“I don’t think he’ll be the manager now that he was then”, says former Cheltenham Town midfielder Hugh McAuley, on Steve Cotterill.
McAuley was signed by Cotterill from Leek Town in 1999, and the 60-year-old will take charge of his 1,000th game in professional football when Forest Green Rovers take on Southend this Saturday.
“Cotts knew what he wanted out of every player, got under your skin, was in your face,” McAuley said on his former boss.
Cotterill took charge of 303 games for the Robins, where he played nine times as a player after coming through their youth ranks.
The 60-year-old won two promotions in three seasons to get Cheltenham into the Football League for the first time in their history, that summer, McAuley came to the club.
“I signed on July 1st, 1999. I absolutely loved my time there with Steve Cotterill and the team.”
McAuley went on to play for Cheltenham for four seasons and played a part in their promotion to division two in his third season at the club, also Cotterill’s last at the club before a move to Stoke City in the summer of 2002.
“I think Cotts would prefer to admit it, his style of management won’t be the same as what it was 25, 30 years ago, but football’s moved on since then.
“I don’t think you can speak to people like we were spoken to back in the day, but it worked. Steve was successful at the club and it worked, so it was a very successful time for the club. We went into League One, Steve left, and Graham Allner came in.”
McAuley was released by Cotterill at the end of the 2001/02 season but the incoming Graham Allner resigned the former Liverpool youth player.
McAuley credits his time at Liverpool making him the player he was saying, “I was a technically good footballer because of my education at Liverpool.”
Despite this, the 48-year-old appreciates that pitches back in the day and Cotterill’s preferred style didn’t always favour his individual style.
“A lot of the pitches weren’t like that, so playing football on it was quite difficult, to say the least. So, for the likes of me and Russell, back then, you don’t really want it. You look back now and you can understand why you didn’t play in certain games.
“The effect on the game was very difficult because of the way the pitch was, the way other teams played, the way Cotts played. Cotts didn’t play free-flowing football, it was very much get the ball from the back to the front as quickly as possible.”
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McAuley made 100 appearances for Cheltenham Town scoring nine goals, including the club’s first-ever goal against Swindon Town, the Robins’ opponents on Saturday.
McAuley says he still monitors Cheltenham’s results and the careers of everyone he spent time with during his career in Gloucestershire, and Cotterill’s upcoming achievement hasn’t slipped his attention.
“Cotts has obviously done great. Gone on to have a cracking career in the game. Obviously he’s gone managing now 1,000 games, which is unbelievable really. A great achievement for him.”
