DAVE WATSON was an interested spectator as Town won 2-1 at Wycombe Wanderers.
The former Barnsley keeper and England Under 21 teammate of Galpharm boss Lee Clark was on the Town coaching staff during Mick Wadsworth’s managerial reign in 2002-03.
These days Watson works for Premier League Birmingham City, looking after a crop of keepers which includes England’s Joe Hart – one of Town ace Alex Smithies’ role models.
On-loan Manchester City star Hart recently hailed Watson, who has also worked for Barnsley Northampton, Oldham Athletic and Nottingham Forest, saying: “Dave has been great to me. He’s absolutely 100 per cent behind you and he’d do anything for you.
“I’d like to think that I paid him the same respect as he has paid me. He’s been great to work with and all three of the keepers here – myself, Maik Taylor and Colin Doyle – are improving. Dave does work us hard but it’s not needless flogging and there’s a lot of thought that goes into what he does.
“I give him a lot of grief but there’s a lot of care that goes into it with the ultimate goal being to make people better goalkeepers. I have to thank him for quite a lot.”
Meanwhile, Andy Rhodes, father of Town striker Jordan and now goalkeeping coach at Sheffield Wednesday, saw Tuesday’s 2-0 win over Oldham.
The Holme Valley-based 45-year-old played for Oldham between 1988-90 and had a spell as the Latics’ goalkeeping coach.
Other club representatives at the game included Manchester United scout Neil Wheelton, former Bradford boss Stuart McCall, now working for Glasgow Rangers, Fulham’s Martin Price and Middlesbrough’s chief European scout Gordon McQueen.
