Still fighting the odds

WHATEVER path life leads down, with it 's highs and lows, often you find yourself fighting the same battles - just the situations change.

For former Blackburn Rovers long-serving centre back Derek Fazackerley he is finding that the challenges facing him today are not too dissimilar to those that presented themselves when he started out 32 years.

The Preston-born 49-year-old is currently coaching at first division Barnsley, under manager Nigel Spackman, where the resources aren't great but the pressure to achieve is huge -- reminiscent of the challenge facing him as he joined Rovers in July 1969.

"In some ways it does reflect how things were when I was playing at Blackburn, the budget is limited but we are determined to be very competitive," said Fazackerley.

"Barnsley have tasted the Premiership and they want to get back there, the fans will not remain patient for too long having been to the top flight and they feel they should be there again."

The promotion of Rovers, for whom Fazackerley made a record 674 league and cup appearances in 17 seasons at Ewood, will help his current club's cause he feels and he is eager to join them in the top flight.

"It is perhaps a more level playing field this year with two of the money clubs, Fulham and Blackburn, gone but there are still other big clubs who can spend while we have to try and develop our young players and search for a couple of Bosman signings.

"It is to the credit of the directors that they have spent on developing an academy that is the equal of many Premiership clubs and built a ground -- and all that without the help of the millions that Jack Walker brought to Ewood."

Fazackerley's and Walker's paths were not to cross as colleagues at Blackburn, the defender even joked that had that been the case it might have been a short partnership. "I had left Rovers just before Jack came into the club. Had it been the case that he had arrived earlier I might have exited more quickly as he could have probably bought a younger man -- but we'll never know."

Fazackerley's relationship with Rovers began when he was taken on as an apprentice and his rapid acceptance at the club prompted him to shun other offers.

"Bury, Blackpool and Stoke were among the others interested, but I never even really had a trial with Rovers, they put me in the B team and I obviously did enough," he explained.

However, he was not the first to find out that he had done "enough" as his parents shielded him from the news until his schoolwork was out of the way.

"My parents were concerned that my football might detract from my work for my exams, so I went and played another three games before it was revealed to me that I would be taken on as an apprentice," he added.

"I didn't make any conscious decision that I was going to stay at Blackburn because all I wanted to be was a professional footballer and I had been offered the first step on the ladder.

"But, despite an injury that hampered me for 12 months, my progress through the reserve teams was achieved rapidly and that ensured that what was happening at Blackburn Rovers always kept me interested."

A third division title and promotions, and relegations, followed in his long Rovers career but it was the spirit and shear resilience of his fellow players and the managers who guided him that Fazackerley felt marked out why his time at Rovers had been special. "While I was playing football was in a bit of a recession that lasted until the increased television interest and we were battling away in front of 12,000 or so," he said.

"But we were always either chasing promotion or having the odd scrape and essentially it was a happy club that was a pleasure to work for.

"The measure of what we achieved was perhaps the managers we had because people like Jim Smith, Bobby Saxton, Howard Kendall and Gordon Lee all went on to better things after getting their grounding at Ewood."

While Fazackerley's trail was not to lead to a managerial position at a similar level, what he learned under their tutelage armed him to become a coach of a calibre that two years ago he became a member of the England staff -- courtesy of a call from Kevin Keegan.

"Mine and my family's proudest moment," he purrs.

"I'd be the first to admit that when Kevin I arrived the situation was difficult, as it was when we left, but I wouldn't trade that experience for anything.

"It is on my CV and I can say I've done that!"

To pursue his coaching career Fazackerley ended his association with Rovers to become assistant manager at Chester City. There followed spells at Bury and York and a job with Finnish side Kumu before old Rovers colleagues Smith and Saxton lured him to Newcastle United as player-coach in 1990.

"They were all good experiences, particularly in Finland where you had to be precise in how you went about the job due to the obvious difficulty with the language," he elucidated. "All that led to coaching at Newcastle but when Kevin came I thought I would "Instead he kept me on and it was like working for the Pied Piper as he led the club and the fans to the Promised Land."

The Magpies just failed to take a Premiership title but when Keegan, who had taken in a spell at Fulham along the way, became national coach 'Faz' was handed the chance of a lifetime.

The Eng;and asscociation was to end in heartbreak at Wembley as Keegan bowed out following the 1-0 World Cup qualifying defeat at the hands of Germany but Fazackerley feels their input has helped those who have followed them.

And while he will not cast any criticism on Keegan's successor, Sven Goran Eriksson, there is no hiding the fact that the Fazackerley feels that good fortune has smiled on the Swede.

"I am not surprised that he has done well because the young players were coming through already," he opined.

"Kevin had picked Steven Gerard six times but he only played for us once due to injury, now he is probably the side's biggest asset.

"And then there were the likes of Ashley Cole who we looked at, but was in Arsenal's reserves at the time and not really available as such.

"There was also the process to go through of certain senior players bring a close to their careers like Alan Shearer and Tony Adams.

"You could see the potential of the England squad 12 to 18 months ago though, but you have to say that Eriksson has come in and taken a firm grip on the job and he has done ever so well."

But for Fazackerley the mission now is to ensure that in a year's time he can make a trip to Ewood, though arriving in unfamiliar fashion on the Tykes team bus.