Saints manager Steve Lomas might have a wealth of experience to tap into at the end of a phone, but the Perth boss insists he is very much his own man.
Lomas revealed that chats with the likes of Everton’s David Moyes and his former mentor Harry Redknapp have helped steer him in the right direction as he continues to find his feet as a manager with the Manager of the Month Award proof of how far he has come.
But while titbits of encouragement have come his way from such illustrious sources, Lomas believes he has stamped his own mark on the McDiarmid Park club.
”You’ve got to be your own man, you’ve got to live and die by your own decisions,” he said.
”That being said, you’ve got to communicate and take people’s advice but in the end it’s down to you.
”It’s you standing on that line, it’s you whenever you lose whose fault it is, so it’s a thing I’ve always tried to do as a manager.
”It’s important whenever you are doing well not to get too high and when you are doing not so well not to get too low.
”It’s all about trying to keep an even keel.”
Lomas has great admiration for the job Moyes has done at Everton and told Courier Sport that the successful Scot had passed on some pearls of wisdom recently.
”It’s always a learning curve you always make mistakes and I’m sure I’ll make a lot more,” he said.
”I asked Davie Moyes how he deals with himself second guessing his team have you done the right thing?
”He said ‘how many times have you second guessed your team selection?’ and I said about three or four.
”But he goes ‘you’re all right, I normally have about 10 or 11 on the day of the game, so you are ahead of the game.’
”So it’s good to speak to people like David and Craig Brown and Harry Redknapp, who have been there done it and got the T-shirt – in Craig’s case probably four or five T-shirts.
”It’s great the senior managers give their advice from time to time.
”I do it every now and again because I don’t like to pester them but it would be wrong of me not to try and tap into that experience.
”It gives you an understanding that you aren’t the first and you aren’t going to be the last that goes through things.
”Some people try to think they are reinventing the wheel but people are going to have the same problems that they did 20 years ago and I’m no different.
”But if I can do half as well as Davie Moyes I’ll be delighted.”
He continued: ”I like the way his team plays and he’s doing another great job.
”It’s no coincidence that Everton are doing so well and he did his business early this year.
”He got all his players in early and they were able to get a good pre-season under their belt and it’s one thing he said to me that was a key factor in them starting so well.”