‘Saunderisms’, Big John Carew and Sir Stanley Matthews
For a man who has won two League Cups as a player and added another one to his collection as a manager, walking into a room full of adoring Villans will not be a new experience.
When Brian Little walked into a humming Crown pub for a charity event in Shard End, the Villa hero immediately set about putting excited punters at ease with his calming presence and Northern charm.
In amongst all the commotion, Brian Little had kindly agreed to sit down with the UTV Podcast for an interview. The affable Little began by recalling his first encounter with Aston Villa Football Club which had come shortly after a meeting with one of the greats of the game. A teenage Brian Little had travelled down on a coach with his parents and two brothers to Port Vale for a trial with the Staffordshire based outfit. The manager at the time was the legendary Stanley Matthews and Little noted that “if I fast forward that twenty years later I was the manager of Stoke City and Sir Stanley even remembered that I’d been there as a 13 year old, which was brilliant!”
After his trial at Port Vale which had left a lasting impression on one of England’s greatest ever forwards, the youngster was approached by a number of interested clubs, before a family connection with Aston Villa assistant manager Malcolm Musgrove led to a trip down to Villa Park. “Wow,” Little exclaims as he recalls the first time he laid eyes on the stadium, “crikey, this is where I want to go!”
After a successful trial period, the self-proclaimed “homebird” took a little while to settle into his new surroundings in the West Midlands after moving down from Peterlee in County Durham and admits to feeling “very lonely” in those early months. A combination of an endearing group of senior players, and the acquisition of his brother Allan soon after saw Brian acclimatise to life in B6. The latter story prompted Little to remember the famous utterances of Doug Ellis who declared “we might not have got Brian if we’d not signed his brother!” Of course, Brian’s mind was made up about Villa from the minute he saw the famous old stadium, but he acknowledges both his pride and relief at being reunited with his brother who he had previously “always done everything together.”
As was previously mentioned, the role of the senior professionals at the club could not be underestimated in bringing Brian’s confidence and tactical awareness on as he made his breakthrough to the first team in the Third and later Second Division. Andy Lochhead, Ray Graydon, Bruce Rioch and David Gibson were all players and people that Little admired, and they took the young forward under their wing and allowed him to flourish. When the side set up for their regular three vs three small-side games in training, Gibson made a regular point of picking Little and another youngster John Gidman in his side. Gibson clearly had an eye for a good player, as their side would win “nearly every week.” Such a vote of confidence, and Gibson’s constant source of mentorship helped the young talents immensely.
Whilst Little would soon strike up a legendary partnership with another Scottish player, his first attacking ally of note was the indomitable figure that was Andy Lochhead. The seventies was an era of football that was not for the faint hearted. So to have Lochhead alongside him in the trenches, Brian Little learned and adapted to the physical and vocal barrage that would arrive from opposition defenders. “The first thing a centre half said to you was a threat, let me tell you,” the Villa legend chuckles. There was no “oh hello, you’ve got nice hair,” or “how long have you been in the first team?” It was “I’m going to kick lumps out of you sunshine!”
Brian Little told us that he never felt intimidated by such threats and would jokingly suggest that they should make sure they kick him in the box instead. But to have Andy Lochhead who “nobody questioned anything” said by the big Scot helped develop Little’s fearless demeanour. Little looks thoughtful as he fondly recalls the memories of the late Villa hero Lochhead before joking that “if you were someone who Andy liked you were lucky, and Andy liked me!”
After playing with the powerful strikers Lochhead and Keith Leonard, Little admits his surprise at Ron Saunders’ move for a relatively unheard of and small in stature player in teenager Andy Gray from Dundee United. But the new signing made a great and lasting first impression on his new strike partner. In their first game together away at Middlesbrough, Little hung a high hopeful ball up to the back post. Gray was being marked by the aerially dominant Stuart Boam but “all of a sudden this lad who I said wasn’t very big was on top of Stuart Boam by about two feet.” The ball did not end up in the net, but a marker was laid down for what was to come in what would become one of Villa’s greatest ever strike partnerships.
The two could not have been much more different off the field though. “I’m not an Andy Gray;” Little exclaims with a cheeky grin on his face. For Brian, a good night was “going to my local pub for a beer, but I mean Andy, before long he had his own nightclub and everything!” But despite their differences off the field, Brian has nothing but positive stories and the highest opinion of his partner in crime up top who “was that brave that all I had to do was put the ball in front of him!” Both former players have very modestly preferred to pin all the success on the other and play down their status in Villa history but Little suggests that he does not “think we give ourselves enough justice, we did hit it off together.” The pair were part of the 1977 League Cup winning squad, a second triumph in three seasons for the club, as a Little brace saw Villa edge out a tough Everton side.
When asked which Villa player from history he would like to have partnered that he never got the chance to, his answer was one that would make the mouth water of many a Villa supporter. “Big John Carew,” says Little “I would like to have played alongside him!” And what an attack that would have been, the perfect balance of guile and force that defenders from any era would struggle to deal with.
A strike duo, with an energetic and dynamic midfield duo and a watertight defence was the hallmark of much of Ron Saunders’ success, and Little admits that such “Saunderisms” were a staple of his side when he assumed the managerial office at Aston Villa in 1994.
The move was an acrimonious one, however, with his former club Leicester and their supporters left with a bitter taste in the mouth as he moved to take on his “dream job.” Until his return to Filbert Street just over a week after leaving Brian “can’t ever remember being booed by people;” in the world of football. The saga “had a pretty lasting effect;” on the gaffer who acknowledges that it took “a while to recover from it.” Such uproar was even harder to take for Little who had been clear throughout that he believed that ending up back at Villa was “written in the stars,” and he may never get the chance offered to him again. He had informed the Leicester hierarchy that “if they’d have stopped me, I’d actually have packed in (management).” His words were twisted and his previously brilliant reputation in the East Midlands was somewhat tarnished, but he had been allowed to make his dream move and quickly set about implementing his ‘Saunderisms’.
The influence of such a legendary manager as Saunders was in spite of the pair not always seeing eye-to-eye and in fact Little “had more fights with Ron Saunders than any other player.” But Little ultimately respected Saunders hugely both as a man and a manager and learnt so much about a sound defensive structure from his former boss.
A solid defence was formed, with Gareth Southgate, Ugo Ehiogu and Paul McGrath all playing starring roles throughout his tenure, whilst his very own Little-Gray partnership sprung up through Milošević and Yorke. A League Cup would follow, the last trophy won by any Villa manager.
Getting the best out of the supremely talented Dwight Yorke was a key part of the success of the mid-nineties. Like Andy Gray, from the outside Little did not have much in common with the mercurial Yorke off the field, but when asked how Brian Little the manager would have coached Brian Little the player, his answer suggested that he would have dealt with him in much the same way as he looked after the Tobagonian forward.
This centres around a crucial mantra in Little’s life of “treat people the way you liked to be treated yourself,” and when combined with some technical attacking advice the forward fired on all cylinders to reach 98 goals in all competitions for the Villa. Brian made sure Yorke learned that he did not “have to play the same way every game to be the same player,” as well as targeting the weaknesses of an opponent and negating their strengths.
The notion of evolving your game based on the opponent was something picked up when in conversation with former Derby defender Roy McFarland. The Liverpudlian McFarland was seen as the “new breed” of defender due to his pace and passing ability, but Little tore him and his County side to shreds in the first half of a match. McFarland later admitted to completely changing his tact and “kicking lumps” out of the Villa forward in the second 45, with a greater degree of success. Little was interested to find out that “the quality players,” such as McFarland would do “something different;” when they were struggling rather than persisting with their natural game.
To hear a true Villa legend speak so candidly and passionately on a range of topics was a true honour, and we are so grateful to Brian for giving his time so generously. He is a true gentleman and a wonderful ambassador for our great football club and we are privileged to call him a friend of the channel.
AUTHOR | JOEY MILLINGTON
Author’s UTV PODCAST archive Joey Millington | UTV Podcast | An Aston Villa Blog
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One Response
Great article Joe… Brian was a legend of Villa Park
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