FC Halifax Town Under 19’s FA Youth Cup campaign gets underway on Wednesday as they face a familiar foe.
Staveley Miners Welfare may not seem like the most recognisable opponents; however, one of their managers, a certain Jordan Burrow is definitely a known figure to Shaymen fans.
Burrow, alongside lifetime best pal, Joe Tomlinson took charge of Staveley’s Under-18’s team in the summer and Jordan will return to the MBi Shay Stadium a day after the senior teams’ match against Salford City on Tuesday night.
Jordan gave us his thoughts on his soon-to-be managerial debut and the midweek cup clash…
“I’m really looking forward to it, and it will be a little bit strange to be honest because the majority of times I’ve been to Halifax, I’ve been a Halifax player and been in the home dressing room and wanted Halifax to win. So I’ll be going there with a different club, and been part of a new management, me and my friend Joe being joint managers, so it’s going to be a really good night, and I’m looking forward to it”
Alongside Burrow in the opponent dugout will be one of Jordan closest friends, Joe Tomlinson who took helm of the youth squad with Jordan in June…
“I’ve known him since I was really young, 6 or 7 years old. We played for Chesterfield together in the age groups and we’ve been friends ever since, best friends. It’s something we spoke about in the summer, we’ve always harboured aMBitions to get into coaching and go into that route, and the job came up, we both applied for it and we got it. It’s not a paid job; we both do it voluntarily, just a bit of fun really. It’s good developing players, seeing the players we’ve got and improving them.”
As well as wanting his boys to win, Jordan is also interested to see how good Halifax’s future stars perform…
“Everybody in that youth team wants to get a professional contract and play for the first team. So hopefully there will be some good players but hopefully not too many good performances on the night!”
As for the result, Jordan remains hopeful but knows it will be a tough game for the squad…
“I’m confident that we’ve got a good bunch, but I need to stay realistic. We only have an hour and a half with the players every week on a Wednesday night and Halifax’s youth team are full-time. We’re definitely the underdogs, there’s no pressure on our boys and we’re just going to try and enjoy the occasion”
And as for Jordan himself, we asked if we’d be seeing any touchline antics from the Halifax forward…
“It’s very early days. We’ve only had 4 or 5 pre-season games. To be honest, I think when managing players at that age, you’ve got to be a little bit more laidback. You can’t criticise the players too much because you don’t want to dent confidence, so I think I’m very positive, but stern when I need to be.”
So unfortunately, there might not be any Jürgen Klopp-like emotion or Mourinho-esque celebrations seen from Jordan, but the game should still be a great spectacle for the fans and a terrific occasion for the young players.
FC Halifax Town U-19’s will play Staveley Miners Welfare at the Shay on Wednesday night at 7:30pm.
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