Cugley has Folkestone at heart, says Lindsey

SCOTT LINDSEY, the former player-coach at Ryman League Division One South club Folkestone Invicta, is relishing his role as technical development coach at Coca-Cola League Two club Gillingham, writes Tom Marchant.

“I got a call a few months back saying my name had been put forward for the position and as a lot of things are said in football and never happen I brushed it to one side and carried on as normal,” Lindsey explained to www.folkestoneinvicta.co.uk.

“Then out of the blue just before Christmas I got a phone call from Brian Bull (manager of Gillingham’s Centre of Excellence) who wanted me to come in and have a chat – on Christmas Eve funnily enough – and on the Monday after Christmas I was offered the position.

“There’s quite a lot of work involved and I’ve got to set up new Development Centres in and around the county for the younger children.

“I’ll also be working at the Centre of Excellence in Canterbury working with the Under 9s right through to the Under 16s. On top of that I need to make sure all the children who are signed on are developing properly and so it could be the case I pull youngsters to one side to work with them individually on improving their game.

“It’s an exciting position and it’s something I’m thoroughly looking forward to. It’s a fantastic opportunity and there are great people there already like Mark Patterson, who will have a big involvement with the position.”

Lindsey was the second person in as many years at Folkestone Invicta to leave to take up a coaching role at Gillingham - Mark Patterson being the other.

“A similar sort of thing happened to Mark where he was assistant manager with Neil (Cugley) and he got offered a position with Gillingham and he couldn’t turn it down,” said Lindsey.

“Now he’s in a dream job where he looks after the youth team, trains every day and is a full time coach which is brilliant – what better job than getting up in the morning and training young professional footballers. That’s the direction I want to go in.”

Lindsey already has his UEFA B coaching badge and is looking to take his ‘A’ license in June this year. A combative midfielder in his playing days, Scott looks set to pursue a long term coaching ambition.

“There’s no reason why I can’t go all the way with my coaching because I’ve got the attitude, I’ve got the hunger and it’s just a matter of getting the qualifications and working hard. I’m in a position now where I can do that with Gillingham Football Club,” he said.

“I’ve never really fancied being a manager and I’ve seen what Neil goes through. There’s so much work involved like contract talks, signing on players, keeping in touch with the board and making sure the fans are on your side.

“When you’re a coach you haven’t got any of that and you’re doing the enjoyable part of football which is being on the field and putting your point of view across.

“The club are very lucky to have a person like Neil in charge and I honestly think the club will go far with him in charge – it can only go forward as he’s so hard working. He’s been ringing me most days about certain players, different systems we can play, how we can improve on the pitch and I know he’s got a load of other stuff going on off the pitch so he’s pretty much full time.

“Even when he’s not at work he’s at work on the phone ringing players and he never stops – I’m sure he’s one of those blokes who sits in bed at night thinking about Saturday’s game and it’s his life and the club have got to appreciate him”.

In his first spell at the Buzzlines Stadium, Lindsey was renowned as an inspirational captain and a leader on and off the field in what were some difficult times for the Football Club – no one will forget for example the tragic day involving Paul Sykes.

Lindsey left the club at the end of 2005 to spend more time with his young family and Cugley was delighted to announce in the summer he had lured him back to Cheriton Road as his player coach and the pair have enjoyed an excellent working relationship.

“It has been brilliant, absolutely spot on and people don’t realise what a good non league manager he is. I’ve said to him before that with all the trouble with money and the players we had to get rid of a few months back, all of the managers I’ve worked with in non league would have walked away without a shadow of a doubt.

“Neil is the only manager I know that always sees positives in every situation. Even if the club lost all it’s money he’d say “it’s not a bad thing, we can get young lads in, we can coach them up” and that’s what we’ve done. Neil has dug his heels in and said we can make this happen. His hunger for the Club is unbelievable and people need to sit up and realise that.

“We have different opinions about things on the pitch but you can’t agree on everything and that’s the secret between a good manager and a good number 2 – different opinions.

“If they do fill my position I’m sure the next coach will thoroughly enjoy working with him and if they don’t fill it, the club will continue to benefit from Micky Dix being there who is a good, experienced coach and you’ve got experienced lads in the dressing room who have got a voice like Darren Smith and Jimmy Jackson who have been around the circuit.”

Folkestone effectively started the campaign with one new side and budgetary constraints have seen the emergence of another, full of fresh, local talent and one which appears to be starting to gel nicely.

Promising youngsters including Liam Dickson, Josh Burchell, Josh Vincent and Kieron Byrne have taken the opportunities handed to them and alongside the experience of players such as Micheal Everitt and Jimmy Jackson, Folkestone have remained competitive when some believed otherwise.

“The young lads have got massive potential,” said Lindsey. “I came to Folkestone on the agreement we were really going to go for it this season and I wanted to be the coach of a successful side. We had that without a doubt and all of a sudden with the money drying up we had to get rid of four or five of the ‘better’ players as it were.

“When you think about it, it actually made my job more enjoyable as when you’re coaching experienced players, even though they listen to you and do what you say on the training ground and do what you want them to do in games, you can never really make them any better. The likes of Lee Gledhill and (Nicky) Humphreys are already at a level of football where they probably won’t get any better but will always understand where you’re coming from.

“With the younger lads you can coach them and not only do they listen and take on board what you’re saying, they actually get better. It’s a pleasure seeing people like Kieron Byrne and Burchy become better footballers. They literally can overnight and if you study their game and study their weaknesses, you can actually make them better players and already people like JV have become better players through the Club running out of money.

“We haven’t been getting great results of late but they will come and if you keep working on these young lads they will keep getting better. This side, minus a few of the older boys who aren’t going to be around in five or six years time, will probably be the same in five or six years time – people like Friendy and James Everitt who are great non league footballers in my eyes will still be around.”

Invicta and the ever popular Lindsey will inevitably cross paths in the future with the former player coach already eager to return to the Buzzlines on match days.

“There will be times when Neil will want to borrow some players off Gillingham and I’ve told him that a lot of the games I will be involved in at weekends will be on Saturday mornings with the Under 16s so where there’s a chance I can watch a game at Folkestone I will be coming down,” said Lindsey.

“Once you’re in football whatever level you’re at you always speak and I regard Neil as a good colleague and a good friend.

“We’ll speak on a regular basis regarding players and different things and Folkestone to me is one of the best non league clubs I’ve ever been involved with and it will always have a special place in my heart because of the thing with Sykesy and I’ll never forget that.”

Article courtesy of www.folkestoneinvicta.co.uk

Folkestone Invicta v Whitstable Town
Ryman League Division One South
Saturday 17^th January 2009
Kick Off 3:00pm
At Buzzlines Stadium, Cheriton Road, Folkestone, Kent CT19 5JU