COUNTY GALLERY

JOHN CORNFORTH by Ray Taylor

“Football is a simple game, spoiled by coaches;” are not the words you expect to hear from someone who pays such great attention to detail as JOHN CORNFORTH.  But it is an example of the honesty of a manager, himself a highly qualified coach, who knows that whatever tactics you employ, the outcome of a game is down to the players.

“I have always been a big observer of the game, and I’ve kept logs of training sessions that impressed me over the years.  I have also tried to learn from the managers I have played under.

“The biggest influence has been Frank Burrows who is now the assistant manager at West Brom.  Frank is a good organiser and is honest.  Players always know where they stand with him.

“I played under present Wrexham manager Denis Smith at Sunderland.  He looked after his players and could get the best out of them while Barry Fry was briefly my manager at Birmingham.  What a character!  Not many who met him haven’t liked him.

“John Gregory signed me for Wycombe Wanderers and he was excellent technically.  He always tried to vary his training sessions.”

Born in Whitley Bay in Northumberland, a few miles to the north of the Tyne, John is a Geordie who grew up as a member of the ‘Toon Army’ of Newcastle fans. 

Yet he confounded his friends by signing for Sunderland!  This was because of the influence of the Black Cats’ late chief scout Charlie Ferguson, someone who clearly left a great impression on him.

He made his debut in the old First Division when one Len Ashurst was briefly manager and recalls the FA Cup game in January 1986 when Newport County Mark One visited Roker Park and were beaten by goals from George Burley and David Corner.  John was not in the Sunderland side that day, but he did stay for several years while they made the return journey down to the Third Division and back again.  He had loan spells at Doncaster, Lincoln and Shrewsbury before Burrows signed him for Swansea City.

“I went to Frank’s office and asked for the captaincy after two games.  Frank went along with my wishes but said he was surprised I hadn’t asked sooner!  This was the best time of my career.”

John traced his own Welsh roots – his paternal grandmother was a proud Welsh woman from Llantrisant – and he was extremely proud when Frank called him in to say that he had been selected for the full Welsh squad by Mike Smith.  He played twice, in faraway Bulgaria and Georgia, before a cruciate knee ligament injury set him back.

The Welsh caps brought immense pride to his father, John senior, who was for many years sports editor of the South Shields Gazette, and who still takes a keen interest in his son’s career. 

Barry Fry paid £350,000 to take John to St Andrew but he was replaced as manager by Trevor Francis who wanted his own players and next stop was Wycombe Wanderers where John stayed for a couple more seasons, taking in a loan spell once again under Fry at Peterborough.

Brief spells at Cardiff and Scunthorpe followed before John’s venture down to Devon to join Exeter City as player coach.  Exeter were in the depths of despair in the autumn of 2001, cast adrift at the bottom of the Third Division, when John was handed the unenviable task of reviving their fortunes to keep them in the league.  They finished 19 points clear of the relegation threat, having even made it into the top half of the table for a spell, but early the following season, John was dismissed.

With football overshadowed by other problems at St James Park, his successors, first Neil McNab and then Gary Peters, could not stop Exeter sliding out of the Football League for the first time since 1920.

John has subsequently remained in Devon where he lives with his Swansea-born wife Cath, their 12 year-old daughter Jessica, and two sons, nine year-old Sam and Harri, aged six.  He has spent the last couple of years scouting for Sheffield Wednesday and did kept his hand in with some coaching for the St Vincent and the Grenadines national squad in the Caribbean.

They will decide as a family whether to relocate to Wales, Jessica is now settled at high school and the children are his priority, but he is committed to his new job, and impressed by the welcome he has received.

“My main concern is how we play, but I give players all the information I can on our opponents, so we are always prepared.  I do wish I could have the players every day of the week and I believe we must start by defending properly, that way we can always get at least a point.

“Some of our players have been released by league clubs and I don’t think people always appreciate that this experience can scar you.  I believe that in general, players respond more to a carrot than a stick and I will be looking to vary training techniques in the belief that if players enjoy their training, then results will improve.

“I have also been delighted with the help I have had from Glyn Jones who is a great sounding board and is on the same wavelength as me.” 

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