Blood and glory with Rotherham United - life and times of Guy Branston

For former Rotherham United defender Guy Branston, the title of a now defunct Hull City fanzine perfectly sums up his momentous experiences in the 1999-2000 season.

It was a campaign which ended in an end-of-season party on a Greek island with the lion-hearted young defender famously scoring the winning goal 20 years ago today in the Millers’ 2-1 victory at Hartlepool United – which secured promotion back to the third tier.

The image of him hailing the strike with a clenched-fist celebration is an iconic one in Millers folklore.

More infamous is the memory of when he almost severed an artery in his arm while punching a hole through the referee’s door in a fit of temper after his sending-off at Hull’s Boothferry Park that November.

Branston, who joined initially on loan from home-town club Leicester in October, 1999 before the deal was made permanent for ‘about thirty bags of peanuts and twenty bags of tomatoes’ in his words, said: “I got stamped off the ball and I reacted, which I shouldn’t have as I was a hot-head and I got sent off.

“I just punched the door and didn’t think it was the ref’s or anything and pulled my arm out, punched it again and walked off and then sat down and felt a bit dizzy. But I was fuming.

“Then I looked at my arm and it was spraying blood everywhere and I was thinking: ‘f***ing hell.’

“I looked down the tunnel and big Colin Alcide looked at me and his legs were gone. He has wobbled looking at all the blood on the floor and my arm. I walked to him and he literally fell to the floor and fainted.

“I’d played with Colin at Lincoln. He said: ‘What have you done to your arm’ and then fell to the floor. I got rushed to hospital and they thought I’d done an artery.

“Luckily, I hadn’t – but I was centimetres away from doing an artery. I had 70 stitches.”

Far more pleasurable – and certainly less painful – are memories of his winner in the north-east, complete with his trademark ‘Stomp’ celebration followed by a clenched fist.

“I wish I could find some footage on it. I have not been able to find it anywhere,” Branston, now a loans manager at Leicester City, commented.

“I used to do ‘The Stomp’ and the lads loved it. Darren Garner said to me: ‘Listen, you are just bouncing around this dressing room like you own the place.’ I am confident anyway and was ‘Happy as Larry’ most days.

“If they kept me calm, I could concentrate. If they didn’t, I’d lose my head.

“I remember the picture of me scoring at the time and I think I nearly gave a penalty away in the last minute against the big striker they had on. We just went nuts after on the pitch and in the little mobile changing rooms. I think we went on a three-day bender after that.

“We went to Faliraki and had three days in our tracksuits. They were big thick black Bodyline tracksuits with underliner on.

“Ronnie Moore said: ‘Listen, none of us are going out in our normal clothes on the first night – we go out as Rotherham United.’

“Everyone thought we were a stag-do. It was carnage and Will Varty did a whole bottle of Sambuca and just fell over.”

A huge character on and off the pitch, Branston fitted right into a dressing room of winners and strong-willed footballers who possessed character and fight in abundance with the talent to match.

Branston is the first to admit that he was difficult to handle in those early days.

But he quickly emerged as a centre-half of note in a team who thought the world of each other.

He and his team-mates went onto secure back-to-back promotions as the Millers, under the legendary command of Moore and John Breckin, rewound the clock to the club’s halcyon days of the early Eighties when they were both players.

Branston said: “They were fantastic and when you are in the mix of it, you don’t appreciate it.

“Ronnie taught me a lot and I loved how he used to handle me and worked with me.

“I was a hot-head and I would tell him straight and that was how I was brought up.

“I had a strong step-dad who told me to be tough and not get pushed around by anybody.

“Ronnie used to sit me down and start laughing all the time and say: ‘what did you lose your head for, you need to calm down, you’re a time bomb!’ I’d just be laughing with him.

“Then a few years later, I would be coming in telling him I was upset. He’d say: ‘Upset?, you are getting well paid and earning a fortune, you are playing in the Championship’.

“We used to nearly end up fighting when we used to go out drinking as I’d be upset for not playing in the Championship. He’d just say: ‘Come here, Branno – let’s have a drink.’

“He dealt with me so well and Breck was a great foil for everybody and ambassador for Rotherham United and a real nice guy.

“As a team, we could also play and had loads about us – we had players such as Kevin Watson and Darren Garner.

“You talk about modern recruitment, but you look at the players we went on to bring in.

“We got the Alan Lees of this world and the John Mullin and Martin Butler. We recruited really well and Ronnie, Browny (chief scout Graham Brown) and Breck were everywhere looking at games and dealing with good types and good people.”

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