WHATEVER THE LEVEL, IT'S THE SAME GAME IT CRACKS YOU

IF PEOPLE were surprised when Phil Brown took over at Kidderminster last season, you can only imagine the astonishment when he chose to hang around following relegation to National League North.

- CHRIS DUNLAVY

After retiring to become assistant to long-term mentor Sam Allardyce in 1996, the 65-year-old spent over a decade in the Premier League, first as a coach at Bolton then as the manager of Hull.

His CV includes a Championship promotion with the Tigers, another from League Two at Southend, spells at Preston and Swindon, plus two years in the Indian Super League at the helm of Hyderabad.

With the exception of international management, Brown has achieved everything that could reasonably be expected and is hardly strapped for cash. So what’s the appeal of regional football?

“I just love the game,” insists the Tynesider, who is assisted at Aggborough by Neil McDonald, another Allardyce acolyte who has spent almost three decades in backroom roles.

“At the end of the day, football doesn’t change. You’re trying to pit your wits against another manager. It’s eleven versus eleven. What does the level matter?

“It’s funny because the first match I ever watched live was South Shields. Newcastle brought a reserve side to Simonside Hall and my dad took me down.

“I’ll never forget a Scottish midfielder called Tommy Gibb. He sat on the ball in front of me, right in the centre of midfield. Showboating, I suppose. I was thinking ‘What’s going on here?’. The only player I’ve ever seen do that since was Peter Beardsley in training at Bolton.

“Now I’m managing in the same division as South Shields, so talk about things coming full circle.

“Do we want to be at this level? Of course not. But we accept it. We’re realistic. We understand that the game plays its cards and sometimes you’re on the wrong end of a hand. But we’ve also been on the right end of it, and we’ve seen what can happen when you apply yourself.

“That’s what we’re aiming for this year. We don’t believe that our careers are anywhere near over. We want to put ourselves back on the map by getting promoted.”