I’m always looking forward... but the enthusiasm of thatschoolboy watching Baggies training sessions through the fence is still there
DURING the school dinner hour, Darren Moore’s mates would nip out to the chippy or grab a pasty from the bakers.
But once a week, when West Brom were training on the artificial pitch over the fence next door, Moore would assume the position and watch the Baggies go through their routines.
Straight out of the classroom, hanging on to the railings for the whole hour, same spot every week – until the school bell summoned him back indoors.
Moore studied every aspect – technique, shooting drills, defensive shielding – and dreamed that, one day, he would be on the other side of the fence.
He would become part of West Brom’s great escape as a player in 2005, although Albion would later treat him poorly as manager, chucking him overboard in the thick of a promotion race when he had accepted a hospital pass after Alan Pardew’s sacking three years ago.
The rookie boss who conjured wins over Jose Mourinho’s Manchester United and Mauricio Pochettino’s Tottenham, when the odds on survival were impossibly steep, deserved better.
It is good to see Moore, 46, prospering again at Doncaster Rovers, bearing no grudges about the way his first assignment in the dugout ended.
His achievements at the Hawthorns – stopping the rot of a team too accustomed to defeat and “switching the lights back on” – have stood him in good stead at the Keepmoat. “The enthusiasm of that schoolboy who watched those training sessions through the fence is still there,” he grinned.
“I try to look forward, not back at what has gone before, and I don’t switch off – it’s the nature of the job. There are always things in the back of your mind that need looking at, ways of trying to improve.
“I like everything about the club here, I buy into what they are trying to do and in the time I’ve been here we’ve come a long way. But there is still so much more to do and a continual learning process to transfer things you work on in training to the front line.
“We’ve no right to say we belong in the Championship, but we’ve been there before and we’ve got the solid base to keep putting bricks down and building towards going back.”
As a manager, Moore has learned quickly to carry few regrets as excess baggage, although he was disappointed to miss out on an audience with Sir Alex Ferguson after West Brom’s win at Old Trafford in 2018.
By the time he had finished his post-match media commitments and answered an invitation to knock on Fergie’s door, shirt tucked into his tracksuit bottoms, the great man had gone.
Moore has another appointment with a longserving legend at today’s League One date with Hull, where Donny will wear a limited-edition gold strip designed by playmaker James Coppinger to commemorate his 17-year career with Rovers.
Coppinger, 40, will bow out at the end of the season with Moore admitting: “What baffles me is that somebody of his experience and talent has not played at a higher level than the one he has maintained for so long.
“Even though he’s decided this is his final year, he’s still got the hunger and desire, and he regards this season as unfinished business in terms of where he wants the club to operate.
I never switch off - it’s the nature of the job, always looking at ways to improve