" THE GREAT ESCAPE/ RUSSELL SLADE "
Sat Oct 03, 2015 9:39 am
Inside story: How Russell Slade led Albion's 'Great Escape' - by the players who made it happen
03/10/2015
Russell Slade will be looking to derail Albion’s progress at the top of the Championship as he leads his Cardiff side into the Amex today.
But maybe a quarter of another 20,000–plus crowd will remember how the Cardiff boss kept their club on course to reach the Championship as they moved into the Amex.
It was called the Great Escape as Slade fashioned a tight-knit line-up out of an inflated, ill-balanced squad and staved off relegation from League One in 2008-09.
Albion won five of their last seven games and took 13 points from the last 15, culminating in a 1-0 last- day success over Stockport which saw Slade carried aloft as a hero.
Yet it almost didn’t happen.
“I know they were after Jim Gannon and, when Russell came along, I wouldn't say I thought he was the manager who would save Brighton,” his skipper Adam Virgo admits now.
“He had done well at Yeovil and Grimsby but Brighton was a bigger club.
“But I thought you've got to give the guy a chance and he proved me wrong in every way.
“He got the squad down to 13 or 14 players.
“Bringing in Gary Dicker was pivotal to the way we wanted to play.
“We kind of played a diamond but Coxy (Dean Cox) had a free role, more or less.
“I wouldn't say we were the best team on paper but we had a good work ethic.”
Slade coped with the loss of strikers Nicky Forster and Glenn Murray by partnering Gary Hart with short-term signing Lloyd Owusu and also brought in Calvin Andrew on loan.
Players who served him at the time talk of his excellent man-management.
Virgo said: “He was quite big on psychology.
“Once a week we would sit down at Withdean and this guy would be a kind of motivational speaker.
“He would offer individual sessions as well to try and get confidence back into you.”
Still it took a while for Slade to get Albion on the right track.
They only took four points from his first eight games, three of them coming from a 5-0 hammering of his old club Yeovil.
Virgo recalled: “We got a bit of a tanking at Scunthorpe and at MK Dons but it was the game at Colchester (a 1-0 win) that really turned it.
“We got the goal, we got the clean sheet.
“The way he spoke to the press and to the players, he took all the pressure on to himself, which was a trait I learnt about massively from him.
“If we had been relegated that season, I think we'd gave turned it around eventually but, at that time, it would have been disastrous.
“I still say today that he's not the best on the coaching side in terms of putting on a session.
“With Russell we just did 11-a-side every day and worked on shape.
“We went back to basics. We got to a gameplan and he simplified it as much as possible.”
Slade is now starting to make an impact at Cardiff and his assistant at Withdean, Bob Booker, said: “One thing you notice with Russell and every job he goes to us he is always a slow starter.
“Once he starts to stamp his fluency on what he is trying to do, it clicks into place.
“It's hard to get in with a new group of players at that stage of the season in a short space of time and he just did a fantastic job.
“Certain players came good for him at that time, people like Gary Hart.
“Calvin Andrew and Lloyd Owusu were master strokes.
“Micky (Adams, Slade’s predecessor) used to say some players would jump on the train with you and go for the ride and some players might have their mind in other places.
“You have go to put those players aside and focus on the ones who are going to do it for you.
“It's difficult but I think that is what he did.
“I knew him as a football contact, no more than that, but we hit it off.
“We mixed on a social basis as well, with his family and getting him settled down here.”
“He was honest. When I signed for him at Orient he told me there was no certainty of being in the team but, if I played well, I kept the shirt.”
Whing was voted player of the season at the end of the campaign.
He insists he always felt Albion would stay up.
“There was one stage where we were second from bottom and a few points from safety and it was worrying at the time.
“But, for some reason, I always believed we had enough, “It was a really good group. We had old pros like Harty and young lads like Coxy, Tommy Fraser and Tommy Elphick.
“The manager always believed we would stay up.”
03/10/2015
Russell Slade will be looking to derail Albion’s progress at the top of the Championship as he leads his Cardiff side into the Amex today.
But maybe a quarter of another 20,000–plus crowd will remember how the Cardiff boss kept their club on course to reach the Championship as they moved into the Amex.
It was called the Great Escape as Slade fashioned a tight-knit line-up out of an inflated, ill-balanced squad and staved off relegation from League One in 2008-09.
Albion won five of their last seven games and took 13 points from the last 15, culminating in a 1-0 last- day success over Stockport which saw Slade carried aloft as a hero.
Yet it almost didn’t happen.
“I know they were after Jim Gannon and, when Russell came along, I wouldn't say I thought he was the manager who would save Brighton,” his skipper Adam Virgo admits now.
“He had done well at Yeovil and Grimsby but Brighton was a bigger club.
“But I thought you've got to give the guy a chance and he proved me wrong in every way.
“He got the squad down to 13 or 14 players.
“Bringing in Gary Dicker was pivotal to the way we wanted to play.
“We kind of played a diamond but Coxy (Dean Cox) had a free role, more or less.
“I wouldn't say we were the best team on paper but we had a good work ethic.”
Slade coped with the loss of strikers Nicky Forster and Glenn Murray by partnering Gary Hart with short-term signing Lloyd Owusu and also brought in Calvin Andrew on loan.
Players who served him at the time talk of his excellent man-management.
Virgo said: “He was quite big on psychology.
“Once a week we would sit down at Withdean and this guy would be a kind of motivational speaker.
“He would offer individual sessions as well to try and get confidence back into you.”
Still it took a while for Slade to get Albion on the right track.
They only took four points from his first eight games, three of them coming from a 5-0 hammering of his old club Yeovil.
Virgo recalled: “We got a bit of a tanking at Scunthorpe and at MK Dons but it was the game at Colchester (a 1-0 win) that really turned it.
“We got the goal, we got the clean sheet.
“The way he spoke to the press and to the players, he took all the pressure on to himself, which was a trait I learnt about massively from him.
“If we had been relegated that season, I think we'd gave turned it around eventually but, at that time, it would have been disastrous.
“I still say today that he's not the best on the coaching side in terms of putting on a session.
“With Russell we just did 11-a-side every day and worked on shape.
“We went back to basics. We got to a gameplan and he simplified it as much as possible.”
Slade is now starting to make an impact at Cardiff and his assistant at Withdean, Bob Booker, said: “One thing you notice with Russell and every job he goes to us he is always a slow starter.
“Once he starts to stamp his fluency on what he is trying to do, it clicks into place.
“It's hard to get in with a new group of players at that stage of the season in a short space of time and he just did a fantastic job.
“Certain players came good for him at that time, people like Gary Hart.
“Calvin Andrew and Lloyd Owusu were master strokes.
“Micky (Adams, Slade’s predecessor) used to say some players would jump on the train with you and go for the ride and some players might have their mind in other places.
“You have go to put those players aside and focus on the ones who are going to do it for you.
“It's difficult but I think that is what he did.
“I knew him as a football contact, no more than that, but we hit it off.
“We mixed on a social basis as well, with his family and getting him settled down here.”
“He was honest. When I signed for him at Orient he told me there was no certainty of being in the team but, if I played well, I kept the shirt.”
Whing was voted player of the season at the end of the campaign.
He insists he always felt Albion would stay up.
“There was one stage where we were second from bottom and a few points from safety and it was worrying at the time.
“But, for some reason, I always believed we had enough, “It was a really good group. We had old pros like Harty and young lads like Coxy, Tommy Fraser and Tommy Elphick.
“The manager always believed we would stay up.”
Re: " THE GREAT ESCAPE/ RUSSELL SLADE "
Sat Oct 03, 2015 12:33 pm
That's interesting and gives an insight into why Slade is a good manager. 
