LEFT-SIDED midfielder Ian Westlake almost pushed a buoyant Albion into the third-tier play-offs when on loan from Leeds United.

He scored twice in 11 games for Dean Wilkins’ Seagulls in the spring of 2008 but Albion missed out, finishing the season in seventh place, seven points adrift of the play-off places. Westlake’s parent club came fifth (having been deducted 15 points for failing to comply with insolvency rules) and lost 1-0 to Doncaster Rovers in the play-off final.

His Albion goals came in away wins at Luton Town (2-1) and Bristol Rovers (2-0) and Wilkins was full of praise for his contribution, telling the Argus: “He has got good energy and quality on the ball and we have got a good character as well.”

After extending his loan beyond the initial month, the manager added: “He has brought balance to the side by being left-footed but he has also brought his enthusiasm and personality as well.”

The player himself said: “I am contracted to Leeds but now I am a Brighton player and everything is about Brighton for me and that is what I am concentrating on.

“The team have done really well in the month I’ve been here, so it’s nice to be a part of the next one.

“It has been really enjoyable. I want to play, so I am a lot happier at the moment and the boys have made me feel really welcome.”

In a matchday programme interview, Westlake declared: “I really like it down here and I grew up on the coast (he was born in Clacton-on-Sea), so it is nice to get back by the sea.

“If I am here winning games and pushing for the play-offs I would love to stay.”

Westlake was among familiar faces at the Withdean because former Ipswich Town teammate Nicky Forster was among the goals up front and close friend Matt Richards was in defence.

“It’s nice to be in a team with some guys I know and some new guys who are friendly and wanting to win games,” he said.

Westlake’s family were prominent in water sports and, as well as being a talented swimmer, he represented England Schools at water polo.

However, football won out and he joined the Ipswich school of excellence in the early 1990s, signing associated schoolboy forms with Town in September 1998. He progressed to join their academy in 2000 and signed a two-year scholarship.

He signed his first professional contract in the summer of 2002, shortly after George Burley’s side dropped from the Premier League to the Championship, and he has since spoken about how that relegation helped launch his career.

“I might never have played professional football had it not been for relegation,” Westlake reflected in a March 2109 interview with the Colchester Daily Gazette. “Administration meant the club were forced to sell players and that opened the door for people like myself, Darren Bent and Darren Ambrose.

“It gave us our chance and, as odd as it sounds, I personally feel I owe my career to relegation.”

Westlake made his debut in a 1-0 home defeat against Gillingham in October 2002 but spent most of the rest of that season in the reserves. In the first half of the 2003-04 season, he was more often than not a sub but he cemented a starting place from January through to the end of that campaign and was voted Player of the Year.

He was twice a Championship play-off semi-finals loser playing for Joe Royle’s Ipswich against West Ham, in 2004 and 2005, when Bobby Zamora was among the goals for the Hammers.

“Overall, though, I’ve got great memories and was lucky to be part of Royle’s side,” Westlake told the Gazette’s Matt Plummer. “We were so attacking and always tried to outscore sides.

“It was a great way to play football and it’s not something I experienced anywhere else in my career.

“At other clubs we were endlessly drilled on defending and being solid but it was more fun at Ipswich. As players, our freedom levels were through the roof and it makes me smile just thinking about it.

“Don’t get me wrong – we trained hard and were super-fit. But it was all about attacking and in Darren Bent and Shefki Kuqi we had two of the top scorers in the Championship.

“Jim Magilton was so creative in midfield and then players like myself and Tommy Miller had legs and could get from box to box. It was a great team to be part of.”

Westlake racked up 100 appearances (+ 25 as a sub) for the Tractor Boys before joining Leeds in August 2006 for a fee of £400,000 + former Albion left-back Dan Harding in part exchange.

Westlake made 21 starts + eight appearances off the bench playing alongside the likes of Shaun Derry, Kevin Nicholls and Jonathan Douglas but a groin injury sidelined him for a while and Leeds, by then with Dennis Wise in charge, assisted by Gus Poyet, were relegated to the third tier.

Even so, Westlake enjoyed being coached by Poyet, as he told Andy Naylor shortly after the Uruguayan was appointed Albion manager in November 2009. “Everyone liked him at Leeds,” he said. “He is one of those people that you want to play for.

“Gus did nearly all of the coaching at Leeds so I would imagine he will be quite a hands-on manager. It was always enjoyable. They were good sessions, hard work but fun.”

Although Westlake was a regular in the first half of the 2007-08 season, he found himself on the outside looking in when Gary McAllister replaced Wise in the dugout, and the move to the Albion got him back playing first team football.

As it turned out, any hopes that the move might have been made permanent were quashed by the elbowing of Wilkins as manager in favour of the returning Micky Adams, who had other – ultimately unsuccessful – options to try.

Westlake was loaned out again in the 2008-09 season, linking up with Cheltenham Town. When the Robins entertained the Seagulls in January 2009, as sure as eggs is eggs, Westlake opened the scoring for the home side. However, Albion turned round a 2-0 deficit to salvage a point with a Forster goal and an injury-time equaliser by Adam Hinshelwood.

Westlake made the move to Cheltenham permanent that month but the same financial problems that led to Lloyd Owusu being freed to join Russell Slade’s Albion rescue mission that spring saw Westlake join Oldham Athletic on loan until the end of the season.

He joined Wycombe Wanderers on a two-year contract in July 2009 but injuries curtailed his appearances to just eight starts and two games off the bench, and he eventually needed surgery on an ankle.

In 2011 he moved to Canada to play for Montreal Impact, scoring twice in 13 games for the NASL side. Future Leeds boss Jesse Marsch said on signing him: “Ian’s soccer qualities and competitive nature make him a very good fit for our team moving forward. I know Ian will come into work every day and give everything he has. He is a real competitor and an excellent player on the field.” 

They re-signed him as they prepared to switch to Major League Soccer but he was released in February 2012 after a new ‘six foreigners only’ ruling came into force.

Disillusioned with football, Westlake returned to Suffolk and started his own lettings and property development business although 18 months later he pulled his boots back on to play non-league for Needham Market, of the Ryman League North.

In an interview with Mike Bacon of the East Anglian Daily Times in June 2013, he said: “I moved to various clubs after Leeds, but it seemed every time I went somewhere within a few months a new manager came in.

“Invariably, you are regarded as ‘a previous boss’ man’, and the new manager moves you on.

“It doesn’t matter what you do, new managers want their own men in. Quite honestly there is only so much of that you can take.

“When the new MLS ruling about six foreigners came into force and the manager at Montreal released me, that was it for me to be honest.”

But he got back in the groove with Needham Market and made 77 appearances across two seasons, even though he was dogged by knee and hamstring problems at times.

He hung up his boots at the end of the 2014-15 season, when the side won the Ryman Division One North title, and he subsequently returned to Portman Road as a matchday pundit for the club’s TV coverage of games alongside lead commentator Glenn Wheeler.

In that 2019 Gazette interview, Westlake said: “I don’t really miss football, to be honest. I’ve managed to fill the void with a million other things, including playing table tennis.

“I have my own lettings company and project manage new builds across Ipswich. I always wanted to get out and do other things.

“I had coaching opportunities but never saw myself in that world. It was weird sitting exams again and felt like going back to school but it was satisfying learning something new.

“I’m putting everything into my work and thankfully it’s going very well, but I’ll always be thankful for my years as a professional footballer. They were great memories.”