Gateshead’s Rob Elliot departs for Crawley following “remarkable job” on Tyneside
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.