Month: August 2018

Echoes of the Cross effect in Albion’s signing of Simon ‘Mr Fulham’ Morgan

Morgs stripesSIMON MORGAN was “Mr Fulham” and, in more than 400 appearances in 11 years, he saw relegation to the basement division and promotion to the Premiership.

It was one of his former Fulham managers, Micky Adams, who was responsible for him joining Brighton – who he also helped to promotion.

The move south followed Morgan’s release by Fulham in 2001. Having steered Brighton to promotion from Division 3, Adams wanted to bring some added experience to the back line.

Almost three decades earlier, the signing of former Leicester stalwart Graham Cross had been an inspired move that helped Albion gain promotion from the third tier, and in 2001-02, the signing of the experienced Morgan had the same effect.

Cross had been the final signing made by Peter Taylor before he left to rejoin Brian Clough, and, just as his replacement Alan Mullery had reaped the benefit of the experienced defender, so did the younger Peter Taylor benefit from Morgan’s contribution, after he had taken over as boss from Adams, who was lured to Leicester as Dave Bassett’s no.2.

To add in yet another Leicester dimension to this story, the Foxes were Birmingham-born Morgan’s first club. He made 182 appearances (168 starts + 14 as sub) in six years at Filbert Street, Gordon Milne giving him his debut in October 1985 at left-back in a 3-0 defeat away to Coventry City.

His first two seasons were played in the top division but Leicester then dropped down to the second tier and, in the 1989-90 season, by which time David Pleat was in charge, Morgan featured in only 20 games, his final appearance coming as a sub in a 3rd round FA Cup exit to Barnsley. Alan Dicks paid a £100,000 fee to take him to Third Division Fulham in October 1990.

Managers came and went at Craven Cottage but Morgan remained for 11 years and was described by sport.co.uk as “a significant and full-blooded contributor during a dark time in the club’s history”.

The Fulham fanzine There’s Only One F in Fulham published a tribute-packed, fund-raising brochure devoted to Morgan during his testimonial year, which rather appropriately was sponsored by Captain Morgan rum.

morgs and PT colour by SD

Morgan’s influence alongside Danny Cullip in Brighton’s third tier promotion side was highlighted by Dick Knight, club chairman at the time, in his autobiography Mad Man: From the Gutter to the Stars, the Ad Man who saved Brighton.

Knight said Morgan was “a very experienced cripple – chronic knee problems meant that he couldn’t train, could hardly run.” He explained: “On the pitch, he never moved beyond an area about the size of my kitchen, but he read the game brilliantly, positioned himself perfectly to pick up everything that came into the box.

“I’ve never seen a player who used his brain more, apart from Bobby Moore. Simon was superb. What a player, and a great personality.”

Knight also talked about Morgan’s hilarious Simon says weekly column in The Argus about the escapades of the players. “He wrote it himself – it wasn’t ghosted. I encouraged it because it was another way of showing the human side of the club. It revealed the players as characters, real people rather than distant idols.”

Darren Freeman, a former Fulham colleague, who also played for Brighton, told theleaguepaper.com that Morgan was the “funniest player I ever knew – and the most miserable at the same time”.

Freeman said: “He’d moan about anything and everything. If he hadn’t been a footballer, we always said he’d have made a great Victor Meldrew impersonator.

“But he was also a great captain and a great character with quite a dry sense of humour. He used to make me laugh a lot and he used to get the best out of everyone he played with, especially the younger lads coming through.”

A sample of his wit appeared in one of his first Argus columns in 2001 and he concluded it by wishing well to his old club Fulham as they began their Premiership campaign. “Five years ago, on August 17, 1996, Fulham kicked off their Third Division campaign at home to Hereford,” Morgan wrote. “A certain Mr M. Adams was the manager and the squad included Messrs Cullip, Watson, Morgan and Brooker. It just shows what is possible. Where will Brighton be in five years’ time?”

Well, as we know, it took Albion slightly longer to reach the promised land but nonetheless they had secured promotion back to the second tier by that season’s end and Morgan once again used his Argus column to sum up the achievement, having a dig along the way at the various critics who had doubted Brighton’s ability to finish off the job.

“This current Brighton team is only the eighth in the history of League football to win back-to-back championships. Records have been smashed as the team has surged into the First Division. Is it a fairy tale or a miracle? However you describe the wonderful adventure, it certainly hasn’t been lucky,” he wrote.

“Amazingly we lost only six league games this season. Three of those were on a Friday night and two live on television. The demise of ITV digital will not be mourned in Sussex.”

Meanwhile Argus reporter Andy Naylor’s verdict on Morgan declared: “Dependable partner for Cullip. Hardly put a foot wrong. Adding the former Fulham stalwart to the squad was the best bit of business Micky Adams did last summer. Will be sorely missed if a knee problem forces him to retire.”

Unfortunately, Morgan accepted specialist advice that he wouldn’t manage a season at the higher level and, after only 10 months away, he returned to Fulham in an off-field capacity, heading up the club’s community scheme, before finally bidding farewell in June 2007.

He took up a position as the Premier League’s Head of Community Development – a role overseeing the community schemes of all 20 Premiership clubs. He subsequently became Head of Football Relations.

Main picture: Simon Morgan welcomed to the Withdean by Micky Adams, also, with manager Peter Taylor with the Division 2 winners’ trophy (photo Simon Dack). In Fulham colours below.

morgan fulham

Imperious Mark Lawrenson starred at Brighton before hitting Liverpool heights

MARK LAWRENSON was without doubt in my mind the best player ever to play for Brighton and Hove Albion. Peter Ward was exceptional but Lawrenson did it for Brighton and went on to have a glittering career with Liverpool, the top club in the country at the time.

And, whatever your thoughts about his contribution as a pundit – and many are very disparaging – you can’t take away his longevity on our TV screens and across our media.

Although now slightly less prominent as a TV pundit, for a good many years, Lawrenson reprised his successful Liverpool central defensive partnership with Alan Hansen in the BBC Match of the Day studios.

But where did it all begin? Born on 2 June 1957 in Penwortham, Lancashire, Lawrenson joined nearby Preston at 17 in 1974, who at the time were managed by the legendary Bobby Charlton.

Lawrenson made his full debut for the Lilywhites the following year, two months before his 18th birthday. However, it was Charlton’s fellow World Cup winner, Nobby Stiles, to whom Lawrenson was most grateful.

“I was a winger when I joined Preston, while he was coach, and he was the one who converted me to my present position – in the middle of the back four,” Lawrenson told Keir Radnedge in Football Weekly News.

“Nobby was very good with the youngsters. He was almost like a father-figure. He commanded respect not only because of what he’d achieved himself but because of the way he’d help iron out your faults.”

At the age of 19, and thinking he’d never be good enough to play for England, Lawrenson opted to play for the Republic of Ireland when player-manager Johnny Giles (perhaps not coincidentally, Nobby’s brother-in-law) found out that he qualified to play for them through his grandfather.

That debut for Ireland in April 1977, in a 0-0 draw with Poland, came at the end of a season in which he was voted Preston’s Player of the Year.

Within weeks, he joined the Albion for £112,000 (£100,000 + VAT @ 12 per cent) after Brighton manager Alan Mullery persuaded Albion to outbid Liverpool to get their man.

Shoot article

Mullery recalled in his 2006 autobiography how he had taken the board of directors to see Lawrenson perform superbly in an end-of-season game at Crystal Palace, where he marked their new star striker Mike Flanagan out of the game.

Lawrenson recollects how he was on an end-of-season ‘jolly’ in Spain with his Preston team-mates when Brighton chairman Mike Bamber and director Dudley Sizen turned up and ‘sold’ the club to him in a Benidorm beachside bar.

There was nearly a hitch in the deal when his medical showed high sugar levels in his blood – but it turned out he had been drinking blackcurrant-flavoured Guinness while on the Spanish holiday.

Mullery was building on the success of guiding the Seagulls to promotion from Division Three in his first season in charge, and the young defender replaced the experienced Graham Cross, who went to Preston in part-exchange.

Shortly after signing Lawrenson, Mullery told Shoot magazine: “I know a lot of people have not heard too much about him yet. But they will – believe me, they will. He is only 20, is big and strong and will make his mark in a big way.”

And, in his autobiography, Mullery said: “Any manager would love to have a player of Mark’s ability in their side. He had a calm, strong temperament, he never caused any problems and he always performed brilliantly on the field. His presence helped to lift the team to a whole new level of performance in the 1977-78 season.”

Lawrenson made his Brighton debut on the 20 August 1977 in a 1-1 draw against Southampton at The Dell and went on to make 40 league appearances by the end of his first season at the club.

The following season, when Albion went one better and earned promotion to the top division for the first time, Lawrenson was a stand-out performer. In his book, A Few Good Men, author Spencer Vignes said: “His timing in the tackle and ability to read the game belied his relative youth, but what really caught the eye was his skill on the ball, which, for a centre-back still earning his wages in English football’s second tier, was little short of remarkable.”

Skipper Brian Horton told Vignes: “The way he used to bring the ball out from the back had to be seen to be believed.”

In a special Argus supplement of April 1997, to mark Albion’s departure from the Goldstone, Lawrenson was interviewed by Mike Donovan, and told him: “The Goldstone was a great place to play and I was extremely happy there.

“It was an excellent team that played good football the way it should be played – by passing it around. Also, we had a great team spirit, mainly because a lot of the team were outsiders coming in and stuck together. We all played and socialised together.”

Unfortunately, Albion’s first season amongst the elite was only five games in when Lawrenson received a serious injury in a clash with Glenn Hoddle at White Hart Lane.

Badly torn ankle ligaments and a chipped bone was the diagnosis and it sidelined Lawrenson for 12 matches, although his absence created an opportunity for young Gary Stevens.

lawro yellowWhen Lawrenson was fit to return, Mullery sprung a surprise by utilising him in midfield, but it was an inspired decision and he stayed there for the rest of the season, helping Albion to finish a respectable 16th of 22.

He went on to make 152 league appearances by the end of 1980-81.

It was his sale to Liverpool in the summer of 1981 that was part of the reason Mullery’s reign at the club came to an end. Mullery had negotiated with Ron Atkinson to sell him to Manchester United with two United players coming to Brighton as part of the deal.

But, behind his back, chairman Bamber had been talking to Liverpool and, in exchange for what was then a Liverpool club transfer record of £900,000, he was destined to be heading back to the North West with midfielder Jimmy Case coming South as part of the deal.

Interestingly, though, Lawrenson revealed in his autobiography how new manager Mike Bailey had actually made him Albion captain, but then asked him how he saw his future, which sowed a seed of doubt about the club’s intentions.

“I don’t know if there was a financial crisis and they were looking for a big transfer fee from my sale to sort themselves out, but the uncertainty did unsettle me,” he wrote. Lawrenson was sent off in an ill-tempered pre-season friendly (against FC Utrecht in the Dordrecht Tournament) and put it down to his personal frustration.

“On our return flight, there was a message that Terry Neill of Arsenal was waiting to meet the chairman at Gatwick,” Lawrenson recalled. “Somehow they missed each other and the next day there was talk of me going to Manchester United.

“But then Mike Bailey asked me if I would meet Liverpool, and I travelled to the Aerial Hotel at Heathrow to meet Bob Paisley, Peter Robinson and Liverpool chairman John Smith.

“Terry Neill was, at the time, waiting in the next hotel in case discussions broke down. He missed out because it only took me 15 minutes to agree to move to Liverpool.

“I travelled North and had a medical at 11.30 at night. I even took the registration forms to the League offices myself, because they are only a few doors away from my mother’s home at St Annes.”

Argus front page

Lawrenson went on to form a formidable central defensive partnership with Hansen after England centre back Phil Thompson suffered an injury, but, as he had showed at Brighton, he was versatile enough also to play at full back or in midfield.

Indeed, Lawrenson made his first start for Liverpool at left-back in a 1-0 league defeat to Wolves. In his first season, Liverpool won the League championship and the League Cup. They won it again in 1982 and retained both for another two seasons, becoming only the third club in history to win three titles in a row. They also added the club’s fourth European Cup in 1984.

Many believed Lawrenson and Hansen were the best central defensive partnership in English football by the time Liverpool clinched the League and FA Cup “double” in 1986.

But Lawrenson was being put under pressure by young centre back Gary Gillespie and an Achilles tendon injury in 1988 prematurely ended his career after 332 appearances and 18 goals, although he earned a fifth and final title medal when that season ended.

Lawrenson tried his hand at management at Oxford United in 1988 but, in almost a mirror image of the situation over his own transfer from Brighton, he resigned after their star striker Dean Saunders, the former Albion player, was sold by the board of directors without Lawrenson’s blessing.

Lawrenson later managed Peterborough United for 14 months between September 1989 and November 1990, but it was a largely unsuccessful tenure.

Apart from one brief foray back into football as a defensive coach at Newcastle during Kevin Keegan’s first reign in the North East, Lawrenson’s involvement since has been one step removed as a pundit and newspaper columnist.

At the 2018 World Cup, Lawrenson particularly hit the headlines when many observed his cantankerous and sarcastic observations were just too much.

Never shy of voicing his opinions, they once led to him losing what at the time was a trademark moustache!

He was so convinced that Bolton would be relegated that he said live on Football Focus that he would shave it off if they proved him wrong, which they did!

In 2003, my friend Andrew Setten somehow blagged tickets which gave us the opportunity to go into the exclusive Football Association area at the FA Cup Final between Arsenal and Southampton at the Millennium Stadium and, all those years later, I finally got the chance to meet Lawro and to get his autograph.

• Pictures from Shoot magazine, cuttings from the Evening Argus and the matchday programme.

Lawrenson pictured in 2024

Steve Coppell not the first ex-Man U player to quit the manager’s chair

coppell cropSTEVE Coppell was not the first former Manchester United player I saw become manager of Brighton. More than 30 years previously Busby Babe Freddie Goodwin had been at the helm when my Albion-watching passion began.

Unfortunately, there was a parallel in their outcomes: both were wooed by better opportunities elsewhere (Goodwin to Birmingham; Coppell to Reading). One other parallel to record, though, is that each of their successors (Pat Saward and Mark McGhee) got Albion promoted.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but, if Coppell hadn’t been jet lagged the first time chairman Dick Knight interviewed him for the Brighton job, the 2002-03 season may have panned out differently…and Kolo Touré, a future Premier League winner with Arsenal and Manchester City, might have spent a season helping the Seagulls to retain their recently-won second tier status. Let me explain.

Coppell had been out of the country in Thailand during the summer of 2002 and, although Knight wanted to interview him with a view to appointing him as Peter Taylor’s successor, when the meeting in London eventually came about, Coppell began to nod off with the effects of his long-distance travel.

A frustrated Knight, under pressure on several fronts that summer (as told in his autobiography Mad Man: From the Gutter to the Stars, the Ad Man who saved Brighton) left him to it and took the decision to appoint third choice Martin Hinshelwood instead. (Knight had also considered German Winfried Schäfer, who had just managed Cameroon at the World Cup, but his poor command of English went against him).

As the opening to the season drew closer, Knight went with Hinshelwood to watch an Arsenal under 23 side in a friendly at Barnet. He was running the rule over Steve Sidwell with a view to taking him on a season-long loan but the stand-out player who caught his eye was Touré, and Albion’s cheeky chairman said he’d take the pair of them.

To his delight, Arsène Wenger and Liam Brady agreed…but astonishingly Hinshelwood said they weren’t needed because, in his opinion, they weren’t any better than Albion’s own youngsters, who he had been coaching, and who he was now intending to blood in the first team. An incredulous Knight kept schtum, believing he needed to support his new manager.

When they started the season with a 3-1 win at Burnley, it seemed maybe Hinshelwood had a point. But, after a disastrous run of 12 defeats, leading to the inevitable sacking of Hinshelwood, Knight reverted to Plan A and succeeded in attracting Coppell to manage the side.

He then swiftly went back to Arsenal to secure the loan services of Sidwell (who’d played for Coppell at Brentford the previous season). But he was too late as far as Touré was concerned. He’d already played his way into first team contention for the Gunners and was no longer available.

coppell + booker

With Albion at the foot of the table, Coppell had a rocky start at the helm of the Seagulls, including an embarrassing 5-0 defeat to Palace, but he quickly brought in some quality players such as Dean Blackwell and Simon Rodger, and, together with Bobby Zamora up front and the busy Sidwell in midfield, they put together some decent results that dared to suggest a great escape was possible.

Albion notched up some surprise results, including a 1-0 Boxing Day win at Norwich and a 4-1 home win over Wolves, who ended up in the play-offs. There was also a memorable 2-2 draw at Ipswich, a 4-0 home win over Watford and a 2-1 win at Reading, most notable for a rare appearance and goal from former Premiership striker Paul Kitson, who had been injured for much of the season.

Sadly, it wasn’t quite enough to keep the Seagulls in the division and they went down second from bottom, five points adrift of 21st placed Stoke City.

The following season was in its infancy when West Ham decided to sack Glenn Roeder as their boss. The Hammers were determined to replace him with Reading’s Alan Pardew; and Reading, once they realised their fight to keep Pardew was fruitless, turned to third tier Albion’s Coppell as his replacement.

Chairman Knight knew Reading could offer Coppell the opportunities that were still some way in the distance if he’d stayed at the Albion, so he did the next best thing which was to get a healthy sum in compensation which went a long way to funding that season’s wage bill.

Knight was a big fan of Coppell and admired his meticulous preparation for games through in-depth viewing of opponents.

In an interview with The Guardian, Knight said: “He is probably the most analytical mind brought to football management for many a year. His preparations are detailed to the point of fastidious. His briefings are second to none. He spent hours with the video in the afternoons breaking down moves in slow-mo to work out how the opposition operate. He is very perceptive.”

Knight added: “People say he’s cold and uncaring, but he came to one of our marches on the seafront to campaign about the new stadium at Falmer long after he left for Reading. That’s Steve. He left a big impression on us.”

coppell at reading.jpg

Coppell left the Albion with a 36.7 per cent win ratio over his 49 games in charge, just over three percentage points behind his first spell as Palace manager, but higher than his other three spells at Selhurst.

To avoid this blog post turning into War and Peace, I’m not going to cover the whole of Coppell’s career but, in the circumstances, it is worth touching on how he came to be a star on the wing for Manchester United and England.

The Liverpool lad went to the same Quarry Bank Grammar School that produced Joe Royle and Beatle John Lennon, but head teacher William Pobjoy ensured football mad Coppell stuck to his studies.

It didn’t deter Coppell from having a trial with Liverpool and playing for an Everton junior side a couple of nights a week. But both rejected him as too small and his dad Jim told playupliverpool.com: “He lost faith in ever becoming a footballer and took up golf and became quite good.” He still played football for a local side but that was just for pleasure.

A Tranmere Rovers scout made several approaches but Steve wasn’t interested, and decided he was going to go to Liverpool University to take a degree in economics and social history.

Ron Yeats, the famous colossus around who Bill Shankly built his Liverpool team in the 1960s, became Tranmere manager in the early 1970s. He remembered of Coppell: “We signed him so he could combine it with university.”

Around the same time, Coppell shot up from 4ft 11in to 5ft 7in in a year, and went on to play 38 times for Tranmere, scoring 10 goals.

Word reached Manchester United boss Tommy Docherty who paid a £35,000 fee to take him to Old Trafford. He was playing for United in the old second division while still completing the third year of his degree course. United’s deal with Tranmere had it built in that they’d pay an extra £20,000 if Coppell made it to 50 appearances. They paid it after only two games, such was the impact Docherty knew he was going to have.

Indeed, he went on to make 373 appearances for United and scored 70 goals; and the 207 games he played between 1977 and 1981 broke the record for the most consecutive appearances for an outfield Manchester United player, and still stands to this day.

coppell utd action

He played in three FA Cup Finals for United, in 1976, 1977 and 1979, only ending up with a winners’ medal when Liverpool were beaten 2-1 in 1977.

Coppell was still at United in 1983, and had been United’s top scorer on the way to the Milk Cup Final that season, but he was recovering from a cartilage operation on his damaged left knee so was unable to play in the FA Cup Final against Brighton.

He told Match magazine: “I was always fighting a losing battle against time to get fit for the final. In my heart of hearts, I knew when I had the cartilage operation that five weeks wasn’t enough time to get fit for a match of this importance. I was struggling to make it from the off.”

Coppell told Amy Lawrence of The Guardian: “’I had nine wonderful years there and I still remember running on at Old Trafford for the first time. It was a real heart-in-the-mouth moment, an incredible experience for a 19-year-old whose biggest crowd before then was probably about 5,000.”

He also won 42 caps for England and Sir Trevor Booking, one of his contemporaries in the England team, spoke in glowing terms about Coppell the player in his book My Life in Football (Simon & Schuster, 2014).

England international

“He was a winger at a time when wingers were unfashionable,” he said. “He had the pace to reach a 30-yard pass, the skill to wriggle past a defender and send over the perfect cross. But he also had the energy to run back and provide cover for his defensive team-mates down the right flank that set him apart from so many other wingers at that time.

“When his team lost possession, Steve didn’t hang about on the flank waiting for someone to win it back. He wanted to win it back himself. He was involved all the time – a quality that is a prerequisite for today’s wide players.”

Coppell made his England debut under Ron Greenwood against Italy at Wembley in 1977 in a very exciting line-up that saw him play on the right, Peter Barnes on the left, and Bob Latchford and Kevin Keegan as a twin strikeforce. It was a favoured foursome for Greenwood and when they all played together against Scotland in 1979, Coppell, Keegan and Barnes all scored in a 3-1 win.

It was while on England duty that Coppell picked up the injury that would eventually lead to a premature end to his career. Brooking recalled: “A tackle by the Hungarian József Tóth at Wembley in November 1981 damaged his knee and although he played on for a year or so more, the knee condition worsened.

“He was able to play in the first four games of the 1982 World Cup but the problem flared up after the goalless draw with West Germany and he had to miss the decisive match against Spain.”

From 2016, Coppell spent three years as a manager in India. Amongst the players he worked with at Kerala Blasters (owned by cricketing great Sachin Tendulkar) in 2016-17 was Aaron Hughes, who had a season with Albion.

The following season Coppell became the first head coach of newly-formed Jamshedpur, owned by Tata Steel, and for the 2018-19 season he took charge of Indian Super League club ATK, once part-owned by Atletico Madrid. Among its owners were former Indian cricket captain Sourav Ganguly.

thoughtful coppell

Albion’s first £1m signing Will Buckley once rejected by Trotters

WILL BUCKLEY holds a very special place in the hearts of modern-day Brighton fans.

He ensured his place in the club’s history books when he came off the substitute’s bench to score twice, including a last-gasp winner, as Albion played their first competitive league match at the Amex on 6 August 2011.

That winner in the 2-1 win over Doncaster Rovers is the stuff of YouTube legend, coming as it did in the eighth minute of added on time, and is right up there alongside memorable Albion goals from across the eras.

Manager Gus Poyet had turned a few heads when he secured Buckley’s signature from Watford that summer, making him Albion’s first £1m signing.

It wasn’t long before the Albion faithful were adapting the chant fans had previously attributed to former favourite wideman, Elliott Bennett, and were singing ‘Wil-liam, Wil-liam Buckley runs down the wing for me’.

The lanky Lancastrian was unusual in being a 6ft winger but his skill and pace on good days could bring the crowd to their feet, especially with his knack of scoring too.

Unfortunately, with his pace came plenty of hamstring injury issues and Buckley became no stranger to the treatment table during his three years with the Seagulls.

Also, once Poyet had taken the reins at Sunderland, it was evident Buckley was on his shopping list and what Albion fans witnessed in the second part of the 2013-14 season was a player whose head seemed to have been turned by the promise of a move.

But let’s go back to the beginning. Born in Oldham on 21 November 1989, Buckley sought to make his way in the game with his home town club, but his hopes were dashed and they released him.

He then had trials at a number of other north-west clubs, including subsequent employers Bolton Wanderers, who at the time were managed by Sam Allardyce.

“I played a few games for a Trialists XI against Bolton’s Under 15s or 16s. But I never got asked back, so that was just that,” Buckley told the Lancashire Telegraph.

After getting nowhere with Bolton, Buckley subsequently had trials at Bury and Accrington Stanley before deciding to go to college to do a football academy course. That eventually led to him being picked up by Keith Hill and Dave Flitcroft at Rochdale.

Signed as a youth scholar in 2006, he progressed to the reserves and then got his first team chance in February 2008, when coming on as a sub as Rochdale lost 4-2 at home to Hereford United.

His first start came in a 1-0 defeat to Wycombe Wanderers but he was mainly used as a substitute in that breakthrough season, including getting on at Wembley as Rochdale lost to Stockport County in a play-off final for a place in League One.

When the 2008-09 season got underway, he began to claim a starting place and soon scored his first goal, in a 2-2 draw away to Rotherham.

By 12 January 2009, The Times hailed him in 49th place among the top 50 rising stars in the English game, suggesting his progress at Spotland would soon see him playing at a higher level. Interestingly, future Albion striker Sam Baldock (then at Milton Keynes Dons) was at no. 46.

The Times clearly had an eye for talent because, a year later, having scored 13 times in 69 appearances for Dale, Buckley rose two leagues to the Championship to join Watford.

Buck WatWatford boss Malky Mackay gave him a three-and-a-half-year contract and described him as “an exciting young talent”. The fee was officially ‘undisclosed’ although reports suggested it was around £200,000.

Unfortunately, perhaps as a sign of things to come, injury curtailed his impact at his new club to just six appearances, and one goal, in the second half of the season.

Nevertheless, in his one full season with the Hornets, Buckley made 37 appearances and was named their Young Player of the Year.

Perhaps rather tellingly, Buckley’s move to Watford from Rochdale was handled by head of football business and development, John Stephenson, who, lo and behold, by the summer of 2011 held a similar post with Brighton!

Watford were canny though and ensured a 15 per cent sell-on clause as part of the deal with Brighton, meaning they netted a further £225,000 when Buckley eventually left Albion to re-join Poyet at Sunderland.

buckley move to Sund Mail

Poyet told the BBC: “He is very quiet, shy, but with his feet when he is on the pitch and he’s got the chance to attack you, he’s a nightmare.”

Sunderland fans weren’t quite sure what to expect and their fans’ website Roker Report sought the views of Albion fans after he signed for the Wearsiders. Probably not surprisingly, the main issues they shared were Buckley’s problems with hamstring injuries.

Under Oscar Garcia in 2013-14, Buckley had scored only three goals in 23 league and cup games plus 10 appearances from the bench, and two of them came in one match! However, you can imagine they must have given him special pleasure, coming as they did – in the 13th and 65th minutes – at the Reebok as Albion beat Dougie Freedman’s Trotters to maintain their play-off push.

Buckley’s last game for Albion came in a 1-0 defeat at home to Sheffield Wednesday that was the opening fixture of the 2014-15 season.

The much-speculated move to Sunderland came shortly after and he departed the Seagulls having scored 19 goals in 109 games.

As to what’s happened since, the record books show what can only be described as a disappointing few years. Buckley played a couple of dozen games for the Wearsiders in the Premiership but, as soon as Poyet was sacked, he found himself out of favour and was shipped out on loan, spending time at Leeds United, Sheffield Wednesday and Birmingham City.

On his release from Sunderland in June 2017, as his three-year deal expired, he joined Phil Parkinson’s Bolton Wanderers on a two-year contract.

“He’s a player with a lot of Championship experience and we’re looking forward to working with him,” said the Bolton boss.

Buckley scored twice in 25 matches in his first season, where former Seagull Craig Noone was also added as a wide option. But they only narrowly avoided the drop back to League One.

will buckley action