THERE is a reason why, once the chance of a Premier League giants had gone, Paul Hurst wanted a trip to one of the Sheffield clubs in the FA Cup third round.
And that's not just because as a boyhood Wednesday fan he'd had loved to lead his Grimsby Town team out at Hillsborough, or gone to Bramall Lane and tried to turn over the arch-rivals, United.
In the end, after emulating their Lincolnshire derby success over Scunthorpe with another League Two scalp in Northampton Town, the Skrill Premier high-fliers landed a fourth successive home draw against Championship side Huddersfield.
Hurst has had to get used to spending more time on his own in recent months since Rob Scott, his joint manager for five years at Ilkeston, Boston and Blundell Park, was axed. And that's not only in the technical area.
It's 8am on Thursday and the 39-year-old is chatting to The NLP en route to Town's Cheapside training ground. On hands-free, of course.
“I live in Sheffield, so it's the M1, M18, M180 and I'm there in just over an hour,” says Hurst. “I'd meet Rob at junction one of the M18 and would jump in one car for the rest of the journey.
“That was pretty much the first thing that changed really, having to travel on my own. Left with an empty car and my own thoughts rattling around it.”
While the motor still qualifies as his mobile office, noise and companionship now comes via the radio and mobile phone, rather his former team-mate from Rotherham United, the club where Hurst spent his entire playing career, bar a loan spell at Burton Albion in 2007-08.
“When you first go into full-time management, you feel that you should be at your place of work – either the training ground or the ground, all the time. But realistically now with cars and phones, you don't need to be sat in an office,” says Hurst, who completed his UEFA ‘A' Licence coaching qualification this week.
Expectation
“You can be doing a lot of work, like when there were two of us travelling in, one would be jotting things down, putting session plans together or on the phone like I am now. Things have changed massively for managers in the last 20 years or so.”
One thing that hasn't changed at Grimsby, despite the obvious upheaval of Scott's September exit, is the team's form.
Last season's beaten play-off semi-finalists are in the top five again. The FA Trophy runners-up were, up to yesterday's trip to Barnet, still in that competition and, for the first time since 2003, Grimsby's name was still in the Cup's third round draw.
An 11-match unbeaten run accompanied them to north London yesterday, but Hurst would have preferred a shorter trip for purely selfish reasons when they rejoin the other road to Wembley in January.
“If it wasn't going to be a Premier League team, then either Sheffield club away from home would have been great for me,” he laughs. “I could have met the team there – it wouldn't have taken me very long!
“But Macclesfield have got a great draw with Wednesday going to them and Huddersfield should bring a decent following to us. So while it wasn't a Premier League team, it was a pretty good draw for us as a club.
“We've spoken of getting the crowd involved at home. In the league, there is the expectation of us being favourites every week, and that's when the history of the club can weigh heavily on our shoulders. People expect us just to turn up and get the victory, and we all know it's not like that.
“That doesn't happen so much in the FA Cup games. The atmosphere against Scunthorpe was electric.
“For the Northampton game, we were favourites in some people's eyes, but in mine we were still slight underdogs. We probably didn't play quite as well as against Scunthorpe, but it was a good performance and we got over the line.
“We've caused a couple of minor upsets so far, but if we were to beat Huddersfield that would be a major upset.
“It's a massive challenge ahead of us, but you know what managers like to say – and it's very true – there is a lot of football to be played between now and then.
“There are a lot of important league games coming up in a short period of time, and we need to take as many points as we can to stay at the right end of the table.”
Experienced
That starts on Thursday with the visit of third-placed Kidderminster. Hurst believes the experience of playing at Wembley, in play-off games and the big recent cup ties can help his squad deal with second half of the season better this time around, having topped the table last Christmas before falling away.
“I look at people like James McKeown and Shaun Pearson, who have joined the club as young professionals and have not gone through too many big games in their career,” says Hurst. “Last season was a big season and we had quite a few big games.
“The players still here can only be better for those experiences, but the likes of Scott Kerr came in, who's vastly experienced, and the other York lads who have played in big games, and I think we are in a better place than last year.
“What I would add though is that the likes of Kidderminster have been through similar things.
“The league itself looks like it's taking shape, and a lot of the teams up there have been up there for the last couple of seasons. Someone is going to be disappointed.
“We are just trying to do everything we can to make sure we are involved in that shake-up and then hopefully we can get over the line, whether that's automatically or through the play-offs.”
Well spoken Paul. A good manager doing a great Job.Onwards and upwards.