COACHING GIG IS A BRIG DEAL FOR VILL!
AS A player he won a title alongside Jamie Vardy and did the league and FA Trophy double with Grays Athletic – now Vill Powell has got Brighouse Town pushing for promotion as a manager.
The 39-year-old’s side are flying high in the EvoStik NPL East division and are hot on the heels of leaders Morpeth Town.
Powell always thought things would be different compared to last season’s struggle – his first season at the helm – but a title tilt wasn’t totally expected.
But the former Havant & Waterlooville, Weymouth, Sheffield and Goole striker says it’s the result of lessons learned in a young squad.
“I do make a lot of last season and the importance of it as a learning curve for such a young group being in and around the relegation battle and having to come through some tough experiences,” Powell told The NLP.
“It’s mainly because of those experiences – me as a new manager and a new group of players – we’re stronger and better as a group mentally.
“I get really involved in the games and I’m really passionate, but you can’t take the wins too high or take the losses to heart. That’s the biggest learning aspect I’ve taken out of it – the bad times don’t last forever.”
At one point last season that was nine games without a win, but Powell believes the learning curve shows in their results this season – and his players’ buying into the collective vision.
“It was a very young team, very naive team who were making mistakes due to game-management,” he said. “One of the key things last year was that we lost 30 points from winning positions in the last ten to 15 minutes of games. That tells its own story.
“It was down to gamemanagement, but also the inconsistency of picking the same side. I rarely got to pick the same back five – goalkeeper and the back four – and I very rarely got to pick the same 11.
“This season if you look at the back five I’ve only had to change it for an injury here or a suspension there – generally the core of the team has been consistent. Because of that, we’ve had consistent performances due to the fact the work on the training ground has been applied on the pitch.
“Fair play to the players, the players chose to come in for extra work in preseason so we’ve spent more time with the football, doing gym work and we managed to get all the messages in early.
“The consistency of those messages has stayed throughout. Everybody knows their jobs and the players all do it. They do it for themselves, for each other and the club.
“It’s Non-League football. They’ve all got full-time jobs and families and their own lives so they’ve got to schedule themselves outside of what we do.
“They’ve all done it and, up to this point, it’s bearing fruit. We’ve got to continue it and see where we get to.”
Powell, a UEFA A Licenced coach, is enjoying his new career in the dugout having learnt his craft in Rotherham’s academy and alongside Simon Weaver at Harrogate Town.
“It (becoming a manager) was always the end goal in terms of coaching,” he said. “I kind of fell into it first. There’s an amateur Sunday team called Sharrow United in the Meadowhall Premier League, and a friend asked me to manage it. “I was still playing semiprofessional for Sheffield FC so I did it for a few seasons and really enjoyed improving a group of players. They were a difficult group in terms of demographic, egos, attitudes and expectations but we did really well and managed to get promoted. That was where I got the bug. “I went through my coaching badges up to my UEFA A Licence so there was nothing that could hold me back and then it was about opportunities and experience. I did the academy route with Rotherham, went onto Harrogate and now at Brighouse. It’s a massive buzz.”
Having once scored 73 goals in a season for Retford, Powell knew a thing or two about putting the ball in the net.
He says his varied career across the country – and alongside the likes of Vardy – has set him up perfectly.
“I played up front with Jamie and one thing that stood out was his fitness and work-rate,” Powell said. “It’s taken him to the very, very top of English football. His game’s not changed, it’s just the level he’s at. It’s pace, fitness and work-rate. Obviously he’s got quality on the ball as well but he gets himself into the positions he does through his pace and work-rate, he makes things out of nothing.
“Managers, clubs and players have all played a part in me as a coach but also me as a person. Through Non-League one of the big influences I had is communication. Players don’t always know where they stand or why they’re not playing – I make sure I’m always very clear.
“It is working at the moment and we’ll just keep trying to finish as high as we can and see where that takes us.”