OVER THE years there have been certain players, often strikers, who have fallen victim to the Brighton boo boys.

In recent times there was Chuba Akpom, a little further back Billy Paynter and former Newcastle United striker Leon Best, but, for the subject of this post, I’m going to recall another former Newcastle forward, Paul Kitson.

Kitson clocked up a total of just over 300 games across 16 years for nine different English clubs, and won seven caps for England under 21s, four of them in the same side as Dean Blackwell.

But, in an unhappy spell with the Seagulls in 2002-03, he managed only seven starts and three substitute appearances and scored just twice.

For whatever reason, he just never seemed to be fit and Brighton fans were short on patience. Even his surname is nearly an anagram of sicknote!

Back in August 2002, newly appointed manager Martin Hinshelwood was like the cat that got the cream. He told The Argus: “I’m very pleased. It’s my first signing and he is somebody we have been chasing for a couple of weeks.

“He’s had a lot of experience at Leicester, Derby, Newcastle and West Ham and he’s played with some quality strikers. That will help the younger players we have got in the squad.

“We have been patient, but it just shows we want to go for a bit of quality. He has played in the Premier League and hopefully he will be right for us.

“We are looking forward to playing him with Bobby Zamora. It will be a couple of weeks yet before he (Kitson) is fit, but it is a great signing for the club to get somebody of that calibre. It has taken a while, but he has agreed with us and I am really looking forward to working with him.”

Sadly, initially Zamora was injured and then Kitson suffered one injury after another and made just two substitute appearances between the middle of September and the start of April.

In one of its ‘rolling back the years’ features, The Argus recalled: “Albion fans who had been excited by his arrival had all but given up hope on Kitson.

“But manager Steve Coppell said all along the forward had something to offer and he came good in a Friday night game away to Reading.”

That was on 4 April 2003 and I remember it well having travelled to the game with Kev Bennett, who somehow managed to blag us into the hotel at the Madejski Stadium for pre-match drinks despite a ‘no away fans’ sign on the door!

Although the season would ultimately end in the disappointment of relegation, at the time Coppell’s side were battling to avoid the drop and they stepped up that battle at Reading.

“Paul Brooker put them ahead on 16 minutes but most people felt it was just a matter of time before Reading hit back,” said the Argus.

Cometh the hour, cometh the man – well 77 minutes actually. Kitson had been a surprise inclusion on the substitutes’ bench, but, five minutes after replacing the ineffectual Graham Barrett to play alongside Zamora, he finally earned his money when he headed home a Richard Carpenter free-kick to make it 2-0.

Jamie Cureton did pull one back for Reading in the closing minutes but Albion held on to win 2-1 to keep their slim survival hopes alive a little longer.

David Alexander for The Guardian wrote: “Reading’s lone striker Nicky Forster missed three clear chances to level after Brooker’s goal and Glen Little, the Burnley winger making his debut after joining Reading on loan, was twice denied, a header cleared off the line and a fierce volley saved by Dave Beasant.”

Kitson’s goal was his first in 17 months and, almost embarrassed by that statistic, didn’t celebrate. His teammates came out in the media afterwards to defend him.

Beasant, who like Kitson had spent most of his career at the top level, told The Argus: “He came on and did well. He’s a big, strong lad and every time I had the ball he wanted it from me.

“He’s played in the Premier Division and he showed he’s quick in mind as well. He wants to do well now. I think a lot of people have taken Kits the wrong way at this club.

“People are saying he hasn’t justified himself here, but he’s had a problem. He’s been injured and you can’t do anything when you are injured.”

Zamora added: “The lads see him in training, so we know what a quality player he is. Hopefully he will be injury free for the run-in.

“I was looking forward to playing with him when he signed. Nathan Jones has been playing with him in the Reserves recently and he’s had nothing but praise for him.”

Meanwhile boss Coppell acknowledged: “The supporters are like everybody here, we just want to see him play and play regularly.

“It’s like having a present you can’t open. Hopefully now we can take a few layers off and see what he’s made of.”

Born in County Durham, on 9 January 1971, Kitson was picked up by Leicester City as a youngster and came through their youth ranks before breaking through to the first team in 1989.

A young Paul Kitson in action for Leicester up against Albion’s Keith Dublin

He scored 11 goals in 63 games for Leicester and was called up for international duty with England under 21s, at the time managed by Ray Harford.

He made his debut as a substitute in a 2-1 win over Senegal in the Toulon tournament in the summer of 1991 when Alan Shearer scored England’s two goals and David James was in goal.

Kitson started the next game alongside Shearer and scored in a 6-0 win over Mexico. He also played in the final against France which England won 1-0, courtesy of a goal from Shearer.

Lawrie McMenemy then took over as manager for the 1991-92 season and Kitson played in four of their seven games, scoring twice.

In his last game, a 0-0 draw away to France in May 1992, he was replaced by future teammate Andy Cole.

By then, his club career had taken a major turn, promotion-chasing Derby, bankrolled by new chairman Lionel Pickering, having snapped him up for £1.3 million (with Phil Gee and Ian Ormondroyd going in the opposite direction as part of the deal).

County missed out on promotion to what would have been the first season of the Premier League when they lost in the play-offs….to Kitson’s old club, Leicester!

Under Arthur Cox at Derby, Kitson scored 49 goals in 132 appearances over two and a half years but not long into the season after they lost 2-1 in the play-off final – again to Leicester – he was heading back to his native north east.

It seems remarkable to think that Newcastle paid Derby an eyewatering £2,250,000 for Kitson in September 1994, especially as he was mainly a back-up to first choices Cole and Peter Beardsley.

Nevertheless, maybe the Magpies knew they would be selling Cole to Manchester United in January 1995. That departure gave Kitson the chance to start up front and he finished the season with eight goals in 26 games.

Goalscoring centre forwards are part of football folklore on Tyneside and the summer of 1995 saw the arrival of Les Ferdinand to fill that famous role.

With Faustino Asprilla also added to the mix as Newcastle challenged for top spot, only to finish five points behind Manchester United, Kitson’s chances were limited and he played only seven league games in the whole season.

It didn’t get much better in the summer of 1996 when Shearer arrived for a £15m fee. By February 1997, Kitson had played just three league games and, after playing only 36 games in three years, he was sold to struggling West Ham for £2.3m.

Manager Harry Redknapp also spent £3.3m on the bustling Welsh striker John Hartson and between them they scored the goals which kept the Hammers in the top division. Kitson scored on his debut in a 4-3 win over Spurs and finished with eight in 14 league games.

When he signed, Redknapp’s assistant, Frank Lampard senior, said: “The last man we signed from Newcastle was Bryan ‘Pop’ Robson in the 1970s and Paul has the same qualities. He is quick, sharp and has good physical attributes.”

In a game against Everton at Upton Park, Kitson scored twice for the Hammers but missed a penalty that would have given him a hat-trick and Everton nicked a point with a 90^th minute equaliser from Duncan Ferguson.

Redknapp was fuming in his post-match interviews, telling Dave Hadfield of the Independent: “If we had scored it, the game’s over,” he said. “But we’ve given it to a boy who isn’t interested in taking penalties. What is it? A testimonial match? We’re in a relegation battle.”

Normal penalty taker Julian Dicks was injured and Hartson was West Ham’s designated penalty taker but a heart-rules-head decision gave the task to Kitson. “That was the killer for us. I can’t believe the unprofessionalism of it,” Redknapp railed.

Hadfield reported: “Kitson, up to that point, was having the sort of game in which anyone would have backed him to put away the spot-kick with ease. His failure to do so could prove monumentally costly at the end of the season, which is a harsh judgement on a player who had looked a world beater in that first half.”

But the great escape was achieved and is re-told in the media from time to time. For example, it was recalled by Sid Lowe in The Guardian in 2010, when he described the signing of Kitson and Hartson as “footballing Red Adairs”.

“On the final day of the season, they slaughtered Sheffield Wednesday 5-1 to complete an implausible survival,” said Lowe. “Kitson got a hat-trick; Hartson got two. It could hardly be any other way. They had scored 12 in the last 13 games. ‘Without them, we would certainly have gone down,’ insisted Redknapp.”

At the time, West Ham fans hailed Kitson and Hartson as the best striking partnership since Tony Cottee and Frank McAvennie. While he would ultimately spend five years on West Ham’s books, it was never as good for Kitson after those final months of the 1996-97 season.

He did, though, get the chance to show Newcastle what they were missing when he scored against them in a 2-0 win at Upton Park in March 1999. After a couple of glaring misses, he finally got on the scoresheet in the 83^rd minute, as described by Gerry Cox in The Guardian: “The former Newcastle striker chased a long ball from Lampard, turned defenders Charvet and Andrew Griffin on the edge of the penalty area and slotted a low shot into the far corner of the goal.”

Kitson’s appearances became fewer than a handful, especially after Glenn Roeder became manager, although in November 2001 he produced a hat-trick in a 4-4 draw with Charlton that he has said was the highlight of his career.

The game was live on Sky and, after scoring the opening goal, Kitson twice equalised for the Hammers to claim the matchball…but they were the only goals he scored in the 2001-2002 season, and were his last in claret and blue.

West Ham sent him out on loan spells to both Charlton and Crystal Palace before finally releasing him on a Bosman free transfer to Brighton in the summer of 2002.

After his injury-plagued season with the Seagulls ended in relegation for the club, Kitson was released and moved to Rushden and Diamonds, who, at the time, had risen to the dizzy heights of English football’s third tier.

They were managed by the former Ipswich, Arsenal and England midfielder Brian Talbot.

On 30 September 2003, I recall my one and only visit to Nene Park to watch Brighton take on Rushden.

Goals from Guy Butters, Leon Knight and Zesh Rehman earned the Albion a 3-1 win. Kitson was on the Rushden subs bench and, although he did get on in the 62^nd minute in place of David Bell, he wasn’t able to score against his old club.

At the time, he was on non-contract terms and playing for nothing but eventually he managed 28 appearances for them and helped himself to five goals.

The following year, Aldershot was to be his final club before retiring after just one game for them.

Reports say he returned to the north east after his playing days were over.

THE SUMMER of 1987 saw Brighton & Hove Albion back in the old Third Division for the first time in 10 years.

It was the start of manager Barry Lloyd’s first full season in charge and he had gone back to his old club Chelsea to recruit his no.2, head coach Martin Hinshelwood, and a new captain for the Seagulls in rugged centre half Doug Rougvie, for a fee of £73,000.

Many years later, Gus Poyet brought in another Scottish captain in Gordon Greer. Rougvie certainly didn’t have Greer’s ability on the ball but he had been a European Cup Winners’ Cup winner with Aberdeen and he wasn’t afraid to put himself about.

Rougvie had a regular Captain’s Column in the 1987-88 season’s matchday programme, and for the opening game against York City, he wrote: “I’m delighted to be rewarded with the captaincy. It’s a great honour for me and my family.

“With five new players at the club, a new coach in Martin Hinshelwood and Barry Lloyd beginning his first full season in charge, I’m sure I won’t be the only person feeling a bit nervous in the dressing room.”

Born in Ballingry, Fife, on 24 May 1956, Rougvie signed schoolboy forms for Dunfermline Athletic at the age of 12 and his favourite player was another uncompromising centre half, Roy Barry, who after playing for Dunfermline headed south and played for Coventry City when they were regulars amongst the elite.

Rougvie joined Aberdeen in 1972 and had a loan spell at junior club Rosemount before getting a first team chance under future Scotland manager Ally McLeod in the 1975-76 season. He was largely overlooked by McLeod’s successor, Billy McNeill, but when Alex Ferguson arrived his fortunes changed.

It was a leg break for regular centre half Willie Garner that gave him his opportunity to step in and he eventually made 279 appearances for the Dons over eight years. Ferguson sparked a huge revival in Aberdeen’s fortunes and Rougvie was involved as they won two Scottish league titles, three Scottish Cups, and the European Super Cup. The highlight, though, was undoubtedly being part of the side that beat Real Madrid 2-1 in the final of the 1983 European Cup Winners’ Cup in Gothenburg.

That side was captained by Willie Miller and included Alex McLeish at centre back, Gordon Strachan in midfield and future Albion manager Mark McGhee up front.

On 13 December that year, Jock Stein selected him at left back for his one and only Scotland cap, featuring in a 2-0 defeat against Northern Ireland at Windsor Park, Belfast, in what was the last game of the old British Championship.

afcheritage.org recalls: “Big Doug had no international pedigree to speak of at youth or under-21 level, but was picked on the strength of his impressive club performances, particularly in big European competitions.” He was one of five Aberdeen players in that side, the others being goalkeeper Jim Leighton, McLeish, Strachan and Peter Weir, and McGhee came on in the second half as a substitute.

At the start of the 1984-85 season, to coincide with Chelsea’s promotion back to the top division, Rougvie headed to Stamford Bridge. The size of the fee involved varies depending on what source you read. It’s most commonly said to have been £150,000 although Rougvie told Brighton’s matchday programme it was £215,000.

In a highly entertaining interview Rougvie gave to The Scotsman in 2014 about the move south, he told reporter Alan Patullo: “He (Ferguson) called me a mercenary and told me to f**k off, so I f**ked off.”

Rougvie’s three seasons at Chelsea were far from plain-sailing and by popular opinion it would seem his capacity for tough tackling was counterbalanced by a lack of pace that was cruelly exposed.

In the highly irreverent footie banter magazine thedaisycutter.co.uk, writer Noel Draper took an amusing swipe at Rougvie on 9 February 2012.

“Footballers are fickle creatures,” he wrote. “Watch them in one team and they appear to be footballing gods, commanding the game, making outrageous passes and winning every tackle. Watch them play for someone else and they turn into a shadow of their former selves, hiding in full view, hitting passes into the crowd and missing tackles. Doug Rougvie was such a footballer.”

Draper continues: “One rather unkind journalist said, ‘If he were any more limited he could be quoted on the Stock Exchange’.”

The piece maintains: “The Chelsea fans loved him instantly, not for his skills, but for his passion and commitment. He also seemed to love scoring own goals and pulling defeat from the jaws of victory. A reckless challenge here, a sending off there, it seemed that nothing would stop Doug ‘Rambo’ Rougvie.”

He was sent off whilst playing against Wimbledon after 10 minutes for head butting John Fashanu and “scored an own goal at Wembley that resulted in an easy 5-1 victory becoming a heart stopping 5-4 win against Manchester City”.

On another occasion, he was in a Chelsea side on the wrong end of a 6-0 thumping from QPR in the days of their artificial pitch at Loftus Road. The future Albion striker John Byrne was playing up front for QPR alongside Gary Bannister, who scored a hat-trick, and in an interview with bbc.co.uk, Byrne recalled: “We tore them to shreds. Doug Rougvie, who was playing at centre-back for Chelsea, was a fearsome player and he was absolutely furious. By the end, Doug was looking for blood.

“We had the Milk Cup final coming up a couple of weeks later. Banno and me didn’t want to get injured so having destroyed Chelsea, we spent the last part of the match avoiding Doug, who was an angry man.

“We stayed away from him. Banno went to play on one wing and I went and played on the other!”

In Brighton’s Division 3 side in the 1987-88 season, Rougvie was virtually ever-present until March, as the Seagulls hovered close to the promotion places as well as having enjoyed the distraction of playing Arsenal at home in the fourth round of the FA Cup.

Rougvie wrote in his programme notes: “The most important thing for us is to win promotion although the FA Cup is a great diversion for the lads and we’ll be doing our utmost to spring a surprise.”

The average Brighton home crowd that season was around 8,000 but for the Arsenal game 26,467 packed into the Goldstone. A terrific volleyed goal from Garry Nelson gave the Albion hope, but Arsenal won through 2-1.

With parallels of 1972, when Pat Saward dropped captain John Napier for the final run-in towards promotion from the same division, after a 1-0 defeat away at Rotherham, Lloyd dropped Rougvie in favour of another former Chelsea defender, Robert Isaac, and the captain’s armband switched to Steve Gatting.

Rougvie returned for what would be his last game in the stripes – a 2-0 home win over Gillingham – but Isaac regained the no.5 shirt for the remaining seven games of the season, including the promotion-clinching 2-1 win against Bristol Rovers in front of 19,800 at the Goldstone.

So, after playing a total of 46 league and cup games, Rougvie’s Albion career was over and at the end of the season he departed for Shrewsbury Town, where he made 21 appearances.

He then went back to West London to play 18 games for Fulham before returning to his first club, Dunfermline, to help their 1989-90 promotion push.

He subsequently became player-manager at Montrose before ending his playing days at Highland League team Huntly. In the late 90s, Rougvie was still pulling on his boots, turning out for Aberdeen amateur league side Kincorth AFC.

That 2014 interview in The Scotsman revealed that Rougvie was back in Aberdeen working for the engineering firm Costain, having gone back to college in his mid-forties to complete studies he had begun before his football career and gain an HNC in electrical engineering.

His only football involvement at that time was watching Aberdeen and he said: “If I was still in football I would be divorced right now. Whether you are part-time or full-time, if you aren’t watching football, you are talking about it, on the phone to players, taking training. It is non-stop. I admire the boys who are in the game but still able to have that happy home life too.”

Pictures from the Albion programme and the Argus plus a Shoot! magazine Q&A when Rougvie was at Chelsea.
Further reading

http://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/doug-rougvie-pulls-no-punches-on-sir-alex-ferguson-1-3331981

http://www.afcheritage.org/history/darkbluedons/index.cfm?player_id=212

PHIL BEAL was a Tottenham Hotspur legend so it seemed like quite a coup when in 1975 Third Division Brighton signed a player who had played at the top level for over a decade.

However, in a fairly recent interview, Beal said signing for Brighton was “the worst thing I’ve ever done”. At the time he certainly had a different outlook. Shoot incorporating Goal began an article about him: “A gladiatorial display by Phil Beal for his new club Brighton against Rotherham was loudly acclaimed by the supporters who revelled in the strength and guile the ex-Spurs player had brought to their side.

“The immensely experienced Beal had wielded a pattern of play that sent the supporters home humming happily, relishing the 3-0 win and calculating the prospects of the new season.”

Beal told the magazine: “It’s a great feeling to have a crowd behind you like that. Their reaction impressed me just like everything else did when I visited the club for the first time to meet manager Peter Taylor.

“I knew nothing at all about the club and, to be honest, I thought it might be a tin-shed type of place. What an eye opener it turned out to be.

“I had imagined the Third Division to be a big step down, not just in terms of football but in terms of everything else too. But I found they had new offices, new dressing rooms and medical rooms and when they travel they go first class, stay in first class hotels and even use the same coach company as Spurs.

“The set-up is easily as good as many First Division clubs. The pitch, for instance, is a nice size and allows you to make room to play. Some pitches are tight and cramped but not at the Goldstone Ground.

“When I saw how great things were off the field I felt they must want the same quality on it and that persuaded me. Like Tottenham, Brighton aim to play football….which is what I am all for. I don’t want to know about kick and rush…the big boot up the field, a challenge and then back it comes….that’s not for me.”

But let’s go back to where it all began. Born in Godstone, Surrey, on 8 January 1945, Beal joined Spurs at 15 after impressing Bill Nicholson’s assistant manager, Harry Evans, while playing for Surrey Schoolboys v Kent at The Valley (Charlton) in 1960.

The website spursforlife.com detailed his rise to the first team, saying he was “the first of the modern youth team to climb through the ranks of the trainees, juniors and reserves to claim a first team place.”

In those days apprentice footballers were responsible for cleaning the senior players’ boots as well as the balls, dressing rooms and gym. Beal said it was a great time to be involved at Spurs because they clinched that historic first double in 1961 and, as a 16-year-old, he felt part of it.

In a tottenhamhotspur.com feature, Beal paid tribute to the great Dave Mackay’s influence on his fledgling career.

“The first team players involved the apprentices, and when they won the Cup to clinch the Double we were invited to all the functions afterwards,” he said. “I had my picture taken with Jimmy Greaves. Also, because I lived so far away, John White used to let me stay at his place in Southgate after we’d played youth or reserve matches.

“The player who has always stood out in my mind, however, on how to be a professional footballer and make it to the top, was Dave Mackay.

“When we used to train in the afternoons, Dave would always come and train with the youngsters. He’d train with the first team in the morning, have lunch and then come back.

“We’d have 5-a-sides and Dave was very competitive. He didn’t stand any messing around – you had to win. He’d encourage, but if you did something wrong he’d have a go.

“His dedication really opened my eyes to what it would take to make it and, looking at the Double team, I knew how hard it was going to be.”

Phil made a winning First Division debut at Aston Villa on 16 September 1963 when he deputised for the legendary Danny Blanchflower, who by then was 37. But it took a further two years before he earned the chance to establish himself at right back after Maurice Norman was seriously injured at the start of the 1965-66 season.

My main memories of him at Spurs were as a sweeper alongside Welsh international Mike England but he played in eight different positions for them during the earlier part of his career.

A broken arm sustained against Manchester City prevented him being part of the 1967 FA Cup winning team against Chelsea, ironically opening the door for future Brighton teammate Joe Kinnear to establish himself at right back.

It was on his return to the side that he stepped into that role alongside England, and where he enjoyed a lot of success.

Beal played in the League Cup winning teams of 1971 and 1973, the UEFA Cup winning team of 1972 and was on the losing side in the final of the same competition in 1974. He was awarded a testimonial against Bayern Munich in December 1973.

Recalling that 1972 European win in a recent interview with tottenhamhotspur.com, Beal said: “We beat some good teams along the way and nothing was better than beating AC Milan in the semi-final. I remember walking out at the San Siro in front of 70,000 hostile people and an iron bar landed right by my foot.

“They had a midfielder called Bonetti who spat in my face. I hated that, so I chinned him. He laid down and Mike England said: ‘You’d better get down Bealy’. So I went down and held my ankle.

“The ref came over and booked us, but he put Steve Perryman’s number 10 down instead. I got booked later and didn’t get sent off! Because they got beat they were rocking our coach on the way out.”

The website said Beal was known “for his calm, safety-first approach in a Spurs defence that provided the platform for the flair players to perform in the opposition’s half”.

Spurs’ captain through much of that time, and future Brighton manager, Alan Mullery, spoke highly of Beal in his autobiography. “Phil Beal was very underrated. He had the tough task of taking over from Mackay when he went to Derby and I never thought Phil got the credit he deserved,” he said.

When Bill Nicholson resigned in 1974, it was to hasten his own departure from the club a year later. Together with Martin Peters he sought to persuade Nicholson to change his mind, but without success. “I liked him as a man. He respected us and used to listen to people,” said Beal.

New manager Terry Neill brought in Don McAllister to play at the heart of the back four and, at the end of the 1974-75 season, Beal was given a free transfer as part of a clear out of some of the experienced players. He had clocked up 479 appearances for Spurs plus four as a sub.

While the move to Brighton had initially all seemed positive, perhaps his view in hindsight relates to the fact Peter Taylor wasn’t afraid to shuffle the pack and bring in new people, and adding Dennis Burnett after the opening five games stymied Beal’s chances of lining up alongside Andy Rollings.

Ken Tiler was ensconced as the first choice right back, although fellow ex-Spur Kinnear, who’d signed for Brighton as well, took over the spot when injury kept Tiler sidelined in the final third of the season. Beal began in Albion’s midfield, but Ernie Machin, Peter O’Sullivan and Ian Mellor were preferred as the season progressed; Machin eventually being replaced by new signing Brian Horton in March.

These were the days, of course, of only one sub and, by the season’s end, Beal had played just nine games plus one as sub, and was a non-playing sub on another occasion.

Off the pitch, Beal had clearly taken heed of the way the old pros looked after the youngsters at Spurs and applied similar principles when he joined Brighton. He arrived on the south coast a fortnight after Peter Ward signed as a 20-year-old and Ward briefly shared a club house in Rottingdean with Beal and Neil Martin, and one or other of the senior pros would give Wardy a lift into training.

With Brighton narrowly missing out on promotion, the competition for places intensified for Beal and Kinnear when Taylor signed experienced defenders Graham Cross and Chris Cattlin before quitting to rejoin Clough at Forest.

However, when it was announced Taylor’s replacement was former Spur Mullery, they might have been forgiven for thinking their fortunes with Brighton were going to change. How wrong they would be.

Mullery was in a quandary. He had only just finished playing and he inherited a squad of 36 professionals, two of whom were his former teammates, and many who were much the same age as him. Any display of favouritism would not have gone down well amongst the group, and he consulted Nicholson for some advice. Nicholson told him that regardless of who they were, if Mullery didn’t think they were up to the job he would have to respond accordingly.

Kinnear never did play a game under Mullery having been told he wasn’t fit enough while Beal managed just two games at right back.

One of them came in the memorable 2-1 League Cup second round defeat of Bobby Robson’s First Division Ipswich Town, but Beal was stretchered off with an ankle injury – and never played for the Albion again.

Argus reporter John Vinicombe was full of praise for Beal who had been nursing an ankle injury ahead of the game.

“Beal would have been well within his rights in declaring himself unfit,” wrote Vinicombe. “Such selfless courage brought cruel reward when he went down and he was on his way to hospital when Cross muscled through for the winner.” An x-ray later revealed Beal had suffered deep bruising of his right ankle.

By the time Mullery steered the side to promotion at the season’s end, Beal had left the club. In early February 1977, together with Burnett, he reached a financial settlement with the club and played non league with Ilford for the remainder of the season before heading to the United States to play for Los Angeles Aztecs alongside George Best, Ron Davies, Terry Mancini and Charlie Cooke.

The following season he played for Memphis Rogues, coached by former Chelsea full back Eddie McCreadie, where, amongst his teammates, was Neil Smillie, later to join Albion from Crystal Palace, and the former Everton and Luton Town striker, Jimmy Husband. The goalkeeper was Tony Burns, who’d played for Brighton in the mid 1960s, and the team also included Arsenal cup winner Eddie Kelly and the colourful Alan Birchenall.

Back in England for the 1979-80 season, Beal turned out four times for lowly Crewe Alexandra, but when the legendary Bobby Moore took over as manager of non-league Oxford City in December 1979, Beal was one of a flurry of new signings the former England captain made, and he appeared 12 times before finally hanging up his boots.

Beal dropped out of football once his playing days were over and moved with his family to Cornwall. But he returned to Spurs as a corporate hospitality host on matchdays, working alongside Pat Jennings.

“I enjoy my work at Spurs because I’m Tottenham through and through and enjoy going back,” he said. “I’ve no regrets. I played over 400 games for Tottenham and enjoyed every minute of it. If I had my time again I would do exactly the same.”

Further reading:

http://spursforlife.com/phil-beal/

http://www.tottenhamhotspur.com/history/past-players/phil-beal/

CHRIS Hutchings is better known to today’s football followers as a manager or, on no less than four occasions, assistant manager to Paul Jewell.

Back in the 80s, though, he played full back for Brighton for four years before moving on to Huddersfield Town for a three-year spell.

Born in Winchester on 5 July 1957, Hutchings was on Southampton’s books as a youngster but they didn’t keep him on and he became a bricklayer while playing part-time football with Harrow Borough. Chelsea manager Geoff Hurst saw him play well in a friendly match against Tottenham Hotspur and a £10,000 fee took him to Chelsea in 1980.

He played 101 games for them over three years, and told Richard Newman’s Football the Albion and Me podcast how Chelsea legend Alan Hudson took him under his wing and showed him the ropes of the professional game. In an interview in an Albion matchday programme, Hutchings recalled his Chelsea debut as a favourite football moment.

“We were away to Cardiff and I travelled with the team as sub,” he said. “One of the lads got injured in the first half and I was straight into the action. It was a great day for me. Everything seemed to go right. I was playing in midfield. We won 1-0. I scored the winner and I even had another ‘goal’ disallowed. I’ll never forget that match.”

It was in November 1983 that he signed for Brighton for £50,000 and he has a place in the Albion history book Seagulls, The Story of Brighton & Hove Albion FC (by Tim Carder and Roger Harris) for an incident when playing for Chelsea in their first ever league visit to The Goldstone earlier that season.

There had been trouble in Brighton the night before the game when rival fans clashed and 8,000 Chelsea fans swelled the crowd to 20,874, infiltrating all parts of the ground (the picture shows how tightly packed fans were in the North Stand).

“At the final whistle the hooligans invaded the pitch from all unfenced areas to launch a vicious assault on the hopelessly outnumbered police,” the history book recalls.

It was only the arrival of a police horse that finally managed to quell the disorder by which time seven policeman were injured and the North end goal broken.

The Sports Minister of the time ordered an inquiry and both clubs were cleared of blame. But Hutchings was charged with threatening and abusive behaviour for swearing at police trying to clear the pitch.

Two months later, after Chris Cattlin had taken over from Jimmy Melia, Hutchings was one of three new players he brought in (Steve Penney and Danny Wilson were the others).

He had yet to appear before Hove magistrates. And he was in further trouble on the pitch when he was one of five Albion players sent off before the New Year.

Eventually the court fined him £250 although Hutchings’ version of events was that all he did was to applaud the Chelsea fans and when a policeman told him to get off the pitch he told him to f**k off!

Like his manager, Hutchings was able to play right or left back. Generally he featured on the left side, although in the 1985-86 season Graham Pearce had a long run as no.3 and Hutchings wore no.2.

In a Tony Norman interview for the programme in 1985, it was revealed Hutchings was quite the handyman about his house in Rottingdean. He was into painting and decorating, and wasn’t averse to a spot of simple car maintenance either.

When Cattlin – and Pearce – left the Albion in the summer of 1986, Hutchings returned to the left back spot under Alan Mullery and carried on there when Barry Lloyd took over.

In January 1987, just days after Lloyd had taken over from Mullery, Albion were in the lower half of the third tier and the crowds had slumped to below 10,000.

Hutchings told interviewer Tony Norman: “Nothing would make me happier than to see the side playing to its full potential and big crowds returning to the Goldstone.

“When the stadium is packed, it’s a great place to play football.”

However, as part of the wholesale changes brought about by Albion’s relegation, Lloyd signed Keith Dublin from Chelsea as his first choice left back, and Hutchings was put on the transfer list.

He wasn’t done with the Albion quite yet, though, and played the first four months of that Third Division season in midfield before eventually moving on to Huddersfield, who were managed at the time by the former Newcastle, Arsenal and England centre forward, Malcolm Macdonald.

Hutchings played more games for Albion – 174 – than any of the other clubs he represented. One of his teammates at Huddersfield was a familiar face from his Goldstone career: Kieran O’Regan, who was a Town regular for six seasons. O’Regan stayed with Hutchings when he initially moved to Yorkshire and the pair still stay in touch and play golf together.

After making 110 appearances for Huddersfield, Hutchings joined Walsall for a season, in 1990-91, when another former teammate, Tony Grealish, was a coach. Hutchings played 40 games for the Saddlers but travelling to and from his home in Holmfirth meant it wasn’t an ideal arrangement.

Next stop, between 1991 and 1994, he played 78 times for Rotherham United under manager Phil Henson and John Breckin, who, as he wound down his playing days, encouraged him to take on coaching duties. He started coaching the Millers youth team but when Archie Gemmill and John McGovern took over as joint managers, he was a victim of the wage bill being cut.

He then had a spell out of the game, becoming a second hand car salesman temporarily, before he took his first step into management at Bradford City, becoming assistant to Chris Kamara, the Sky TV pundit who was manager of the Yorkshire club at the time.

When Kamara was replaced by Jewell, Hutchings stayed on as part of a duo who would subsequently crop up at a variety of clubs in the coming years.

Arguably the pair’s greatest success was getting Bradford promoted to the Premier League. During the 2000-01 season, when Jewell moved to Sheffield Wednesday, Hutchings briefly took charge and must have enjoyed securing a 2-0 win over Chelsea (although the result was too much for the Stamford Bridge hierarchy, who promptly sacked their manager, Gianluca Vialli).

However, the joy was shortlived because it was the only win in 12 Premier League games and Hutchings was sacked after being in charge for just 137 days.

As several media outlets pointed out earlier this season, it might have been a brief tenure but it wasn’t as short as Frank de Boer’s at Palace!

Next stop for Jewell and Hutchings was Premier League Wigan Athletic between 2001 and 2007. As happened at Bradford, when Jewell resigned in May 2007, Wigan chairman Dave Whelan handed over the managerial reins to Hutchings.

“He’s one of the best and most knowledgeable coaches in the Premiership,” said Whelan.

But after six successive defeats, and Wigan floundering in the bottom three, he was sacked in November 2007 – a 2-0 loss to Chelsea being the final straw for Whelan.

His route back into football, in January 2008, was briefly to assist caretaker manager Chris Brass at Bury on a voluntary basis, but, by April, he was linking up with Jewell once again, this time at Derby County.

The pair were with the Championship club less than a year, however, and when Jewell went in December 2008, Hutchings had just one game as caretaker before Nigel Clough took over the helm, and Hutchings left the club.

He wasn’t out of work for long, though, because one of his old clubs, Walsall, took him on as no.1 in his own right in January 2009. With Martin O’Connor as his assistant, the pair had two years with the League One club.

The chop came in January 2011 with The Saddlers bottom of League One, eight points adrift from safety.

Chairman Jeff Bonser told the Walsall website: “Their preparation and professionalism has been second to none but we are in a results business.

“Chris and Martin have both worked extremely hard during their time at the club.

“They have both been professional throughout and conducted themselves with great dignity in what have been difficult times.”

A fortnight later, Hutchings was back in work, linking up once more with Jewell, this time at Ipswich Town, who had parted company with Roy Keane.

The pair managed to steer Town clear of relegation but the 2011-12 season was one of struggle and they finished in a disappointing 15^th place.

Jewell was unable to bring in the players he wanted during the summer and instead signed eight on loan. It was not a recipe for success and, by October 2012, Ipswich were bottom of the Championship.

Jewell departed and Hutchings remained in caretaker charge until Ipswich appointed Mick McCarthy and Terry Connor.

In July 2013, with Hutchings not having found a route back into league football, he took on the role of no.2 at Shropshire non league outfit Market Drayton Town.

When Shrewsbury Town replaced Graham Turner with caretaker manager Mike Jackson in February 2014, Hutchings was recruited as a coach to assist with training.

However, a month later his old Brighton teammate Danny Wilson, who had taken over as manager at League One Barnsley, took Hutchings to Oakwell as his assistant manager.

Wilson told the club website: “Chris has been a friend and confidant over many years since playing together. Chris has done very well with clubs at all levels that he has worked at.

“His experience will be invaluable as we go into the final ten games of the season and I am delighted that he has come to help us out.”

On Valentine’s Day the following year, the pair were chopped. The club were 17th in League One having won only 10 of their 29 games at that point.

Hutchings was a popular subject for the Brighton matchday programme producers, often appearing on covers and featuring in the player profile feature. The pictures are a selection of these. Plus a couple of headlines from his managerial career.