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Meet The Gaffers Night: Review

Web Editor24 Jan 2018 - 13:45
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Members & Supporters Enjoy a Superb Evening at The KCOM

When you've got stability in your football club you've got more chance of being successful but there needs to be an engagement where we all want the same thing, there's a common cause.
- Nigel Adkins

MEET THE GAFFERS NIGHT TUES 23rd JAN 2018

Once again OSC members and supporters enjoyed a unique evening’s entertainment at The KCOM Stadium.

In a break from the recent tradition of ‘Meet The Players’ nights Hull City and the OSC arranged a long overdue ‘Meet The Gafffers Night’ featuring new Head Coach Nigel Adkins and his assistant Andy Crosby. There was the added and unexpected bonus of Tony Pennock joining the action, which as compare for the evening Darren Lethem of KCFM pointed out, gave us an unlikely back three (two ex-keepers and an ex-defender) playing up front for the evening!

Darren got proceedings underway with questions about the trio’s playing career and their various routes into management and coaching. Adkins spoke of how he formed his “master plan” whilst lying in a hospital bed recovering from an operation in which his back was fused together. Sounds painful and apparently it was! As most people know he went on to become a physiotherapist before taking up full time football management. You have to say it hasn’t worked out too badly for him, given the success he’s had over his career. The prime example of turning a negative into a positive after his football career came to a halt. Injury played a key role in all three’s journey into the backroom but you can tell they love their work, even if it isn’t always a smooth ride.

Our Facebook and Twitter competition winners again enjoyed front row seats, Elli certainly made the most of her opportunity to grab some selfies at the end as did Jack and Zoe ...apparently Zoe needed an updated selfie with Nigel to replace her previous one. Watch out Nigel – she’ll be hiding in your garden next!

Tony Pennock revealed that we now have more of the youngsters training with the first team to give them a taste of what’s expected of them which sounds like a carrot being dangled as much as anything. We’re hoping to have a regular feature in TigerMag covering the development side of the club in more detail thanks to Tony’s input.

“It’s important that we have that link between the academy and the first team because we’re not [based] on the same site. Top players are making their debut at that age [17/18] but they’re not going to make their debut if they’ve got too many players in front of them”.

Andy Crosby and Nigel both reiterated the desire for the first team to become the fittest in the Championship, which hinted that they maybe felt that there was some work to do on that front when they took charge. Asked if he thought some players were not playing to their potential because they were already looking at the exit door in Summer Nigel had strong words of advice for any player thinking along those lines.

“It’s up to players to go out and perform. Whilst you’re on that contract you should perform to the best of your ability otherwise you’re not being professional”.

Here’s a question for you to ponder whilst you’re reading this; which current Hull City player do you think would make a good manager? We’ll tell you who the Gaffers picked at the end.

Other subjects covered included the obvious issue of new signings, targets have been identified both for this window and for Summer according to City’s head coach but obviously getting them over the line takes time and was a clear frustration. You can’t blame them for not naming targets or promising anything before a signature has been added to a contract, we all want to see the squad improved and none more so than Nigel. Apparently getting the ball in the back of the net is being worked on, as you’d expect. Increasing the number of clear opportunities and the conversion rate is the key according to Nigel – not rocket science but pleasing to know that they are actively trying to address the issue.

Something we’ve all wondered since Steve Bruce left is what the difference between a Manager and a Head Coach is. One audience member asked exactly that and it turns out Nigel doesn’t actually know. “I don’t know, my contract says Head Coach I think, but I don’t know the answer” he responded. Darren Lethem asked if the hours were the same, and it seems they are, so we’re none the wiser but Nigel seems happy not to dwell on it.
Nigel, Tony and Andy certainly enjoyed meeting the fans and stayed back almost an hour afterwards to chat, sign autographs and pose for photos. You couldn’t have asked for more from them and it has to be said that they and the club deserve a huge amount of credit for putting themselves forward to face supporters at such a critical time of what is proving a very difficult season. Certainly managers who’ve been in charge during brighter times have been less forthcoming.

As you'd expect we've added a few short videos and a photo album to the website to help give you a flavour of the evening but you do need to join the website (and confirm your account by replying to the confirmation email) to access them. This will ensure you receive updates for future events and can access content from them if you can’t make it.

Our next event is scheduled for just before the end of the season and will be a ‘Meet the Players Night’ details will be confirmed and advertised here in due course. You can gain free entry to all OSC events with a 1, 2, or 3 year membership. JOIN/RENEW HERE.

Oh, and the player Nigel and his team felt most likely to make a good manager? – Seb Larsson, who they tipped would take charge of Sweden one day. Interestingly they also mentioned Fraizer Campbell but we think there was a tongue in a cheek at the time, not sure!

With thanks to Hull City, Luke Cash, Nigel, Tony and Andy and the volunteers of HCOSC.

Further reading