Last night, Stones fans had the chance to speak with the Gaffer at a live Q&A, organised by the Wealdstone Supporters Club.
For those that couldn't make it, here's a summary of the responses given by Manager Neil Gibson and Assistant Manager Lee Jones.
Q: Tell us a little bit about your experience in the game?
NEIL:
That may take while! First of all, who had heard of us before we joined? Just a few, ok.
Obviously a large part of our career in football, especially football management, has been predominantly in Wales. However, prior to that, both myself and Lee have been professional footballers and worked in the English game as well for large, large parts of our careers, and we felt it was time to move across into the English system over the last 12 to 18 months. It's something we've been actively looking to do.
We first met each other when we were first team players at Tranmere Rovers when they were a championship team, I was on the bench quite a lot, and Lee played all the time. So he's a good player. I used to enjoy watching him.
When I began coaching I took over as Manager of my local town club, as player manager. I did that for a period of time and had some success taking them from the Third Tier in Welsh Football up to the Welsh Premier League and into Europe, and winning the Welsh cup.
Myself and Lee have our UEFA Pro License, which is obviously mandatory to manage in Europe, which is something we've done on numerous occasions. Without trying to name drop. I was on a 14/15, man cohort on the UEFA Pro License seven/eight years ago, with Mikel Arteta, Thierry, Henry, Pep Lijnders from Liverpool, Freddie Ljungberg, Rob Edwards. To be in that cohort and in and around that for two years with those sort of people, kind of made me feel that I should be looking to work a little bit higher.
LEE:
I started my career playing at Wrexham, got transferred to Liverpool, spent five years at Liverpool and then went to Tranmere, and that's obviously when I met Neil. I think it was maybe about 15/16 years in pro football and I always wanted to stay within the game. During my time as being a pro I played for some really, really good managers, but I've played some some really, really bad ones as well.
My strength is on the coaching pitch and I have good relationship with the players. I'm the between for the Players and the Manager.
Q: What were your first impressions of the squad?
NEIL:
I think the first thing that we thought was, and we kind of knew, because we've done our due diligence, is that I believe we're in a false position. But there's reasons and mitigating factors why we are where we currently are and what you don't see until you start working with the players is what goes on in and out the dressing room. You start to understand the players as individuals and I think for us, confidence is a big thing. I don't feel the group are massively high on confidence.
I've alluded to it quite a few times in in my interviews that I always feel like when things are going well for us, or we get a win or a victory, our confidence levels go up and it looks like we can probably go on and win the next game. And if we start well in games or score the first goal, certainly since we've been here, that we can go on and win the game.
What we're trying to do is look at every little detail that goes on at the football club, on the pitch and off the pitch, of what areas we can control and improve. It might be a small thing, like we've changed the training schedule routine, so we noticed in our first couple of weeks that we were getting a few injuries on Thursday nights. Our training regime was Monday daytime, Tuesday daytime and Thursday evening. We were finding that Monday was lost to recovery so we moved to Tuesday daytime Wednesday daytime and a Friday daytime.
LEE:
I think the belief was very low, and confidence was low. When you do win big games, obviously you're riding high and when you do lose a few games then you do get into a little bit of a rut. It's our job, as I said, to get them out of them and make them feel good about themselves. We try to put the training on, and we try to put a little bit of everything in our training to build the players confidence up, whether that's extra shooting for strikers etc.
Q: How do you feel about recruitment within a budget at the club and the current recruitment of the squad?
NEIL:
I think that in terms of the squad that was assembled at the start the season, Matt was obviously given the opportunity to do that with a blank canvas, to sign a group of players that he felt was going to bring success over the course of the season. Each manager will want to play in a different way, have their own philosophy about how they want to go and play and probably recruit on that basis. Now, only Matt will know whether the players that he recruited initially have gone on to fulfil what he thought they were going to fulfil.
We have a history of developing players and improving them. Every single player here has the opportunity to impress us and stake a claim, it's a blank sheet. So as an example, I would like point to a Dom Hutchinson, who was out on loan and came back into the group. He came on at halftime against Yeovil and played in a winning performance. He started the next two/three games, and we won two. He's had an improvement in performance, and has improved the group.
Lee's work in the last 6/7 years has been as a Chief Scout for the first-team at either Burnley, Middlesbrough or Swansea. So extensively, scouting and recruitment is part of what Lee does and in terms of knowing the standard and knowing the system he knows which players fit into our market. We've got players that we are looking to bring into the group.
I've also got Steve Boone who has been fantastic since we've come in, identifying personnel for players in areas. I've got clear playing philosophy and an understanding of every single player profile I want for every single position. If I want a right wing-back, he's got to be able to do A, B, C, D, E, and I will then say to Steve, I want a right wing back who can do all these things and within two hours he's already gotten three/four different options!
How is the current injury situation?
NEIL:
I thought Jaydn Mundle-Smith was our best player in the first two games we were here and I was excited to work with him. Unfortunately his recurring injury has come back. He's had a scan and it's likely he won't play again this season.
Kallum Cesay on the other hand, we have more faith that he will play a part in the run-in. We're checking his injury isn't as bad as we think and hope he'll be back in time for the trip to Altrincham.
What does a Neil Gibson team look like?
NEIL:
I want us build up from the back, but when we get the opportunity to build into the midfield and final third. I want an end product. So I want it to be worked into wide areas. I want attacking wingers. I want crosses into the box. I'm always going to play with two cent forwards if I can, because I want to score goals. I want to be entertaining to watch.
Q: How do you feel about integrating Academy players into the team?
NEIL:
In my 18 years of management, I've brought over 100 players through from Academy into the first-team. It's an area I always look for because we don't know if we can afford to sign new players at times.
I think Jeffrey Sekyere has a real chance here, I want to try and create a pathway for him to be successful. Is he going to keep us in the National League right now? Probably not. Will he become a first team player on a regular basis for Wealdstone? I think so, if we handle him right and work with him, improve him in the way that we have done with people previously.
LEE:
It's something that certainly excites me and obviously excites Neil as well. It's nothing better to see one of your own players, and obviously as a fan as well, to see one of your own players playing regular first-team football.
The key to it is giving them the opportunity, the pathway, because you can have great players in the academy but if you haven't got a football manager who wants to them to play in the first-team, it's a waste of time having an Academy.