Stephen Hunt: Brentford put me on the map | OneFootball

Without a clear path to the first team at Crystal Palace, Stephen Hunt’s sliding doors moment came in the summer of 2001.

First came the chance to return home to Ireland after Cork City tabled an offer. Then came a phone call from Brentford manager Steve Coppell, whom he had worked with - and made his professional debut under - at Selhurst Park.

“He said he’d give me rubbish wages for a year and did I want to come back over? Literally, he put it like that!” Hunt explains. “Knowing the type of character I am, he knew I would come and try and make a career of it.

“Our relationship is one that will go to the grave with me. He's my football dad - I've always said it - in terms of how he believed in me. I wouldn't have the career I had without him. I had the belief in myself to go on and deal with it after he gave me the confidence. He’s someone I'll always look up to and admire.

“That was a good summer, because I had the reality of being a professional footballer to then being rejected, having only played four times in the first team, to a manager that found me and believed in me. That got me on a flight back over to England to play football.”

Fresh out of his teenage years, Hunt established himself in Coppell’s starting XI from November 2001 onwards and played 35 times, with all bar one appearance coming from the start.

With a promotion push on, it was the perfect learning environment for the Irishman.

“When you look at it now, we had quite a lot of players on form. Real strong characters, real strong mentality and they helped the ones around them to perform, including myself,” he says.

“Paul Gibbs would have been left wing when I was playing. I was probably more talented, but he showed me how to work hard and helped me massively. It was really educational, really beneficial for me.

“I’m not surprised how well we did, but we probably should have got promoted.”

Similarly to the 2012/13 season, the Bees’ chances of automatic promotion were alive going into the final day of 2001/02.

Martin Rowlands’ early strike had put them in front against Alan Pardew’s Reading, but Jamie Cureton’s close-range finish after 77 minutes in front of the Ealing Road terrace at Griffin Park - which then housed away fans - secured the point the Royals needed to finish second at Brentford’s expense.

They overcame Huddersfield in the semi-finals but then lost 2-0 to Stoke at the Millenium Stadium.

“I was so raw at the time, the Reading result was not that hard to stomach, because I always believed in the play-offs,” Hunt recalls.

“It was difficult, but at the same time, we didn't do it on the day. You can go to the play-off final and say the same thing again.

“I remember getting a mad haircut for that one; one of those haircuts you get and you think, ‘What the hell was I doing?!’

“That is a blur. I had no fear going into the game, I was just happy to be a footballer. I know that sounds bad, but I was happy to be on the journey with Brentford. I just thought the rest of my career would be with Brentford, in a naive sort of way.

“I would have loved to have got promoted with Brentford because we deserved it, especially the boys like Lloyd Owusu and Paul Evans, who went on to Division One. That probably played a part in it; they all knew that they had a situation down the line.

“That wasn't the reason we lost, but they knew that they were going to Division One anyway and that probably did have a bit of an effect on us. Maybe we weren't ready to go up anyway.”

The financial situation was dire, and so the defeat had severe implications. Coppell resigned; Owusu, Ívar Ingimarsson and Paul Evans were released; Gavin Mahon and Gibbs had already left two months earlier; Darren Powell was sold to Crystal Palace in August 2002.

Hunt admits he was “so naive that the money situation wouldn't have been that relevant to me”, but he stepped up under Wally Downes, scoring nine goals in all competitions as they finished 16th in Division Two. He netted a career-best 12 the next year.

“When the lads left, it was natural to be that way,” he says. “That’s what made my career, if I’m honest; my mindfulness to be determined to win, to be effective and do what the manager wanted. It was to my strength, most of the time.

“Wally was cut from Steve’s cloth. He was bonkers, but he understood me and how I worked, so that transition was natural enough.

“I remember scoring some very good goals and really enjoying my football, playing freely. I scored some worldies that year. Videos of them are very hard to find, may I add!”

Downes lasted less than two seasons at the helm and when he was sacked on 14 March 2004, Brentford were second bottom and on a run of seven defeats in nine games.

In came Martin Allen, who performed ‘The Great Escape’. Five wins, three draws and a defeat in the final nine was enough to see the Bees survive relegation by a three-point margin.

“He knew he needed to make an impact, and he had that impact. It was us against the world; if you want to believe in it, do it," he says.

“He got a positive kick out of the team. I'll be honest, there was a real sense of relief, more than anything else. I never felt we should have been in that position in the first place.”

However, Allen’s arrival signalled the beginning of the end of Hunt’s time at Brentford, and he explains why in a frank manner.

“Before he came in, I was injured and struggling to get fit. If you do your hamstring or your knee, you can tell, but it was my groin and nobody could put a finger on it. I was telling him it was not right, I couldn’t move properly.

“I had six or seven months of going to the gym, going to the swimming pool in the evening by myself, trying to get myself right. When I went to see Dr Jerry Gilmore, I exaggerated the pain. I was in no pain with it - that was the problem, it was only when I moved - but I pretended I had pain so he operated on me.

“It was my last resort and, lo and behold, he cured me. As soon as he operated on me, I could tell that achey, dull pain had gone. It didn’t save my Brentford career, but it saved my career. I had no choice; I couldn't go out of contract being injured.

“Martin didn't get a chance to understand how good I could have been for him. It wasn't his style of play that would have put me off, I would have been fine with it. He would have loved me, actually, but he'll never know the real Stephen Hunt, and that's a shame.”

Brentford reached the League One play-offs in 2004/05, but the aforementioned injury and subsequent surgery meant that the 2-1 win away at Stockport on 2 April 2005 turned out to be Hunt’s final game for the club. “No question I would have been in a good place to have an impact in the play-offs,” he adds.

After the semi-final defeat to Sheffield Wednesday, a squad update from Allen was posted on the club’s official website, detailing the players under contract for the next campaign and those on their way out.

“Stephen Hunt has been invited back to pre-season training should he not find a club to prove his fitness,” it said.

The Irishman did not return, though.

“I think the trust had broken down and was well gone,” he admits. “I had a lot of built-up anger inside that he didn't believe I wasn't fit, so it was never going to work.

“I understood Martin's situation because I wasn't playing as well as I could have and it's as simple as that, really.

“Before my transfer to Reading, I ended up on a medical table at Bradford, who had offered me a three-year deal. Then I got a phone call from Steve Coppell saying he’d give me a one-year deal at Reading on the same money as a three-year deal at Bradford.

“I was always brave enough and had enough trust in Steve to do the one-year deal at Reading because there was an opportunity in the Championship. He knew me, he knew I loved football and wanted to play at the highest level.

“I never doubted myself, it was just my fitness that had put question marks into my head, into Martin Allen’s head, into Brentford's head.”

It proved to be the right call as he became part of the Royals squad that, to this day, holds the record for the most points in a Championship season (106), since the rebrand in 2004/05 - not to mention later playing over 140 times in the Premier League and earning 39 caps for the Republic of Ireland.

“I never look back on my career for one minute with any regrets,” he adds.

Hunt knows the value of his time at Brentford and was reminded of it when he visited Gtech Community Stadium: “Leaving Brentford was really weird because it had been so tough for the 15 months before that. I had such a buzz for the first two-and-a-half years there that it was like dying a slow death for me.

“Not with the club, just with myself. My energy and desire for the game had never wavered, but I definitely wasn't able to have the same energy because of my injury. That's why I never judge players who are carrying knocks that are not visible enough because, at that level, being 10 to 15 per cent off will make you look like an average player.

“I looked like an average player for Brentford for the last 15 months, no question, and I think the fans probably lost a bit of love for me as well on the back of that. I don't blame them because they were looking at someone that used to tear around the pitch and then I wasn’t running around or being in people's faces, playing with the enthusiasm that I played with.

“I went back to Brentford a couple of years ago in the new stadium and a lot of love came back to me. Without Brentford, I wouldn't have had a career. Brentford started my career. Hand on heart, I really thought, you know what, my time was amazing.

“On reflection, it would have been easier to go out there and say, ‘thank you so much Brentford, I love you very much’, but that wasn't my style. I was so determined to go on with my career that I just didn’t look back. Only over time do you look back and reflect with real fond memories.

“My time at Brentford put me on the map. It was a good time. I was growing up as a person and I matured into a man at Brentford, for sure.”