Football Garner calls on Coppell’s ‘huge knowledge of the game’ to help him
BEN Garner has called on the services of “wonderful man” Steve Coppell to help break Bristol Rovers’ 13-game winless run.
Coppell, pictured, who won 42 England caps and made more than 300 appearances for Manchester United, has been at Rovers’ past two games and involved in recent training sessions.
The former Reading, Crystal Palace and Bristol City manager, who the Rovers boss knows well from his time at Selhurst Park as a coach, has been working alongside Garner at Cribbs in the past week.
Garner’s last job before managing the Pirates was as the 64-yearold’s number two at Indian Super League side ATK in 2019.
The Rovers boss has not appointed an assistant since taking the job six weeks ago, and, while the 64-year-old is not an official part of the coaching staff, Garner is “tapping into” his wealth of knowledge built over a career in football which has entered its sixth decade.
Speaking after Saturday’s defeat at Wycombe Wanderers, Garner told the Bristol Post he hopes the arrangement continues. “Steve’s been at a couple of games now,” said Garner. “He was at the Coventry game last week and he was here (at Adams Park).
“He came in for two days in the week and he’s just another set of eyes for me.
“He’s a wonderful man, he’s very experienced in football and he’s someone I can pick his brains about certain areas and he sees things a little bit colder than I do, in terms of the emotion of the dressing room.
“Steve’s been gracious enough to help when he can and hopefully that will be ongoing as much as we can. He has a huge knowledge of the game, great experience, and that’s just something we’re tapping into.”
Coppell enjoyed successful stints in charge at Palace and Reading, steering the latter to promotion from the Championship and eighth in the Premier League in successive seasons from 2006 to 2007.
The former winger, like Garner, went into coaching at a young age, being named Eagles manager at just 28 years old - subsequently taking them into the top tier in 1989 and losing the FA Cup final to Manchester United a year later.
But his spell at Ashton Gate was much less memorable, departing a month into the 2010-11 campaign, citing a lack of passion for the job.
His influence did not bring an immediate change of fortunes for Rovers who were beaten 3-1 at Adams Park, but Garner’s men gave an improved performance spoiled by defensive lapses and missed
Bristol Rovers manager Ben Garner chances. Garner’s coaching staff consists of Kevin Maher, Lee Mansell and Adrian Tucker, all of whom were at the club under previous manager Graham Coughlan before he quit for Mansfield before Christmas.
Garner said Coppell has been well received by the players, and he believes better fortunes are just around the corner for his team.
“The players all week have been absolutely magnificent, and they’ve appreciated the input from Steve when he’s come in,” Garner added.
“They trained absolutely brilliantly, and some of our play against Wycombe was terrific.
“The move where Jayden Mitchell-Lawson nearly scores and gets kicked in the head was fantastic on that surface, so there’s big positives in there but we’ve got to dust ourselves down, we’ve got to keep pushing forward, and I’ve said it for a couple of weeks now but one win turns this.
“One win gives us that bounce and confidence and I can only see better things moving forward.”