GOALKEEPING coach Neil Cutler knows exactly what it takes to achieve success at Scunthorpe United – because he's witnessed it first hand.

Of several visits he made to Glanford Park during his playing days, the former West Brom and Aston Villa shot-stopper remembers one more than most.

It was during the Iron's League One title-winning season of 2006-07, when the Staffordshire-born keeper was between the posts for Alan Knill's Rotherham United.

The Millers played well, but still ended the afternoon on the losing side, courtesy of THAT goal from Jermaine Beckford, the amazing curling strike that was later voted the best of the season at the Football League awards.

The new Iron coach sees Beckford, and the likes of Billy Sharp, who was also part of the home side's line-up that day, as the types of players the club's new management team want to work with.

"The gaffer was telling me he was all right foot and not to worry about his left one," laughed Cutler on Beckford's strike.

"I didn't and then he shoved that one right in the top corner. I couldn't do a lot about it.

"I've played here a few times in the past and one thing that has struck me is that it's always been against teams who are up there pushing.

"Scunthorpe have had a lot of young and athletic players who have always got a point to prove and now it's our prerogative as a management team to continue that. That's exactly what we want to do.

"We want to bring in that hunger and athleticism. We want mobile players that want to be better and are really pushing to prove something."

Cutler is enjoying his role as goalkeeping coach, having had to hang up his gloves through injury just as he was 'coming into my prime'.

The former Stoke City stalwart, who helped the Potters to promotion in 2002, retired aged just 29 as a result of a persistent back problem.

"I had a long discussion with doctors and the physio and they thought it was probably best to call it a day, which was really disappointing for me," he said of the decision.

"I was going into the first half of games fine, but by the second half, I needed a bit of WD40 in my back.

"It was making me look stupid in the end, especially the last game I ever played, which was at Bristol City, in front of a full house. I could hardly move and I said to myself then I was going to have to call it a day."

Having had to quit playing so young, Cutler is now determined to make a name for himself as a coach.

And like anyone it seems who has worked under Knill, the influence the one-time Iron defender has had on him is shaping him well.

"Everything my goalkeepers do off the pitch has to be right, to make sure everything on the pitch is right," he continued.

"First and foremost I expect them to be first in and last out. Every single day.

"I'm not going to crack the whip and say you have to do this or that, but slowly it will just happen.

"I've found the harder they work, in their preparation, the better they become on the pitch."