From the streets of Beeston

2nd September 1996

As I tucked into the tried and tested garlic bread whilst Yvonne went for the more classy ciabatta with vinegar and olive oil, it was Yvonne who piped up with the first question.

"So tell me Josh, what got you into coaching?" she asked.

I answered honestly, saying "Well when I was a kid, I wanted to be a footballer. I was pretty good and all my mates were too. But when I was ten years old, I had an accident when I fell from my bedroom window which meant I'd never be able to run again. I got quite into watching football when I was in senior school, and I ended up managing the first team by the time I left. When I started uni, I started training for coaching badges, and got as far as my national Level Two. Which leads us nicely up to the here and now"

There was another question which peaked my curiosity. "How come you come to watch Harvey on your own?"

She had a resigned look on her face as if she didn't want to say. I trusted her judgement that she wouldn't tell me if she didn't want to so instead of butting in and changing the topic, I let her speak.

"Well, he never knew his dad. In fact I barely did. I got pregnant after a one night stand with his dad. His dad then decided we may as well get together seeing as he had got me pregnant, but the relationship failed just after it became too late for an abortion. I didn't want to put him through the adoption service, so I kept him and raised him myself"

I was stunned. If being a single parent for fourteen years was stressful, she certainly hadn't shown any signs of it. She was looking very well for the stress she had been through by her mid 30s.

The rest of the date couldn't have gone any better. We chatted long into the night, and she even invited me to hers for a while (get your mind out of the gutter).

There would be multiple dates that followed after, and after being in a relationship for four years, we got married on 10th August 2000. It was weird having a step son that was only seven years younger than myself but we got on pretty well.

Editor's note: It may seem as though I completely skipped through a large part of Josh's life, but there is little else to be said about the relationship until 2015.

17th April 2007

"What's this" my boss said as I handed him a piece of paper.

"It's my notice. I've been offered a job elsewhere" I replied.

My life had turned so mundane over the past 11 years that it really wasn't worth documenting. I was still in touch with Paul Raynor who had long since received his UEFA A Licence. He was a footballer though, he could afford that. I was a journalist with a wife, I couldn't

I was still on my FA A Licence. I still had a side career (or what had been a side career until now) in coaching. I had been promoted to the U-18s back in 2000 and enjoyed much success with the team. Now though, I finally had a career break.

When I got back home, I decided to read the email again, just to make sure I wasn't imagining things:

Dear Mr Townend,

For the position of Academy Manager, we had many applications. Our selection process was rigorous and after interviewing as many as 20 candidates we have finally come to a decision.

It is with great pleasure that we offer you this position on a full-time basis. To accept or decline this offer, please reply to this email within the next 24 hours.

Many congratulations on the job offer and we look forward to your response.

Yours sincerely,

Kathy Brooklyn
Head of recruitment at Leeds United Football Club

I enjoyed working at the Leeds United academy, mostly because I arrived at the start of what many would consider to be prime time for the youngsters that you see at Elland Road today. Near the graduation end of the academy, we had centre-back Tom Lees who now plays for Sheffield Wednesday. We also had current Leeds left-back Charlie Taylor, who also gained promotion whilst on loan at Fleetwood Town.

In the middle, we had the bright stars you see gracing the Elland Road pitch today. We had Alex Mowatt, a central midfielder from Doncaster, then just 12 years of age. We had Lewis Cook, a central midfielder from York, at the time a mere 10 years old. One of the older lads was Sam Byram, originally an Essex lad who moved up to York when he was young, at the time he was 14.

Some of the slightly less prominent players, but promising all the same included Dominic Poleon. He's now at Oldham Athletic, but when I arrived he was the same age as Sam Byram and he looked like a very promising forward.

I had all of these amazing youth prospects to try and nourish and grow into the footballers they are now. Unfortunately, my job was taken over with the arrival of Simon Grayson in December 2008. He hired Neil Redfearn as Academy Manager, but promised me he'd keep me at the club on the same wages if I dropped down to the role as Under 16s coach. I had no problem with that and I remained at the club until the summer of 2014. I'd seen all of the aforementioned youngsters play in my Under 16s side as well as Kalvin Phillips, who arrived at the club aged 15.

I enjoyed the 7 years that I spent working with the Leeds United youngsters, teaching them all I know and it was definitely a much more enjoyable job than my previous job at the Yorkshire Evening Post. Unfortunately, my departure left a bitter taste in the mouth. It came at a time when new owner Massimo Cellino went on a cost cutting rampage, and as I was on a higher wage than most of the backroom staff in the senior team, I lost my job.

I could no longer live in my rented house, the terms of the Tenancy Agreement were that the tenant(s) of working age must be in full-time employment. As I was no longer in full-time employment, I lost my house, and had to move back into my parents' house on Beeston Hill. All my mates had left years ago and although I had Yvonne with me, it was the loneliest I had ever felt.

10th October 2014

It had been three months since my contract at Leeds United was terminated. I was Under 16s Head Coach, and we were really getting through the gears. I had seen the likes of Sam Byram, Charlie Taylor, Lewis Cook, Alex Mowatt and Kalvin Phillips go through my team and now suddenly all that work had been snatched away from me.

But I still had my compensation package from the club. I was now £40,000 richer and I knew the longest I could stay out of work would be about a year. Whilst I was at the club, I had gained my UEFA C Licence and I felt that now the time was right to move it up a notch.

Before I could study for a UEFA B Licence, I would need a job in coaching. With this in mind, I got in touch with an old friend of mine, Paul Raynor. Paul was now the assistant manager at Rotherham United working under Steve Evans and the club had just been promoted to the Championship. I wanted to see if there was any way I could get involved in coaching at the academy so I gave him a ring.

"Hi Paul, it's Josh Townend here. Do you know if there any coaching opportunities at the moment in the academy?" I asked.

He replied "I don't really know, but I've got the gaffer sat next to me, he'll have a better idea"

"Sure" I said "Can you put him on?"

Paul put Steve on, and I heard his gruff Scottish accent down the phone "Hello, this is Steve Evans, who's speaking please?"

"I'm Josh Townend, a friend of Paul's from when we studied for our coaching badges. Do you know if there are any coaching opportunities in the academy, even if it's just volunteering?"

"We actually have a vacancy in the Under 17s if you want to send me your CV" he replied.

I got quite excited, I had no idea I could be back in a job so soon. "That would be great" I answered.

He then said "If you've got Paul's email address, email your CV to him and he'll forward it to me"

For the first time in a few months, I actually felt quite good about myself. I was only looking to volunteer so I could carry on learning, but I was practically being offered a full-time coaching role in the academy at Rotherham United.

With no hesitation, I sent my CV and within 24 hours I had a reply:

Dear Josh,

Having looked at your CV and cover letter, I would have no qualms with inviting you to an interview. The interview will be held at the New York Stadium at 11am with the Head of Academy Coaching, Gareth Sheron. If you have any queries, please don't hesitate to contact me.

Kind regards,

Steve Evans

amazing writing man! really enjoying this

I've said before, your writing is top quality, and you've proven that you can be consistent with it now. This is gonna be a brilliant story if you give it the chance to develop more mate

Gents, as ever, your support is much appreciated

12th October 2014

I arrived at the New York Stadium with a mixture of nervousness and enthusiasm. The sky was pretty clear for an autumn day, although as expected for the time year, it was a bit chilly. The journey down took ages for a Sunday morning. There had been an accident in the early hours of the morning on the M1 and traffic was still moving slowly past the crash scene. When I say moving slowly, I really mean crawling.

As I sat in reception, Gareth Sheron appeared from around a corner. He was a short man, probably no more than 5'9, with combed over grey hair. That's not to say he was old, he still looked like he was in his late 40s/early 50s. He greeted me with a smile before saying "Hi, I'm Gareth. Is it Josh?"

I nodded before he said "Come right this way". He led me through a corridor and into a little room on the right that was his office. It was probably the same size as your average bathroom, with a basic table and a plastic chair. There was a filing cabinet behind it, and there were a few bits of paper and a laptop on the desk. He disappeared into the room across the corridor to grab me a chair and we sat down to start talking.

"So Josh" he began. "It says here that you worked at the Leeds United academy for seven years, reason for leaving, redundancy." he said before he made a whispering gesture "Between you and me, I'm a Leeds fan myself, I would have understood if you had put 'Psychotic new owner was a little trigger happy'"

We both laughed. I instantly felt relaxed, and we discussed issues such as the ethos of the youth setup at the club and what the club looks for in its youngsters. He seemed to really like how I performed in my interview and overall I thought it went really well. He said I'd be informed by Wednesday if I had got the job.

Three days seemed to pass like three years. I woke up early on Wednesday and waited. And waited. And waited.

17th October 2014

The five days since the interview had dragged on. I kept my phone on loud, nervously awaiting a reply from Rotherham. I was struggling to sleep. I knew that in order to progress with my coaching career, I would need this job.

Sure enough, on Friday morning, the phone rang. I didn't recognise the number, so I decided not to get carried away and make assumptions. But then, once I heard that Scottish voice, I knew.

"Hello, is this Josh Townend?" he asked.

"Yes it is, who's speaking please?" I replied, trying not to sound too expectant.

"This is Steve Evans, manager of Rotherham United. I've looked at your job application and taken advice from Gareth Sheron and I'd like to know if you'd be interested in taking up the role of Head Coach in the Under 17s."

"Yes, I'm still interested, that would be brilliant" I said.

"Great" said Steve "Would you be able to head to the Roundwood Sports Complex and be there by noon? We'll sort you out with kit and a contract and you can get cracking"

"Absolutely, no problem" I replied.

This could be the first day of the rest of my life as a coach. I felt like this could be what picks me up and kick-starts my career and I couldn't wait to get started.

As I rolled into Roundwood, I felt a sudden rush of energy and excitement. This was the break I was waiting for...

Top update, wondering where this role will make you end up this time next year

Jack- All will be revealed soon enough

1st December 2014

I couldn't believe it had been 21 years since I first started this journey in a classroom at Leeds Met. Now I was about to start up once again for my UEFA B Licence at St George's Park in Burton-Upon-Trent.

Like that winter in '93, the snow really had come down, but I was in the nice warmth of a classroom once again. This consultation would happen once a month until this date next year when we would have the final exam. In the meantime, I would be spending time taking notes and recording video evidence of my training sessions. This time around, I'd be taking a more in-depth look at the tactical side of the game, as well as developing youngsters, monitoring training performance, man management skills, and keeping players sharp for fixtures.

I'd also be scheduling meetings with the club's dietitian once a week to monitor how the players were eating and what effect it was having on their game.

I had to take notes after each match, highlighting tactical victories and losses, analysing them before going on to make a conclusion about how the tactics can be tweaked in readiness for the following game.

Given my ambition to eventually get into managing teams one day, I couldn't wait to get started, and this was a qualification that could potentially get me into a higher end League One/ Championship club so that I can start at a pretty respectable level. Having said that, I was more than happy to accept any Football League offer that came my way given my experience.

Hopefully you can get your B Licence! Interesting to see whereabouts you end up

Jack- The course finishes on 1st December 2015 (today in real life, coincidentally) so we'll have plenty of time to see how this one pans out

1st January 2015

It may have been New Year's Day, but as they put it in my neck of the woods, there's no rest for t'wicked.

I had a monthly consultation meeting to attend at St George's Park as part of my UEFA B coaching licence. 'How have results been at Rotherham?' I hear you ask. Well I'm glad you did, because I couldn't have asked for a better start. My U17s were by this point unbeaten in the league and we'd already had two players offered pre-contract deals.

Tactically, it had been built on a very effective wing-back formation- three centre-backs and three central midfielders. The running from the wing backs was posing a threat to every opposing defence we came up against and our midfield was working like clockwork. The energy of the wing backs couldn't be overstated, they could bomb up and down those flanks for a full 90 minutes, stopping crosses coming into our box and putting threatening balls into that of the opposition.

I had instilled a close-knit mentality in the side, arranging trips (with the permission of Steve Evans) to bond the players together and holding team meetings once a week. Together as one team, we were pretty close, and there was a telling confidence on the pitch.

As I pulled into the services on my way back home to Leeds from Burton-Upon-Trent, I opened up an email from Steve Evans. It said:

To the staff at Rotherham United Football Club,

There will be a mid-season dinner and awards party at the Carlton Park Hotel on 15th January. This will be an opportunity for members of staff (including players) from all areas of the club to mingle on what should be a fun-filled evening.

Work the day after will run from 3pm until 10pm. Players are reminded that they will not be permitted to drink more than one alcoholic drink.

Regards,

Steve Evans

15th December 2014

I arrived at the Carlton Park Hotel with Yvonne fashionably late. There were plenty of people for me to get to know, and the manager was one of them.

Although Steve Evans was a mutual friend, I didn't know him particularly well, so I made a point of sitting down for a few drinks with my new boss getting to know him. He had been working with Paul Raynor since he started at Crawley Town.

It wasn't long before coaching became the topic of conversation. I turned to Steve and said "What advice would you give to someone looking to go into management?"

"You're not after my job already are you? You've not been here two minutes!" he joked.

"You have nothing to worry about, I'm just thinking of looking for a senior team to manage once I've got my UEFA B Licence" I explained.

"Well the first piece of advice I'd give is to take whatever gets thrown at you. Whether that means managing in the Mongolian third tier or at the likes of Man City. You've got a good twenty or thirty years ahead of you in the game so you will have plenty of time to work your way up" he began.

This seemed like a fairly sound piece of advice, although if I wanted to move somewhere like Mongolia, there would have to be some serious backing from the board for long-term success. I definitely wasn't going to go that far just to return a few months later because it's shit.

He continued explaining that it's much tougher at senior level when there are egos to control and fans to keep happy. That's a fair point. With a group of 16 and 17-year-olds, you don't get any big egos because they're all trying to prove they're good enough. Fans don't really give a shit about where the team is in the table so your position isn't constantly under scrutiny from thousands of fans.

Shortly after this conversation, Paul Raynor joined us, and we had a laugh over a few more drinks. When the banter had died down, I left the bar in search of the missus. I looked around for ten minutes, but no sign of her. She had been talking to the club's receptionist, Dianne Roland the last time I saw her, so I approached Dianne.

"You haven't seen Yvonne anywhere have you?" I asked.

"Yeah, she went out to the car park to get something. She hasn't been back though" she replied.

Feeling slightly panicked, I went out to where we had parked the car. What I saw next was terrifying. The car had gone. There was no sign of Yvonne anywhere. And there was a strong chance she was pretty boozed up. I got my phone out and proceeded to dial 999.

"Hello? Police please. My name is Josh Townend. My wife and car have both disappeared from the Carlton Park Hotel. I've got a bad feeling she's driven off whilst under the influence. The licence plate is FA13 SUJ."

Fifteen minutes later, the phone rang. It was the police.

"Hello is this Mr Townend?" asked the police officer.

"Yes it is" I replied.

"We've found your car and your wife. She's been involved in a collision with a lamp post on New Wortley Road. The car has suffered severe damage but the victim is alive. She's rushed to A&E at Rotherham General Hospital"

16th January 2015

She lay there motionless. She was alive, but only just. If she came out the other side, she'd spend the rest of her days in a wheelchair, paralysed from the neck down.

"Yvonne" I said, "Stay strong, you can make it through. I'll get a management job and we'll see just how happy our lives will be"

I sat sobbing over my half-alive loved one. It was practically still the honeymoon period. In 19 years there had been no fights, arguments or rows. Just the happiest couple you ever saw, and that was now in jeopardy. The worst part was, it was her fault. She crashed while drink-driving.

Just as I was about to leave, I heard the most terrifying sound. One that cut through me like a knife through hot butter.

*BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE............*

In a state of panic, I screamed for a doctor. Within seconds, the room was full of trained medics in the room, doing their utmost to kickstart Yvonne's heart. I was ushered down the corridor, and I took my seat for what felt like the longest 15 minutes of my life.

15 minutes later, a doctor approached me. He took a seat by my side and said:

"I'm very sorry, Mr Townend. There was nothing we could do"

I broke down and cried the hardest I've ever cried before. The doctor put an arm around me to console me. Although I had the company and emotional support of the professional sat next to me, it was the loneliest I had ever felt, trumping the time I was made redundant 6 months ago.

It's times like this that goes to show that football is just a game.