DANNY and Nicky Cowley weren't the only new faces in Colchester United's home dugout for their game against Bradford City, last weekend.
The U's under-18 coach Elliott Ward was also in the technical area at the JobServe Community Stadium for the League Two game, after being elevated to first-team duties for the game.
The former West Ham United and Nottingham Forest defender had also played his part in Colchester's preparations for the Bradford match, as part of a plan by the club to involve their various academy coaches in first-team duties, both prior to matches and on game day.
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Ward, who made nearly 400 appearances during his successful professional playing career where he also played for the likes of Norwich City and Coventry City, had previously stepped up to the U's senior set-up on an interim basis last year when he assisted Ross Embleton and Dave Huzzey prior to Ben Garner's appointment as head coach.
U's boss Danny Cowley said: “We’re very lucky at this club – we have Elliott Ward, we have Paul Konchesky to just name a couple that have played right at the top of the game.
“What a brilliant resource that is for the young players – two people that have actually lived the journey knowing what it takes and are experts, certainly in the position they played.
“Elliott was a great help – he had a busy Saturday because he had the game with the 18s on the Saturday morning and then when he finished that, he had to get straight over to the stadium to help us.
“Hopefully he enjoyed it and took something from it, because I know that we certainly did."
Ward linked up with Danny Cowley and assistant Nicky Cowley along with goalkeeper coach Yilmaz Aksoy, for the Bradford clash.
The U's head coach, who says he and Nicky work as part of a four-man coaching team, revealed that he has had discussions with U's chairman Robbie Cowling, sporting director Dmitri Halajko and academy manager James McFarlane about giving the club's youth-team coaches a chance to boost their development within the club's senior set-up.
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“For us, we always work with four," added Cowley.
“The plan certainly in the short term is to try to be a four.
“Having spoken to James, Dmitri and to Robbie, what we really want to do at this football club is not just develop players but also our staff and we know that we create the right energy and the right opportunity for our staff, then if we can improve them, then they’re going to be in a position to help and support the players.
“This is the type of club we want to be in; it’s easy to say but it’s not always easy to do and our actions must always match our words.
“For us in this kind of interim period is to use different academy staff so every day for training, we have a different member of the academy staff who joins us and supports us in the players’ training and the same on matchday.
“The idea is that the person that’s working with us on matchday is with us on the Friday and will help prepare the team, support the team on a matchday and then actually review the game, at the beginning of the following week.
“It’s the whole process and I think that this can be really good for their development."
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