They analyse games differently – “a game can look great on paper,” Giles says “But how are you trying to play? Are you doing it successfully? You can decide how you want to play football based on a kind of romantic way or you can take the other angle, the more objective, and ask ‘how is football played and is there a way to play it more effectively?”

Into this has stepped Smith who bought into the approach having taken the “tough decision” to leave Walsall, where he had been “player, captain, head of youth, manager” over a 13-year period. “We have a uniqueness here and we like that uniqueness,” Smith says. “We have five strategy points – but I can’t go into them as we will then let everyone else know.”

Getting the best out of the specialist coaches, for example, is something Smith is learning. What is the point of a throw-in coach? “If it gets us seven points, then it might be the seven points that gets us promoted,” he says. “They show me ideas, I will mull them over.”

Have there been any, well, wacky suggestions? “There have been a couple that I have laughed at or thought ‘woo’,” Smith says before intriguingly adding: “And then thought ‘no, it’s probably against the integrity of the game. Pushing the margins a wee bit’. But it’s thinking outside the box and we want to be better than the opposition and although sometimes you have to say no there are also some great ideas.”