Angus Beith sat down with Hearts TV for his first interview since being appointed B Team head coach.
A former product of the Hearts youth academy, Angus was forced into early retirement aged 23, due to a recurring hip injury, but returned to the club to take his first steps in the world of coaching.
Having been appointed B Team assistant head coach to Liam Fox in the summer, Angus was placed in Interim charge of the B Team, when Fox was brought into the first team setup, and took the role in his stride.
Speaking to Hearts TV, he admitted to being a little surprised to have been offered the role, but said he was extremely grateful for the opportunity.
“It’s been brilliant. A brilliant challenge for me at the stage that I'm at in my coaching, my development. I must admit, I didn't expect to be in this sort of role so quickly, but I'm so incredibly grateful to the club to put me in such a position. So early on in my career. I’m really enjoying the challenge and I’m loving being on the pitch every day with the boys.
“I've got a great staff working around me, so that helps me a lot. And I think what's really helped me with the role, in particular the last two or three months, is having seen Foxy [Liam Fox] do it for the last four months and work really closely with him.
“So, in terms of the planning and the execution of the sessions, he's obviously at a very high level, so that's stood me in really good stead going into the role.
“I now have the support of Shelley [Kerr] as well. I feel like I'm in a really good position to take the group forward and obviously focus on the individuals within that and do the best we can.”
A young coach himself, who has progressed through various roles within the football club and the Balerno Performance School, Angus explains he has learned off a variety of different coaches during his time with the club.
“I've actually been extremely fortunate. If you go back to when I was in, at the time it was the under-20s, Darren Murray was my first coach. Since then, I’ve had Robbie Nielsen, Liam Fox, as you say, John Daly, Andy Kirk. I'm probably missing a few but then I got exposed to Ian Cathro and Craig Levein as well on the first team.
“So, I’ve had some brilliant coaches that have helped me along the way. And I've obviously taken little bits and pieces from all of them and now in particular, in terms of the coaching side, worked really closely with Foxy, which was brilliant for my development.
“Doing that with Shelley now and Donald [Park] as well. Brilliant as a person and just passing little bits on to me all the time when he was here.”
Beith is hoping to be able to draw on some of his own personal experiences as an academy player at Tynecastle to help the current crop of youngsters rising through the ranks.
“I can draw on the experiences that I went through, he continued. “It was a little bit different obviously not playing in the B team when I was younger.
“So, they've got that exposure to the men's game, which is really, really good for them. But yeah, playing in the under-20s league as it was at the time and training with the first team and trying to make that next step. I can hopefully give them little bits and pieces that I did well during that journey.
"And then also as well, the mistakes that I made. I can hopefully guide them in the right direction as best I possibly can. It does place me, I feel, in a good position to relate to them. Having been there before, and hopefully with my coaching the way I am with them, I'd like to think hopefully that gets across to them as well.”
You can watch Angus’ interview in full by clicking here.
