As those of a certain vintage reminisce of days of yore, thoughts turn to an era when the football management chain consisted of a Chairman (he who signed the cheques), Manager (responsible for scouting, recruitment, team selection, tactics and, ultimately results), and a Trainer (often doubling up as coach, and “sponge man”).
Fast forward to the modern era of Directors of Football, Assistant Managers, individual Coaches for (almost?) every area of the team, Fitness Coaches, Strength and Conditioning Coaches, BBC’s (those responsible for arranging the balls, bibs and cones at training sessions), and “Goalkeeping Coaches”…………………….
The two Goalkeeping Coaches at clubs at our level that I spoke with, one played as a centre half before moving up front later in his playing career, while our very own Craig Gibson informs me he was a tough tackling midfielder before moving into central defence.
This prompted me to ask our No. 1, Chris Lewington, what role a Goalkeeping Coach played while working alongside a custodian with over a century of Football League appearances to his name.
Chris struggled to come up with a specific answer – “I would say a Goalkeeping Coach at our level focuses more on the mental side of the role, rather than the “technical and tactical”. It’s quite important to have someone to bounce something off – someone who would understand and empathise with various positions and decisions you make during a game. As Craig has always said to me, he won’t be able to give me any technical advice that I didn’t already know, but he’ll be able to keep me mentally sharp and make sure I’m always ready. I value being able to reflect and bounce things off him after games as well to look at what I could have done better”.
A big influence on Chris’ coaching career was former Gillingham keeper, Jim Stannard. “I worked with Jim at Dagenham & Redbridge, and latterly at Maidstone. With Jim’s wealth of experience, we’d watch videos back – analyse goals I’ve let in. He’d be able to advise me what he’d have done in certain situations - what positions he’d have been in”.
Chris himself has spent time coaching younger players – he worked at Leyton Orient prior to lockdown - , being able to focus on more specific areas of the game. “When I’m working with seven, eight and nine year olds, or Youth Development levels, it’s more about the technical side of the game and training. I’d be able to tell them, “this is the position you should take, this is the decision you should make” – we’d do drills to try to replicate situations in games, whereas when I first went to Maidstone as Goalkeeping Coach with their senior players it was a different challenge”.
And as we look to consolidate our early season position among the pacemakers in the league, Chris is relishing his latest on-field role – “I’m really enjoying it – we’ve done really well so far. A good group of lads and it’s good to be playing and enjoying it after the last two seasons were cut off, so it’s nice to look forward to another full season now”.

#COYM

Pic courtesy Brownie Sports Photography
@Bsportsphotos
Chris Lewington and Craig Gibson

This article first appeared in the Millers matchday programme v Phoenix Sports on 5th October 2021