Kevin O’Connor is relishing the challenge of taking over from Flemming Pedersen as Brentford B Head Coach when The Danish coach departs in January. After 18 months at Griffin Park, Flemming is returning to Denmark to become Technical Director at FC Nordsjælland, with Kevin stepping up from Assistant Coach to Head Coach. Former Club Captain Kevin, who made 501 appearances for The Bees in a 15 year playing career, admits it will be disappointing to see Flemming go but said he is really looking forward to taking on his new role.
“I am happy to take over the role,” said Kevin, speaking to Bees Player. “I will be disappointed not to be working alongside Flemming. I have had a really good year with him and I have learned a lot. On that side of things, it is disappointing but it gives me the opportunity to step up which I am delighted with. It is a big challenge and one that I am looking forward to. I won’t try and change a lot because I think what we are doing is working. I will try to drive them on with my passion and enthusiasm and I will work on my detail as well. I think my man management skills will be good so hopefully I will get the best out of the players.”
After retiring in 2015, Kevin started his coaching career working with Lee Carsley and the Under-21s at Jersey Road, before a brief spell as Head Coach after Lee took over as first-team Head Coach last September. He became assistant again when Flemming took charge at the start of 2016 and has worked with the experienced Danish coach ever since. Kevin said it has been a great apprenticeship working with two such well respected coaches and feels he has learned things from both of them that will stand him in good stead in his new role.
“Flemming’s detail is excellent so I have taken a lot of that and Lee Carsley brought me in and gave me my first opportunity so I took a lot from him in terms of his personality, character, and the way that he deals with the players,” said Kevin. “I have taken good things from both of them and hopefully can put them together. This job is a massive job and I am focussing on this. The club is moving forward. The first-team are doing well in the league and that is filtering down to us. Everything is good at the minute and it is down to us to keep driving it and keep trying to improve.”
The B Team have played matches against Liverpool, Manchester City, Chelsea, and Valencia already this season with another high profile game at Griffin Park against Manchester United coming up on Saturday 5 November. Kevin has been really pleased with the improvements he has seen throughout the B Team so far this season and feels the difficult fixture list is really helping to bring the best out of the players.
“Things for The B Team have been good this season,” said Kevin. “The games programme has been excellent and the publicity that we have got from that has been positive. More importantly the performances have been getting better and better. It is working well and we have got some big games coming up which will be an important for the boys to show what they can do. We had Liverpool at Griffin Park which attracted a good few fans and we are hoping to get to 1,000 with Manchester United if we are lucky. It is a good opportunity for me, but also for the players, to get them close to a first-team atmosphere and see how they react. These games seems to suit us because our boys want to play as well. It is good for the boys to see that they are at a certain level and gives them the confidence to go onto these next games.”