How ‘Mr Motivator’ Warnock gave Town timely lift
WORKING-CLASS HEROES: TERRIERS ‘EVERYMAN’ TEAM SEALS WEMBLEY TRIUMPH
AN APOPLECTIC Neil Warnock was in full flow as former Huddersfield Town defender Tom Cowan can vividly recall – even if he was one of the luckier ones.
Warnock pulled no punches in an infamous tirade directed individually and collectively towards his Town players when they came in 2-0 down at half-time in a key late-season Division Two fixture at Shrewsbury Town in 1994-95.
“We have got 2,000 fans getting p***ed on over there and have not got as much passion..”, the Huddersfield boss – incandescent with rage – screamed with the footage featuring on a documentary of that season, one which ended in promotion a quarter of a century ago today at Wembley on May 28, 1995.
Instead of being rained on at Gay Meadow, the deluge was all to do with floods of tears of joy and pride for supporters as Huddersfield claimed their first win at the home of football in five attempts.
It was a Huddersfield lad in Chris Billy who got the glory when he fired an 80th-minute winner following a cross from substitute
Iain Dunn to down Bristol Rovers 2-1 in the second division play-off final.
But there were plenty of heroes in blue and white across the pitch. Working-class heroes.
Now a firefighter following his retirement from football, Cowan told “I remember everything about that day from walking out.
“It was just one of those brilliant days and I will remember it until the day I die. It didn’t flash me by. Dunny coming on and the cross for the winner; everything.
“We went back to one of the hotels in Huddersfield on the back road towards Sheffield and there was a party on. Neil had booked a party, no matter what. It was our end-of-season party anyway .... ”
And what a season it was for that ‘Everyman’ line-up of exminers, plasterers, windowcleaners and emerging local lads who were humble off the pitch, but rich in spirit, togetherness, organisation and quality on it.
All presided over by that master motivator in Warnock.
Cowan, who joined Town permanently in July 1994 after a loan spell in the previous season, recalled: “Everybody loved Neil. Although all the other managers hated him!
“Of all the players who played for him, I don’t think there are many who have said a bad word about him.
“Before I joined permanently, I was thinking: ‘I can get a Championship club surely’ as Huddersfield were League One at the time.
“Neil said: ‘don’t worry about it’ and left the option for me, which was amazing as you don’t normally get that.
“He said: ‘If you don’t get a Championship club, we still want you, no matter what as we will not sign a left-back until right at the start of the season and we will wait for you.’
“It turned out that Lennie Lawrence, who was in charge of Bradford,
phoned me up and said: ‘Do you want to come here?’. But I said: ‘I have given my word to Neil.
“Lennie said: ‘We will give you a lot more money than them!’ But your word is your word.”
It proved a shrewd decision by Cowan as Huddersfield – who boasted a 53-goal pair of strikers in Ronnie Jepson and Andy Booth – and players of stature and character in the likes of Darren Bullock, Paul Reid and Steve Francis lasted the course among a touchtight group who were all for one.
Cowan said: “Neil was such a good character.
“We had a ‘kangaroo court’ on
a Friday and they were fining people for stupid stuff for not wearing flip-flops and things like that. You could appeal against it, but it fell on deaf ears most of the time.
“If one person organised a night out, everyone had to go. It was ‘one out, all out.’ You got fined if you didn’t go out. I don’t think that’s the case these days.
“There was always a pre-season game at Scarborough. That wasn’t a shock to anybody.”
That rollicking at Shrewsbury in April 1995 probably was.
“Looking back, it was brilliant. Neil did a documentary with Sheffield United as well and it was very similar,” Cowan said.
“I only got one mention in it, which was great. I was pleased with that. I had never seen him that bad.”
A spot of Warnock psychology helped Town book a Wembley date after a tense play-off semifinal second leg at Brentford.
Spotting a crate of champagne
near the home dressing room before the game, Warnock incorporated that into his final team-talk.
The bottles were ultimately destined for the away players, who triumphed in a penalty shoot-out when the heroes were Bullock and Francis.
The bubbly was also flowing at Wembley, but the day ultimately proved a final toast for Warnock, who subsequently left in the glow of that fateful occasion and joined Plymouth – after a dispute with former Town chairman Terry Fisher.
“We didn’t know what was happening and it was really strange. To this day, I still don’t know what happened,” Cowan recalled.
“We challenged to get in the play-offs the year after when Brian Horton took over. I am not saying Brian was a bad manager – it was class under him as well and I really enjoyed working under him. But with Neil in charge, we might have done it.”