John Brough is, quite literally, putting down roots in Cheltenham.

That’s because the 46-year-old, who lives in Charlton Kings with his partner Rachel, has just set up his own landscaping business called, appropriately enough, John Brough Landscaping.

The one-time Cheltenham Town hero has had a close association with the town ever since joining the then non-league club more than two decades ago.

And a big part of the club he was too, helping them to two promotions during his seven seasons as a player before serving the club for five years on the coaching side.

As a player he was versatile – he could play at the back or up front – but wherever he played he was tough and uncompromising and never gave anything less than 100 per cent.

And he never lost that 100 per cent commitment once he became a coach and then a manager and he is still involved in football today, albeit in a part-time capacity, as a coach with Hellenic League Premier Division club Lydney Town.

Football has been a big part of Brough’s life almost since he could walk and talk and, given his family history, it was always something he was going to enjoy.

“My grandad, who was also called John, and his brother both played for Mansfield Town just before World War Two,” said Brough. “I think if it hadn’t been for the war they’d have had okay careers.

“My cousin Michael Brough played for Notts County – he also played for Forest Green – so football is in the family.”

Michael Brough, a midfielder, is some nine years younger than John and they were rivals on the pitch on just the one occasion.

That was the final game of the 2002/03 season and John Brough does not have happy memories of it. The match was in Nottingham and he went on as a substitute as Cheltenham lost 1-0 which in turn saw them relegated from what is now League One.

Born in Heanor in Derbyshire – “People think I was born in Ilkeston, they always get it wrong,” Brough said – he has many better footballing memories than that day at Meadow Lane, of course.

When he first started kicking a ball around there were no academies like there are today but there were still plenty of opportunities to play the game for fun.

In those days he was a striker and it was while playing for his village team that he first came to the notice of people who know what they’re talking about when it comes to football.

“We played a game against Notts County,” Brough recalled. “We lost 4-2 but I got both our goals. I was 12 and I got invited down for training once a week.”

And the club must have been impressed because at the age of 14 he was offered schoolboy forms on a two-year deal and at 16 he signed on as a YTS for two years.

“I also signed a year’s contract as a pro when I was 18 when we were in the old First Division,” said Brough. “Neil Warnock was the manager and we got relegated, it was the last season before the Premier League came in.”

Brough was released at the end of that season but he has nothing but praise for Warnock even though he didn’t give him a first-team chance.

“He called me into his office and he told me I wasn’t going to play in the first-team,” recalled Brough, “but he told me he’d sort me out and not to be surprised if he signed me in the future. He was good to me.”

And while Brough never played in the Notts County flagship team he still got to play with some seriously good players in the reserves including Paul Rideout, Tommy Johnson and Mark Draper.

“It was a good learning curve,” he said.

Also at the club at the time was goalkeeper Jimmy Walker, one of Brough’s great mates who played more than 450 games for Walsall and also played in a Championship play-off final for West Ham.

From Notts County, Brough moved on to Shrewsbury Town, who were managed at the time by ex-Manchester City boss John Bond, and it was while he was there that he started playing in defence for the first time.

“I didn’t score enough goals to be a striker,” he admitted. “In training I’d find myself playing at the back and I started playing at the back for the reserves.”

And he also played at the back for the first team for whom he played 16 times, scoring one goal.

“I made my league debut away to York – John Ward was their manager – and scored my first goal at Colchester on a Tuesday night,” he said.

In those days Shrewsbury played their home games at Gay Meadow, which was right on the banks of the River Severn.

“They used to have a man in a rowing boat who collected all the balls when they were kicked out of the ground and into the river but when I started playing in defence he needed a speedboat,” Brough joked.

Brough is easy to interview. He is not one of those former players who struggles to remember games and he has a ready laugh.

Not for nothing did Cheltenham Town football writer Derek Goddard, who covered the club for four decades in his own inimitable style – a style that was entertaining as well as informative – often refer to Brough as ‘The Smiler’.

Brough liked Derek and he certainly liked Cheltenham Town when then manager Steve Cotterill came knocking in 1998.

He’d been at Hereford for the previous four years during which time he’d spent a lot more time playing at the back than up front.

“John Layton was the manager and I signed for them more as striker than a defender,” he recalled. “Then one of our players got sent off against Darlington, I played at the back and I pretty much stayed there.

“John was old school as a player and I had a bit of that about me when I played as well.”

Brough played well over 100 games for the club but there were some tough times because the club were relegated from the Football League at the end of his third season at Edgar Street.

“We drew the last game 1-1 at home to Brighton,” recalled Brough. “We had so many chances to win the game.”

If they’d have taken just one of them Hereford would have stayed up and Brighton would have gone down and Brough readily admits that it was one of his toughest days in football.

“Getting relegated out of any division is bad enough but out of the Football League was even worse,” he said. “If you look at the National League now, they are all ex-League Two clubs and they’re all full time but it wasn’t like that back then.”

Hereford remained full time despite their relegation but at the end of the campaign Brough was ready to move on and he didn’t have to think twice after meeting Cotterill.

Cheltenham had just won the FA Trophy at Wembley – the non-league’s equivalent of the FA Cup – and were clearly on an upward curve after finishing second in the Conference.

Cotterill, like everyone else, had been impressed by Brough when he went to Whaddon Road in April 1998 and, playing up front, scored one of the goals in a 2-1 Hereford win.

“I think the fact that I could play more than one position was a big plus for him,” said Brough.

And Brough was certainly a big plus for Cheltenham because he was a major player as the club won the Conference title 12 months later and with it promotion to the Football League for the first time in their history.

It was a remarkable season from start to finish but two games in particular stand out and Brough was centre stage in both.

For many Cheltenham fans, the dream started to become a reality when their heroes won 2-1 at nearest rivals Rushden and Diamonds at the start of April but that 2-1 scoreline only tells half the story because Cheltenham trailed for much of the game and it took two goals in the final three minutes to complete an incredible turnaround.

“Steve pushed me up front for the last 20 minutes,” recalled Brough. “Mark Freeman equalised and then I pushed the ball round the keeper and Neil Grayson got on the end of it to tap in the winner.”

So did Brough’s pal deny him his big moment?

“No,” said Brough, laughing. “The defender may have stopped the ball going over the line,” before adding, still laughing, “Neil did what he always did, he scored and took the glory!”

Fewer than four weeks later the club were crowned Conference champions and again it was a crazy game as Cheltenham defeated Yeovil Town 3-2 in front of their adoring fans with almost the last kick – or in this case header – of the game.

“It was the 96th minute and we’d been awarded a free-kick on the right,” recalled Brough. “Keith Knight took it and I made a run to the near post, it went over me to the far post where Michael Duff and Jamie Victory went up for the ball.”

The goal was awarded to Duff but there has always been a question about who got the final touch.

“Apart from those two I was probably closest to the ball and I just saw Michael get to the ball ahead of Jamie,” said Brough.

Cheltenham won the league with a couple of games to spare and Brough continued: “It was a fantastic season. We had people who could score and we were a team who could defend.

“As a team we were very good. There were better players who joined the club later on – Grant McCann, John Finnigan, Tony Naylor – but as a team we worked so hard.”

And for Brough, promotion was just that bit sweeter after his experience with Hereford a couple of years earlier, as it was for fellow ex-Hereford players Grayson, Dave Norton and Richard Walker.

“It didn’t help Hereford but from my point of view it certainly helped,” admitted Brough.

Brough was now back where he wanted to be, playing full-time football in the Football League.

And after a slow start Cheltenham, driven on by Cotterill, adapted very well to life at the higher level, just missing out on a place in the end-of-season play-offs.

Life was good for Brough and Cheltenham, but as players and supporters over so many years have known, the great game that is football has a habit of knocking people down just when things are going so well.

That happened to Brough in the club’s second season back in the big-time, and some knock-back it was too.

“I suffered a lateral knee ligament injury away to Macclesfield in October 2000,” said Brough. “It kept me out for 16 months. My next start was at Darlington in 2002.”

They were tough times of course but, typically, Brough was determined to come back as fit and as strong as before.

“What the injury did was make me work harder,” said Brough. “It made me appreciate football a bit more. You never know when your last game will be.”

His hard work was rewarded because he forced his way back into the first-team picture, but, sadly, there was to be more disappointment for Brough before the season was over.

“I had a shocker against Plymouth in the final game of the league season,” he admitted. “We needed a draw to finish third but we were 2-0 down at half-time and I got removed from the pitch.”

The defeat by Plymouth meant Cheltenham went into the play-offs, play-offs they would win with a 3-1 victory over old rivals Rushden and Diamonds at the Millennium Stadium.

Brough played no part in the play-offs and wasn’t even in the matchday squad for the game in Cardiff.

“It was a big disappointment,” he admitted, “I did have a few words with Steve but although I had one bad game I was still part of the squad.”

And Cotterill’s renowned man-management skills were shown again before the final when he asked Brough to take the warm-up.

“He was the best manager I played for,” said Brough. “He was a winner, just like me. Before he left to join Stoke he sorted out a new contract for me.”

And while he says Cotterill was the best manager he played for, Brough equally has few doubts about the best player he played alongside at Cheltenham.

“Chris Banks,” he said, without a moment’s hesitation. “He could hardly run and wasn’t the biggest, but he was a good player.

“Julian Alsop and Tony Naylor were outstanding the season we went up, then there was Michael Duff, Grant McCann, John Finnigan and Neil Grayson. Neil would probably still be playing now if he could.”

Duff, of course, is now the man in charge at Cheltenham Town and Brough is certainly impressed by what he has seen since he replaced Gary Johnson as manager soon after the start of the season.

“He’s turned it around,” he said of his old pal. “The club are now looking up rather than down, it’s great what’s he’s doing.”

The two were team-mates for a good number of years and Duff left for Burnley at the same time as Brough, at the age of 33, was saying his goodbyes to Cheltenham in the summer of 2004.

He had spells with Aldershot and then Newport – he played close on 50 games for Newport – at a stage in his life when he was becoming more and more interested in coaching.

“I’d always be quite vocal in training and when Bobby Gould was manager at Cheltenham he told me I should take my coaching badges,” said Brough.

“I worked as a volunteer coach at Cheltenham with the youth team alongside Bob Bloomer for a year. I had my B licence and I started along the coaching ladder.”

That journey with Cheltenham was to last five years and saw him take charge of the under-16s and then the under-18s and ended with him being head of the club’s youth set-up.

He’d also spent a year as a part-time scout for Everton so he’d got a pretty impressive CV when he took on the manager’s job at Bishop’s Cleeve in 2012.

From there he moved on to Cinderford Town – they won Division One South of the Southern League during his time as boss – before taking charge at North Leigh until the end of last season.

He admits he is enjoying no longer being a manager – “Even at the level I managed it was still 24/7,” he said – but equally says he unsure what he will be doing football-wise next season.

And it may well be that he steps away from the game to concentrate on his new business.

“I’ve been landscaping in and around Gloucestershire for a number of years,” said Brough. “I’ve been working for a small company and I’m still going to do some work for them.

“I need to be outside. Having played and coached football outside I couldn’t be cooped up indoors.

“Landscaping is really enjoyable, you start with a blank canvas and finish with a really nice garden.”

And working in the great outdoors allows Brough time to reflect on a football career that saw him achieve plenty – 200-plus Football League games as well as many more at or near the top level in non-league.

“Yes, I am very proud,” he said. “I was a player who was limited in terms of natural ability. I didn’t have a great left foot, I didn’t have the silky skills of a Michael Devaney and I wasn’t an athlete like Michael Duff.

“But I was very determined and worked very hard to achieve what I did.”

He certainly did!