BOSS STEELE AIMS TO SHOCK JOSE...
THE last time Jason Steele reached the last 16 of the FA Cup, he wasn’t cheered on by 25,000 fans or watched by a TV audience of millions.
He wasn’t facing Wayne Rooney or Zlatan Ibrahimovic. In fact, the Blackburn goalie wasn’t on the pitch at all. He was standing alone in a stiff Teesside gale, watching his side get turned over by Stockton Hardwick Social.
That’s because the competition was actually the FA Sunday Cup. And Steele – as he has for the last four years – was moonlighting as the manager of Newton Aycliffe Working Men’s Club.
“It’s basically a bunch of mates from County Durham where I’m from,” explains the 26-year-old, who joined Rovers from Middlesbrough in 2014.
“My friend was the manager. He moved to Dubai with his wife, so I said I’d take over. That was in 2013 and I’m still doing it now – at least I’ve been able to stay in management for four years!
“We play in the Durham Sunday Premier League and, to be fair, they aren’t rubbish players. They all play in the Northern League which is a strong league so they are all decent.
“We’re third at the minute but if we win our games in hand we go top. We’ve also won a cup, and played in the FA Sunday Cup.
“We actually got knocked out in the last 16 by a team from Stockton, very close to where we are. Still, we beat them in the County Cup final!”
Steele will hope that exit doesn’t prove an omen when the mighty Manchester United visit Ewood Park today – a clash that will leave the Aycliffe WMC (wittily dubbed the Men of Steele by local hacks) without their manager on Sunday morning.
Omen
“Two of my best mates will be up there running the team and then they are coming down for the United game,” adds Steele.
“Hopefully they’ll be behind me this time. One of them sits in the Gallowgate end at St James’ and when we scored up there I turned round to look at him. He was effing and blinding, telling me where to go. This is a bloke I go for a pint with!”
That goal sealed the first of two victories over Newcastle this season, a bizarre anomaly in an otherwise disastrous campaign.
The days of Jack Walker, Alan Shearer and Kenny Dalglish are long gone. The 1995 Premier League champions lie 23rd in the Championship and, by May, could be back in the third tier for the first time in 37 years. Venky’s, the club’s Indian owners, are absent and neglectful, frustrating supporters and leaving boss Owen Coyle with little in the way of funds or support.
Blackburn’s demise has been sadly predictable, but Steele says the players cannot shirk their share of the blame.
“Twenty years ago this club was up there with the best in Europe and it should still be up there,” he adds. “Yes, things have gone on. But the simple fact is that we haven’t delivered this year.
“There’s been a lot of late goals and the one thing I would say is that I don’t think we have been ruthless enough in both boxes.
“We have got two strikers with 11 or 12 goals apiece, but defensively we have conceded far too many goals from set-plays and far too many late goals.
“That, in my opinion, is a mentality thing. We need to be tougher mentally – and I mean everybody. It’s only us who can change that.
“We’ve beaten Newcastle twice. We are probably the only team who will do that this season, and we now have Man United in the FA Cup.
“But you can’t just turn it on for the big games. You’ve got to do it
week in, week out. The ownership issue has nothing to do with what happens on the pitch – nothing at all. We’ve just been far too inconsistent” Steele knows he will be kept busy in a match likely to be watched everywhere from Salford to Shanghai. "I watched United in the Europa League,” he jokes. “I saw Ibrahimovic get a hat-trick and I thought ‘oh Jesus’. But what will be, will be.” And Steele is no stranger to the big stage having been part of the Team GB football team at the 2012 Olympics in London. "At the time, you don’t realise how special it is,” he recalls. “It wasn’t until I was watching Rio in the summer and they’re referring back to London that I thought 'Jesus, I was part of that’.
Mementoes
You’ve braceletgot all withthe little your mementheathlete number on. I’m getting goosebumps thinking about it now actually. "I remember the walk from the village to the stadium. We got a picwith ture Chris Hoy and Dame Kelly Holmes met us in the village. I’ve got pictures of that which I'll treasure forever. Those are things I’ll show my kids when they get a bit older and they’ll know that I was part of it. It’s something that I'll always be grateful for. It did inspire me, seeing the way the athletes trained and prepared their bodies. The things I saw them
doing in the gym, they were streets ahead of everyone football-wise. “Don’t get me wrong. We train hard, but with the purpose of performing on a Saturday. They do it day in, day out, hours upon hours. Pain and sacrifice.
“Before I would just roll up, have a cup of coffee and go into training. After watching them, I went home and changed my whole routine in terms of warming up and preparing my body.
“Today will be another goose bump moment for sure – just walking out and playing against Manchester United. Nobody gives us a cat in hell’s chance so it’s a no lose situation really. We can just go out there and try to achieve something special.”
And if Steele was sending the troops of Newton Aycliffe WMC out to face Jose Mourinho’s side today, what would be his final rallying cry.
“I’d tell the players to stick to the game-plan,” he says. “Then I’d say just do yourselves and your families proud and try to enjoy it as much as you can because it’s not everyday you get to play against United. It’s going to be a great experience.”