LET’S GO AGAIN!
It’s been a rollercoaster ride for Gary Brabin – now he’s ready for more
AS HE approaches his 50th birthday at the end of the year, Gary Brabin can already look back on a career full of highs and lows.
While a fair share of it has been spent in the Football League, he is also grateful to the role Non-League has played in his life – as a player and manager. Here, he tells us all about his rollercoaster ride...
Brabin had hoped to carve out a career with Everton on his native Merseyside, but it wasn’t to be and he moved on to Stockport County.
“I had always wanted to be a professional footballer and I was so enthusiastic that I was a bit over-aggressive at times. I started off at Everton and I was looking to get an apprenticeship, but I got sent off in one of the games and they didn’t take me on.
“I went to Stockport where ex-Evertonian Asa Hartford was the manager, but it was Danny Bergara who gave me my debut.
“He liked me, but I let myself down a bit with yellow and red cards – I was so desperate to win. I ended up leaving and went to Gateshead.”
That first experience of NonLeague football at Conference strugglers Gateshead in 1990-91 proved memorable for Brabin.
“They were part-time and bottom of the league when I went there. But we had a good finish and stayed up. I’m still good friends with the manager Tony Lee.
“Going into a relegation battle never fazed me. At that age you feel you are invincible, but it was a great experience and learning curve.
“I was based in Liverpool and didn’t have a car. Tony laughed at some of the stories about how I would get to games. Sometimes I would stay over in different parts of the north-east to wait for the next game, the lads would put me up.”
After his Gateshead stint, Brabin moved closer to home to play for Runcorn. In three years with the club, he helped them to two FA Trophy finals, but there was disappointment as they lost 4-1 to Wycombe
Wanderers in 1993 and 2-1 to Woking the following year.
“Runcorn came in for me and it was a brilliant time. The manager, the late John Carroll, was a big influence on my career and a close friend. He took me under hs wing. He had heard the horror stories of the yellow and red cards, but he really stuck up for me – no-one had ever done that for me before.
“We were a very limited side in terms of finance, but we got to two Trophy finals. We knew Wycombe – full-time under Martin O’Neill – would be difficult, but we felt we could, and should, have beaten Woking.
“I was a yound lad at the time and it probably never sank in what we were achieving. Playing at Wembley was a great experience and I have fond memories of it, despite the results. I’m still really good friends with all the lads from Runcorn. The Woking final was my last game for the club.”
During his Runcorn days, Brabin also had the chance to represent his country.
“It was a real honour to play for the England Non-League side. I got three caps, but played in a couple of friendlies as well. The FA made a point that they treated you the same as the senior England team – you stayed in the best hotels, had the best travel, training was fantastic, you got to keep your England shirt.
“We had a lot of fun on tour. I remember once we were going through passport control and I legged it around the back. I got on the conveyor belt and then jumped out with the luggage!
“When I got back into the Football League, I was gutted not to be able to play for England any more.”
Brabin returned to the Football League with Doncaster and then served Bury, Blackpool, Lincoln (loan) and Hull City. After a brief stay back in Non-League at Boston, he returned to the League with Torquay.
Then it was back to NonLeague with Chester, TNS (two spells), Halifax, Southport and Burscough before calling time on his playing career.
“I was fortunate to have had a good career and I was appreciative of every level I played at. I had a heart scare towards the end of my career and didn’t play for 18 months. It was a really bad time and you feel alone. You start thinking ‘where do I go from here?’.
“I was doing bits of coaching at Everton and they got me
checked out by a top heart specialist. He gave me the all-clear and I later signed for Chris Wilder at Halifax and played a few games for him.
“I then went to Southport under Liam Watson. They were bottom of the league – there’s a common theme – but we stayed up.
“Then I went on to play for Liam again at Burscough and we won a treble. I had a good season playing centre-forward and I really enjoyed it. Liam never flogged me – he would pick and choose my games.”
Then came the chance for Brabin to step into management with Conference North outfit Southport in April 2008.
“They had fallen out of the play-off places and sacked Peter Davenport. We had a really good finish, got into the playoffs and then got beaten by Stalybridge Celtic on penalties in the semi-final.
“That became another common theme for me. I helped stop teams getting relegated, but I got beat in finals or semi-finals in shoot-outs. It was disappointing, but I was proud of what we’d done.”
That Southport cameo proved enough for Brabin to earn a shot at managing top-flight Cambridge United. It turned out to be an incredible year.
“The season before they’d got to the play-off final, but they then had to get rid of all the big earners and cut the squad. There were players leaving left, right and centre.
“I kept Paul Carden, who I knew, and my first signing was Anthony Tonkin, who I thought was the best left-back in the league.
“I knew Phil Bolland from Chester, I inherited Wayne Hatswell and we also had Mark Beesley and Lee McEvilly.
“I was confident we could do well and we finished runners-up. That was despite having four different chairmen in one season, it was a real rollercoaster.
“Burton went up despite losing on the final day of the season. We could have pipped them if we’d beaten Altrincham by four goals, but it ended goalless.
“In the play-off semis, we produced a brilliant performance to beat Stevenage 3-0 at home in extra-time in the second leg to wipe out their 3-1 win in the first leg.
“That was a fantastic feeling, but it was really hard to take when we lost the final (2-0) against Torquay. I was devastated over that.
“Being named the Conference Manager of the Year was no consolation. We didn’t have a top-half budget – our wage bill was really low.
“Chairman George Rolls was running things at the club and me and him weren’t agreeing on things.
“I felt I wasn’t getting the backing I needed and he sacked me in pre-season. They offered me the job back a couple of days later, but it had gone too far. I loved my time at Cambridge United apart from the off-the-pitch stuff.
“Soon after I left, I read the stories about three managers supposedly turning up on the same day because they’d been offered the job – it summed things up.”
Brabin returned to the game as chief scout and then assistant manager at Luton. He stepped up to take charge when Richard Money departed towards the end of the 2010-11 season.
“We reached the play-offs and then beat Wrexham 5-1 on aggregate in the semi-finals.
“The final against AFC Wimbledon was very tight and they ended up beating us 4-3 on penalties – that was a sickener.”
Brabin was sacked towards the end of the following season as the Hatters sought to keep their play-off hopes alive. But he did leave them with a parting gift in the shape of striker Andre Gray. “The first person who put me on to him was Neil Aspin. Neil has a good eye for talent so when he recommends someone, you have to take note.
“We all went to watch him and as soon as I saw him, I knew he would have a real impact in that league and be a top player.
“We ended up signing him on loan and then the club bought him for 30 grand. He scored in his first two games – and then I got sacked! He’s since moved on to play in the Premier League with big money moves to Burnley and Watford, so he’s done alright for himself.”
Following a successful short stint back at Southport and coaching at Everton, Brabin was appointed manager of Tranmere Rovers, who had just dropped out of the Football League, in May 2015.
“The club was in a really difficult moment. The remit was to get back to winning ways and rebuild the squad with a limited budget.
“I think we did that, though we just missed out on the playoffs, which would have been a fantastic first season.
“The following season we were top of the league in August and I was named manager of the month, but results dipped the following month and I was sacked – that was a hard one to take.”
Since then, Brabin has worked under Neil Aspin at Port Vale, Terry McPhillips at Blackpool and, most recently, Graeme Jones at Luton.
“In the last three years, I’ve worked in League Two, League One and the Championship. Hopefully next year it’s the Premier League!
“I made a conscious decision to be an assistant. When your kids are young, you want to watch them grow up and management is a 24/7 job.
“But I do want to be a manager again and I would like to get my teeth into something and be there for the long haul.
“Previously I’ve been a manager where you had to win the league in your first season to keep your job – and that was unrealistic. Nonetheless, I was fortunate to get picked for those jobs and thankful for the opportunities.”
Brabin turns 50 in December and reckons the best is still to come.
“I feel young, fresh and believe I have loads of years ahead of me in football. I love the industry, though it can be cruel at times.
“The glass is half-full for me, I’m fortunate like that. I’m just waiting for an opportunity now and you have to be patient. When an opportunity does come my way, I’ll be ready for it and able to draw on all my experience.”