I must say how great it is to have an assistant coach who has positive influences on games!
After going through a variety of bench personnel in previous seasons who have perfected the ‘arms crossed, leaning against dugout’ stance to perfection (Ian Sharps, Andy Davies, Neil McDonald, any more?) Its great to have a backroom team who our gaffer can trust.
Best assistant since Richard O’Kelly?
Honourable mentions too for Mat Sadler and Dan Watson - this team of coaching staff are getting good results out of our boys, and Hatswell’s eye for a set piece is paying dividends!
Yeah, seems to be well appreciated by the players and the effort he is putting in on the training pitch and pre-match. A few have mentioned ‘Hats’ () in their post match interviews now!
On Thursday evening, I watched the keepers warm up and there appeared two goalkeeper coaches - both looked quite similar to each other. One was obviously Dan Watson so who was the other one? Academy keeper coach?
My comments regarding Sharps, Davies, McDonald et al are of course somewhat tongue in cheek, we can never truly know what influence they are having on the manager’s decisions and training regime.
However certainly with McDonald, I did get vibes that he helped Taylor throw himself under the bus a bit…as the experienced head in that particular managerial duo, perhaps it was a little bit like he thought it should have been the other way round? Who knows…
‘Hats’ does seem well liked, and Flynn often credits him with particular things that go well. Plus I always quite enjoy Watson’s shout outs for the Butts Tavern post match!
Hatswell is loved by Newport fans that I cover for work but so is Flynn. Both live in the area and big mates and drinking buddies so a big bond is there between them.
I actually think set pieces is were we let ourselves down but i think its more to do with the execution rather than the actually idea of the set piece.
I think it was Knowles on corner duties for the first three. We then changed taker (cant recall to who, Hutch maybe) and he delivered a beauty that caused all sorts of issues.
Id like to think at some point we will have a game where our set pieces give us a 3 goal lead, but its great to see we are trying to mix it up.
No - I was surprised to see one floating back stick to Kinsella.
This team seems to lack a really good set play taker. I’d imagine that the variation and inventiveness puts the opposition on edge thinking what’s next
) in their post match interviews now!
