Alchemy – Brian Clough & Peter Taylor at Hartlepools United, by Christopher Hull, published by The History Press, Price: £20
PLENTY has been written down the years about legendary managerial duo Brian Clough and Peter Taylor.
Their feats with Derby County and, in particular, Nottingham Forest have gone down in folklore. Not even fervent Forest fans could have expected their club to twice become champions of Europe (1979 and 80).
Clough’s controversial 44 days in charge of Leeds have also garnered acres of column inches. But what has tended to come under the spotlight less is Clough and Taylor’s first foray into management – with Hartlepools United.
The fact cash-strapped Pools were down in Division Four at the time and desperately trying to keep their heads above water meant they weren’t a high-profile team.
But author Christopher Hull has gone back to the start and succeeded in putting together a comprehensive account of the duo’s 19-month Victoria Park reign.
Indeed, Hull initially takes us back to the end of Clough’s playing days, as a devas- tating knee injury wrecked the prolific Middlesbrough, Sunderland and England striker’s career.
Fighting to get over that heartbreak, Clough, whose cockiness as a player tended to rub his team-mates up the wrong way, turned to management – and it was Pools who gave him the opportunity to show he was more than just talk in late 1965.
He quickly brought in his former Middlesbrough team-mate Taylor as his right-hand man. Hull explains how the duo realised they were on the same football wavelength in their Boro days.
“Bachelor Clough and family man Taylor hung out together,” he writes. “The junior partner made regular visits to Taylor’s home, where they’d spend endless hours discussing football. They travelled topdeck on buses to take in countless matches around the North-East. The pair talked tactics and honed a joint philosophy about how the game should be played, and how managers should manage.”
In many ways, Hartlepools was the perfect place for Clough and Taylor to begin to put their vision into practice. They were down in Division Four, away from the glare of publicity of football higher up the ladder.
Having successfully managed to avert the need to apply for re-election in that 1965-66 campaign, Clough and Taylor worked their magic in their first full season in charge to ensure Pools were, for once, never in any danger of going down. Instead, they looked up the table.
That was despite the financial problems that continued to haunt the club and made Clough a fund-raiser as well as a manager.
Hull gives a comprehensive account of Clough and Taylor’s time in charge and it makes for riveting reading. It was clear that Clough had maximum belief in what he and his trusted right-hand man could go on to achieve, even in those days down near the bottom of the football ladder.
Having delved into a wide array of archive material and conducted a series of interviews with those connected with Clough and Taylor’s Hartlepools stint, Hull has done their maiden journey justice – and it gives an insight into why they went on to be so successful.
Rating out of 10: 8
