EFL goalkeeper coach Steve Hale speaks on his passion for the position and the emotional roller coaster of play-off games
The Play-Offs and their outcomes teeter on a perilous knife-edge. The winning team experiences a gushing feeling of accomplishment and euphoria. The losers must face the brutal realisation that a season’s hard work has been decimated. Steve Hale has experienced both sides of this conundrum.
The Englishman has coached throughout the Football League in a tremendous 18-year journey. He has enjoyed stints at Swindon Town, Forest Green Rovers, Walsall, Oldham Athletic, Exeter City, Coventry City, Crawley Town, and Milton Keynes Dons, prompting mixed play-off experience. Each time Hale and his goalkeepers entered the Play-Offs, he reached the final.
The 52-year-old secured promotion twice through the play-offs but also suffered two gut-wrenching final defeats. Alongside coaching, he founded the Steve Hale Goalkeeping School in 2007, which provides training and support to young goalkeepers in Swindon.
Without a distinguished playing background, Hale worked incredibly hard to fashion a career in professional football coaching. He was driven by love for goalkeeping.
“In my childhood, I always had a passion for goalkeeping,” he smiled. “The gloves, the kit, and throwing myself around in the mud. I played non-league football for several years. In my early 30s, I started to pick up injuries and felt I had a better chance of achieving something through coaching. I began my badges and set up my goalkeeping school.”
Hale is “Swindon born and bred,” and his coaching endeavours commenced in his hometown. “I used to play in the same team as Jeremy Newton, who was at the Centre of Excellence at Swindon, and he asked if I would do one session per week with the youngsters,” he said. “My role grew and I went full-time. Before that, I coached at non-league club Cirencester Town, was a part-time teaching assistant at a local primary school and ran my goalkeeping school.
“Initially, at Swindon, my full-time job was with the academy. I occasionally helped with the first team, then Fraser Digby, the club's goalkeeper coach, left and Wes Foderingham, the first team goalkeeper, recommended me for the role. So in the 2014/15 season, I stepped up as the Head of Goalkeeping and inherited the academy from the under-9s and the first team.”
Balancing Swindon Town commitments with his goalkeeping school was demanding, but Hale relished the challenge.
“My week was quite hectic,” he laughed. “During the day, I’d work with the pros and a little bit with the youth team. I’d do two nights a week with the under-9s to under-16s in the Swindon Academy and a Wednesday evening with my goalkeeping school. I would watch the academy every Sunday morning and oversee the programme. It was very full on and I was the only goalkeeper coach in the club. I did everything, but I enjoyed that because I had complete control. It was a blank canvas and I could do what I wanted.”
During Hale’s first campaign as Head of Goalkeeping at Swindon in 2014/15, the Robins finished fourth in League One – the club’s highest position for 15 years – and qualified for the Play-Offs. Swindon faced Sheffield United in the semi-finals and left Bramall Lane with a 2-1 victory in the first leg.
In the return fixture at the County Ground, Swindon were 3-0 up within 18 minutes and cruising toward the final. The score was eventually pegged back to 5-5 in what Hale described as “absolute chaos.” Swindon battled against this late comeback to reach the final and Hale looks fondly upon this moment:
“When we pulled ahead, you let yourself dream and start to think of Wembley. You lose yourself and suddenly you’re biting your nails! After the final whistle, the stadium emerged onto the pitch. The celebrations in the changing rooms were immense. It was surreal because that helped me to my first Play-off Final. I have quite a humble background, having not been a pro, so getting to Wembley as a coach was a dream.”
However, in the final, Swindon were convincingly swept aside 4-0 by Preston North End. When asked how he felt about the match, Hale replied: “It was horrendous. We were 3-0 down at half-time and lost our captain, Nathan Thompson, to injury early on. In the build-up, there was so much excitement, so it was soul-destroying. Watching the opposition collect the trophy and celebrating leaves you thinking of what could have been.”
Hale didn’t allow this previous setback to dampen his spirit and he quickly found himself in the play-offs again with National League outfit Forest Green in 2017. This time, Hale achieved promotion to League Two by beating Dagenham & Redbridge and Tranmere, remarking that the experience was “completely different” from the Swindon play-offs.
“In the semis against Dagenham, we drew 1-1, then won 2-0. With Swindon, it was chaotic but this time, I felt in control and calm. I never thought we would lose. Going into the final, I fancied us at Wembley. We were a possession-based team and backed ourselves on a big pitch with a beautiful surface. We had Sam Russell, who was a calm and experienced goalkeeper. I was confident and always felt comfortable.”
Hale’s first play-off final victory was a special moment in his career. “It was an incredible moment,” he reflected. “On the way to get the trophy, I remember thinking, What am I doing here? There are people in the game who have never gone to Wembley. I'm man enough to admit that I got emotional. I had a few tears just coming down the steps.”
Following this promotion, there were shorter spells at Walsall and Oldham, before another play-off semi-final arrived with League Two side Exeter in the 2019/20 season. This campaign was heavily disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic and the outbreak caused the Football League season to be abandoned in March 2020. When football resumed in June, the rest of the table was decided on a points-per-game method. Exeter finished fifth and beat Colchester United in the semis.
However, Hale endured another excruciating 4-0 play-off final defeat, this time to Northampton Town as the game was played at Wembley with no fans due to the restrictions. “It was a strange experience,” Hale remembered. “We had lockdown, returned and did a mini pre-season in a week before facing Colchester behind closed doors. We got through to the final and there wasn’t much adrenaline because there were no fans to celebrate with. The final was a complete anti-climax and we lost due to their set plays. It was miserable and probably the worst final I’ve been involved in.”
Hale said it was difficult to learn from this as COVID warped football. He lost his job due to the pandemic’s financial implications and labelled it as “dark times.” The coach waited four years to avenge this painful loss and another League Two play-off attempt arrived with Crawley at the end of the 2023/24 season. The West Sussex club finished seventh and encountered fourth-placed MK Dons in the semis. Hale recalled that it was an incredible achievement for Crawley to be in the play-offs.
“I joined at the start of 2023 and the club was in a relegation battle. We survived and before the next season, every pundit predicted Crawley to get relegated. We reached the play-offs and were the underdogs against MK Dons. The manager, Scott Lindsey, was very aggressive in how he attacked and wouldn’t sit back. We had a game plan and won the first leg 3-0. We scored early in the second leg at their ground, we went from strength to strength.”
Crawley triumphed 5-1 in that game, sealing an 8-1 aggregate win: the biggest margin of victory in EFL play-off history. The final was another redemption opportunity for Hale and he gleefully accepted it, defying the odds with Crawley. In the club’s first-ever visit to Wembley, Crawley beat Crewe Alexandra 2-0, marking Hale’s second play-off final win, seven years after the first.
With a record equally split between play-off final victories and defeats, Steve is brimming with advice for goalkeeping coaches, believing they must create a “relaxed” atmosphere.
“It’s important to keep the lads calm, despite the pressure and excitement. Although I take my job seriously, I believe goalkeepers should be relaxed for games, so I try to have fun with them. For example, Corey Addai at Crawley was so laid-back he was horizontal! In the final against Crewe, we went out for the warm-up and he rugby tackled me on the pitch! That was right for Corey because he was a character who needed to be relaxed. He needs the fun without pressure.”
This laid-back and receptive approach is intrinsically linked to Hale’s wider coaching philosophy. He believes the mental side is a “bigger part” of goalkeeper training than what the session physically involves.
“Over the years, I think the biggest part of coaching has become your relationship with the goalkeepers and knowing how they feel in football and daily life. You need to work with them psychologically. It's not just about me as a coach putting on a session and giving them instructions. I want them to participate and give feedback. I always encourage goalkeepers to self-coach and help others. I want the group to be very open.”
Having departed his most recent job at MK Dons, Hale is looking for a new club and still has his goalkeeping school in Swindon, which is still a massive part of his life.
“When I was growing up, I never received any specialised coaching, so I wanted to give something back to the kids in the area. I always fit it in around my role in the game. In the last 18 years, I’ve coached about 550 kids. It's more about the enjoyment side and teaching youngsters life skills such as good manners, respect and how to make new relationships.
"My school is for anyone who wants to try goalkeeping. We give them all the different fundamentals and techniques of the game. The longer they are in my school, the more likely they are to develop and learn because it is a drip feeding process of the information.”
Whether it's in the professional game, academy football or his goalkeeping school, Hale is still looking toward the future and another tussle with the play-offs could be waiting.
