Simon Bullock spoke to Head of Youth Development Dave Currie on Jacob Brown’s recent international call-up, the Young Lions’ flying start to the campaign and the recent game at Darlington where several of his youngsters made their senior debuts.
How pleased are to see former Guiseley academy player Jacob Brown win his first Scotland call-up ahead of this international break?
Very pleased for him. I think it was going to happen a while but ago, but COVID-19 hit and that put it on hold in March last year. I’m delighted for the lad, he’s a great kid and it’s fantastic to see.
Did you ever think he would reach the level of being a top Championship striker and soon-to-be international?
Anything’s possible with hard work and he’s shown that. Browny’s taken his opportunity and he’s a great example to any of the players we work with as to how far you go with hard work and if you apply yourself properly.
Scotland are still in with a chance of qualification for the 2022 World Cup, so how would you feel to see a player you’ve coached play at such a big tournament?
It would be brilliant. Browny wasn’t with us for that long, but he’s always kept in touch with us and he’s just a genuinely nice guy. To see him at the World Cup would be special and we’d be happy to know that we’d played a small part in his journey to get to that point, but he’s done most of it himself. We’ve had no influence over the path he’s taken, he’s had loads of ups and downs, been out on loan at Chesterfield doing it the hard way and that’s what makes it even better.
Your academy side this season are going well in the FA Youth Cup, and Guiseley are the only club in the National League North to reach both the FA Cup and Youth Cup first rounds. How great an achievement is that for the club?
It’s great. I’ve heard the first team lads were unlucky last Saturday and didn’t deserve to lose from what I’d gathered. I wasn’t at the game but listened to the commentary on Guiseley Radio. The guys do a fine job there, it’s always good to hear them online and it sounded like the lads gave Wimbledon a real run for their money and should at least have brought the game back for a replay at Nethermoor.
So that’s a big achievement for them to go that far in the men’s cup and then in the Youth Cup we’ve done well. The lads have done brilliantly and they’re a good bunch of kids who work hard and we’ve got to the second round for the second year running, so you can’t ask for any more than that really. We’re not going to stop working though, we’ve got Scunthorpe United to prepare for next and it’s going to be a tough game. We’ll have to be at our best and hope they have a bit of an off night, but we’ve been there before and there’s no reason we can’t do it again.
How far do you think your team can go in the competition, particularly after the great run last season that included the win at Bolton Wanderers?
We beat Rochdale last week and they were a tough side. They could have been out of sight at half-time with the number of chances they had but in the second half we were excellent and looked like a different team, but we won’t be able to get away with that against Scunthorpe. In the first half we looked like rabbits in the headlights a bit, but we regrouped at the break and told the players that it’s 11 men against 11 men, perform well, do our jobs, and don’t worry about them.
Scunthorpe will be a big ask. It’s a tough, tough place to go as an EFL club but we’ll go there knowing that we’ll give it our all and I know that the lads will as well because that’s one thing I can always count on with this group of players. Most of them have been with us since they were 14 years old, they’ve come through the ranks at Guiseley’s Centre of Excellence and that makes a big difference when they’ve got that affinity and love playing for the club.
Josh Stones scored with late winners in both recent Youth Cup games against Ossett United and Rochdale and recently signed first team forms. How impressed are you with his performances and progress?
Josh has done great so far. He’s probably only played about six games as a centre forward because he’s a central midfielder so that makes it even more impressive, learning how to play a different position. Josh always been a midfielder right throughout his time as a junior and Sunday league player, was as at Bradford City for a bit then joined Guiseley at U14’s. He’s learning the position but he’s a handful and if Josh adds another 10% to his game in terms of knowledge, movement, and other factors then I think he’ll become an even better player.
Finally, although it didn’t come in ideal circumstances, how proud were you to see Oli Reape, Harrison Leigh, Ellis Farrar, and Jakub Hebda sign first team forms ahead of the game against Darlington, playing in a team predominantly made up of academy graduates
It was a great experience for the players and hopefully they’ll get more opportunities because it was very hard for them in that game, playing a different formation to what they’re used to. Some of the players, even though they came through the academy, didn’t play in the same team together. Declan Lambton for example, is a couple of years older than most of them and even the ones who are just a year older, they didn’t get to play with each other much last season, so they were playing against Darlington as strangers really.
To do that and play a different formation than what they’re used to, I thought they did well. If we don’t concede that goal just before half-time and go into the break 1-0 down, then it’s a different game but Darlington played well and showed their quality. It was a great experience for them though and hopefully it’ll be the first of more.
This article originally featured in our matchday programme against Hereford, to read more exclusive content from The Lions matchday programme click here.