HOLDEN TAKES THE LONG ROAD FROM CITY SCORER TO CLUB’S NUMBER TWO
IT was 19 years ago almost to the day that Dean Holden was on the scoresheet for Stoke City.
He was the Oldham defender who unwittingly hooked Chris Iwelumo’s right-wing cross into his own net as Stoke lost 2-1 at Boundary Park.
It was a day when Wayne Thomas’s red card for two bookings earned him a one-match ban, rather than the three he feared for a 15th yellow of the season and, with two games to go, embattled manager Gudjon Thordarson knew he still needed a win to make sure of a place in the Division Two play-offs and that Ninian Park adventure.
Holden was in the thick of it on the night when Allan Smart ended his Stoke career after two sub appearances with a scrap... but that’s a different story.
He stayed at Oldham for another three years, with team-mates including Gareth Owen - who joined initially on loan from Stoke, where he is now Academy director - before moves around the lower leagues, including a spell at Shrewsbury alongside current Stoke youth coach Dave Hibbert.
It has been a long road - taking in a call up to the Northern Ireland senior squad in 2007 thanks to his form and having grandparents from Omagh - to then joining Stoke as Michael O’neill’s new assistant manager, a quick appointment following the shock exit of Billy Mckinlay earlier this week.
He will bring a reputation for developing young players, making sure the unseen work behind the scenes is ‘world class’ so that players have no excuses and being a keen-to-learn sounding board or challenge for other coaches.
Holden actually took up coaching before he had even hung up his boots as a full-back, wing-back and centre-half. At the age of 33, in his second season at Walsall back in 2013, Dean Smith gave him a new role in charge of their under-21s.
“The experience and knowledge of the game that he has combined with the respect that he commands throughout the club means that he has all the attributes needed to help develop our young professionals,” said
Smith at the time. “He is a tremendous character to have around the place, as well as an able centre-back.”
A couple of years later he was summoned back to Oldham, where he had been captain, to work as coach under Lee Johnson, replacing Paul Murray, who had left to become Hartlepool manager. He and Johnson had briefly played together at Chesterfield and had been on the same Uefa pro-licence coaching course in Scotland.
When Johnson left for Barnsley, Holden briefly took charge before working with Darren Kelly and David Dunn until the axe was swung.
“I was gutted. I care about the club,” he said. “I said goodbye to people at the club. That’s a sad part and you don’t know if your paths will cross again. When I got home, my wife gave me a peck on the cheek and said: ‘If you can’t take the hits, go and get a 9 to 5 job. She’s right.”
Holden set about finishing his coaching badges and soon returned to Walsall to work with manager Jon Whitney, who had been physio and Smith’s assistant during his previous spell at the Bescot. Fast forward eight months to November 2016 and he was headhunted by Johnson again to move to Bristol City.
“It’s not great for me because I lose a really good coach and a good friend,” said Whitney, “but I also want the best for him.”
If he was close to Whitney, he clearly had a good relationship with Johnson too even if friendship isn’t necessarily the right word.
He told Bristollive: “I would explain it that we’re not best pals. We obviously get on - and he’s a great