Thursday, 28th August 2008

News Archive

- Rex Page – Burton Mail

23rd November 1990
Ken Blair, the man who helped to plot Burton Albion’s FA Trophy crusade, is back on the Wembley trail.

The former Brewers’ boss has been drafted in to run the rule over Gresley Rovers’ FA Vase opponents tomorrow, Racing Club Warwick (3pm).

It’s the role Blair fulfilled as Brian Fidler’s assistant in their 1986/87 Wembley campaign – and he’s hoping the end product is the same.

The scenes-of-crime officer fell out of love with football after his managerial departure from Albion in January and has twice turned down the assistant manager’s job at Shepshed.

“I was devastated by the Burton business and it’s taken me a long time to get over it,” said Blair last night.

“But Gresley have helped me to get my enthusiasm back and, although it’s only a small part it’s nice to be involved.”

Blair believes that Rovers should be able to profit from the re-instatement to the competition in the wake of the Mile Oak illegal players affair.

He said: “Warwick actually are quite confident because they’ve beaten three other Banks’s League clubs in various competitions this season, but I didn’t see anything that Gresley should be fearful of.

“Assessing teams in one-off situations is not easy and sometimes I wonder whether there’s much merit in it. At the same time it’s worth knowing in advance whether your opponents do anything special at set-piece situations, so I hope the information I passed on to Frank Northwood proves of use to him and his players.”

New signing Robbie Grant drops out of the Gresley squad because he was signed after the seven-day deadline.

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