Paul Harbinson says he’s ready for his next challenge after serving his managerial apprenticeship at Ballymena United under-20s.
The former Bangor and Welders defender – a Steel Cup winner with the Tillysburn outfit back in 2011 – has just returned from a trip to Alicante where the IFA had sent a delegation of coaches to see how the Spanish do things.
This year, Harbinson will complete his A licence and having worked under David Jeffrey and Glenn Ferguson before that during his five years at Warden Street, he feels the time is right to “spread his wings”.
“I want to push on now,” said Harbinson, who also enjoyed spells as a player at Portadown, Loughgall and across the water at Port Talbot.
“David has been brilliant with me, I told him I wanted to get into management myself and he said to stay with him, do what I’m doing and if an opportunity comes up, go for it.
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“So I can’t sing his praises enough, him and Bryan McLoughlin have been brilliant, they took me and my assistant under their wings and just looked after us.
“But I’m at that stage now where we feel if we don’t spread our wings a wee bit, people are going to call us youth coaches
“I think the move to under-20s has been a great idea because it has really strengthened the Championship and it has made us look for younger players.
“But as a result, I’m working with 17-year- olds who are great kids and great footballers, but it’s still kids and we feel it’s time to move up.”
Harbinson started into his badges as his playing days drew to a close, initially combining coaching with playing at Ballynure Old Boys before Joe McCall brought him in to look after Ballymena’s under-17s.
Shortly afterwards, when David Dorrian departed to take charge at Ballyclare Comrades, he was promoted to the under-20s where he has remained up until now.
But he’s also had some experience coaching the firsts alongside Jeffrey, taking sessions and joining the Sky Blues chief in the dugout in Europe when McLoughlin was unavailable.
Having spent three years working under the most decorated manager in the history of the Irish League then, he reckons he’s learned from the best.
“It’s proven, his track record says it, and the level of detail and professionalism that him and Bryan put into how they do things, I believe, stands me in good stead,” said Harbinson.
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“Players want that level of discipline, they want that level of respect and that level of guidance and if you can give that to them, you get the very best out of them, and they are brilliant at that.”
Naturally, Harbinson aspires to work at the highest level he can, but he’s happy to do the dirty work too to make his name and doesn’t rule out managing further down the divisions if the right offer came along.
“You just never know, if I was to get the right Amateur League club who were keen and wanted to push on,” he said.
“But my goal is to get into the Premiership and coach a Premier League team, to take a team and do the whole European thing and to try and really excel and win stuff, but I know that’s not easy.”
As for his managerial CV, Harbinson points to a production line of flourishing youngsters in the Sky Blues first team as the fruits of his labour.
“You can weigh up your achievements, but from a reserve team point of view you look at the likes of Caolan Loughran, Leroy Millar, Kofi Balmer, all guys who are playing regular first team football and I could rhyme off more names of guys who’ve come through – Matthew Shevlin, Fra Nolan as well – guys who are making it and who, for five years, I’ve been the guy guiding them,” he said.
“So my biggest achievement is doing the job I was asked to do, which is to get players through, and I’ve also got valuable experience from managing big name players like Kevin Braniff, Johnny Flynn and Matty Tipton when they were at Ballymena too.”
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