A DAY off is an unfamiliar concept to David Longwell.
The St Mirren coach may have been appointed to the post of caretaker assistant manager as part of the reshuffle that followed Tommy Craig's departure but that doesn't mean he can temporarily forget his other job running the club's youth department. And so, after a morning planning meeting with interim manager Gary Teale, Longwell was to be found at the St Mirren training ground tidying up after the youth players. "The boys have gone in for lunch and left the place a bit messy so I'm going around picking up the balls and other stuff," he reveals, not even sounding remotely put out.
Longwell has been promoted to assist Teale largely on the grounds that he has previously worked with many of the first-team squad; exactly half of the 14 players who featured against Celtic last weekend came through the youth set-up under his guidance. St Mirren is a club in a state of flux - without a manager and up for sale - but its youth academy, officially the third-best in the country behind the Old Firm, continues to deliver year after year.
Longwell modestly describes his latest role as "doing anything I can to help Tealey" but an argument could be made for the 40 year-old to be considered for the manager's post himself. The former development officer has been with St Mirren since 1998 and recently gained his UEFA Pro License, meaning he now has the full complement of coaching badges. A lack of profile may count against him when the time comes for the directors to appoint a permanent successor to Craig, but he does not rule out the prospect of making the transition from youth to senior football, whether now or in the future.
"The things I did, places I visited and people I met doing the Pro License over the past few years have been useful for times like this when you're just sort of thrown into a situation and have to deal with things," he said. "I haven't given serious thought to moving over to the senior side of things but you never know what could happen in football."
Working with the first-team this week has served as a reunion for Longwell and his former academy graduates. A sense of familiarity has eased the transition and, although there are some shared principles that run right through the club, there have been differences, too.
"Last week was all a bit of a shock given the way everything happened but obviously there are a lot of boys there that I've worked with in the past and I've got a decent relationship with most of them. It's a very young squad so the thinking was that I could maybe go in there and offer some support. The principles of coaching are always the same but working with different age groups, and how you deal with them, is the main difference. It's been a good challenge for me personally."
He is deferential about Craig, a man he worked with closely over the past few years, and seems genuinely disappointed at the former manager's exit. He and Teale, however, were appointed to try to arrest a slump that has seen St Mirren fall to the foot of the SPFL Premiership table and, to that end, they have tried to bring in one or two changes that they hope will spark a revival.
"We're just trying to get a bit more of a positive vibe about the place. None of us want to be where we are in the table so it's just about trying to lift the place a bit, get their spirits up. We've made a few changes but not massive ones, mainly just to freshen it up a bit. We want to get the players' brains engaged again and to develop a stronger mentality. Sometimes just hearing a different voice can help."
Applications for the managerial vacancy continue to arrive at St Mirren Park as steadily as the Christmas cards. Barring any late rush of activity, Teale and Longwell will remain in charge for Saturday's home game against Motherwell, a match that could prove hugely influential in shaping both clubs' season. An opening 4-1 defeat to Celtic was not the start Longwell had wished for, but he is not too disheartened.
"We lost bad goals to Celtic but on the other side we did create four or five decent chances which is a positive. We just need to be more clinical and stop giving away silly goals. Training has been good this week and we'll prepare hard to try to get a result on Saturday. At the moment we're just taking it game by game and will keep working away until told differently."
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