Mourinho ‘will be a football legend’
Laws was a regular in the sides produced by the Nottingham Forest manager and had already likened Mourinho to Cloughie before their FA Cup third-round tie at Stamford Bridge.
Now, after watching his promotion-chasing League Two outfit give the Premiership leaders a scare, Laws is full of admiration for the way Mourinho conducted himself and predicted great things for the Chelsea boss.
He revealed: “Jose came into our dressing-room afterwards and gave us the match report he had on us which was nice. I met Jose on the morning of the game while I was showing the players around the ground and trying to take the element of fear out of their bodies.
“He is a very nice man. I know he comes across as arrogant, big-headed, a bit like old Cloughie but, at the end of the day, he’s also got the personality of Cloughie in that he’s very nice and complimentary.
“He came in afterwards and he’s made the players feel very, very special. It’s very easy for big managers at the big clubs to ignore the smaller teams, but he’s treated us like kings today and we nearly took a ransom.
“After the final whistle, he just said that ‘with that luck we’ll win the Premiership’. That’s what happens when you’re flying. It does tend to go your way and it’s going Chelsea’s way at the moment.
“I can only praise Chelsea and Mourinho for their hospitality though. He didn’t ignore us. Big managers sometimes walk off, but he shook hands with the players and said well done. What more could we ask?
“I hope I’ve given him a compliment by saying he’s Clough-like. He shouldn’t take it any other way. Cloughie was a legend and I am sure Jose will go on to be one.”
Laws was justifiably proud of his players after they rattled the high-flying Londoners by taking an early lead. Paul Hayes put the League Two minnows in front before Mateja Kezman equalised midway through the first half.
An Andy Crosby own goal gave Chelsea the lead and had substitute Cleveland Taylor not been thwarted by an upright and Carlo Cudicini in the Chelsea goal, then the Iron might have snatched a draw.
Eidur Gudjohnsen made sure Chelsea went through with a third goal five minutes from time, but United had shown no fear all afternoon and that was down to manager Laws who used his own slice of Clough-style motivation to get them ready for the tie.
Their performance rightly earned his team a standing ovation from both sets of supporters at the end.
Laws explained: “I told the players beforehand, ‘they’re only human beings, they’re not from another planet’ although they’ve been playing like it.
“We just had to hope the players didn’t freeze today and they didn’t. I came to watch them play Middlesbrough looking for some help but after 10 minutes I had got nothing. The only weakness I could find was that the pies were cold.”
“Our players really stood tall and one or two of them really grew up. This kind of game frightens players but they certainly weren’t frightened.”
