FC Halifax Town: Goalkeeping coach Stead ensures Shaymen are in safe hands

His appointment in January was the culmination of six years of studying which has seen him achieve a first class honours degree in sports coaching and a masters in performance slumps in sport.

He is now studying a PhD in sport performance, and holds four certificates from the Scottish Football Association in goalkeeping and physical preparation.

Oh, and he also coaches goalkeepers in the academy at Wigan Athletic.

Not bad for a 24-year-old who never rose higher as a player than the Leeds United academy.

“I owe a big thank you to Jamie Fullarton and Phil Hughes for giving me the opportunity to step up to the first-team and be part of a professional environment,” he said.

“They put their faith in me and I’m very grateful for that. I enjoyed working with them both.

“I wasn’t sure where it would leave me when Phil left at the end of last season but I was happy when Jamie said he wanted me to be part of his backroom staff.

“I was disappointed when he left and since then it was me, Steve Nichol and Nathan Clarke picking up the reins until the new manager came in.

“He was happy for me to continue in the role, which I was happy with.”

Stead’s playing career didn’t go much further when he was released by Leeds, where he was coached by Hughes, in 2009 after seven years in their youth ranks.

“I trialed around at a few clubs but it became pretty apparent I was never going to make it as a professional unfortunately,” he said.

“But I’ve always been really interested in coaching. I’m pretty much in a unique position, given my age, to be a first-team goalkeeping coach, so I’m happy people have put their faith in me to do the job.”

Stead says a lot of planning and reflection goes into his role.

“We generally as a staff get together and see what the day’s going to look like, and I’ll be planning technical practices and game-related practices for the goalkeepers, where we’re looking to try and get them to make as many decisions as possible just like they do in the game, and try to create game-realistic scenarios as much as possible,” he said.

“Then come game-day, they’re in the best possible shape to go and put in a good performance.

“We’ll do video analysis, I’ll speak with Sam and Will in regards to what they think their strengths are, what we identify as their strengths, and what their weaknesses are and what plans we can put in place to make sure the weaknesses become strengths.

“We analyse the opposition and see what their key strengths are and that feeds into what we’ll work on during the week to make sure they’re in the best possible shape for the game.”

Stead began working with Sam Johnson midway through last season, the end of which saw the Town keeper keep 19 league clean sheets and win the club’s player of the year award.