Stowell Chipper On Life By The Storm-Lashed Hoe

 “See you in 20 minutes, I’m just jumping in the shower.” Eighteen minutes later, Mike Stowell is texting again, telling me he is all done and standing by my car outside Home Park.

Plymouth Argyle’s largely modern stadium is lit up by weak winter sunshine and he has caught me on the hop having a quick tour of its outside, Jack Leslie statue included.

In no time, I am following his car through the school traffic to the city’s dockyard area and the refreshment stop at which we have promised ourselves a catch-up not far from his apartment.

His route-planner tells us it’s an 11-minute drive, a short hop. Reaching the ‘Ocean City’ from up the M5, though….that’s a different matter altogether.

“Bristol and Plymouth are both said to be in the south-west but my journey down here takes two and a quarter hours,” he says. “That’s the same time it took me to get to Leicester.

“I do the trip a couple of times a week and it’s the hardest part of all this because I leave on those mornings at 4.45. We get in for 7am for a staff meeting and breakfast together but Plymouth is a long way from home for lots of the other backroom staff as well, and many of the players of course.

“You really notice it on the trips to away games. And we have had a lot of those since I started here in October. If we’re playing in Yorkshire or Lancashire, that two hours or so to the Bristol area is only the start of it.”

The motorway miles might drag but the homeward ones recently have been extremely happy. Last season’s FA Cup conquerors of Liverpool were bottom of League One just before Christmas and reeling from defeats in all of Stowell’s first six games with them.

But they have won six of their last seven away matches – and drawn the other – to lift themselves comfortably clear of the relegation places and towards mid-table. 

With improving home form, they have won their last four League games and are also two wins from Wembley in the Vertu Trophy. What’s more, those who yearn for young Englishmen to be given a chance in the hot seat amid the foreign influx will be pleased the pressure on head coach Tom Cleverley has largely abated.

Another storm – a meteorological one called Ingrid – has just passed, too, but Stowell has early observations on the pull of this stretch of holiday coastline. 

“When I came down here, I was looking forward to the weather being better than elsewhere but it can seriously rain!” he added. “I sat outside the coffee shop a couple of times in my early days in the job and was lapping up how warm it felt. But someone working on the ground told me there was another side to the climate and I know what he means now.

“The training ground is next to the stadium and has been unfit on a few days after all the rain, so we have had to train on the main pitch, which isn’t ideal.

“The knock-on effect of the extra use has been noticeable on match days but none of the problems seem as big when results are good.”

It’s not only up the A38 and M5 that lift-off has come. Argyle had won only one of seven home games but have emerged with maximum points from the last two, against Burton and Luton, both with clean sheets – always good news for a goalkeeper coach.

They are back in action at Home Park tonight (against Mansfield), then comes more travelling, with Stockport, Blackpool, Leyton Orient and Rotherham all on the fixture list before February is out.

Separation from loved ones is tough, heightened by the difficulties of them making more than only occasional visits to Devon. Teenage daughter Ella is at college and on a dual registration as a goalkeeper with Bristol City (her parent club) and Bristol Rovers and wife Rachel is training hard in the countdown to her ninth London Marathon.

“When we’re coming back from away games, I make sure my car is up at Bristol so I can get off the coach close to where we live. And I often go back after home matches and always when we have a day off. But back-to-back home games with Sunday training, like now, mean I am down here for an unbroken week.”

All this is shared in a cheerful manner which leaves me in no doubt he is delighted, at the age of 60, to be back in full-time EFL work after the stint with Bristol City Women that followed his extraordinary double-winning spell in Israel.

Having been summoned to Maccabi Tel Aviv as part of Robbie Keane’s backroom team, he had the thrill of getting his hands on the League crown and one of the domestic cups as an addition to the unforgettable triumphs he was part of at Leicester in the Premier League (2016) and FA Cup (2021).

Keane was unable to take him along as a coach in his current highly successful posting with Ferencvaros due to having a more restricted off-field budget. But the two remain close enough for Mike to briefly interrupt our chat and send his former Molineux team-mate a ‘good luck’ message in the hours leading up to the Hungarian champions’ Europa League home clash with Panathinaikos.

All too soon, our chat is drawing to a close – but for very acceptable reasons. The man who worked as a BBC WM summariser at Wolves’ Carabao Cup win over Everton in the autumn is required by friends at BBC Radio Leicester.

He has also co-commentated at a Foxes game or two this season and has now been booked by the station to appear on the When You’re Smiling podcast, which goes out live. We trust our readers will click on BBC Radio Leicester – Leicester City: When You’re Smiling, Analysing Leicester’s Tactical Issues when time allows to learn more about what has been happening in the East Midlands.