Charlton Athletic first-team coach Terry Skiverton on learning his trade and why the time was right to leave Yeovil after 23 years of sterling service

Terry Skiverton ended a 23-year career at Yeovil Town when he joined Charlton Athletic’s coaching ranks this week. But while it may be a drastic change in some respects, the commute to work is one that he already knows well.

The 46-year-old east Londoner had a couple of years on Welling United’s books before he joined the Glovers in 1999.

As a player at Huish Park he won the FA Trophy as well as the Conference and League Two titles in 2003 and 2005. He was Gary Johnson’s number two when they upset Brentford in the League One play-off final at Wembley in May 2013 to reach the Championship.

But now that successful and lengthy chapter has come to an end. Skiverton didn’t need a satnav to find Charlton’s Sparrows Lane training ground in New Eltham when he got down to work with his employers on Monday morning.

“It’s almost like a trip down memory lane because my journey is the same as when I was at Welling United,” he told the South London Press. “It brought back some good memories but also a couple of bad ones as well, because when we played Charlton in pre-season they would normally hammer us.”

Skiverton will divide his time between Loughton, Essex and the family home in Somerset.

The fact his youngest son Louis has just started secondary school helped make it the right time for a fresh challenge.

“My boys are all grown up now so the travelling doesn’t affect them so much,” said Skiverton.

“I just wanted to make sure they were okay first. With the job I had at Yeovil and the success we had, it almost buys you some credit. Over the years when we’ve had tough seasons the supporters have normally always been with me because of the job I’ve done.

“I’ve finished all my qualifications and I’ve seen every division with Yeovil. I’ve seen what promotions look like and what relegations look like. It gets to a stage where your loyalty – and everything you do for the football club – means you then need to think about yourself as well.

“If a team like Charlton comes in and an opportunity like this presents itself, it’s one that is very, very tough to turn down.”

Skiverton’s Yeovil claimed a 2-2 draw at The Valley in December 2013 – Charlton manager Johnnie Jackson, then skippering the side, was shown a straight red card.

“I think Luke Ayling got him sent off,” recalled Skiverton, capped four times at semi-professional level by England. “It was a physical and fiercely competitive match.

“The gaffer said that whenever he came down and played Yeovil, who are not a big budget team, we were always well-organised and very competitive. It’s something I’ve carried on with. As one of the smaller clubs we like to be able to counter-attack with pace and power  and be very good at set-pieces.

“We’d make sure when the big teams came down they had to nick the points off us, rather than us handing them over to them.

“I had my best years there under Gary Johnson as a player and also as an assistant manager. They doubled our budget when we got to the Championship but we were still the record-lowest budget at that level – the next closest club were spending four or five times more.

“We lost all our best players – Luke Ayling, Ed Upson, Byron Webster and James Hayter. Because we got so high, so quick – and our budget was so small – when we got relegated to League One we lost all our players because even those teams had bigger budgets – the players had enhanced their reputations and we had the absolute guts taken out of the football club. I’d say even up until now the football club hasn’t recovered.”

Skiverton was appointed player-manager of Yeovil in 2009. The following year he focused just on being a boss but shifted to assistant when Johnson came back for a second spell at the start of 2012 Skiverton says he jumped into management too quickly.

“I did a topic for one of my courses and it was sustainability and leadership in the Royal Navy,” he said. “It’s only in football that you can be a player, with no experience in management, and then all of a sudden be thrust into it.

“If you’re a sailor on a battleship that’s about to go into a war which is going to be a campaign, not a little mini-battle, you wouldn’t give one of your sailors the key to the battleship and let them start firing off rockets, would you?

“But football is like that. I had three years and I finished 19th, 17th and 14th in League One – at the time you had big-hitters like Southampton, Leicester, Charlton, Norwich, Huddersfield and Sheffield Wednesday in there.

“Sometimes your ego gets called into question. But I sat down with my family and wife and said: ‘What is my situation? How do I improve? How do I do what sailors do – they have to go through the ranks?

“I felt I needed to earn my stripes and go through the learning process. I took a step back and learned off Gary, Paul Sturrock, Darren Way and Darren Sarll. It’s culminated in me having really good experience and sustaining a career up and down the league.

“I’ve supported and encouraged managers in trying to get wins. I probably get more joy out of that than management. The gaffer here has done a really good job in turning a really hard and difficult start to the season into the position the club are in now – making sure it is competing and getting results.

“The clever acquisition of Chuks Aneke, and I think they are looking at one or two more, we are trying to make sure we keep progressing.

“It’s heading in the right direction. We need to make sure the momentum carries on for the second half of the season.

“The club has got fantastic facilities, recruitment and owner. The older players, your cultural architects, they’re making sure everyone is on top in training.”

So what would the coach Terry Skiverton make of Terry Skiverton the player?

“When I was at Welling United I was a ginger player and when I was at Yeovil I went like a blondey-grey,” is Skiverton’s initial light-hearted response.

“In the early days under Gary Johnson I was a student of the game. Being a captain I was very vocal and tried to lead by example. I knew how to read the game tactically and technically.

“And also I’m very passionate about trying to win football matches. I’m always encouraging my team-mates and driving standards so that we would get three points on the day.

“The biggest thing for me as a player and as a first-team coach is that I will always question the action…but very rarely will I question the man. I make sure we’re all in it together. They are vital ingredients I took from my playing days that I’ve taken into coaching.”

Skiverton and Jackson both played in a benefit match in memory of former Charlton player Paul Linger, who was just 46 when he passed away in October.

“He was my best friend,” said Skiverton. “We grew up at the same primary school. He was the same era as Dean Chandler and Richard Rufus. We used to play against each other in the youth teams. I was at Chelsea as a young player.

“Paul brought things together because he was always with Mickey Bennett, Carl Leaburn, Scott Minto and Anthony Barness, who I ended up getting to know.

“We played in a charity game. The gaffer and Jon Fortune were very good and I was terrible. I was a bit embarrassed by my performance – I’m not quite as slim as I used to be.

“We did a load of stuff to try and help Paul’s son Frankie. Now his ex-wife has taken on Frankie. The people he knew came together to raise loads of money and help the family to get over Paul’s death.

“He was a great guy. Even when he was coming to the end his friends got to see him in the right way. It was a beautiful way for him to go.”