GASH HAS EARNED A BASH WITH TURBINES
MICHAEL GASH has given the Peterborough Sports players a simple message after being named manager until the end of the season: just give me the same as you did for Jimmy Dean. The former Cambridge United, York City, Rushed & Diamonds, Kidderminster, Barnet and King’s Lynn striker has big shoes to fill following Dean’s departure to National League Scunthorpe United.
Players at the National League North Turbines found out about a potential move on Thursday with Gash taking charge of their narrow defeat at Kidderminster last weekend before a midweek Northants Cup win over Corby Town.
Gash, 36, has been player-coach this season but now he’s in the gaffer’s seat, he doesn’t want anything to change.
“I’ve just reiterated to them: Just the same – just give me exactly the same you would give Jim,” Gash told The NLP. “I know it’s going to be hard, I know it’s going to be different, me standing up there in the team talk, not Jim. Me on the sidelined, not Jim.
“But I’ve been there a year and a half, I feel I’ve applied myself in the correct way and I feel like the boys like me as a player and as a person. I think that has helped me into this role that I’ve got that straight away from them.
“They’re behind me, they back me, the have respect for me and that’s all I can ask for. “There is still going to be that player to player element. I am still going to play. So, ok my role is interim manager until the end of the season, however you want to say, but when I am playing and training, treat me how you’ve treated me before. “I am not going to turn around and say, ‘I am the manager now’, or any of that rubbish. If I deserve a b ******** g, give me one.”
Gash is enjoying the challenge of being thrown in at the deep end and has already added Jordan Crawford to his squad after the club – who are looking for new investment – settled a tax bill to remove their transfer embargo.
He has worked under some of Non-League’s biggest names in management so has plenty of influences to draw from. Not that he expected his first break to come like this.
“I’ve always said to myself I do want to get into it and give it a go,” Gash said. “I always thought I would do my football and I can then go and do my badges once I’ve finished alongside my full-time work and then see what comes along.
“I saw myself going in at Step 4, Step 5, at a local club and seeing how it goes. I never thought it would come about like this, but what an opportunity for me. I am relishing the challenge, everything that comes with it – how I’ve got battery on my phone I will never know!”
And he’s backed Dean – the man who took the Turbines from park football to Step 2 – to be a success in his new job. “You should always be so happy for friends who are successful,” Gash said. “Jimmy Dean deserves this. What he has done for this club, the promotions he’s had and how he’s done it, he deserves to go to a full-time club.
“He gives everything to football and everything to his club, which is now Scunthorpe. The players will see that and when you do, you want to do exactly the same to get the right results.”