EDDIE MCLOUGHLIN INTERVIEW

While new manager Brett Donnelly is well known to Hitchin supporters his assistant Eddie McLoughlin will be a new name with little known about his background. So I caught up with Eddie to find out about his football career prior to arriving at Hitchin.

He started out at Watford as a junior before joining Stevenage where he was between the ages of 15 to 18. He never had any first team involvement but was around the reserve team. He was released by Stevenage and went to Harpenden in the South Midlands League. Eddie was a centre back and after one season joined Biggleswade Town where he was mainly involved with the reserves before going to Welwyn Garden City and then St Margaretsbury.

After Eddie left Stevenage as a player Darren Sarll was head of their academy and he asked Eddie to go on a pre-season tour to Italy with the academy team. Eddie was given responsibility taking training and helping with the coaching. Eddie enjoyed this and decided to take his coaching badges as he started thinking about his future in football. While still playing he did various voluntary football work and coached Stevenage pre-academy players (aged 5 to 6) and Eddie is very grateful to ex-canary Darren Sarll for his support and encouragement.

Eddie then got a full time job at Stevenage as their Education and Employment Officer for a year before joining an external coaching company that did more than just football coaching, Eddie then got his first senior coaching role at Hoddesdon Town under his previous St Margaretsbury manager Gavin Kelsey. He said he was quite anxious to begin with but soon settled down and Hoddesdon had their best season for many years and Eddie was enjoying his coaching role. He moved to Hertford with Gavin Kelsey and again they had a very good season gaining promotion and then consolidating at the higher level.

Eddie was then approached by Biggleswade Town manager Lee Allinson to join his coaching staff as joint assistant manager with none other than Brett Donnelly. Biggleswade Town did well with good cup runs and just missing the play-offs. Brett was then persuaded to return to Top Field so Eddie was promoted to assistant manager at Biggleswade.

Allinson was then approached by Hendon and along with Eddie they decided it was too good an opportunity to turn down despite Hendon being in a dire league position. They avoided relegation and consolidated winning the London Senior Cup before covid struck disrupting the next two seasons. Allinson was then looking to change his staff and Eddie was ready for a change. He was approached by Brett to join him at Stotfold where he had just taken over as manager. Initially Eddie was not keen to drop three steps but he told me Brett was very persuasive! He joined and Stotfold achieved successive promotions under Brett and Eddie.

Eddie agreed with Brett that it was not easy to leave Stotfold but when Hitchin came calling it was an opportunity they could not resist. Eddie considers Hitchin to be a well run and well supported club that has massive potential. Eddie feels we should aim to be at the same level as St Albans and Hemel Hempstead and he is excited for the future. We firstly need to stay up and then start planning for next season. He says recruitment will be critical. Brett and Eddie have a clear view on how they want to play. They like high intensity, forward thinking and attacking football but are flexible regarding systems.

Brett lets Eddie lead the training as he concentrates on man management. They have a similar outlook and both have good contacts. During a game both Brett and Eddie give their views to the players as they work in tandem.

Eddie said he felt very welcome at the first two home games and when he saw our match day organisation and number of volunteers he realised we were a big club. Brett and Eddie have been impressed by the attitude and demeanour of the players despite the bad run of results and they have a good morale and are tight nit and they are listening to the instructions given.

Eddie does want to become a manager one day but for the moment he is excited to be assistant at Hitchin, a club where Darren Salton tried to get him to join our academy but he eventually chose Stevenage. Eddie wonders how different things may have turned out if he had chosen Hitchin but after all these years he is now at Top Field and we all wish him and Brett all the very best for the future.

ROY IZZARD