'I can't thank him enough': Former Irish League striker ready for first managerial job after working with experienced coach
David McDaid feels “so lucky” to have had an opportunity to work alongside experienced Irish League coach John Gregg at the start of his own journey – and feels their time together at Portstewart has set him up perfectly for a first managerial job with the Seahawks.
Gregg was named Portstewart manager in November with McDaid joining as his assistant, but the former Institute chief decided to step down at the end of last season.
His departure left a vacancy at the Co Londonderry club which was quickly filled by McDaid as chairman Alan Dempsey handed the keys to the ex-Larne striker, marking his maiden step into senior management.
Having held roles at Coleraine, Glentoran and Dungannon Swifts, Gregg was the perfect person for McDaid to learn crucial lessons from about life in management as he prepared to take the next step.
The pair only spent around six months together in the Portstewart dugout, but that time clearly had a positive impact on McDaid, who is ready for a new challenge after Gregg’s valuable input.
"We'd spoken about it, myself, Alan and John, and there was always a chance it could happen, but it all depended on John,” he said. “If John had have wanted to stay for another season, he could have done that, but John needed a break.
"John and I are at different stages of our careers - I'm enthusiastic and have a bug for coaching whereas John is older and more experienced.
"The six months I spent with John, I feel like I have crammed a lot of learning into such a short space of time.
"I can't express how good John has been with me. I'm so lucky to have someone who not only trusted me, but gave me a canvas to do what I wanted to do.
"He gave me a voice and be part of all the decisions, which I think is vital for someone like me coming along. It was amazing, I can't thank John enough, I've told him that so many times.”
McDaid has spent the best part of two decades plying his trade in top-flight football across both the Irish League and League of Ireland, enjoying spells at Derry City, Coleraine, Cliftonville, Waterford, Larne, Ballymena United and Glenavon.
With management always likely to be the natural progression for McDaid after a successful playing career, he has picked up tips and tricks from a host of previous bosses which he’ll now look to implement.
"Over the years, I've always written down traits of what a good manager looks like on my phone,” he added. “If you look through my club history, I have worked under some fantastic managers, but they all had differences.
"If I can take wee snippets of what they've been brilliant at, that'll be amazing, but also take learnings from some of the things they were bad at also and try to improve.
"It's going to be a massive learning curve but I'm all for it and it's the path I want to go down.”