GREG SHIELDS was bawled out by the best of them and used to dread that half-time walk to the dressing room to face the wrath of Walter Smith and Archie Knox at Rangers.

But now that he’s a coach himself, he won’t dish out the hairdryer treatment and revealed his main drive is to find the next Jackie McNamara, the last hand-reared Dunfermline player to go for big money.

The Pars coach worked under some of the best in the business, including the Ibrox duo, as well as Alan Curbishley, Jim Jefferies, Jimmy Calderwood, Dick Campbell, Bert Paton and Colin Clarke.

He told Press Sport: “At Rangers, I had Walter and Archie; Billy Kirkwood was more of a good cop and John McGregor was the bad cop, with Walter and Archie it was a bit of both.

“I quite enjoyed a kick up the backside now and again but not at the time.

“I’ve been in dressing rooms where it’s been crazy and all kicking off, that’s just the way it was, we didn’t know any better.

“I used to come off at half-time, head down and bricking it as you go up the stairs to the dressing room, thinking, ‘Oh God, it’s going to be me, I can’t make eye contact with the coach, I don’t want to do it’.

“I don’t want our players to ever feel like that.”

Shields’ focus is on the younger players and the pathway from Fife Elite all the way to the first team.

He said: “I’ve had many different coaches over the years and gone are the days of, ‘I’m right and you’re wrong’. The game has changed so you always speak to players now rather than get on at them.

“It’s more guiding the younger ones, listening to them, correcting them and making sure they are applying what they are being taught.

“Teaching is a huge part of a young player’s development, along with enjoyment, but the biggest piece is forming that relationship between coach and player, and when you get that trust you will get the best out of them.

“We don’t want players having any fear of making mistakes, we want them being brave and expressing themselves and having the mindset to solve problems themselves while on the pitch.”

Shields has been charged with bringing in players that they think are potentially good enough to play in the first team.

He said: “If I’m not getting guys in the first team, what am I doing here?

“For 20 years now we’ve not had a player that broke through here and got sold on.

“It’s my job to do that and that’s why I’m here. That’s what’s exciting about it and why we love it.

“We want to make this a selling club, bringing in and improving players and sell them on.

“We have to have the foundation and players that feed into that.”

He added: “All the players have developed – some more so than others and some quicker than others – which is credit to John Potter and Stevie who have been in this position prior to me, for selecting and coaching a group of players who give their all on a daily basis.

"They have all been a pleasure to coach.”

While two of the kids, Lewis McCann – “a born goalscorer” – and Matty Todd, have broken into the first team squad, along with Paul Allan and Stuart Morrison, some of the other under-20s players have gone out on loan to aid their development.

That’s seen the likes of Lewis Sawers and Lewis Crosbie head to Crossgates; Gregor Jordan and Paul Brown play for Kennoway; Tom Bragg join Kelty; Josh Robertson off to Civil Service Strollers and Kieran Swanson opt for Camelon.

Unfortunately, Crosbie endured a bad knee injury playing for Primrose and Shields said: “He’s out for 10-12 months.

“He had surgery and he’ll probably need further surgery.

“The mental side of being out for so long, when it’s never happened to him before, will be hard.

“That’s the downside. You send a kid out on loan and he gets a really bad injury.

“That’s when the parent head and the emotional head comes out as I spend more time with these kids than I do with my own kids.

“They’re a big part of my life.”