Talks to former Forest goalkeeper I was always S***house to Cloughie ...from the Derby Sunday League to Anfield
WHEN Geoff Crossley answered the phone at 3pm on October 26, 1988, he was greeted by a voice familiar to every football fan in the country.
“Mr Crossley, you might want to get to the game against Liverpool tonight because your son is playing,” Brian Clough advised. “But, whatever you do, don’t tell him.”
Mark Crossley was a secondyear scholar at Nottingham Forest and had played only three reserve games.
He was fifth in line to the No.1 jersey but, with Steve Sutton ill, Hans Segers out on loan and Paul Crichton and Darren Hayes injured, opportunity came knocking for the 19-year-old.
“I got to the stadium with some of the other apprentices around 5.30pm,” recalled Mark Crossley. “And, as usual, I was given my job for the night by Liam O’kane.
“I had to make sure the central heating in Liverpool’s dressing room was turned up full blast. The manager’s theory was that it dehydrates you and gives you less chance of winning.
“I was in the boot room with the other apprentices when Kenny Dalglish stuck his head out from their dressing room and asked if there was a way of turning it down.
Relaxed
“Anyway, I was still in the boot room at 7pm, 30 minutes before kick-off, when I heard the manager shout, ‘S***house?’
“It was one of his names for me, so I thought I’d better see what he wanted. He said, ‘Get your boots on – and it would help if you put your gloves on as well... you’re playing’.
“The brilliance of it was that he didn’t give me time to think about facing John Barnes, Peter Beardsley and Ian Rush – and we won 2-1.
“The following Saturday, we played Newcastle away and I kept my place, even though Steve was fit.
“Then we beat Coventry in the FA Cup and I made a mistake, but things had gone well again.
“He must have spotted I was getting too relaxed, though, because, as I was leaving, he said, ‘My house, tomorrow, 9am, don’t be late. Bring your boots and it would help if you bring your gloves as well’.
“I got there at 8.30am and stood at the bottom of the drive for 25 minutes because you had to do what he said.
“And I was looking at this big house, big garden, thinking, ‘Is he going to give me some coaching? I don’t know’.
“I walked up the drive at 8.55am and his wife answered the door.
“She said, ‘Hello, Mark, I’m Barbara, how are you doing? Lovely to meet you, come in. Well done yesterday. Brian’s upstairs, I’ll make you a slice of toast and a cup of tea’.
“A little while 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’.
Rusty
“So, after Liverpool, Newcastle and Coventry, I’m playing in tier five of the Derbyshire league – dog muck everywhere, rusty goalposts and we’re changing with the opposition in the same dressing room.
“One lad said, ‘What’s young Crossley doing here? He plays for Forest, I saw him yesterday’. Anyway, I hardly touched the ball all game and really didn’t need to be there.
“And at one point I looked across and Archie Gemmill, double European Cup winner, was running the line.
“I then hear, ‘S***house !!!! ’, and there he is, three pitches away, giving me the thumbs-up and clapping his hands above his head.
“He was hitting a tennis ball and his dog was running after it and I’m thinking, ‘Is this really happening?’
“The team ended up getting fined £50 for playing a ringer and Cloughie took the £50 out of my Forest wages to pay the fine.
“I didn’t realise what was happening at the time but later I got it. It was a case of, ‘You think you’ve made it – you haven’t. Don’t forget where you’ve come from’.
“I like to say Brian Clough wasn’t just a football teacher, he taught me life skills as well.
“He was a genius.”