Antony Sweeney addresses rumours of a ‘falling out’ with Paul Hartley and what his future holds under Keith Curle

Once again, it was Antony Sweeney that was tasked with taking interim charge of Pools for their game against Morecambe at the Mazuma Stadium, Sweeney named first team coach under new interim boss Keith Curle, who takes charge for the first time at home on Saturday against Gillingham.

Sweeney had found himself out of the limelight during Paul Hartley’s time at the club, but he has denied rumours of a ‘falling out’ between himself and the previous management.

Sweeney said: “I’m not on social media as such but I am aware of it and I’ve seen a lot of things that have been said - some of it half true, some of it not. There was never any sort of falling out.

“Paul and Gordon, the previous managing duo, had always worked as a two so, in my opinion, if you’ve had success with that you’d be crazy to change the blueprint of that too much - I just fell the wrong side of it.

“There wasn’t much that was required from me so I’m thankful to the football club that they found a role where they knew I could still contribute.

“It won’t be a case of now just forgetting that four months and just solely focusing on the first-team because there should be cohesion between the youth development and the first-team and that will be my job to make sure we are as successful as we can be.”

Although his influence on first-team matters has been limited recently, Sweeney was keen to highlight that his new role helping the academy was one that, unsurprisingly, he’s very passionate about.

He said: “You could see it as a demotion or a negative if you like, but it wasn’t for me, it was a sideways step. It’s something that I quite enjoy doing so I took the positives from it.

“I was fortunate enough to have a career in football and without some major [influences] in youth development, I wouldn’t have had that career.

“If you’re a young player in professional football, you need people that are on your side and are going to put that time and effort in for you to have that career and there is a rewarding factor in that.

“A lot of first-team stuff, although it’s good when it’s going your way, it can be all results based and there’s a lot of hard work that goes unnoticed because it’s all based on the three points.

“That’s the harsh reality of first-team football. I get it but I know the youth development side of it is still a major passion.”

So what does the future look like for Sweeney under Curle?

“First and foremost I’m Keith Curle’s first-team coach and I will be there to support him and do what he wants me to do.

“There’s a lot of time in football, there’s opportunities to do other things. You can focus on one thing but there’s a lot of dead time so if you want to work hard and put yourself across a couple of programmes you can do that - and that’s what I will be doing, that’s what I enjoy.”