Burton Albion manager Nigel Clough hoping League Cup love affair can survive tough Manchester City test

Nigel Clough - Burton Albion manager Nigel Clough hoping League Cup love affair can survive tough Manchester City test
Nigel Clough and his late father both enjoyed successes in the League Cup Credit: PA

Nigel Clough is reflecting on his long affinity with the League Cup and the memories remain vivid, flooding back as he prepares for a daunting date with Pep Guardiola.

The family love affair with the competition began when Nottingham Forest, managed by his father, Brian, beat Liverpool in the replayed 1978 final.

The magic has been rekindled this season for Nigel, after guiding League One Burton Albion to the Carabao Cup semi-final for a “frightening” encounter with Guardiola’s Manchester City.

Clough insists Burton, with their £3 million wage bill, will have pulled off the biggest cup shock of all time if they can somehow defeat Guardiola’s league champions over two legs.

But ahead of Wednesday night’s first encounter at the Etihad Stadium, Clough is rowing back to those halcyon days when trips to Wembley were the norm under his father.

“We didn’t lose for 2½ years in the competition at Forest. It wasn’t about winning, it was about the performance as well. It was standards,” he says, sitting in a small directors box at the Pirelli Stadium.

Nigel Clough - Burton Albion manager Nigel Clough hoping League Cup love affair can survive tough Manchester City test
Clough celebrates after Burton Albion manager beat Middlesbrough to reach the League Cup semis Credit: Getty Images

“We played Oldham in the final [in 1990] and won 1-0 but we didn’t play very well. We were in the next morning, running.

“We used to do lengths of the pitch – sides as we used to call them – and it was: ‘Go and do six sides.’ Seriously, that’s what’s happened the morning after the game. No balls to be seen.

“Des Walker, who could run all day, said: ‘I don’t care, I’ve got my bonus.’ And my dad would say: ‘Yes, you have. You can all go and do one more.’

“It went on with Des until someone pulled him to one side and had a word with him. We must have done it 10 times before he was wrestled to the floor.”

Clough’s relationship with the League Cup actually began long before he pulled on the red-and-white jersey: the day before his 12th birthday, as a wide-eyed guest in the Forest dressing room.

“It was the ’78 final and I was in the dressing room before the game. Bob Paisley [the Liverpool manager] came in and we had to toss up for who was going to wear red.

“Ken Smales, the secretary at Forest, gave me the coin. Bob got it wrong and we wore red in the final then won it in the replay wearing yellow. I wish I could toss a coin to decide it on Wednesday!”

Nigel Clough - Burton Albion manager Nigel Clough hoping League Cup love affair can survive tough Manchester City test
Clough in action for Nottingham Forest during the 1990 League Cup final against Oldham Athletic Credit: EMPICS 

Clough went on to lift the trophy as a player twice, playing alongside iconic figures such as Stuart Pearce, Walker and Steve Hodge. With his father, they won it four times between them under its many guises.

Forest’s brief period of dominance in the League Cup ended in November 1990, after a crazy 90 minutes at Coventry City’s Highfield Road. It was a bonkers evening with the game played in torrential rain and, even now, Clough still struggles to comprehend what happened.

“We were 4-0 down after 35 minutes and a lot of Forest fans behind the goal were going home. I scored a hat-trick before half-time, Garry Parker equalised and then we conceded again. We just couldn’t get the fifth goal.

“It was not the way you want to go out. We could have easily stayed in it that night. Disappointing but those were the standards, it didn’t matter if it was the Zenith Data Systems, the Mercantile Credit, the Simod Cup. You treated it as if it was like every other game.

“Testimonials were the same. We went to Plymouth to play in John Uzzell’s testimonial. We were four down at half-time. He [Brian Clough] wasn’t happy. He came in the dressing room at half-time and said: ‘Every goal you concede in the second half, I’m fining you £100.’ We conceded another one to lose 5-0 and it was taken out of our money.

“Those were the standards. That’s why they stayed the same for every single match.”

Clough refers to “standards” a lot, and it probably explains why his Burton team have emerged as this season’s giant-killers.

On their route to the last four, they have embarrassed Burnley, Aston Villa, Middlesbrough and his old club Forest to set up a £500,000 jackpot for the Brewers.

Their rise through the leagues continues to inspire, and relegation from the Championship last season is the only blip over a decade of remarkable progress.

Just consider this: Burton are 51 places below Manchester City, their top earner is on £3,000 a week (with player wages slashed by 50 per cent after relegation) and their record signing, Liam Boyce, cost just £500,000.

Their biggest home attendance this season has been 4,566, and that was probably boosted by the travelling Sunderland fans.

Ten years ago, they were in the Blue Square Premier, competing against clubs such as Salisbury, Histon and Eastbourne. It is a journey which Clough and Ben Robinson, the chairman, will never take for granted.

Ask Clough about Burton’s chances against City and it is tempting to wonder whether it is simply brutal honesty or reverse psychology, lifted straight from his father’s mind games manual.

“It’s almost a bye to the final for City. I don’t think we can go into it thinking we’ve got a fighting chance of winning it,” he says, deadly serious.

“If we beat them over two legs, it will be the biggest shock of all time. I don’t know what Pep’s thinking will be but I would imagine it will be to make the second leg irrelevant. But we’ve got to try and do the opposite to that and try to retain a glimmer of hope.

“We know that one of their players is on as much money as all of our squad in the Championship. That’s the gulf and it’s going to be multiplied several times against Manchester City. You cannot worry about it.”

Team details

Possible line-up: Collins; Brayford, Buxton, Turner, Hutchinson, Allen, Fraser, Fox, Harness, Wallace, Boyce.

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