Supporting ambition

My dad immersed me in football. 

Every week he took me to Kilmarnock games, home and away. I loved watching games with him. He was also an A Licence coach and took the boys team I played in. Those experiences with him, the interaction, shaped me a lot. 

Before he became an accountant, he had played professional football for Airdrie. He then carried on playing at junior level in Scotland, which is the equivalent of the Conference. So he had a good knowledge of football; he was able to discuss the game and point things out to me.

It was my goal to become a professional footballer, but by the age of around 16 it didn’t look like that was going to happen. Although I was still young, I had been released by a few clubs — Kilmarnock, Aberdeen and Hearts — and I ended up playing at Queen’s Park in Scotland’s Third Division.

I was planning how I was going to have a successful career away from the game, so I went to university for three years while I played part-time. First for Queen’s Park, and then Dumbarton, but my aspiration was still to play full-time.

Because I didn’t know if I was going to make it as a player, I started thinking about coaching. I have my Pro Licence now, but I started my E Licence with the SFA when I was 17. At university, I was coaching and did six weeks’ work experience as a PE teacher. Having to organise 30 kids playing a sport, and get their attention, covered the basic principles of coaching. That stood me in good stead.

"I was really open to being out there on the grass, working with kids, making them better"

Just over a decade later, I was playing in the USL Championship for the Tampa Bay Rowdies, and starting to think about the end of my playing career. I wanted to start preparing myself by coaching. It was at this time that I met someone who has become a mentor for me. 

I had to do a player appearance prior to a Rowdies game, speaking to schoolkids. When the guy from the school heard it was an experienced player coming out, he thought: “He won’t want to do this. He won’t be bothered!” But it went really well.

Afterwards, he introduced himself as Jim Harte, who happened to be a legend of the Tampa football scene. He had won national championships as a high-school coach, and he said he’d help me if he could. He invited me to be his assistant. I was really open to being out there on the grass, working with kids, making them better, so I ended up coaching high-school soccer with him.

I think it was part of the reason I ended up getting the Rowdies job. The owner and the president had seen I was willing to drive an hour to coach this high-school team, just to get the experience.

Jim once said of me that: “Most coaches are players who then coached after retirement. Neill was a coach who played.” It is true that I thought a lot about what I would do as a manager when I was a player. I think, at times, it came to the detriment of my playing career.

A lot of players are better when they focus on themselves and what they need to do. I learned that as I got older, but I probably did spend too much time thinking about how the team could be better. That is why I’d like to think I can go on and have a better career coaching than I did playing.

"People are capable of so much more than they think"

I’m proud of my playing career, but I’ve not necessarily missed it. I loved playing and look back at so many fond memories, but the day I started coaching I loved it.

I was fortunate to play for some really good managers. Danny Wilson was a great man-manager, while Mick McCarthy had a big influence on me. He got a group of people together who were good players, but maybe not the best in any league, and made them successful through camaraderie, organisation and coaching. I saw that at Sunderland and Wolves, and it definitely shaped me.

The best piece of advice I got, early on, was: “You’ve got to be yourself.” You’ve got the job, and you’re in there to be yourself and implement how you see things. A big thing for me is that I’m an intense person. I have a lot of passion for the job and demand a lot. People are capable of so much more than they think. When I look at my playing career, a lot of people will say: “You really overachieved.” I'm not so sure. I still think there was more in there. 

When I was at university and playing for Dumbarton, there was a Q&A in the programme. They asked me: “Where will you be in five years?” I said: “I’ll play in the English Premier League.” I took a lot of stick for saying that.

But that was my belief. A year later I signed for Sunderland, and we won the Championship in my first season. Although I didn’t then play in the Premier League for Sunderland, I was still part of a team that went to the Premier League. The Dumbarton lads said “fair play” to me, then! 

I want all the players I work with to be overachievers; I want to help them make people think that they overachieved, because we all need to be pushed. A big thing for me is having that high demand, but then I will support them, too.

"they mentioned to joe that they might make a change. he wasn't ready, but he knew the person who would be"

I think back again to my dad, who demanded so much of me. But he also supported me so much, which maybe people didn’t see at times. When I needed a kick up the backside, he would give me one. He was there when I needed a lift, too. Like when I was playing for Queen’s Park, getting beat 5-0 in the Third Division, coming in after the game thinking: “How am I ever going to play professional football?” My dad was there, saying: “Don’t worry about that, you’re doing great.” He gave me belief.

It wasn’t just one speech, or one day. It was consistent. So I try to do that as much as I can for the players. One action may have a bigger impact than others, but it’s about that support over a period of time. It builds.

In my final season as a player, at Tampa, I played every game and was playing well. The team, however, wasn’t doing so well. We played in the cup on a Wednesday night and we had lost four in a row. We hadn’t scored and we lost the game.

I got a phone call after the game from the president, saying that the owner would like to meet tomorrow. I had a good idea what was happening, but I thought I would be manager on more of an interim basis, while they made a change.

Joe Cole was playing for Tampa at the time, and we were close. They had mentioned to Joe that they might make a change, and would he be interested? He said no, he wasn’t ready for it, but he knew the person who would be.

So I went to meet the owner. After about an hour talking, he said he would like me to take the job permanently. If I didn’t take it, he was still going to make a change. I felt it was too good an opportunity to turn down.

"We had to get away from trying to sign the best players for big money"

Every day, we tried to get better. We had to ask: “Who do we want to be? What do we want to look like?” If you asked someone to describe the Rowdies team that I played in, they would probably say it was an older, experienced team. It had some quality players, like Joe and Marcel Schäfer, but others who were perhaps past their best. 

We wanted to change that. When teams played us, we wanted them to come away thinking we were hard-working, energetic, physical. We felt that it was not so much about what we said, but what did the opposition feel when they played against us? We slowly started to change that perception, towards: “Tampa are hard to play against, they like scoring goals, they’re exciting.”

When we finished the 2018 season, the budget was going to come down. We had to get away from trying to sign the best players for big money. So we said: “A lot of people want to come and play in America. Tampa is a desirable place, so let’s leave no stone unturned.”

We signed two players on loan from England, Caleb Richards from Norwich and Jordan Doherty from Sheffield United. Two really good players we weren’t paying anything for. We were also being offered players from South America all the time, but we had no concept of what the second or third division is like in, say, Argentina. 

So I went on a trip to Argentina with my assistant, Martin Paterson — who’s now the Burton manager — and Nico Castillo, who is now head of Tampa’s soccer operations. We watched nine games in five days and straight away got an idea of what we were dealing with. If someone sent us a goalkeeper from the Argentinian second division, for example, we learned that it was worth taking note. They would be used to getting smashed and dealing with crosses — balls rained in on them from everywhere.

As a manager, winning your first trophy is a big landmark. We went to Louisville — who had been the dominant force — in the 2020 Eastern Conference final. To go into their place and win was huge. It gave me and the team a lot of belief.

"It’s more about trying to show the players that we are improving over time"

It was followed by one of our biggest disappointments, when the Championship final against Phoenix was cancelled by Covid. The following season, we came back and topped the Eastern Conference regular season table, and reached the Eastern Conference final again.

My family were at the game, and it was one of the best experiences of our lives. We were 2-0 down with eight minutes to go, scored an equaliser in the 96th minute, and then won in extra time. I was telling my assistants in the 95th minute: “Right, we shake hands, make sure we act in the right way.” Then bang, we scored. It was an incredible night.

When I took the Tampa job, I felt it was easy to start improving things. With Barnsley, my biggest concern was being able to meet expectations. It is a huge club that had just missed out on getting to the Championship, under Michael Duff’s management. 

But you have to back yourself. I kept saying to myself: “One step at a time, learn about the team, try to improve the team, improve certain aspects.” We had lost three centre-backs and a goalkeeper. Luca Connell, who had been one of the star players, was ill. It was a case of working out how to win some games with what we had.

I was quite fortunate that Michael had done a lot of good things. I was trying to learn what things had been good last year, that I would be open to building on. I’m a great believer that it’s not necessarily coming in the first day and going: “Here are the values.” It’s more about trying to show the players that we are improving over time. Every day, go and impact someone or something; hopefully, those things will add up.

First game of the season, we faced Andy Crosby’s Port Vale. If you asked Andy, I’m sure he would tell you that they fancied coming to Oakwell. A lot was unknown about the team we had. Kacper Lopata had come straight from Woking in the Conference, we’d lost James Norwood just prior to the season starting, and we had a couple of players who didn’t necessarily want to be here.

"I reminded myself there's going to be ups and downs, just keep a steady head"

We weathered an early, 15-minute onslaught. Once we got the first goal after 23 minutes, everything we wanted to do just went well. We ended up winning 7-0. It was a great day to build a little bit of belief that, okay, we’re going to be able to compete. We scored some great goals based on things that we'd worked on. It felt good for me that the players would say: “Okay, some of the things we’re working on might work.”

The first month was otherwise tough, though. In the next three league games, we drew one and lost two. I’ve been very fortunate to inherit some really good staff who have been at the club for two or three years. They were quite level-headed and said: “Listen, things will settle down, we’ll be fine.”

After losing 3-1 at home to Oxford in our fourth game, I had to take a step back and adjust a couple of things to give us a better opportunity to win in a different way. I reminded myself there’s going to be ups and downs, just keep a steady head.

We had to get the best out of the squad. Jack Shepherd, who came from 10th-tier Pontefract Collieries, is a great example. In our fifth game he played at Wigan because Liam Kitching — who we had to sell a few days later — was injured. We had to help Jack, and the team had to play differently. They were all brilliant, and we won the game 2-0. Then we got another win, away at Cheltenham, and that settled everyone down.

We want to do everything we can to get promoted. That’s the goal. Then, beyond that, to sustain ourselves in the Championship. If you can do that, then it’s about looking at whether you can do a Luton, a Brighton or a Brentford — clubs that have taken that next step to the Premier League. There are a lot of steps that have to be taken, but one at a time.

The biggest thing that people underestimate is how much the coaches feel it. We know fans feel it, of course we do, but coaches feel it too. As a manager, it is about trying to keep a level head. I try to do that as best as I possibly can. To have a process, and trust it.