Scott Bartlett first joined Weston in October 2016, when he took over from Ryan Northmore, with the club sitting in 18th place in the National League South.
The Seagulls were two points and two places above the relegation zone after eight straight league losses, but Bartlett combined his role as Academy Manager of Forest Green Rovers and helped lead Weston to safety by scoring 66 goals and finishing in 15th position.
He resumed his role with Rovers, but returned for a second spell at Weston in May 2019 when he replaced Marc McGregor, who had been sacked in March, with the club relegated to the Southern Premier South for the first time in their history.
In the course of his two spells as manager of Weston, Bartlett has picked up 37 wins from 86 games, with 15 draws and 34 defeats.
In the second part of a special Question & Answer session, Bartlett talks about what it means to be in charge of Weston, what is keeping him busy during lockdown, what he gets up to in his spare time and his ambitions for the future.
Q.What does it mean to you to manage Weston?
A.I love it, and I think we can do well. It is a regret of mine that we couldn’t find a way for me to stay at the end of the 2016/17 season but that’s the way it is sometimes and our hands were tied.
I jumped at the chance to come back, it’s a very well run club with a lot of great people behind the scenes and a good set of loyal fans.
I am desperate to help us back into the National League South and I’m sure it’ll happen sooner rather than later.
Q.What do you like to do in your spare time?
A.I try to relax more than I used to, i spend as much time as I can with my children. We’ve had a lot of spare time in the last year or so. I’ve pretty much renovated a house which has been an interesting project.
Obviously I watch a lot of sport and I get out to as many games as I can with 'Lairdy' (Scott Laird).
Q.With England back in lockdown do you have a book you are reading or a Film/TV Series you are watching?
A.I love a good series, I’ve just finished Ozark and have done Homeland again. I like football documentaries, old and new, there is loads if you are patient enough to trawl through YouTube. The ‘Big Ron Football Manager’ is brilliant. I had just watched the Barry Fry documentary and the man himself rang me to enquire about Ryan Jones!
I used to read but I travel a lot now so I’ve got into podcasts, the best is Under the Cosh but there are loads of good ones out there. My picks would be Under the Cosh, The Magic Sponge, Quickly Kevin 90s Football, Reservoir Red dogs and Off the Hook with Jimmy Bullard. Lairdy and Lloyd Humphries love a podcast too.
Q.How, as someone involved in football, do you keep yourself motivated in this latest lockdown?
A.It’s been a lot harder this time around, not just for me but everyone in general. The last one was easier because by the time May came around we would have been off anyway. It feels like we should be playing at the moment and with games going on around us, it’s made it difficult.
Of course, we are all used to a routine and as sports people we thrive off that, not to be able to coach, play or even see the lads at the moment is frustrating but we can’t change it. We can’t really plan ahead because we don’t know what we are planning for so we are all in limbo really.
Q.How as a club will you support the fans during the lockdown?
A.I think as a club we have done the best we can, we have our supporters' thoughts at the forefront of decisions we make and we didn’t want to play behind closed doors.
If we had to do that short term to keep them safe and the league going we would have swallowed it but it’s just not the same.
I think the best we can do now is to keep engaging with our supporters as often as possible and get any information we receive out to them as soon as we can.
To be fair our media team have done a great job, as have the local press because there has not been a lot to go on recently.
Q.What are your aims and ambitions for the future?
A.Our ambitions remain the same and that’s to keep making progress on and off the pitch. Promotion is obviously our aim and there are off the pitch developments in the pipeline too.
The academy, ladies and walking football teams for example are all big parts of our club.
From a first team point of view we have two really disrupted seasons and we can’t wait to get back at it.
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