Sunderland legend Kevin Ball reflects on clash with Peter Reid that ended up a 'fantastic piece of management'
The Sunderland icon has given insight into an infamous moment between him and his former manager.
Sunderland legend Kevin Ball has reflected on a clash between him and former manager Peter Reid. The Black Cats were up against Grimsby and despite winning the fixture, tensions boiled behind the scenes.
Speaking on the Undr The Cosh podcast, Ball told the story of his butting of heads with his old gaffer. The ex-midfielder described the game as one they won but didn’t play as well as they could have and the manager ‘had to pick on somebody’ at half-time in order to get a reaction.
“My job was to mark Paul Groves,” Ball started. “So in this particular game, me and Brace [Paul Bracewell] were in the middle of the park, and Paul Groves kept going on to Brace, so we had to keep switching, so it became frustrating. In the end, the manager is shouting at me, I'm looking at the bench thinking ‘wish he would shut up’. I just want to get on with the game. I understood why, but you can imagine your heckles are getting up a bit.”
After scoring what he has described as ‘one of the best goals of his career’, Ball asked the physio at half-time to give some attention to his calves, which often seized up and caused him pain due to lateral compartment syndrome.
“We hadn't played particularly well that half and the gaffer knew he needed to get a reaction. And he went, ‘sit down there’. And then he said the James Hunt word to me, right? But he turned his back. Now, if he would’ve look me in the eyes and said that, I would not have had a problem with that, but because he turned his back on me as he said ‘you ****’, that was it. I went mad. I was raging. In the end, we’ve have had a row but don’t get me wrong, I know my place. I’ve never not known my place.
“I couldn’t wait to get back out for the second half, only reason being to get that half out the way so I could come in and have a fight with him. So second half, I am raging the whole 45 minutes and the funny thing was, I made two goals for Michael Bridges so we won the game comfortably but we didn’t play well. He [Reid] was right, we did not play well but we won the game. I couldn’t wait to get down the tunnel, couldn’t wait to get to the change room. Because, like I said, I had no problem with authority at all, but it was just because he said it with his back to me.
“I walked down and as I got round the bend, thinking ‘where is he’, he’s stood there. And I'll never forget it. He put his hand out and he went ‘magnificent skip today, you were outstanding’.
“I personally think it was a fantastic piece of management, because he knew he needed a reaction from possibly me at half-time, and he got it, there's no two ways about it, he got it. I went ‘how did you know I was coming?’ and he said ‘I heard your f***ing studs coming.’
“He 100 percent knew what he was doing, but obviously he probably didn't quite think he was going to get the reaction as far as I did. But yeah, oh God, he knew what he was doing, and that's where I think the art of man management is knowing how to press your buttons. And he probably pressed five that day on me.”
Ball laughed off the situation and lauded Reid as an ‘outstanding manager’ who was ‘magnificent’ for him and the rest of the team back then. He won two First Division titles with Sunderland and was named the LMA Manager of the Year in 1996.