Ballinamallard United manager Harry McConkey recently enjoyed time with Kieran McKenna at Ipswich Town as part of updating his UEFA PRO Licence.

McConkey travelled to Ipswich on the Monday and stayed until Thursday morning where he got to see at close quarters the work that Fermanagh man McKenna is doing with the League One promotion chasers.

“It was a brilliant experience and I can’t thank Kieran enough for the time he gave me and the hospitality that he showed,” said McConkey, before explaining how the visit came about.

“UEFA PRO Licence coaches have a responsibility to ensure their Licences are re-validated every three years.This is done by attending courses, going on educational residentials or making an approved club visit by the IFA and UEFA.

“I contacted Kieran and explained the situation to him and he was immediately back to me to tell me that he would be delighted to have me over and he was very accommodating.”

McConkey then flew to Stansted where Kieran had arranged for him to be picked up and brought to the club’s training ground.

“I arrived just before lunch on the Monday and Kieran was there to greet me in the canteen and took me straight into a review of the draw against Burnley in the FA Cup with his first team squad and staff before then going out to the training pitch.

“It was interesting to see how he works with the players and connects with them and his professionalism and his delivery was excellent. He is a young man, he is only 36, but has a huge amount of experience and you could see his confidence and how he worked the room.”

McKenna’s attention to detail really caught the eye of the Ballinamallard manager.

“They have a drone over all the training sessions and the visual aspect is very important and that is put up in the canteen with notes and observations of what the players should be taking out of the session.

“It is that attention to detail that you can see in him. I spoke to several of the senior pros and indeed some of the young players and they are all very impressed by him.

“Kieran had asked me before I went what I hoped to get out of my visit in terms of my development and every day was so well structured towards meeting that. I was put up in the media room and got to meet loads of people and different coaches which was a great insight and I had great help from the two girls in reception, Sally and Claire, who were great with me.

“I loved though being with him on the training pitch because you could see his influence in every part of the training,” added Harry.

And McKenna also made time for McConkey away from the ground.

“Kieran made time for us to go to a nice restaurant on my final night and we just had a great chat. There was that human aspect that here was a boy who played for our club and who is from Fermanagh and is in the thick of all this. It is lovely to see.”

So, how did this club visit rank for McConkey?

“I have been on several club visits over the years and I would say that it was probably the best one. I had a fantastic one with Roy (Carroll) at Manchester United in 2004 but I think purely for the structure over three days, the timing of everything and the facilities, this was the best.

“When people talk about Continuous Professional Development people just tick the box and we have all done that in the past but I came away with some really good learnings for the players.

“In fact, I flew back on the Thursday and we had training that night and the very first exercise we did was an Ipswich Town one and I have been using several of Kieran’s components which I found very relevant and easy to transfer to players at our own level.”

 

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