Big Interview: Rising up with the Brewers, Aaron Webster says it’s time to knuckle down with Belper Town

(Photo: Action Images)
By Matt Badcock
S­OCKS cut up, toe nail clippings stuffed into pockets, Foamburst sprayed on cars – the Burton Albion dressing room wasn’t safe when Aaron Webster was around.
But, as former team-mate Shaun Harrad told The NLP in the summer, everyone loved the defender who went from youth team to the Football League with the Brewers while securing legendary status.
Webster played 588 times – and scored 100 goals – to become second on the list of the Championship club’s all-time appearances behind Darren Stride.
Now the 36-year-old is taking steps into management with EVO-STIK South outfit Belper Town – and he knows he can’t be the ring leader anymore.
“The first time I met the guys at Belper on Tuesday I said to them, ‘We’re here to work hard and everyone’s got a chance to impress – but we’ve got to have fun at the same time’,” says Webster, laughing as Harrad’s stories are relayed to him.
“Imagine going to work and not enjoying it, you’re not going to give your best. If you’re not going to have a laugh and joke when you’re working hard, mentally it can be tough.
“So I think that’s very important…as manager I probably won’t be cutting up people’s socks and putting my toe nails in people’s pockets though!”
Webster was a fresh-faced 17-year-old when he made his first-team debut in 1998 against Halesowen at Burton’s old Eton Park ground.
“I was doing really well for the youth team and the first-team manager, who at the time was John Barton, asked me to come along to training. All of a sudden I was on the bench at 17.
“Then I was offered a contract – I can remember now that I was buzzing to be the only one out of the youth team who was getting paid. It wasn’t a lot of money – thirty quid to start with!
“But it was different. I was playing for the youth team and we used to get good crowds because we were a good side. Then you’re playing in front of hundreds for the first team. I thought, ‘This is what I want to do’.
“I’d probably never looked at football as a career when I was a young boy. It was a bit different to these days where parents push their kids and they’re driven because of how much money there is to be earned. I did it for love, and then all of a sudden I was earning money.”
A little over 10 years later, manager Nigel Clough had overseen a remarkable rise from the Dr Martens League to League via the UniBond Premier and the Conference – although the boss left before their title triumph for Derby County. Webster says a tight bond in the changing room was a powerful weapon in their armoury.
“It’s kind of the same thing I put in my portfolio to get the Belper job,” he says. “We were all local lads, friends on and off the pitch, we weren’t on great money but because we saw each other out of football and had a drink after. As soon as we got on the pitch we fought blood, sweat and tears for each other.
“Nigel was always clever with the signings he made. He never made eight or nine every season, it was always two or three. Just adding a little bit to make the squad better than the season before. We just got better every year and that’s why we progressed up the table and eventually got promoted into the League. It was run very cleverly.
“Having that experience as a player and seeing how it was done then, I think Belper are kind of in the same situation.
“The budget’s not amazing but with my contacts from Derby, Nottingham and the Burton area, I can get a nucleus of lads from around the same way, who may be friends off the pitch. I want that same ethos where we give everything for each other.
“I don’t want any cliques. I want us to do everything together on the pitch. If your mate gets beaten, someone is five yards behind to rectify it. If anyone makes a mistake someone else is there to back him up. That was the tutelage I was brought up on and I want the same as manager.”
He’s certainly learnt from one of the best in Clough, who has since returned to Burton and masterminded their promotion, and last season’s survival, in the Championship.

Webster is coach for Burton Albion’s Community Trust side – who have a partnership with Burton College and train twice a week while playing games on Wednesday – so regularly speaks to Clough, who even gave him a reference for the Belper gig.
“He was my manager for 10 or 11 years,” Webster says. “He had me from when I was a young boy and has been a huge part of my life – not just in football but out of it as well. We’ve always been close and he’s been like a father figure to me. We have regular conversations now where he talks about the first team and I talk about the education. He’ll even ask me questions about the first team if I’ve seen them play. He’s someone I will always have so much respect for.
“Because he had me from when I was a budding teenager wanting to play football, what he’s said as stuck. But at the same time, I’m Aaron Webster. I want to be an original, I don’t want to copy everything he’s done. There are a lot of aspects I will take from working under him, but there’s a lot of stuff I want to use from my background and my experience as well.
“I’ll give all the Belper lads a chance. One of my strongest points is man-management. I’m honest with players, I will give them feedback, good or bad.
“I was always brought up with tough love. Even when I’d played well Nigel would still have something negative to say at times. He would give me praise, don’t get me wrong, but I probably had more negatives.
“When I was younger I used to think, ‘Why am I always the one being dug out?’ But getting older and realising, I know he did it for a reason because he wanted me to get better.”
Webster is now looking forward to helping the players improve at Belper and makes the point each individual needs to be managed differently.
His first game in charge on Tuesday ended in a penalty shoot-out victory against Long Eaton United in the Derbyshire Senior Cup.
Close friend Lee Williamson is his assistant and has signed playing forms. Not a bad signing considering the midfielder played in the Premier League, internationally for Jamaica, and made 16 appearances in the Championship with Burton last season.
Webster, who finished his career at Ilkeston and Basford United, won’t be joining him.
“I just look back at when the gaffer used to play at Burton when he first came in,” Webster says. “He was still a great player but the amount of hits he used to take from people – I couldn’t see myself going through that. He used to just get up and dust himself off. I’m a bit past that stage.” And the pranks.