THE appointment of Chris Brass as player-manager at York City rewrote the record books and sent shock-waves through football.

Thrust into the Bootham Crescent hot-seat at just 27 Brass, who has since turned 28, is the youngest managerial appointment in more than 50 years.

The bold and daring move should ensure plenty of media interest in City's opening day encounter at Carlisle United on Saturday when Brass will finally lead his new charges into battle.

But one spectator, more than 50 years older than Brass and likely to be sat quietly in the shadows of Brunton Park's main stand, will be taking a keener interest than most.

For while Brass and City have bagged plenty of headlines and attention over the summer months, Ivor Broadis and Carlisle United still hold the record for the youngest ever managerial appointment.

Broadis, who regularly attends matches at Brunton Park with his son, Mike, a freelance journalist, was just 23 when he was installed as the Cumbrians' player-manager in 1946, without ever having tasted League football.

Now aged 80, the appointment of Brass and the City chief's imminent managerial debut at Brunton Park, has given Broadis a chance to reflect on his own time in the managerial hot-seat.

With wall-to-wall media coverage, massive financial pressures and incentives and fan expectations spiralling ever more upwards, the pressure facing modern-day managers is immense.

But even back in the sepia-tinged and supposedly gentler age of post-war football, Broadis admitted there were plenty of pressures and problems for a young player-manager, barely out of his teens, to tackle.

"I enjoyed it but I found it very difficult to combine the two jobs of managing and playing," he told the Evening Press.

"If you had a midweek match it was very difficult to go out and watch players and give players the attention you needed to give them when you were scouting.

"It was also difficult in the sense that you had to produce it on the field yourself.

"If you didn't produce on the pitch it was very difficult to criticise people who you thought were not producing."

For all the difficulties, Broadis made a more than decent stab at player-managing.

In the first post-war season he scored 19 goals from inside right and by 1947-48 Carlisle had moved up to ninth position in the Third Division North, their best in 17 years.

But looking back, Broadis, who later secured himself another footnote in history by becoming the first manager to transfer himself - to Sunderland for £18,000 in 1949 - admitted he was probably too young for the job.

"At 23 I was dealing with directors whose average age was about 65, and there was about 12 of them," he said.

"There were probably more directors than players."

With the fans now in the boardroom at Bootham Crescent, an age-barrier between the boss and directors is at least one hurdle Brass will avoid.

However, Broadis is loathe to start dishing out words of wisdom to City's new player-boss.

"I would never attempt to give him advice, it wouldn't be right," insisted Broadis.

"He has been given the opportunity to do the job and he should do it the way he sees best."

How did the players respond to being told what to do by a manager years younger than themselves?

"I don't think you can expect to have a good relationship with everybody,although you try to make everyone feel a part of things," said Broadis.

"The response was different from player to player; there were players who were supportive and players who could have been a bit resentful."

Surprisingly, given his head-start in the managerial stakes, Broadis never managed again after leaving Carlisle - where he was succeeded by Bill Shankly - for Sunderland.

He transferred to Manchester City in 1951 for £25,000 and then Newcastle United for £20,000 two years later before returning to Brunton Park as a player and finally bringing the curtain down on his distinguished playing career at Queen of the South.

In between, he was capped 14 times for England, scoring eight times, and played in the 1954 World Cup finals in Switzerland alongside arguably some of the greatest names to wear the Three Lions - Sir Stanley Matthews, Nat Lofthouse, Billy Wright and Tom Finney.

Explaining why he never returned to management, Broadis, who became a sports journalist after hanging up his boots, said: "My philosophy has always been as a manager you can slog your guts out for five days a week, Monday to Friday, and on a Saturday people can go out and make you look a mug.

"It's different now, of course, but back then there was probably only about half a dozen managers' jobs worth having."

Despite his words of caution, Broadis is certain age will not be a factor if Brass get results.

"I suppose there was a bit of interest when I was appointed because of my age but most of the publicity comes from what is done on the field.

That is what counts at the end of the day and that is what you are judged on - results," he said.

The game may be barely recognisable from the time Broadis cut his teeth in management, but it is reassuring to know some things in football will never change.