Town teachers have young Robins at Hart
CHELTENHAM players past, present and future are furthering their own education at Gloucestershire’s Hartpury College.
Ex-Town captain Shane Duff, 32, recently completed a sports coaching degree and has progressed to become a lecturer, combining this with a new role as lead tutor for Cheltenham youngsters who study for a BTEC diploma in sport at the college.
The current crop of apprentices have been joined at Hartpury by Robins’ firstteam captain Matt Taylor, who is studying a masters degree in coaching science and assisting Hartpury’s senior football manager, Marc Richards, who also started his career at Whaddon Road.
Centre-half Taylor, who joined Town from League One Bradford City in the summer, has made an impressive start to his Town career, playing a leading role in his side’s positive start to the League Two campaign.
Taylor said:“I played England Universities football with Marc so we had a catch-up when I moved down to Cheltenham.
“He mentioned the football programme was looking for a graduate assistant which involved doing a masters. It’s the perfect opportunity to gain valuable coaching experience, continue my studies and to work in a football programme which is as close as you can get to being a professional outfit.
“I’ll be 34 when the masters is completed so I should be able to play for a couple more years and then look for a career after football.”