This week Blackburn announced the full-time appointment of Ben Benson into a permanent first team coaching role.
Benson was asked to step up from his academy coaching position, held since 2015, when Tony Mowbray was appointed Blackburn boss in February – he’s now full time first team goalkeeping coach.
Clearly happy, Benson told the Official Website: ‘I’m delighted. It is a relatively new experience for me. When I first came here I was part of the Academy and had some involvement with the first team over the course of time. I’ve certainly enjoyed it. It has been challenging in a good way and for good reasons, and the goalkeepers have been different class – they’ve been excellent with me.’
Adding: ‘We are all looking forward to the season starting now. The preparation has been excellent, we’ve all worked hard, we’re eager to get going as quickly as we can and hopefully we can get off to a good start.’
Mowbray could have quite easily moved to bring in his own option but has shown faith in Benson, 27, who said he was ‘unbelievably grateful’ and will now aim to repay that favour by doing all he can to ensure the goalkeepers going through will be of the highest quality.
‘He’s given me an unbelievable opportunity, of which I’m very, very grateful for. He’s been excellent with myself and the rest of the staff. He’s bought into the goalkeeping side of what we are trying to do as well and he is very keen to stress his beliefs on it. So we are working hand-in-hand on it really, from the goalkeeping department to the outfield staff, to hopefully make this a good place for goalkeepers to be over the future.’
He’s also hopeful of these keepers soon performing in the Championship again with all at Ewood Park confident of the season, albeit a long one, ahead in League One.
‘That is the goal. That is definitely the goal and I think we are all very, very confident. Ultimately, it is a long season. I think it’s the old adage of it isn’t won over the first week and it certainly isn’t won over the last week, it is over the course of games. So the hope is that over the course of the season, we are the best team and the most consistent team in the league. So that is where we hope to be.’
Share this article