Sam has moved quickly to secure the services of the highly thought of Daryl Matthews as first team goalkeeper coach for the 2024/25 season.
We caught up with Daryl last week to find out a little bit more about him.
“I played football from a young age, right through until the age of 32, when I retired, so around 12 years ago now. The highest level that I played at on a Saturday was in the Middlesex County League & I also played Sunday League football.
I was never actually a goalkeeper & the main reason is that I’m not a tall person (Ed: 5’7″), however, it is a position that I’ve always liked & I did play a few times at Sunday League level if we didn’t have keeper available.
I was predominantly a striker, CAM (nowadays known as a 10) or right midfielder.
At the beginning of this season, I decided that I’d start playing again on a Sunday at the ripe old age of 41, but it backfired on me & I ended up rupturing both of my achilles
Going forward, I decided to help out with the coaching & managing side of things in the end on a Sunday. This gave me the impetus to start my coaching courses with the FA & I joined Orpington FC as their Development Team Manager in December 2023.
The team had only won 1 out 7 league games & had lost all their cup games prior to my arrival. In the 7 games that I was in charge of, I turned it around & my record was 4 wins, 1 draw & 2 losses.
At the same time, I also contacted Croydon FC, who agreed that I could be a part of their U23’s Management Team & they played / trained on Wednesdays. Whilst working with Orpington FC, the opportunity arose to work with Corinthian Casuals FC 1st Team, as their goalkeeper coach, helping them out at training on a Tuesday / Thursday & match days on a Saturday where possible.
This was a short stint, as the opportunity to be a part of the Croydon FC 1st Team in the same role came about, so I relinquished the positions at Orpington FC & Corinthian Casuals FC.
We got to 2 cup finals & we won 1 of them but missed out on the playoffs in the league.
Being a goalkeeper or a goalkeeper coach is not as easy, as people would think because there are so many technical attributes to take on board & for goalkeepers, there’s a big mental aspect towards it too. I give my goalkeepers as much positive feedback as possible, as this is vital to them as a person, knowing they’re doing the right things, but it will also keep them in a great mindset going into games & this can only improve their all around game as a whole.
Keeping a goalkeeper positive throughout the season is vital & hopefully, you’ll see this on game days.
I’m a massive QPR fan & my dream came true on Tuesday, 6th May 2024, as I got to play at Loftus Road in a charity match for Prostate Cancer UK.”
Thanks Daryl and we all look forward to meeting you in person over the summer.