Non-League and Academy football writer

Seweryn Kowalczewski is PFC Victoria London joint head-coach, alongside Mateusz Czekalski. Following PFC Victoria’s impressive 4-0 Combined Counties Football League Division One win over Woodley United on Wednesday evening, I did a post-match interview with Seweryn, who I thank for his time.

Could you talk me through a bit about your background in football?

Seweryn: Before moving to the UK in 2004, I used to play semi-pro football in Poland. Along with my business partner Mario, since 2013 we’ve been running a youth football academy, called Magic. This is currently my second season as head-coach of PFC Victoria, alongside Mateusz. Before that I was the head-coach of the PFC Victoria Under 18’s side, for three seasons. I’m also currently a UEFA B coach, but I’m just really enjoying my second season in men’s football, along with Mateusz. It’s a lot of work as we don’t have a big coaching staff. But, alongside Tomasz and Tom we are doing fantastic work as a club. We’ve also got a reserves and Under 18 side, and we’re also hoping to open some more youth teams, as well.

What has been your standout moment in non-League football with PFC Victoria, so far?

Seweryn: I think that it would have to be last season. We missed out on making the play-offs by one point, which we were obviously very, very upset about. Also, we lost on penalties to Bedfont in the semi-finals of the Middlesex Premier Cup, but I am proud of those moments so far with PFC Victoria. 

What are some of your thoughts on this evening’s game?

Seweryn: On the game, we were very upset to be knocked out of the FA Vase on Saturday. We knew that Woodley weren’t going to be as strong as last season, but we know that in this league any team can win against you, so you’ve got to respect every team. We were happy with the goals that we scored tonight, although there were plenty of other opportunities to score some more goals. We’ve got the three points and a clean-sheet. And we’ve communicated to the players that when we’re playing well, we score goals and don’t we concede. So we’ve got to find that consistency as a team, and we want that same level of football week in and week out.

At the moment we’re winning one game then losing the next game. So we’re just trying to find that consistency at the moment. We’re very happy that a lot of the players from last season decided to stay with us for this season, which is another positive that we can work on.

What are some of your personal hopes and aims for this season, with PFC Victoria London?

Seweryn: To find that consistency and be consistent in every single game, would be one. And based on last season, we want to fight for the play-offs again. That is our target, but we do want to win the league. But, we know that it won’t be easy, as there are a lot of strong teams in this division. We also want to fight for the remaining cup competitions that we are in this season. So our targets are also to try and win the county cup and the league cup, as well.