HARRY HELPED STU SHOW ME THE WAY
WE ALL have inspirational figures who have guided us along our various paths in life, but who are the mentors of those now in the position of passing on their pearls of wisdom to others?
In a brand new series, we ask some of Non-League’s top bosses to name the gaffers who showed them the way throughout their careers.
We begin with Tom Killick, the long-serving manager who led Poole Town’s trophy-laden ascent from the Wessex League to the National League South play-offs.
Still in charge at Tatnam, the former striker played for the Dolphins, Dorchester Town, Basingstoke Town and scored at Wembley to help Wimborne Town lift the FA Vase in 1992.
Yet despite all that, one of his standout memories is of the friendly which saw a certain Harry Redknapp ask him to switch sides at the 11th hour... WHO WAS YOUR GREATEST GAFFER AND WHY?
Stuart Morgan, at Dorchester, had that ability to get players to be desperate to try to impress and do well for him.
He had humour when he needed to, could get heated when he needed to and was very good at fostering a social element amongst the players.
When you talk about managers you tend to reflect on the times you were happy and I was fortunate to be happy at most of the clubs I was at.
I didn’t play under many managers but was particularly happy at Dorchester, playing at that level with that group of players.
Stuart was good at recruitment, getting players who had dropped out of the Football League but hungry to get back in. He had a good record of helping them return to fulltime football, the likes of Darren Garner, Craig Taylor, Owen Pickard.
I keep in touch with him now and we play golf occasionally, he was someone I just had a really good relationship with.
I also had a hugely good relationship with the late Nick Jennings, he was Alex Pike’s assistant at Wimborne when we won the FA Vase. Many of the players were very close to Nick, he played a lot of professional games and was a mentor for me and many others. WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE MEMORY OF PLAYING FOR STUART?
We had high-profile friendlies, particularly with West Ham because Stuart got on well with Harry Redknapp.
I remember they came down mid-season to play us, they had played golf on the morning of the game and followed it up with a bit of a session.
When they turned up for the game on the night most were worse for wear and Harry sent some of them home. They only had 10 men left and I happened to be in the corridor when Harry was sending four of the worst culprits home. Because I knew him relatively well, he spotted me and said ‘Tommy, I need you to play for me. I’ll clear it with Stuart’.
I was then ushered into the West Ham changing room with the likes of Frank Lampard and John Hartson and ended up playing, and scoring, against Dorchester. It was all quite surreal.
Stuart was fine with it but some of the other players were gutted. It was a big thing because it was a proper first team, they didn’t bring the kids down.
I have always had a soft spot for chocolate and I remember walking into the changing room and seeing all these bars of Dairy Milk scattered around. We never had anything like that in the Dorchester changing room, you would be lucky to get a couple of grapes, so I proceeded to eat about five of these chocolate bars. When I went to warm up, I was in a similar state to most of the West Ham lads!
The other one was when we played Woking in the FA Trophy and Hans Segers was in goal around the time of the match-fixing allegations – the crowd were throwing Monopoly money at him. That was a big game for us. HOW HAS STUART INFLUENCED YOUR STYLE OF MANAGEMENT?
I’ve always said that however much you respect and admire managers, the only thing that will come out is your true personality.
You can aspire to be a bit more like people or do things more in the way they would but when it comes down to it, in the real heat of the hugely emotional environments you are in on a weekly basis, you will always end up being yourself. You can’t pretend. That’s how it is for me.
At times I would like to be different, when I look back and think about someone like Eddie Howe.
I have huge admiration for how dignified he is. He takes everything in his stride and deals with it all in a very diplomatic way. I often look at how he deals with referees and errors.
I remember AFC Bournemouth having three unbelievably contentious decisions go against them in one game recently and thought to myself ‘I would probably have got myself banned for 10 years if that happened to me!’. He, though, was incredibly stoic about it.
You can think ‘that’s how I need to be’ but the next time you’re in that heated moment your own personality takes over. HOW WOULD STUART’S STYLE FIT WITH TODAY’S GAME?
Stuart was charismatic and that’s important in any era but things have changed now. When I played you had a manager and then the coaches. The manager didn’t do much on the coaching side but everything seems to have moved away from that, they tend to be coaches first and managers second now.
Years ago, managers would generally focus on man management and recruitment and Stuart was certainly very old school in his approach, there would be a certain aggression and most of us would respond if he had a go at us. We might not have liked it but it would do the trick. With the temperament of modern players, I don’t think that approach is as effective now. ANY OTHER INFLUENCES?
As is the case with most people, my dad is the one person I respect more than anyone.
It is more about his character and the way he deals with things. He has never liked or been interested in football but he is interested in how you should deal with people, build relationships and treat people the right way so they do their best for you.
He is the biggest role model I have in trying to achieve success. My biggest thing has always been to create an environment where the players are happy and relaxed so they can give their best.
When I look back, when I was in a happy environment it made an awful lot of difference and I think that is very much the case in Non-League. I don’t think people are prepared to tolerate being unhappy. It is not their main job, they go to work all week and need football to be a happy experience.