Pittman back at the County Ground on youth staff (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Pittman back at the County Ground on youth staff

6:00am Saturday 22nd September 2012 in Sport By Sam Morshead

JAMIE Pitman has returned to where it all began for him as a footballer, with the 36-year-old rejoining Swindon Town as a coach in the youth department.

Pitman, who made three appearances for the Robins after making his debut in April 1995, has recently been manager at Hereford and stood in the opposing dug-out to Swindon boss Paolo Di Canio last season.

However, he has decided to focus more on working with the next generation of footballers and has come back to the County Ground as one of the additional members of staff required by Town’s participation in the Elite Player Performance Programme (EPPP).

“I have good memories of when I was here and the club are certainly looking to move forward,” he said.

“I’m working within the academy with Jeremy Newton and Paul Bodin.

“Because of the new EPPP stuff I’ve come in to help Paul with the youth team and cover some physio stuff.

“From there I got into the coaching side of it so I’m looking forward to working with the youngsters here.

“What I’m going to be trying to do is change behaviours and things like that.

“Having had the insight as a manager you certainly get to see what comes to you.

“If we can have an influence there to improve things and make sure they’re better prepared for when they hopefully eventually get into the first team then that is a big part that I think I can bring to it because I know what a manager’s going to be expecting from them.

Pitman was dismissed as Hereford boss in March and, while he stressed he was not keen to get back into the management game any time soon, he said he was relishing the chance to get into his new role. “Football’s a notoriously difficult job,” he said. “It was a tough job at Hereford but a great learning curve and something that I’m glad I did and it was a great experience.

“But I’ve got to change and adapt and I’ve got to adapt to the youth system and youth football.”