S***HOUSE: FROM ANFIELD TO DOG MUCK

BRIAN CLOUGH wasn’t just a football teacher, but a genius who taught his players how to maintain proper standards in every aspect of their lives. Nottingham Forest’s No.1 Mark Crossley (right), who spent five seasons playing under the late, great manager, said: “He taught me so much, ‘Don’t have your hands in your pockets when you’re talking to me’, ‘When you shake hands, shake hands properly – I don’t want a limp handshake, that’s a sign of disrespect’, ‘Look me in the eye’, and, ‘Everything you do, make sure you can be bothered doing it’.” And Cloughie also gave him a good lesson in life after he had made his first-team debut against Liverpool at the age of 19, then kept his place for games against Newcastle and Coventry. He added: “I made my first mistake against Coventry, but we won and things had gone well and I’m thinking, ‘This is easy, I’ve got great players in front of me, I’m hardly having anything to do, it’s the start of a long career’. He must have spotted I was getting too relaxed and, when I was leaving, he said, ‘My house, tomorrow, 9am, don’t be late. Bring your boots and your gloves’. I walked up the drive at 8.55am and his wife answered the door. “We sat talking and a little later, the manager came in and said, ‘Hello, son. I won’t call you ‘S***house’ because Barbara is here. But I’d like to say, ‘Thank you’. I said, ‘What for?’ He said, ‘My Simon manages AC Hunters in the Derby Sunday League and they haven’t got a goalkeeper, so I thought you’d do’. “So, after Liverpool, Newcastle and Coventry, I’m playing in tier five of the Derbyshire league — dog muck, rusty goalposts, getting changed with the opposition.”