Former Grimsby Town youth boss on learning curve with Sunderland

ROBBIE Stockdale says he's loving life as a coach at Sunderland – almost a year on from swapping Cheapside for Wearside.

The former Grimsby Town Youth boss is currently working as assistant to Kevin Ball – head coach of the Black Cats' Under-21 side.

Next month, it will be a year since the former Scotland international moved to his native North East after leaving the Mariners.

And speaking to the Telegraph, he says it's been an enjoyable learning curve at the Premier League outfit.

"I've really enjoyed it," he said. "Even though I'm from the North East myself, I didn't realise just how big a club it actually is.

"The training facilities are outstanding and as good as you would find anywhere in Europe.

"We've got all the best opportunities to help the young players develop. It's a good job working with what is essentially the Reserve team.

"No disrespect to the lads that I worked with at Grimsby, but the standard of player has increased, which, in turn, has helped me improve as a coach."

The man who progressed through the Middlesbrough Youth set-up to make more than 50 Premier League appearances continued: "The main learning curve has been coming from Grimsby where you do everything as a coach, to Sunderland where there is a huge team of people.

"At Grimsby, you would get there in a morning and put the cones out and plan your warm-up but at Sunderland there's people who have got jobs to do that.

"For the first month, I was going into work thinking 'what am I going to do for a warm-up?' and people were saying 'that's not your job, we've got sports scientists to do that'. That took a lot of adjusting to.

"In the Under-21s, we've got 22-23 players and then supporting that, we've got a full team of staff.

"Kevin Ball is the coach, I'm his assistant and then we've got a sports scientist, a physio.

"It's run as near as you can to a first-team set-up, so that's very different.

"I'm learning all the time and I'm really enjoying it."

Stockdale still keeps a close eye on events at Blundell Park and was in the crowd to watch the Mariners' record their first win of the season over Gateshead.

And after witnessing an encouraging performance from Rob Scott and Paul Hurst's side, Stockdale hopes this will be the season his former club finally end their Football League exile.

"I think we all thought that last year was Town's year – we've thought that for a couple of seasons," he said.

"They need to get up into the Football League as soon as possible, no-one would flirt around that issue – hopefully it will be this year.

"If they go one better than last season, they'll certainly be there or thereabouts."

Stockdale was scheduled to make a return to Blundell Park with Sunderland's Under-21s side for a pre-season friendly that was agreed as part of his move to the Black Cats.

But that friendly never materialised with the Mariners instead playing their warm-up matches against Cleethorpes Town, Winterton, Brigg, Scunthorpe, Bradford, Hull, North Ferriby, Gainsborough and Grantham.

Stockdale explained: "There was a couple of dates that I threw Grimsby's way but for one reason or another, it never worked out – but never mind, it never quite happened.

"I'm still in touch with people back at Grimsby – I speak to Steve (Croudson) and Dave (Moore) a fair bit and I always keep in touch with Adam Smith."

"I keep an eye out for the result of both the first team and the Youths – it's a good football club with good people."