After a career that lasted 18 years, which saw him feature 526 times for Nottingham Forest, becoming the third highest appearance holder of all time for the Reds, Steve Chettle has carved out a career in management at both youth and senior level, with clubs such as Forest, Notts County and now Basford United.

He joined Nottingham Forest after leaving school in 1985 on a YTS scheme and in the 1986-87 season he made his league debut. It was an experience that he is proud of.

“I went to watch my first live Forest game with my dad in 1976, when they were in the old Second Division” he recalled. “I had watched them win the First Division and the European Cup and to be associated with the club was a great honour.”

It was the late Brian Clough who gave Chettle his debut and made him a regular at the City Ground, and working with the legendary manager was something Chettle remembers well and says the pair had a good relationship.

“Firstly, it was scary,” he said. “The man had a fantastic record in management and an aura about him.

“He was very good with me and gave me my chance to play first team football and numerous improved contracts.”

In 1993 after 18 years in charge of the Reds, ‘Cloughie’ stepped down as boss and retired from football and that marked a period of uncertainty at the club, with six managers taking charge in the same number of years. Each manager in that time had varying levels of success.

“After getting over the realism that the Boss (Brian Clough) had retired, it was very good when Frank Clark took over,” said Chettle. “He built another fantastic squad that went onto achieve promotion and qualify for European Football.

“Other managers came after Frank’s departure, Dave Bassett got the club promoted again out of the Championship but at the end of my time at Forest, managers under achieved and lost their jobs before I left the club.”

Despite the change of managers, Chettle continued to be an ever present in the starting line up, until David Platt joined the club. Under the former England striker, Chettle found himself fall down the pecking order, which he did not understand at the time.

He said: “It was a strange one. I was club captain when David (Platt) arrived and I found myself in and out of the team and sometimes not even training with the first team squad.

“That told me all I needed to know and eventually after a midweek game that I wasn’t involved in, the manager asked to see me and told me that I wasn’t in his plans and that I could find a new club.”

Chettle left forest in 1999 and linked up with former manager Bassett, at Barnsley. It was a move that the former central defender looks back on with good memories.

“I loved it,” he said. “I left a club struggling in the Championship and joined a club higher in the league with a manager that I had worked under before and had a good track record of getting promotion.

“At the end of the 1999-2000 season, I played at Wembley in the Premiership play off final. I had two and a half years there (at Barnsley) and thoroughly enjoyed it.”

In the summer of 2002 he left Oakwell and two months later signed for Grimsby Town, alongside fellow Tykes team mate Darren Barnard. While at the Lincolnshire club the defender saw his game time limited, due to an injury that he had struggled with all of his career.

“I had a reoccurring back problem for most of my career,” he explained. “And it was only getting worse.

“I played at both centre back and full back for Grimsby, but playing consistently was hard.”

Following the club’s relegation at the end of the 2002-03 season, player-manager Paul Groves opted against extending Chettle’s contract and again he found himself without a club.

Several months after leaving Grimsby, he was offered the chance to link up with former team mate Nigel Clough, who was manager of Burton Albion, then of the Conference National League. He spent just one year at the Pirelli Stadium making 24 appearances in the process, but again struggled with injury.

“I simply didn’t have a club and still wanted to play,” he said. “During my time at Burton Albion I had another reoccurrence of my back Injury, a year after I’d had an operation on it and I struggled to stay fit enough to play consistently.”

He then had a short spell with local non-league side Ilkeston Town before retiring.

Coaching was what occupied Chettle’s time after he stopped playing, although that had not always been the plan.

He said: “I wasn’t interested in coaching during my playing career and wanted to do something else as it (football) had been my life for so long.”

But thanks to son Callum he ended up taking the step.

“I got the bug when Callum started training at the Forest academy and thought that I had something to offer,” he said. “I started getting my coaching badges at 36, which is really late and have worked up to my UEFA A license.”

It was at Forest, the club where he had played most of his football, that his coaching journey began, but in the 2013-14 season he left the club for a second time for another former club in Ilkeston Town. He took up the role as assistant manager to then Robins boss Kevin Wilson and combined this with working with the club’s academy, a decision he made to progress his coaching career.

He said: “I didn’t see a pathway into the first team coaching staff at the time and I wanted to get into working with senior players. I knew the success that Ilkeston had had and to work with senior players and develop the players in the club’s academy was a perfect fit.”

In 2015 he moved with Wilson to Nuneaton Town, again as number two, and the pair had success at the club.

Chettle said: “Kev (Wilson) left Ilkeston and I enjoyed working with him and Nuneaton Town had just been relegated out of the National League. It was a good season and we missed out on the play-offs by just one point.”

Their spell at the club lasted until 2016. Chettle then found himself as a first team coach at Notts County, before being appointed as Ilkeston Town boss by then owner of both clubs, Alan Hardy.

It was a move that Chettle was glad he made looking back.

“It was a brave decision as I was coaching the first team at Notts County,” he recalled. “I met with then chairman, Alan Hardy and he spoke about his plans to get Ilkeston Town up and running and get them back to where they had been the year before, three levels higher. It was a massive challenge, but something I am very proud of.”

Chettle then combined his role as Robins’ boss with taking charge of Notts’ under-23’s, which he found a worthwhile challenge.

“It was physically and mentally tough,” he said. “I was coaching full time at Notts County and coaching and managing at Ilkeston. It was something that needed juggling around at times to fit in both roles but it’s something that I’m glad I did.”

At the start of the 2018-19 season it was announced that Chettle would be leaving Ilkeston Town to take a role in Notts County’s first team set up, under then boss Kevin Nolan. But this did not work out and Nolan was dismissed and Chettle would take caretaker charge. Former Liverpool midfielder Harry Kewell would soon replace Nolan, but was sacked before the end of the year and again, Chettle found himself in charge at Meadow Lane.

Current Notts boss Neal Ardley took over in November 2018 from Chettle, who again took a role working with the club's under-23’s, before leaving last summer to take over at Basford United, as both first team boss and head of the club’s academy.

It was a talk with Basford chairman Chris Munroe that convinced Chettle to take the roles.

“I met with Chris Munroe, the chairman,” he explained. “And he spoke with great enthusiasm about the long-term project at Basford United.

“I liked his plans and I was keen to work with him and develop the club and be as successful as possible, both on and off the field.”

Taking on both responsibilities is similar to the role he had at Ilkeston, but now he is the first team boss rather than an assistant. He also hopes that some of his youth players can make the step up to the first team.

“I am really enjoying my dual role at the club,” he said. “It’s a role I have done before at Ilkeston with Kev Wilson, but now I’m heading the Football Programme at the academy and managing the first team at the same time.

“It’s good to see what players will hopefully break into the first team squad at some point and give them an insight into what is required to play senior football at Basford United.”

So far this season his side occupy third place in the Northern Premier Division and on the pitch, he just wants them to keep picking up points, while off it he hopes the club will grow.

“My aims are probably the same as all managers,” he explained. “Win as many games as possible and see where it takes us. We have started well and are sat in a good position in the league.

“Off the pitch, our attendances will hopefully continue to grow and the chairman has some big plans for the expansion of the ground.

“Trying to keep moving forward as a club overall is our main objective.”