Month: January 2017

Flamboyant Frank Worthington’s career included a brief Brighton stopover

3-fw-albionFRANK Worthington was one of football’s genuine entertainers and it was a privilege to witness his season at The Goldstone between 1984 and 1985.

An all-too-brief England career which saw him win eight caps in 1974 was a long way behind him by the time his former Huddersfield Town teammate Chris Cattlin secured his signature for Brighton, but what the legs could no longer do, the brain more than made up for.

He was on the scoresheet in only his second game, a bruising encounter when Notts County were beaten 2-1, even though Albion played the second half with only 10 men – centre backs Eric Young and Jeff Clarke having been hospitalised by clashes with Justin Fashanu.

Worthington went on to make 30 appearances (plus five as sub) scoring eight times in total. Two of the goals came in his penultimate match against Wolverhampton Wanderers, one being a penalty struck so hard that it broke the hand of their ‘keeper Tim Flowers.

In June 2013, in the Huddersfield Examiner, Cattlin told interviewer Doug Thomson: “He did a good job for me. Frank wasn’t only a great player, but a great bloke as well, a dedicated trainer and a great bloke to have around a club.”

Worthington reflected on his time at the club in a matchday programme interview with Spencer Vignes in 2003. “I’d known Chris since my early days at Huddersfield,” he said. “I’d liked him so when he asked whether or not I’d be prepared to come to Brighton, I didn’t really have to think too long about it. They were a good side that hadn’t long been out of the First Division, so it sounded attractive.”

He continued: “We had some good players and certainly had no problems finding the net. I felt as though I was playing OK and the fans seemed to like me. But Chris did have this thing where he would chop and change the team around quite a bit, even if we were winning. He never really seemed sure what his best side was, and I think our form began to suffer because of it.”

Worthington reckoned it led to disharmony in the dressing room, and, for his own part, while he was good friends with Jimmy Case and Hans Kraay, he couldn’t say the same for Chris Hutchings or Kieran O’Regan. Albion finished sixth in the table, three points off automatic promotion and, although he was offered a new one-year contract, he decided to move on to try his hand at management.

So Brighton was only a brief stop-off in a 20-year career which saw Worthington score 236 goals in 757 league games. Add in games he also played in the United States with Philadelphia Fury and Tampa Bay Rowdies, in South Africa, Sweden and in English non-league, and the games total amounts to an amazing 828.

Halifax-born Worthington’s father was a pre-war professional and his two brothers, David and Bob, were also professionals. Unlike his brothers, the hometown club dithered over signing Frank and Huddersfield jumped in and secured his signature.

After manager Ian Greaves selected him for the opening fixture of the 1969-70 season, he clocked up 100 consecutive appearances for the Terriers.

The flamboyant Worthington famously almost joined Liverpool in 1972 but the deal was called off when he failed a medical due to a reported high blood pressure reading.

Liverpool signed John Toshack instead while Worthington went to Leicester City for £85,000.

Having made nearly a quarter of a million pounds from the sale of David Nish to Derby County, Leicester boss Jimmy Bloomfield had a useful kitty which he splashed on Worthington, Dennis Rofe, Keith Weller, Jon Sammels and Alan Birchenall.

Worthington scored on his Leicester debut at Old Trafford and in an article with Goal magazine on 21 October 1972, he said: “It’s different playing for Leicester City compared with Huddersfield. At Huddersfield the emphasis was on hard running and effort – here it is on skill, and there is a hell of a lot of skill in this side.”

In the same publication two years later, he had finished the 1973-74 season with 25 goals to his name and he was full of compliments for Bloomfield.

“Basically I am a player who relies on skill and that fits perfectly into Jim’s plans,” he said. “I always think that teams reflect the style and outlook of their managers. That’s why Leicester’s philosophy is that there is no substitute for skill.”

His time at Leicester lasted five years and spanned more than 200 appearances before he switched to Bolton Wanderers – where one audacious goal he scored against Ipswich remains a YouTube favourite – and then Birmingham City, helping both sides to promotions.

In 1982 he played for Leeds, the following season Sunderland and the next, Southampton, before pitching up at The Goldstone.

Worthington’s first go at management, while continuing to play, came with two years at Tranmere – and his first signing was Albion’s Ian Muir. He told Vignes: “Ian Muir was a fantastic forward with great touch. He did things in training you just wouldn’t believe, yet he wasn’t even making the side at Brighton under Chris.”

Muir became a hero on Wirral, scoring 141 goals as Rovers won promotion twice and won the Associate Members Cup at Wembley in 1991. By then, Worthington was long gone, having moved on to Preston, then Stockport County, and, after a succession of brief stays with various non-league clubs, ended up with hometown club Halifax Town, where he was briefly joined by Case.

Albion’s shirt sponsor during his season with the club was Phoenix Brewery. Quite apt for a player who was famously quoted as saying: “I’ve squandered fortunes on booze, birds and gambling – it’s better than wasting it!”

Tellingly, his autobiography, published in 1995, entitled One Hump or Two, was a classic tell-all romp of a colourful career on and off the pitch.

Worthington died aged 72 on 22 March 2021 and, in a statement, his wife Carol said: “Frank brought joy to so many people throughout his career and in his private life. He will be greatly missed by everyone who loved him so much.”

The great man’s lifestyle spawned many eye-catching headlines over the years and there is no shortage of stories about him to be found on the internet.

Follow the links for just three examples.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/may/06/frank-worthington-denies-being-diagnosed-with-alzheimers-disease

http://www.90min.com/posts/26691-england-s-wasted-talent-1-frank-worthington

http://www-users.york.ac.uk/~sph2/lufc/mag/worthing.htm

1-fw-hudd2-fw-leic4-fw-headline

Pictures from my scrapbook show Worthington in Goal magazine in Huddersfield and Leicester’s colours, in Albion’s Phoenix Brewery-sponsored shirt and a classic headline. Pictures also from the Albion matchday programme.

Goalscorer Gilliver was heading for trouble in the days of heavier footballs

MOST football fans of a certain age will be familiar with the story of former West Brom and England centre forward Jeff Astle’s death in 2002 from early on-set dementia caused by heading footballs during his career.

The same condition has befallen Allan Gilliver, who played up front for Brighton and Lincoln City.

In September 2015, the Bradford Telegraph and Argus carried a report in which they said: “In 2013 Allan discovered he had dementia and that the likely cause is heading the ball – something he did throughout his football career.”

‘I scored a lot of goals heading the ball, we had heading practice every day,’ Allan told the newspaper. ‘It hurt like hell; footballs were much heavier back then and retained moisture.’

The story was being told in the run-up to a charity event to raise funds and awareness of dementia and Gilly was something of a legend in Bradford having worked behind the scenes at Bradford City for many years after his playing career had ended.

He had originally moved to City from Lincoln in 1972, where he teamed up with former Brighton captain and centre half John Napier (pictured below in a Bradford team photo).

Gilliver arrived at the Goldstone in the summer of 1969 on a free transfer from his hometown club, Rotherham United. He’d been born in the village of Swallownest (in the borough of Rotherham) on 3 August 1944. He was a keen all-round sportsman and when he was 14 was invited for net practice with the Yorkshire county side.

But he opted to pursue a career in football and joined Huddersfield Town in 1961. He scored on his debut in a 4-1 win at home to Swansea and he went on to score 22 goals in 45 appearances for Town. But in June 1966 a £12,000 fee saw him switch to Blackburn Rovers where he netted nine goals in 34 matches.Gilli Rovers

Two years later, Tommy Docherty signed him for Rotherham to partner Jim Storrie up front and he scored four goals in 29 matches for the Millers. His signing for Brighton proved to be a shrewd bit of business by manager Freddie Goodwin because Gilliver ended the 1969-70 season top scorer with 16 league and cup goals.

He made an encouraging start by netting on his debut in the pre-season 6-0 win over a Gibraltar XI. It wasn’t long before he was off the mark in the league too, scoring the only goal in a 1-0 win at Plymouth on 16 August.

Gilliver also scored in two of the Albion’s memorable League Cup ties in the autumn of 1969, netting in the 2-0 defeat of Birmingham, who were then in the division above Brighton, and also in the closely-fought epic against First Division Wolves when Albion narrowly lost 3-2.

Later that same season he scored a hat-trick in a 4-0 home win over Halifax. Even when Goodwin departed for Birmingham during the summer of 1970, Gilliver retained his place under new manager Pat Saward, and scored eight times.

But, presumably in the knowledge he’d got the loan signings of Bert Murray and Willie Irvine lined up, Saward surprisingly sold Gilliver and former captain Nobby Lawton to Lincoln in February 1971. The pair’s appearance in a 2-1 defeat away to Shrewsbury that month turned out to be their farewell.

As a youngster, I used to watch games from behind the manager’s dugout beneath the West Stand at the Goldstone.

I remember vividly how during one game, as the players trooped off down the tunnel for the half-time break, someone in the crowd behind me, clearly not impressed by the striker’s performance, shouted: “Gilly, why don’t you come off?” The forward looked into the crowd for the source of the comment and retorted: “And why don’t you p*ss off!”

The forward’s spell with Lincoln was ultimately a brief one but his switch to Valley Parade for a £4,000 fee began a lifetime association with the Bantams.

In researching this piece, I came across a picture of Gilliver in action for Bradford against Arsenal at Highbury in 1973.

He moved on to Stockport County in 1974 and had a brief spell with the Baltimore Comets in America, playing alongside the aforementioned Napier, before returning to England.

Back at Bradford in 1978-79, he played twice before his playing days came to an end but he stayed with the club and his subsequent roles included groundsman, safety officer, bar supervisor, stadium manager and commercial manager. He retired in 2007.

In May 2023, Gilliver’s wife Chris opened up to the Telegraph & Argus about the sad impact of the former footballer’s condition, which had necessitated putting him in a care home.  

“The grandchildren miss grandad as he was,” she said. “He doesn’t recognise them. He smiles but he would smile at anyone.

“He has got no incentive. He would just sit in one place all day unless someone does something with him.”

She told reporter Rowan Newman: “They are not suffering in many ways because they don’t know, but we are – the families who love and care for them.

“Every day you lose a little bit more. He could speak last week, he can’t speak now. He could use a knife and fork, he can’t cut his food up any more. He has lost so much.”

Gilliver appeaed  briefly in a news bulletin on BBC One News on 25 March 2025 about professional footballers and dementia. It said he now lives in a care home.

napier-gilliver-73-74-bradfordag-v-arsenal

  • Pictures from my scrapbook show Gilliver in aerial action for the Albion; alongside John Napier in a Bradford team photo (and below with Baltimore Comets); in Goal magazine playing for Bradford City, challenging goalkeeper Bob Wilson in a 1973 FA Cup tie against Arsenal, a portrait in the stripes of City, and various shots that first appeared in Albion matchday programmes.
Allan Gilliver living with dementia in a care home, as featured on BBC One news in March 2025

Welsh international Peter Sayer added artistry to Brighton’s rise to the elite

NIMBLE-footed Peter Sayer was certainly a player for the big occasion: a Cardiff City legend and briefly a Welsh national team star.

At Brighton & Hove Albion, he was part of the team that memorably won promotion to the top division for the first time in its history.

He signed for the Seagulls for £100,000 just nine months after playing for his country in what was the only Wales victory over England at Wembley (on 31 May 1977).

Sayer was part of a Welsh team captained by Terry Yorath (father of TV presenter Gabby Logan) but with far fewer household names than their illustrious opponents.

Wales were managed by Mike Smith, the former Hove Grammar School teacher, while Don Revie’s England were captained by Kevin Keegan, playing up front alongside Stuart Pearson and Mick Channon.

The BBC highlights of the match show the diminutive Sayer getting on the end of a Leighton James cross but steering his header wide before James scored the only goal of the game from the penalty spot after he’d been upended by Peter Shilton.

Neil Moxley, for dailymail.co.uk in September 2011 discovered what had happened to that Welsh team since, which included jobs ranging from Wales boss to toilet roll business managers. Sayer, he reported, had become steward at a golf club in Preston, where he moved to after Brighton, and then run a pub in the area.

In Back Pass magazine in August 2013, Sayer was quoted as saying: “It was an excellent time at Brighton. There were some very good players at the club and I was playing well.

“I especially remember when we won promotion to the old First Division at Newcastle in 1978-79.

sayer bwhs“We had our own train which we used to travel on to away games. It was great for team morale.”

He added: “I ended up in the reserves even though I was playing well. I got asked to go to Newcastle but failed the medical.

“The club then had an opportunity to sell me to Preston and they perhaps felt they needed to offload some players. Maybe I should have dug my heels in and fought.”

Sayer wasn’t a prolific goalscorer but he did get on the scoresheet in a memorable 3-3 draw at Orient that I went to in April 1979, when Martin Chivers scored his only goal for the Albion and another former Spurs star, Ralph Coates, was among the scorers for the Os.Jackson concedes Sayer

The game was covered by ITV’s The Big Match and broadcast to the nation the day after the game. Sayer scored after ‘keeper John Jackson, who later became a goalkeeping coach at Brighton, parried a Paul Clark thunderbolt and the Welshman cracked in the rebound.

There’s a very detailed look back at Sayer’s career on pneformerplayers.co.uk by Ian Rigby. His report says: “Occasionally he quietly attends Deepdale to watch North End, but on his return to Cardiff City, as a guest, he is treated as a former star player, which he was.”

A televised third round FA Cup tie between Cardiff and Spurs in January 1977 thrust Sayer into the limelight when his winning goal was seen by millions and can still be seen on YouTube today.

Rigby recounts: “He controlled the ball with his head and, with four defenders converging upon him, he smashed the ball past Pat Jennings. A sponsored car was just one of the perks that came Peter’s way after that goal.”

Born in Cardiff on 2 May 1955, Sayer grew up in the city and went to Trelai Primary School then Cantonian Comprehensive School. He played for his school at all levels and at each successive age group for the Cardiff Schools representative side. That led to him winning Welsh international caps at schoolboy level and later at youth, under-21 and full levels too.

He was awarded a professional contract with Cardiff in July 1973 by then manager Jimmy Scoular but he had to wait until February 1974, by which time Scoular had been replaced by former Leicester and Man Utd boss Frank O’Farrell, to make his league debut as a substitute against Blackpool.

By 1975, just as he was beginning to establish himself, he suffered a broken leg and dislocated ankle in a game at Southampton. Eighteen months later, though, he had recovered sufficiently well to earn his first international honour, playing for Wales Under-21s against England, at Molineux.

Sayer ultimately earned seven full international caps including that Home International win against England and two World Cup qualifying games, one being the controversial game against Scotland at Anfield when a diabolical refereeing decision robbed the Welsh.

Nicknamed ‘Leo’ because he sported the same-style perm as the 70s Shoreham-born pop singer who shared the same surname, Sayer was a regular in the Albion’s 1978-79 promotion-winning side.

He initially retained his place as Brighton strove to come to terms with the top division but when Alan Mullery decided to switch the mercurial Mark Lawrenson from defence to midfield, it was at Sayer’s expense.

In August 1980, Preston manager Nobby Stiles, the England World Cup winner, paid £85,000 to take Sayer to Deepdale, but his career there was beset by injuries and he was released at the end of the 1983-84 season and signed for Chester City for one season.

He subsequently played non-league for Morecambe, Northwich Victoria, Chorley and Southport.

Pictures from my scrapbook show the Albion matchday programme photograph of Sayer scoring in that game against Orient and, from the BBC coverage of England v Wales at Wembley in 1977, the winger looking exasperated after his header has gone wide. Sayer was quite a dab hand at snooker, too.

One-season wonder winger Eric Potts was Wednesday legend

Potts stripesTWICE voted Sheffield Wednesday player of the year, Eric Potts was a busy winger who became something of a supersub during one season with Brighton.

The diminutive, ginger-haired Potts had been Wednesday’s man of the match when a packed Goldstone crowd of 30,756 saw Albion beat Wednesday 3-2 on 3 May 1977 to clinch promotion from Division 3.

Manager Alan Mullery clearly saw something in his performance that memorable evening to persuade him to part with a £14,000 fee to bring the wideman south for the Albion’s assault on Division 2.

It was a level Potts had played at before – under two different Owls managers, Derek Dooley and former Albion player Steve Burtenshaw.

Potts had spent seven years with the Owls and played 159 games but he had grown tired of being selected as a substitute and was itching to get some starts.

“I want to go places…not sit on the substitutes’ bench like I did eight times in the Third Division last season,” he told Shoot! magazine. “The First is my aim and that’s the reason I’m delighted to be joining Brighton.”

The season began well enough for Potts as he lined up in the no. 7 shirt for the first 21 matches of the season. But home grown winger Tony Towner came back into contention in November and took over the shirt, meaning Potts had to resort to that familiar place on the bench.

He was to have only five more starts in the rest of the season, getting on the scoresheet in three of them, but it was from the bench that he made most impact.

Fifteen times he came on as a sub between December and April and scored goals in three of them. Against Sunderland he actually got two in two minutes to turn what was a one goal deficit into a 2-1 win.

potts bwhsOlder fans will recall Albion narrowly missed out on a second successive promotion in 1978 but, despite his involvement across the season, Potts didn’t stay in Sussex.

Canny Mullery returned a decent profit on his investment as Preston North End paid £37,000 to take Potts to Deepdale where he spent two seasons.

His next move, for £20,000, was to nearby Burnley in September 1980, as manager Brian Miller sought to bounce straight back to Division 2 following relegation to the Third Division.

A wonderfully detailed profile of Potts, written for clarets-mad.co.uk by Tony Scholes, recorded how Potts scored seven goals in 58 appearances for Burnley, plus nine as a sub.

Born in Liverpool on 16 March 1950, Potts was brought up in the city and attended Anfield Comprehensive School just a stone’s throw from the famous football ground.

But it was slightly further afield where he started his career: as an amateur with Blackpool. When nothing came of it, he went into non-league football with New Brighton and Oswestry Town. His form at Oswestry attracted Wednesday who bought him for £5,000.

He made his debut for Wednesday in October 1970 but didn’t establish himself in the first team until towards the end of the 1972-73 season.

Once he was a regular, the Hillsborough faithful took to him and voted him player of the season in 1974-75 and 1975-76.

After his season on the south coast, Potts went on to collect a Third Division championship medal with Burnley even though towards the end of his time with the club he lost his place to Trevor Steven, who would later play for Everton, Rangers and England.

After just short of two years with Burnley, he moved to Bury, where he played for a further two years before retiring.

Scholes recalls how Potts played over 350 games for five clubs scoring a total of 42 goals and later played non-league football for Witton Albion and Clitheroe.

Both of his sons have played football. Eldest son Colin was initially with Preston but played all his first team football in non-league.

His youngest son Michael started as a schoolboy with Manchester United, before moving on to become a member of the Blackburn Rovers team that reached the semi-final of the FA Youth Cup in 2008-09.

Released in 2011, he signed for York City in the summer of that year at the age of 19 and on the opening day of the 2012-13 season, as a substitute, he made his Football League debut for York in a 3-1 home defeat against Wycombe.

In 2008, ‘surf’ on pne-online.net reported that Potts senior was a taxi driver in Preston.

Pictures from my scrapbook show Potts in action in Albion’s away kit and an article in Shoot! in which the winger talked about why he made the move south.

Cross the colossus majestic in promotion-winning season

1-cross-clincherGRAHAM Cross won promotion from the third tier in successive seasons – one with Brighton & Hove Albion, the next with Preston North End.

They came after a record-breaking 15-year spell with his hometown club Leicester City.

Cross was a tower of strength and ever-present in Alan Mullery’s 1976-77 promotion-winning team. He was so consistent that his fellow professionals named him and fellow Seagulls Brian Horton and Peter Ward in the division’s PFA team of the year.

One standout performance I recall was in a cracking League Cup replay at the Goldstone against Division 1 side Ipswich Town on 7 September 1976 (see picture above).

Despite the Albion being down to 10 men, having had Phil Beal carried off injured after sub Ian Mellor had already come on, Cross scored the winning goal two minutes from time to give Albion their first competitive victory against a first division team for 43 years!

“Graham had an absolutely tremendous 1976-77 season for us and I can’t speak too highly of him,” Mullery told Shoot! “When I first started planning for the new term I reckoned on having him in the side for our step up into the Second Division.”

G Cross BW HSHowever, when he realised he could land the highly promising 20-year-old Mark Lawrenson from Preston for £112,000, those plans changed.

Lawrenson had played brilliantly against the Albion during the promotion season and was eager to take the step up so he headed south together with full back Gary Williams and Cross and left back Harry Wilson went in the opposite direction.

“I wish him well at Preston and can assure their supporters they are getting one of the most honest lads in the game in Graham,” said Mullery.

Cross certainly played his part as Preston earned promotion from the third tier – one of his teammates was centre forward Michael Robinson, who joined Albion in 1980 – but in the following season the magic touch eluded him when he played 19 times for Lincoln City but didn’t manage to stop them being relegated to the Fourth Division.

3-gc-leicesterCross had been part of the furniture at Leicester and the meashamfox blog recalls how he scored on his debut on 29 April 1961 against Birmingham City in a 3-2 win at Filbert Street.

He was a real ‘Mr Versatility’ who played in eight different positions, although mostly  in midfield – the history books describe him as an inside forward or wing half – and at centre back.

During all the hullabaloo surrounding Leicester’s remarkable Premiership title win in 2016, there were flashbacks to the last time a Leicester side went that close to clinching the league title – in 1962-63 – with Cross a member of that side.

In an interview with the Leicester Mercury, his former Scottish international teammate Frank McLintock spoke about a so-called signature move called ‘the switch’ Leicester employed whereby Cross dropped back and McLintock bombed past him.

“It was a load of rubbish, really,” McLintock told the paper. “It was just that I was really fit and Graham, who was a great player, would be a bit puffed out when he got back. We just swapped positions for a bit.

“The opposition would get confused with who was picking up who. Even Bill Shankly copied it later on at Liverpool.”

Unlike the 2016 vintage, the 1963 side blew their title chances by losing their last four league games. However, they did reach the FA Cup Final that year. Cross was in the side that lost 3-1 to Manchester United. He was also in the Leicester side that lost the 1969 final 1-0 to Manchester City.

His performances in 1963 were good enough to earn him a call up to the England under 23 team, making his debut in a 0-0 draw with Yugoslavia at Old Trafford. In the return fixture two months later, he scored a penalty to supplement an Alan Hinton hat-trick as England won 4-2.

He was a permanent fixture in the side for 10 matches (including a 4-1 win over West Germany, when future Albion colleague Peter Grummitt was in goal). But in November 1964, Leeds’ Norman Hunter took over the no.6 shirt.

Cross was recalled for one more game, in April 1966, when the under 23s beat Turkey 2-0 at Ewood Park. Two of the side that day – Martin Peters and Roger Hunt – would go on to be part of the England World Cup winning team three months later, but Cross never progressed to the senior England team.

Nevertheless he did pick up a  League Cup winner’s medal when Leicester beat Stoke City in 1964 but was a loser the following year when they were beaten narrowly by a Chelsea side containing Barry Bridges and Bert Murray.

Three years before joining Brighton, Cross received a long service clock to mark 500 first class appearances.

Throughout this period, he was also one of that rare breed who played county cricket too.

A right-arm medium-fast bowler, he played 83 first class matches for Leicestershire between 1962 and 1976 and took 92 wickets at an average of 29.95. His top batting performance was a knock of 78.

I am indebted once more to the meashamfox blog to learn that it was Cross’ dual sporting prowess that eventually brought his Leicester career to an end.

In the summer of 1975, he was part of the Leicestershire side captained by Ray Illingworth that won the county championship and the Benson and Hedges Cup, making him the only man to have played in cup finals at Wembley and Lord’s.

But the Leicester board took a dim view of him carrying on playing cricket instead of reporting back for pre-season training and he was suspended.

He was sent out on loan to Chesterfield and played 12 times for them in the 1975-76 season, before being released.

He arrived at the Goldstone on May 25 1976 at the same time as full back (and future manager) Chris Cattlin.

Manager Peter Taylor had impeccable contacts in the Midlands and in Cattlin, from Coventry, and Cross, from Leicester, he acquired two experienced campaigners who had played at the top level in the game for many years.

Taylor’s intention was that Cross would have the sort of impact at Brighton that the ageing Dave Mackay had on Derby when Taylor and Brian Clough signed him from Spurs.G Cross LEic

Taylor had tried to sign Cross before, in the pair’s early days at Derby. Leicester even accepted an £80,000 bid but Cross prevaricated over the move and they turned their attentions elsewhere. He admitted his regret at missing out on the £4,000 cut of the deal but told Goal magazine: “I’m happy in Leicester and I’m pleased that I decided to stay.”

That decision would ultimately lead him to become the all-time appearance record holder for Leicester, having played 599 games; a feat still not surpassed.

Clough and Taylor were renowned for building their sides on solid defences and, having already captured Grummitt, Graham Winstanley, Andy Rollings and Wilson, Taylor added Ken Tiler, Dennis Burnett, Cattlin and Cross.

Taylor, of course, didn’t hang around to see how Cattlin and Cross would contribute. With only four weeks to go to the start of the season, he decided to quit and renew his partnership with Clough, this time at Nottingham Forest.

One of the first images fans saw of his replacement, Alan Mullery, showed him embracing Cross and Cattlin at the pre-season press photocall.

Cross mostly played alongside Rollings, with Burnett and Winstanley filling in when Rollings was sidelined.

Interestingly, Cross never actually moved to Brighton during his spell with the Seagulls: the deal he agreed allowed him to continue to train with Leicester because he and his wife had business interests in the Leicester area.

The meashamfox blog declared “Graham Cross was Leicester City’s finest ever player” although the author was also sad to report how in February 1993 “he had been jailed for using post office funds to pay off his gambling debts”.

The blog concluded: “Despite this blip in his life, for me ‘The Tank’ Graham Cross is a true Leicester legend.”

Pictures from my scrapbook show:

  • A cracking Argus picture and headline record the winner Graham Cross scored against Ipswich in the League Cup.
  • A full page colour photo in Goal magazine when at Leicester.
  • Celebrating his inclusion in the PFA division 3 team of the year with Brian Horton and Peter Ward at the annual awards dinner.
  • Another Goal article, from 1973, marking a clock presentation to Cross in recognition of 500 senior appearances for Leicester.
  • Cross in the Preston team line-up alongside Michael Robinson, who would eventually join the Seagulls via Manchester City.
Cross aged 77 was interviewed and photographed by The Times ahead of Leicester’s 2021 FA Cup Final win over Chelsea

Bowditch last ditch winner at Bradford as good as it got

Dean B debut

DEAN Bowditch made his Brighton and Hove Albion debut against MK Dons, who he eventually joined for arguably the most succcessful spell of his career.

It was in November 2006 when he came on as a second half substitute for Tommy Fraser as Brighton beat the football franchise outfit 4-1 in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy.

Bowditch, who after a promising start had struggled to gain a regular place at Ipswich Town, joined Dean Wilkins’ League One Seagulls on loan on the recommendation of two former Albion players.

Darren Currie and Dan Harding, who were Portman Road teammates at the time, convinced Bowditch it would be a good move to make.

“They told me about the club and said it’s a really nice place to be as well, and that I would really enjoy it, so that’s what made my decision,” he told the Argus.

Wilkins was clearly chuffed to capture the Ipswich youngster and told the Argus: “He’s been involved in ten Championship games this season, albeit coming off the bench sometimes, so it is a really good signing for us.

“Dean’s got good awareness and ability on the ball. He’s lively and he’s just under six foot. We are bringing in somebody who is very talented who maybe at some stage has lost his way a bit at Ipswich.”

Bowditch, who was only 20 then, also came off the bench in the following Saturday’s league game at Bradford City and netted the winner as Albion secured a third successive win on the road 3-2.

I was at Valley Parade that afternoon and remember Bowditch’s instant impact, laying the ball out wide to Alex Revell (another who went on to play for MK Dons) and then getting onto the end of Revell’s cross to steer the ball past the erratic City goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts.

Cue scenes of jubilation in the away end – and the astonishing sight of an over-zealous steward removing injured goalkeeper Wayne Henderson, who’d been standing with the fans, for the exuberance of his celebration!

It looked like the start of something good for Bowditch but sadly that was to be the only goal he scored for the Albion!

A teenage sensation when he made his Ipswich debut at 16 against fierce rivals Norwich City in 2003 (he set up both goals as a second half substitute in a 2-0 win), he represented England’s under 16, 17 and 18 teams playing alongside the likes of Aaron Lennon and James Milner.

Over two seasons between 2004 and 2006 he played 46 games at Championship level but, by his own admission, he didn’t deal with it well when manager Joe Royle left him out of the side.

When Jim Magilton took over, he gave Bowditch some starts at the beginning of the 2006-07 season but with the side losing he was dropped and then used mainly as a substitute.

Before arriving at the ‘Theatre of Trees’, he had already been to Burnley and Wycombe Wanderers on loan, neither of which worked out well.

DB actionBut on arrival at Brighton, he sounded upbeat about the temporary move. Interviews he gave to the Argus hinted at lots of promise (‘Bowditch vows to help Albion reach the play-offs’ was the headline on one piece) and he told Andy Naylor: “They don’t deserve to be in this league, they deserve to be in the league above…the amount of quality and desire in the team is fantastic…it’s not a very nice league and they need to be back up there playing against some really good teams.”

When his initial loan was extended to a second month, he told Naylor: “I love the club. It’s been brilliant so far. I’ve really enjoyed it here. I’ve come here a different person with a different mentality about the game, about how hard you have got to work.

“I’ve set standards and set myself a target of trying to make myself a better player but also getting into the team and scoring goals and getting games under my belt.”

But he was hampered by a niggling groin injury and actually only managed one start in addition to a couple of substitute appearances.

The following season he went out on loan again and his appearance tally got into double figures with Northampton Town. Wilkins then brought him back to Brighton for a second loan spell early in February 2008. He played five times but failed to get on the scoresheet.

The following season he was loaned to Brentford where he scored twice in nine appearances. When finally released by Ipswich in 2009, he joined Yeovil Town and at Huish Park he started to get into the groove. He managed to string some games together and, by the end of his first season, was the club’s top goalscorer.

Indeed his scoring rate for Yeovil was one every three games (25 in 75 appearances) but at the end of his second season in the West Country he declined the offer of a new contract and moved to MK Dons.

Now in his sixth season with them, he’s enjoyed the most prolific spell of his career, netting 48 goals in 218 appearances.

  • Argus headlines covering Dean Bowditch’s initial brief loan spell with the Albion.

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