FORMER Barrow AFC striker Brian Dawson is relishing his first big senior managerial assignment having taken the reins at Millom this season.

The 37-year-old local has been at the forefront of developing the footballing talents of youngsters having run Onside Sports Coaching since 2004.

He also worked in Carlisle United’s Academy set-up, between 2010 and 2013, and spent almost a year in America coaching Seacoast United’s under-16s side – a stint that ended in December last year – with another former Bluebird, Ian Burgess, heavily involved with that New England-based club.

But Dawson was ready to test his managerial skills in the world of adult football, saying: “Coaching kids is very rewarding.

“In the academy set-ups especially, you are developing the player, you’re not developing the team. Even if you get one individual through to play for Carlisle you’ve done your job.

“Whereas an adult football job is more a results-based scenario where you can win things whereas it’s non-competitive with kids.

“I’ve played all of my life and after stopping to a large degree, this was kind of the next step.

“I work with kids all through the week so it’s nice to get a change at the weekend.”

Dawson has also played for Bootle – where he played under his late father, the club’s highly-respected former manager, Brian Dawson, while his brother Wayne also represented the clu, plus Holker Old Boys, Kendal, Workington and Millom.

Dawson turned out for Barrow in 1998/99, making 14 appearances.

And he still performs substitute roles for Millom, contributing three goals so far this term.

Dawson, who recently turned down an offer to succeed Gary Fawcett as Holker Old Boys boss, took on a tough challenge. He describes Millom’s pre-season as ‘disastrous’, with concerns over the depth of quality in his squad.

But he got to work and drafted in five Millom-based Holker Old Boys players – brothers Jamie (attacker), Danny (attacker) and Stuart (midfielder) Pattinson, plus Craig Redhead (left-back), and Joel Barker, although he is recovering from a broken leg. Graham Hartley (centre-back) arrived from Bootle, and Drew Postlethwaite (midfielder) from Haverigg.

“There was a big recruitment drive and we knew we would struggle early on and, to be honest, this year was always going to be a transitional year for us because of that reason,” added Dawson.

“So early on we were struggling with fitness and other things that we’ve looked to address. Not just that, we had players going away on holiday and to weddings, it was a nightmare – we had 10 or 12 players missing each week.

“So we addressed it, brought in a few players and we seemed to have turned the corner. We’ve won four on the spin and we’ve got the lads back from Holker, I didn’t anticipate we’d get them back so early but we managed to do it within the space of three months. We want to provide the right environment for the lads, we’ve got a sports scientist who comes in to training every week and he does strength and conditioning work.”

Millom sit seventh in West Lancs League Division Two, having won five and lost five games this term.

Dawson said: “We’re looking to just try and hold our own this year, develop the side, gel it and I think that next year would be the year that we would push on and look to go up.

“If it came around this year, these Holker lads have come back in a lot sooner than we anticipated, and anything’s possible. But I think we’d be better prepared to go for promotion next year.

“It’s such a short season, we’ve played 10 games and are halfway through the season already. So it would be a tough ask this year – but anything’s possible.”

Dawson was also attracted to Millom because of the club’s bolstered youth set-up having absorbed former junior side Black Combe Casuals into their ranks. The club have junior sides running from under-eights to under-16s, with Millom boasting a trio of senior teams.

Dawson added: “With my background we have to ensure that the junior coaches are coaching the right things and hopefully we’ll potentially have a continuous conveyor belt of lads coming though. On top of that, we want to create a platform and an environment for them to stay at Millom so they don’t have to go to Holker or other clubs.

“That’s the long-term goal, I guess. I’m really enjoying it at the moment, things have fallen into place a lot more quickly than we anticipated.”