Express & Star

Dean Smith: From the Holte End to the Aston Villa dugouts

Whether it be cleaning seats in the Trinity Road Stand, standing on the Holte End or drinking out of the European Cup, Aston Villa provided Dean Smith with some of his earliest and most unforgettable memories of football.

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Dean Smith has been appointed Villa’s new head coach. It represents very much a return home for the 47-year-old grew up supporting the club.

This interview was first published in September 2016, just before Smith faced Villa as a manager for the first time.

Yet on Wednesday night he will head to Villa Park, the ground on which he learned so much yet never got to play, as Brentford’s manager, with the sole ambition of causing a few problems for the hosts and their manager Roberto Di Matteo.

For former Walsall boss Smith, still a familiar face in the Great Barr community in which he grew up, it is a chance to pit his wits against a Champions League-winning counterpart and, just maybe, steer the Bees to a first-ever competitive victory over the team he supported as a boy.

For his family, it promises to be a rather tense affair. None more so than for brother Dave, who remains an avid Villa supporter and might be forgiven for knowing just how to feel as he watches the action from the stands, along with mum Hilary and Dean's wife Nicola.

"My brother is a big Villa fan and he's got torn loyalties at the moment," smiles Smith. "I'm not sure he knows what to do at the moment on each Saturday!

"He missed my first game against Huddersfield but went to watch Villa against Sheffield Wednesday. It's going to be tough for him."

Back in the late 1970s and early 1980s, such an internal debate over loyalties simply never existed for the Smith brothers. With dad Ron a steward in the Trinity Road Stand, Villa Park was almost a second home.

"My old man was a steward there for 25 years and he used to work a section of the old Trinity Road steps," says Smith.

""I talked him into taking us to the games and we used to go and clean the seats. It was a great job. We had a certain section of seats that we used to clean.

"We got a free pass into the Holte End and we'd get a pie and a drink as well. Four or five of us used to go and do it."

The prize for their graft was the chance to witness some of the most memorable moments in Villa's history, from a Brian Little and Andy Gray-inspired 5-1 win over Liverpool, to the 1980-81 League title winning season and the glory of a European Cup campaign.

"It became a really top period in Villa's history when I started following them," he says. "In 1977 they won the League Cup with the famous goal from Chris Nicholl, that he keeps reminding me about.

"Then there was the season in '81 when they won the league and used only 14 players which will never be done again. I can still name all 14!

"The year after winning the European Cup they won the European Super Cup by beating Barcelona. I remember Sid Cowans getting volleyed into the net! There was a penalty that was saved and he scored the rebound. Their 'keeper volleyed him into the net."

The Smith family's bond with the club stretched far beyond the stadium. Pat Heard, a member of the European Cup-winning squad, was a near-neighbour and regularly employed Dave and Dean as babysitters. Such connections brought some surprising yet unforgettable rewards.

"Being big friends with Pat, each player got to bring the European Cup home," says Dean.

"Pat bought it back to the pub and we all had a drink out of it. Even the Albion and Blues fans! We had some great pictures and memories."

The dream for the young Smith was to one day wear the claret and blue as a player but it never came to pass. Instead his playing career took a different, yet no less fulfilling route, through the lower divisions of the Football League.

Yet as a manager he remains determined to prove himself at the very top. His decision last November to swap Saddlers for Brentford, after almost five years in charge at the Banks's Stadium, came as a surprise but was made with the intention of taking his career to the next level.

In a division where Villa, Newcastle and Norwich have just spent close to a combined £120million on new players, the challenge from the likes of Brentford often gets overlooked.

But with the backing of owner Matthew Benham and plans for a new stadium at an advanced stage, it is a club very much looking up.

"For Brentford to finish fifth and ninth over the last two years is a great achievement but the way the football club is, they want to keep progressing," says Smith. "We've got a strategy that we believe can help us get to the Premier League.

"We've just played Sheffield Wednesday and Brighton away, then it's Villa away with Preston, Wolves, Wigan, Newcaslte and Derby to come.

"It's (very difficult) every week! But there's no reason why we should fear these games. Respect them but don't fear them."

He went on: "It was a big decision (to leave Walsall) but it was the right one for me at the time. I'm really enjoying it, pitting my wits every week against some big-name managers.

"In the space of two weeks I will be coming up against two European Cup-winning coaches in Rafa Benitez and Roberto.

"We've already played and beat at European Cup winning team in Nottingham Forest last week, so it's a massive season. We're building things at the club."

A positive result on Wednesday would continue Brentford's bright start to the season and pose more questions for Villa and manager Roberto Di Matteo, whose headache might only be matched by that of the visiting manager's brother. For Smith himself, it is all strictly business.

"At the end of the day it's just three points towards our total," he said. "What it will be is big for my family because they're all from round here.

"What you do is wherever you are playing or whoever you are coaching, you realise that is your job and you give it the best for that.

“There’s no sentiment because you want to win for your own reasons. Villa is still one of the first results I look for, obviously Walsall is close too. But there’s no sentiment.”

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