SEAN NEWTON has been taking notes from managers for years – and now he's putting them to good use.
From his time with Paul Fairclough's England C to his days at York winning the FA Trophy before success for Buxton and now as Ashton United player-assistant boss under Steve Cunningham.
Ideas from training sessions and team meetings have been jotted down, typed up and saved on his laptop – or Bible, as he refers to it.
“I remember with England C we went away to Poland,” the former Droylsden, AFC Telford, Stockport County, Wrexham, York City and Buxton defender tells The NLP. “Paul Fairclough said I don't want them to make more than four passes as a team.
Probably because it worked, but it stuck with me.
“On the pitch you're counting, ‘One…two…three… oh my god they're getting to four passes'. They're nowheree near your goal but you want to get the ball back so the whole team squeezes up together.
“On the night we were brilliant. We won 2-1. Little things like that I've written down from different managers I know would work in some way if I was ever a manager in certain situations.”
He's referring to the bank of knowledge ever more. Whether in his role at NPL Premier Ashton or in day jobs delivering private sessions for aspiring footballers as well as at Finch Woods Academy – which specialises in educating children with social, emotional and mental health and behavioral difficulties – he's enjoying being on the grass.
The 35-year-old still loves playing too. But he can see a future in the dug-out.
“I got a feel for it at York,” Newton, who had a spell as Buxton's interim manager when Jamie Vermiglio left, says. “I was living in York and free so the youth team manager asked me to come along to help.
“I took them for an FA Youth Cup against South Shields – loved it. I must have been 30 then. It was that game that made me think, ‘I need to start dipping my toe in with this'.
“I've always spoken to managers and sat around managers as much as I can to get a feel of what they're about and, I know this is a buzz word, what their philosophies are. I've always tried to take something from each of them,
“When I took over at Buxton, I did what a manager does. Watched the opposition, set-up my own gameplan, rang lads who weren't playing – and were my mates – the night before. I just thought, ‘I love it. This is me'.
“We hadn't won in six games. I took the team at Matlock. It was the Derbyshire Cup and we won. Then after that we had a league game against Peterborough Sports, who were flying.
“I set a gameplan up that, in my head, would work. We won 3-0. I was like, ‘Wow'.
“Obviously you have the lows of when you lose. You feel it totally different, especially now when I've played and lost and then I have to go and sit with the gaffer.
“When you know you've not played well yourself, that's when it's hard. That's what I am learning at the moment.
“I got the message early to the lads that, if I am playing and having a stinker but having a go at you, don't think it's me deflecting – I am past that now. Yes I am still playing but this will go on my CV as an assistant manager more than it will a player, in my eyes.
“I said, ‘I will never overstep the mark with how I get on you at half-time if I feel we need more. But never feel as you would if I was only a player and I am just getting on you'. We've got an unbelievable group here and they seem to have taken to it well.”
Newton says learning alongside Cunningham, who has enjoyed success with the likes of Colne and Buxton, has been perfect.
“It's relentless,” Newton says. “When the gaffer sees my missus he apologises to her for being on the phone to me so much. It is true. When you're a manager you don't get a minute. You're working all the time. With him, I couldn't ask for anyone better.”
A marauding left-back in his younger years, Newton now plays centre half for the Robins as they look to break into the play-off places.
“This club is so infectious,” Newton says. “The two chairmen, whatever they say they're going to do, they do. It could be as silly as saying, ‘I will make sure you have a bottle of water on your peg at matchday'. You don't have to ask twice for anything.
“The people behind the scenes who are volunteers go out of their way for you. You don't even get that at full-time clubs where people are being paid. It's like, Wow.”
