Surprise Encounter Brightens Etihad Day Out

Mike Stowell and Rob Kelly – colleagues and good friends at Leicester as well as Wolves – have had a chance meeting in Lancashire following their various travels overseas.

The two caught up when attending the same coaching seminar during Kelly’s short visit home from Denmark in the recent international break.

“I hadn’t seen Rob since he was coaching at Malmo and I was over in Sweden in my short spell helping out with the Danish national team,” Stowell said.

“That is already a few years ago and we have both spread our wings a bit since then, so it was good that our paths crossed again closer to home.

“It was a coincidence that the event we  attended was at Manchester City because his boss, Uwe Rosler, was a hero at Maine Road as a player some years after I went there from Everton on loan in the late 1980s.

“I know Rob is enjoying working with him again and was talking enthusiastically when we met about how he would be loading up the car and driving back over to Denmark with his wife and their dog ready for when the league programme resumed.”

Aarhus are second in the table after eight games following Sunday’s 1-1 home draw against early pacesetters Silkeborg and are away to Lyngby this weekend.

Kelly also met up at the Manchester seminar with Leam Richardson, the man he has served as assistant at Wigan and Rotherham in recent years.

While the former Wolves midfielder and coach was preparing to return to the touchline in Denmark’s second city, Stowell was ticking off another first in England’s capital.

Having recently returned to the stand at Molineux for the first time in more than 20 years and made his ‘debut’ in the Billy Wright Stand corporate lounges, he had his first taste of radio summarising at Leicester’s draw at Crystal Palace six days ago.

And he obviously performed well because he has been placed on stand-by for two further stints of microphone duty in the coming months.

“People who know me will be aware that I can talk and I enjoyed being able to speak on the air about a game I was watching,” he added.

“I was helping the two BBC Radio Leicester guys with the coverage and it was a long afternoon, starting an hour before kick-off and finishing an hour after the final whistle.

“But I assume it went okay as they have sounded me out about Leicester’s games against Bournemouth and Southampton.”

The long-time King Power Stadium coach had not seen the club play since his departure from there in the summer of last year.

Stowell was also at the Bristol City women’s game at Ashton Gate on Sunday and is due to make another visit to St George’s Park next week.