Kevin Campbell: Great Escape with West Brom was greatest achievement of my career

In the latest part of an exclusive interview with Ladbrokes Fanzone, former Arsenal and Everton striker Kevin Campbell discusses his fond memories of playing for West Brom and their great escape.

Great escape was the greatest achievement of my career

I can honestly say that what we did in that 2004-5 season with West Brom was the greatest achievement of my career. It is, bar none. You can look at my time at Arsenal, Nottingham Forest, Everton, Trabzonspor, wherever…nothing comes close to West Brom.

It was a known fact that any team bottom of the league on Christmas and New Year never survived. I came in during the winter transfer window, so I knew full well what a big a task we had ahead of us.

First meeting with Bryan Robson

I remember meeting with Bryan Robson. I was on my way back from training when I got a call saying he had permission to speak to me. So I met him at the Four Seasons Hotel and we didn’t talk football. What we talked about was having that never-say-die attitude and mentality. We spoke about the types of characters we were, and how we felt about people putting us down, and what that did to us.

Whenever anybody says bad stuff about you, the key is to prove them wrong. Always, that’s the key. That’s what we spoke about. Then we had a long chat about family, life and all of that stuff. After that, we hadn’t talked about football, about money, none of that. He just got up.

“OK, Kevin, well I’ll see you down at the training ground tomorrow!”

“Yeah, no problem!”

And that was it. Then I thought to myself, ‘hang on, I’ve got to ring my agent! I haven’t even discussed anything!’

I went down the next morning, had a look around the place. I’m looking at this squad, Darren Moore is there, [Nwankwo] Kanu, Ronnie Wallwork, Jonathan Greening, Geoff Horsfield, Robbo [Paul Robinson], Clem [Neil Clement] is there. I’m just thinking ‘this is a good squad!’

It was a really good squad. I just wondered what was going on up there, mentally. So that’s what I had to come in and do –  get to the bottom of what was going on with them. Darren Purse was captain at the time. What did we need to do as a squad to buck the trend?

You looked at the staff we had around the place: Bryan Robson, Nigel Pearson was his assistant, Craig Shakespeare was there. You had a lot of good people around the place.

As far as I was concerned, it was amazing to have all of that knowledge, and not tap into it. So that’s what we did. We tapped into it. I used to spend quite a bit of time speaking with the staff in the build-up to games, in the aftermath,  and together we turned it around.

I hid champagne in dressing room ahead of Portsmouth game

That day against Portsmouth really was amazing. I brought celebration champagne in and I hid it in the ice machine, right down at the bottom. I was in the building really early on that final day. Whatever time kick-off was, I was there over three hours before kick-off. I put the champagne on ice, and hid it so you wouldn’t have known it was there, if the worst were to happen.

But I knew we were going to do it. The players turned up and we’re all in the dressing room.

“Listen, guys, this is going to be down to us. Look at the games going on around us, and yes, it’s out of our control. But wouldn’t it just be the worst thing if all of the other teams messed up and we didn’t get the job done today? We’ve got to get the job done; we’ve got to do our bit. So let’s make sure we do that. We don’t worry about anybody else. The crowd are going to be doing that – we’ve got to get our job done.”

That Charlton v Crystal Palace match being delayed just added to the drama, because we were all standing around on the pitch waiting for the full-time whistle.

The Pompey fans wanted us to win, on the day, because it would send Southampton down, so it was such a crazy, emotional, draining, exhilarating moment to be a part of. To be the first team to pull off that great escape, that was the greatest achievement of my career. Everybody wrote us off. Everybody.

How we celebrated

Because the final day was on a Sunday, we didn’t actually celebrate as a team until Monday. I remember going home after the game, and then coming back the next day early because we were having our end-of-season debrief, with the manager, and then we were going out for lunch because, that evening, we were having our end-of-season do.

We just made it all roll into one. We had our meetings with the backroom staff in the morning, then we set about going around town, meeting fans, had a lovely lunch, and then we all got dressed up for the end-of-season do.

Meeting the fans was one of the greatest parts about the whole experience, for me. You’re sat with so many different people, who had so many different experiences of the day. We were all there in that moment, but we had so many different experiences, and so it was fascinating to listen to everyone’s story of the day, and just how perfectly all of those pieces fit into the jigsaw of the day as a whole.

It was an amazing time for the club. And, like I said, it was the greatest achievement of my career. All of us sharing that moment, being on the pitch, waiting for that Charlton result to come in, with the manager, the players, and all of the fans nervously stood waiting, ready to burst onto the pitch, with the cameras all on us. It was incredible. That scene will go with me to the grave. You could just feel all of the emotion in that stadium building up. And then the release when that final whistle went at Charlton…moments like that don’t come around all that often.

I’ll never, ever get tired of watching that game. And, believe me, the amount of times I’ve seen it over the years, it’s never too far away from making an appearance.

West Brom will be pushing for promotion at end of season

I’d absolutely love to see West Brom back in the Premier League. Not least because, on a personal level, that would mean four of my old teams were in the top flight! I always look out for West Brom’s results, even to this day.

There’s been a lot of hope, a lot of heartache, and ultimately a lot of disappointment. I think it’s fair to say that fans will have expected more from the team, higher finishes, and more of a challenge in the Championship than the team have managed in the past two seasons.

But I think, with the current manager, and with the current squad, they’re really starting to find their feet now. I expect West Bromwich Albion to be there or thereabouts, come the end of the season, that’s for sure.

The manager is very good, as are the players, they’ve just got to perform now, haven’t they? Consistently. I know that’s the hardest part, but if you’ve got people around the place who know what they’re doing, then West Bromwich Albion will be right up there at the end of the season. I’m sure of that.