About

Club Coaching History

YearsRoleClubLeague
2020 – 2023Goalkeeper CoachCockfield UnitedSIL Division 2
2022 – 2023First Team Goalkeeper CoachLong Melford FCThurlow Nunn Premier Division
2023 – 2023Head of GoalkeepingLong Melford FCThurlow Nunn Premier Division

About Me

First experience of mens football at aged 16

Having been playing in goal my whole life, I made my first foray into mens football shortly after my 16th birthday when I signed with local side Steeple Bumpstead, who, at the time were playing in the Kershaw league. Going straight from youth football to a decent standard of competitive, adult football was a real shock to the system, but it’s an experience that I’m grateful for and one which I think gave me a fantastic grounding in the game.

At 18 I headed off to university for three years, returning to playing regularly in the university’s “intramural leagues”, a competitive and hard-fought competition in which we achieved success by winning our league title in the first season.

After finishing university I continued playing, turning out for a number local sides across Portsmouth and the surrounding areas over the following three years, before returning to East Anglia.

Back in Suffolk, I featured for a number of local sides, enjoying a successful cup-winning spell with a Sudbury-based team, before it unfortunately folded back in 2018.

Before deciding to call time on my playing days, I made a handful of apperances for Long Melford reserves in the Thurlow Nunn Reserve league and featured in the match day squad for the first team in the Thurlow Nunn Premier Division as well.

At 30 I decided I’d gone as far as I could as a player and that I wanted to turn my hand to coaching.

In August 2020 I began working with SIL side Cockfield United, with whom I stayed for three full seasons, working with a dedicated and talented group of goalkeepers across the club’s two teams.

In April 2022 I was approached by Long Melford and started working their goalkeepers, up to six at a time across the senior teams and under-18s, whilst also playing a part in the club’s recruitment process over the summer by putting on trial sessions for prospective goalkeepers.

For the 2023/24 season, my role at the club evolved as I moved into a “Head of Goalkeeping” position which sees me not only lead weekly training sessions as per the previous season but also develop a goalkeeper philosophy and curriculum, build and maintain player profiles for the club’s goalkeepers and oversee an additional goalkeeper coach who joined our staff over the summer.

Journey into coaching

Working with the “Club MO/GK” group

I’ve always felt like I have quite an analytical mind. It’s something I have to make use of in my day job and something which I have always felt I would be able to transfer well onto the football pitch.

I was never lucky enough to have a dedicated goalkeeper coach during my time as a player, which is something I really do believe held me back from achieving what I feel I was capable of, and I am therefore driven to do everything in my power to make sure that isn’t the case for today’s young shot stoppers.

As a coach, I feel like you need to adapt your mindset on football and take on a different focus from being a player. Stepping back from the intensity of a match situation and analysing the way a player reacts and copes during a game allows you a unique perspective to help them improve their game. This is something I feel is stronger in goalkeeper coaching than on a more generalised basis too, as your focus is on just one player at a time.

Taking my own playing experience on board, my goal as a coach is to work with other ‘keepers who have perhaps not had access to position-specific, specialised goalkeeper coaching and help them to develop the skills and techniques they need to improve their game and be the best they can be.

Get in touch

    Alternatively, you can email me here.