Former Aberdeen manager Alex Smith will always be grateful to Clyde for helping him fall in love with football again.
The Scottish Cup fourth round draw has pitted two of Smith’s former clubs together as Aberdeen travel to Clyde on Friday.
It was at Clyde where Smith, the last man to lead the Dons to Scottish Cup glory in 1990, made his return to management after leaving Aberdeen.
The Dons boss left Pittodrie feeling disillusioned with the game in February 1992.
Having guided the club to a cup double winning season in 1989-90 before taking the league title race to the final day of the 1990-91 season Smith was dismissed by Aberdeen with the club in mid-table.
Smith took a break from the game for a while but his absence lasted all of six months as he was offered a chance to return to the dugout as manager of Clyde.
The Bully Wee had fallen on hard times but the proposition put to Smith was one which excited him.
He said: “I’ve always said it was a honour to manage Aberdeen but in the final weeks of my time at Pittodrie there was a cloud hanging over me.
“The constant speculation about my future was gathering pace and when I did leave the club it stung.
“One of the reasons why I accepted the Clyde job was that John McBeth, who was the chairman at the time, had given me seven years to take Clyde back to the top league.
“It was a real project I was asked to take on and I felt it was something I could really sink my teeth into.
“Looking back the sour Aberdeen memories faded very quickly and my time at Clyde restored my faith.”
Reviving Clyde appealed to Smith
Working in the part-time game was no issue for Smith. After all, he had built his reputation at that level prior to moving into the full-time game.
Taking a step back to move forward again was a challenge Smith relished.
He said: “It was like going back to my time at Stenhousemuir.
“Mr McBeth was a great club man, and he offered me a big contract to try to take Clyde back to the levels they were at 20 years before in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
“They were in the top four of the old A League, and had brought through the likes of Steve Archibald and several others.
“They had been a big club but had slipped down a couple of leagues.
“I was up for the challenge though. I wanted to prove myself all over again. It was like the Elton John song, ‘I’m still standing.’
“I was determined I’d go and climb the ladder again with Clyde.”
Former Dons boss started from scratch with the Bully Wee
The Bully Wee was a nomadic club when Smith took charge.
Having shared Firhill with Partick Thistle, Clyde were at Douglas Park with Hamilton Accies when Smith took the helm in August 1992.
The former Dons boss was starting from square one but he was eager to get going.
He said: “We won the league championship when I was at Clyde at Douglas Park.
“It was one of the most enjoyable seasons I’d had and it came after a major disappointment at Aberdeen.
“They are a smashing club and the players were great. They were all part-time.
“We had a great season and were able to play almost the same team every week. We won the league at the end of the season to go back up to the First Division.
“I’ve no doubt we would have stayed up in the 1993-94 season too as we were 10th but league reconstruction meant five teams were relegated so we had to start over again in the Second Division.
“John Brownlie was my assistant and we had a smashing time.
“We were playing our home games at Douglas Park as we had no ground or training ground.
“Gradually the following season we started a youth development programme and had young players coming in as that was my trade.
“We were able to bring one or two through into the squad and when we won promotion we were able to bring more in through the day and were able to pay them around £100.”
The day Rangers came to town for the Scottish Cup
Smith’s era in charge was an eventful one with the club winning promotion then suffering relegation.
Off the field they secured a permanent base at Broadwood.
But for Smith, the challenge of building a team was always offset by the need to balance the books.
Thankfully, the Bully Wee claimed some scalps in Smith’s time including a memorable Scottish Cup run in 1996.
Having guided his side to a fine win against Dundee, Smith’s side landed the jackpot of a home tie against Walter Smith’s Rangers side, who at the time were the dominant force in Scottish football.
He recalled: “Seeing the likes of Paul Gascoigne and Brian Laudrup at Broadwood was fantastic for the local community – but it was not as rare as some people think.
“When he signed a big player in the close season Walter Smith would bring them in a couple of weeks before the season started and play a closed door game.
“We’d have an open gate which wasn’t publicised, and that’s where these guys played their first game for Rangers.
“We’d get 7,000 or 8,000 and Rangers would leave us the gate money which was a big boost at the start of the season.
“Then we were drawn against them in the cup and it was massive. It was shown live on Sky and at the time you got a six-figure sum so it was huge for Clyde.
“Ten minutes into the second half it was 0-0 and Charlie Nicholas set-up another former Don Ian Angus to score.
“We were still 1-0 up with 25 minutes to go and it put the light on for Rangers.
“Charlie Miller scored the equaliser then put them in front before Peter van Vossen and Paul Gascoigne scored within a minute to wrap up a 4-1 win for Rangers.”
Boardroom changes hastened Smith’s departure
Reconstruction and the need to secure a permanent home had shifted the focus somewhat at Clyde and the change of chairman in the boardroom soon brought the seven-year plan to an end for Smith.
He was disappointed to leave Clyde but was far from downbeat about his time with the club.
He said: “Clyde was a family-run club with a loyal support. I got on great with them.
“Bill Carmichael took over as chairman and he was a very good friend of mine.
“He pulled me to one side one day and told me he had been out for lunch with Rangers owner David Murray.
“He had told Murray ‘We’re trying to get promotion, but we’re not pushing this year’. David Murray said to him ‘you’ll not win anything with young players.’
“Bill came to me and told me about their conversation and he’d left the lunch with the feeling they needed to move quicker and told me I had to bring in more experienced players.
“I said ‘David Murray, he doesn’t know anything about football. He’ll talk to you about buying and selling players but he doesn’t know about football. We’re building a team here.’
“The chairman was insistent on wanting to bring in more experience and I wasn’t willing to dismantle what we had.
“I told him I was putting my jacket on and he could get someone else.
“I wasn’t going to have guys who had enjoyed their best moments at other clubs coming here and not listening to the manager so I walked away.
“After I left we sold another couple of young promising players and went back to our old ways.”
Clyde’s fight for survival bigger than a Scottish Cup meeting with the Dons
Smith’s tenure at Clyde ended 28 years ago but he still retains a fondness for the club.
With the Bully Wee again having fallen on hard times at the foot of League Two it has fallen to Ian McCall to lead their recovery.
McCall, whose side will host Aberdeen in the Scottish Cup on Friday, has a big job on his hands in trying to keep the club in the SPFL but Smith insists his old club is in good hands.
He said: “Ian is the same as me. He’s gone from managing big clubs within the game and he’s taken on the challenge at Clyde to build them again.
“I expect he’ll be similar to me in how he goes about it. He’ll be methodical and stage to stage will build the team properly.”
With the match live on television and another bumper payday looming for Clyde, who are again sharing with Hamilton Accies, this time at New Douglas Park, Smith would be surprised to see the Dons slip at the first hurdle for the second year in a row.
He said: “You would expect Aberdeen to win this one. Clyde’s focus is on staying in League Two and the manager has his work cut out there.
“This game, and the financial windfall it will bring, is a bonus.
“They’ll be organised and hard to beat but I imagine Ian is more interested in knowing whether he will be able to use the money generated to strengthen his squad this month.”
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