Gilks reaping benefits of Holloway's faith

09 September 2010 16:00
Blackpool manager Ian Holloway says a simple philosophy helped rescue Matt Gilks' career. The Rochdale-born goalkeeper was thinking of quitting the game before Holloway arrived in May 2009 and working in a factory or garage instead. Now life could not be better with the club mixing it with the Barclays Premier League elite, with Newcastle next up on Saturday. On the back of that, Gilks joined the Scotland squad for the first time for the Euro 2012 qualifiers against Lithuania and Liechtenstein. Gilks credits Holloway for his recovery but the Blackpool boss remains modest about his motivational powers. He said: "The crowd had got on to Matt a little bit and he lost his place. But I told him if you play well, you will keep the shirt. If you don't, someone else will play. I just stuck to my word. Through feeling he had a chance, the boy regained his self-esteem. "What I needed to teach him was that feeling belongs to him. No-one should take that away from you. Even if you've had the worst game ever -don't lose that. I can only use words. But I want his actions to on the field to carry him through the rest of his life."

Source: PA