Garnett, the club’s under-21s manager, was asked to take the reins last week when Any Danylyk and Paul Donnelly both resigned at the Marston’s Stadium.

Both Garnett and Andy Carter oversaw training on Thursday then guided the players to a 3-1 victory on Saturday - the Nailers’ second win in as many games.

And the duo are expected to take charge of the first team affairs this week ahead of the visit of Spalding United in the Evo-Stik League First Division South.

But Garnett doesn’t anticipate taking on the position permanently.

“The board asked if I could step in and help out between managers,” he said. “It’s not something I want to do permanently but I’m happy to help out while the club is in the transition between one manager and another.”

“It’s a short term solution. I did Saturday and I think Andy Carter and myself will be taking the game this coming week. The hope is that there’s someone else in place for after that and going into December.”

Goals from Garnett junior, Dylan, Alex Steadman and Kieran O’Connell secured the victory for Belper and Garnett senior was delighted with the team’s display.

“I thought we deserved it,” he said. “I thought the previous week we won but it may have been against the run of play. But on Saturday we were well worth the 3-1 win. We changed things around to make us more robust and less open.

“I thought we were very disciplined as a group and worked really hard when we didn’t have the ball. Then we used it really well when we hadn’t got it.

“The nice thing was, I thought it was a very strong team performance.

“It wasn’t down to one or two players, I thought the whole team played exceptionally well. It was a very good performance and a win.”

And added: “I did enjoy it. It was stressful and a bit tense when you were wondering how it was all going to go but it’s enjoyable. It’s good to see people deliver. We were looking for performances from players and they all gave it - you can’t ask for much more than that.”

Garnett is familiar with a lot of the players having coached some of them through the junior age groups and last season he led the U21s to a league and cup double in the Worksop Van Hire Development League.

He said: “We trained on Thursday night and had a chance to look at them then. I’ve watched some of the games with Dylan being in the squad as well and I know the U21s lads who have stepped up as well.

“Some of the other players had been with me before. Will Dennis used to play for me as a junior, Dom Allen used to play at the academy in Burton and Derby and I knew some of the others as well.

“We’ve got a shape we want to play. They’re all familiar with it. We wanted to be disciplined and keep the shape. We felt it important to work with the ball and without it. When we lose it we work hard to win it back, when we’ve got it we play.

“We wanted to encourage people to express themselves playing and enjoy it, which were both important, and I think we got it. We’re looking for players to deliver, if the opposition is better or if there are funny decisions and you lose, then you take it on the chin.”

Though feeling like his future is with the club’s U21s, Garnett believes the senior hot seat is an attractive position for whoever takes the reins full time.

“We have some very good players at Belper and some very good players coming through as well, so it should be quite an attractive position for managers,” added Garnett, who has guided the U21s to an unbeaten start to their title defence.

Article courtesy of Belper News