Month: April 2023

Goalscorer Ray Crawford took on Brighton backroom role

RAY CRAWFORD, one of the foremost goalscorers of the 1960s, came close to a swansong with the Albion and ended up coaching the club’s youngsters.

Crawford had been a key player in Alf Ramsey’s First Division title-winning Ipswich Town side having begun at hometown club Portsmouth and later netted 41 goals in 61 appearances for Wolverhampton Wanderers.

He joined Brighton in the autumn of 1971 after he had read they were struggling to score goals. Earlier the same year, he’d hit the headlines at the age of 35 when he scored twice for Fourth Division Colchester United as they sensationally beat Don Revie’s First Division Leeds United 3-2 in the FA Cup.

After a subsequent short stint playing in South Africa, homesickness brought him and his family back to the UK and the search began for a way to continue his celebrated career in the game.

He got in touch with his former Ipswich teammate, Eddie Spearritt, a key member of Albion’s squad, and the utility player persuaded manager Pat Saward to offer Crawford a trial.

“I did well enough in my trial week for Pat to ask me to stay for another month and to see how things went,” Crawford recalled in his eminently readable autobiography Curse of the Jungle Boy (PB Publishing, 2007).

Crawford found the net for the reserves, but a contractual issue with his last club, Durban City (who wanted a fee the Albion weren’t prepared to pay) prevented him joining as a player.

Meanwhile, the previous goalscoring slump that had first drawn him to the club was remedied by a decent run of goals from Peter O’Sullivan to supplement a revival in the form of strikers Kit Napier and Willie Irvine.

It meant Crawford, at 36, hung up his boots (although he still managed a cameo 15 minutes for the reserves in October 1973) to concentrate on coaching.

In the days before large teams of scouts and analysis tools, he would also run an eye over Albion’s future first team opponents to highlight their strengths and weaknesses.

“His dossiers on opposing styles and individual players have proved of great value in the team talks,” reported John Vinicombe in an Evening Argus supplement celebrating Albion’s promotion from the Third Division.

“When I returned to England after a spell with Durban City my only thoughts were of playing,” Crawford recalled. “Before I went to South Africa, I had a good season with Colchester United scoring 32 goals, and, of course, there were the two goals that I scored against the great Leeds United, knocking them out of the FA Cup, which still made me believe that my career was in playing.

Crawford scores v Leeds in the FA Cup

“But when my month’s loan from Durban City expired, and Pat Saward asked me if I would like to join the staff, I jumped at the chance.”

It didn’t stop Saward continuing to search for someone to supplement the strikeforce as the Albion went neck and neck with Aston Villa and Bournemouth for promotion.

Saward even brought in on trial another former England striker, the ex- Everton, Birmingham and Blackpool striker Fred Pickering from Blackburn Rovers. Like Crawford, he scored for the reserves but he wasn’t deemed fit enough for the first team.

Eventually, in March 1972, Saward found the missing piece of his jigsaw in Ken Beamish, a record transfer deadline day signing from Tranmere Rovers.

Beamish chipped in with some vital late goals to help Albion edge out the Cherries to secure Albion’s promotion as runners up to Villa.

The new man’s contribution earned Crawford’s approval in Brighton & Hove Albion Supporters’ Club’s official souvenir handbook, produced to celebrate the promotion.

Crawford as coach

He said: “I don’t like to single out players because football is a team game, but I must on this occasion. Ken Beamish added the final bite up front, and those vital goals that he scored helped us into Division II. What a player this boy is – he never gives up!”

It emerged in Crawford’s autobiography that he also had a friend in Albion chairman Mike Bamber, having got to know him when the Colchester team stayed at Bamber’s Ringmer hotel before a FA Cup tie.

Ever one for rubbing shoulders with stars, Bamber had subsequently invited Crawford back to Sussex to open a local fete in exchange for a weekend stay at the hotel with his family.

“Since that time, I had regarded Mike as a friend and a man I could trust,” said Crawford.

The former striker’s work with the club’s youngsters was evidently appreciated; for instance by Steve Barrett (below left) who said in 2011: “Ray was my coach when I was an apprentice and a young pro. Always had a great enthusiasm for the game and, even in training at the age of about 40, had a good touch and great eye for goal.

“Was great fun on our annual youth trips to tournaments to Holland or Germany. Was very modest in general but loved to remind everyone of his two goals for Colchester against the then mighty Leeds in the FA Cup. A really nice man.”

When Saward was sacked in the autumn of 1973, Crawford assisted caretaker manager Glen Wilson for the home fixture against Southport, which Albion won 4-0.

As for his relationship with Bamber, it counted for nothing as soon as the chairman astonished the football world by appointing Brian Clough and Peter Taylor to succeed Saward.

Crawford was angered by Clough’s “abrasive and stubborn” shenanigans, for instance being bought a pint in a Lewes hotel bar and then left waiting with Wilson as the former Derby duo disappeared for two hours.

“I wasn’t prepared to be treated like that and I soon found out that the way he spoke to people was as I’d expected,” Crawford recalled. “One day he left the players sitting in the dressing room for two hours before training. I don’t know why. It left a sort of threatening pressure on the players that I didn’t agree with.”

It probably didn’t help matters that Crawford’s outspoken wife Eileen also took issue with Clough when he tried to stop the players’ wives having a smoke while socialising before a match. “I don’t smoke, but if I did, it wouldn’t be anything to do with you!” she told him.

Crawford had heard that his first club, Portsmouth, were looking to revive a youth set-up that had been abandoned under a previous manager, so he applied to take on the role of setting it up and running it and headed back to Fratton Park in December 1973.

Born just a mile away from Portsmouth’s famous home ground, the eldest of four children, on 13 July 1936, Crawford initially looked unlikely to follow the sporting prowess of his dad, who had been a professional boxer, because of asthma.

Nevertheless, his enthusiasm for football was sparked by a display of skill from Pompey player Bert Barlow when he did a coaching session at his school, and he joined a local football club called Sultan Boys.

Then he was taken to see Portsmouth play at Fratton Park and he set his heart on stepping out onto that turf himself.

At 14 he started to fill out in height and weight. “I changed quickly from a skinny, shy, asthmatic youth into a strong, young athlete, representing Hilsea Modern School and Portsmouth Schools in cross country running and in the 440 yards,” he said.

He also excelled at cricket and was offered the chance to have a trial with Hampshire County Cricket Club. But his heart was set on football.

Eventually a break came courtesy of a friend who was already in Portsmouth’s youth team. Crawford was invited to twice-weekly training and, after impressing, was taken on as a junior.

In the meantime, he worked by day for the Portsmouth Trading Company making concrete and breeze blocks, which involved spending around eight hours every day lifting 500 heavy blocks onto pallets to dry. It certainly got him fit.

The football club eventually offered him a contract after two years of training with them, but then (as was the case with all young men at the time) he had to do two years’ National Service in the army.

That’s where the title of his book comes in because he was posted to Malaya where word of his footballing ability had already spread. He was invited to play for Selangor Rangers, the biggest club in Kuala Lumpur, and the army also gave him permission to play for the Malayan Federation on a tour of Cambodia and Vietnam.

“Whilst I took part in many more football matches in Malaya than military exercises, I did go out into the jungle on a few occasions with the battalion,” he recalled.

Back at Portsmouth in the autumn of 1956, Crawford resumed his football career, initially in Pompey’s reserve team. After scoring 33 goals in 39 reserve team games, he finally got a first team call-up, making his debut in a 0-0 draw against Burnley at Fratton Park on 24 August 1957.

In the following game, he scored two in two minutes as Spurs were beaten 5-1 at home, but the following month he suffered a broken ankle that sidelined him for two months.

The beginning of the end of his fledgling Pompey playing career came in December that year when he lost it with the club chairman, Jack Sparshatt, who puzzlingly decided to enter the dressing room at half-time during a game, voicing his disapproval at the performance. Crawford told him to f*** off!

Perhaps not surprisingly he was left out of the side for a month.

He did get selected again in the new year, playing up front with Irishman Derek Dougan, but, that summer, Eddie Lever, the manager who’d given him his debut, was sacked and it wasn’t long before his replacement, Freddie Cox, sold Crawford to Ipswich.

Although he hadn’t wanted to move, future England boss Ramsey was persuasive and Crawford admitted: “I had no idea at the time that this would eventually turn out as one of the best decisions I ever made in life.”

The Hampshire lad adapted well to Suffolk and by the end of his first season at Town had scored 25 goals in 30 league games. Not a bad return but even better was to come and with Crawford and strike partner Ted Phillips rattling in the goals, Ipswich won back-to-back titles, winning the second tier championship in 1960-61 and the elite title in 1961-62.

Crawford scored 40 and Phillips 30 as Ipswich won promotion in 1961 and, at the higher level the following season, Crawford bagged another 37 goals.

Such prolific scoring inevitably brought him to the attention of the international selectors and, at the age of 25, he won two England caps. The mystery was why he didn’t win more.

Crawford made his England debut in a Home International against Northern Ireland at Wembley on 22 November 1961. He was credited with setting up England’s goal, scored by Bobby Charlton in the 20th minute, and the game ended in a disappointing 1-1 draw.

The 30,000 crowd for the Wednesday afternoon match was a record low for Wembley at that time. The prolific Ipswich striker only won one more cap, and then only because of a fractured cheekbone injury to first choice Alan Peacock of Middlesbrough.

Nonetheless, Crawford seized his chance and got on the scoresheet after only seven minutes against Austria in a friendly at Wembley on 4 April 1962.

He turned and buried a shot to give England an early lead which Ron Flowers increased with a penalty before half-time. Roger Hunt scored a third for England in the second half. Hans Buzek pulled one back for the visitors in the 76th minute.

As well as Hunt, future World Cup winners Ray Wilson and Bobby Charlton were also in the England line-up, together with 1966 squad members Jimmy Armfield and John Connelly. The team was captained by Fulham’s Johnny Haynes. Jimmy Melia was part of the squad but didn’t play.

Jimmy Magill, who later joined Brighton from Arsenal, was in the Irish side whose equaliser was scored by Burnley’s Jimmy McIlroy. Spurs’ Danny Blanchflower won his 50th cap for his country that day.

Having scored 33 goals in the First Division, Crawford was gutted not to be selected in the England squad for the 1962 World Cup in Chile and future England boss Ramsey was mystified too. “I just don’t understand it and I will go as far as saying it is downright unfair,” he said.

Crawford reckoned it was because England coach Harold Shepherdson, who also held a similar role at Middlesbrough, always advanced the claims of Boro’s aforementioned Peacock, who was chosen ahead of him despite scoring fewer goals, and in the Second Division.

Although Crawford was selected three times for the Football League representative side, he didn’t win any more full international caps.

Probably more surprising was that his old club boss Ramsey, who had seen him at close quarters for Town, didn’t turn to him after he’d taken charge of England in October 1962. But Ramsey had an embarrassment of riches at his disposal, not least in the shape of Jimmy Greaves and Bobby Smith along with Liverpool’s Hunt and later Geoff Hurst.

Crawford’s first meeting with Jackie Milburn, who took over from Ramsey as Ipswich boss, simply involved the former Newcastle and England centre-forward saying: “Nice to meet you Ray, you won’t be here long.”

Sure enough, he wasn’t. Despite his past successes, Ipswich cashed in and sold him to Wolves for £55,000 in September 1963.

His debut was somewhat ignominious as Wolves succumbed 6-0 at Liverpool (their ‘keeper Malcolm Finlayson was forced off injured) but Crawford scored twice in his second game as Wanderers won 2-1 at Blackpool (for whom Alan Ball scored).

Crawford went on to finish that first season with 26 League goals to his name in 34 games and was named Player of the Year, although Wolves finished in a disappointing 16th place.

Crawford, who is remembered fondly on the website wolvesheroes.com, had been joined at Molineux by Liverpool’s Melia (“a fine passer of the ball”) but when Stan Cullis, the manager who signed them both, was sacked, neither of them saw eye to eye with his successor, Andy Beattie.

Melia was sold to Southampton and the rift with the new boss saw Crawford switch to Black Country rivals West Brom in February 1965 for a £35,000 fee. He later reflected it was a case of jumping out of the frying pan into the fire because he didn’t enjoy a good relationship with Baggies boss Jimmy Hagan.

The striker played only 16 matches for Albion, scoring eight goals, before asking for a transfer in March 1966 and being granted his wish. “I did my best but never had a decent run of games in the first team,” he said. “It never quite worked out but I enjoyed most of my time there and the fans could not have been better.”

It was former club Ipswich, battling at the wrong end of the Second Division, who rescued him and, even though it meant dropping down a division, he was happy to return to Portman Road under Bill McGarry.

Crawford struck up a useful striking partnership with prolific American-born Gerry Baker. By the end of the season, he’d scored eight goals in 13 appearances and Town managed to avoid relegation.

He was part of the Ipswich side that won the Second Division championship the following season, netting 25 goals in 48 appearances, and by then was approaching his 32nd birthday.

The goals continued to flow with Ipswich back amongst the elite, Crawford scoring 21 in 42 games in the 1967-68 season. But more managerial upheaval was around the corner, when McGarry left to become manager of Wolves.

“When McGarry left for Wolves, I had lost my master and mentor, leaving a psychological gap for me that wasn’t going to be filled by anyone else however qualified or good they were as a manager,” said Crawford.

Even before Bobby Robson succeeded McGarry, Crawford started to weigh up his options and he decided he fancied a move to South Africa, where his old Ipswich teammate Roy Bailey had settled.

Although Town chairman John Cobbold initially agreed to give him a free transfer, the Board later changed their mind and decided they wanted some compensation for his services. Instead of going to South Africa, he ended up moving to Charlton Athletic for £12,000.

The move to The Valley turned sour after he refused to join a training camp organised by manager Eddie Firmani because his family were ill and he needed to be at home to look after them. He was sacked after playing just 22 games for the Valiants, during which time he scored seven goals.

Southern League Kettering provided a short-term means of getting back into playing but it was Fourth Division Colchester United who took him on and he repaid their faith by scoring 31 goals in 55 matches under Dick Graham, the most memorable being that pair against Leeds.

Crawford eventually got his move to South Africa in August 1971, joining Durban City, but his family couldn’t settle and they returned to the UK three months’ later.

During his time as youth coach at Portsmouth, he was responsible for signing Steve Foster and, in his autobiography, recalls how a tip-off from Harry Bourne, a local schoolteacher set him on the path of the future Albion and England centre-back.

Foster had been released by Southampton and Crawford went to the family home in Gladys Avenue, Portsmouth, to invite him to train with Pompey. Foster’s mother was at a works disco at Allders and Crawford went to find her there and had to shout above the sound of the music that Portsmouth were interested in signing her son.

The youngster, 18 at the time, got in touch the next day and, before long, was switched from a centre-forward to a centre-back, after Crawford’s former Ipswich teammate Reg Tyrrell told him: “That no.9, he’s no centre-forward, but he’d be a good number 5.”

After he left Portsmouth in 1978, Crawford took over as manager at Hampshire league side Fareham Town and later managed Winchester City before finally retiring from the game in 1984 to become a merchandising rep.

‘Goal machine’ Bully’s place in Premier League history

GARY BULL had good family connections to offer hope to Liam Brady’s Brighton at the start of the 1995-96 season.

Unfortunately, the Nottingham Forest loanee was often in the shadow of his cousin Steve, a Wolves goalscoring legend who went on to play for England.

Gary arrived at the Goldstone in August 1995 against the backdrop of off-the-pitch disquiet caused by the underhand machinations of the despised directors of the club at that time.

Bull scored three times in 11 appearances for the Seagulls but the cash-strapped club couldn’t afford to keep him on.

Although Bull had made a name for himself as a goalscorer lower down the football pyramid, he had made only four starts plus eight appearances as a sub for Forest over the previous two seasons, scoring just the once.

However, that goal did put him amongst an elite group of players: he was the second of only four players to score on their single Premier League appearance.

Perhaps it was all the sweeter because it secured Forest a 1-0 home win over Crystal Palace that took them up to fourth place in the table.

Interviewed by premierleague.com, Bull said: “It was fate, I would imagine. I was in the right place at the right time.

“It was an inswinging corner. A couple of people missed it and I was about three yards out. It was unmissable really, although I tell my kids it was a screamer.”

Bull had his brief moment in the limelight because first choice striker Stan Collymore pulled out of the match on 2 January 1995 due to illness.

The striker had spent three months on loan at Birmingham City the previous autumn, scoring an impressive six goals in 10 matches (he was in the City side who won 1-0 at the Goldstone in October 1994).

Bull only had one more sniff of first team action for Forest that season, once again against Palace, when he went on as a substitute for Scot Gemmill in a 2-1 fourth round FA Cup defeat on 28 January.

With Collymore in fine scoring form (24 in 43 matches that season), and Dutchman Bryan Roy also a regular up front, manager Frank Clark didn’t turn to Bull again, and Forest finished in an impressive third place in the Premier League.

Bull had to be content with a cameo role in an end-of-season fixture, netting Forest’s third goal in a 3-1 win over Singapore’s national team in an exhibition match in Singapore in May 1995.

Even though Collymore was sold to Liverpool for £8.5m that summer, Bull had to look elsewhere for first team chances and Brady was happy to bring him in to boost Albion’s attacking options.

He got off the mark in his third game, although Albion lost 2-1 at home to Wycombe Wanderers in front of just 5,360 fans.

Bull later scored twice away at Cambridge United in a 4-1 win in the Auto-Windscreens Shield trophy (it was the game in which former Ipswich and England centre back Russell Osman made his debut for the Albion).

But a 1-0 defeat at Rotherham on 7 October was his last game in the stripes and, not long after his return to the City Ground, he was given a free transfer and joined Birmingham on a permanent basis.

Born in West Bromwich on 12 June 1966, his first club was Paget Rangers in the Midlands League but in 1986 he joined Southampton as a trainee under youth team boss Dave Merrington. Jimmy Case and Craig Maskell were in the Saints first team at the time; Kevan Brown in the reserves.

It wasn’t until Bull moved on to Chris Turner’s Cambridge United in March 1988 that he made his professional breakthrough, scoring four in 19 games.

His prowess in front of goal really began to flourish when he dropped out of the league to help Barnet FC win the Conference. Tony Hammond – a Barnet FC devotee known as ‘Reckless’ – reckoned the £2,200 fee manager Barry Fry paid for him was “one of the bargains of the century”.

In four seasons at Barnet, Bull netted an impressive 121 goals in 219 appearances, becoming an Underhill icon. In his blog, Hammond quoted Fry as saying: “He was bloody good that Bully, I never had to worry about him being in the right place at the right time in front of goal it was always just pure instinct.”

Bull was buzzing for Bees

When Bees finally won promotion to the Football League in 1990-91, Bull scored 35 goals – including two four-goal hauls and a hat-trick – and was voted Player of the Year.

Bull’s scoring form continued during Barnet’s first season in the Fourth Division. He bagged 33 as the Bees reached the play-offs where they only narrowly lost a two-legged tie against Blackpool.

In 1992-93, Bull and strike partner Mark Carter were prominent again, as Barnet finished third in the table, clinching promotion to what was then a reorganised Division Two.

Sadly, Barnet were in deep financial trouble and were forced to shed players. Bull was signed by Premier League Forest’s newly appointed manager Frank Clark in July 1993.

“I would have stayed at Barnet but I had a family to look after and had no choice but to move on,” Bull told Hammond. “It was a memorable four years and certainly a period that I look back on with pride,” he added.

The subsequent move to Birmingham reunited Bull with his old boss Barry Fry, although a somewhat cynical view of the move was espoused by writer John Tandy in When Saturday Comes.

“It took Fry 18 months of sustained and public pressure to talk the board into signing Gary Bull. Eventually, in November 1995, we landed the Tipton Tyke. Six games and some time on the bench later he was on his way to York,” he wrote.

Bull spent two seasons at York. The highlight of his stay came in a second round League Cup tie at home to Everton. Bull put the Minstermen 2-1 ahead in the 57th minute, tapping in a rebound off the post and York went on to win it 3-2.

It was one of 11 goals Bull scored in 84 games for City before spending time in Lincolnshire. While he only scored once in 31 games for Scunthorpe, his scoring boots were well and truly back on at Grantham Town: 68 goals in 125 games.

He then moved on to Lincoln United for two years before finishing his career with a flourish at United Counties League Boston Town. During the 2006–07 season, he scored a club record 57 goals! He later went on to become their all-time top scorer with over 200 goals,

Bull only retired from playing aged 45 in 2012.

He then became a postman and told premierleague.com: “I’m one of those people who gets up and actually enjoys going to work and getting the physical aspect of it.

“We probably do between 10 and 12 miles a day. Some would say I do more now than I did on the pitch.”

The FA Cup semi-final hat-trick hero who wore red and blue

ALEX DAWSON was even younger than Evan Ferguson when he scored a FA Cup semi-final hat-trick.

The bull-like centre forward who broke through at Manchester United in the wake of the Munich air crash wrote his name in football record books on 26 March 1958.

Dawson was just 18 years and 33 days old when he netted three goals in United’s 5-3 win over Fulham in front of 38,000 fans at Highbury, north London. No-one that young has ever repeated the feat.

Eleven years later, Dawson scored twice for Brighton in a Third Division match against Walsall. It was my first ever Albion game. He followed up the two he got in that game with six more in four other games I saw that 1968-69 season. They were enough to sow the seeds of a lifetime supporting the Albion and the burly Dawson, wearing number 9, became an instant hero to an impressionable 10-year-old.

Dawson scored twice v Walsall in 1969

Dawson is no longer with us but the memory of his goalscoring exploits live on amongst those fans of a certain vintage who had the pleasure of seeing him in action.

A man who played alongside him at Wembley in 1958 – Freddie Goodwin – made Dawson his first signing for Brighton, for £9,000, not long after he had taken over as manager in the winter of 1968.

By then, he was plying his trade with Bury. He had left United in 1961 after scoring a remarkable 54 goals in 93 games, including one on his debut aged just 17 (in a 2-0 win over Burnley).

After losing 2-0 to Bolton Wanderers in 1958, another losing Wembley appearance followed six years later. He scored a goal for Preston North End but the Lancastrian side lost 3-2 to West Ham United.

United pair Freddie Goodwin and Alex Dawson were reunited at Brighton

Nevertheless, Dawson was prolific for Preston scoring 132 goals in 237 league and cup games over six years. The purple patch I saw him have for Brighton saw him find the net no fewer than 17 times in just 23 games, including three braces and four in an away game at Hartlepool. That was only one behind top scorer Kit Napier whose 18 came in 49 matches.

Alex Dawson in snow action at the Goldstone Ground

In a curtain-raiser to the 1969-70 season, Dawson scored four times as Albion trounced a Gibraltar XI 6-0 at the Goldstone. But the signing of Allan Gilliver and, in the New Year, young Alan Duffy, began to reduce his playing time. He got 12 more goals in 28 appearances (plus three as sub) but, when Goodwin left the club, successor Pat Saward edged him out.

Even in a loan spell at Brentford he scored seven in 11 games. Greville Waterman, on bfctalk.wordpress.com in July 2014, recalled: “He was a gnarled veteran of thirty with a prominent broken nose and a face that surely only a mother could love, but he had an inspirational loan spell at Griffin Park in 1970.”

Still smiling and scoring goals at Corby

Released by the Albion at the end of the 1970-71 season, Dawson’s final footballing action was with non-league Corby Town, where he didn’t disappoint either.

In his first season at Occupation Road, he finished top scorer with 25 goals in 60 appearances and by the time he retired from playing on 4 May 1974, his tally for the Steelmen was 44 in 123 appearances.

When the curtain came down on his career, Dawson had scored 212 goals in 394 matches – more than one every two games. A true goalscorer.

It was in the wake of the decimating effect of the Munich air disaster that Dawson found himself thrust into the limelight at a tender age.

The crash claimed the lives of eight of United’s first choice team – Dawson’s pals. Youngsters and fringe players had to be drafted into the side to fulfil the remaining fixtures that season. One was Dawson, another was Goodwin.

Thirteen days after the accident, Dawson took his place beside survivors Bill Foulkes and Harry Gregg and scored one of United’s goals as they beat Sheffield Wednesday 3-0 in the fifth round of the Cup.

He scored again as United drew 2-2 with West Brom in the sixth round, before winning through 1-0 in a replay to go up against Fulham in the semi-final.

Dawson told manutd.com: “In our first game with Fulham (played at Villa Park), Bobby Charlton scored twice in a 2-2 draw, and I was put on the right wing. I was a centre-forward really and, when we played the replay at Highbury four days later, I was back in my normal position.

“Jimmy (Murphy) said before the game: ‘I fancy you this afternoon, big man. I fancy you to put about three in.’ I just said: ‘You know me Jim, I’ll do my best,’ but I couldn’t believe it when it happened.

“The first was a diving header, I think the second was a left-footer and the third was with my right foot.

“It was a long time ago, of course, and it’s still a club record for the youngest scorer of a hat-trick in United’s history. Records are there to be broken and I’m surprised that it’s gone on for over half a century.

“I’m a proud man to still hold this record. Even when it goes, nobody can ever take the achievement away from me.”

While Dawson was my first Albion hero, when he died in a Kettering care home at the age of 80 on 17 July 2020 the esteem in which he was held by others also came to the fore in the tributes paid by each of the clubs he played for.

Born in Aberdeen on 21 February 1940, Dawson went to the same school as United legend Denis Law, but his parents moved down to Hull and Dawson joined United straight from Hull Schoolboys.

Dawson and future Preston and Brighton teammate Nobby Lawton were both on the scoresheet as United beat West Ham 3-2 in the first leg of the 1957 FA Youth Cup Final and Dawson scored twice in the 5-0 second leg win. West Ham’s side included John Lyall, who later went on to manage them.

On redcafe.net, Julian Denny recalled how Dawson once scored three hat-tricks in a row for a United reserve team that was regularly watched by crowds of over 10,000.

After that goalscoring first team debut against Burnley in April 1957, he also scored in each of the final two matches that season (a 3-2 win at Cardiff and a 1-1 draw at home to West Brom) to help United win the title and secure their passage into Europe’s premier club competition.

Obviously, circumstances dictated Dawson’s rapid rise but, with the benefit of hindsight, some say his United career may have panned out differently if he hadn’t been thrust into first team action at such a young age.

He was just short of his 18th birthday when the accident happened. In an interview with Chris Roberts in the Daily Record (initially published 6 Feb 2008 then updated 1 July 2012), he recalled: “I used to go on those trips and had a passport and visa all ready but the boss just told me I wasn’t going this time.

“I had already been on two or three trips just to break me in. I know now how lucky I was to be left in Manchester. The omens were on my side.”

Dawson went on to describe the disbelief and the feelings they had at losing eight of the team, including Duncan Edwards several days later.

“We were all so close and Duncan was also a good friend to me before the accident,” said Dawson. “Duncan was such a good player, there is no doubt about that. He was a wonderful fellow as well as a real gentleman.

“I will never, ever forget him because he died on my birthday, 21 February, and before that he was the one who really helped me settle in.”

Dawson gradually became an increasingly bigger part of the first-team picture at United, making 11 appearances in 1958-59 and scoring four times. The following season he scored 15 in 23 games then went five better in 1960-61, scoring 20 in 34 games.

He was at the top of his game during the last week of 1960 when he scored in a 2-1 away win at Chelsea on Christmas Eve, netted a hat-trick as Chelsea were thumped 6-0 at Old Trafford on Boxing Day, and then scored another treble as United trounced neighbours City 5-1 on New Year’s Eve.

A fortnight later he had the chance to show another less well-known string to his footballing bow…. as a goalkeeper!

It was recalled by theguardian.com in 2013. When Tottenham were on their way to the first ever double and had an air of near-invincibility about them, they arrived at Old Trafford having lost only once all season, and had scored in every single game.

Long before the days of a bench full of substitutes, when ‘keeper Harry Gregg sustained a shoulder injury, Dawson had to take over in goal.

Dawson excelled when called upon, at one point performing, according to the Guardian’s match report, “a save from Allen that Gregg himself could not have improved upon”.

The article said: “Tottenham’s attempts to get back into the game came to nought and Dawson achieved what no genuine goalkeeper had all season: keep out Tottenham’s champions-elect. In the end, there were only two games all season in which Spurs failed to score, and this was one of them.”

Scoring for Preston North End

Tottenham’s north London neighbours, Arsenal, finished a disappointing 25 points behind Spurs in 11th place, but United manager Matt Busby had been keeping tabs on the Gunners’ prolific centre forward David Herd (Arsenal’s top scorer for four seasons), and in July 1961 took him to Old Trafford for £35,000. It signalled the end of Dawson’s time with United.

When the new season kicked off, Dawson had a new apprentice looking after the cleaning of his boots….a young Irishman called George Best. In his 1994 book, The Best of Times (written with Les Scott),

Best said: “Alex Dawson was a brawny centre forward whose backside was so huge he appeared taller when he sat down. To me, Alex looked like Goliath, although he was only 5’10”. What made him such an imposing figure was his girth.

“He weighed 13st 12lbs, a stone heavier than centre half Bill Foulkes who was well over 6ft tall. What’s more, there wasn’t an ounce of fat on Alex – it was all muscle.”

Best’s responsibilities for Dawson’s boots didn’t last long, however, because in October that year, Busby sold the centre forward to Preston for £18,000.

In 1967, Dawson took the short journey to Bury FC where his goalscoring exploits continued with 21 goals in 50 appearances, before he joined Goodwin’s regime at Brighton.

What a career to look back on: Alex Dawson recalling his goalscoring exploits

Youth Cup winner Rohan Ince faded after a bright start

THERE WAS a time it looked like Brighton had rescued a gem of a player in Rohan Ince.

After 13 years on Chelsea’s books, he was picked up at 20 by the Seagulls and quickly earned a place in the first team.

He progressed from a development squad triallist to first-team midfielder in little over six months, getting his chance because of an injury to Liam Bridcutt, another former Chelsea youngster who had been an inspiration for his move to the Albion.

“Liam is older than me but I knew he was a good lad who was always having a laugh,” Ince told the matchday programme. “It was only later when we were training with the reserves that I played with him.

“He is doing well at Brighton and I have great respect for him because it is not easy to find that success after leaving a club like Chelsea.

“He is a great example for young Chelsea boys that have been released, and to all young footballers who don’t get offered contracts.

“Liam has shown it is not the end of the world and if you keep fighting you can get there.”

Ince knew about Brighton from his uncle, Eric Young, a centre-half who played for Brighton in the 1980s.

“When I told him I was signing for the club, he was really happy for me,” he said. “He told me it was a good club and good area to live in. He’s an accountant these days, doing really well for himself.”

Ince arrived at the club towards the end of Gus Poyet’s reign but it was under successor Oscar Garcia’s direction that he thrived. Garcia switched him from a central defender into a defensive midfield player.

“For me he is a player who will have a better professional career as a midfielder than as a defender,” said the head coach. “He positions himself well, he is very alert to second balls, he doesn’t lose possession, he can move the ball quickly.

“I think these are all physical and technical characteristics that are better suited to the midfield role.”

And Garcia demonstrated that it wasn’t always a case of either/or between Bridcutt and Ince when the pair combined successfully in a 3-1 home win over Leicester City at the Amex in early December 2013.

He told The Argus: “All good players can play together. It’s up to the manager to try to find the best position for them.

“Rohan is young but when we are watching him he seems an experienced player. He has to improve a lot of things but he wants to do it and this for me is the most important thing.”

Such was Ince’s progress that in January 2014, a year after he joined the club, he was offered a new two-and-a-half-year contract and was being touted as the natural successor to Bridcutt, who, at the end of that month, made a much-predicted move to follow Poyet to Sunderland.

“He has earned this contract with the way he has trained and played ever since I came to the club,” said Garcia. “He has an excellent attitude every day, he looks after himself and works hard in training; and we are all seeing the benefit of that with his performances on the pitch.

“It is nice for the club to reward that hard work and professionalism with this new contract and I am very pleased for him.”

Ince topped off the first of his two seasons playing in the Championship by being crowned Brighton’s Young Player of the Year. He was probably sadder than most to see Garcia depart immediately after the play-off semi-final defeat to Derby County.

He told The Argus: “I started off as a midfielder at Chelsea up until I was 16, then I was changed to a centre-back because of my height and physical attributes.

“I went back and forwards between midfield and defence in my Chelsea career but I came here as a centre-back because that’s where I thought my career would be best.

“Oscar didn’t believe that and I am happy he didn’t believe it either, because midfield is my preferred position.

“He has given me the opportunity to play first team football, in my preferred role as well, so I couldn’t be more grateful.”

After winning the Young Player of the Year award, Ince said: “The gaffer is a really calm character who doesn’t go about shouting, so is my type of person. The senior pros have also been a massive help, talking to me on the pitch and in training. I couldn’t have won this award without them all.”

Sadly, Ince’s progress seemed to peter away after Garcia left. He made only 11 starts in 26 games for Sami Hyypia, and the player told The Argus: “It was quite hard for me, quite a setback, coming off the back of a good season I had previously.

“I had to keep my head up, keep training well, not get too down or depressed about it. I felt I did that and when the opportunity came I felt I did well.”

It looked like his fortunes had changed after Chris Hughton had taken charge. He was a frequent starter under Hughton initially and the player himself felt bold enough to tell The Argus: “I feel I’ve been playing quite well recently, bringing good competition for the gaffer in the midfield area. I’m giving him quite a tough decision to drop me, in my opinion.”

Hughton clearly felt differently, though. He had already signed Beram Kayal and, in the summer of 2015, added Dale Stephens. They became Hughton’s go-to central midfield pairing.

Another promising young midfielder, Jake Forster-Caskey, found himself sent on loan to MK Dons and, on the last day of the transfer window in early 2016, after Hughton acquired the services of the experienced Steve Sidwell, Ince joined Fulham on loan until the end of the season.

At least it was still Championship level, although Ince didn’t get into Slavisa Jokanovic’s struggling side straight away. It wasn’t until 19 March he was handed a start away to Birmingham City when he obliged with a goal in a 1-1 draw.

“It was a frustrating and a confusing period,” admitted Ince in Fulham’s official matchday programme. “I could have easily given up, but I continued to train hard and kept knocking on the gaffer’s door to make sure he didn’t forget about me. It’s starting to pay off.

“He just said it was tactical why I wasn’t playing but then he decided he wanted to try something different at Birmingham. I think he wanted a more solid midfield with me and Scott Parker in there and I’ve been back in ever since. Long may it continue.”

Ince made eight starts and two sub appearances as Fulham narrowly avoided the drop.

Back at the Albion, Ince only got three first-team starts in the League Cup and was an unused sub for a handful of league games. It was no surprise, therefore, that in January 2017 he was once again sent out on loan, this time to Swindon Town, whose head coach was Luke Williams, who had been in charge of Albion’s development squad when Ince first joined the Seagulls.

Robins fans would have remembered Ince for a wonder strike for Brighton at the County Ground during a Capital One Cup tie in August 2014. It opened the scoring in a 4-2 Albion win, that went to extra-time.

Ince scored twice in 14 games in a squad with some familiar faces: Bradley Barry, Yaser Kasim, Anton Rodgers and Jonathan Obika.

As Albion began life in the Premier League, Ince once again found his only outlet for first-team football was in the League Cup and his display in a 1-0 win over Barnet proved to be a shop window.

Within days, League One Bury signed him on a season-long loan, their manager Lee Clark, saying: “Rohan is a player that has been on the radar for a while. The chairman, Alan Thompson and I went down to Brighton on Tuesday to watch him play for Brighton and he was very impressive for them.

“He will bring a presence to the team and is a very good footballer. He plays it simple and plays it effectively and I believe he will be a big player for us in every sense of the word, both in his physicality and in his play.

“He is an established Championship player and unfortunately for him, Brighton have gone to the next level. Once we found out he was available, we went for him. I am more than delighted to get him in.”

Ince made 22 appearances for Bury in what turned out to be a disastrous season for them because they finished bottom of the table and were relegated. Clark only lasted as manager until the end of October, Chris Lucketti was in charge for two months and caretaker Ryan Lowe was in the hotseat for the remainder of the season.

The loanee played his last match for Bury in April 2018 and was released by the Albion in June that year.

Let’s rewind for a moment, though. Born in Whitechapel, London, on 8 November 1992, Ince was picked up by Chelsea as a promising young player when he was only eight years old.

Football was clearly in the Ince family genes; as well as Uncle Eric, a less close relation is former England international Paul Ince, his dad’s second cousin.

Rohan progressed through Chelsea’s academy and joined the club after completing his formal education at Thamesmead School in Shepperton.

In a detailed pen picture on cfcnet.co.uk in July 2009, Philip Rolfe said: “Look at Rohan from a distance and you could mistake him for a younger John Obi Mikel. His tall, gangly stature and his head of spiky black hair brings about the comparison, and although he’s a centre-back by trade, his laid-back and composed style is very much in the mould of the Nigerian international.

“Ince has most often played in the heart of the under 16s defence alongside Danny Mills, especially in 2007-08. Previously he could also have been found in defensive midfield when Jack Saville was a regular in the under 16s team, and it’s in that position where he might be at his best.

“Much taller and stronger than most opponents his age, he can bring the ball out in the style of the much sought after footballing centre-back. At centre back his somewhat lethargic style can result in a loss of possession, and he is often found to hit a long pass rather than pick out a shorter option.

“In midfield he has more options and more freedom, but as a regular in the under-18s already, he’s honing his craft.”

In 2010, Ince was a member of Dermot Drummy’s FA Youth Cup-winning side that beat Aston Villa 3-2 on aggregate (Ben Sampayo and Anton Rodgers, who also later joined Brighton, were Chelsea subs). Ince signed professional for Chelsea in July 2010 and went on to play regularly for the reserves but didn’t make it to the first-team.

In July 2012, he signed a six-month deal to go on loan to Yeovil. But he made only one start and three substitute appearances for Gary Johnson’s side before returning to Stamford Bridge with a recurring ankle injury.

After finally leaving Chelsea in January 2013, he said: “Chelsea said they couldn’t see me breaking into the first team, which is probably true.

“It is very difficult to get into their first team because they can go out and buy the best players in the world.

“When I was told I wouldn’t get a new deal, I decided to go on a series of trials and Brighton was the club I identified as the best place to go to.

“I travelled to Bournemouth for a friendly on the second day of my trial and felt I had performed well, but then the weather had a dramatic impact on my hopes. There was loads of snow so I was limited to what I could show as we were training indoors, but from what I did show, Luke Williams liked it and extended my trial.”

On being released by Brighton, Ince played a couple of pre-season friendly matches for Charlton Athletic but he didn’t get taken on because of a knee injury. Caretaker boss Lee Bowyer told londonnewsonline: “He’s got something wrong with his knee. He came with it. How he’s been training and playing in the games I don’t know, because he’s injured.”

It led to Ince spending the whole of 2018-19 without a club trying to heal and recover his fitness. Eventually, he was taken on by League Two Cheltenham Town in July 2019, with manager Michael Duff telling the club website: “He’s had a good schooling where he’s come from at Chelsea and had 80 or 90 games for Brighton in the Championship. “When I played against him, he was the next big thing coming through. He’s been a bit unfortunate with his injury last year. We’ve done all the due diligence with regards to testing, seeing specialists, scanning — we think we’ve found a very good player.

Michael Duff greets Rohan Ince

“He’s 6’4”, powerful, but he can play as well. We’re hoping he can add physicality and quality into our midfield.”

Unfortunately, it wasn’t a great start for Ince, when the Robins travelled to east London to take on Leyton Orient on the opening day of the season. In a mad five minutes midway through the second half, Josh Wright scored past Scott Flinders to put Orient ahead, Town striker Luke Varney saw a second yellow for alleged simulation in what the visitors contended was a clear penalty shout.

Frustrated by the decision, Ince, who’d taken a drink of water during the halt in proceedings, threw the empty plastic bottle to the sidelines, but it hit the fourth official. Referee Michael Salisbury deemed it to be violent conduct and showed him a straight red card.

“He seems to think he did it intentionally,” manager Duff explained to gloucestershirelive.co.uk afterwards. “I am not sure Rohan’s aim is that good that he can hit someone five or six yards away, walking the other way. There is not a lot I can do about that one, but I think it’s very soft, particularly after what’s gone on in the 60 minutes before that.”

To make matters worse, the FA charged Ince with breaching an FA rule and, instead of the statutory three-match ban, he was banned for five matches.

Then, just when it looked like he would return to the side in a game at Crawley, he injured his hamstring in a pre-match warm-up and had to pull-out of Cheltenham’s starting line-up.

He ended up making only nine League Two appearances and was released at the end of his one-year deal.

It was only when he linked up with fifth-tier Maidenhead United for the 2020-21 season that he finally got a decent run of games, featuring 31 times for the National League side, and helping the club finish 13th, the second-best finish in the club’s history.

In 2021 he was called up for the first time to play for the national football team of Montserrat, which is coached by Willie Donachie, the former Manchester City, Oldham and Scotland defender, who had been Joe Royle’s managerial no.2 at various clubs.

The tiny Caribbean nation, a British overseas territory of less than 5,000 inhabitants, is trying to rebuild after half the island was destroyed by a volcanic eruption in 1995, forcing thousands to flee to Britain. Most of the British-born semi-professionals who play for Montserrat are related to those island residents who came to the UK.

Ince featured in qualifying matches for the 2022 FIFA World Cup and scored his first goal in a 4-0 win over the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Although they did not advance from their World Cup qualifying preliminary group, the ‘Emerald Boys’ finished unbeaten with eight points and earned draws against El Salvador and Antigua and Barbuda.

On his return, for the 2021-22 season, Ince switched to another National League side, Woking, and is described on the club website as “an integral player at the base of the Woking midfield”.

Adding that he had “quickly became a firm fan favourite”, it says of him: “A tough-tackling defensive midfielder also capable of pushing further forward, he made 37 appearances during his debut season with the Cards, whilst chipping in with two goals and four assists.”

Fate dealt blows throughout Essex lad David Lee’s career

IT MAY simply have been David Lee’s misfortune that he joined Brighton at a time when they weren’t short of decent midfield players.

Nevertheless, a player who had gone through the ranks at Spurs alongside the likes of Peter Crouch and Ledley King might have been expected to make more of an impression.

As it was, the manager who signed him moved on and he ended up starting just one league game in two and a half years with the club.

Ultimately a horror injury brought a premature end to Lee’s career at the age of 28, but he stayed in the game as an agent – Lewis Dunk being one of his clients.

It was in January 2002 that Peter Taylor, a one-time Spurs player himself, brought Lee to the Albion from Hull City in direct exchange for fringe player Matthew Wicks.

Taylor had been close to signing him when he was manager of Gillingham but, after moving on to Leicester City, Taylor recommended him to Southend United instead.

By the time Lee arrived at the Albion, they were already on an upward trajectory towards promotion from the third tier and he had to be content largely with reserve team football and a seat on the first-team subs bench.

The first Albion fans got to see of him came on 23 February 2002 at home to Wrexham when he went on as a 23rd minute substitute for Gary Hart alongside inexperienced Chris McPhee, who was playing in the absence of goal king Bobby Zamora.

Wrexham brought Albion’s run of five straight home wins to an end in what the Argus described as “a dour deadlock” and in the process became the first side to stop the Seagulls from scoring at Withdean Stadium for 13 months.

In fact, sharper-eyed Albion watchers might have recognised the newcomer as a player who’d scored against the Seagulls twice the previous season.

He marked his debut for Southend in the opening match of the 2000-2001 season with an 83rd-minute second goal that sealed a 2-0 win for the home side.

Then, in the reverse fixture, he scored again as United completed the double over the Seagulls on a quagmire of a pitch at Withdean on New Year’s Day 2001. On that occasion, Lee went on as a 77th minute substitute for Ben Abbey and scored five minutes later as the Shrimpers again won 2-0.

Described by Spurs history website ‘My Eyes Have Seen The Glory’ as “a slightly built, but athletic midfielder, who had an eye for an attacking option as he used his passing to try and open up opposition defences”, Lee spent a season at Roots Hall, initially under Alan Little, scoring 10 goals in 52 games. “I played nearly every game so it couldn’t have gone much better really,” Lee told the Basildon Canvey and Southend Echo.

But after just one season with Southend, Lee joined Division Three Hull City, managed by previous manager Little’s brother Brian (better known for his time in charge of Leicester and Aston Villa). It was a decision Lee later rued.

“Looking back, I do regret it,” he said. “I left because the (Southend) manager Dave Webb said he thought I’d had a good season and that Leicester were interested in me.

“My form wasn’t good at the end of the season so he told me they would be coming back to have another look at the start of the next season. Then he told me I’d have to take a pay cut to stay.

“At the same time, Hull offered to double my money for three years.” Hence he ended up with the Tigers.

He made his debut as a substitute in the League Cup and followed up that appearance with brief cameo roles off the bench in the league. One saw him score Hull’s fourth goal in a comprehensive 4-0 thumping of York City for whom Graham Potter was playing!

Lee made a rare start in a 1-1 draw away to Shrewsbury Town and kept his place for the next game (a 1-0 win over Torquay United), but it was back to appearances off the bench after that.

It was Taylor, fired by Leicester but installed as Micky Adams’ replacement at promotion-seeking Albion, who rescued him from Hull, signing him on a two-year contract in January 2002.

Unsurprisingly, Lee saw it as a “massive blow” when Taylor quit the Albion after steering the side to promotion because he didn’t believe enough was going to be spent on investing in the squad to compete at the higher level.

“I’m disappointed because he brought me to the club in the first place,” Lee told the Argus. “When I came, he wasn’t looking for me to get straight into the first team.

“He told me next year he would look to get me more involved. Now he has left it’s going to be difficult. When the new manager comes in, I have got to make sure I am fit and try to impress him.

“It’s a huge stage for a young player in the First Division and I need to be playing.”

Of course, if Lee had hung on at Hull slightly longer, he’d have been joined there by Taylor!

“I should have stayed there for longer but I went to Brighton,” Lee told the Basildon Canvey and Southend Echo. “I did three and a half years there (ed. it was two and a half) and had some great times winning the promotions but I never did hold down a first team place and, when Peter Taylor left, I was well out of it.”

Indeed, in the 2002-03 season, Lee didn’t make a single league or cup appearance for the Albion, although, in October 2002, after Steve Coppell’s appointment as manager, he appeared – and scored – in the first half on a rainy, gale-battered evening alongside trialists Simon Rodger and Dean Blackwell when an Albion XI beat Hassocks 5-0 in a game to mark the opening of a new stand for the County League side. While Blackwell and Rodger subsequently signed up, Lee was sent on loan to Bristol Rovers, but only stayed for a month.

Pretty clear his future didn’t lie with the Albion, on 23 April 2003 he played in a trial match for Cambridge United’s reserves against Gillingham in a 3-0 win. Impressing in another reserve match against Colchester, the U’s manager said he would like to sign Lee on a permanent basis. But nothing came of it, and he remained on Albion’s books.

As if to emphasise what they missed out on, in August 2003 Lee scored against Cambridge in a comprehensive Albion Reserves win. The 3-0 win was the opening fixture for the Seagulls’ second string in the Pontin’s Holidays Combination League.

A short spell on loan to Ryman League Thurrock followed in October 2003 but, in the time he was away, Brighton had a new manager; Mark McGhee replacing Coppell, who had moved to Reading.

And so it was, in December 2003, that Lee finally made his full Albion debut, away to QPR in the LDV Vans Trophy. Albion narrowly lost 2-1, and he was subbed off on the hour mark, being replaced by Gary Hart, but McGhee defended his selection in the following matchday programme.

“I saw the game as an opportunity to find out about players who haven’t had the chance since my arrival,” he said. “The inclusion of David Lee and Dan Harding in particular did not result in us losing the game. Basic defensive errors led to the defeat. However, I did learn a lot about Dan and David and I do believe that both players will continue to make a contribution this season. So, as an exercise, there were positives to take out of the game.”

While Harding would go on to become an established member of McGhee’s side, Lee was a perennial bench warmer and only started one league match: a 2-1 defeat at Sheffield Wednesday on 27 March 2004.

“That was a nice surprise,” he said. “I thought I did okay, apart obviously from the result.”

But Lee realised his Albion future was up in the air, telling the Argus: “I’ve had a meeting with the gaffer and he said he is going to have to wait and see where we are next season, so it’s touch and go for me.”

He admitted he’d been close to moving to Grimsby just before the transfer deadline, but Town boss Nicky Law had chosen alternative options.

Lee was able to join in the celebrations that followed Albion’s promotion via the play-off final win over Bristol City at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, but he was only ever on the periphery.

He was given one last chance to prove himself when he was handed a three-month deal in July 2004. But, over that period, Albion brought in Darren Currie and Alexis Nicolas, so, on the expiry of the short term deal, Lee was released.

Assistant manager Bob Booker said: “David worked extremely hard but just fell a little short to make the first team.”

While Lee told the Argus: “I never really got started all the time I was at Brighton. But I worked really hard in the summer, and I did quite well pre-season. That’s why I am disappointed to be going now.”

Born in Basildon, Essex, on 28 March 1980, Lee went to Gable Hall School in Thurrock from 1991 to 1996 and his young footballing talent was spotted as an under 10 by Spurs scout Lenny Cheesewright.

Lee talked at length about his career to Lennon Branagan in August 2020 for the excellent SuperHotspur blog.

He developed through the different age groups at Spurs under various coaches, citing in particular Tommy Cunningham really putting him through his paces aged 15-16, then Bobby Arber after he’d signed a scholarship. “He was a real top coach who taught me a lot about tactics and positioning and the ugly side of the game.”

The highlight of his time at Spurs came when he was captain of the 1996 Spurs youth team that won the Northern Ireland Milk Cup, an annual international youth tournament. Spurs beat Blackburn in the final by a single goal scored by John Piercy, who later also moved to Brighton.

Another memorable moment came when Lee, aged only 16, scored the winning goal for Spurs Reserves against Bristol City in a testimonial for Leroy Rosenior (father of Liam).

In Spurs’ youth team, Lee was managed by the former West Ham winger Patsy Holland, who he felt never really rated him. Eventually, in Spurs’ reserve side, he was managed by Chris Hughton – “one of the best coaches that I’ve played for and had the pleasure of working with”.

While contemporaries such as Luke Young progressed to the first team, Lee fell just short and he was honest enough to admit: “Looking back now, I think the thing that you look at was did I really show the coaches that I wanted it enough? And did I really give absolutely everything to be a top player? And probably the answer’s no, if I’m being honest with myself. That’s the biggest regret or the real shame that I have really.”

Ironically, it was when his friend Piercy got a first team call-up instead of him that he decided to move on from Spurs although, once again with the benefit of hindsight, he reckons he was probably too hasty in his decision.

George Graham was manager at the time and Lee reckoned he wasn’t his type of player. Although he still had 18 months left on his contract, he decided to move on because he couldn’t see himself making it at Spurs. But not long afterwards, Glenn Hoddle took over as manager and Lee reckons if he had stayed he might have had a better chance of training with the first team a bit more, and improving as a player.

After the Seagulls released Lee in September 2004, he trained with Oldham Athletic and signed on a non-contract basis for a month but was not retained.

He returned to Thurrock, had a trial at Kidderminster Harriers, signed for Conference side Stevenage Borough in February 2005, but then changed his mind and signed for Aldershot instead.

Football agent Lee

It was during a game for the Shots against Canvey Island in August 2005 that he suffered a horrific injury that doctors told him would end his career.

“I was actually only an hour away from losing my foot and it was all quite worrying as you would expect,” said Lee. “When I was in hospital they told me I would never play again.”

The injury forced him to miss the majority of the 2005-06 season, and, although he extended his contract by a year on 30 May 2006, he eventually left the Shots at the end of January 2007 and signed for Ryman League Division One Harlow Town. That didn’t last long; he had a short spell with Braintree, then AFC Hornchurch and then Canvey Island.

In an interview with Chris Phillips of the Basildon Canvey and Southend Echo in June 2008, Lee said he was pleased to have proved the doctors wrong in managing to get back playing football, but he admitted: “I’ve been playing non-league this season, but my heart hasn’t been in it.”

Lee turned to football agency work that year and has continued in that line ever since. He was with Skillequal for 10 years before switching to ICM Stellar Sports in April 2018.