STEVE Brown celebrated his testimonial against Aston Villa on Monday and revealed he is as hungry for success now as he was when he was playing, Brown joined the Blues from Northampton in 1994 and after making more than 440 appearances as a player he is now the club's assistant manager.

He said: "I am as driven now as I was when I was a player. There were things I didn't achieve as a player that I hope I will do on the management side of things.

"I was gutted that I never got to play in Division One Championship. That's been my biggest disappointment. We finished sixth one year and missed out on the play-offs owing to league restructuring.

"It was such a disappointment because I think we would have beaten the other teams in the play-offs."

But he reckons he has got a great chance of doing that now he's on the management side of the fence..

He said: "We've got a great squad. We've got the potential to go up this season and if we do that I think we could go straight through again next season.

"It is exciting times at this football club and I'm excited to still be a big part of it all."

Brown's testimonial drew a disappointing crowd of just 3,305, of which 806 were from Villa.

Brown said: I'm not disappointed in the size of the crowd for me because it has never been about money and greed. But I was disappointed for Aston Villa.

"They brought a wonderful team and they were deserving of a bigger crowd."