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"I phoned him before his first match and we're going out for a pint in a few weeks. I bet it's all a culture shock. He played at centre-half on Tuesday in a Dr. Martens Cup tie at Moor Green and if he thought it was going to be fun, I bet he doesn't any more." "But Nige will be all right. He's a smashing bloke. I can't stand these players today who don't have time for anybody. Humility costs nothing. I was just a carpet fitter and I've never been after the limelight and neither has Nigel. When people talk about Nigel they say what a nice man he is and that's a fact. "But he will have to grow a tough skin for the job. My players ask me why I'm a nice bloke before and after matches and get so angry during games - it's easy. I'll do anything it takes to win a match. Nige's dad was like that and he'll get the same way." Clough's already had his first disaster, a 3-0 defeat at home to Atherstone, and he's got a tough one in the Cup today. Kingstonian might not ring any giant-killing bells, but their manager is Geoff Chapple and just ask West Brom and Coventry how dangerous he was at Woking. Gresley are at Walsall, third in the Second Division. The game is giving Birtles his highest profile since he was knocking in a goal every three games for Nottingham Forest and Brian Clough was barking out orders from the bench. "My lads say when I'm shouting at them it's just me being Brian Clough" say's Birtles. "When I played squash I'd smash a racquet a week. It's anger. I can't kick a ball any more, but I want to see things through, to be successful. It's about passion. I love seeing Martin O'Neill on the bench. He has it and it's why his players respond to him. "I was lucky with Brian Clough because he was a centre-forward and he taught me a lot. But some of the stuff he said was guff and Nigel will know that. He will take some of the things from his dad, but not all of it. "There are people who go from ex-player straight into a top job. It's handed to them, but Nigel and me are trying to do it the other way. Again, I take my inspiration from Martin O'Neill. He started with Grantham Town, who are in our league, and he's done it his way." But it seems that Clough jnr has a headstart on his near neighbour. "Us? No-one knows where we are" sighs Birtles. "In away programmes they have to draw maps. In fact, the village is called Church Gresley, near Swadlincote. Still none the wiser? Put it this way, it's 15 minutes drive to Burton, ground-to-ground." Birtles' players earn around £100-a-week, less than Burton's. They train only one day-a-week, less than Burton, because, Birtles says, on that money they shouldn't be asked to fork out petrol money. Gresley's best gate doesn't top 600, less than Burton's and they are still paying off a £40,000 debt that almost sunk the club before Birtles even got started. He rang Alex Ferguson and United came down to play an all-star side to help the cash-strapped club. But Gresley are second in the Dr. Martens League while Burton are a lowly 14th. Probably for the first time in his life, he is one up on the Cloughs. Nigel even got to an FA Cup final, the furthest Birtles got was the fifth round. "I am a great believer in spirit off the pitch" says Birtles. "We might not have much else, it's always wet and windy at Gresley, but we have got that. We trained for half-an-hour this week, then we put a tab behind the bar and packed it in and went down the pub. That did far more good. "I was reading a history of Nottingham Forest and there was a quote in there from a German television journalist, saying that of all the clubs to win the European Cup, Forest were the greatest because of our background, how small we were. That's what Brian Clough did for us players in those few years. It will never be done again, not by a club of Forest's size. As John Robertson said 'Not bad for a bunch of rag-tags.' "Nigel was at Forest then as a boy at his dad's side...Now it's his turn."

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