Steve Cotterill: 'Football does strange things but Bristol City double will never be taken away'

"Honestly, if you could just feel that moment with everyone, when you can smile, when you can really enjoy it, when you get the adulation from your supporters, it's just something special and it humbles you massively."

10 years ago today, Bristol City, led by Steve Cotterill, enjoyed their most recent trip to Wembley as they beat Walsall to win the Football League Trophy for a record third time.

While that afternoon was one of many memorable days in a historic double-winning season on the Red side of Bristol, it was the product of over a year of hard work behind the scenes at Ashton Gate. But for Cotterill, who took charge of his 1000th game at Forest Green Rovers last weekend, it was little more than a challenge set by his owner.

"I spoke to Steve Lansdown and the season before, they'd ended up playing in it and they got out of the competition," the former City boss told Bristol Live. "They didn't want to be in the competition and that's everybody's choice by the way.

"So I spoke to him and he said, 'I wouldn't mind having a trip to Wembley,' so I said 'Okay, we'll have a little go at it then'. We had a go at that, we had a go at the FA Cup and we had a go at the league. I had a couple of good replacements in different areas and a couple of flexible players so I knew we could put in a good shift that season really."

That summer, Cotterill's first in charge of the Robins, saw the City boss put his own stamp on the playing squad. The previous season's top scorer Sam Baldock was sold to Brighton while Kieran Agard, Mark Little, Wade Elliott, Korey Smith, Luke Freeman and Aaron Wilbraham all arrived in BS3.

Wilbraham had been released by Crystal Palace that summer and among supporters, the Reds' decision to sign a 34-year-old forward, who had only played 160 minutes of football the season before, raised eyebrows. For his new manager though, it was a simple call having seen first-hand just what condition the striker was in while away on holiday over the off-season.

"I'd already seen the logbook in Dubai so I knew how many times he was in the gym," Cotterill explained. "I bumped into him on holiday. Every day I would go into the gym and I would just sort of sit in the corner on a bike or a machine and I could see, because of all the mirrors around in the gym, where he was and how quick he was running on that treadmill.

"I had a good look at him. He must've been there a couple of weeks and we were as well so I thought, what I'll do is I'll have a little chat with him before he goes back. I knew he had Coventry City to go to when he came back and I think there was one other club. Before I got to Bristol City, it was a really bloated club and I needed to get the average age of the squad down. But there were a couple of people like Aaron Wilbraham and Wade Elliott who I wanted to - not police the dressing room because it wasn't that bad - but if I use the words police the dressing room, you'll know what I mean by that. They were fantastic professionals the pair of them and I knew if I got those two in, it would just knit it all together.

"We added the other guys and there was the emergence of some of the younger players who bed in with Aden Flint, Derrick Williams, Joe Bryan, Marlon Pack, Scott Wagstaff and the likes of Gregg Cunningham. I think the recruitment was good that year, but I wouldn't say we went out and got the best players in that division. The chemistry was right with all of it."

Having taken City from the foot of League One to a 12th-placed finish in his first season in charge in south Bristol, Cotterill was keen to kick on again at Ashton Gate, particularly after a smart summer of recruitment. Standards within football clubs are typically set during pre-season and that was no different in the West Country.

What was different, however, was the destination picked for the Reds' preparations. Rather than a warm weather trip to Europe or a few weeks across the Atlantic in America, City headed to Botswana on the suggestion of Steve Lansdown. Two weeks in Africa left the Robins with one casualty and a few battle scars but also a team of players willing to go to war alongside one another.

"Funnily enough, it wasn't my idea," Cotterill replied when asked about the pre-season trip. "Steve Lansdown wanted to take the squad there the year before and for whatever reason they didn't go. I said to him, 'How does that look and what will we do?' He explained it and I said, 'Well let's do it.' We did it and it was fantastic.

"We had England's training base for the first nine days, then we had five days in Botswana and we had a game in Botswana as well. It was a completely different environment, but it was absolutely first-class.

"All I felt in that period of time was how well they were getting on with each other," he continued. "You can normally sense that. Sometimes, when you're together for that period of time, and don't forget, in that period they would have been really tired and irritable because pre-season is hard, and sometimes that tiredness and irritability means anything can snap. But there wasn't that at all. They grew closer and closer every day.

"We had a game against Botswana and that was one really tough, aggresive game. Karleigh Osborne who was doing so well and probably would have started that year, he ended up with a tackle and my god, it was a horrific challenge. It split open his shin nearly the length of the bottom half of his leg. You could see the bone. I mean, it was terrible. A really bad tackle. That got the juices following in our lads because they were bang up for a fight then really and we probably had one a little bit on the pitch. That would have brought them closer together and whilst it was a bad moment and a bad moment for Karleigh, it was probably quite definitive as well."

The pre-season trip clearly had the desired effect as the Robins navigated their first 11 games of the League One campaign without slipping to a single defeat to climb to the top of the table. Then, a slightly rotated side comfortably beat Cheltenham Town at Whaddon Road to book their place in the Johnstone's Paint Trophy round of 16.

That was the start of an impressive cup run for Cotterill's side. Wimbledon were the next team knocked out as a Wilbraham brace secured a 2-1 win in BS3 and the veteran forward scored again as the Reds got the better of Coventry City in the quarter-finals to set up a two-legged semi-final against Gillingham.

But before City could even begin to think about a potential trip to Wembley, they encountered a surprise bump in the road as both Wilbraham and Kieran Agard were sidelined by injury. Fortunately, the decision had been taken to bring Fulham forward Matt Smith to Ashton Gate on a loan. The forward had impressed with a couple of goals over the festive period but truly arrived in the Reds' 4-2 first-leg win over the Gills, scoring all four goals to ensure Cotterill's side had one foot in March's final.

"Unbelievable," Cotterill simply said when asked about the striker. "Matt Smith was just an incredible guy. An absolutely incredible guy. I love Smudge. I wouldn't say I've kept in contact with him every week, but I have kept in contact with Smudge.

"He went to school in Cheltenham so I had a bit of an affinity with where he grew up, but he was absolutely brilliant. He and Jay Emmanual-Thomas, they did really carry the baton because we lost Aaron and we lost Kieran for a good period of time through injury. While everyone talks about Aaron's goals that season, without Matt, that season wouldn't have been so memorable.

"The goals he scored at Gillingham that night, my god. You'll really struggle to see not just the goals, but the quality of all of them. They were absolutely outstanding. Outstanding."

Yet another Smith goal secured a 1-1 draw for the Robins in the return leg at Ashton Gate a matter of weeks later. With a 5-3 win on aggregate, City booked their place in the final where they would meet Dean Smith's Walsall side, who they had already drawn 1-1 with earlier that season in the league.

Away from the Johnstone's Paint Trophy, Cotterill's side were sitting pretty at the top of League One. After back-to-back defeats at the hands of Sheffield United and Colchester United at the start of February, the Reds put together a six-match unbeaten run in the lead-up to their trip to the capital. Following that impressive string of results, and in a bid to perhaps maintain that unity that had been born in Botswana and developed over the course of the season, Cotterill, his squad, his coaching staff and every single person who played a part in the team's success travelled to London for a pre-final camp.

"We had four days in the build-up," the former City boss explained. "We went down, trained at Fulham and went down to the Chelsea Harbour Hotel which was first class.

"I wanted everyone to go so we had Jenny there who used to serve us out of the canteen and do our food for us every day. I loved her. Every morning, she'd give you a hug and she probably used to get 30 hugs every day because every time a player would come in, she would get a big hug because they loved her. She was there with the chef and everyone came with us. All the physios and a reflexology lady as well. She came along and had some fun.

"When we went off to training, they went down King's Road and did a little bit of shopping all together so that was brilliant really. It was a really tight-knit family. The build-up was fantastic and you're always appreciative of your club when you get to spend longer in your preparation time rather than driving down the day before and having your legs left on the coach a little bit. It means you can prepare properly for a game."

Smith, who had at this point returned to Craven Cottage following the expiry of his short-term loan spell, also linked up with his former teammates in the capital. While the forward wasn't able to take part in training sessions or don the red and white strip on the Wembley turf on that March afternoon, his former boss wanted to make sure he was rewarded for the part he played in the journey.

"The worst part of the final was that Matt Smith couldn't play in it," Cotterill confessed. "That was so, so gut-wrenching for him. He'd been back at Fulham and we ended up bringing him with us that day.

"He was with the team, travelled down, met us in the hotel and stayed overnight. He came to the game the following day and got suited and booted with everyone else so it was a sickener."

The City squad went to see the stadium the day before the match. For some, like Mark Little who had featured for Peterborough in the final the year before, or Wade Elliott, who had played at Wembley in his time at Burnley, stepping foot inside the national stadium was nothing new. For many others, preparing to take to pitch in front of 70,000-plus was nothing like anything they'd ever experienced as League One players.

For a generation of supporters as well, this was an exciting step into the unknown. The Robins had played just once previously at the new Wembley when Dean Windass shattered their Premier League dream in the Championship play-off final. It would be wrong to argue that the Johnstone's Paint Trophy was anywhere near as significant as that game seven years previous but still, 42,000 supporters made the journey to the capital from the West Country to get behind Cotterill's men.

As the Reds made their way out of the tunnel onto the turf, they were greeted by a sea of red and white that occupied half of the stadium. City had spent the season so far playing in front of a South Stand-less Ashton Gate and while Cotterill was blown away by the turnout, it left him with just one thing on his mind.

"It was incredible really. When you see that, you've just got to make sure that day, you don't get beat," the 60-year-old insisted. "At Wembley, it's always a nervous one whenever you go there. It's very difficult to treat it like a normal game because you don't play at Wembley every week.

"At the time, it was never comfortable because of the emotions involved in the game. We had incredible support that day and I'm thinking: 'Don't lose this game here'. You don't want to lose there.

"Before the game, I think it adds a little bit of pressure," he continued. "In the game, it can go two ways. If you don't start well, it can go against you, but if you start well and you know you've got 40,000 plus cheering you on, it will make the game more difficult for the opposition."

As was the case repeatedly that season, the Robins started on the front foot. Luke Freeman came close to opening scoring early on when he curled a right-footed effort just over Richard O'Donnell's bar moments before Korey Smith saw a long-range effort blocked behind for a corner.

Frank Fielding had to be alive to hold a long-range effort from Anthony Forde but for the most part, the Reds were in control. Both Little and Joe Bryan caused problems from the wing-back positions and while Walsall defended their box well, the Robins were knocking on the door.

With just 15 minutes on the clock, Marlon Pack swung a right-footed corner onto the head of Aden Flint. The defender, who ended that season with 15 goals in all competitions, rose highest and nodded into the back of the net to send the 40,000 City fans at the other end of the ground into delirium. His manager, on the other hand, remained focused on the task at hand.

"We had a lot of what I would call big players that year," Cotterill recalled. "I don't mean in stature but obviously, Flinty was also the biggest in stature. You have to be brave to go and score a goal from a corner. If you're not brave, you're not going to score many. Flinty was good in both boxes to be fair to him and he had an incredible season so when it was him who broke the deadlock, I wasn't surprised.

"Goals not only change games, they change mindsets," he continued. "If you're a team that hasn't been winning and you score a goal, all of a sudden you can end up on the back foot a little bit because you're thinking: 'That's it, we don't want to lose now.' That's not the mindset that you need to have.

"I always say to the players, what gets you in front, keeps you in front so don't change anything. Don't all of a sudden, go into defensive mode. That's easy to say, but very difficult for them to execute when you're in those pressure moments, where the opposition may well come on strong again."

Although they couldn't find a leveller before the break, Smith's side did respond positively. The Robins still posed a threat whenever they ventured forward but Walsall had the next best chance of the first half when Andy Taylor smashed a volleyed effort just wide of Fielding's post.

Just a matter of minutes after the restart, City's lead was doubled. Freeman found the head of Little and while O'Donnell did well to save the right-back's initial effort, he bundled in at the second time of asking before racing towards the substitutes to celebrate in front of the Reds support. Throughout the campaign, the combination of Little and academy graduate Bryan at wing-back had proved fruitful and it had again delivered, this time on the biggest stage. While a party atmosphere began among the City fans stretched across Wembley's three tiers, Cotterill still couldn't relax.

"I would say I stayed focused. I don't ever switch off until I know, or feel, that the game is done," he said. "You're only a goal away from being on the edge of your seat then so I don't think I would ever be relaxed until I could feel, in the game, that we've perhaps broken their spirit and they're not going to come back."

It would be wrong to suggest the remainder of the second half was plain sailing but given the Reds' exploits already that season, it never felt as if they were in genuine danger. Jordan Cook rattled the post with a cross-come-shot and Wilbraham saw a third ruled out for an offside. In the end though, Flint and Little's goals were enough to secure the win for the Robins and a record third Football League Trophy title.

Celebrations began on the pitch with Little, Freeman, Derrick Williams and Luke Ayling donning red wigs in front of the City fans before heading up the famous Wembley steps to lift the trophy. Although this was just title one of two targeted at the start of the campaign, Cotterill wanted his players to cherish the moments ahead.

"Our goal from the outset was to try and win the league, the JPT was a bonus," the ex-City boss admitted. "We were just getting back very quickly to refocusing so there wouldn't have been time for too much celebration.

"I just said to the boys, when you win those games, the best moments are the 30 to 40 minutes after the game. I said to them after we'd won, milk that for all it's worth. Unless you've been involved in those 30 or 40 minutes of going up the steps at Wembley, winning a trophy and celebrating with your supporters, it's an incredible feeling. I've been incredibly lucky I've had that five times and in some incredible arenas. Honestly, if you could just feel that moment with everyone when you can smile, you can really enjoy it, the adulation that you get from your supporters, it's just something special and it humbles you massively."

Led by Wilbraham and Elliott, the Reds made their way up the 107 steps to receive their medals and lift the trophy. It seemed as though every single City fan had remained in their seats as the squad walked back down to the pitch to celebrate with their latest piece of silverware once more.

In most seasons, it wouldn't have got much better than that, but the Robins weren't done there. Cotterill's side went unbeaten in their final eight League One matches to win their first league title since 1955, capping off the campaign with an 8-2 win over Walsall on the final day.

It may be more than nine years since the 60-year-old last stood in the Ashton Gate dugout, but the memories of that Sunday afternoon at Wembley and the double-winning campaign as a whole still hold a special place in the former City boss' heart.

"I very rarely walk around Bristol and get a coffee without someone saying something extremely nice to me," Cotterill said. "It was an unbelievable time. An unbelievable time, that could have got better."

Only 256 days after lifting the League One title, and less than a year after winning the Johnstone's Paint Trophy, the then 51-year-old was sacked with the Reds sitting 22nd in the Championship and two points from safety. Cotterill, understandably so, feels he should have been the man to take that group of players, with which he enjoyed such success, forward.

Despite the circumstances of his exit, the former City boss clearly remains incredibly proud of what that squad have since gone on to achieve. The likes of Bryan, Bobby Reid and Ayling have spent time in the Premier League while many others have carved out impressive Championship careers.

"I love it. I look out for them all the time," the 60-year-old said. "They were very young, inexperienced men when I knew them but when I see them now, they're grown men, they have children and I still get messages from them now.

"It's incredible really, football does strange things to you and while I would have loved to build on top of that group, that [the achievements of that season] will never be taken away and none of the Bristol City fans ever let that get taken away from me."