Non-League and Academy football writer

Mansor Omar is the lead first team coach at step 5 non-League side Hilltop FC, having previously been the manager of step 7 side Camden United/FC Soma, where he made really good strides in his development as a coach. Mansor had also previously been the manager at London Rangers, right at the start of his coaching journey, following his retirement from playing football, because of injury. However, Mansor, who had played non-League football in the past as a player, and who had also played senior football in Asia, has a lot of knowledge and experience of the game, despite only being in his early 30s. I recently caught up with Mansor to talk about his journey (so far) as a coach/manager in non-League. He certainly has a lot to be proud of.

Could you talk me through a bit about your footballing background, prior to getting into coaching?

Mansor: So I started playing football for academies and local sides quite early on, and then from there I went onto play for a team called Sport London e Benfica, and I played for them in the Harrow youth league, which was quite competitive. After that, at about 17, I joined Ealing Town Football Club, which was my first time playing men’s football. From that age I was playing Middlesex County League football on a Saturday, and also Sunday league football as well. After that I moved to Cricklewood Wanderers as a player at the age of 19, and as a team we did well. One season in the FA Vase we played against current step 4 side Ipswich Wanderers, only losing 1-0 to them. I played quite a lot of games for Cricklewood, before moving abroad to Qatar, after getting the opportunity to play there alongside international players. I had the opportunity to stay there, but for educational reasons my family said that I needed to come back to the UK. So that was a bit frustrating, but after doing my education I then had the opportunity to move to Malaysia for a short while with a Premier League side over there called UITMFC, who were a big team out there. However, I fell ill out there, and so I had to come back to the UK.

I would later return to Qatar, to play for Qatar FC’s Under 23 side, as well as having stints with their first team. I again came back to the UK after that, however, to finish my open university degree in sports fitness and coaching, before playing for a step 6 side. In one pre-season game against Romford I was through on goal when I had a really bad tackle, with my kneecap being dislocated and I also ended up doing my ACL, in that same tackle. So that prevented me from playing football for quite a while. 

Could you talk me through your journey as a coach, up until now?

Mansor: After having my surgery for my injury I thought that I might as well just focus on my coaching. So at 25/26 I started coaching at Kensington & Ealing Borough (Rising Ballers Kensington) which was at step 6, and then from there I moved on to later become the manager/head-coach of London Rangers. I did a year with London Rangers before Covid, and after that I decided to move onto the then named FC Soma, after they had been promoted to the Middlesex County Football League Premier Division. That was a big opportunity for me to manage a team at that level, and we did really, really well for a good while, and we were unbeaten at the top of the league. But then during the same season we had about eight players from our team who moved up to step 3/4 level. So that set us back a little bit, but we did really well in the time that I was with them, before Camden United merged with FC Soma, going under the name of Camden United.

You were the manager of Camden United. Could you talk me through some of your standout memories of your time managing the club in the Middlesex County Football League Premier Division? 

Mansor: So firstly at FC Soma we did really well as a club, and we had a great squad of quality players. At one time we went on a winning streak of two months, getting wins from every game. We had a friendly rivalry with Clapton Community, and we were ahead of them for a good while, and we also became the first club to do the double over them in the league, which was a big achievement. So the 2021/22 season went well, and then in the 2022/23 season (last season) we got off to a really difficult start after losing quite a lot of players, and I think that we lost eight out of eight matches, as we hardly had any players available for matches. Then after that I managed to recruit quite a lot of players, and we then went on a really good winning streak, pushing up to mid-table of the Middlesex County Football League Premier Division. We ended up facing Hilltop FC in a cup game, and we won the Islington Midweek League Cup, in what was a very emotional year for the club. Camden United’s co-founder Abdulaziz Munye tragically passed away, and so it was a very emotional time for the club and the community, and so the day in which we won the league cup was also a very emotional day in front of a good crowd of people. We were 2-1 down in that game, before winning it 3-2 in the last ten minutes of the game.

At Camden United we managed to raise a lot of funds for the club and we also made the local paper as well. During my year with them I managed to find my style of football and also implement that style of attacking football on the team, and we scored a lot of goals because of that, in a 3-4-3 formation. I enjoyed my time managing in the Middlesex County Football League Premier Division, and I would say that it’s one of the hardest leagues to get promoted from, as it’s very competitive. Out of all the step 7 leagues I would say that the Middlesex County Football League Premier Division is the hardest one. 

In your opinion who was the toughest side that you faced as Camden United manager?

Mansor: I would say that it was definitely Clapton Community. Shepherd’s Bush were also a really good side, but the games against Clapton Community, who are a very good team, was always a real battle on the pitch. What they stand for as a club is fantastic, and they have great people there. So it was always a great battle with Geoff Ocran’s team on the pitch, and he used to say some very commendable things in his post match interviews about us. It was always a real test to face Clapton Community. There were two games in particular against them which really standout. The first one was when we beat them 4-2 (away) when no one really knew a lot about us, and then in the second fixture at our place, we won that 2-1. And then quite a lot of people were speaking about us. However, the most recent game against Clapton Community finished 5-4 to them, last season, with James Briggs scoring a late winner. But I would definitely say that they are the toughest team that I’ve ever faced as a manager.

Could you talk me through a bit about why you left Camden United? And could you also tell me about your new coaching role at Hilltop FC?

Mansor: I left Camden United because I got an offer from Park View FC to become their manager. So I looked at that and thought that I want to progress as a manager  at step 6, and the facilities at The New River Sports Centre are great as well. There was then a breakdown in negotiations, however, which delayed my process, and so by the time that I’d told Camden that I was leaving because I wanted to move on purely for a new challenge, that broke down. Then Hilltop, who I know quite well as a club, they approached me and said that they needed someone to be one of their main coaches, as one of their head-coaches had left the club. So now I’m working closely with the Hilltop manager Abdullah Mohamed, and we are now safe from relegation to step 6 this season, and we’re also in the quarter-finals of the Cherry Red Records Premier Challenge Cup, where we’ll face Bedfont Sports next month.

How have you found it this season, to be coaching at step 5 of the non-League system for the first time?

Mansor: It’s been very good, but it has been a challenge with the intensity at this level definitely being higher. But for me I’ve played football professionally abroad, and so I’m not someone who’s coming out of a very amateurish step 7 league, and so I do have that experience. But it has definitely been challenging being on the sidelines, and Hilltop don’t have a budget, so we don’t pay any of our players. And so we are a tight knit community and those players have been on an incredible journey from step 8 to step 5. So what we are competing against both as a club and us as coaches is against coaches and teams who have that budget and who can pay players. Hilltop have done really well this season to maintain our status as a step 5 club, and also to do really well in the FA Vase this season as well. We went extremely far in the FA Vase, and we actually dominated most of that cup tie with Romford, but they scored from three set-pieces which won them the game. But to reach the last 16 of the FA Vase is an incredible achievement.

What have you made of the current (2023/24) Combined Counties Football League Premier Division North season, both as a whole, and also for Hilltop FC?

Mansor: I think that as a whole it has been a very competitive season. It’s a very balanced league as well, as any team can beat any team on the day and if you just look at the results from this season, then that really shows you that. Adding the play-offs in the league this season has given the clubs in the league more motivation to push on. So it’s been a very exciting season in the league. For us as a club, we know that we could’ve done better this season. We look at ourselves and know that we shouldn’t be where we are in the league. That is down to a couple of things, for example we’ve got some of our goal-scorers from last season who got a lot of goals for the club, who are unavailable. And we do create a lot of chances as a club for the forwards.

Since you’ve been coaching at Hilltop this season, who would you say has been the most impressive team that you have faced?

Mansor: I joined the club as a coach in November, and so I haven’t seen us play clubs such as Flackwell Heath or Rayners Lane. However, for me Bedfont Sports are a team who have been head and shoulders above most other teams. They’re very aggressive as a team and they play on the front foot, and are therefore very difficult to play against. Bedfont Sports are currently third in the league. Egham Town were also a team that I thought were very decent when we played them, and also Holyport, as well.

What in your opinion has been your proudest contribution to coaching in non-League football, so far?

Mansor: For this season I would definitely say that it was Hilltop reaching the last 16 of the FA Vase, when we were very unlucky not to beat Romford. Also, the cup win with Camden United against Hilltop was huge for me as a coach, and that was the first standout memory for me.