Head injury end to ‘keeper Geoff Sidebottom’s career

GEOFF Sidebottom, who played in the European Cup for Wolverhampton Wanderers and the very first League Cup Final for Aston Villa, kept goal for Brighton & Hove Albion when I first started watching them.

Brighton were the third club manager Freddie Goodwin had brought him to, and he vied for the no. 1 jersey with local lad Brian Powney.

However, a game he revelled in, that I have referred to in the post about Eddie Spearritt, came in September 1969 when he faced his old club in a League Cup third round tie in front of a packed house at the Goldstone.

In John Vinicombe’s Argus preview of the big game, Sidebottom told him: “It is always nice to play against your old club and I know what this draw means to our supporters. They don’t come much bigger than the Wolves – wherever they play the crowds flock to see them.”

I came across the programme for the game only the other day, annotated by my dad with the team changes, and, in the annals of Albion history over the years, it stands out as one of the great nights.

I was only 11 at the time and had just started high school so it was probably a big deal to skip homework that evening and head over to Hove from home in Shoreham.

Up to then I had only ever seen a handful of ‘daylight’ games (played Saturday afternoons or bank holidays) so it was my first ever game under the floodlights (I’d not been to the games in the previous two rounds, when Albion had beaten Portsmouth and Birmingham, at the time both one division higher).

At a time when the average crowd for league games was around the 12,000 mark, 32,539 packed in to the Goldstone to see if Albion could pull off a remarkable hat-trick of results. No thoughts of a weakened team for Albion but, even back then Wolves didn’t put out their big guns, neither captain Mike Bailey, who would later become Albion manager, nor fearsome centre forward Derek Dougan played. Dougan had been a teammate of Sidebottom’s at Villa.

The size of the crowd certainly wouldn’t have fazed Sidebottom. He had made his Wolves debut 11 years earlier in the Black Country derby against West Brom in front of 48,898 at The Hawthorns.

Although goals from Allan Gilliver and Spearritt had Brighton 2-1 up at half-time, Wolves ultimately showed their superiority in the second half when Scottish international Hugh Curran got the ball past Sidebottom twice in eight second half minutes to clinch the tie.

It was during another cup match two months later, a marathon FA Cup second round tie with Walsall, that Sidebottom sustained the first worrying head injury that would ultimately lead to his forced retirement from the game.

In those days cup games weren’t decided on the lottery of penalties so they just kept having replays until there was a conclusive result.

It required three replays before the Saddlers finally prevailed 2-1, and it was during the first of the four games when a concussed Sidebottom was stretchered off on 65 minutes, outfield player Spearritt taking over in goal (in the days before substitute goalkeepers) and Albion hung on for a 1-1 draw.

At 5’10”, Sidebottom wasn’t the tallest ‘keeper around but no-one doubted his courage.

He missed the following nine games but played another nine times before the end of the season. After Goodwin departed for Birmingham, his successor, Pat Saward, preferred Powney and Sidebottom played only a handful of games in 1970-71, his last appearance coming in a 3-0 win over Doncaster in January 1971.

But where did it all begin? Back in the day, Wolves were one of the top teams in the country, league title winners in 1957-58 and 1958-59 and FA Cup winners in 1960. They had a feeder nursery club based near Rotherham called Wath Wanderers.

*Sidebottom (circled) with the 1960 FA Cup winning Wolves squad*

It was run by a former Wolves player turned scout, Mark Crook, who would scour Sheffield, Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham and the area between Hull and Newcastle searching for youngsters who might make it in the famous old gold.

Sidebottom, born on Boxing Day 1936 in Mapplewell, three miles north of Barnsley, worked in a foundry near Barnsley in his teens and was spotted playing for Barnsley Boys and ended up at Wath Wanderers.

He signed pro for Wolves aged 17 in 1954 and played in the Wolves side beaten by a Manchester United featuring the mighty Duncan Edwards in the final of the 1954 FA Youth Cup.

With England international Bert Williams and Scot Malcolm Finlayson ahead of him in the first team, it was four years before he made that debut in a 2-1 defeat to arch rivals WBA. Subsequently he vied for the jersey with Nigel Sims and Noel Dwyer but

Sidebottom would go on to play 35 times for Wolves including two of the matches en route to the 1960 FA Cup Final win over Blackburn Rovers, and in the 1960 Charity Shield draw with Burnley.

He also appeared in a 5-2 European Cup second-round defeat at home to Barcelona, as well as the Cup Winners’ Cup.

Most of his senior outings for Wolves came in the early part of the 1960-61 season, featuring in 18 of the first 22 League games as deputy for the injured Finlayson.

In February 1961 he was transferred to Villa for £15,000 where, in September that year, he played in goal as Joe Mercer’s side beat Rotherham 3-0 in the second leg of what was, in that inaugural season of the competition, a two-legged final, Rotherham having won the first game 2-0.

Interesting to look back now and see that among his teammates that day were John Neal, who later became manager of Chelsea, Gordon Lee, a future Everton manager, and Vic Crowe, who managed Villa in the early ‘70s.

Over the next four years, Sidebottom made 88 appearances for Villa before linking up with Freddie Goodwin for the first time in 1965 when he joined Division 3 Scunthorpe United.

Goodwin had joined Scunny as player-manager in 1964. Waiting in the wings behind the experienced Sidebottom was a goalkeeper who would eventually emerge as one of England’s finest: Ray Clemence.

Sidebottom kept the youngster at bay during the 1965-66 season but eventually, after 59 games for The Iron, lost his place to the ‘keeper who went on to join Liverpool and Spurs and earn 61 caps for England before becoming the country’s goalkeeping coach.

When Goodwin tried his luck in America in 1967-68, Sidebottom was one of his first signings at New York Generals, and the ‘keeper played 44 games over there.

Almost, it seemed, as night followed day, shortly after Goodwin took over as Brighton manager, Sidebottom followed on 31 December 1968.

He would ultimately play 45 times for the Albion. After that earlier concussion incident against Walsall, he also had to leave the field with severe concussion when he cracked his head against a goalpost playing for the Reserves at Southwick.

He couldn’t shake off pains and double vision, and there followed a series of consultations. Even when the club’s own doctor advised him to pack up, he still didn’t want to accept the verdict.

It was only when he saw leading Harley Street neurologist Dr Roger Bannister (the same chap who ran the first sub-four minute mile) that he finally had to accept that he would have to quit the game at the age of 35.

“We went to the top to find out just why Geoff has been getting these pains,” manager Saward told the Argus. “I cannot say how sorry we all are. Geoff is the finest sort of professional; he is admired and liked throughout the game.”

Goodwin, who brought his Birmingham City side to the Goldstone to play in a testimonial match for Sidebottom in May 1972, said: “He was certainly the bravest goalkeeper I have ever seen.

“He was a marvellous club man. I signed him for Scunthorpe, New York Generals and Brighton and he never destroyed the faith I had in him.”

In the Birmingham side for that testimonial were striker Bob Latchford, who later played for Everton and England, and Gordon Taylor, who became chief executive of the PFA.

Sidebottom became a window cleaner and a building contractor after his playing days were over and he died aged 71 in November 2008.

Stan Bowles’ best pal at QPR played a part in Brighton’s highest-ever finish

AMID the fairly seismic changes Brighton & Hove Albion went through in the summer of 1981, the arrival of full back Don Shanks was quite low key.

Manager Alan Mullery had quit in a fit of pique over chairman Mike Bamber selling Mark Lawrenson to Liverpool (when he’d already done a deal to sell him to Manchester United).

Brian Horton, the skipper throughout Albion’s rise from Third Division to First, left the club to join Luton Town with Tony Grealish coming in the opposite direction.

John Gregory, whose end of season switch from right back to midfield had played a big part in Albion’s narrow escape from relegation, moved to Second Division Queens Park Rangers.

In Gregory’s place, 28-year-old Hammersmith-born Shanks arrived at the Goldstone from Loftus Road.

He had been a part of that very successful QPR squad of the mid 1970s but had more of a reputation for activities off the field, getting into scrapes with his best mate Stan Bowles and living with former Miss World, Mary Stavin.

Shanks told Shoot magazine how he had been about to sign for Third Division Millwall despite having been on trial at Brighton, and playing on a pre-season tour, but Mike Bailey’s no. 2, John Collins, who’d been at Luton at the same time as Shanks recommended him to the boss and he agreed a one-year deal to play at the top level.

Bailey clearly favoured experience over youth. The inexperienced Chris Ramsey had come in at right back and impressed at the end of the 1980-81 season but didn’t get a look-in under Bailey, who also added top level nous on the left side with the free transfer capture of former Arsenal left back Sammy Nelson who he favoured over the long-serving Gary Williams.

With a midfield strengthened by the arrival of former European Cup winner Jimmy Case, who had moved from Anfield as part of the Lawrenson deal, there was a solid but not flamboyant look to the new line-up.

However unpopular Bailey’s defence-minded approach appeared, the fact remains he steered Brighton to their highest ever finish (13^th) in the football pyramid – a feat which stands to this day.

don shanks Shanks certainly played his part in that achievement and spoke about his time at the club on the popular Albion Roar podcast in October 2018. Shanks finished that historic season having completed 41 league and cup games, plus one as sub and was non-playing sub in two.

All the while Bailey was at the helm, Shanks was a regular and he began the 1982-83 season in the number 2 shirt again.

However, the talented and versatile Gary Stevens was always able to slot in comfortably as a right back or centre back and before long Shanks was not first choice. He made his last – 54^th – appearance in a 2-0 defeat away to Coventry on 4 December 1982, after which Bailey was sacked.

The new management team of George Aitken and Jimmy Melia instantly reinstated Ramsey at right back and Shanks never played for the Seagulls again.

On his release he linked up with Wimbledon and played a game for them before moving into non-league football with Wealdstone.

Born on 27 October 1952, Shanks began his football career as a junior at Fulham during the Johnny Haynes era, but was released aged 17. Shanks made seven appearances for the England Youth side between March and May 1971, when his teammates included future England international Trevor Francis.

After leaving Fulham, Shanks joined Luton Town where he played 90 games for the Hatters under manager Harry Haslam. He was in their 1973-74 promotion side along with Barry Butlin and Ken Goodeve, who both later had spells at Brighton, and former Man Utd European Cup winner John Aston, former United player and coach Jimmy Ryan and ex-Everton striker Jimmy Husband.

QPR signed him for £35,000 and he made his debut for the Hoops on 7 December 1974.

Shanks was generally regarded as back-up to first choice right back Dave Clement but nonetheless was part of QPR’s Championship runners-up squad in 1975-76. Manager Dave Sexton’s team was captained by Gerry Francis and included Phil Parkes in goal, Frank McLintock and David Webb in defence and Shanks’ great mate Stan Bowles up front with Don Givens.

In one interview, Bowles said: “Sexton signed Don Shanks from Luton to keep me happy. He was my best mate – and a bigger gambler than me!”

In another, he told sabotagetimes.com: “Everyone talks about George Best and Rodney Marsh. They were characters, all right. But they weren’t the only ones. Back in the 70s, there’d be a few characters in every team. At QPR we had Don Shanks, a very decent full-back who’d do just about anything for a laugh.”

And former QPR midfield player and subsequent England manager, Terry Venables, told journalist Joe Lovejoy: “Stan was game for a wind-up and formed a double act with Don Shanks which was different class. They never had any money and they always used to be borrowing or wanting an advance from the club secretary, Ron Phillips.”

Speaking exclusively to The Inside’R’ magazine, Shanks – who played 206 games and scored 11 goals for QPR between 1974 and 1981 – admitted: “I had a few situations with Stanley when it came to greyhounds. We bought a couple of them together, which was basically disastrous. Why? Well, they just weren’t very good.”

The pair also shared a flat for a short time. “We had this flat just off the Uxbridge Road in Ealing,” Shanks said. “We were there for four or five months until we ran out of money to pay the rent. I remember when the landlord came for the rent. I‘d paid it a couple of times, and I said to Stan, ‘It’s your turn to pay.’

“He said, ‘Let him knock, I’ll answer it.’

“So this big fella knocks on our door, and fair play to Stan, he got up to answer it. He said to him, ‘What do you want?’

“And the fella says, ‘I’m looking for my rent’.

“So Stan says, ‘You better come in and we can all look for it!’

“That was our last weekend there, and there was no more flat-sharing after that. It was an interesting four or five months because Stan knew a lot of interesting people, in the pop business and on the TV, all that sort of carry-on.

“It was fun. You’d go everywhere, and everyone knew Stan. I was just seen as Stan’s mate – I liked it that way!”

Many of the old QPR squad were reunited in December 2014 for a gathering largely organised by Shanks to raise money for his old pal who is now suffering from Alzheimer’s, and in 2015 Shanks returned to Loftus Road as a matchday guest for a half-time Q&A session.
Read more at

http://www.qpr.co.uk/news/article/don-shanks-stan-bowles-qpr-the-insider-2105386.aspx#8LCqydUhMqofR1e5.99

http://sabotagetimes.com/football/stan-bowles-chopper-harris-and-charlie-george-on-the-glory-days-part-2

http://www.wearetherangersboys.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-95833.html

http://www.qpr.vitalfootball.co.uk/article.asp?a=156071#ixzz4b2YjdOdt

2 shanks action v Birtles 3 Shanks at fund-raiser

Pictures show a portrait of Don Shanks shortly after signing for the Albion; in action against Nottingham Forest’s Garry Birtles, and a still from a video on wn.com shot in October 2016.

Freddie Goodwin left Albion in lurch after missing promotion

Screen Shot 2021-05-01 at 19.13.47

FOLLOWING Archie Macaulay’s decision to stand down as Albion manager two months into the 1968-69 season, former Busby Babe Freddie Goodwin, still only 35, was brought in as his successor.

Goodwin had already managed Scunthorpe United and had recently been in the United States at the helm of New York Generals. The then Third Division Brighton side responded positively to his arrival, going 15 games unbeaten at home.

Utility player John Templeman, who was at the Albion throughout Goodwin’s reign, told the Argus: “When I heard he was taking over I thought the news was brilliant. His youth was a really big plus for the players.

“For many of us, we were working with someone from the same age group. We talked about the same things after training or on away trips.”

Goodwin was Albion’ manager when I first started watching them and it hadn’t been long into his reign when he populated his side with players whose attributes he had witnessed first hand in other settings.

Two former Manchester United teammates were already at the Albion before he arrived: Nobby Lawton, who was captain, and former United reserve Bobby Smith who’d played for him at Scunthorpe United.

Centre forward Alex Dawson, a teammate in United’s losing 1958 FA Cup final side, was one of his first signings at the Goldstone, and Brighton were the third club for who he signed former Wolves and Villa goalkeeper Geoff Sidebottom.

At the start of the 1969-70 season, he brought in his former Leeds teammate Willie Bell as player-coach from 1969 FA Cup finalists, Leicester City.

freddie goodwin If Goodwin appeared to be relying on experienced pros on the way down the football pyramid, he wasn’t afraid to blend them with talented younger players, signing utility player Eddie Spearritt from Ipswich Town and bustling striker Alan Duffy from Newcastle United, both of whom went straight into the side and kept their places.

Before he arrived at the Goldstone, Goodwin had already given a league debut to goalkeeper Ray Clemence, who went on to play for Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur and won 61 caps for England. And, after he left Brighton, Goodwin gave a Birmingham City debut to 16-year-old Trevor Francis who was England’s first £1 million player when transferred to Nottingham Forest in 1979, and he played 52 times for England.

As young lads, we always got to the Goldstone as the gates opened at 1.30pm and as we claimed our places at the front of the perimeter wall near the players’ tunnel, Goodwin would have a few words with us as he came out to inspect the pitch, one time in particular I recall him commenting how heavy going it would be after an almighty downpour.

In his only full season in charge, 1969-70, Brighton were looking good bets for promotion to Division Two. They were top after a cracking 2-1 Good Friday win over Reading but lost 1-0 the following day at Halifax and 4-1 at Fulham on Easter Monday.

With three games to go, they lost two of them, away to Rochdale and home to Mansfield (only managing to beat Rotherham 2-1 at the Goldstone) and ended up fifth, seven points behind champions Orient.

Goodwin’s last signing for the Albion saw him return to his old club, Manchester United, to bring exciting young Welshman Peter O’Sullivan to Hove. Although he didn’t stay to see the youngster flourish, O’Sullivan ended up staying for 10 years.

In the summer after narrowly missing out on promotion, Goodwin still had 18 months left on his contract but Birmingham came in an offered him a three-year deal to succeed Stan Cullis.

“Albion’s board were stunned,” wrote Evening Argus Albion reporter John Vinicombe. “They felt Goodwin was the man to take them up, and initially tried to prevent his release.

“The atmosphere was strained for a day or two. When the Albion board realised it was unrealistic in attempting to hold Goodwin, they came to a financial arrangement with City.”

When Birmingham played Albion in a First Division match at The Goldstone on 7 November 1981, Vinicombe wrote about his memories of Goodwin’s time at the helm.

“I recall him telling me that during his time at New York Generals he occupied his spare time by studying Spanish, book-keeping and accountancy,” wrote Vinicombe. And when he arrived at the Albion he told the players: “Results are nothing to do with you. They are my problem. Forget them and just give me 90 minutes effort, whatever the score.”

Templeman told the Argus: “He was a success for Brighton because he represented a fresh start. Who knows what would have happened if he had stayed at the club? He won promotion with Birmingham and I think he would probably have done the same at Brighton.”

Albion’s stuation with Birmingham was further soured because Goodwin decided he wanted to take Bell and youth coach George Dalton with him. So eager was he to hire them that he made an illegal approach while they were still under contract at Brighton and Birmingham were later fined £5,000 for a breach of regulations.

Born in Heywood, Lancashire, on 28 June 1933, Goodwin came to the attention of Manchester United when playing for Chorlton County Secondary School and became a professional under Matt Busby in October 1953. He made his senior debut for the club on 20 November 1954 against Arsenal in a 2-1 home win.

However, he wasn’t able to hold down a regular spot until the Munich air disaster in February 1958 decimated the United first team. Alongside Dawson, Goodwin was given a chance to establish himself and he played in the side which lost 2-0 in that year’s FA Cup Final to Bolton Wanderers (pre-match line-up at Wembley, below). Wembley line-up

By the time United decided to sell him for £10,000 to Leeds United in March 1960, he’d played 107 games over five seasons.

From being a teammate of Bobby Charlton, Goodwin partnered Bobby’s brother Jack in the Leeds defence and captained the side until the arrival of Bobby Collins in 1962.

After 120 games for Leeds, his playing career was virtually ended when a tackle, ironically by former Leeds legend John Charles, playing for Cardiff, on 4 January 1964, fractured a leg in three places.

Goodwin went on to become player-manager at Division Three Scunthorpe (his injury restricted him to just six appearances) where he first signed Sidebottom whose place was eventually taken by the emerging Clemence.

When Goodwin tried his luck in America in 1967-68, Sidebottom was one of his first signings at New York Generals, and the ‘keeper played 44 games over there.

Birmingham fans will always remember how Goodwin launched the career of teenager Francis. In 1972, Francis, Bob Latchford and Bob Hatton spearheaded promotion for the Blues and a place in the FA Cup semi finals.

The 1973-74 season saw Birmingham escape relegation from the elite by a single point. They were marginally safer the following season, and reached the semi-final of the FA Cup again (losing in a replay to Fulham).

With Blues struggling at the foot of the table at the start of the 1975-76 season, Goodwin was sacked in September and Bell took over.

In 1976 Goodwin returned to America to become the first coach and president of the Minnesota Kicks where he remained until the early 1980s before retiring.

He settled in the US and lived there until his death from cancer aged 82 in Gig Harbour, Washington, on 19 February 2016.

In paying tribute to the man who gave him his big break, Francis told the Birmingham Mail: “I will forever be indebted to him for having the courage to put me into the team at such a young age – that tends to be overlooked.

“I had only had a season of youth football and not even a handful of reserve team games but he still gave me my opportunity.

“I held him in very high regard and had enormous respect for him. I was most saddened the day he was sacked.

“He looked after me and took care of me. He was like a father figure to me. He knew when to play me and when to take me out and give me a little bit of a rest – not that I understood that at 16 years old.

“Just before I went to Detroit, Freddie was already in the States coaching the Minnesota Kicks and he put a very lucrative offer in front of me to go out there and play.

“That alerted a lot of other NASL clubs and in the end I went to Detroit, who were managed by Jimmy Hill. I owe much of that to Freddie’s foresight.”

‘Unsung hero’ Dave Turner was Brighton captain at 22

DAVE TURNER, one of Brighton & Hove Albion’s youngest ever captains in the 1960s, had already been at the Albion just over five years by the time I got to see my first game.

Over the course of eight and a half years with the club, he played 338 games, scoring 34 goals. In old-fashioned parlance, Turner was a wing half – what today would be known as a predominantly left-sided midfield player.

Born in Retford, Nottinghamshire, on 7 September 1943, as a youngster he played for Notts Boys and had two trials for England Boys before joining Second Division Newcastle United straight from school as an apprentice in 1960.

He was part of the Newcastle side which beat Wolves 2-1 in the 1962 FA Youth Cup, playing alongside Toon’s future legendary captain Bobby Moncur and long-serving Northern Irish full back David Craig.

Newcastleunited-mad.co.uk says he was “highly thought of when he helped Newcastle win the Youth Cup in 1962, but never broke into the first team”. In fact, that wasn’t quite true because he was given his first team debut in the very last game of the 1961-62 season, a 3-0 home defeat to Leeds United.

He made one more appearance for the Magpies under new manager Joe Harvey but became Archie Macaulay’s first signing for a fee when he headed to Sussex in December 1963 for the princely sum of £6,000.

Turner made his debut in a 2-0 home win over Darlington on 7 December 1963 and, in only his second season at the Goldstone Ground, he made 40 appearances and scored twice as Albion marched to the Fourth Division championship.

“That was a great season,” Turner told Goal magazine in 1970. “Bobby Smith (former Tottenham and England international) was with us then. I was very surprised he joined Brighton, but what an asset he was.

“We scored plenty of goals, the crowds flocked back, the atmosphere was great.”

The following year, Dave was appointed captain – the youngest Albion ever had.

*Albion’s matchday programme introduces the new young captain*

“I was surprised but very pleased,” Dave told the magazine. “There were several players older than I was, so it was a great honour to be made skipper.

“I was a bit frightened at first but after a game or two I realised that the rest of the team were backing me up, so everything was all right.”

It was only when the experienced former Preston North End skipper Nobby Lawton arrived in 1967 that Turner relinquished the job.

“He had a fine reputation and I asked to be relieved of the job, suggesting Nobby should take over,” he said.

Remarkably both Turner and Norman Gall, another player hailing from the North East, reached the milestone of their 285^th Albion game at the same time.

Brighton were looking odds on for promotion under Freddie Goodwin in the 1969-70 season and it was rare for a Third Division team to get coverage in Goal, a popular national football magazine at the time.

The article began: “Dave Turner is one of the unsung heroes of Brighton. He has played nearly 300 games for the club, been involved in a Fourth Division Championship victory, and is now in the middle of another bid for glory.

“Brighton are fighting hard to get into the Second Division and the 26-year-old midfield star is a key man in their battle.

“Ever since he joined them from Newcastle in December 1963, Turner has played a vital role in the Brighton set-up.

“Stars like Rodney Marsh, Hugh Curran and Bruce Rioch, all of whom have gone on to better things, have played against (and been overshadowed by) Brighton’s non-stop wing half.

“It is Turner’s consistency which is helping Brighton in their promotion struggle. And he thinks they can do it.”

Turner told the magazine: “I’m pretty confident we can go up. But so can any of the top 10 at the moment. We’ve been playing well all season, but early on we just couldn’t get the right results. Everyone was getting a bit disappointed.

“Then everyone started getting stuck in a bit more – it began to pay off. We had a long undefeated run in the League after November and conceded only one goal in nine games. Even that was a penalty.

“The defence has been playing well and the whole team has been coming back and doing its share of the work. It would be nice to score a few more goals but if you don’t let any in it means you have at least one point before you start.”

Unfortunately although Brighton were top after a 2-0 win over Reading on 27 March 1970, they blew the chance of promotion with four defeats in the remaining five games and ended up fifth.

In the following two seasons under Pat Saward, Turner was hard hit by injuries and only made 19 appearances in the 1971-72 Third Division promotion campaign, appearing in his suit in the champagne-raising dressing room picture after promotion was achieved.

In its pen pictures of each of the members of the squad, the Argus said of him: “Turner never knows when he is beaten and few players have achieved greater popularity with the Goldstone crowd.”

The arrival of the cultured Brian Bromley to occupy his midfield berth meant Turner was given a free transfer in the summer of 1972 and, together with Kit Napier, he joined Ken Furphy’s Blackburn.

Turner made 25 appearances for Rovers but his injury issues returned and he was forced to retire in 1974. He followed his former boss Furphy to Bramall Lane where he was youth coach for a while. He then moved on to Aldershot before heading to Canada.

He coached at Toronto Blizzard under former Watford and Sheffield United midfielder Keith Eddy and stayed under Eddy’s successor, Bob Houghton, who was a former Brighton teammate. Houghton was at the Goldstone in 1969-70 although he didn’t feature in the first team. He famously managed Swedish side Malmo when they lost 1-0 to Nottingham Forest in the 1979 European Cup Final.

Turner stayed in Canada with Toronto Blizzard and had a season with Toronto Dinamo but he returned to the UK in 1990 and rejoined the coaching staff at Aldershot.

Pictures from my scrapbook show Turner leading out the Albion at the Goldstone, as featured in Goal, part of a team line-up in 1969-70, a portrait from the Argus in the 1971-72 season, joining in the 1972 promotion celebrations alongside Ian Goodwin with Brian Bromley (front left) and physio Mike Yaxley.

Turner the coach: at Toronto Blizzard with Bob Houghton and some well-known English players, and at Sheffield United and Aldershot.

Goals flowed for Manchester United starlet Andy Ritchie after Brighton-Leeds swap

Ritchie v Lpool TEENAGE Manchester United striking sensation Andy Ritchie had big boots to fill when he replaced Peter Ward in Brighton’s forward line.

After a slow start, 18 months after his arrival on the south coast he was the Albion Player of the Season but he missed out on Brighton’s historic journey to the FA Cup Final in 1983 when he opted to move to Second Division Leeds United in exchange for Terry Connor.

With just 26 goals in 102 top flight appearances for the Albion, it would probably be fair comment to say the best years of his footballing career were still to come and he claimed the move to Elland Road was to ensure he continued playing first team football.

He went on to enjoy great success the other side of the Pennines during Oldham Athletic’s time amongst the big boys.

But let’s go back to the beginning. Born on 28 November 1960 in Manchester, the son of a postal worker, Ritchie showed no early signs of a becoming a professional footballer and in fact went to Moseley Hall Grammar where only rugby was played.

The young Ritchie did play football as a cub, though, and then progressed to a Sunday league side and it was there that he was spotted by former Man Utd captain Johnny Carey, scouting for his old club.

After some trials Ritchie signed on as an apprentice at Old Trafford and soon earned a regular place in United’s Central League side.

At Christmas 1978 he made his league debut in United’s 6-2 win over Everton. He never managed to hold down a regular place in the first team but in total played 33 games for United, scoring 13 goals. Amongst those, he memorably scored two hat-tricks, against Leeds and Spurs.

It was in October 1980 that Ritchie became part of a triangular swap of strikers, when Garry Birtles moved from Nottingham Forest to Old Trafford, Ward transferred to the City Ground from Brighton, and Ritchie headed south. “Andy was only 19 but I saw great potential in him,” said Brighton manager Alan Mullery in his autobiography.

Ritchie made his debut in an away game at Aston Villa on 22 October 1980 and, after going seven games without scoring, opened his Albion account….against Man Utd. Unfortunately his goal in the Goldstone clash against his former club on 22 November was just a consolation as the Seagulls crashed 4-1.

Doubtless Mullery expected a greater return from the young man than the six goals he had mustered by the end of the 1980-81 season, but thankfully one of those came in the 80^th minute of the final game of the season when a 2-0 defeat of Leeds meant Albion retained their top flight status by a whisker.

When Mullery quit over the sale of Mark Lawrenson to Liverpool that summer, the defence-minded Mike Bailey came in and steered Albion to their best ever finish – 13^th of 22 – but at the expense of entertainment.

Ritchie top-scored with just 14 goals and was voted Player of the Season and a personal highlight came in March when he was selected to play for England under 21s against Poland. He played alongside Mark Hateley who scored both England’s goals in a 2-2 draw at Upton Park.

What Ritchie found puzzling was that the England side’s boss was Dave Sexton – the very manager who’d been happy to let him leave Manchester United. But it turned out to be his one and only cap. An Albion commitment prevented him playing in a subsequent game when he was called up to play Scotland.

Although he scored in the opening 1-1 draw of the 1982-83 season against Ipswich, he didn’t find the net again until December – by which time Bailey had been sacked.

The replacement managerial duo of George Aitken and Jimmy Melia opted to play three strikers – Ritchie, Michael Robinson and Ward, who had returned to the club on loan from Forest – but results were not great and Ritchie’s form in front of goal remained poor.

Melia, not exactly a shrinking violet when it came to the media, let it be known he was not impressed and the next thing Ritchie declared he wanted away. While relegation beckoned, Albion continued to make progress in the Cup and Ritchie played in the quarter final win over Norwich. Then, almost out of the blue, Melia organised a straight swap with Ritchie going to Leeds and Connor joining the Seagulls.

The decision was puzzling to say the least because Albion were still in the Cup and, with Connor cup-tied having played in the competition with Leeds, and an extension of Ward’s loan refused by Brian Clough, Brighton had to go into the semi final and the final with only one recognised striker in Robinson.

Of course, as we know, midfielder Gordon Smith was moved up front to partner Robinson – and if you don’t know what happened next you’ve been living on a different planet!

In the pre-match wall-to-wall coverage of the Cup Final, as was commonplace at that time, amongst the multitude of different angles appeared an interview with Ritchie in Match Weekly about the clash between his two former clubs. “I’m glad for both teams that they have made it to Wembley and I just hope that the best team wins on the day,” he said diplomatically.

“Obviously I’ll have a few pangs of jealousy when the lads walk out at Wembley knowing that I might have been involved, but I feel I have made the right decision in attempting to secure my future in first team football.”

Ritchie was sore he had missed out on a Cup Final (v Arsenal) when he was at Man Utd so it was certainly a mighty decision he took. “I knew I was taking a gamble when I joined Leeds just before the semi final but I felt my future outweighed the possibility of Brighton getting to Wembley and I have no regrets,” he said.

Indeed events would prove him right and back in his native north he thrived over the next four years at Elland Road, scoring 44 times in 159 appearances before moving onto Oldham where he stayed for eight years and played a part in one of the club’s most successful periods.

His prolific goalscoring for the Latics meant by the time his playing career came to a close in 1999 he had registered 210 goals in 661 games, a tidy record by anyone’s standards.

Ritchie’s career as a manager never reached the same heights as his playing career – he had spells managing Oldham, Barnsley and Huddersfield – and his later involvement in football was as a pundit for BBC Radio Leeds and MUTV.

1 ritchie in cally shirt 2 ritchie other breakfast 3 ritchie villa stretch 4 ritchie v sunderland 5 Ritchie Oldham

Pictures from my scrapbook and Albion matchday programmes show Ritchie sporting Albion’s British Caledonian sponsored kit, breakfasting at home with his wife, two action images, a portrait in Oldham’s colours, and a montage of newspaper and magazine articles about the striker.

Midfielder Jim Walker discovered the other side of injuries

THE MAN largely responsible for extending the football career of gifted Irishman Paul McGrath briefly had a place in Brighton & Hove Albion’s midfield.

Jim Walker spent 13 months with the Albion after six years at Derby County. He was later Aston Villa’s physiotherapist for 17 years.

Despite Brighton beating Crystal Palace in the opening game of the 1974-75 season — Peter Taylor’s first in sole charge following the controversial departure of Brian Clough — subsequent early season results were poor.

With close season signing Ernie Machin nursing an injury, and Peter O’Sullivan out of the side for a disciplinary issue, midfield reinforcements were needed.

Taylor returned to his old club in September 1974 to sign Walker and youngster Tommy Mason for a combined £25,000 fee.

Having made an almost wholesale change to the squad at the end of the 1973-74 season, it was perhaps not surprising Taylor turned to some players he knew.

Walker had played his part in Derby’s rise from Second Division obscurity to First Division champions under Clough and Taylor but was essentially a squad player. In seven years at Derby, he only made 42 appearances.

He collected a Second Division Championship medal in 1969, when he played 26 games, and was part of the squad which secured the club’s first ever Division One Championship title in 1972. In 1970 he had been loaned to Clough and Taylor’s old club Hartlepool where he played 10 games.

Walker HS As well as Walker and Mason, Taylor also brought in former Ram Alan Lewis as cover at left back for Harry Wilson, and ex-Derby striker Ricky Marlowe, who had moved to Shrewsbury, followed the old assistant manager to Brighton.

Doubtless with an eye to an upcoming transfer, Taylor also knew he would need midfield reinforcements because Billy McEwan and Ronnie Welch were the makeweights in a deal to land right back Ken Tiler from Chesterfield.

In only his second game for Brighton, Walker got on the scoresheet in a 2-1 defeat away to Charlton. In the return fixture the following March, an Evening Argus photographer captured a great picture of him on a rain-soaked afternoon at the Goldstone splashing through the mud.

Walker was a regular through to the middle of March but apart from one other start was then substitute through to the end of the season. Although he was still at the club for the start of the following season, he played only twice before being sold for £6,000 to Peterborough United.

As a native of Cheshire — he came from Northwich and played for the local non-league team Northwich Victoria before joining Derby in 1968 — he hankered for a move back to the north west and in November 1976 linked up with an old friend, Alan Oakes, the former Manchester City stalwart who was the manager of Chester City.

Jim made the left back spot his own at Sealand Road and clocked up over 170 appearances in five years in a side which had Peter Ward’s former strike partner Ian Mellor up front and a young Welsh striker called Ian Rush beginning to show some promise!

Eventually an achilles injury brought a premature end to Walker’s career at the age of 34 and he became a physiotherapist and coach with the club.

In 1983 he joined his former Derby teammate Dave Mackay in Kuwait as a coach at Al Arabi and after two years returned to the UK to become physio at Blackburn Rovers. In 1986 he took over as physio at Villa.

Walker worked for six different managers at Villa Park, including Ron Atkinson and Graham Taylor, and it was his careful handling of former Manchester United defender McGrath that made him the Irishman’s best friend.

When asked in the Villan on the Spot feature on avfc.co.uk who was the biggest influence on his career, McGrath replied: “No question about it, Jim Walker the club physio in my time at Villa Park. He was brilliant for me and was responsible for me playing as long as I did. Most of the time spent at the training ground was lifting weights with my legs to strengthen the quadriceps which helped protect my knees. I also did lots of exercise bike work, probably three or four times a week.”

In the One-on-One feature in FourFourTwo magazine: McGrath declared: “The Villa physio Jim Walker, who is more than a friend – a hero of mine – is basically the one that kept my career going. If I hadn’t had Jim on my side, I would have probably finished playing about four seasons earlier than I did.

“Jim created a regime where I just went in and did 10 minutes on the bike each morning and that was about it. Some days I would just have a bath. The games would look after my fitness.”

Walker’s time with Villa came to an end when he became assistant manager to Paul Merson at Walsall in 2004. After that, he briefly returned to Peterborough as physio before taking up the role of senior physio at the famous golf resort hotel The Belfry.

In an interview with the Royal Sutton Coldfield Observer five years ago, Walker told them: “I have been lucky in my career because I was an average footballer who went on to work with some top managers.

“It was a great advantage to have played because I knew what the lads were going through. I understood what it felt like to be injured and not playing football and I understood the frustration that after six weeks of injury you need to be patient and build up your fitness levels instead of walking straight back into the first team.”

Flying winger Tony ‘Tiger’ Towner immortalised in children’s TV programme

2-towner-takes-on-argus IF ART is the sincerest form of flattery, Tony Towner can count himself amongst the privileged few to be forever remembered on film.

That it was done by two of Rotherham United’s most ardent celebrity fans is neither here nor there – it’s not everyone who can say their prowess has been portrayed in an episode of Chucklevision.

Towner and fellow Millers hero Ronnie Moore were at the centre of a classic knockabout episode of the children’s TV series in which Rotherham supporters Paul and Barry Chuckle constantly get involved in slapstick scrapes.

In Football Heroes, made in 1996, the Chuckle Brothers meet Towner and Moore (actors playing them rather than the footballers themselves!) on their way to a game and accidentally end up with their invitation cards to play in a veterans match, leading to them ending up on the pitch.

*Towner earned plaudits for his Rotherham performances in this Shoot magazine feature – pipping one Danny Wilson!*

It was Towner and Moore’s starring performances in the Rotherham side that won promotion from the old Division 3 as champions in 1980-81 that earned them cult status.

Over three seasons, Towner appeared over 100 times for the Millers and even all these years later is still remembered with affection.

Take, for example, comments made on the Millers Mad website a couple of years ago. Ivor Hardy said: “Tony (Tiger) Towner was one of the best and most talented footballers ever to play for us.

“He was instrumental in us winning the league in 80/81, along with doing the double over our near neighbours Sheffield United in the same season.

“We were lucky to get the services of Towner and Seasman from Millwall, and only did so because the Lions were in financial turmoil that season and had to get some money in fast. He will always be a legend with the older fans, along with team mates Seasman, Moore, Fern, Breckin, Mountford etc.

“Tiger gave us some great memories.”

Meanwhile, kevthemaltbymiller said: “Great player for us, very tricky winger with lightning pace. Happy memories.” And sawmiller added: “Tiger was a super player – good winger who created a real buzz in the crowd when he got the ball and ran at players.”

Towner himself considered his time at Rotherham to have been his best playing days. In an Albion matchday programme article, he told Roy Chuter: “They were probably my best years, my most consistent, anyway. I was 26, 27 years old – at my peak. I had three tremendous years.”

Initially playing under Sunderland’s 1973 FA Cup Final hero Ian Porterfield, he also enjoyed working with the former Liverpool legend Emlyn Hughes, when he took over as manager.

Brighton fans also have good memories of the local boy made good. Sussex youngsters making the grade with the Albion have been pretty few and far between over the years, but Towner and defender/midfielder Steve Piper were two who did it in the 1970s.

In Albion’s 1972-73 season in the second tier, Piper had already been blooded in the first team in the November. Towner signed professional on 29 December 1972 and, with Albion having been knocked out of the FA Cup by Chelsea in the third round, manager Pat Saward arranged a friendly against Stoke City on fourth round day, 3 February 1973 (Stoke had been beaten 3-2 by Man City) and gave Towner his first team debut in a 2-0 defeat at the Goldstone.

The following Saturday he made his league debut aged just 17 at home to Luton Town. Albion went into the game having suffered 14 defeats on the trot (12 in the league plus the games against Chelsea and Stoke) and, rooted to the bottom of the table, relegation was inevitable.

Saward gave the side a shake-up, dropping three established players – goalkeeper Brian Powney in favour of loan signing Tommy Hughes from Aston Villa, right back Graham Howell (to the bench), and experienced striker Barry Bridges.

Piper made only his sixth first team appearance and he was joined by winger Towner and forward Pat Hilton. It was Towner’s brilliant display on the wing that really caught the eye as Albion finally mustered a win, beating the Hatters 2-0.

Towner kept the shirt until the end of the season and it was the launchpad for a 15-year professional career in which he made over 400 appearances. After that Luton debut, he scored his first goal in a 2-1 home win against Huddersfield on 10 March.

“I was an Albion fan as a kid, in Bevendean, and I joined them straight from school at 15, as an apprentice,” he said. “I already had the ‘Tiger’ nickname when I got into the team in 1973 – I think it was one of Alan Duffy‘s. I must have tackled him a bit too hard in training, or something. Tiger was a great nickname, and I loved it.”

One of the few survivors of the great Brian Clough cull of the playing staff in 1974, Towner was a speedy, skilful winger who could put in terrific crosses for his teammates. The fact he was a local lad endeared him greatly to the crowd.

In five years, he had plenty of challengers for his place. In the early days, Gerry Fell competed for the wide berth and later Eric Potts, but Towner still managed 171 games (+ 12 as sub) for the Albion and scored 25 goals.

“Gerry was the opposite of me, though still a winger – he had loads of pace, though not too much skill,” Towner recalled. “He’d knock the ball ahead of him and run past the defender to get it, a bit like Stuart Storer. I’d try to trick my way past.”

In John Vinicombe’s end of season assessment of Peter Taylor’s first season in sole charge (1974-75), he said: “It is with no disrespect to Taylor that I suggest that the three most consistent players were those he inherited – O’Sullivan, Towner and Piper.

“Towards the end, Towner tailed off a little but he struck up an intuitive partnership with Fred Binney.”

In fact Towner was third highest in the squad for appearances that season, playing 47 games in total plus four as sub and with 10 goals was second highest goalscorer behind Binney.

It was the arrival of Gerry Ryan from Derby in September 1978, which finally prompted his departure. George Petchey, who later joined Chris Cattlin’s backroom team at the Goldstone, took him to Millwall for £65,000.

Unfortunately, while Brighton won promotion to Division 1 in 1979, Millwall went the opposite way out of Division 2, and Towner found himself back in the third tier.

After 68 appearances for the Lions, in 1980 he was sold to Rotherham along with teammate John Seasman for a combined fee of £165,000.

Towner scored once for Rotherham’s near neighbours Sheffield United in a 10-game loan spell in 1983 and although he had missed out on Brighton’s eventual elevation to the top tier, he managed it with Wolves in 1983-84 having been signed by the Black Country side for £80,000.

He then joined Charlton Athletic but in the 1985-86 season was loaned to Rochdale where he once again linked up with his former Rotherham teammates, Moore and Seasman. He made five appearances for Rochdale and MikeMCSG on clarkechroniclersfootballers.blogspot.co.uk recalls: “He came on as sub in a home game and made an instantly good impression by beating the full back with his first touch.

“He went on to play a blinder in the draw at Halifax on Boxing Day. Unfortunately Tony didn’t want to uproot to the North and couldn’t be persuaded to make his stay permanent. When Cambridge came in with an offer he signed for them instead although he only made eight appearances for them in total.”

Towner’s final Albion appearance had been in a 4-1 defeat away to Leicester in September 1978 but his final appearance at the Goldstone came in a memorable FA Cup 3^rd round tie on 4 January 1992.

Albion beat then Southern League Crawley 5-0 and Towner earned a rousing reception from the 18,031 packed into the Goldstone when, at the age of 36, he came on as a substitute for the visitors.

Crawley were one of several non-league clubs he played for: he also turned out for Gravesend, Fisher Athletic, Lewes, Newhaven and Saltdean.

Interestingly, Towner reflected: “I could definitely have played for a few more years at league level, and perhaps I should’ve done. I’d got a bit disillusioned with it though.”

After his playing days ended, Towner ran his own Brighton-based removals business and watched the Albion as a fan. In October 2015, Brian Owen interviewed him for an Argus piece ahead of a game against Cardiff when former Albion winger Craig Noone was in opposition.

Towner reckoned Albion made a mistake letting him go but added: “It’s good to see Brighton making good use of wingers.

“That’s the way I was brought up, using the wide men.

“It’s all right having midfield men or attack-minded full-backs. But what gets the crowd on its feet is a winger going past the full-back and crossing.

“You can have all the formations you like but, if you see a winger getting past his full-back, it excites people.”

Tony Towner certainly came into that category.

Pictures mainly shot by Evening Argus photographers and then reproduced in the Albion matchday programmes show a happy Towner congratulated by manager Pat Saward after his league debut, in familiar pose taking on a full back, getting in a trademark cross, in full flight on the wing, and finally on a Wolves album sticker.

All-time Albion hero Peter Ward scored inside a minute of debut

ward v bpool

ARMS aloft in familiar salute to yet another goal, the smiling footballer in a black and white picture on a Florida football club’s website dates back 40 years!

All around the world, it seems, Peter Ward’s goalscoring exploits for Brighton & Hove Albion are still the stuff of legend.

Four decades may have come and gone but the memories of this mercurial talent have never dimmed.

FC Tampa Rangers say of their youth coach: “During the 1976–77 season at Brighton, he scored 36 goals, beating the club record and winning him the golden boot.

“He is still revered by Brighton fans who sing a song dreaming of a team in which every player is Peter Ward: ‘We all live in a Wardy Wonderland’.”

If the word legend gets bandied about a little too frequently, where Peter Ward is concerned it is perfectly apt.

1-ward-scores Few Brighton players have managed to approach the esteem in which this extraordinary talent is held by supporters who saw him score the goals which took the Seagulls from perennial third tier also-rans to a place among the elite.

It takes genuine talent, bravery and skill to score goals at all three levels but Ward delivered. In 220 games for the Albion (plus seven as sub) he scored 95 goals.

In his splendid 2007 book, A Few Good Men (The Breedon Books Publishing Company Limited), Spencer Vignes refers back to 1980 and says of Ward: “No centre forward since has managed to steal his crown. Some have come close – Garry Nelson and Bobby Zamora spring to mind – but Wardy remains special, the golden boy of what proved to be a golden time for the club.”

I was sorry to have missed Ward’s latest return to Brighton when in 2016 he joined some of the Goldstone heroes of the past at the Theatre Royal.

Impishly donning a curly wig on top of his now bald pate to make his grand entrance, Ward showed he’d still got something of the showman about him.

There was never a shortage of superlatives to describe his skills on the pitch. While his dad Colin was a compositor on the Tamworth Herald, his son’s talents with a football filled dozens of column inches in a variety of football publications.

PW green BW Alan Mullery, the manager who benefited most from his audacious skill and compared him to the great Jimmy Greaves, said: “He was just the skinny little kid who could do fantastic things with a football.”

Mullery told Shoot: “Peter has the ability to kill a ball no matter how it comes at him. His pace over short bursts is incredible and he shoots powerfully and accurately with either foot.”

He continued: “Above all else, Peter’s strength on the ball, for a player of his stature, is remarkable. He fools defenders who believe they can easily knock him flying.”

Two of Ward’s former teammates told Vignes what made him so special. “He had this long stride that just seemed to take him away from people,” said Peter O’Sullivan. “One step and he’d be gone. Once he got goal-side of a player, that was it really – bang! Nobody ever seemed to be able to catch him, even in training.”

Brian Horton joined the club around the same time as Ward and said of his younger teammate: “He was this thin, scrawny little player that needed to learn the game, but his finishing was unbelievable, absolutely unbelievable.”

Nottingham Forest fans will have less happy memories of a player the managerial duo of Clough and Taylor took to the City Ground as they strived to replace Garry Birtles and Trevor Francis with any pairing from Ward, Ian Wallace and Justin Fashanu.

It just didn’t work out for Wardy at Forest although he tells Vignes in A Few Good Men: “I had a great time at Forest. I got on well with the lads and had a laugh.”

While he 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.

When Lichfield-born Ward left school he was only 4’8” and because he was told he was too small to make a career playing football he got a job as an apprentice fitter at Rolls Royce and played local football in the Derby area.

The detail of those early years can be discovered in Matthew Horner’s excellent biography of Ward (He Shot, He Scored, Sea View Media).

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.

After joining the newly-promoted Brewers initially in the Reserves, the 1974-75 season was only a month old when he made his first team bow alongside former England internationals Frank Wignall and Ian Storey-Moore – and promptly scored a hat-trick in a 4-1 win over Tamworth, his hometown team.

By the middle of November that season, with 10 goals to his name, Ward’s scoring exploits had attracted the attention of league clubs and Brighton boss Peter Taylor, with plenty of contacts in the area, put in a bid.

The Burton chairman, Jim Bradbury, went public on the approach – which Gutteridge found completely unacceptable. He promptly resigned… and before long was appointed to Taylor’s backroom staff!

In the meantime, Burton resisted Brighton’s money and it later emerged that Gutteridge had told Taylor he would only take up the post on condition that Ward would eventually be brought to the Goldstone.

Taylor stuck to his word and eventually signed Ward for £4,000 in the close season of 1975.

The rest, as they say, is history and in researching for this piece it was difficult to sift through the multitude of material from my scrapbooks, programmes, books and other places to condense it all into something manageable.

Because of his popularity, most of the story is familiar to fans of a certain generation anyway and anyone who has not yet read Horner’s book should get themselves a copy because it is rich with material from Ward himself and others who played alongside him or observed him.

Scoring within 50 seconds of his Albion debut away to Hereford United in front of the Match of the Day cameras couldn’t have been a better start and the partnership he struck up with beanpole Ian Mellor was key to promotion from the old Division 3.

For what at times seemed like a fantasy coming to life, it’s intriguing to learn that Ward’s watching of the Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me on the eve of two games was followed the next day by him scoring hat-tricks.

In the 1977-78 season, he saw it before making his England under 21 debut at the Goldstone against Norway in a 6-0 win, and, later the same season, he saw it again before an away game at Mansfield and scored three once again!

It seemed a natural progression that Ward would make it to the full England team and he did eventually – winning one cap for a six-minute substitute appearance against Australia in May 1980.

In fact he made the full England squad three years earlier for a game against Luxembourg but wasn’t involved in the match itself and, by his own admission, reckons he blotted his copybook with manager Ron Greenwood by being ill in the room he shared with Trevor Brooking after going out drinking with Brian Greenhoff.

ward cover In the way that all good things must come to an end, the beginning of the end of the fairytale came as Albion struggled to come to terms with their first season at the top level.

Ward was certainly not as prolific as he had been lower down the football pyramid although, as reported in my previous blog post, the arrival of Ray Clarke helped him rediscover his form to finish that season as top goalscorer with 17.

However, a return to his Midlands home territory looked increasingly likely. He nearly went to Derby in November 1979 but a swap deal with Gerry Daly fell through, and Forest also wanted him but Clough walked away from the deal.

Eleven months later, though, Clough and Taylor were back in for him when Birtles was sold to Man Utd, paying the Albion £450,000 for his services. Andy Ritchie, being displaced by Birtles’ move to United, promptly replaced Ward at the Albion.

Ward made just 33 appearances for Forest, scoring seven goals, and in 1981-82 went on loan to Seattle Sounders.

In the autumn of 1982, Brighton brought him back to the Goldstone on loan and it was in the fourth game of a 16-game spell that he scored (above) what he considered his favourite goal, the winner against his boyhood idols Manchester United at the Goldstone on 6 November 1982.

Ward was part of the Albion line-up that won that memorable FA Cup fifth round tie at Anfield en route to the 1983 FA Cup Final but it was to prove his penultimate game as the eccentric Clough quashed Ward’s desire to stay with the Seagulls and that potential trip to Wembley.

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 and neither will you.”

That spelled the end of Ward’s time at the City Ground and by the end of 1983 he was sold to Vancouver Whitecaps for £20,000; the beginning of what became a 13-year career playing mainly indoor football in America, where he still lives.

• Pictures from various sources: the matchday programme, Evening Argus and Shoot! / Goal.

Ajax legend Ray Clarke helped Ward get back on the goal trail

BRIGHTON’S early season form in their first ever season playing in English football’s top tier prompted thoughts of an automatic return to the Second Division.

The status earned so memorably via that 3-1 win at Newcastle on 5 May 1979 was but a glorious memory once the new season had kicked off.

Buried 4-0 by Arsenal in the opening game, the glimmers of hope were few and far between and Peter Ward, the talismanic striker who had been scoring goals for fun in Divisions Three and then Two was struggling to find the back of the net.

Help was soon at hand though in the shape of an Englishman who had been a sensation in Holland. Only the season before, Ray Clarke had been carried shoulder high by the fans of Ajax of Amsterdam for his goalscoring exploits.

The striker was anxious to bring an unhappy five-month spell at new club Bruges to an end and a £175,000 fee saw him reunited with his old Tottenham teammate Alan Mullery.

In Matthew Horner’s excellent biography of Peter Ward (He Shot, He Scored, Sea View Media), Clarke says: “I’d been playing abroad but was looking to come back to England because my wife wasn’t very well. I nearly signed for West Ham but then I heard that Brighton were interested too.

“I had been at Tottenham when I was younger and Alan Mullery was the captain then. So when we met it didn’t take long to tie up the deal.

“When I joined, the team had played 14 games but had only seven points and were bottom of the table.

“Wardy and I got on really well: he was sharp and quick and I could get him the ball. He was a good finisher and a great lad.”

ray clarke BW Clarke replaced Teddy Maybank, who was sold back to Second Division Fulham for £150,000. The new man up front scored Albion’s only goal in a 4-1 home defeat to Liverpool but after that unlikely 1-0 win at Nottingham Forest on 17 November (ending the European champions 31-month unbeaten home record), gradually the fortunes began to change — and, crucially, Ward found his scoring boots again. He notched 18 by the season’s end, Clarke himself weighed in with nine, and the Seagulls finished a respectable 16^th of 22.

In He Shot, He Scored, Ward said: “Ray was a good player — not at all flash, just a sound, straightforward, target man.

“I hadn’t had a regular partner since Ian Mellor in the Third Division and it helped to have some consistency.

“When I played alongside Ray, I probably played the best football of my Brighton career — it was a shame he left so soon.”

It was from an excellent Dutch website, football-oranje.com, that I discovered what prompted Mullery to sell Clarke to Newcastle at the end of that season. I had always thought he was simply making way for the £400,000 arrival of Michael Robinson from Manchester City.

However, football-oranje.com reveals: “In July 1980, following a visit to a specialist, Clarke was sold to Newcastle for £180,000. The news from the specialist had been grave; his hips were in a poor condition and his career could be over in either 12 months or four years. The ramifications for club and player were immense. At that time, Clarke was uninsured and Brighton would not receive a penny if he broke down whilst on their books. After playing only 14 matches for Newcastle United in the 1980-81 season, Clarke was forced to retire aged just 28.”

The website’s Hall of Fame piece about Clarke is fascinating, if too detailed to repeat at length here.

Clarke joined Ajax in July 1978 and, in spite of having to step into the striking boots of Ruud Geels, who had been sold to Anderlecht after being the Eredivisie top scorer for four consecutive seasons (30, 29, 34 and 30 goals respectively), he stepped up to the plate and netted an impressive 26 league goals for the Amsterdam club, six in the Dutch Cup and six in the UEFA Cup.

When the Ajax board controversially decided to sell him to fund the arrival of new players, their legendary former player Johann Cruyff, no less, had this to say: “Those people who wanted to sell Ray Clarke don’t understand that Clarke could take away two or sometimes three defenders on his own because of his vision. The board should have seen Clarke as a goalscorer or a playmaker. He made sure that Tahamata and Ling could play well – and he still scored 30 goals in one season.”

Born in Hackney on 25 September 1952, Clarke was spotted by Spurs playing in Islington schoolboys football and was part of the north London club’s 1970 Youth Cup winning team which included Steve Perryman and Graeme Souness.

It took them two replays to overcome a Coventry City side who had future Aston Villa European Cup winning captain Dennis Mortimer in midfield and, in goal, David Icke, who became a BBC TV sports presenter then professional conspiracy theorist.

Clarke scored bucketloads of goals at youth and reserve level, but with Alan Gilzean and Martin Chivers blocking his path to the first team, he only managed one senior appearance, as a substitute.

Manager Bill Nicholson sold him to Swindon Town for £8,000 in 1973 but he played only 14 times for the Robins, scoring twice, before he moved on a year later to Mansfield Town in the old Fourth Division.

In Mansfield’s league title winning season of 1974-75, Clarke scored 30 goals in 53 matches alongside Terry Eccles, who got 20. Clarke continued rattling in the goals at the higher level, finishing the Division 3 season with 29 goals in 58 appearances.

Then, at 23, he hankered for a return to higher level football and Mansfield made a major return on their £8,000 investment by collecting a £90,000 fee from Sparta Rotterdam.

After two seasons at Sparta, and Clarke’s scoring ratio being close to a goal every other game, Ajax took him north to Amsterdam where, to refer back briefly to football-oranje.com, he earned club icon status.

“Although Ray Clarke may not have been the highest goalscorer in Ajax history or even their greatest striker, what endeared Clarke to Ajax fans was the importance of his goals,” the website says. “Clarke was a player who never went missing in a big game and his performances were the key to ensuring trophies for Ajax.

“One of the most memorable examples of this took place on June 4th 1979, when Clarke scored the only Ajax goal in the 1-1 game at AZ ’67 that would secure Ajax the Eredivisie title. The moment was preserved in a famous photograph of the aftermath of this match, with the Ajax fans carrying the Englishman up on their shoulders.”

When Clarke’s playing days were brought prematurely to an end, he built a new career in football as a renowned scout, including working under Gordon Strachan at Coventry and Southampton and also for Souness when he was at Saints, and his successor, Paul Sturrock. His LinkedIn status says since March 2020 he’s worked as a freelance recruitment agent prior to which he was technical director of Cypriot team Omonia Nicosia for just short of six years.

Cattle auctioneer Kevin Bremner gave clubs a promotion prod

bremner-portrait AS GOALSCORING partnerships go, the pairing of Kevin Bremner and Garry Nelson was something of a masterstroke by Albion manager Barry Lloyd.

Having to readjust to life back in Division 3 after relegation in 1987 meant cashing in on some of the better players – the sale of Terry Connor, Danny Wilson and Eric Young raised over £400,000 – and replacing them with bargain buys.

At £65,000 for Bremner and £72,500 for Nelson, Lloyd showed how shrewd an operator he could be in the transfer market. When Nelson was injured and sidelined for a while, £80,000 was paid to bring in Paul Wood to play alongside Bremner.

Bremner was born on 7 October 1957 in Banff in the Scottish Highlands and worked as an auctioneer in the cattle market in his home town as well as playing Highland League football.

He didn’t make his start in the English league until the relatively late age of 23. That was with Colchester United and he made his debut in a 2-2 home draw with Barnsley in Division 3 on 11 October 1980.

He went on to make 93 consecutive appearances for Colchester in the third and fourth divisions and scored 35 goals while Bobby Roberts was in charge. All was going well until Bremner got in a dispute with the club and found himself out of the side.

Division 1 Birmingham took him on a month’s loan and, after he’d scored a goal in his four games there, Roberts’ repplacement at Colchester, former Ipswich and Northern Ireland centre half Allan Hunter, recalled him to Layer Road. However, former boss Roberts had moved on to Division 3 Wrexham, and he took Bremner on loan at the Racecourse, where he also got on the scoresheet.

“He wanted to take me on permanently but they couldn’t afford it so my next stop was Home Park, and a spell at Plymouth Argyle,” he told the Albion matchday programme. “It was touch and go whether or not I’d stay there in the long term, but once Lincoln and Millwall showed an interest I knew that I’d soon be on my way.”

He chose Millwall – “it was closer” – and joined the Lions in December 1982 for a £25,000 fee. He was one of eight new signings made by manager George Graham as Millwall were floundering at the bottom of Division 3 at the time. In a remarkable turn-round, they picked up 27 points in 12 games to escape relegation.

He was then part of the Millwall side who won promotion from Division 3 in 1984-85. In total, Bremner scored 33 goals in 87 games for the Lions. “It was a fabulous couple of years even though the side was struggling when I joined,” he said. “Playing at The Den is great – it’s wicked for away teams because the atmosphere is so strong.”

Next stop was Reading for a £35,000 fee. He spent two seasons with the Royals and enjoyed a successful partnership with lofty Trevor Senior which helped the Royals to promotion as champions from Division 3 in 1986.

I can remember going to watch Albion play Reading in November 1986 and Bremner scored twice in a 2-1 win for the Royals at Elm Park. He finished the season with 15. Albion signed him from Reading for £65,000 in July 1987.

Brem flow After a flying start with Brighton, in which he scored 11 goals, the league goals dried up for Bremner but strike partner Nelson couldn’t stop scoring as Albion powered their way to automatic promotion.

Second spot behind Sunderland was clinched via a 2-1 Goldstone win over Bristol Rovers on 7 May, Bremner finally ending his goal drought with a diving header, and Nelson, inevitably, getting the winner – his 32^nd goal of the season.

What was all the more remarkable about the pairing was that it was the first season Nelson had played as an out-and-out striker.

Back in the second tier in 1988-89, Albion struggled to make an impression against better quality opponents although Bremner did score 15 goals, including a hattrick in a New Year’s Eve 4-0 mauling of Birmingham City. In September 1988, he took over the goalkeeper gloves (below) at home against West Brom when Perry Digweed was forced off with a serious groin injury.

In a matchday programme interview, Bremner said: ”I’m probably enjoying the game more than at any time before. I regret not coming into the professional game earlier but I’m delighted at the way things have turned out.

“We always thought we could do well at the Goldstone and after two years of hard work I’d like to think that we can put the club back on the map and, besides, I’d like another try in the First Division.”

The programme notes declared: “It’s his consistent scoring record that has opposing defenders on tenterhooks. His total commitment invariably creates an opportunist goal and he is a popular player with the fans.”

Brem run Bremner scored 12 in the 1989-90 season, five of them coming in the space of a week at the start of the season! He was virtually ever-present but Albion struggled in the lower half of the table for most of the season. His goal in a 1-1 draw away to Blackburn in the final game of that campaign was his last for the club. In 134 games (plus three as sub), he’d scored 36 goals.

He moved on to Peterborough United in the close season as manager Lloyd had a new strike partnership up his sleeve in the shape of John Byrne and Mike Small.

After a year at Peterborough, Bremner moved back to Scotland to play for Dundee but in the spring of 1992 had a month’s loan spell at Shrewsbury Town.

Back in the far north of Scotland he had spells as player-manager with Brora Rangers and his old club Deveronvale then in 1995 he became youth team manager at Gillingham and stayed for eight years, and was then academy coach at Millwall for three years. He subsequently coached youngsters in Kent, at an academy and at an independent school.

Pictures show the front page of the Evening Argus following Albion’s promotion from Division 3 in 1988 with Bremner diving to score; a shot of Bremner in action against West Ham that appeared on the front of a matchday programme, a portrait from a matchday programme at the beginning of the 1989-90 season, and other action pictures from matchday programmes.

In parallel lines

Nick Turrell's Brighton & Hove Albion blog

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