If you were to hazard a guess as to the most dangerous occupation in the United Kingdom, you would do well to answer fishermen, but that is the correct answer. This compares with America, where wood cutters are the most likely to die whilst working. Whilst football management does not usually involve endangered life it is notoriously insecure. This generality applies equally to non league football. At Hastings   there have been some interesting contrasts.
Arguably Peter Sillett is one of the managers who have served at the PIlot Field the longest, over two separate spells. He was appointed by Hastings United in February 1979, the fourth managerial  appointment that season, but was unable to stave off relegation from the Southern league Premier Division. In his  first spell he saw United clinch the Sussex Senior Cup in 1979, get promotion to the Premier League in May 1982 and decent runs in the FA cup and Trophy. In the event financial problems in 1983 led to Gerry Boon’s appointment with an emphasis on more local players. He returned to manager Hastings Town between 1988 and 1992, securing promotion from the Southern League as champions in 1991/92. He was dismissed, along with coach Mickey Crowe after a disappointing 1-1 draw at home to Worcester City and replaced by caretaker boss Dean White and assistant Garry Wilson. His second spell had lasted four years and five months. The two periods of management had spanned a period longer than eight years
Sillett ( 1 February 1933-13 March 1998) had represented England on three occasions and had played club football for Chelsea and Southampton. Curiously Peter’s  father Charlie had also been a defender for Southampton in the 1930s . Sir Stanley Matthews described Sillett as one of the best full backs he had ever played against.  He was in England’s squad for the 1958 World Cup  played in Sweden. Moving to Chelsea in 1953, Sillett made a total of 288 appearances for Chelsea and remained until 1962 when he moved to Guildford City before joining Ashford Town in 1965 as player manager. Contrast this service with the record of Kevin McHale.
McHale was born in 1939 and during the course of his playing career played for Huddersfield Town ( 1956-1967), Crewe Alexandra ( 1967-1970) and Chester City ( 1970-1972). Whilst at Huddersfield Town, McHale struck up a devastating partnership with Dennis Law ( who made his debut some three months after McHale). Bill Shankly was the Huddersfield manager at the time and the experience would surely have prepared Kevin for an eventual period in management. Kevin’s stay at Chester was enabled by a £5,000 transfer in October 1970 where he remained until he decided to drop out of league football at the end of the 1972 season.
At that time at the Pilot Field , Bobby Drake had decided to call it a day as player manager of Hastings United, prompting a national advertisement for his successor. McHale responded and duly applied and his appointment confirmed as the new United Manager. Whether he was to combine playing with his management role was not clear, and indeed was never tested. McHale never took up his first management role in Hastings and resigned before the beginning of the 1972/73 season citing the cost differential between houses in the north and south being the reason for his change of mind. Effectively McHale became the only Hastings United Manager in the club’s history to have remained undefeated although it is doubtful if this was a major topic of conversation when he took up the management job at Emley A.F.C., slightly closer to home.