KEVIN GRAY
Part Two
By Phil Tooley
This article was originally in the Wrexham Matchday Programme with Part One having been in the Mansfield edition.
Kevin moved to Huddersfield in the summer of 95, Neil Warnock paid £20,000 for his services, but he was a bit part player in his first season there. "It was disappointing to be in and out in my first season at Huddersfield because you want to play games but Lee Sinnott, now the Port Vale manager and an Irish player called Pat Scully were the regular centre halves. They were doing fantastic so it was another chance for me to learn off them, especially Lee Sinnott who was an experienced player."
Indeed, throughout his career, Kevin has played alongside men who've gone on to manager clubs. Could he pick out the traits in the dressing room? "You can often see that some players have what it takes to do well in management when they finish playing. Ronnie Jepson just had something about him, a bubbly character and very forward, you could see that in him as you could with Lee Sinnott. Obviously I played with our current manager Lee and you could see he had the potential to go on to become a manager."
Kevin's debut for The Terriers was in a 3-3 home draw with Oxford United and they went on to win promotion via the play offs, beating Bristol Rovers in the Wembley final the day after we beat Bury 2-0 there.Andy Booth and Iain Dunn were players there at the time.
At Huddersfield, Gray played under Warnock, Brian Horton, Peter Jackson, Steve Bruce and Lou Macari, managerial merry go round time after the relatively static situation at Mansfield.
"They were all different really," he said, Brian Horton and his assistant Dennis Booth, they were good to work for, they kept things together well but they were all different, they all had their own ways of doing things."
A regular for the next couple of seasons for Huddersfield as they finished 8th and a disappointing 20th. He did score a memorable goal, a last minute winner to see off Oldham Athletic 3-2, "I remember that, it was on Sky TV. Mind you, I can only remember scoring the goal, I can't remember what it was like. I've played some games since then!"
In 1997-98 he scored in a 1-1 draw with QPR and he enjoyed a couple of League Cup games with West Ham United, winning 1-0 in leg one before losing 3-0 at the Boleyn Ground. The Hammers included Lampard, Hartson. Ferdinand, Dowie and Kitson.
Lee Richardson and Wayne Allison came to Huddersfield, who made a dreadful start but their season was kicked off with a 1-0 win at Manchester City's Maine Road, another familiar name, Rob Edwards, scoring that goal to kick off their great escape. "We used around 31 or 32 different players during that season, including Lee and The Chief, and recovered well after a bad start. Rob was one of the best left backs I've ever played with, he was fantastic. Fit and good on the ball, I really enjoyed playing alongside him."
The following season saw a 3-2 aggregate loss in the cup against Everton but a 7-1 loss at Barnsley was the big disappointment. It was 6-0 at half time, Kevin was a sub and was brought on after the embarrassing opening 45. One of the players who came off? Lee Richardson! "We had a very young back four at the time including a lad on loan from Leeds, Mark Jackson (who's playing for Farsley Celtic this season) and a centre half called Sam Collins (On loan at Swindon from Hull) and they'd been doing alright but on that day, Barnsley were just too strong for us so it turned into a horrible night for us."
Into 1999-2000, not so much a regular but he scored goals against Forest (a) W3-1 and Crewe (h) W3-0 and he played in a 2-0 home loss against a Liverpool side that included Gerrard, Hyypia, Staunton, Carragher and Owen. "We had a lad playing up front for us, Clyde Wijnhard, a Dutch lad, and he should have scored a hatful. That should have made things more interesting."
A spell on loan for Stockport County at the start of the following season, "I shouldn't have really gone because I wasn't very well, I'd just got over food poisoning and I went down with them to play at Gillingham and I had to come off. From then on, something happened with the management there apparently and I ended up not going, not a good move really."
On his return to Huddersfield he was In and out of the side, who were relegated.
In the lower division, league one equivalent, he became a regular again as they went on to the play offs, only to lose in the semi against Brentford, "It was bitterly disappointing to lose at that stage but that's how it goes, you just have to get on with things."
The summer saw him move on to Tranmere Rovers, "Dave Watson signed me for Tranmere and then we had a really bad pre-season and lost a couple of games 7-0, Man City was one and he then got the sack and Ray Mathias took over. I didn't play many games for Tranmere but I did score against Huddersfield. I'd picked up one or two little injuries but in truth I didn't play very well when I was there and I just didn't get on there and I moved on when Brian Little came in."
Shane Nicholson was a colleague at Prenton Park.
Into 2003-04 and he played a couple of games for Rovers, his last League game was a 6-0 loss at Plymouth Argyle. He soon moved on to Carlisle United.
Paul Simpson was manager and Dennis Booth, formerly at Huddersfield, his assistant. "Dennis phoned me up and I wasn't playing at Tranmere and I wasn't enjoying it there so I jumped at the chance of going to Carlisle."
"When me and a couple of other lads went to Carlisle in November we were already about 15 points adrift but we went on to pull it back and even went above the bottom side at one stage, we had a fantastic run but we just didn't quite do enough to stay up."
Kevin scored 3 goals against Bury (in two games) and Mansfield, all wins, but he missed the last few games through suspension as United were relegated, along with York, to the Conference.
The Conference play offs came their way after a great season that featured plenty of goals. Aldershot were seen off in the semi's before they met Stevenage Borough at Stoke, "They were great games, particularly the final. Both teams wanted to go up but, at the time, Carlisle were just too strong. The Aldershot games wasn't too close but the final went to penalties, that was quite hair raising. Derek Holmes, who scored for Rotherham against us this season, played for Carlisle that day."
What of the standard in level five, "It was 50-50. There were six or seven good sides and the rest were not so good but you can't criticise the lesser sides too much, Carlisle got beaten by Farnborough who were one of the weaker sides. They beat us at home but we beat them away, we scored seven down there."
Champions of League Two in their first season back ended with Simpson moving to Preston and Neil McDonald taking over. "That was a fantastic season, we were still on a high after going up through the play offs and we had a very good squad of players. We also went through the season with hardly any injuries, so that helped, so we could keep virtually the same team throughout a fantastic season."
Last season was a great one for consolidation with United finishing in the top ten. Kevin was a regular up to February and he scored in his last Carlisle game, a 1-0 win at Rotherham United. "We were pushing in that season but, in truth for the players and the club, it was probably right that we didn't get promoted again. A lot of money would have had to have been spent up there. The people that took over, mainly Fred Storey, completely changed the club, he made it a proper business and it changed everything for the better."
At the time of that final game against Rotherham, he was unaware that he'd not be asked to stay on at Brunton Park: "At that stage I didn't know I wouldn't be offered a new deal. The manager had to make a difficult decision, that's what managers have to do and I just had to get on with it. As a footballer it's sometimes disappointing to have to leave clubs you're at. Thankfully Lee Richardson phoned me up from Chesterfield."
"I knew him, I knew Alan Knill as well having played against him when he was a player and I'd played alongside Wayne Allison and Shane Nicholson. I knew Lee was looking for success and I knew there was a decent set of lads here, so I had no hesitation in signing."
With another birthday about to click over, what hopes does Kevin have for his future in the game? "I'd love to go into coaching and eventually management. That would be a good challenge and hopefully something may come up in that area when I do eventually finish playing."
PHIL TOOLEY
