KEVIN SENT BOXERS UP
AS A teenager, Steve Howard helped to build houses for a living. Now 39 and a successful property developer, he owns more than 400 of them. And in between?
Well, there were five promotions, 209 goals, 781 games, legendary status at the likes of Leicester, Luton and Hartlepool and even a goal at Old Trafford.
Here, the big striker recalls how Hartlepool helped him ditch his shovel and pick, a baptism of fire at Highbury, a legendary prankster at Kenilworth Road – and the day Mike Newell’s clobber went up in smoke.
FIRST CLUB
Hartlepool. I’d been at Sunderland on a YTS, got released, then went to play for Tow Law in the Northern League. Hartlepool saw me in a game and asked me to come for a trial. A few weeks later they asked me to join and that’s how I became a footballer.
It was a bit of a comedown actually. I was working as a roofer and a labourer, making a good few quid. Then, I signed for Hartlepool and was getting next to nowt! I thought ‘What the hell have I done here?’
It was probably for the best, though. I remember going into work and one of the blokes there said ‘It’s a good job you’re going to be a footballer because you’re no good with that shovel’.
I made my debut almost straight away, and in my fourth game we had Arsenal in the League Cup. In the space of a few weeks, I went from playing in front of 400 people at Tow Law to 40,000 at Highbury and marking Ray Parlour.Then, he went off and Paul Merson came on.
It was Dennis Bergkamp’s first season, and in the second leg at our place everybody was singing ‘What a waste of money’. He turned out to be decent value in fairness.
BEST MANAGER
I’ve had a few. Mick Harford at Luton taught me how to play football properly. His phrase was ‘Get them wings out’.
But the best was Billy Davies at Derby. He got me into the Premier League and was probably the best Never gave the ball away, loved a tackle.The kind of nasty, aggressive player you love to have on your side.
It’s such a shame he had to retire at 28.We were playing in the play-off final at Wembley and he went in for a tackle ten minutes from the end. Seth had bad knees anyway and one just gave way.
The doctor basically turned round and said ‘Look, if you don’t retire, you won’t be able to walk in ten years’. That was it and it’s heartbreaking to talk about football with him because he still loves it.
Everybody talks about that transfer to Leeds and the story in Alex Ferguson’s book about him demanding all sorts and Ridsdale offering £40,000. But it’s total b******s. He wasn’t like that all.
FIRST PROMOTION
With Northampton when I was about 21. League Two to League One, under Ian Atkins. We finished third but we walked it really. My mate Lee Howey, brother of Newcastle’s Steve, was at the back and we had a good team that gelled.
FUNNIEST PLAYER
Kevin Nicholls by a long shot. He was my skipper at Luton. He played prank after prank and I actually used to get in early just to see if he was up to something.
Everything he did was hilarious and all the young lads used to look at him and think ‘Bloody hell, is this really what a captain is supposed to be like?’
But I think that’s why we had so much success. All of our managers – Mike Newell, Joe Kinnear, Mick Harford – basically said to him ‘Kev, sort the lads out for me’. They knew he brought everyone together.
FUNNIEST INCIDENT
It has to be Kevin. I can’t remember the year, but Mike Newell was our manager and it was fireworks night.
We were training but I was injured at the time. I’d gone to Newelly’s office to have a chat about some stuff and we got a knock on the door. One of the lads said ‘Gaffer, Kev’s got a big box of fireworks, do you want to watch?’ We went out to the stand and Kev’s down on the pitch at Kenilworth Road setting off all these fireworks. Then, all of a sudden, we saw him wrapping all these clothes round this huge rocket. Newelly said ‘Ha, I wonder which poor sod they belong to’ but, even as he said it, he realised. He said ‘You absolute b******s, that’s my gear isn’t it?’
Next thing, there’s a massive bang, with boxers, jeans, all sorts raining from the sky in flames. Brilliant.
Best manager: Billy Davies
Funniest player: Kevin Nicholls
BIGGEST ACHIEVEMENT
Promotion to the Premier League with Derby in 2007. I was thinking ‘I was at Tow Law ten years ago and now I’m in the promised land’.
I’d spent a lot of years in the Championship and watched so many people I knew go up. Finally, it was me. It was bloody hard, though. We probably got promoted too soon and, after a decent start, we started getting heavily beaten. Once the confidence went, we were knackered.
I never got there again, but I got close with Leicester in 2010. We made the play-offs and lost to