00:00First of all, how's life been at Fylde since making the move earlier this summer?
00:04It's been brilliant.
00:05Four weeks here yesterday and the staff, the people involved with the club have been
00:11not quite a pleasure to work with.
00:13Getting to know them as people, it's something that I really take for it.
00:18It's a real big thing for me to get to know and understand people and know them.
00:23I've tried to do that with everybody there is here.
00:26They've reciprocated that in many ways and it's been a great start.
00:30I suppose when you've been somewhere for so long, it's always daunting going to a new place.
00:34Have you felt a bit of that, stepping into a new environment?
00:37Yeah, listen, coming from part-time to full-time, it's exciting.
00:42It is a bit daunting, but now I feel like I've been here four weeks now.
00:47I'm starting to find my feet, as they would say.
00:49I'm really enjoying it and I'm just going to embrace it.
00:52Hopefully, I can give everything I can to make the club's success again.
00:57So far, it's a really ambitious club, but I'm back of a disappointing new National League allegation.
01:02How do you step into that?
01:04Do you say this is a new chapter, look forward instead of back now?
01:07Yeah, I spoke with the chairman, we start fresh now.
01:11It's a reset for everybody. New manager in and I've got a way of doing things that I enjoy doing.
01:18Obviously, working with the chairman closely, we're trying to make sure we get the right people in.
01:23Not just the right player, but the right person to the club.
01:26It's massive for us to have good people around the stadium, good people around the team.
01:31Yeah, we're working really hard now to get ourselves in place for the first game of the season.
01:37How important is that adjustable environment to you?
01:39It's crucial. I said it before the game.
01:41We talked about the type of music you play. Everything means something.
01:46Everything and creating that environment, it wins your games and it wins your league and it wins your points.
01:52We want to create an environment where people enjoy being in and it challenges them.
01:58It's not that it's comfy for them, but they can express themselves and they can go and enjoy what they love doing.
02:05We'd love to have a few more bodies around the state, around the ground.
02:08As you can see today, myself and Alex have to play.
02:11But we're not going to have to do something we won't do.
02:14That's my Alex's motto. We'll give everything as much as they do.
02:18Whether that's playing or on the sideline or doing our homework off the pitch and make sure we prepare the lads properly.
02:24We'll give her everything. But yeah, we always got to set ourselves a high chance of doing well this year.
02:31Does that create an actual level of trust from the players on the pitch alongside you?
02:34You're obviously integrating is one thing, but when you're obviously taking on someone here frequently, are you to be there?
02:38Yeah, I think you've seen at times today some of our things that we've done over the last few weeks have come into it.
02:47And we've done a lot of running this week. We've done a lot of hard walking.
02:52For us to be able to do some of the things that we've walked on in such a short space and start to see it, even with the young lads doing it,
02:58to me it's perfect. It shows that they trust me. They believe in what I'm trying to do.
03:03And I believe that they can achieve something good this year and let's see where it takes us.
03:08Now, I've got to ask, and correct me if the date's wrong, but would you have been at Wigan as a youngster at the same time Bruce was in charge of the first team?
03:14Bruce may have released me from Wigan when I was a first-year pro. I've already had a laugh about it with him.
03:19Yeah, listen, Steve was in charge there when I was there and I remember the day being released.
03:27It still haunts me now, but to be fair I wouldn't change it for the war because everything's led me back to being on the sideline,
03:34being a manager against him, so I owe a lot to him. At the time I was probably a bit more angry,
03:40but now I've been very fortunate to have a good career in football, and now I'm stepping into a fantastic club like Triad,
03:49and now it's on the way up.
03:51When you stepped out of the tunnel, did you get flashbacks of your teenager again all of a sudden?
03:54Yeah, I'm starting to cry. It was a strange moment. Obviously the last time we were seeing him was being released,
04:04but as I said, it made me. It's character building, it gave me tougher skin, and here I am today managing beside him.
04:12So it's a great day for his nostalgia, should I say.
04:16Were you one of those managers that give him wisdom, passing words?
04:20Yeah, I've just had a chat with him and his assistant, and I'm going to get the numbers
04:25and we're going to catch up over the next couple of weeks.
04:27Listen, you're never too old to learn. I'm only new into the game, but regardless of that, you're never too old to learn.
04:34To have someone like Steve Bruce and his assistant willing to offer help and talk about players that he might be able to give us,
04:42it's the perfect scenario for me, so I'm just going to make sure I get his number and give him a ring.
04:47Once again, as a teenager, you probably wouldn't imagine that full circle moment of getting his number and learning from him.
04:53Exactly. It's a strange moment, and it's something I'm proud of. I got the manager beside Stephen Bruce.
04:59He's a legend in the game, and today was another notch for me, so I'm really proud.
05:04Just finally excited. Obviously, it's over a month, less than a month now until the new season,
05:08so you're excited to go and be back in these surroundings?
05:10Yeah, it's great to have the fans, Marky. It's great to have that feel around the globe,
05:14and hopefully the fans have seen something today that they enjoyed,
05:17and they can see what we're trying to build towards, and yeah, I'm really excited.
05:22The players showed me some real quality today that I thought, you know what, we can do some.
05:27So, we're definitely going to take the positives from the game, work on the things that I think we can be better at, and we'll move forward.
