Kevin Pilkington counts himself a “lucky boy” to have been part of Manchester United’s famed ‘Class of 92’ but admits his early experience of getting specialised training was a very different world to one he now inhabits as a Luton Town goalkeeping coach.
The 47-year-old returned to the Hatters at the start of the month as a coach, having played for the club in the Conference between 2009 and 2011.
That was 17 years after he emerged at Old Trafford as a youth team-mate of David Beckham, Ryan Giggs, Gary Neville, Nicky Butt and Paul Scholes, winning the 1992 FA Youth Cup.
Pilkington didn’t go on to make the same impact in the Red Devils’ first team as the more famous of Fergie’s Fledglings, with just six appearances in his six years as an understudy of Peter Schmeichel, but he did enjoy a career of more than 400 appearances.
The Hitchin-born custodian only retired officially in 2019 while goalkeeper coach at Cambridge United, leaving behind a 25-year playing career before taking to coaching full time.
He’ll now work under the Hatters’ head goalkeeping coach Kevin Dearden. And, as a sign of the times, Championship Luton in 2021 employ a bigger team to train their stoppers than the most successful English club did when Pilkington was coming through the ranks.
“When I was at United we had Alan Hodgkinson on a Monday and that was it,” the former Notts County number one said, adding: “We had a two-hour session and for the rest of the week you were just chucked in with the rest of the players.
“You see at the top level now that they have a main goalkeeping coach and then another, very similar to what we’re doing here at Luton. The role is always adapting and you have to move with the times as well.
“Managers want so much more from the goalkeepers now other than just making saves so you have to put that into training as well.
“We just work on every single aspect most days, not just focus on keeping it out the net but ultimately that is the biggest aim, to get that zero at the end of the game, however you do that.”
Pilkington returns to Luton with a wealth of playing and now coaching experience, having been in the backroom staff at Barnsley last term, though working under Sir Alex Ferguson in his early career continues to stand out.
“I was a very lucky boy to get into that environment at that football club. I learned so much from my time there, not just as a footballer but as a person as well,” said Pilkington.
“Sir Alex, I cant speak highly enough of him. He was brilliant to me then and brilliant to me now. Whenever I see him now he will always have a chat, he knows what you are doing and he’s a fantastic man. To learn from the best – Peter Schmeichel – you will then teach a lot of what he did to goalkeepers because he was very different but very effective and for me that is what a goalkeeper is about now.
“It is not about how you keep the ball out the net, it is how effective you are at keeping the ball out of the net. People have different styles, especially now where the game is evolving, people do it in different ways but it is working out what is best for that goalkeeper and that time. I have been fortunate to work under some very good people.”
And now Pilkington will be looking to impart his knowledge Town stoppers Simon Sluga, James Shea and Harry Isted – though he didn’t always think he was destined for a coaching career.
He said: “One of my friends, who was coaching at Loughborough University, he asked me to go along and help out with the university team on a Wednesday afternoon on my day off. I started doing that and I really enjoyed it. It wasn’t something I thought I’d step into but once I got into it, I did really enjoy it.
“I then started to do my badges, I went to Ilkeston, helped them out on a Tuesday and Thursday evening when I wasn’t playing. It just evolved from there, got involved with the Great Britain University team and then at the back end of my Luton time, I got a phone call from Notts County to go in there as their goalkeeping coach.
“I wasn’t quite sure about it initially but once I got into it I loved it and have really enjoyed it since. Nothing beats playing but it is the next best thing. I love goalkeeping, it is my passion. I have been in the game for 32 years now and that is all it’s been about.
“It is great to help goalkeepers and young goalkeepers as well especially to progress in their careers and hopefully get on the right level to move on.”
Keeper Simon Sluga will return to Luton ahead of Friday’s Championship clash at QPR having been part of the Croatian international side that this week qualified for the 2022 Qatar World Cup.
Pilkington said: “I’ve been lucky, I’ve worked with Roy Carroll while he was with Northern Ireland, Bartosz Bialkowski when he broke into the Poland squad and Kasper (Schmeichel) a little bit at Notts County as well, so it’s nice to work with those sorts of goalkeepers, the ones that are playing elite level football, you can learn off them as much as they learn off you, so it’s just taking those little bits.
“He’s (Sluga) very, very focused, he’s very intense in his work, when he’s working he’s fully concentrating on that, so it’s an interesting one for me to look at, he’s a different character to other goalkeepers that I’ve worked with, so I can learn from that and see what makes him tick as well as what I think can make him tick as well.
“To qualify for the biggest tournament in the world, it’s a fantastic achievement for them, and hopefully he’ll kick on and get in that squad for next year.”
