Ex-O’s first-team goalkeeper owns his own coaching company - Developing Goalkeeping UK - and has already had one major success story this season

Martin Brennan has been a busy man since leaving his role as Leyton Orient’s first-team goalkeeper coach around six months ago.

The former O’s youngster departed Brisbane Road on March 30 alongside then manager Danny Webb.

It was a tough decision for Brennan, but one that has allowed him to focus all of his time on his coaching company.

The former Fulham goalkeeper coach has his own business – Developing Goalkeeping UK – which is designed at improving shot stoppers and since leaving Orient, he’s been able to invest more of his energy into that.

“What I am now doing is I own my own coaching company, which delivers camps to professional goalkeepers and non-league goalkeepers,” said Brennan.

“I do weekly sessions and one-on-ones and we do camps in Jersey, so I visit there four times a year and we have a camp in America too, so I’ve been really, really busy.

“Obviously I enjoyed working at Leyton Orient and as I said before, it has always been a club I looked out for in terms of results, but I made the decision to leave for the right of my family.

“This way I do get an opportunity to see them more and I can plan ahead with what I want to do.”

After moving on from Orient, Brennan was able to set up various camps for during the summer months.

He has also been able to get some of the most respectable local figures, in terms of goalkeeping, involved at DGUK.

Brennan added: “For this season I wanted to put plans in place and camps, so that is where I am at, but the camps are going really well.

“I am bringing a couple of people on board now like Mick Payne, who is the England C goalkeeper coach.

“We haven’t confirmed it yet, but I have been speaking to Dave Beasant about trying to get him on board as a consultant for the company.

“I also have a goalkeeper from the Championship who is going to get involved in a player advisor role, so there are a lot of plans in place.

“We are just pushing to help as many goalkeepers as we can go from grassroots all the way up to the professional level.”

One success story from a camp which took place during pre-season was Craig Ross joining Barnet.

The 27-year-old was with a number of Premier League clubs as a youngster, but had to drop down to non-league to play regularly.

And after a successful season with Macclesfield Town, and with the help of Brennan’s camp, he earned himself a move to Barnet and is currently their number one.

“I ran a camp in the summer in Chigwell and it was a non-league camp, so we had National League goalkeepers, National League South and Bostik Premier,” said the former Wycombe Wanderers coach.

“The reason I wanted to put that on was first of all to educate those lads even more, secondly to get them fit and thirdly to then invite scouts and managers to look at them.

“I told the people coming down which goalkeepers were free agents, so I am trying to help as many as I can because it is a tough position.

“When you are playing at the top end of non-league football, everyone is striving to make one more step into the Football League, so I thought it was a really important camp to put on and it has helped.

“Craig Ross is with Barnet now and he was on the camp, so he is in League Two and that’s the best success story I have had from that one non-league camp and it’s great to see him back where he should be.”

Brennan is hoping to see many more follow in the footsteps of Ross and is thrilled to have ex-Dagenham & Redbridge goalkeeper coach Payne on board.

He added: “Mick has just shut his own goalkeeper company called The Art Of Saving and he has had between 75 to 170 goalkeepers there throughout his 18 years of running it, so he has kind of stepped down and I’ve tried to step up a bit.

“But while that has happened, I’ve asked him to come on board and continue his story in the goalkeeping world.

“It is so positive that we have got him involved and that he’s agreed to join, so he’ll have a big input in the planning and structure of camps.”

Brennan will now look to emulate Payne’s achievements in football and leave a lasting legacy.

For more, visit http://www.developinggoalkeepinguk.com/