Alan Simpson Interview
| Interviewer : | Andy Conn for www.LinfieldFC.com |
| Submitted : | 28th October 2007 |
| Name : | Alan Simpson |
| Position : | Goalkeeping Coach |
| Team : | Linfield Football Club |
The second in an occasional series when LinfieldFC.com catches up with the “unsung heroes” at Windsor Park, the people who work quietly and often unnoticed in the background but without whom, our club would not be as successful as it is today.
The second Linfield personality to be put under the spotlight is Alan Simpson, the hardworking goalkeeping coach who we caught up with after Thursday night training at Windsor Park.
LinfieldFC.com is grateful to Alan for taking the time to answer some questions posed by Andy Conn for the benefit of LinfieldFC.com users.
| 1. Introduce yourself to LinfieldFC.com users, Alan |
| I am Alan Simpson, aged 40. I live in Ballygowan with my wife Alison and my 4 year old daughter Lucy. I work in Lisburn. |
| 2. How long have you been at Linfield ? |
| I’ve been at Linfield now for about 4 years. With the first team about 3 years. I started off with the Academy and worked there for a year and in fact, I‘m still working with the Academy every Wednesday and Sunday. |
| 3. How did you get started and how did you progress? |
| How I got started was I used to coach outfield players and was watching one of the Northern Ireland teams training and I sensed that their goalkeepers seemed to be being pushed to the side and nobody seemed to be responsible for coaching them. So then I decided to do all my coaching badges and I’m a European A outfield coach so when I did my European coaching badge for goalkeeping, I went to the IFA and asked them after completing my goalkeeping coaching licences, could they recommend any club that I could get involved with and they said that my nearest club was Linfield and I should go along and ask them So, one day I arrived here and walked in to Davy Chisholm’s office and explained who and what I was and what my qualifications were and he said that his prayers had been answered as Goose ( Robert Robinson ) who was here, was going to do his European B licence and he was starting 2 weeks later. So he told me to come down to Newforge on the Sunday and he would give me a months trial. That was 4 years ago and I’m still here. What then happened was Goose didn’t come back so I was left to look after the Academy. I was working at the Academy for about a year with Davy Chisholm when Brian McLoughlin had come down to watch his son Ryan training. It was Brian who then asked me to come up and work with the first team. That was about 3 years ago. I suppose the reason why I came to Linfield was that Davy Chisholm had given me all the chances through the Academy and really looked after me and then on the basis of an invite from Brian, I was able to progress and get involved with the first team. |
| 4. Did someone take over your role at the Academy ? |
| I’m still at the Academy but what I’ve done is bring Darren Fox who’s our Under 18 goalkeeper. I’ve worked with him all the time I’ve been at the Academy from him being a young boy up to where he is now. I’ve been grooming him to work along with myself down at the Academy and he’s very keen. He’s started off doing his coaching badges so I’m hoping some day when I’m too old to continue, he’ll step into my shoes as he’s very keen to progress in to the coaching end of things. |
| 5. Did you play the game yourself. ? |
| When I was younger I played for Kelvin Old Boys. Actually Dennis Shields ( Swifts coach ) was my old coach at the old Kelvin school. I played from Kelvin school right through to Kelvin Old Boys as I was a local boy. I then signed for Distillery. It was Roy Walsh who signed me for the Whites and in our youth team then, there was the likes of Jim Magilton, Anton Rogan and Allen McKnight. Players like that were coming through. When I was a child, I had played in goals but by the time I’d reached secondary school, Dennis had sort of persuaded me to play outfield so in my playing career I played outfield. Peter Dornan signed me for Ards so I played 2 matches there but because of work commitments, I had to pack in the Irish League scene as it was too much of a commitment on top of the day job. |
| 6. What would be your match day routine as goalkeeping coach ? |
| I would probably arrive here before anyone else. I would always listen in to David’s team talk. Saturday is probably the only day when Alan would take control of his session as it helps mentally prepare him, as he knows what he wants in the game and he has his own lay out for a warm up. Basically, I‘m just there to assist him with what he needs for his warm up to help prepare him for the game ahead. He has a set warm up that he goes through every Saturday. It‘s like a check list. Once he has it all done, we go in and sometimes David would chew the face off us for coming in late but that’s basically how we prepare. We would do about half an hour of a warm up, then come in and now that Raymond Laverty is at the club and doing a fantastic job with all the match play statistics, I would go up into the stand and help him work out all the stats during the game. That‘s my Saturday, basically. |
| 7. What about midweek. How many nights do you work midweek ? |
| Midweek, I would work on a Monday, Tuesday and Thursday with the first team. My training sessions would start from the Saturday after we finish a game, as I would analyse what, if anything Alan would need to work on and try and build my coaching sessions around what his needs are. That gives us Monday, Tuesday to work on them and by Thursday, ask Alan what he thinks he might require or if he’s not too happy on anything, then we would work on what he thinks is most beneficial. It’s vital we take account of what he thinks he needs to be working on ahead of the game on Saturdays. We have to keep his mind right for the game on Saturday. It’s not always a case of arriving here and having everything sorted out in your head in advance as to what you’re going to be doing. You always do have your coaching sessions planned rather than just turn up but you have to be flexible enough to be able to adapt to suit Alan’s requirements. As far as possible the coaching is structured and the important task is to keep the coaching organised, varied and fun. Now that we have 4 or 5 goalkeepers, it’s a case of keeping track of what we have done each night with each keeper. It’s so important to keep varying things to keep everyone on their toes, so to speak. |
| 8. It must be a big advantage to be able to receive specialist goalkeeping coaching. |
| They get the benefit but then, I too get the benefit. The way I look at it is that goalkeeping is more of a personal thing. When I was coaching outfield players you’re coaching a team and you’re trying to instil a sense of teamwork. When you’re coaching goalkeepers, you’re trying very much to get an individual to work within that team and my opinion of it is that there aren’t a lot of goalkeeping coaches out there, as there doesn’t seem to be a lot of people prepared to go out and spend time. I look at it and think I am so privileged to be here and working at the best club in Northern Ireland and probably the best club in the whole island of Ireland, as far as the professionalism of the players and staff are concerned. In fact the professionalism extends from the shop and the kits to the boardroom so that everything you see on a Saturday reflects the entire professional set up behind the scenes at the club. Everything just runs like a Swiss watch. |
| 9. You spend a lot of time with Alan Mannus. How good is he ? |
| I would say that Alan should be playing across the water, such is the level of his ability. There was one Setanta Cup match I remember when he was absolutely brilliant. Certainly the best match that sticks in my head for Alan was the match down at Derry City. For me, the 0-0 draw match down there was the best I ever saw Alan play. For 80 odd minutes we were well under the cosh by Derry and if it wasn’t for Alan that night, I think we may have come away with maybe a 5 or 6 goal defeat. Alan sets these sort of standards which is great and he never likes to see those standards drop. His work rate is unbelievable and I’m just so glad, proud and privileged to work with such a thorough professional. When you’re working with the younger keepers, it’s great to be able to hold Alan up as such a perfect example and role model of what they should be aspiring towards. You can always hold Alan up as an example to the younger keepers in terms of how much they have to do to reach his standards and try and take his jersey. That’s what I would say to all the young keepers. The U16s keeper should be looking to take the U18s keeper’s place. He in turn should be looking to take the Swifts keeper’s place and then obviously, Chris McKendry when he’s fit, should be hounding Alan for his jersey. There needs to be that competition rather than just turning up and picking up the jersey. We don’t want people turning up to training with the attitude I’m content turning out for the Under 18s etc. There needs to be that ambition and the keepers we have here are very competitive and very hungry and they just want to do well. But Alan is just great to work with. He’s the sub keeper for the national team which shows just how highly he’s thought of and of course, he’s a great example to all our young players as it shows you can come through the youth system here and go on and earn a full time contract and play for your country, if your ability and attitude are as good as Alans. |
| 10. How has Chris McKendry been progressing ? |
| Chris has done very well. I have worked with Chris for around 2 years. Chris is a really good lad and it’s been really disappointing that every time Chris breaks into a team, he seems to pick up injuries and I just hope that that’s not going to plague him through the rest of his playing career. He’s a young man, I think he’s just turned 19 and he has his career in front of him and I’d love to see him do well. He’s a big lad, he’s 6ft 5 and he’s a good pair of hands and he can kick a ball. It was just so cruel that he got injured on his first team debut the other week but these things happen in football and hopefully, it won’t be too long before Chris is back. |
| 11. Who are the other keepers you work with ? |
| The other keepers include Kyle Harris. Kyle has done well. He’s come back after a bit of a blip last year. We all understand that he was going through a tough time personally last year but I’m just delighted he’s come back to the club so positively this year. He’s worked really hard and now with Chris out injured at the moment, he’s been given the opportunity to play in the Swifts and by all accounts and from all the reports we’ve been getting, he’s doing very well indeed. He’s holding the Swifts jersey and with Chris out with the groin injury at present, he’ll face a good bit of competition to try and keep the jersey. There’s also Stephen Carroll. He’s come from Glenavon last year and he’s a more than capable keeper as well. Unfortunately for him, Kyle has now taken the Swifts jersey so there’s competition there for the Swifts jersey as well, as Stephen could step up into the Swifts team. He’s another very young keeper, he’s just turned 19. He won a senior medal with Glenavon the season they got promoted back into the Premier League. There’s also Darren Fox, the Under 18s keeper. He’s another good keeper. He could and has stepped up for the Swifts as well. He’s a schoolboy international keeper and then there’s Simon Firth who’s actually come the whole way up through the Academy. He’s the Under 16s keeper. There’s also Brian Neeson who’s just been signed this season from Donegal Celtic. He’s another good keeper for the Under 18s. So we have a very good stock of goalkeepers at the minute and the problem is just trying to keep them all fit, trying to keep them happy and trying to get them all games. It’s obviously a bit of a headache for all the various managers and I suppose I’m glad I’m not the manager of the Under 16s, Under 18s, the Swifts or even the first team. |
| 12. How big a loss was Gregg Shannon’s departure ? |
| I would have to say Gregg was a big loss to the club. The young keepers would have looked up to Gregg and Alan. Gregg had so much experience. In a way, I was glad for Gregg that he did leave the club for his own sake. I would have looked at Gregg playing for the Swifts and I would have thought he’s perfectly capable of playing in any other Premiership club in Northern Ireland. I just thought he might have been sort of stuck in a rut here, as with Alan being so good, he was getting so few first team opportunities and the temptation might have been to just be happy being the second team keeper. However, the fact he moved on showed he had that desire and hunger to be a first team keeper. I was glad he wasn’t just content to be second best here and I wish him all the success in the world at Seaview. I do hope he does go on to show what a really good first team keeper he can be. I know he’s going through a sort of unsettled period at the minute but I’ve no doubt he has the strength to pull through this tricky spell and he’ll do well for himself and his new club. In training here, he always had a great attitude and it was always good to show our up and coming keepers two such fine role models to look up to. I always felt we were blessed to have two such fine keepers here at the same time. On a match day if Alan were ever to have been injured, David didn’t need to run around pulling out what little hair he had left as he knew that Gregg was perfectly capable of stepping into the breach and filling in as a perfectly capable first team keeper. |
| 13. Is there any other Irish League club that has a specialist goalkeeping coach. ? |
| There are a few. Paul Kee was at Glentoran but he has left and Reggie Hillen who I would be friendly with, is at Lisburn Distillery looking after Philip Matthews. Roy MacDonald would look after the keepers at Crusaders. I like to keep myself fit as I like to be a hands on coach. I don’t like to stand and coach and not be able to join in. I like to be involved. I like to come off, as tired and as sore as what the goalkeepers are. That’s the way I set my own standards. |
| 14. What’s your plans for the future. |
| I would love to go into coaching goalkeepers full time in Northern Ireland and would also like to start my own goalkeeping academy for goalkeepers so I can say that I have made a difference. My pet hate is that the position of the goalkeeper is always neglected so you will always hear me moaning about this. I have started my own website called www.nigoalkeeping.com for goalkeepers that is professionally maintained by mother in law to be Hilary. Have a look and see what a good job she does. I am bringing over David Coles the Portsmouth goalkeeping coach in May to do a goalkeeping coaching development course so I hope that it will be well attended by goalkeeping coaches throughout Northern Ireland/Ireland. |