Owain Fôn Williams relishing Dunfermline player/coach role

And the 33-year-old says that he's not only looking forward to passing on knowledge increased through working with goalkeepers such as Crystal Palace number one Wayne Hennessey, but to increased competition for places from his glove rivals.

As part of the two-year deal, Fôn Williams, 33, signed to return to Dunfermline on a permanent basis from Hamilton Academical, he will take up coaching responsibilities from the departing David Westwood.

In a career north and south of the border that has spanned more than 400 first-team games, the Welsh international used the COVID-19 shutdown as a means to work on gaining his coaching qualifications.

Speaking to Press Sport after completing his return to East End, Fôn Williams, who created a canvas of East End Park that was auctioned for £3,000 in aid of the 'Support the Pars' initiative, explained: "I've been doing my badges to keep myself occupied because I love football.

"I love goalkeeping and by doing my badges, and I did a lot of them throughout lockdown, it kept my mind within football. We had a couple of months of no football whatsoever so what I decided to do was nail down my coaching side of things, work on that and keep my mind focused on that. It was great for me.

"I was on Zoom meeting calls with Wayne Hennessey (current Wales international), Tony Roberts (current Wales goalkeeping coach), all these guys, and keeping my mind active in football. I thought it was brilliant.

"This popped up and it's something I'm going to love doing because I like to do it anyway. As you get older, you see yourself in the younger goalkeepers and you try and guide them a little bit anyway, whether you're a goalkeeper coach or just training with them.

"You're just passing on a little bit of your experience; things that have gone well for you, things that haven't gone well for you. Whether they use it or not, at least you've given them the opportunity to take it on board and digest it. Whether they want to add it to their game is another thing.

"It's something I've always done anyway but now I've got a different role. It'll be my voice, and I'm looking forward to that as well."

Fôn Williams will be working alongside Cammy Gill, 22, and Ben Swinton, 19, in the goalkeeping department and believes both have the potential to go on and become top-team players.

"I'm really excited to push Cammy Gill. He's a brilliant young goalkeeper, he's got time and he's got years ahead of him," he continued.

"I'm really looking forward to trying to get the very best out of him and I hope he'll go on and play at the very highest level.

"The same goes to Swints. He's younger, he's got more time on his hands, so hopefully we can work on him because there's definitely a very good goalkeeper in Swints.

"He's young, he's athletic, he's got a great build to be a goalkeeper, and it's just about putting all that together now and hopefully I can pass on some of my experience on to them.

"There's nothing better than someone that wants to go on and play at the highest level. I love people with ambition, I thrive off that. I know these guys have got bags of ambition, I know they want to push on, I know they want to play in the first team and cement a place in the first team at Dunfermline, and that's exactly what I want.

"We want to be pushing each other every single day; we want to be as competitive as we possibly can to get the best out of the three of us, or whoever's going to be there. Competition is a very healthy thing and we want that across the board to get the best out of us all.

"If I'm playing, I want the competition behind me, I want the other two pushing me. If it's Cammy playing, I'll be pushing him. If it's Swints playing, we'll be pushing him.

"Whoever's playing, we'll push them, and we'll support one and another 100 per cent because, at the end of the day, we're all here for one thing, and that's for Dunfermline to get up the league and get into the top flight of Scottish football."