Craig Brown – The Under-Appreciated Nice Man of Scottish football

It hasn’t been the worst of seasons so far for Motherwell.  Comfortably in the top half of the Scottish Premier League, they should remain there for the rest of the campaign.

The Lanarkshire side won’t make an impression on the title race, with other clubs still unable to make a serious challenge to Celtic and Rangers.  Instead, they aim to be the ‘best of the rest’, which would be considered success for a club who are by no means the biggest outwith the Old Firm.

In addition, the Steelmen have reached the last-four of the Scottish League Cup, with a semi-final against Rangers at Hampden Park to look forward to.

The man in charge at Fir Park is Craig Brown; now 70 years old and assisted by the youthful Archie Knox (he’s only 63), the duo were appointed following Jim Gannon’s departure in December 2009.  During his short reign, Gannon managed to alienate players, fans and officials: he publicly criticised captain Stephen Craigan’s performance in a European qualifier, annoyed fans by becoming involved in a debate on a denied penalty claim for Celtic in an Old Firm match, and waged a one-man war on the (now former) SFA head of referee development, Hugh Dallas.  Ironically, Gannon was sacked for a lack of commitment, after his refusal to sign a permanent contract.

While performances before his arrival were acceptable (Motherwell were 6th in the SPL) Brown improved not only morale and the public image of the club, but also results.  A fourth place finish meant European qualification for the third successive season (the previous season it was achieved via Fair Play rather than results), meaning Brown and Knox had steadied the ship, and they agreed to extend their stay.

While he has also managed Clyde and Preston, Brown is best known for his time with Scotland between 1993 and 2001.  He became involved with the national team when he was appointed as assistant to Andy Roxburgh.  Together, the pair took Scotland to Italia 90, and a first European Championships in 1992.  However, failure to qualify for USA ’94 meant that Roxburgh’s time was up; he himself described a 5-0 hammering in Portugal as “the night a team died.”

Whether they would have been successful is doubtful, but it would have understandable had the SFA then approached the likes of Alex Ferguson or George Graham about taking over from Roxburgh, both of whom were managing, and winning trophies in English football.

Flower of Scotland

Instead Brown was given the nod. He didn’t disappoint.  Reaching Euro ‘96 in England was a must, and despite the infamous 2-0 defeat against the Auld Enemy, Scotland only missed out of the last eight due to Partick Kluivert’s late goal for Holland against England, which resulted in elimination on goal difference.  If only Gary McAllister’s penalty had gone in…

Brown then matched Roxburgh by qualifying for a second successive major championship.  As with every other tournament, World Cup ‘98 in France was meant to be the time where finally, Scotland progressed from the group to the latter stages.  Of course it didn’t turn out that way: an unlucky defeat against Brazil and a draw with Norway preceded a collapse against Morocco which resulted in another early exit.

At the time it looked like more failure, falling again at the first hurdle.  However, if you had told Scotland fans that this would be their side’s last appearance for at least 12 years, it’s doubtful that many would have believed it.  Qualification had become the norm.

Brown almost led to Scotland to a third straight tournament, but missed out on Euro 2000 after a play-off defeat to England.

When Brown vacated the role, there was no feeling of sorrow amongst Scottish fans.  The general consensus was that Brown’s time was up and a change was needed.  Despite his relative success, Brown was never hugely popular.  He was not considered a top-drawer manager and his public persona didn’t help.  Due to his genial manner, he was viewed as a soft touch and an easy target for the media.  Brown’s image is very much in contrast with that normally associated with a Scottish manager ie, gruff, straight-talking characters like Walter Smith, David Moyes and Sir Alex Ferguson.

However, Brown is nobody’s mug.  In 1996, he stood firm against media pressure and refused to include Richard Gough in the Scotland squad – Gough had quit international football three years earlier after falling out with Roxburgh, but was willing to return.  Brown also demonstrated his ‘fighting spirit’, earlier this season when he was involved in an altercation with a director from European opponents Odense.

Appreciation

The public only really started to appreciate how good a job Brown had done after he had gone.  His successor, Bertie Vogts, was an unmitigated disaster, and while Smith and Alex McLeish restored some pride, Craig Levein will need to perform a minor miracle if Scotland are to reach Euro 2012.  If Levein were to match Brown in reaching back-to-back tournaments he would become a national hero.

It could be argued that the current boss doesn’t have access to players of the standard of McAllister, Gallacher or Collins, who were playing in England and Europe and available to Brown.  However, Brown didn’t have a Dalglish, Souness or Hansen, who all appeared for the national side under Brown’s predecessors while winning European Cups with Liverpool.

The job at Fir Park will surely be Craig Brown’s last in the game.  With a squad including the highly-rated Mark Reynolds (linked with PSV Eindhoven), Chris Humphrey, and on-loan top scorer Nick Blackman, Brown’s toughest task may be holding onto all of his players.  If he does, Motherwell will be competing with Hearts, Dundee United, and possibly surprise package Inverness CT, for third place in the SPL.

He may not have received the acclaim he deserved for much of his career, but a high league finish and a cup final appearance in the closing stages of his career would be another reminder of how capable a coach Brown is.

William Heaney runs the blog Football Futbol Fitba.

(photo credit: PA)

Craig Brown, Motherwell, Scotland, Scottish Premier League