Gillingham assistant manager John Schofield writes exclusively for the KM Group
In football, you are judged by every
decision you make and that is no different for the scouts we ask to
cover games.
Any game you get covered needs doing
by someone who can do the job because come Saturday, if that report
is not right and you don’t get a result, then that’s what you are
judged on.
Unfortunately, the way that football
life is, you are going to spend a certain period of your time in
the game on the outside looking in because you are going to be out
of work for whatever reason.
Your contacts and links within the
game is how you get back into it.
We got the Port Vale game the previous
weekend covered by a good friend of mine, Russ Wilcox, who I played
with at Doncaster.
It’s not just about being a friend,
though. More important is that they can do the job. Russ is
methodical, he is brief, blunt and to the point, which is what you
want in a scouting report.
You don’t want a newspaper report of
the game. You want bullet points – strengths and weaknesses, best
headers, set plays, how they are going to try and get you.
Russ is a footballing man and he a
good coach. He’s been an assistant manager and a good player and he
has his own thoughts on the game.
He has seen us play, he knows our
players and his thoughts on the game are important to us. We trust
his opinion.
I have done the job myself when I’ve
been out of work and building up a rapport with other people is
important.
We are always communicating and the
people you get to know in the game may then look to give you a
helping hand when you need it.
All of our preparation paid off on
Saturday as we came away with another good result. Port Vale were
in a rich vein of form and we spoke about starting the game bright
which is what we did.
Deon Burton scored a great first goal
and we followed it up with a ferocious strike by Whelps.
That took the sting out of Vale and we worked hard, stopped them
and denied them any space.
If we can keep performing to the
levels that we know we can on Saturday then we will give ourselves
another great chance.
Read more from John Schofield in Friday's Medway
Messenger newspaper.
Picture: Barry Goodwin
27/09/12
- Click here for more news from across the county...