Westfields Football Club joint manager Nick Morgan travelled to St Lucia recently for their CONCACAF Nations League fixtures.
Nick had been asked to join and support St Lucia as an assistant coach, with the role offering him experience in football at an international level.
St Lucia faced Curaçao (2-1 win) and Grenada (2-1 win) during Nick’s spell as assistant coach.
Nick started his UEFA A Licence with the Welsh FA two years ago, and one of the first people he met on the course was Stern John.
Stern John played for a number of sides in English football, including Birmingham City, Nottingham Forest and Coventry City. He also played for Trinidad and Tobago.
Stern John is now the manager of the St Lucia national team.
During their time studying the UEFA A Licence with the FA Wales, Stern John and Nick Morgan became good friends, with Nick telling Stern about Westfields and Stern telling Nick about his management situation in the Caribbean with St Lucia.
Stern John was intrigued by Nick Morgan’s role at Westfields, because St Lucia get a number of their players from the Non League pyramid in England. Due to St Lucia being promoted from Nations League C to Nations League B in the Caribbean this opened up a little bit more finance for the national team to bring in coaching staff.
The opportunity therefore arose for Nick Morgan to travel out to St Lucia to support Stern John with the latest round of fixtures, in block one of the 2024/25 schedule.
Half the St Lucia squad play in the country, with others playing in countries such as Jamaica, as well as the UK.
It was a very hands on approach for Nick, with him landing in St Lucia at 4pm on the Tuesday, and then training starting at 6pm. Nick immediately hit it off with the players and got a good vibe, before training ended and the team flew out to Grenada the following day.
Nick said that Stern John pushes for a family feeling within the camp, with meals together, so that the staff and players feel united.
What Nick hasn’t anticipated was having to take part in an initiation, where he had to sing in front of 40-50 people. Quite an experience, but his choice of ‘three little birds’ went down well!
Nick received some excellent feedback from both players and staff in regard to his coaching ability, which shows the level of coaching that is applied in both England and Wales.
In Friday’s 2-1 victory against Curaçao, Nick Morgan found himself coaching against Dick Advocaat, who is the Curaçao national team manager.
For those of you who don’t know, Dick Advocaat is a former manager of the Netherlands National Team, as well as Rangers and PSV.
Nick has thanked Westfields Football Club for allowing him the opportunity to travel to St Lucia to take part in this valuable experience in his coaching career and hopes to bring back additional skills that can help push Westfields up the Hellenic League Premier Division table.
