubs like in Australia. The team promoted this season, Rushden and Diamonds, are a relatively new club like Perth Glory and have fantastic facilities and a millionaire owner who supports the club with anything they need. In fact, they are expected to go very close to promotion next year up to Division Two as they are better organised than a lot of Third Division clubs.

But the smaller clubs are trying to survive on crowds of around 1,000 which must be difficult - it certainly puts the N.S.L. and teams like Glory in a good light when they can attract 16-17,000 spectators a week. Woking attract an average of around 2000 spectators to their matches, and during a successful season this can increase to around 3000. I will say that 2000 English spectators in a stadium make more noise that 20,000 spectators of other nationalities, so the ground doesn't lack for atmosphere each week, that's for sure!

What are your plans for the future? I believe you have recent agreed to see out another season with Woking. What about beyond that, any plans to return to Perth in the near future?
My current contract with Woking allows me to leave them on short notice, so they are currently trying to get me to sign a new deal for the next 2-3 years. At this stage I am not sure what I will be doing so I have not signed, although I expect to be hear until around Christmas. I have been away from Australia for nearly four years, and while it has been thoroughly enjoyable, there is no place like home as they say. Ideally I would love to return to Perth in the near future, but I may find that the best opportunity for work or soccer is in the eastern states, and so I will have to wait and see what options I have. Goalkeepers can continue playing well into their 30's, and with the season I have just had I feel that there are plenty of years of football left in me at a top level.

Copyright Brett Klucznik, 2001. No part of this article may be reproduced without the prior content of it's author, Brett Klucznik (bklucznik@iprimus.com.au). Doing so would be a violation of copyright laws and regulations.