Anfield Spotlight: Nigel Clough

Anfield Spotlight: Nigel Clough

In the Guardian’s match report of Liverpool’s 3-3 draw with Manchester United in January 1994, Nigel Clough assured the Anfield faithful, after his double had catalysed an unthinkable comeback: “You’ve seen the best of me, but not enough of me.”

It had been an encouraging start for Liverpool’s new no7. Two goals on debut against Sheffield Wednesday – the first, a thunderous left-footed strike that rose into Chris Woods’ far corner – preceded further scoresheet appearances against QPR and Tottenham later in August.

Four goals in his first five games for the Reds had endorsed claims that the then 27-year-old was reinvigorated, after trying in vain to save his father’s Nottingham Forest side from relegation to Division One, only three months earlier.

But the striker’s fertile spell ended abruptly. Just two goals arrived between late August and the following January – one against a then third-tier Fulham side in the League Cup second round – as Clough made the transition into a deeper, midfield role – where he would line up against the Red Devils.

“We were 3-0 down and it could have been six. Manchester United started unbelievably well”

“I can’t remember specifically how it (the positional change) happened,” Clough recalls. “I was signed as striker initially, then it evolved a little and I went a little bit deeper depending on who was available.

“I remember that night trying to battle away with Roy Keane. Him and Paul Ince were in there so it’s fair to say it was quite a combative pairing we were up against.”

He was to come out unscathed – in the final analysis.

“We were 3-0 down and it could have been six. Manchester United started unbelievably well, everything they hit went in. It was a bizarre sort of game.

“It’s incredible how one goal changes things. Suddenly, you gain a lot more belief than the other team, a few doubts creep in (for the opposition) and that was the case.”

Clough’s first bore all the hallmarks of an attack-minded midfielder; a Gerrard-esque first-time strike from 30 yards, which curved outwards and crashed in off Peter Schmeichel’s left-hand post. While his second showcased the predatory instinct of his striking days, as he seized upon a loose ball on the edge of the box, before tucking it inside the Dane’s opposite corner with minimal fuss.

“I was just happy to play in the team,” Clough says with genuine modesty. “I would have played left-back, centre-half – it didn’t matter.”

Liverpool finally drew level with 11 minutes remaining, when Neil Ruddock met Stig Inge Bjornebye's precise cross with a flying header. It was the first time an Alex Ferguson side had surrendered a 3-goal lead.

“I think in the end we deserved a 3-3, but it could have been 8-6 - anything,” Clough recalls. “You see a lot of these games, they’re so tight and everyone cancels each other out, but this was a brilliant, open game. To get six goals was unusual.

“Anfield is special at any time but under the floodlights, a full house, in that sort of fixture, then it becomes extra special. Everyone’s aware of the history of those European nights but you feel it just as much in those domestic games. Everything was spot on that night.”

It was occasions such as these that lured Clough to Liverpool in the first place, following a decade of service to Nottingham Forest, where he was twice a League Cup winner and the club’s top league goalscorer another half-a-dozen times.

“It was a step up, with all due respect to Forest,” he admits. “Liverpool were one of the biggest clubs in the world and chance to play at Anfield too much to turn down.

“Our remit was always to try and get as close as possible to challenging for the title - I never heard anything other than that - but it’s difficult to do when you’re in the midst of rebuilding.

“Quite a few of the senior players were still there; Ian Rush, Ronnie Whelan, Steve Nicol, with a new breed coming through; Jamie Redknapp, Steve McManaman. Then the lads who came sort of in between.”

Liverpool, who had finished sixth under Graeme Souness the season before, found themselves eighth in the table after drawing with United, but were now six unbeaten and well within reach of the European places.

Things were looking up for the club - and Clough, hoping to stay true to his vow. Back-to-back league wins followed, lifting the Reds to fifth, but after a shock defeat to Bristol City in the FA Cup, Souness resigned and was replaced by Roy Evans.

“Roy went back to a quite few of the established players,” Clough explains. “He brought Ronnie Whelan back in and one or two others. A couple of us sort of fell by the wayside and never really got back in again. I got a couple of games here and there but it just seemed to ebb away after that.

“I do think the managerial change altered the way the team was heading. Having set out on a particular path it got changed after a short while. Things were just sort of bobbing along for a while without really going in either direction.”

“City were a lot like an oil tanker; it takes a helluva turnaround but once you get it going in the right direction it’s difficult to stop.”

The starts dried out for Clough. Only five more arrived in the remainder of the 1993/94 campaign – a tally he matched in the following two seasons combined. Begrudgingly, he left for Manchester City.

“It was always a risky one move ‘cause they were down at the bottom of the league and ended up going down on goal difference.

“With hindsight I wish I’d have stayed at Liverpool and fought for my place, but when you’re not involved then you just want to play football.”

Ironically, Clough’s previous employers were the ones who would seal City’s fate in May 1996. An own goal from Steve Lomas and one at the right end for Ian Rush had left the Citizens shin-deep in Division One, but strikes from Uwe Rosler and Kit Symons delivered brief hope for Alan Ball’s side.

Knowing they had to better one of Southampton or Coventry City’s results to survive, Ball instructed his players to play out a draw upon hearing, from the Maine Road crowd, that the Sky Blues were losing. Only they weren’t.

“There was a bit of a miscommunication,” Clough admits. “You’re hearing somebody’s got a result from somewhere else. You’re never quite sure what’s going on when you’re out on the pitch, ‘cause you’ve got the crowd and other things. We thought that a draw would be enough and it wasn’t, it was sad but these are the little things that happen in football – well, big things but with such fine margins.

“It could have been different if Graeme Souness had have stayed at Liverpool, then you go down by seven goals at Man City. Such fine margins end up affecting so many things in people’s careers.”

Clough remained at City the following season, but returned to Nottingham Forest on loan under “good mate” Stuart Pearce in December 1996. He didn’t play again for the City but was still around 18 months later, when they dropped into Division Two.

The club was a vastly different proposition to the one we know now; perennial title chasers and current champions of England with a £200million training complex to rival any Olympic village. Did Clough ever envisage a turnaround so prodigious?

“Because of their support they always had a chance,” he says. “It’s a lot like an oil tanker; it takes a helluva turnaround but once you get it going in the right direction it’s difficult to stop.”

City’s relegation saw Clough drop out of the Football League altogether, at the age of just 32, to take his first steps in management at Burton Albion. Now 48, his time as a boss has already exceeded his League playing career.

“Things finished at Manchester City, I found myself unemployed and a manager’s job – which turned into a player-manager’s job – opened up 20 minutes down the road. I thought I’d get started on the other side of the fence.

“I’d got a young family at the time and I got to spend some time with them and I wouldn’t swap that for anything.”

Clough is currently making headlines at League One’s cup connoisseurs Sheffield United, who he led to two major semi finals in his first 15 months at the helm – after four years of laying down foundations at Derby County.

Since Clough took over at Bramall Lane, the Blades have lost just four of their 23 cup matches.

“I wish we knew the secret,” he laughs. “We approach every game the same. There’s no fear, whether it’s a potential (banana skin) or we’re at White Hart Lane or wherever.

“We’d (Liverpool) go away in Europe and Ronnie Moran would go: ‘Keep the crowd quiet for the first 15 minutes. Don’t concede a goal.’ He was absolutely spot on.

“You listen to him and Roy Evans going back and you really appreciate the things they said - more so now than at the time.”

This article first appeared in Liverpool FC's match day programme versus Manchester City on 01.03.2015.