My life as a coach... on the fans’ bus

THE HOUR before kick-off is the worst.

Not for the players of course. There’s the routines to keep them occupied: getting changed, going out for the warm-up.

But for the manager it’s different. Your work’s done by 2.15pm on a Saturday and the last thing the players want is to see you around the place, cluttering up their minds with last-minute ideas.

You’re left to your own devices, looking for ways to kill the time.

I know I’m not the only one. Between management jobs last year I was working for the Premier League as a referees’ assessor and found myself in the Bournemouth corridor before kick- off on a day they were playing Liverpool.

There, outside the dressing room, as the players were starting to emerge, was Jurgen Klopp, sitting on a kit skip, reading the match programme. Yes, I can safely safe it’s the longest hour of the week for us all.

I’ve developed my little routine for it now, heading back out of the stadium, getting back on board the team coach and sitting there on my own to get away from things, clear my head.

That’s where I was at AFC Fylde last week when our club’s supporters’ coach arrived and parked up a yard away from ours. It seemed the right thing to leave our bus and board theirs.

I wasn’t so sure what they would think about the sight of me climbing up their steps. We’ve not had a great time of it with results just lately and I’m sure 50 per cent of them were not too keen on listening to me. But I’ve never tended to worry about things like that.

I said words to the effect of ‘Good afternoon. Great that you’re here. We love your support’, and said if they had questions, I would try to answer them. I was on board for about 15 minutes but we could have gone on all afternoon if there had not been an FA Cup fourth qualifying round tie to play.

We covered what my starting XI would be, how we’d approach the game, our tactical systems, why we’d not won for 13 matches...

These were people who’d expected better than we’ve given so far this season but there was a lot of mutual respect.

In the game, we went behind inside 15 minutes but won 3-1, our first victory since August 11. After I’d said a few words to the players I headed out in search of that fans’ bus to thank them for their contribution. They’d gone, taking their jubilation back out on the road with them.

We’ll be meeting again soon. I’m doing a Q&A at our stadium, a week tomorrow. even better when it’s not in the middle of the worst hour of the football week.