Jimmy Case’s arrival at Brighton heralded the dawning of a new era

IT’S HARDLY surprising that there are numerous tales to tell from Jimmy Case’s illustrious football career, many of which he told in his autobiography, Hard Case.

Following on from my recent blog post about the all-important blockbuster winner he scored at Anfield for Brighton in the fifth round of the 1983 FA Cup, let’s look in more detail at the impact of his arrival in Sussex in the summer of 1981. It was momentous in many respects.

And, if you’ll indulge me in the parallel that gives this blog its very name, Case’s move from Liverpool to Brighton bore a remarkable similarity to Adam Lallana’s 2020 move in the same direction in terms of the Seagulls capturing an influential trophy-winner whose experience took them to a new level.

Case scored 46 goals in 269 appearances across six years at Liverpool and left with four League title winners’ medals, three European Cup winners’ medals plus one each for winning the UEFA Cup, European Super Cup and the League Cup.

*This 2021 article highlights the impressive array of medals Case collected in his career*

Lallana scored 22 in 178 matches and collected one League title medal, and others for winning the Champions League, European Super Cup and FIFA Club World Cup. Unlike Case, Lallana also won 34 England caps.

In the season following Case’s signing, Brighton finished in a highest-ever 13^th place in the top division under Mike Bailey in 1982, a feat only bettered by the ninth-place finish under Graham Potter 40 years later and even better sixth spot under Roberto De Zerbi in 2023.

I first wrote about Case’s time with Brighton in a 2017 blog post but his story is well worthy of re-telling, particularly with updates from more recent interviews he’s given.

Back in 1981, as Spencer Vignes said in a matchday programme article, perhaps with a little journalistic licence: “When 27-year-old Jimmy swapped Anfield for the Goldstone, the effect on Sussex was seismic. For here was a Liverpool legend, famous for his ferocious shot and no-nonsense approach to the game.”

Listing those medals he’d won, Vignes continued: “The fact that this man wanted to play for the Albion blew the fans away.”

The truth was that Case didn’t really want to leave Liverpool but some of his off-field antics involving drink had not gone down well with the Anfield management and Sammy Lee was emerging as his replacement.

“There was something of a drinking culture at Liverpool in those days,” Case admitted in an interview with lfchistory.net. “Ray Kennedy and me were usually at the heart of it, along with Terry McDermott, Phil Thompson, Emlyn (Hughes) and Smithy (Tommy Smith) – everyone, really.

“The coaches knew all about the drinking – it went on at all the clubs – and my thinking was that because we trained all week, played a hard game on a Saturday, to go out and have a few drinks afterwards was something we had earned. In my view, we were just letting our hair down a bit, but the club in those days didn’t like that type of thing. I wasn’t looking to leave at all but suppose they must have thought I was a bit of a bad lad.”

*Case nets for Liverpool in a European tie*

Lee was in the starting line-up for the 1981 European Cup Final win over Real Madrid in Paris and Case had only been involved as a late substitute for Kenny Dalglish.

He could tell he was being edged out when firstly it was suggested he might like to talk to ex-Red John Toshack, who was in charge of Swansea, and then he became aware that Liverpool wanted to sign Albion’s Mark Lawrenson.

“That’s where I got asked to make weight, but I didn’t know it was a makeweight at the time,” he told lfchistory.net. “I didn’t want to go anyway, to be honest, but when you’re asked twice, ‘Do you want to speak to another team?’, it’s another thing. Even though Sammy Lee is a really good friend of mine, I reckon I would have given a good go for the position, put it that way.”

Albion in the meantime had been struggling amongst the elite for two seasons and crowds at the Goldstone had begun to shrink; chairman Mike Bamber was looking for ways to make up the shortfall in income.

Manager Alan Mullery, who’d steered Brighton from the Third Division to the First, had two dilemmas to resolve. He’d made his own arrangement for Lawrenson to move to Man Utd not knowing of Bamber’s plan to sell Lawrenson to Liverpool. Bamber also wanted Mullery to sack his backroom staff as a cost-cutting measure.

It was all too much for Mullery and he quit the club in protest. Ironically, he swapped places with Mike Bailey, who’d just steered Charlton Athletic to promotion from the Third Division to the Second.

So, one of Bailey’s first missions was to welcome Case to the Goldstone and the Scouser admitted to Vignes he “didn’t really want to go to a big club again” and “fancied something different”.

If he felt he had a point prove to Liverpool, he certainly went about it in the right way, scoring in his first appearance against his old club the following October in a 3-3 draw at the Goldstone Ground and then helping the Albion to a 1-0 victory in the Anfield return six months later.

Teammate Gerry Ryan told Vignes: “When he came to Brighton, everyone was amazed. He was an enforcer in the old type of way. He would protect us. If anyone got hit bad then he would seek retribution. But he was also a great footballer.

“Every game Jimmy played, he played to a high standard. He also gave the team an aura. When you saw his name on the team sheet it stood out. It meant something.”

There was a significant ‘changing of the guard’ on his arrival: quite apart from the new manager and loss of the influential Lawrenson, skipper Brian Horton left too along with long-serving Peter O’Sullivan and utility man John Gregory.

But the arrival of tenacious Eire international midfielder Tony Grealish from Luton, experienced Don Shanks, who’d been part of a decent top division QPR squad, and Steve Gatting, who’d played 76 games for Arsenal meant there was no shortage of experience in their place.

Northern Irish international Sammy Nelson moved from Arsenal to take over the left-back spot from Gary Williams and Bailey declared: “The signing of Sammy Nelson has now given me the sort of squad I feel we need to compete with the best in the division.”

Commanding centre half Steve Foster took over as captain from Horton and the emerging Gary Stevens was a young talent who could fill any position in defence. Up front, Mullery signing Michael Robinson was a willing workhorse of a centre-forward who, on Brighton’s relegation in 1983, was sold to Liverpool.

Anyone who had the privilege to watch Case in his prime could testify that thunderbolt strikes from distance were his trademark and one of the best I ever saw was in the 1983 FA Cup semi-final at Highbury when Case smashed it in from 30 yards to give Brighton the lead against Sheffield Wednesday.

*Case gets stuck in during a Merseyside derby match*

He’d previously scored memorable goals in that trophy-laden career at Liverpool, notably in 1977 scoring one of the great FA Cup final goals, chesting down Joey Jones’s pass on the edge of the box before swivelling to rifle home an equaliser into the top corner against Manchester United, and a left-footed lash in a 1978 European Cup semi-final fightback against Borussia Moenchengladbach at Anfield.

Fascinating, then, to learn that Case had that hard shot from distance at an early age. “Even when I was eight-years-old I was asked to take the goal-kicks because nobody could kick it that far,” he told lfchistory.net.

After the disappointment of relegation from the top flight in 1983, Case remained while others were sold straight away, and some of the new arrivals were grateful for his steadying influence.

Centre-back Eric Young, for example, told the matchday programme: “All the lads were great but Jimmy Case really helped me to settle down. Jimmy is very subtle. He’ll just say a few words to you and it makes all the difference. I appreciated that in those early days.”

With much the same sentiment as Gerry Ryan, Young’s fellow central defender Gary O’Reilly was also a huge Case fan. But Chris Cattlin was obviously under instruction to balance the books and after Foster was sold to Aston Villa, Case was next out the door, along the coast to Southampton. O’Reilly couldn’t believe it.

“We sold Jimmy Case in the March and I nearly took the door off the hinges in Cattlin’s office,” he recalled in a matchday programme article. “I asked him what the hell he was doing selling Jimmy! Were we serious about getting promoted? Were we serious about getting into the play-offs?

“Jimmy went to Southampton and they had success with him in their team in the First Division. It was no surprise. How many European Cup medals does Jimmy have that say ‘winner’? That’s what Jimmy brought to the team here and he was a massive loss when he went.”

Indeed, if it was suspected Case wasn’t the force he once was, because he was 31 when he joined Saints, he ended up hardly missing a game for them, and captained the side, for six seasons.

Cattlin was certainly playing his cards close to his chest as to why Case was sold, and in his matchday programme notes he only obliquely referred to the reason, saying: “Salaries and bonuses of individual players are confidential and obviously I cannot disclose details, but the moves I have made I am certain are right.” And he added: “I can’t explain all the matters that have been considered.”

It wasn’t the last Albion fans would see of Case in their colours, of course, because he returned to the Goldstone Ground aged 39 in December 1993 in the twilight of his playing days, appointed a player-coach under Liam Brady when off-field issues hung gloomily over the club.

*On Case’s return to the Albion, he teamed up with other old heads in Colin Pates and Steve Foster*

Nevertheless, as a mark of the esteem in which Case was held, a testimonial game for him took place at the Goldstone on 17 October 1994 and it had to be delayed 10 minutes because so many people wanted to get in to pay tribute. The capacity of the grand old ground was much reduced by then but still 15,645 packed in to see Case’s old club Liverpool do him the honour of providing the opposition.

Albion featured Matt Le Tissier in their line-up and even Ryan and Brady made substitute appearances as Liverpool edged it 2-1. An emotional Case said afterwards: “I can’t thank the supporters enough. This was the only game I’ve ever been nervous about. I’ve never really asked for anything from the game, I just wanted everyone to enjoy it.

“It’s all been quite embarrassing really. I like to go to parties, I just don’t like them being my own.”

His last competitive start as an Albion player was in a 2-0 home win over Stockport County on 2 January 1995, and manager Brady said in his programme notes that the player “has an Achilles injury which he will never completely overcome”.

The following season, he twice went on as a sub, and was a non-playing sub on another occasion, but when he went on for Stuart Tuck in a 2-0 Hallowe’en home defeat to Swansea City, that was his last as a player.

Sadly, his last days at the club, having reluctantly taken over the managerial reins from Brady, were tarnished by relegation to the basement division and when Albion’s very existence in the league was under threat, he was replaced by Steve Gritt, who, only by the skin of his teeth, managed to keep Albion up.

Head ‘master’ Neil Martin scored hundreds in Scotland and England

PROLIFIC goalscorer Neil Martin was once considered to be one of the finest headers of a ball in football.

A Scottish international who was among an elite group to net 100 goals in both the Scottish and English leagues, Martin scored 46 of them in 99 top flight appearances for Sunderland.

It was 50 seasons ago that he arrived at Brighton towards the end of his career, almost at the same time as Peter Ward (right, above) was starting his. In fact, for a few weeks they shared a club-owned house overlooking the sea (until they each found their own homes) and Martin gave the youngster a lift into training.

Ironically, although Martin scored on his Albion debut and netted nine goals in 18 starts (plus five sub appearances), it was his departure from the club after only eight months that led to Ward’s introduction to first team football.

The previous season, Martin had scored the first goal of Brian Clough’s reign as Nottingham Forest manager, the only goal of the game in a FA Cup third round replay win against Spurs at White Hart Lane in January 1975.

The Scot had been at Forest for four years by then and, as if to prove there’s no sentiment in football, he was given a free transfer at the end of the season. That’s when Clough’s former managerial partner, Peter Taylor, picked him up for Brighton.

After a lacklustre first season in sole charge of the Albion (Clough had quit Brighton for his ill-fated 44 days at Leeds), Taylor brought in some experienced old heads to bolster a tilt at promotion with the signings of 34-year-old Martin, Phil Beal (30) and Joe Kinnear (28) from Spurs.

It was Albion’s 75^th anniversary season and the popular blue and white striped shirts were reinstated as the first-choice kit having been dropped the previous season for all white with blue cuffs and collar.

Martin played up front with Fred Binney and the pair were on the scoresheet in the opening day 3-0 home win over Rotherham United (his former Coventry teammate Ernie Machin got the other).

Martin scored twice in his third match, a 3-3 draw at Sheffield Wednesday, but the impatient Taylor soon chose to give Binney a new partner in on-loan Barry Butlin.

Restored to the side after Butlin’s return to parent club Forest, Martin made 11 successive starts and scored six times. But his brace in a 4-2 home win over Hereford United on 6 December 1975 were his last goals for the club.

Taylor seized an opportunity to sign Aston Villa’s out-of-favour Sammy Morgan (who he’d previously tried to sign when he was assistant manager at Derby) and Martin swiftly found himself on the outside looking in.

He only made one more start, replacing the injured Morgan, in a 1-0 win over promotion rivals Millwall at the start of February 1976 and he was then transfer-listed following a disagreement with Taylor when subbed off in a reserve game a week later, and was even banned from the ground by the disciplinarian boss. At the time, he had only just bought a house in Seaford.

The first team squad vacancy meant Ward was moved up the pecking order of strikers and he made his debut in a Goldstone friendly against Ipswich Town (Albion won 3-1, Ian Mellor got two, Andy Rollings the other). The following month, Martin moved to Crystal Palace where he scored just the once in nine appearances.

By then 35, he took a similar journey to lots of other English and Scottish players in their 30s edging towards the end of their careers by going to play in the North American Soccer League (NASL).

He played in the same San Antonio Thunder team as former England captain Bobby Moore, ex-Arsenal and Wolves left-back Bob McNab and former Sunderland teammate Harry Hood, and scored five goals in 19 games for the Texas-based club.

It wasn’t Martin’s first involvement in the NASL though because, in the summer of 1967, he was part of a Sunderland contingent who played as Vancouver Royal Canadians. The 16-man squad also included goalkeeper Derek Forster, who also later played for Brighton.

Born in Tranent, just east of Edinburgh, on 20 October 1940, Martin started out with Tranent Juniors and looked back on his career in a 2020 interview with Ninian Cassidy for Alive & Kicking, published on Facebook.

After leaving school, he began working at the local coal pit but he got his break into professional football with Alloa Athletic.

He described having to make a circuitous near 50-mile bus journey from his home in Tranent to make his debut for Alloa. Hungry after the long journey, he downed pie, beans and chips for lunch before going out and scoring in his first game for the Wasps.

He was still self-training at the local dog track twice a week before meeting up with his teammates to play on a Saturday but after scoring 25 league and cup goals in his first season (1960-61), he earned a move to Queen of the South.

Still remembered fondly as a legend of the club, former teammate Iain McChesney said of Martin: “Neil was a big gem. It didn’t matter what you did to him, he never got involved. He got kicked stupid but still, he picked himself up and got on with the game and scored goals. I remember him saying to me, ‘That’s the best thing you can do, that’s the best reply of the lot, stick the ball in the net and they can’t do anything about it’.”

When Queen of the South were promoted back to the top division as Division 2 runners up in 1961-62, Martin scored 30 league and cup goals. Fan chat group contributor Ronnie Rae said: “Brilliant player. He had a fantastic partnership with Ernie Hannigan playing for Queen of the South, his heading ability was outstanding. We had a great team back in the day.”

In 1963, he got the chance to move for a £7,500 transfer fee to Hibernian, the club he’d supported as a boy, and the following year the legendary Jock Stein, who he later said had the biggest influence on his career, took over as manager. Martin netted 29 league and cup goals for Hibs in the 1964-65 season.

Supporter Andy Szafer remembered Hibs beating Falkirk 6-0 in 1964 when Martin scored four: “I’ve still to come across anyone who could head a ball like Neil,” he said. “No one comes close…maybe Ronaldo, but Neil tops that list for me.”

During that time, he played and scored for a Scottish League representative side against an English League XI in a 2-2 draw at Roker Park. The following year, in October 1965, that became his home ground when he switched from Edinburgh for a £45,000 fee.

By then, he’d collected two of his three full Scottish international caps. He partnered the legendary Denis Law up front in World Cup qualifiers against Poland (1-1) and Finland (2-1) within four days of each other in May 1965.

In the month after his move to Sunderland, he played alongside Tottenham’s Alan Gilzean in a 1-0 win over Italy in front of 100,000 at Hampden Park.

The blog Roker Report noted that he joined Sunderland in the same season as fellow Scot Jim Baxter who grabbed most of the headlines (not always for the right reasons). “Martin was a coup that we never quite realised,” it said. “Martin was a battler and shied away from no one at a time when every team had cloggers, enforcers and hard men.

“He scored all sorts of goals, though was a danger in the air and in the box from corners and free kicks.”

One particular man-of-the-match performance by Martin came when he scored twice in a 3-2 defeat to high-flying Manchester United at Roker Park on 11 December 1965. This was a Man Utd side with George Best – who scored twice – Denis Law and Bobby Charlton in their line-up.

Roker Report recalled: “On five minutes, Neil Martin beat (Nobby) Stiles to the ball and holding off the challenge of another defender he blasted a left-foot shot from the edge of the box that beat (Pat) Dunne all-ends-up. What a cracking goal this was and Roker Park was bouncing in acknowledgement.

“On seventy-five minutes came probably the best goal of the game. George Herd was strong in the tackle and came through two challenges before sending a glorious cross to Neil Martin standing approximately ten yards out. He towered above his marker and powered a header past a stranded Pat Dunne to lift the net and light a touch paper for the last fifteen minutes.”

After Martin’s 26 goals in 1966-67, no other Sunderland player managed 20-plus in a season for 11 years!

A personal highlight for the player at the end of that season was playing in a combined Newcastle-Sunderland XI alongside Jackie Milburn in the Newcastle legend’s testimonial game against an international XI that included Hungarian and Real Madrid ‘master’ Ferenc Puskas and the World Cup winning brothers (Milburn’s first cousins once removed) Jack and Bobby Charlton.

The blog author noted that when he was sold in 1968 for twice the amount Sunderland paid for him, it might have been regarded as good business but it seemed “short-sighted and an opportunity missed. Neil Martin would always make my top 10 Sunderland strikers.”

Fan chat group contributor Ronnie Scott added: “Great player for Sunderland; had tremendous heading ability. Always remember a bullet header he scored against the Mags (Newcastle) at St James’ in a 3-0 win…absolute quality…and yes l think he was underrated!”

That move in February 1968 was to Coventry City and, in his chat with Ninian Cassidy, he admitted he was “tapped up” by the Sky Blues, taking a ‘phone call about his willingness to make a move while he was in a hotel about to play an away game at Sheffield Wednesday.

Noel Cantwell, who had taken over from Jimmy Hill as manager five months earlier, added Martin to a line-up that already included his former Queen of the South teammate Ernie Hannigan on the wing. Indeed, occasionally he was able to field an all-Scottish front five (the others were Gerry Baker, Willie Carr and Ian Gibson).

Martin certainly answered Cantwell’s need for more goals, netting a hat-trick in only his second game, a 3–0 home victory over Sheffield Wednesday. All three came in 36 first half minutes (a third-minute penalty, 32 and 39). He could have had four but missed a second penalty Coventry were awarded.

When City played in the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup in 1970, Martin scored the winner in a famous 2-1 victory over Bayern Munich at Highfield Road (unfortunately they’d lost the away leg 6-1).

Over his three years with the Sky Blues, he captained the side for a while and scored 45 goals in 122 first team games.

It was something of a surprise when he moved to Nottingham Forest, under Matt Gillies, in the spring of 1971 but he helped the struggling side stay up. Martin was 30 by then and when Forest were relegated at the end of the following season, it marked the end of his days playing top flight football.

In the 1974-75 season, Martin’s two goals in a 3-2 win over Sheffield Wednesday meant he passed the landmark of scoring 100 goals in English league football as well as in Scotland and he finished the season with 12 goals. He left the City Ground having scored 28 goals in 119 matches.

Martin’s final playing days were in the Republic of Ireland, with Dublin-based St Patrick’s Athletic, interestingly being given a lifeline by another former international striker who’d played for Brighton, Barry Bridges.

*Recounting old times in a 2020 interview*

In total, Martin played 248 club games in Scotland netting 161 times, he scored 135 goals in 401 appearances for English clubs and six times in 30 appearances abroad.

After hanging up his boots, Martin spent time as a youth coach at Walsall when Dave Mackay was the manager and the pair later spent 10 years together in Kuwait and Dubai (they won six league titles with Al-Arabi in Kuwait). He also had a difficult spell as joint manager of Walsall with Alan Buckley in the 1981-82 season.

After leaving football, he ran two pubs in Birmingham before retiring back to Tranent.

In 2012 he was in the news when he nearly lost the sight in his left eye through retinal vein occlusion (RVO) – a blockage in a vein which can cause blindness. A drug treatment – new at the time – saved the sight. Martin had initially thought the blurred vision he was suffering was cataracts.

Albion nurtured the rise of cultured defender Ben White

BEN WHITE must be one of the best and most successful examples of the way present-day Brighton have evolved.

Picked up for nothing as a teenager after being discarded by Southampton, White’s development was carefully managed in house and on loan at different levels before he broke into the first team, became one of an elite few Albion players to play for England, and was then sold to Arsenal for £50million.

Critics will, of course, say if such talent had been retained the club might now have been punching even higher in the football pyramid.

But, as that veteran Albion watcher Andy Naylor reminded us recently, “hopes and dreams are different from expectations”.

Denied the level of financial clout of, say, nine or 10 clubs in the same division, Albion, as Naylor says “will always be fighting to defy the odds.”

The sale of White was great business for the club – and it didn’t harm their progress. As one who loves a parallel, the season after Mark Lawrenson was sold to Liverpool in 1981, Brighton went on to achieve their highest ever finish (13^th) in the top division.

Forty years later, the same – in fact, even better – outcome followed White’s transfer to the Gunners; Albion finished in a highest ever place of ninth under Graham Potter.

And, as if to rub it in, White was in the Arsenal side that lost 2-1 at home to the Seagulls on 9 April 2022 (Enock Mwepu and future Gunner Leandro Trossard the Brighton goalscorers). It was Brighton’s first win in eight games and the win helped to dent Arsenal’s hopes of a top-four finish.

Born in Poole, Dorset, on 8 October 1997, White was in and out of hospital during early childhood owing to an immune disorder that left him with regular bouts of appendicitis, according to an April 2024 Daily Mail article by Sami Mokbel.

He eventually had his appendix removed aged seven but it didn’t stand in the way of his love of playing football from a young age.

“My parents (Barry and Carole) aren’t football fans at all, so they didn’t push me into it,” he told arsenal.com. “But they saw how much I loved it, and they did everything they could to help me.

“I don’t know how I got into it really in the first place, probably just through being with mates, playing in the park or the garden. I can’t remember why, I don’t think there was a particular moment that set me off in football, but I remember loving it from the first time I ever kicked a ball.”

He enjoyed other sports too – tennis, hockey and cricket – but it was his football ability that saw him picked up by Southampton’s academy at the age of eight. He played in age group teams through to the age of 16 as a midfielder, but Saints didn’t offer him a scholarship because of concerns over his lack of strength.

Others obviously saw something, though, because he had trials at Leicester and Bristol City before opting to join Brighton.

“It’s not nice hearing that someone doesn’t want you, but you’ve got to believe in yourself and remember it’s only someone’s opinion that may be right, or may be wrong,” he said.

Albion’s then head of academy player recruitment Mark Anderson spotted White during a trial at the David Beckham Soccer Dome in Greenwich. He played a game on trial against Brentford, and was then taken on, playing as a central defender, on youth terms working under academy boss John Morling and under-23s coach Simon Rusk.

Interviewed by The Athletic in November 2020, Morling explained how White’s pathway to Brighton’s first team was carefully planned and nurtured from the moment the club decided to give him a chance.

“He was technically good, passed the ball well,” said Morling. “He was a good, athletic shape. You knew he had a lot more development from a physical perspective.

“He had growing issues at one point. He was out for a long time. When people grow, they can have problems in their heels, knees or back. He had some back issues.”

White featured regularly for Brighton’s under-18s and under-23s under Rusk, and Morling pointed out: “He was a good learner, a nice personality, a way about him. He worked hard, did lots of extras in his under-18 year, under-23 year. He’d be very modest, but he’d be honest in his opinion of how he played if he didn’t play well. That’s how he is.”

Morling added: “His make-up, personality and modesty comes from his parents and his upbringing. That’s how he is and that is a big positive for young players to learn from.

“You’ve not made it until you’ve made it and the really top players always strive for more on the pitch. They always want to be better and, in their eyes, they’ve never made it. Ben shows that.”

At Brighton, he certainly had a shining example to look up to and he admitted how Lewis Dunk took him under his wing. “When I started at Brighton my goal was to play alongside him,” he said. “He was there from a young age as well, he was just a normal guy, English as well, down to earth, same position and we got on well.

“From him it was more a case of watching what he did every day. He was an example for me to follow. He was someone you look up to and see him training every day. I knew I needed to be at that level.”

*Lewis Dunk provided a great example for White* *to follow*

White was still only 18 when Chris Hughton gave him his first team debut in the League Cup in August 2016, a 4-0 home win over Colchester United, and he played in the next round, a 4-2 win over Oxford United. He was also an unused sub for league games.

“He is the type of boy you can’t dislike,” Hughton told Mail Sport. “The type of boy you want to see do well. A quiet lad. Very unassuming.”

Hughton said there was never a question mark about his ability, only what would be his best position – centre-back, right-back or defensive midfield. “Because he was a ball player we knew he would be capable of playing in other positions. At the time we didn’t feel he was a domineering centre-back.”

When he looked back on his first team bow, White said in a matchday programme interview: “There weren’t many people who could play because of the injuries at centre-half but I was still surprised (to be chosen) and hopefully I took my chance to impress.

“I learned a lot about concentration; you can’t afford to switch off in the first team because you’ll get punished otherwise.

“I’ve tried to take that back into the under-23s and hopefully I can implement that with them now. Learning off players like Dunky was great, they’re really good people to learn from.”

White had begun to be involved in the first team that pre-season, joining the squad for training in Tenerife and featuring in friendlies against Crawley Town, Fulham and Lazio.

Ahead of him in his position at the time were Dunk, Shane Duffy, Connor Goldson and Uwe Hunemeier, so it was always going to be a gradual transition to the senior group.

“Obviously I’d love to get involved with the first team again, as that gave me a taste of what I want to do on a regular basis,” he said.

But there were three loans – in League Two, League One and the Championship – before he became a first team regular.

*Gaining experience with Newport County*

First stop was South Wales, and Morling recalled how Albion gave Newport County specific instructions as to how they could improve him: he needed to work on his aerial ability and show more personality in and around training.

Brighton-born managerial veteran Lennie Lawrence was supporting team manager Mike Flynn and Morling observed: “He did really well. They really liked him and they played a big part in his development, no question.”

White played 51 games across four competitions, which included memorable tests in the FA Cup when the League Two side beat Leeds 2-1 at home in round three (it avenged a 5-1 defeat in the League Cup earlier in the season when White’s ability to carry the ball out from defence caught the eye of Leeds’ then sporting director, Victor Orta).

Leeds tried to persuade White to move to Elland Road that January but he decided to stay put and once again impressed when the Welsh side held Spurs to a 1-1 draw (Harry Kane equalised with eight minutes to go) in the fourth round before losing the replay 2-0 at Wembley (Spurs’ temporary home ground at the time).

Flynn later reflected: “I knew he was going to be a bright star just by watching him day-in, day-out. When he goes and puts in the performances he did against the likes of Leeds and Tottenham, then you start realising how good he can be.

“He was outstanding. I described him as a Rolls Royce. He moved as eloquently as a footballer can. He was quicker than he looks, he read the game exceptionally well for somebody of that age, and he was a great lad all-round. His attitude was first class.

“For me, my biggest concern was whether he could handle the physicality of League Two. But he played against the ex-Brighton captain Adam El-Abd [when Newport faced Wycombe Wanderers] and there was a 50:50 in the corner. Ben’s gone straight through him, come out with the ball and hit a 60-yard diag.”

Somewhat presciently, Flynn added: “I think he’ll play at the top level and I think he’ll represent England.”

The player’s agent, Alex Levack told The Athletic: “Going out on loan to Newport, that was the time when he pretty much turned from boy, or young man, to a proper man; players fighting for win bonuses, it was the real world, but he seems to transition easily, doesn’t get ruffled, kind of like he is on the pitch. He takes everything on board, sometimes doesn’t say much, but he understands it. He’s smarter than he might make out.”

White’s impressive season for County earned him the South Wales Argus Player of the Year Award and, on his return to Brighton, he signed a contract extension. With Goldson and Hunemeier having moved on, White had some involvement with Albion’s first team squad in the first half of the 2018-19 season although Leon Balogun was back-up to Dunk and Duffy and the youngster had only one unused sub appearance (away to Burnley).

Morling had worked in Peterborough United’s academy before joining Brighton, and Rusk had played for Posh, so perhaps it wasn’t too surprising that White’s next step was to Cambridgeshire in January 2019, where the ebullient former manager Barry Fry was director of football.

White made 15 appearances in League One for Peterborough, initially under Steve Evans and then Darren Ferguson, as they just missed out on the play-offs by a single point and one place, but Fry said: “He was magnificent, different class.

“He was far better than our standard when he played for us. Very cool, a lovely lad off the pitch, a diamond, very dedicated, great in the community but, most of all, a proper player.”

Those experiences certainly had an impact on White, who said: “Playing for points in the lower leagues and winning games is an amazing feeling, simply because the boys don’t get paid as much, so the three points and a bonus is really important to them. The players really put a shift in as a result.

“It was a good learning experience because I came up against all different kinds of strikers, with different qualities, and I had to battle and fight, which I wouldn’t say is my strongest attribute.

“I enjoyed the experience; it was very different to anything I’d been used to, but I found that as I went up the divisions it suited my game more. Saying that, the further up you go you’re going to get punished if you make a mistake.”

*White playing for Leeds up against one-time Albion loanee Izzy Brown*

Leeds’ Orta was determined to take White to Elland Road and, with Pontus Jansson having moved on to Brentford, quirky team boss Marcelo Bielsa gave his blessing to the youngster joining on a season-long loan in July 2019.

White played all 46 games as Leeds won the Championship title and he said later of Bielsa: “I learned so much from him; his coaching was all about details, the minor things like how the ball spins when you pass it, how you’re passing it, why you’re passing it. I learnt a great deal from him.”

Leeds teammate Luke Ayling was suitably impressed by the loanee, saying: “Top, top quality. He showed mental strength to come in here as a lad that nobody knew about and step into Pontus’ shoes and hit the ground running. A real, real quality player with a strong mentality. The sky’s the limit for him.”

The Yorkshire Evening Post was similarly impressed, naming him their Player of the Season and reporter Lee Sobot declaring: “White has the world at his feet and the centre-back has shown skills not befitting a typical centre-back during his forays forward and the occasional stint in the holding midfield role.”

Fellow Leeds writer Graham Smyth said: “He handled the division’s physicality, its relentless fixture schedule and the weighty expectation that is sewn into the fabric of a Leeds United shirt. He wore it brilliantly.”

Leeds were determined to land White permanently and put in three significant bids, one believed to be of £25million, all of which Brighton rejected. His agent told The Athletic: “They (Brighton) said he was coming back here to play. A lot of clubs would say that and maybe not follow through with it. But the manager said it, Dan Ashworth (technical director) said it, the chairman (Tony Bloom) said it, and it’s been proven correct.”

With his feet firmly ensconced as part of Albion’s first team set-up, White said: “The way the boys train and how they’re living, everything about them is at the next level. The training has been great. I’m continuing to learn under the gaffer (Potter) here and it’s great to have Dunky as my captain as well.

“He’s phenomenal, isn’t he? He’s done it at every level and has continued to progress and be the star man every season. He’s pure quality to train alongside. He rarely has a poor session and you can see the difference in him compared to when I was last here. He’s grown up a lot, taken charge of everyone and looks like a real captain.”

From a fans’ perspective, it was just a pity that the majority of White’s Albion matches were played behind closed doors because of the Covid pandemic.

In a March 2021 interview with Sky Sports, Potter said: “He’s got a lot of attributes that I think are really exciting for us. As a modern centre-back, he’s got a lot of things that are really interesting.”

Such was his form across 39 league and cup games that he was named Seagulls’ Player of the Season, and on 2 June 2021, White made his England debut, going on as a 71^st minute sub for Jack Grealish in England’s 1-0 pre-European Championship Finals warm-up friendly win against Austria at The Riverside Stadium, Middlesbrough. He became only the fifth Brighton player to play for England.

Four days later, he added his second cap when he started for England at the same stadium in a 1-0 win over Romania. On two other occasions that month, he was twice an unused sub (v Croatia and the Czech Republic at Wembley).

That recognition inevitably had big clubs circling: Chelsea, Tottenham and Liverpool enquired about his availability, but it was Arsenal who were prepared to meet Albion’s £50million asking price.

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta said: “Ben was a top target for us and it’s great that we’ve completed his signing. Ben has been educated with two very good clubs, Brighton and Leeds, in recent seasons.

“He has benefitted well from two very good coaching set-ups and has shown with both Brighton and on loan with Leeds what a strong talent he is.

“Ben is an intelligent defender who is very comfortable with the ball at his feet and his style fits perfectly with us. And of course, he is still young, so his age and profile fits with what we are building here. We are all looking forward to Ben being central to our future long-term plans.”

A sanguine Potter told Sky Sports: “It’s part of the process for us growing as a club and a team.

“Obviously Ben played a lot of minutes for us last year and was a key player but the finances involved meant it was a really good option for us as a club to improve, to keep growing, and we need to then use the money wisely to develop the team further.

“I’m happy for Ben, of course, happy for the club. I’m proud of everybody in the academy and everybody that has helped his journey outside of Brighton, because he’s had some loan opportunities as well which have developed him. It’s a great story for us.”

White won two more England caps in March 2022, playing in a 2-1 win over Switzerland at Wembley and featuring in the first half of a 3-0 win over Cote d’Ivoire.

What happened subsequently to his international career has been written and spoken about on multiple occasions, much of it from unattributed sources, while the player himself has always maintained a dignified silence.

Suffice to say here, he was an unused sub for two games at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar and left the squad early for personal reasons which certain sources say related to a falling-out with Gareth Southgate’s no.2, Steve Holland (although Southgate denied it).

It’s apparent reading various articles about White that he’s one of those players (Bobby Zamora was another) who switch right off from football after they’ve stopped training or playing.

In an Arsenal matchday programme, White said: “My profession just happens to also be a lot of people’s hobby. They look forward to every Saturday to watch the game and that’s great. But for me it’s about being on the pitches every day, trying to constantly be the best you can be. That’s the bit I really love.

“I never used to watch football much anyway. If it was on when I was a kid, after five minutes I’d get bored of it and go outside to play football. I didn’t really watch it, I’d much rather do it. Even now, I don’t watch football really.

“I watch my own clips and my own footage to help me improve but I wouldn’t watch a game for fun.”

White explained: “When I come into the training ground, it’s all about football – 100 per cent focus. Then when I leave, I switch off from it. I know some players are just about football 24/7 but for me, I wouldn’t be able to do that. I wouldn’t be able to give everything if I did that.

“I think it’s a good balance for me to switch off and leave it at the training ground.”

Now in his fifth season with the Gunners, he made 134 league and cup appearances in his first three seasons, but a knee injury limited his involvement to 26 matches in 2024-25 and he’s made only a handful of starts in 2025-26 with Riccardo Calafiori or Jurrien Timber often ahead of him in the right-back berth.

Nonetheless, when Arteta was questioned about White at the turn of the year, he said: “I’ve said it many times about how I feel about Ben and not [just] what he’s done in the last few weeks, but what he’s done for us in the last few years.

“He’s shown that in various contexts that he’s a player that’s going to give absolutely everything for the team, that he’s always there, he’s someone you can count on in any circumstances.”

When Albion legend Peter Ward went from hero to villain

NOT FOR THE first time, Peter Ward was in the headlines for scoring at Brighton’s Goldstone Ground – but this time it was in the colours of Nottingham Forest.

It was 20 February 1982 and the quicksilver striker whose goals had endeared himself to the Goldstone Ground faithful as the Albion rose from the third tier to the elite netted against his old pals.

He didn’t score many headers but he did on his return to Hove with Forest and his goal on the stroke of half-time was the only goal of the game.

It was also something of a rarity because, although he’d been a prolific scorer for Brighton, it was one of only seven he scored in 33 appearances for Forest.

“Brighton’s one-time hero Peter Ward turned villain by firing Forest’s winner,” wrote Arthur Hopkins in the Sunday Mirror. “His artistry and aggression also appeared to damage Steve Foster’s chances of gaining his first cap for England. (It didn’t: Foster made his England debut three days later in a 4-0 win at Wembley over Northern Ireland and so became the first Albion player for 57 years to play in a home international for England).

“Brighton manager Mike Bailey agreed that Foster was one of three defenders who should have shut out Ward in the 45^th minute,” wrote Hopkins. “The pint sized striker headed in magnificently from a Bryn Gunn cross….watched by England manager Ron Greenwood. Ward took on Foster and Co almost on his own, twisting and turning confidently.”

In similar vein, Paul Parish in the Sunday Express, wrote: “Peter Ward went back to Brighton to revive memories of his glittering goalscoring days at the Goldstone Ground….and ended Nottingham Forest’s barren run of six weeks without a win.”

The veteran Argus Albion scribe John Vinicombe said Ward was “often quite scintillating” leading his old club a merry dance and “impudently settled the issue with a header, which has never been his strong department”.

*Ward in action for Albion against Forest before moving to the City Ground*

The corresponding fixture in the previous season (on 11 October 1980) had been Ward’s last game for the Albion before moving to the opposition (the visitors won 1-0 that day too, Ian Wallace scoring on the stroke of half-time and Peter Shilton having a blinder in goal).

Ward had come close to joining Forest a year earlier, when the man who’d bought him for the Albion, Brian Clough’s assistant Peter Taylor, had reached an agreement with Brighton chairman Mike Bamber. But Clough pulled out of the deal at the last minute, a decision that irked his long-time managerial partner, who revealed in his autobiography With Clough by Taylor: “I wish Peter Ward had signed for us earlier. I saw Ward slotting straight into (Tony) Woodcock’s position, with Trevor Francis striking from midfield; everything about the deal looked right, yet everything went wrong.”

Born in Lichfield on 27 July 1955, Ward was only 4’8” when he left school and, because he was told he was too small to make a career playing football, he got a job as an apprentice engine fitter at Rolls Royce and played local football in the Derby area in his spare time. The detail of those early years can be discovered in Matthew Horner’s excellent biography of Ward (He Shot, He Scored, Sea View Media), and in my previous blog post on Ward.

Scout Jim Phelps recommended Ward to the then non-league Burton Albion manager Ken Gutteridge having worked with the freescoring player at a Sunday afternoon side, Borrowash United.

Taylor recalled that back in 1975 his assistant at Brighton, Brian Daykin, had not been convinced on first scouting Ward. But Gutteridge, who’d managed the player at Burton and then moved to the Albion as a coach, insisted they both take another look, after which they reckoned Ward had shown enough class touches on a bad pitch to warrant a £4,000 gamble.

*Debut scorer Ward breezes past veteran Terry Paine at Hereford*

The gamble paid off big-time for the Seagulls. Ward scored after just 50 seconds of a 1-1 draw at Hereford United on 27 March 1976 in front of the Match of the Day cameras, the first of 95 goals in 227 appearances for the Albion.

*Ward and Mellor were a prolific goalscoring partnership*

After Alan Mullery succeeded Taylor, Ward just got better and better playing alongside Ian Mellor and set a club record of 36 league and cup goals, topping the national scoring charts, in the 1976-77 season as Albion won promotion from the third tier. Although he never hit such heights again for the Albion, he was top scorer for the next three seasons: bagging 17 and 13 in what is now known as the Championship and 18 goals in the top division.

Unsurprisingly, there was international recognition of his feats, first for Dave Sexton’s England under-21s in September 1977 for a game against Norway at the Goldstone Ground when he scored a hat-trick in a 6-0 win. The following month Hove-based Greenwood called him up to the full England squad for a game against Luxembourg, although he wasn’t involved in the match.

When Albion struggled to come to terms with life amongst the elite, and Ward managed only two goals in the first three months of the 1979-80 season, Mullery was prepared to swap him with Derby County’s Gerry Daly – but Daly rejected the idea.

Then, with Taylor pulling the strings, Forest had a bid for Ward accepted by Albion, but Clough changed his mind and withdrew the offer. Clough doubted his mate’s judgement and asked: ‘Are you right about Ward?’

“I felt floored and insulted,” said Taylor. “‘Right?’ I shouted. I’ve got every detail about him except his fingerprints. I’ve bought him once; I’ve played him. He’s tried and tested. I know him as well as I know you’ – and with that, I left the ground.”

Taylor pointed out: “Ward has scored a hat-trick for England Under-21s and had a place in the full England squad but I don’t think he’ll realise his full potential because of inconsistency. Yet I like him. He is very good with his back to goal because he can turn and lick defenders and finish. That’s a rare quality – sticking it in the net.”

All this happened shortly before bottom-of-the-table Brighton – winless for 11 matches – prepared to visit third-placed Forest, the European champions, league runners up and League Cup holders who’d not lost a game at home for 49 matches.

So, the stage was set and if Ward felt he had a point to prove, he certainly delivered. “Apparently unwanted, Ward positively sparkled and caused havoc in the Forest defence,” Tim Carder and Roger Harris’ history of the Albion noted.

Gerry Ryan’s goal in the 12^th minute stunned the City Ground and a rearguard action led by debut-making experienced defender Peter Suddaby alongside the outstanding Foster, plus a Graham Moseley penalty save, enabled Albion to pull off the unexpected and record their first away victory in the top-flight. It was Forest’s first home defeat in the league for more than two years.

Ward, with a new strike partner in Ray Clarke, returned to his old goalscoring ways across the remainder of the season and Albion retained their top tier status. At the end of that season, Ward won his one and only full England cap, going on as a late substitute for Alan Sunderland when England beat Australia 2-1 at the Sydney Cricket Ground on 31 May 1980 (Glenn Hoddle and Paul Mariner scored for England). Joe Corrigan was in goal for England and Russell Osman played alongside Terry Butcher in the heart of the defence.

As for Ward, Forest didn’t give up on him and almost a year after their previous stalled attempt to prise him away from Brighton, they finally did the deal.

He’d been ever present for Albion since the start of that campaign but had only scored twice.

Although Ward hadn’t always seen eye to eye with Mullery, the news he was moving on took him by surprise. He only found out when he was at a friend’s house and it came on the news!

In a curious transfer triangle, Forest wanted Ward to replace Garry Birtles, who they’d sold to Manchester United and United’s Andy Ritchie in turn moved to Brighton to fill the vacancy made by Ward’s departure to the East Midlands.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing, of course, but in 2020, speaking to Richard Newman on the Football, Albion and Me podcast, Ward said: “Looking back now, maybe I should have stayed at Brighton a bit longer.”

One thing was for sure, the man who’d first brought Ward to Brighton, Taylor, rated him highly and went on record to explain why he was worth the £400,000 Forest paid for him.

Ward had made his debut in Forest’s 2-1 win over Leeds on 22 October 1980 and scored his first goal for them in his third game, a 2-1 home win over Southampton. Taylor told Shoot! magazine: “Ward tore Leeds apart. His speed, skill and eye for openings proved too much for them.”

In the days when most clubs chose one tall striker and a nippy shorter one alongside, some observers questioned Forest pairing the diminutive Ward and Ian Wallace (a £1.25million signing from Coventry). Taylor rebuffed it, saying: “There is a lot of nonsense talked about how tall strikers should be. The important question for any managerial team is… can this lad play? In the case of Peter Ward, the answer is definitely ‘yes’.”

*The hopes for Ward and Wallace were front cover material for* *football magazine Shoot!*

He added: “In fact, I am convinced that when he moves from Brighton back to his native Midlands and settles down, he will make a lot of people sit up and marvel at his ability.

“We are more interested in the basic ability of our two strikers. And there can be no question that they pose nightmares for big defenders. Players with the qualities of Wallace and Ward will always get goals and always worry defences.

“I don’t think people know just how good a player Ward is. It is just a matter of time before he settles into the Forest way of things, and then we will see him at his best.

“The fact that neither of these players happens to be a giant is neither here nor there. Ability is the key, not stature. And these players have the ability.”

In the same Shoot! article in which Taylor sung Ward and Wallace’s praises, strapping centre-back Willie Young (who briefly played on loan for Brighton in 1984) said: “The modern striker has to be sharp, mobile and capable of pulling a defence out of position.

“The days of the big man standing in the box waiting for a high ball to knock down are fast fading.

“Ward and Wallace will make it difficult for big defenders because they are quick and skilful and can turn you if you lose concentration. Give them room and they will create problems.”

Arguably the history books would suggest Clough was ultimately right to be sceptical about Ward, although the player himself has never reflected badly on his time at Forest.

“I had a great time at Forest. I got on well with the lads and had a laugh,” he told Spencer Vignes in the book A Few Good Men (Breedon Books, 2007).

While he also always got on well with Taylor, his relationship with the erratic Clough was a lot stormier which meant he was in and out of the side. Ward was never afraid to speak his mind and, as Vignes covered in his book, that didn’t go down well with idiosyncratic Clough’s schoolmasterly style of managing.

Ward told the journalist: “There were good days and there were bad days. Sometimes he would say ‘That’s fantastic, you had a good game’. Once, against Valencia, he chose me as Man of the Match. But at other times, well you just struggled to work out what was going on. I remember playing Paris St Germain and I had a horrible game. Afterward he goes ‘That’s the last time you’re playing for me’. Next game I was playing again. You never really knew what to expect.”

Ward said that Clough was troubled by a heart murmur at the time and would fly off to Spain to recuperate. “Peter Taylor was picking the team. It got to the point where I’d start a game one week, then be on the bench the next when Clough came back.”

Clough and Taylor’s former winger Alan Hinton offered Ward a way out. He had moved to America to coach Seattle Sounders but was back in the UK watching Forest Reserves against Man City Reserves. Ward scored five and afterwards Hinton made an approach to take him on loan.

In He Shot, He Scored, Hinton explained: “I was looking for a striker and at the time it seemed to me that big target men were going out of fashion. Peter was small and quick and I thought that his style would really work for us.

“The English game wasn’t in a good financial state and clubs were keen to loan players out, so it wasn’t hard to convince Forest to let us have Peter. I liked him a lot — he was bubbly, liked a challenge, and was a Derby boy too!”

Ward was in good English company because the Sounders team also featured Steve Daley, Kenny Hibbitt, Gary Mills, Roger Davies and goalkeeper Paul Hammond.

It turned out to be a good move for Ward because Seattle finished as runners up in what was known as the Soccer Bowl and he was named North American Soccer League’s Player of the Year.

However, terms couldn’t be reached on a permanent move and he flew back from America, went into training on Thursday and was on the bench for Forest at Spurs on the Saturday.

In Ward’s own version of events: “I went on after 25 minutes because someone went off injured and I played well (although Forest lost 4-1).”

He played in the following two games but there were still issues between him and Clough.

That was when he made a triumphant return to his spiritual home – Brighton. Clough agreed to a loan deal and on 23 October 1982, backed by a crowd nearly 9,500 higher than for the previous home game, Ward once again ran out for the Albion. Although he didn’t score, the Seagulls beat table-topping West Ham 3-1 with goals from Steve Gatting, Michael Robinson and Gordon Smith.

Although he also failed to score against Spurs and Liverpool, he was bang on target against Manchester United, the club he’d supported as a boy, and he later reckoned it was his all-time favourite goal.

On the right side of the goal about 15 yards out he controlled the ball with his chest and, as it dropped, he volleyed a cracking shot past Gary Bailey. It was the only goal of the game.

But when four defeats on the trot followed, the club dispensed with the services of manager Bailey, and put chief scout Jimmy Melia and coach George Aitken in joint charge.

Albion were struggling at the foot of the table and although Ward scored again in a New Year’s Day home game with Watford, it finished 1-1. Remarkably, just two days later, Ward was allowed to play against his parent club, Forest, when Robinson scored in another 1-1 draw (Young scored for Forest), maybe not surprisingly 5,000 fewer people watching the second home game within three days.

*Only goal of the game scorer Ward celebrates in the bath with teammates after the FA Cup win at Newcastle*

It was only the FA Cup that would provide some respite from the league gloom. Ward, back on the St James’s Park pitch where he, Gerry Ryan and Brian Horton had scored in the 3-1 win that sealed Brighton’s promotion to the top level for the first time, bagged the winner in a 1-0 third round win when Newcastle felt they’d been robbed. Injury kept him out for a few weeks but he was back in the side when Albion upset the form book to win the fifth round tie at Liverpool.

Not surprisingly, Albion wanted to keep him and he wanted to stay. But Clough wasn’t having any of it.

At that time, Clough’s Forest hadn’t been to a FA Cup Final and he told Ward: “Son, I’ve never been to a Cup Final. Neither are you.”

Ward recounted: “Those were his exact words. That’s when I said ‘**** off then. I’m leaving’. It’s like he was doing it purely out of spite, the pillock.”

Ward never re-appeared for Forest and it can only be the stuff of dreams to have imagined how Albion might have fared with regards their league status and the end-point of the FA Cup Final.

If it had been him instead of Gordon Smith presented with the chance to win the trophy in the dying minutes, he told Vignes unequivocally: “I’d have scored. I’d have put it right in the corner with my left foot to Bailey’s right.”

But back in the real world, by the end of 1983 Forest cut their losses and sold Ward to Vancouver Whitecaps for £20,000; the beginning of what became a 13-year career playing mainly indoor football in America, although he did return to the outdoor game with Tampa Bay Rowdies in the summer of 1989 when former Albion teammate Mark Lawrenson was a player-coach. Ward eventually settled in Florida.

Birds and Bees took Mikkel to help out in an emergency

GOALKEEPER Mikkel Andersen was one of five loan signings in Albion’s line-up for newly-appointed manager Russell Slade’s first match.

Alas the young Dane was unable to help the Seagulls to a much-needed win as they succumbed 2-1 at Leyton Orient on 7 March 2009.

The Danish giant, who came from Reading with a glowing endorsement from ex-Albion boss Steve Coppell, played five matches during Michel Kuipers’ absence through injury – and conceded 10 goals in four defeats.

The one victory he was part of was a convincing one: he was between the sticks when Albion trounced Slade’s previous employer Yeovil Town 5-0 at Withdean (two each for Dean Cox and Nicky Forster, the other a Glenn Murray penalty).

Andersen was still only 20 when he joined the Seagulls and at 6’5” he towered over most of his teammates.

The youngster had spent two years at Reading by then but had already been out on loan three times: to Torquay United and Rushden & Diamonds, where he played three times for each. Ironically, his debut for Rushden came against the club he’d just left, Torquay.

At Brentford, his one appearance for the then League Two Bees was to cover for the suspended Ben Hamer, who was also on loan from Reading.

It might have been brief but Andersen’s performance in Brentford’s 2-1 home win over Bradford City in December 2008 earned him the Man of the Match honour.

In a late flurry of goals, Marcus Bean put Brentford 1-0 up in the 88^th minute only for Michael Boulding to equalise in the 89^th minute. Bees won the match courtesy of a 90^th minute winner from former Albion striker Nathan Elder.

At Brighton, Andersen was reunited with Tony Godden, who had only just succeeded Paul Crichton as Albion’s goalkeeper coach. Godden had previously worked with the Dane at Rushden & Diamonds.

Andersen told the matchday programme: “I was on an emergency loan and he was the coach. I really enjoyed it there and it was Tony who told Brighton about me.

“I’ve been at Reading for two years now and I’ve just signed another new deal for them so hopefully I’ll be there for another two years.

“But you need to play some league games to build up your experience and that is why I am here. I want to develop both as a player and a person – that is why I came to England in the first place, something I always wanted to do when I was growing up in Denmark.”

The month before he joined Brighton, Andersen had made his debut for Denmark’s under 21 international side having already been capped at under 19 and under 20 levels. The Danes beat Malta 1-0.

Albion made their move on Godden’s recommendation shortly before Slade took over from the departed Micky Adams. Caretaker boss Dean White, who completed the deal with chairman Dick Knight, told the Argus: “Mikkel is an up and coming young goalkeeper. He is a big presence and comes highly recommended by Steve Coppell.

“With the current situation as it is we need cover in this position. It’s an important position, Mikkel has played against us in the reserves this season and we know what he’s about.”

Born in the Copenhagen suburb of Herlev on 17 December 1988, Andersen started out with AB Copenhagen and became Denmark’s youngest ever goalkeeper to play senior football when he turned out for them at the age of 17.

It was while on a pre-season tour with AB Copenhagen, playing against a Reading XI at Palmer Park, a municipal multi-sports venue in Reading, he earned his break in the English game.

“AB is ten minutes from home,” he said. “I wanted to come to England to develop as a player and a person.

“I was on a training camp with AB and we played against Reading and after that they gave me a couple of trials. They signed me when I turned 18.”

Although Andersen had been on a pre-season tour with the Royals and been selected as goalkeeper back-up on the bench, there were several other loan spells away from Berkshire before he finally made his first team debut.

For much of his time at the club, he was behind Marcus Hahnemann and Adam Federici in the goalkeeping pecking order.

He spent almost the whole of the 2009-10 season at Bristol Rovers (playing 39 matches) and returned the following season when he featured a further 19 times, before returning to Reading. He was awarded the League One side’s Young Player of the Year trophy and was named in the BBC Team of The Year.

In August 2012, he began a three-month loan spell at League One Portsmouth and he returned to Denmark for the whole of the 2013-14 season, playing for Danish Superliga team Randers Freja.

When he finally rejoined parent club Reading, by now under Nigel Adkins, for the 2014-15 season, his long-awaited first team debut came in September away to Sheffield Wednesday.
Andersen made another four appearances for the Royals before the season’s close, after Steve Clarke succeeded Adkins.

Although he played in a memorable 1-0 FA Cup third round win at Huddersfield Town in January 2015, he was on the bench (Federici was no.1) as the Royals went right through to the semi-finals where they lost to Arsenal.

In June 2015, Andersen signed a two-year contract with Danish Superliga side FC Midtjylland.

He played 11 UEFA games with the Danish side, when he was up against the likes of Rubin Kazan, Napoli, Club Brugge and Manchester United.

Following 42 appearances in two years with FC Midtjylland, Andersen made the switch to Lyngby, of Copenhagen.

After a season there, he rejoined Midtjylland and in the 2020-21 campaign he was limited to just four games, although two were in the Champions League against Liverpool and Ajax.

In 2021 he stayed in Jutland and joined newly-promoted Viborg FC where he made only six appearances in two years. He then switched to Copenhagen-based Danish Second Division side Fremad Amager where he made 52 appearances over two seasons as goalkeeper and coach.

Kop serenaded hotshot Scouser who dumped them out of the FA Cup

BRIGHTON’s unlikely run to the 1983 FA Cup Final was largely spearheaded by the incredible shooting power of Scouser Jimmy Case.

He’d picked up almost every medal there was to have in a decade with Liverpool but he’d missed out on a FA Cup winners’ gong – and Albion unexpectedly provided a golden opportunity to put that right.

Case, who scored for Liverpool at Wembley in the 1978 FA Cup Final but ended up losing 2-1 to Manchester United, had already scored for Brighton in the fourth round 4-1 hammering of Manchester City and would go on to score the quarter-final winner against Norwich City and the opener in the 2-1 semi-final defeat of Jack Charlton’s Sheffield Wednesday.

But who could forget the fifth round FA Cup tie winner he struck on Sunday 20 February 1983 against the club and manager (Bob Paisley) who’d ousted him from his spiritual home two years earlier.

The last of his 269 appearances for his boyhood club was as a late substitute for Kenny Dalglish in the 1981 European Cup Final win over Real Madrid in Paris. He had moved to Brighton that summer as part of the deal that saw Mark Lawrenson transfer from the Seagulls to Liverpool.

When top-of-the-table Liverpool drew bottom-of-the-league Brighton at home in the FA Cup, few gave the visitors a prayer of advancing further in the competition. However, 11 months earlier, Brighton had pulled off a surprise 1-0 league win at Anfield, so maybe it wasn’t such a foregone conclusion.

Games these days are played at all hours and on all days at the whim of broadcasters but back in 1983 it was the first ever match played at Anfield on a Sunday.

At the time, the Sunday Observance Act (1780) prohibited admission to a building by payment on a Sunday. Clubs got around this by allowing free admittance to their ground – but took payment from the sale of a team sheet to all fans going into the ground, as Dr Robin Gowers records on lfchistory.net.

Cheered on by 5,000 supporters, after withstanding early pressure from Liverpool, Albion established a foothold in the game on 32 minutes when Case dispossessed Graeme Souness and set up the fleet-footed Michael Robinson who outpaced and outwitted Lawrenson before sliding a pass for Gerry Ryan to slot home.

Steve Foster and Gary Stevens had their work cut out containing Kenny Dalglish and Ian Rush and the Welshman got away with elbowing Stevens in the face in revenge for one robust tackle.

Left-back Alan Kennedy saw an effort hit the post before Liverpool got back in it shortly after sending on Australian Craig Johnston for David Hodgson.

The substitute didn’t take long to have an impact, scoring with an overhead kick after a Dalglish free kick fell kindly to him.

Cue the inevitable celebrations on the pitch and on the terraces but the whole place was stunned within minutes when ‘one of their own’ broke their hearts.

Tony Grealish and Ryan combined on the left side of the pitch and, almost from the byline, Ryan swung in a cross. Liverpool failed to deal with it and the ball fell to Case lurking in the centre five yards outside the penalty area.

The trusty right foot which he’d used so many times to Liverpool’s advantage leathered the ball goalwards and, with a deflection off Ronnie Whelan, left ‘keeper Bruce Grobbelaar groping thin air as the ball flew past him to put Albion ahead.

That precious advantage was precarious to say the least: only four minutes later, referee Alf Grey gave Liverpool a penalty but the normally reliable Phil Neal sent his effort wide of Perry Digweed’s left-hand post.

The home side forced a series of corners, Rush headed over with the goal at his mercy and Albion right-back Chris Ramsey, who’d earlier sliced a Souness cross over his own crossbar, twice came to the rescue, deflecting a Whelan effort for a corner and heading off the line when Lawrenson thought he’d levelled it with a header against his former club.

But Albion held out and Liverpool had lost for the first time in 64 home cup ties across eight years!

The newspapers had a field day because Case’s winner for Brighton denied his old boss Paisley the chance to wipe the board with trophies in what was his last season as manager.

It seemed every national and local newspaper headline revolved around the likeable Scouser: ‘It’s Case for Champagne’, ‘Jimmy sets out his case’, ‘Old boy Case kills off Liverpool hopes’, ‘Amazing Case’, ‘Killer Case’, ‘Case packs a super Cup punch’, ‘Case for Cup win’. The Daily Mirror made him their footballer of the month for February.

“Scoring the goal that knocked Liverpool out was a bizarre feeling”, Case admitted. “There wasn’t long left in the game and after taking a battering we were holding on for a replay.

“I hit this shot from the edge of the box and it clipped Ronnie Whelan’s shoulder and looped over Bruce Grobbelaar. I didn’t celebrate. I just turned around and the other lads jumped on me.

*Case and Tony Grealish euphoric after the Anfield win*

“As I was walking off the pitch after the final whistle what hit me was that the Kop were singing my name. I had just wrecked their hopes of winning the FA Cup and they chanted my name. You can’t buy those type of moments.

“As I came off the pitch this TV reporter shoved a bloody big microphone into my face and said, ‘Jimmy, do you realise that you just knocked Liverpool out of the FA Cup and robbed Bob Paisley of his last chance to win it before his retires, the only trophy he’s never won?’

“I just gave him a stare and said, ‘Well what about me, I’ve never won it either. Bob Paisley wouldn’t have lost any sleep thinking about me if we would have lost so I won’t either, that’s just the way it goes’.”

Case wasn’t the only former Red in the Albion dressing room celebrating. It was sweet too for Jimmy Melia, Albion’s chief scout-turned-acting-manager, who himself had scored 78 goals in 287 games for Liverpool between 1955 and 1964.

“I’ve been involved in some great Liverpool victories but this is without doubt the greatest win,” Melia told Alex Montgomery of The Sun. “The great thing about it is that we didn’t just nick a win. We deserved what we got. A lot of people said that if we attacked them, we would just set ourselves up for a hiding. That is not the way it worked out.”

It emerged after the game that John Manning, an old footballing friend of Melia’s, had been key to plotting the victory. Former Crewe, Bolton and Tranmere striker Manning, Albion’s scout in the north at the time, gave the players a pre-match rundown on what to expect.

“Best team talk we’ve ever had,” defender Stevens told the Daily Mail. “Liverpool played exactly the way he said they would and he was even right about which side Neal would send his penalty.”

Case later revealed how a good friend of his had been out of the country at the time of the game and sent him a postcard with only two words as its message: ‘You bastard’.

Liverpool legend Dalglish said: “Jimmy Case only did for them what he did for us many times, and that was to make a huge contribution.”

Indeed, Case had a trophy cabinet containing three European Cup winners’ medals, four Division 1 (Premiership equivalent) winners’ medals plus one each for winning the UEFA Cup, European Super Cup and the League Cup.

Brighton’s abysmal league form in the 1982-83 season saw them struggling to stay amongst the elite but in the FA Cup it was a different story and Case was once again in the headlines when he scored the only goal of the quarter-final against Norwich City at the Goldstone and the thunderbolt opener in the 2-1 semi-final defeat of Jack Charlton’s Sheffield Wednesday at Highbury.

The history books have on many occasions recalled just how close he came to securing a FA Cup winners’ medal with Brighton. Sadly, the day of Albion’s 2-2 drawn final against Man U ended in personal heartbreak for Case.

His mother Dolly died at his Hove house while he was at a reception in Brighton laid on for the team by civic leaders. His parents had travelled from their home in Liverpool for the game and back in Hove before he left for the event his mother had said she wasn’t feeling well.

Case left the reception early but on his return home there was an ambulance outside the house.

Dolly was only 63 and had not long retired after years cleaning school floors in Liverpool.

It was to Case’s immense credit that he took his place in the side for the replay just five days later.

He acknowledged in a 2018 interview with Ian Herbert of the Daily Mail that the famous Gordon Smith chance at the end of the first game was pivotal. “You knew there and then that was it,” Case reflected. “You knew that was our chance to win and there wouldn’t be another one.

“If I had our team lined up and had to choose one player in that scoring position it would always be Gordon Smith. Always. But you knew that was it.”

He added: “At Liverpool we called the ones who don’t win the nearly men. But it didn’t feel like that for us. What a day that was.”

• Case suffered further frustration in his bid for a FA Cup winners’ medal after he joined Southampton. He captained Saints to a 2-0 quarter-final win over the Albion in 1986 and then faced Liverpool in the semi-final played at White Hart Lane.

A win would have made Case the first player to appear in three FA Cup finals with different clubs. The game went into extra time with the score goalless on 90 minutes but Liverpool put paid to his dream winning 2-0 with a brace from Ian Rush (99th and 104th minutes).

Villa (eventually) paid up for Barry’s football education

THE MAN whose all-time appearance record was overtaken by James Milner in February 2026 spent six years from the age of nine training once a week at Albion’s school of excellence in Seaford.

Hastings-born Gareth Barry made one substitute appearance for the youth team but, with off-field issues clouding Albion’s horizon at the time, decided to continue his football education at Premier League Aston Villa.

“It wasn’t nice being at Brighton then,” Barry told Spencer Vignes in a matchday programme interview. “There was talk about the club folding and, if that had happened, I could have been left in the middle of nowhere.

*Gareth Barry was a young Seagull in the 1995-96 season*

“They were in Division Three and looking like they were going out of the league, so there were a lot of things favouring a move away.”

His move to the Birmingham suburb of Sutton Coldfield was the springboard to a stellar career that saw him go on to make an all-time record 653 Premier League appearances for Villa, Manchester City, Everton and West Brom as well as earn 53 caps for England.

He spent 12 years at Villa, became the club captain, was their Player of the Season in 2006-07 and made 440 league and cup appearances.

He made his Premier League debut at 17 on 2 May 1998, going on as a 49^th minute substitute for Ian Taylor in a 3-1 win away to Sheffield Wednesday (Lee Hendrie was one of Villa’s scorers and future England manager Gareth Southgate was in defence).

His first start came in the last game of that season against champions Arsenal: it was eventful. He started in midfield up against Patrick Vieira and Emmanuel Petit and ended at centre-half covering for Ugo Ehiogu who’d been sent off. Before long he was a regular first team pick.

*Barry on his full Villa debut against Arsenal*

Noting the progress of their former player, the then hard-up Seagulls (as they were back in the 1990s) sought compensation for their early nurturing of Barry and his friend Michael Standing, who’d also switched from Albion to Villa at the same time.

Villa disputed the claim and, at a Football League Appeals Tribunal in London, Villa’s manager, the ex-Albion player John Gregory, declared Brighton chairman Dick Knight wouldn’t recognise Barry if he stood on Brighton Pier with a ball under his arm and a seagull on his head.

If he thought that was funny, the smile was soon wiped from his face when the powers-that-be sided with little old Brighton and ordered the Villains to cough up.

During the hearing, Les Rogers, the Albion youth coach spoke with knowledge and passion about the work he had done with Barry and Standing from under 10s to under 16s.

Although he had only played one youth team game as a sub, Barry had featured in various age group teams as a left-sided defender, left-back and in midfield (Standing had actually been the better prospect in the younger age groups but he never made it to the Villa first team).

“We made the case that Albion had seen Gareth as a player of real potential from the early days and had given him and Michael top-quality coaching,” Knight recalled in his autobiography, Mad Man: From The Gutter To The Stars. “Whatever this boy had become – he was already being talked about as a future England international – was 95 per cent down to the football education he’d received from Brighton.”

The tribunal worked out a club and international appearances payment instalments package Villa should pay to Albion that, over time, would have totalled £1,025,000, plus a sell-on percentage. (There was a technical hitch over the compensation for Standing. It was eventually set at £200,000).

In spite of the ruling over Barry, aggrieved Villa started to stall on the payments due and, because Knight was desperate for cash to keep ailing Albion alive, he eventually did a once-and-for-all deal with Villa chairman ‘Deadly’ Doug Ellis.

It meant the total Villa paid Albion for Barry was £850,000. As Knight would later rue, it meant when Barry was sold to Manchester City for £12.5million, Brighton missed out on £1.8million they would have received if the original tribunal settlement had remained valid.

Born on 23 February 1981, Barry’s footballing prowess first showed at William Parker Grammar School and as well as training with Brighton’s East Sussex school of excellence at Seaford, he earned recognition at school, district and county levels.

“My upbringing wasn’t overly comfortable,” Barry told reporter Joe Bernstein in a 2016 interview for the Daily Mail. “I’ve got three brothers and two sisters. Dad was a plumber who worked really hard to support six children, and mum was busy at home. The four brothers shared a room, a bunk bed on each side. It wasn’t luxurious.”

It was only in his final year at William Parker that national scouts took notice and he had a number of suitors prepared to take him on. He shunned offers from Brighton, Arsenal, Chelsea and Crystal Palace, and took his mum and dad’s advice to move 200 miles from home.

“My mum and dad were keen for me to skip London and go to the Midlands. They felt a proper move would serve me better than coming home every weekend. So, I did my GCSEs and left,” he recalled.

“I lived in digs, the minibus would arrive at seven in the morning and I wouldn’t get back until five in the afternoon. I missed my family but drilled it into my mind that I was there for the football. It was a very good decision from my parents.”

Managers came and went at Villa – Graham Taylor and David O’Leary before Martin O’Neill – and Barry remained a stalwart of the side, appointed captain under O’Neill in August 2006.

Bigger clubs started sniffing around him and in 2008 it looked like he would move to Liverpool with Steve Finnan as a makeweight, but Liverpool weren’t prepared to meet Villa’s asking price.

Barry took an unwise move to go public with his desire to leave and ended up having the captaincy withdrawn, being fined and ordered to train on his own, before patching things up.

O’Neill told the Birmingham Mail: “We obviously don’t want him to go, so the price we are asking is a fair and realistic one for a player who is so good. In fact, I think it is really cheap.

“My own view is that he should hang around for another year and see if we can make further progress as he would want.

“Gareth is still only 28 next year – if we don’t get where he wants to go, everybody would wish him well.” The following year fees were agreed with Manchester City and Liverpool.

Barry chose City because he was annoyed that Liverpool hadn’t found the cash the year before and he also didn’t pick up the right mood music from Reds’ boss Rafa Benitez about where he would fit into their set-up.

“I met the City manager Mark Hughes in a hotel. He emphasised the ambition of the owners. He described it as a speeding train and his advice was to jump on,” said Barry. “’It appealed to me that City hadn’t won a trophy for so long and I’d be part of the team to end it.”

It was the right choice because he went on to win the FA Cup in 2011 and the Premier League in 2012.

Barry’s development into a full England international began with selection at under-16 level, he went on to captain the under-18s and earned 27 caps for the under-21s between 1998 and 2003, equalling Jamie Carragher’s record, until it was beaten by James Milner.

When still only 19, Barry made two substitute appearances for Kevin Keegan’s senior team, picking up his first full cap against Ukraine in a Wembley friendly on 31 May 2000, shortly after he’d played in Villa’s 1-0 FA Cup Final defeat to Chelsea.

His first start for England was four months later in a 1–1 draw against France and he was a halftime sub against Germany in the 1-0 defeat that was Keegan’s last in charge and the last game played at the old Wembley.

Caretaker manager Howard Wilkinson selected him at left-back for a World Cup qualifier in Helsinki with Martin Keown captain for the one and only time. Antti Niemi and Sami Hyypia were playing for Finland. The game finished 0-0 but was full of controversy in that some felt Niemi should have been sent off for wiping out Teddy Sheringham outside his area in only the fifth minute and a late ‘goal’ by Ray Parlour was deemed not to have crossed the line.

During Sven Goran Eriksson’s time in charge Barry lost his England place to Ashley Cole and Wayne Bridge although he did make late sub appearances in May 2003 against South Africa and Serbia and Montenegro.

It was then another four years before he was recalled and became a regular, firstly under Steve McClaren and then Fabio Capello. Barry captained England against Ghana in a 1-1 draw in March 2011 and won his 50th cap for England against Spain later that year.

He scored in games against Trinidad and Kazakhstan and his headed goal (some said it was a Daniel Majstorović own goal) against Sweden in November 2011 was a landmark one – the 2,000th for England since their first international in 1872.

Bobby Zamora was up front for England that day, replaced in the 70^th minute by Darren Bent, and Milner went on for Jack Rodwell. David Stockdale was an unused sub.

Barry’s last cap came when Roy Hodgson sent him on as a half-time sub for Steven Gerrard in a 1-0 win away to Norway in May 2012 and was then subbed off injured in the 73^rd minute.

Barry initially left City for Everton on a season-long loan for the 2013-14 campaign during which he joined an elite club in going past 500 Premier League appearances and helped the Toffees seal a return to European competition for the first time since 2010 when they finished fifth.

He moved to Goodison Park on a permanent three-year deal in 2014 and played in all but one of their 10 UEFA Europa League games in 2014-15. The following season, when he turned 35, Barry claimed an awards double by being named both Everton’s Player and Players’ Player of the Season.

He told evertonfc.com: “It’s fantastic. It was great for me to be nominated and win these awards. If you look at the talent in our dressing room, for me to be chosen as the Player of the Season, it means a lot to me.

“Both awards mean so much and when you are getting voted by the players you are training with each day and then playing with, any professional will tell you that it means a lot.”

After a total of 154 appearances for Everton, he joined West Brom in August 2017 to fill the void left by the departure of Darren Fletcher.

Albion head coach Tony Pulis said: “He’s a fantastic player and I think his attitude towards playing is really gauged by the fact that Everton had offered him a two-year contract to stay there. He really wants to play and I’m really looking forward to working with him.”

Barry had one season in the Premier League with Albion, and another in the Championship after their relegation in 2018. Injury brought his 2018-19 season to an early end and he was initially released before re-signing in November 2019 until the end of the season.

Although 38 by then, he said: “I came to West Brom as a Premier League club and I want to help take it back there. I believe it is where this club really deserves to be.”

Baggies boss Slaven Bilic told BBC WM: “It will be brilliant to have him with us.

“You need that kind of quality in the middle of the park, and you need that kind of character around you in good times and hard times because he has been through it all.”

He finally called time on his career in August 2020, however, Barry didn’t stop pulling on his boots and turned out for Kidderminster-based Comberton Dynamoes Vets (who also included another ex-Villa player in Darren Byfield in their ranks).

He was once again in the headlines in July 2024 when, aged 43, he signed for 12^th-tier Hurstpierpoint, in the second tier of the Mid Sussex Football League, to play alongside his lifelong friend and agent Michael Standing.

• As Milner closed in on Barry’s all-time Premier League appearances record, Barry told OLBG.com editor-in-chief Steve Madgwick: “Having played with James at Villa, Man City and England, and he’s a good friend, I know how hard he’s worked and he’s left no stone unturned.

“He is the ultimate professional, so if James is to pass it, it’s going to someone that fully deserves it because he’s getting every ounce out of the career that he deserves because he’s putting the maximum effort in. Now with that, he’s got quality as well. That’s not to be underrated.”

The goals that stood out for O’Reilly before a career in broadcasting

DEFENDER-turned-broadcaster Gary O’Reilly’s first ever league goal was scored for Brighton against Crystal Palace, a club he later scored for in a FA Cup final before rejoining the Seagulls.

That goal came in only his fourth Albion game, on 15 September 1984, after a £45,000 move from Spurs and was enough to ensure a 1-0 win in front of a 15,044 Goldstone Ground crowd against an Eagles side who had just installed Steve Coppell as manager.

*Danny Wilson and Eric Young celebrate O’Reilly’s first Albion goal, against Crystal Palace*

Although O’Reilly had collected a UEFA Cup-winners’ medal that May as a non-playing squad member of the Tottenham side that beat Anderlecht 4-3 on penalties (after the two-legged final ended 2-2), opportunities were few and far between at White Hart Lane.

He still had two years of his contract remaining, but O’Reilly requested a transfer and Chris Cattlin snapped him up. Cattlin later admitted: “I watched him eight times before signing him, and six times with Tottenham Reserves he had stinkers. But I thought then he had great potential.”

In a 2001 interview with the Argus, O’Reilly said: “It was a gamble and I took a cut in pay. Spurs had an embarrassment of riches as far as talent was concerned. Spurs were only giving me about 15 games a season and at Brighton I played regularly in a strong side.

“Brighton included the likes of Chris Hutchings, Jimmy Case, Eric Young, Neil Smillie, Danny Wilson, Joe Corrigan, Steve Penney, Terry Connor, Steve Gatting and Frank Worthington and apologies to anyone I’ve forgotten.

“Jimmy had so much experience and Danny was such a driving force who led by example. Frank Worthington? I had this cliched image of him regarding his socialising but I had that vision shattered.

“He was 36 but was so professional, with a desire to win. He was open with his encouragement, free with his advice and a great rock ‘n’ roll fan! I used to make sure he gave me a lift home from training because we both liked loud rock music.”

If O’Reilly was confident the blend between old-stagers and talented youngsters would be enough to win promotion back to the elite, his hopes were shattered when Case was sold to Southampton in March 1985.

“Jimmy went to Southampton and they had success with him in their team in the First Division. It was no surprise. How many European Cup medals does Jimmy have that say ‘wiinner’? That’s what Jimmy brought to the team here and he was a massive loss when he went.”

Indeed, Albion ended up just a couple of points shy of the promotion places.

O’Reilly and Young (who also later played for Palace) became an almost permanent centre-back pairing in that 1984-85 season, although, in its fledgling stages, Cattlin admitted he played Graham Pearce in between them “to allow the central defensive pair to learn their trade and settle down into a partnership”.

O’Reilly recalled: “We had a good defence (which equalled the fewest-goals-conceded record of 34) and when we clicked up front we would win 4-0, 5-0. We played good football, through midfield, with pace, power and discipline. I learned so much. It was a brilliant time.”

The following season saw Albion finish in mid-table and Cattlin was relieved of his duties before the final game. There had been a consolation of sorts that they reached the quarter-finals of the FA Cup when a Jimmy Case-led Southampton (with Peter Shilton in goal) saw off the Seagulls 2-0 in front of a bumper 25,069 crowd (most attendances that season struggled to reach 10,000).

Before that March match, O’Reilly thought he’d scored two more against Palace but his efforts in the New Year’s Day encounter at the Goldstone were ruled out. Nonetheless Dean Saunders and a Danny Wilson penalty secured a 2-0 win for the Seagulls.readcrystalpalace.com says that game is “mainly remembered by Palace fans for a scandalous dive by Terry Connor which earned Brighton a penalty”.

Nonetheless, maybe O’Reilly had caught Coppell’s eye because, in January 1987, Cattlin’s successor Alan Mullery said Palace were in for him and Albion needed the money – £40,000 – to pay the whole club’s wage bill for the next month.

Mullery had ridden on the crest of a wave during his previous five years with the club but on his return found it much-changed. Attendances at the Goldstone were often below 10,000 and, from the word go, Mullery had been instructed to offload high-earners to stem the outflow of cash.

“The playing squad was cut back to the minimum and I had no room to manoeuvre,” he wrote in his autobiography.

Although he’d played 92 games for the Seagulls, O’Reilly had missed several matches in the first half of the season with a troublesome hamstring strain and by Christmas the side were struggling near the bottom of the table.

He said: “Mullery, who was always very honest, said there was no pressure to leave but that if I didn’t go there wouldn’t be enough money to pay the wages.”

Within days of his move to Selhurst Park, O’Reilly was followed out of the exit by a shell-shocked Mullery, who said: “Of course the cuts had left the team struggling but I could have pulled things round if the board had trusted and believed in me. Instead, I’d been stitched up.”

For his part, O’Reilly said: “I went, not so the wages could be paid, but as a career move and it proved the right one.

“Palace got promotion (in 1989) and made it to the FA Cup final (1990) and I scored in the semis against Liverpool and the final against Manchester United.”

None of the much-hyped enmity between Brighton and Palace affected O’Reilly’s switch to Croydon. “I didn’t have any issues with anybody and neither did they with me,” he said in a matchday programme interview. “I didn’t feel any animosity. I was welcomed and we got on really well. The fans realised I didn’t go to Palace to hate, I went to Palace to win.

“I’d played against them a number of times and Steve (Coppell) wanted to develop the squad and make me part of it.”

O’Reilly told Spencer Vignes: “There were the beginnings of a seriously decent side there. Ian Wright and Mark Bright were just coming through, Andy Gray was already there and John Salako, Gareth Southgate in the youth team – a lot of good talent.”

And of Coppell, he said: “Steve had the hunger and drive that made you want to win. That attitude was reflected in the players he acquired.”

*O’Reilly rises to head home for Palace against Manchester United in the FA Cup final*

Scoring that goal against United in the 1990 FA Cup Final helped O’Reilly fulfil a childhood dream although ultimately there was the disappointment of United equalising (making it 3-3) through Mark Hughes in extra time and going on to win the replay.

“The FA Cup goal was a set play which was no surprise because we worked hard at set plays,” he recalled. It was from Phil Barber’s free-kick on the right that O’Reilly put Palace ahead after 18 minutes, his header looping over goalkeeper Jim Leighton.

United recovered to lead 2-1 before sub Ian Wright, only six weeks after breaking his leg, went on to score twice, in the 72nd minute and again at the start of extra-time before Hughes’ equaliser seven minutes from the end.

*O’Reilly challenges Man United’s late-goal Wembley saviour Mark Hughes*

O’Reilly played 79 times over three and a half seasons at Selhurst Park but the aforementioned Young and Andy Thorn were the regular centre-back pairing in 1990-91 when Palace finished third in the top division and also won the Full Members’ Cup. O’Reilly went out on loan to Birmingham City, although he only played once.

In the summer of 1991, aged 30, he returned to a Brighton side under Barry Lloyd who’d lost the second-tier play-off final to Notts County and once again had to sell players to balance the books. And in that Argus interview he recalled: “Again I took a pay cut, but I had no worries about coming back. I wasn’t concerned about any element of forgiveness although there were a few who would voice their opinion of my former club, which wasn’t very intelligent.”

He made 31 appearances in the 1991-92 season but played his last game on 29 February 1992 sustaining an injury to his right knee against Southend at the Goldstone which ended his career. Albion were subsequently relegated back to the third tier and after a series of unsuccessful knee operations, O’Reilly was forced to retire from the game in April 1993.

He didn’t let the grass grow under his feet, though. While he was still hopeful of regaining his fitness, he joined BBC Radio Sussex to do analysis on Albion games. It wasn’t his first experience at the mic either. When he was not playing at Palace, he sat alongside Jonathan Pearce and did summarising for Capital Radio.

“Doing this work has kept me involved with the game,” he said. “It is much better to concentrate when watching as a reporter. I find that when I just go along as a spectator my mind wanders and that really is frustrating. Broadcasting really must be the next best thing to playing.”

Born in Isleworth on 21 March 1961, O’Reilly grew up in Essex: his parents, Gerry and Mary, having moved to Harlow. His education began at Latton Green Primary School in Harlow and he moved on to Latton Bush Comprehensive, where he stayed on to take his A levels.

Throughout those schooldays he was a promising central defender and he started to make a name for himself with the Essex Boys team. As a schoolboy, he played for both England and the Republic of Ireland because his father was from Dublin and his mother English. He played for the England under-19 schoolboys’ side for two years.

Earlier in his teens, Arsenal wanted him on associate schoolboy forms, but it was Spurs who snapped him up at the age of 13 and during his last two years at school he played as an amateur at Tottenham. His youth team-mates at White Hart Lane included Kerry Dixon and Micky Hazard.

O’Reilly had the offer of a sports scholarship at Columbia University but he decided to sign for Spurs as a professional in the summer of 1979.

His debut aged 19 was on Boxing Day 1980 as a half-time substitute for Chris Hughton in a remarkable 4-4 draw with high-flying Southampton at White Hart Lane. Among a total of 45 first-team appearances in five seasons at Tottenham were games in the Charity Shield at Wembley in 1982 against Liverpool (Spurs lost 1-0) and a quarter-final victory in the UEFA Cup over German giants Bayern Munich.

It was the arrival of Gary Stevens from Albion shortly after the 1983 FA Cup Final that began to signal the end of his time at White Hart Lane, together with the emergence of Danny Thomas.

After hanging up his boots, O’Reilly scouted for Bruce Rioch when he was boss at Bolton Wanderers and spent nine years identifying talent for kit supplier Adidas.

Alongside that, he began a successful broadcasting career which saw him on screen for Meridian, Sky Sports, BBC, Premier League Productions, NBC, Fox Sports and ESPN.

His broadcasting work also extended to India, ART Prime in Dubai and Trans World International’s Premier League international feed.

After marrying in Arundel Cathedral, O’Reilly first lived in Crawley, from where he commuted to Croydon during the Palace years, and later moved to Hove. He subsequently moved to New York where, since 2017, he co-hosts a weekly podcast Playing With Science with Neil deGrasse Tyson for media company StarTalk, exploring fascinating topics linking sport and science.

Anyone unsure in which camp O’Reilly’s heart belongs, he answered diplomatically in a matchday programme interview: “Spurs. It’s always been them, ever since I was six. And I learned so much about the game just by being involved there, especially through (former Spurs captain) Steve Perryman.

“He was always such a believer in doing things the right way. He gave time to any young players. There was none of that “Do you know who I am son?’ None of it at all.”

The FA Youth Cup winner with a sweet left foot

PACY DARREN HUGHES made his Everton first team debut two days after Christmas 1983 while still a member of the club’s youth team.

That game at Molineux ended in a 3-0 defeat for the young defender against bottom-of-the-table Wolves who had Tony Towner on the wing and John Humphrey at right-back.

Exactly three years later, a picture of Hughes in full flight was on the front cover of Albion’s programme for their home festive fixture against Reading, the Scouser having signed for the second-tier Seagulls for £30,000.

The money to buy him came from the supporter-funded Lifeline scheme which also helped to buy goalkeeper John Keeley for £1,500 from non-league Chelmsford and striker Gary Rowell, from Middlesbrough.

Hughes had made only two more first team appearances for Everton before a free transfer move took him to second tier Shrewsbury Town, for whom he made 46 appearances.

It was while playing for the Shrews in a 1-0 win over Brighton that he had caught the eye of Alan Mullery, back in the Albion hotseat at the start of the 1986-87 season.

In his matchday programme notes, Mullery wrote: “Darren could become a really good player here. I was impressed with him when he played against us recently.

“He started at Everton and came through their youth scheme and had already played in their first team at 18. The grounding he received at Goodison should stand him in good stead.

“He has already shown he is the fastest player we have here, in training he even beat Dean Saunders in the sprints.”

Interviewed for the matchday programme, Hughes told interviewer Tony Norman: “I was quite happy at Shrewsbury. But when the manager told me Brighton were interested in signing me I thought it would be another step up the ladder. It’s a bigger club with better prospects and it’s a nice town as well.”

Hughes moved into digs in Hove run by Val and Dave Tillson where a few months later he was joined by Kevan Brown, another new signing, from Southampton.

Hughes meanwhile had made his Albion debut in a 3-0 defeat at home to Birmingham in the Full Members Cup on 1 October 1986 and his first league match came in a 1—0 home win over Stoke City three days later courtesy of a Danny Wilson penalty.

He scored his first goal for the Seagulls in a 2-2 Goldstone draw against Bradford City as Mullery continued to see points slip away. With financial issues continuing to cloud hoped-for progress, 1987 had barely begun before Mullery’s services were dispensed with.

Hughes played 16 games under his successor Barry Lloyd but those games yielded only two wins and the Albion finished the season rock bottom of the division, dropping the Albion back into the third tier for the first time in 10 years.

A rare happy moment during that spell was (pictured above) when Hughes slotted past George Wood in a 2-0 home win over Crystal Palace on Easter Monday although that game is remembered more for violent clashes between supporters outside the Goldstone Ground after fans left before the game had finished.

What turned out to be his 25^th and final league appearance in a Seagulls shirt came in a 1-0 home defeat to Leeds when he was subbed off in favour of youngster David Gipp.

*Going to ground in a pre-season friendly against Arsenal*

Hughes did start at left-back in a pre-season friendly against Arsenal at the Goldstone in early August (when a Charlie Nicholas hat-trick helped the Gunners to a 7-2 win) but when league action began he was on the outside looking in.

He was in the front row of the official team photo line-up for the start of the 1987-88 season, but Lloyd was building a new side with several new signings, such as Keith Dublin and Alan Curbishley, and young Ian Chapman was also beginning to stake a claim.

Hughes earned mentions in dispatches for his performances in the reserves’ defeats to Portsmouth and Spurs but come September he switched to fellow Third Division side Port Vale, initially on loan before making the move permanent.

Perhaps it was inevitable that when the Seagulls travelled to Vale Park on 28 September, Hughes was on the scoresheet, netting a second goal for the home side in the 84^th minute to complete a 2-0 win.

Born less than 10 miles from Goodison Park, in Prescot, on 6 October 1965, Hughes went to Grange Comprehensive School in Runcorn and earned football representative honours playing for Runcorn and Cheshire Boys. He joined Everton as an apprentice in July 1982.

Originally a midfield player, he switched to left-back in the two-legged 1983 FA Youth Cup semi-final against Sheffield Wednesday (when Mark Farrington scored four in Everton’s 7-0 second leg win).

In the final against Norwich City, two-goal Farrington missed a late penalty in the first leg in front of an extraordinary 15,540 crowd at Goodison Park. The tie was drawn 5-5 but the Canaries edged it 1-0 in a replay to win the trophy for the first time.

If that was so near and yet so far, youth team coach Graham Smith saw his young charges make up for it the following year. Hughes was on the scoresheet as Everton won the FA Youth Cup for the first time in 19 years.

This is how the Liverpool Echo reported it: “Everton’s brave youngsters survived a terrific onslaught to take home the Youth Cup when beating Stoke City Youth 2-0 and winning by a 4-2 aggregate.

“And the man to set them on their way was 18-year old full-back Darren Hughes, who set the game alight in the 62^nd minute with a brilliant goal.

“The Everton left-back picked the ball up on the halfway line and surged into the Stoke half before sending a wicked, bending drive past keeper Dawson.”

Eleven days later, there were even more Goodison celebrations when the first team won that season’s FA Cup, beating Watford 2-0 at Wembley.

Not long into the following season, Hughes learnt the hard way not to take anything for granted, as the website efcstatto.com revealed.

Manager Howard Kendall saw Everton Reserves, 2-0 up at half-time, concede six second half goals and lose 6-2 to Sheffield Wednesday Reserves.

He didn’t like the attitude he saw in several players and promptly put five of them, including Hughes, on the transfer list.

“It was important that we showed the players concerned how serious we were in our assessment of the game,” said Kendall. “Attitude in young players is so important. These lads would not be here if we did not think they have skill or we thought they would not have a chance of becoming First Division players.

“At some time, however, they must come to learn that football is not always a comfortable lifestyle. There are times when the only course of action is to roll up your sleeves and battle for yourself, your teammates and your club.”

Even though they were put on the transfer list, he said that they still had a future at the club as long as they behaved accordingly.

“What it does mean is that we shall be watching them very carefully over the next few months to see whether they have the right attitude in them – because it is a must,” said Kendall.

Hughes did knuckle down and at the end of what has come to be regarded as perhaps Everton’s greatest-ever season – they won the league (13 points clear of runners up Liverpool) and the European Cup Winners’ Cup (beating Rapid Vienna 3-1) and were runners up to Manchester United in the FA Cup (0-1) – he played two more first team games.

They were the penultimate and last matches of the season but were ‘dead rubbers’ because Everton had already won the league title and Kendall could afford to shuffle his pack to keep players fresh for the prestigious cup games that were played within four days of each other.

Hughes was in the Everton side humbled 4-1 at Coventry City, for whom Micky Adams opened the scoring (Cyrille Regis (2) and Terry Gibson also scored; Paul Wilkinson replying for Everton).

Two days later, he was again on the losing side when only two (Neville Southall and Pat Van Den Hauwe) of the team that faced Man Utd in the FA Cup Final were selected and the visitors succumbed 2-0 to a Luton Town who had Steve Foster at the back.

With the experienced John Bailey and Belgian-born Welsh international Van Den Hauwe in front of Hughes in the Everton pecking order, Kendall gave the youngster a free transfer at the end of the season.

After he left Brighton, Hughes enjoyed some success at Vale, and according to onevalefan.co.uk formed one of the club’s best full-back partnerships together with right-back Simon Mills.

A highlight was being part of the side that earned promotion to the second tier in 1988-89, but his time with Vale was punctuated by two bad injuries – a hernia and a ruptured thigh muscle.

Vale released him in February 1994 but he initially took the club to a tribunal for unfair dismissal. He was subsequently given a six-week trial in August to prove his fitness and, upset with that treatment, he left the club in November 1994.

Between January and November 1995, he played 22 games for Third Division Northampton Town. He then moved to Exeter City, at the time managed by former goalkeeper Peter Fox, and made a total of 67 appearances before leaving the West Country club at the end of the 1996-97 season.

He ended his career in non-league football with Morecambe and Newcastle Town. After his playing days were over, according to Where Are They Now? he set up a construction business.

Thomas swapped a relegation struggle for another promotion push

MARTIN THOMAS was a fourth-tier promotion winner with Fulham, Swansea and Brighton – twice under manager Micky Adams.

Thomas played 90 matches for the west London side between 1994 and 1998 and was part of the side promoted from the basement division in 1997 when runners up behind Wigan Athletic.

He was in the Swansea side that won promotion from the same division as champions three years later.

And following his March transfer deadline day switch to the Seagulls in 2001, Thomas was once again a promotion winner from that division when Adams’ Albion topped the table 10 points clear of second-placed Cardiff, who had tried to sign Thomas themselves.

The manager certainly knew what he was bringing to the squad that spring having known Thomas since he’d been a trainee on the books at Southampton, where Adams had spent five years as a player.

Having been a regular at Swansea for two years, he’d been in and out of the side as City struggled near the bottom of the Second Division. He’d made the last of his 24 appearances that season just before Christmas and had missed two months with a bruised ankle bone.

He was on the transfer list after falling out with boss John Hollins and Albion agreed to take over his contract for the rest of the season, although the paperwork was only completed 45 minutes before the transfer deadline.

The Argus noted that Thomas then caught a train to his parents’ home near Romsey and borrowed his mum’s car the following morning to drive to Sussex for his first training session with the Albion. There were plenty of familiar faces to greet him.

Apart from Adams, there was Richard Carpenter, Danny Cullip, Paul Watson, Paul Brooker, and Darren Freeman. (Thomas is pictured below with Freeman at Fulham and warming up as Brighton substitutes)

Carpenter told The Argus: “I played with Thomo at Fulham for just under two seasons. He is a hard-working player who puts his foot in and never gives less than 100 per cent.

“I would say he is much the same as Charlie (Oatway). Both are tough tacklers and very aggressive.”

There’s no love lost between Swansea and their south Wales rivals Cardiff City and Adams’ former no. 2, Alan Cork, who was boss at the Bluebirds at the time, admitted to The Argus that he’d hoped to sign Thomas for their own promotion push.

“I tried to take Martin until the end of the season two weeks before Micky got him, but Swansea wouldn’t deal with us,” said Cork. “Martin is a very aggressive, up and down midfielder,” he said. “He has a lot of pace, works his heart out for the team and is a good all-round player.”

The player himself told The Argus: “I wanted to get away because I need to be playing and I am excited about coming here. I made my mind up straight away.

*Thomas in the heart of* *the goalmouth action* *for Brighton*

“It looks like Brighton are going up and I just hope I can help them get there. The lads have done all the hard work so far this season. I just hope I can add that little bit more.”

It certainly looked like a smart move for a player who’d twice before played a part in winning promotion from the basement division, and Swansea supporters were sad to see him go.

The previous season he’d been headline news after scoring the only goal when the Swans knocked Premier League West Ham out of the FA Cup in a third round replay at the Vetch Field.

*Thomas, evading a Frank Lampard tackle, hit the headlines when scoring in Swansea’s FA Cup win over West Ham.*

He’d already gone close to breaking the deadlock midway through the first half when he beat Hammers’ goalkeeper Shaka Hislop only to see his shot hit the crossbar. Eight minutes later he hit the target from 25 yards, firing into the bottom corner of the net. Swansea duly became the first Third Division side to knock a Premier League side out of the FA Cup.

Swansea supporters’ leader Keith Haynes reckoned: “Brighton have definitely got a bargain.

“All the Swansea fans I know are fed up that Martin has gone. Every side needs a grafter in midfield and we haven’t got one now.

“He is the sort of battling, hard-tackling player you will get 100 per cent from whoever he plays for. He has been one of the favourites at Swansea because he scores crucial goals as well.”

Haynes added: “He is a top man, the type you need either to get out of trouble or get out of the division you are in.”

Thomas made his debut as a substitute for skipper Paul Rogers in a 2-0 home win over Mansfield Town, the first of seven involvements off the bench.

His only start came in the penultimate game, a 0-0 draw away to Halifax Town. Adams made numerous changes to the side that had clinched the championship at Withdean two days earlier when promotion rivals Chesterfield were beaten 1-0 by defender Cullip’s goal.

*Thomas joins in promotion celebrations at the Withdean Stadium*

Born in the New Forest town of Lymington on 12 October 1973, Thomas was a trainee with Southampton and signed professional terms for them in June 1992.

But he left without making a first-team appearance, moving to east London to join Leyton Orient in March 1994. He scored on his debut, ironically in a 2-2 draw with Fulham, a week after the Os had lost 2-0 at Brighton (Robert Codner and Andy Kennedy with the goals). He scored again in a 3-2 home defeat to Port Vale but only made five appearances in total.

Next stop was Craven Cottage which was to be his home for the next four seasons.

Thomas and Brooker were among the scorers when Third Division Fulham beat Second Division Swansea 7-0 at Craven Cottage in the first round of the 1995-96 FA Cup – the biggest victory over a team from a higher division in the history of the competition. Cusack, Jupp and Conroy (3) were the other scorers.

Thomas didn’t leave the Cottage quite as swiftly as the likes of Aidan Newhouse, Watson, Mark Walton and Cullip after Kevin Keegan and Ray Wilkins were installed in place of Adams, following Mohammed Al Fayed’s takeover of the club.

But in July 1998 he moved to south Wales where former Chelsea, Arsenal and QPR midfielder Hollins had just been appointed Swansea manager.

Thomas scored in first half stoppage time on his debut to give his new club the advantage in the new season opener at home to future employer Exeter City; they went on to win 2-0.

There was disappointment at the season’s end when they lost out to Scunthorpe United at the play-offs semi-final stage but that was all behind them when they topped the division the following campaign.

Thomas had played at the Withdean when Swansea suffered their fifth winless game on the trot on 1 April 2000 but their form eventually returned with four successive wins to carry off the title.

After his cameo in Brighton’s promotion, Thomas stayed in the basement division when he moved on to newly-relegated Oxford United under Mark Wright and then Ian Atkins. But having made only 14 league appearances for Oxford, he moved on again, to Exeter City, in August 2002.

*A Grecians turn for Martin Thomas: relegation at Exeter City*

I’m indebted to The Grecian Archive to learn that Thomas made his debut as a substitute on the opening day of the season at Shrewsbury Town. He made 22 league starts, with another four appearances from the bench, but was not in the side towards the end of the season which ended in relegation from the Football League.

Thomas appeared in 10 games in the Conference for Exeter but, after reportedly turning down a reduced-terms two-year contract with the Grecians, he joined Isthmian Premier Eastleigh on a free transfer in July 2004.

He was still only 30 but Eastleigh manager Paul Doswell told the Daily Echo that Thomas decided to pack up full-time football to go into a plumbing job with his brother-in-law.

“It’s great news for us to get someone with that much experience on a free transfer,” Doswell told the Echo. “Nicky Banger (ex-Southampton) recommended him last season when we were talking about the need to get a midfielder who gets his head above the parapet when the going gets tough.

“Martin’s that kind of player and he’s very fit for a 30-year-old.”

Doswell added: “What impresses me about him is that he’s very motivated to finish his career on a high with us.”

That said, Thomas later played for AFC Totton and Winchester City before hanging up his boots.

In parallel lines

Memories from more than 55 years following Brighton & Hove Albion

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