The idea of joining Bristol Rovers as their new director of football was really appealing, but I was very much aware that it wasn't all about me.

Paul Trollope was the manager and had only been in the job a couple of months. If the whole thing was going to be successful I knew the two of us had to be able to get on and work together.

I'd known Trolls as a player when he'd been in sides that played against teams I was managing, but apart from that we'd never really had the opportunity to talk at any great length.

I got the chance to put that right pretty quickly when I met him at a charity dinner in Swindon on a Sunday night in early November 2005, which I went along to with some of the Rovers directors. I sat with Paul and went over a few things with him, and we seemed to get on well enough.

We were both keen to make things work and when the official announcement of my appointment was made the next day, we were off and running. I also think the Rovers directors deserved some credit for making a bold decision to try something different and take the club in a new direction.

I'd been given pretty much a blank canvas in terms of the way I went about the job, and I knew that in order to make it work Paul had to be happy with me, and then it was a case of looking at areas where he might need me.

One of the biggest things I had going for me was that I've done everything at a club during my time as a coach and manager. Whether it's coaching, tactics, player selection, transfers, scouting, finances or whatever else, I've been there and done it. The only thing I'll hold my hands up to and say I'm lacking in is IT skills, but in real everyday terms, I know the game inside out and the thing I wanted to make sure Trolls understood was that I was there to help him.

I realised the situation could potentially be awkward, but I also knew that if we were both determined to make it work, it would.

Paul had only been in the job for a matter of weeks and we were pretty much starting off together as a new management team.

He and I seemed to settle into a pattern pretty quickly and it hasn't really changed to this day.

I'm his mentor, assistant, and I help with the coaching, as well as providing a link with the boardroom. I try to steer him through it all, but right from day one it was down to him to make the key decisions.

He decides who plays and who gets dropped. I have my say and give him my opinions, but that's as far as it goes. I spent the first six months giving him 'what ifs?' By that I mean I would say to him, "What if this happens? What are you going to do about that? What would you do about this or that situation?"

It was my way of trying to prepare him, not just in coaching and team selection, but also for management in general.

I could see he was a bright, young coach and I also saw my role as making sure that he had a future in the game. Paul was a good coach and wanted a career in management. I wanted to make sure I gave him all the help I could, and in doing so the club would hopefully prosper and benefit.

Part of the pattern we settled into early on was me sitting on the bench with him, which was something he wanted. It worked well from the start. Paul liked to stand in the technical area and I sat there watching and making suggestions.

Sometimes I put my opinion forward more forcefully than others, but from day one it had to be a case of him making the final decision. The first season went pretty well, with us both getting to know each other and at the same time getting to know the way we liked to work. We picked up reasonably well in the early part of 2006, getting up as high as eighth in the table at one stage and finished the campaign in 12th place.

The first month of the new season brought some inconsistent results as we won two and lost three of the five league matches we played in August.

Looking back now, probably the most significant thing which happened was the arrival of striker Rickie Lambert from Rochdale for £200,000 on transfer deadline day at the end of that month.

Junior Agogo had gone to Nottingham Forest for a similar fee a couple of days earlier, and we'd known that he was likely to be leaving. So we drew up a short-list of possible people we would like to bring in and Lambert was on it.

When he first arrived he struggled with some injury problems and wasn't really fit for some time, but once he got into his stride, Rickie began to show just what a good player he was, scoring some crucial goals.