Non-league owner explains viral post-match rant and accuses rival manager of ‘disgusting behaviour’

Bridgwater United owner Ian Davis has explained the reasoning behind his incredible post-match rant that has gone viral.

Davis launched into an attack on Western League Premier Division rivals Clevedon United after beating them 2-1 on Wednesday.

Bridgwater United FC

The clip of his interview, which was shared on ninth tier Bridgewater’s X page, has received two million views in less than 24 hours.

In the video, Davis sits between his captain and assistant manager, staring down the camera and targeting Clevedon.

He began: “Here we go. Here we go. Firstly, Clevedon, f****** absolute joke. Money money money and can’t do f*** all because they’re a bunch of mugs. So there’s that one out the window, we’ll get that one out the way first.”

“They’re telling everyone how they’re going to walk this league, bash everybody. ‘We’re gonna do this, we’re gonna do that’. Yep, alright, well they haven’t done that tonight to Bridgy.”

Davis then went on to hand his captain £1,000 to share with the squad before continuing his attack on Clevedon.

“I’ll tell you what it’s about,” he said. “It’s not about money and that because no one has spent like Clevedon.

“If I was the Clevedon owners, I’ve got to be honest with you, their boys would be getting the sack in the morning.

“Scandalous, all that money they’re paying. Scandalous.”

Why did Davis launch into his viral rant?

Following the video going viral on social media, Davis joined talkSPORT’s Hawksbee and Baker on Thursday.

And he has explained the reasoning behind his dislike for Clevedon and what led to him ranting in his interview.

Davis admitted: “No remorse, I have to tell you!

“Let me just say this, Nic Steadman, who’s their manager, is a friend of mine and I had no inclination to even do an interview.

“But as I was walking on the pitch to shake his hand, he made a couple of snide comments which he shouldn’t have done.

“And normally, I’d have just left him on the floor, but the way everyone is with me, I’d probably be in jail today, so I let that one go.

“At 63, you can’t throw such a hard punch anymore!” 

He added: “I just thought, why did you say those things to me? Why did you park the bus? We’re rubbish, we’re this, we’re that.

X

“They got beat by us the last six times, they knocked us out the play-offs twice and one of them they had one shot in 90 mins and it went in. We never commented, we weren’t sarcastic or anything. 

“And the day before this happened, we signed a Love Island boy… we signed him in a car park, but they were trying to get him to play against us.

“I’d just had enough and it was an opportunity to say something that would normally be seen by 25,000 to 40,000, which is still good for Step 5, but this has gone insane.” 

‘Disgusting behaviour’

Davis went on to accuse the Clevedon manager of ‘disgusting behaviour’, which built his anger towards his rival.

“This is the truth,” he explained. “For the first two years [I had the club] we had the highest budget and I got it all wrong, I sacked the manager, I didn’t know what I was doing. 

“The debts came with it [the club], we cleared it all up and we did it all wrong at the beginning, but we’ve done all the ground, £150k changing rooms, it’s unbelievable. And now we’re rebuilding the team as we should.”

Bridgwater United FC

Davis added: “Fair play to the owners of Clevedon, they’re nice guys, they’ve done nothing wrong, they’re not in my crosshairs at all.

“But there are things going round from their manager saying: ‘It’s only their [the owners’] money so who cares?’

“That is a disgusting way to talk about owners that are putting money in.

“Like us or hate us, we’re saving clubs and putting money in and Clevedon are doing the same. 

“We’ve seen the messages where they go around and say: ‘Who cares, it’s their money not mine, I don’t care who I sign’.

“That’s pretty disgusting behaviour.”