Gateshead Manager Rob Elliot, along with assistants Antony Sweeney and Louis Storey, have departed the club to take over League One side Crawley Town. Non-League reporter Mark Carruthers reflected on Elliot’s time in charge of Gateshead and the immense success he had. Daniel Wales reports.
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00:00Rob Elliott's time in charge of Gateshead may not have been the longest tenure but his
00:05reign will go down as one of, if not the most successful in the club's history. A triumph
00:11in the FA Trophy final at Wembley in May which followed the side qualifying for the National
00:16League play-offs demonstrated Elliott's vision. Away from the pitch, the prevention of Gateshead
00:21from competing in those play-offs left a sour taste in the mouths of many fans but they
00:26stuck by Elliott and their club ahead of Wembley. And now, with Elliott along with
00:32Anthony Sweeney and Louis Storey departing for Crawley Town, Non-League reporter Mark
00:38Carruthers reflected on their reign and their exit.
00:42When you look at the job that they've done over the last 12 months, picking up the pieces
00:46after Mike Williamson, Ian Watson, Chris Bell left to go to MK Don's where you look at January
00:55there was a big turnover in players where lone players got recalled and sent elsewhere.
01:00Stephen Wynn was sold to MK Don's and they kind of had to do a kind of rebuild, a mid-season
01:05rebuild of the squad which ended with one of the club's highest ever finishes in the
01:10football pyramid and of course the FA Trophy final win at Wembley. So they've done a remarkable
01:15job over the summer, the recruitment was excellent and then you look where they are in the league
01:21to be in the playoff places now but the Crawley thing's kind of been triggered by Mike Williamson's
01:26move from MK Don's to Carlisle because Scott Lindsay the Crawley manager went into MK Don's
01:32and now obviously Rob's gone to, or going, gone depending on when this goes out, to Crawley.
01:39So it's been very much an ongoing process, accelerated over the last sort of five days
01:43I would say from what I believe they took training at Gateshead on Monday and then flew
01:50down to Sussex to complete the deal then. So it's very much been in the background playing out.
01:57Curthers then explained how a man who wore his heart on his sleeve, like Elliot, grew
02:01into the interim and then full-time role at Gateshead.
02:04I remember sitting down with Rob on the day that he was announced as interim manager and
02:07we sat in his office for a good hour chatting about everything really, you know, personally
02:13and professionally and I kind of got the impression he wasn't 100% comfortable with being a manager
02:18at the time. But as the season wore on you saw him grow and grow and grow into the role
02:23and by the time the back end of the season came around when they were battling for the
02:28playoff spot and we know what happened there but they were preparing for Wembley, got the
02:33sense he was really embracing the role.
02:36Elliot's successor therefore must encapsulate the ideals he has implemented.
02:41It's a really unique job Gateshead because you've kind of got to accept there are limitations
02:46and there are, you know, you're not going to get a massive budget to work with.
02:52It's kind of open at the minute but any manager has to be understanding of the situation the
02:56club is in, the way it's run.