Clough, who managed Nottingham Forest to two European Cup titles in 1979 and 1980, and also took charge of Derby County and Leeds United, albeit briefly, during a distinguished career, died in Derby City hospital, where he had been a patient since undergoing a liver transplant in 2003 after a series of health scares.
The Middlesbrough-born man was the sixth of eight children, dropping out of school at 15 to become a local clerk. Five years later he was making his debut for his home-town club, where he went on to score 204 goals in 222 games as a centre-forward. He also won two England caps and netted 41 goals in 52 matches for nearby Sunderland – his 251 career goals in a 274-game career standing as a post-Second World War record. He retired as a player at 27 in 1962 with a knee injury.
In 1965 he joined Hartlepools United, before they changed their name, as the Football League’s youngest boss at 30. It was in his second season with the Monkeyhangers that he came up against Southend United on two occasions. In the first-ever meeting between the two clubs on September 2nd 1966 at Roots Hall, Blues won 2-0 thanks to strikes from Derek Woodley and Eddie Firmani. The next time the clubs played each other – on 6th January 1967 – the match also ended in failure as Tony Bentley and John Baber found the net in a 2-1 win for the Shrimpers.
In May 1967 he joined Derby as their boss, leading them to the Second Division in 1969 and then the First Division Championship in 1972. A year later he quit the Baseball Ground after rows with the directors who labelled him arrogant and rude, but Clough, a staunch socialist, had the real fans at heart, having let them in for free during the miners strikes. After he left the Rams, there were protest marches in his defence.
In November 1973 he joined Brighton & Hove Albion, facing Southend twice more over the 1974 April Easter Holiday. On Good Friday Blues went down 2-0 at Roots Hall, Cloughie’s first success over the southeast Essex club, but three days later gained their revenge as Peter Silvester and Chris Guthrie netted in an exact reversal of the scoreline.
After just nine months with the Seagulls, Clough joined Leeds United for a tormented 44-day period. He was sacked after just seven weeks in the job as the players mutinied, but thus embarked on his most successful spell in management and an eighteen-year love affair with Nottingham Forest.
At the City Ground, as well as that double European success, he also led Forest to the Second Division Championship in 1977 and two First Division titles, as well as four League Cup wins. The FA Cup always eluded him, and he bowed out of management in May 1993, two years after coming closest with a defeat to Tottenham Hotspur in the 1991 final.
Forest’s first match of the post-Clough era was against Southend in front of the ITV cameras at Roots Hall on Sunday 15th August 1993. The Shrimpers managed a 1-1 draw, with Andy Sussex’s strike cancelling out Stuart Pearce’s goal for the visitors. Clough retired to the Derbyshire hills, suffering after a life of heavy drinking.
Always a character, he had his fair share of detractors, and missed out on the job he would have loved, and possibly should have been given, as England boss. He once quipped, “One reason I never became England manager was because the FA thought I would take over and run the show. They were dead right”. In 1991, he was given an OBE, which he said stood for ‘Old Big ‘Ead’. A controversial man, he still wrote hard-hitting comments for the Sun newspaper.
A lasting monument to Clough’s achievements in Nottingham were witnessed by those that travelled to Meadow Lane on Saturday. As you cross the River Trent, you can see the Brian Clough Stand rise above the other structures at the City Ground. We at TLG add our thoughts to the millions worldwide to Clough’s family at this sad time.
Robert Craven
www.thelittlegazette.com