Allen in charge of Town's future (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Allen in charge of Town's future

FORMER Devizes Town assistant manager Martin Allen was officially unveiled as Swindon Town's new youth development officer on Monday.

The decision was described as "the easiest I have had to make so far" by manager Iffy Onuora, who was promoted from the role to first team boss recently.

Allen, 42, of Teasel Close, Devizes, has already had success as a youth coach with Swindon, taking his age group to fifth in the Milk Cup the club's best ever finish.

He now has the huge task of providing youngsters good enough to gain a scholarship to the U18s, managed by former Forest legend Ian Woan.

Allen, who helped set up Devizes Town Youth and signed for the senior side in 1982, has been with the Robins for the last seven years.

He originally joined after he was approached by Phil Cannon, who is now head of recruitment at Everton, due to his work at Devizes.

He then worked under Jim Fraser, who is now assistant academy manager at Premiership champions Chelsea. Allen was beaten to Fraser's job by Onuora, but once the former Town striker was promoted he made clear his intentions.

He said: "Iffy knew I was interested in the job and since he's come here we have got on.

"It is a great atmosphere between the coaches and I have been in the coaching office many times before with Phil, Jim and Iffy so I know what it's about.

"We have a very good youth set up. The youth team is unbeaten and we have got about three or four decent lads in every single age group.

"We just guide them along and I think this year six were taken on from the U16s, which is a high number. My job is to be responsible to Iffy Onuora, to sort out the games from U7s to U16s, retaining and releasing players and dealing with my staff and scouts.

"There's a lot of responsibility and the reward is seeing one of your players make it to the first team squad like Kyle Lapham or Michael Pook in this last year.

"It's even more important for clubs like Swindon where the finances aren't the biggest in the world."

Allen, whose son Chris is a YTS trainee at Swindon, is confident he will be able to achieve his goals with the help of his part-time coaches.

"They show a lot of dedication," said Allen. "They work during the day and then come and coach on a Monday and Thursday and we ask them to go to matches on Sunday.

"We have a great bunch of coaches here and you have got to have their backing to do well.

Allen also has to put in the hours to make sure the club do not miss out on their next star. He said: "I watch a lot of games. There's a pressure to get the kids early so I will generally watch eight, nine and ten-year-olds.

"By the time they are 14 or 15, if they have not already been at a pro club, their chances are very slim."