After arriving at Wanderers as part of manager Rhys Barker’s coaching team ahead of the 22/23 season, former Aldershot Town Youth coach Ruben stepped up to lead the recently re-branded Wanderers B team in November 2022 after Rhys took the decision to step away from his role due to extenuating circumstances.
Continuing the bright start to the season and very much committed to playing ‘the Wanderers way’ with a possession based, positive brand of football, Ruben would lead Wanderers to a 3rd placed finish, matching the achievement of Dorking Wanderers Reserves the previous campaign, as well as also reaching the semi-final’s of the League Cup, where Surrey rivals Godalming Town would secure a narrow 0-1 win in a fixture which took place at Alfold FC’s Recreation Ground.
Academy player’s including Jack Saunders, Matt Hay, Hayden Gale, Joel Brown and Seb Tauta-Caballero all took their first steps into senior football and made great progress featuring regularly for the B team throughout the 22/23 campaign, and ahead of the following season, to further strengthen the youth pathway within the football club, the decision was taken for the B team squad to be composed purely of academy players from 23/24.
Despite the departure of key, more experienced player’s from the previous season such as captain Tommy Williams and attacking midfielder Dan Berry, the younger, revised Wanderers B would hit the ground running in 23/24, putting together a 10 game unbeaten league run – 8 wins and 2 draws – from August through to October, shaking off the away defeat to Forest Row which ended the run before producing another undefeated 6 match sequence as the year of 2023 came to a close. Keeping pace and at times leading a competitive title race with Roffey FC, the West Sussex outfit managed to pull away in the latter stages of the season and ultimately wrap up the league championship, but Wanderers still registered emphatic wins in the business end of the season including defeating Forest Row 7-0 and Alfold FC 5-1 in back-to-back fixtures at Meadowbank. Signing off the 23/24 campaign with a 1-2 win away at Arundel, for the third season running, and the second with Ruben at the helm, Wanderers B finished in 3rd place in the Southern Combination Division One.
Ruben and his two B team coaches, Jack Clemence and Sam Cave, would also lead the Wanderers U18 side in the FA Youth Cup in 23/24. Matching the club’s previous best achievement of reaching the 2nd Round proper in the 19/20 season, an exciting, dramatic run in the competition saw Wanderers overcome Cobham late on and Welling United via penalties away from home in the preliminary rounds before defeating Worthing FC very late in the day at Meadowbank in front a bumper crowd – defender Luc Cowing and winger Sonny Albert scoring the goals in the closing stages to over-turn a 0-1 defecit. This set up an away tie to football league side Cheltenham Town, and on a memorable night for the young Wanderers squad playing under the floodlights at The Completely-Suzuki Stadium, the step up in calibre of opposition ultimately proved too much as The Robins ran out 3-0 winners after a clinical display in front of goal.
Overseeing the emergence and development of first-year academy players such as Harry Charlesworth, Zac Cahusac and Luca Fulco, plus prolific forwards Luke Bejashvili and Ollie Rawlins, Ruben moves on from his role with the foundations of the B team well established and set up for 24/25 with a number of regular B team players embarking upon their second academy year, no doubt hungry to continue making progress both individually and collectively as part of Dorking Wanderers B.
On behalf of everyone at Dorking Wanderers, we thank Ruben for all his work over the past couple of seasons and we wish him all the best in his new role and for the future.
