‘Keeper Perry Digweed’s in and out 12 years with the Albion

THEY say goalkeepers are different and Perry Digweed certainly came into that category with his name alone!

Digweed switched from Craven Cottage to play for the Seagulls when signed for £150,000 by former Fulham favourite, Alan Mullery, in January 1981.

It seems remarkable to record that he was still at the club – indeed earning the player of the season accolade – a decade later.

In fact his Albion career stretched to 12 years, by which time you’d have imagined he would have racked up around 400 appearances.

That his total number of games played for the Albion amounted to 182 reflects periods when he was either out of favour courtesy of various managerial changes or sidelined through injury.

Born in Chelsea on 26 October 1959, the young Digweed started playing football at Park Walk Primary School and he was soon featuring in inter-school matches played at Battersea Park. It was only when he was 12 that he started playing in goal and before long he gained representative honours, playing for the West London Schools under-13 side.

He played at Highbury in one match but he started training with Fulham’s youngsters from the age of 13. Ken Craggs, Mullery’s no.2 at Brighton, was in charge of Fulham’s youth team at the time, but Digweed didn’t get an immediate offer of an apprenticeship after he left St Michael’s School; instead he became a trainee salesman at Covent Garden market (his dad ran a busy greengrocer’s close to Putney Bridge).

Craggs finally offered him the apprenticeship six months later, in September 1976, and only four months afterwards manager Bobby Campbell gave Digweed his first team debut in a 2-0 defeat at home to Bolton Wanderers. Fulham were in the old Second Division at the time and the form of Irish international Gerry Peyton restricted Digweed to only 15 league games.

A chance to step up a division came following one of Mullery’s public fits of pique with Brighton’s first choice Graham Moseley in the middle of the 1980-81 season. He put reserve goalkeeper John Phillips into the Albion line-up for the Boxing Day match at home to Crystal Palace and, although Moseley was restored to the line-up for three matches at the start of 1981, on Craggs’ recommendation, Mullery returned to his former club to sign Digweed. The young ‘keeper made his debut in a 2-0 defeat away to West Bromwich Albion on 17 January 1981.

DIG BW After only three games in the old First Division for Brighton, Digweed was called up to the England under 21 squad, although Leeds’ John Lukic and Blackpool’s Iain Hesford were chosen to play ahead of him.

A colourful insight into Digweed’s lifestyle came in Spencer Vignes’ excellent book A Few Good Men (Breedon Books Publishing, 2007) in the section about ‘rival’ Moseley.

“Very much the boy about town with his dandy dress sense and coiffured hair, Perry looked more like one of Adam’s Ants than a goalkeeper,” wrote Vignes, who discovered Digweed and Moseley got on well in spite of the rivalry.

“Perry was a single boy who still lived in London and would tell you all about his conquests the night before,” Moseley told Vignes. “He was a great lad and a lot of fun to be with.”

Dig colour In one of many matchday programme profiles, Digweed talked about his love of looking round the Kings Road, Chelsea, clothes shops on his way back home from training. He also liked his golf and told the matchday programme in August 1991: “I try and play as much as I can and get quite a few invitations to pro-am events along with other footballers and celebrities.”

Remarkably at one point in his topsy turvy career with the Seagulls he was loaned to Chelsea and played three top tier games for them in the 1987-88 season, when John Hollins was their manager. He featured in a 3-3 draw away to Coventry City, a 0-0 home draw v Everton and a 4-4 draw at Oxford United.

“Playing wise it couldn’t have been better,” he told Dave Beckett in an interview. “I used to watch Chelsea always as a youngster, I was only born round the corner, so when circumstances meant I ended up in the first team I was overjoyed.”

He said Chelsea were keen to keep him until the end of the season but manager Barry Lloyd called him back to the Goldstone because he needed the goalkeeping cover.

Having watched the great Peter Bonetti keep goal for Chelsea for many years, Digweed was delighted to receive specialist coaching from the ex-England goalkeeper once a week at Brighton. When he’d been at Fulham, ex-QPR stopper Mike Kelly, who went on to work with England’s goalkeepers, had been his specialist coach.

Indeed he said it was through Kelly’s connections that he got a brief look-in with the England Youth set-up, although it was difficult to dislodge first choice Chris Woods, who went on to become a full England international.

Apart from Moseley, Digweed’s other competition for the number one spot during his time at the Goldstone came from the likes of Joe Corrigan, John Keeley and Mark Beeney.

He played under five different managers and, while other goalkeepers came and went, Digweed remained on the Albion’s books and played in some memorable games – as well as missing out on plenty of others. For instance, he had the green jersey in the famous 1983 FA Cup 5^th round 2-1 victory at Anfield (although Moseley returned for the later rounds) but he was also between the sticks when Albion won 1-0 at Anfield the season before.

“Funnily enough, I’ve never lost against Liverpool in the four first-team and two reserve matches I’ve played against them,” he told Beckett.

Digweed memorably saved a Chris Kiwomya penalty as Brighton beat Ipswich to reach the play-offs in 1991 but one of his personal highlights was a mid-season game Albion played against the Nigeria national side in Lagos during Mike Bailey‘s reign.

“It was unbelievable,” he said. “The people were poverty-stricken yet all the money they had went on these huge football stadiums. There were trumpets and music going all the way through….it’ll take soomething to beat playing in front of nearly 100,000 fanatical Nigerians.”

Any Albion fans at the Brighton v West Brom game at the Goldstone on 21 September 1988 will wince with the recollection of Digweed being injured in the most intimate of places.

Forward John Paskin lunged in attempting to score and his studs tore Digweed’s urethra. Not surprisingly the ‘keeper was forced off the pitch but I recall he went off under his own steam rather than on a stretcher which, when the extent of the injury was revealed later, seemed remarkable!

Digweed lost four-and-a-half pints of blood through the wound, was in hospital for three weeks initially and required four operations to repair the damage.

“I realise now I was lucky that they weren’t just internal injuries otherwise it would have been even more serious and who knows what could have happened,” Digweed told Beckett in the matchday programme.

“I had a catheter bag and everything for a while and I couldn’t even lay down because it was so uncomfortable. I had to sleep in an armchair for three weeks.”

A subsequent article by Vignes in a later matchday programme revealed how the club tried to get him back playing sooner than the medical people advised.

“The doctors had said not to play for the rest of the season,” he told Vignes. “When I got out (of hospital) Brighton tried to rush me back into training and I said ‘Er, I don’t think so’. Sometimes some things are more important than football.”

In fact it would be 18 months before he played his next first team game, largely because Keeley seized the opportunity to establish himself as a more than useful no.1. Digweed didn’t reappear between the Albion sticks until March 1990, stepping back onto the Goldstone pitch for a midweek match against Plymouth Argyle which the Seagulls won 2-1.

In August 1990, through impeccable sources, I was able to break the story exclusively that Albion were transferring Keeley to Oldham Athletic for £238,000. Barry Lloyd briefly flirted with erratic American Tony Meola in goal before restoring Digweed to the first team.

He ended up playing 52 games over the course of a season extended by involvement in the play-off final against Notts County – his highest season’s tally in all his years with the Albion. And he was voted player of the season.

In an Argus supplement previewing the Wembley final, Digweed was interviewed by Mike Donovan and couldn’t hide his delight that instead of watching from the sidelines, as he did in 1983, he’d be out on the pitch.

“It’s the biggest match of my career,” he declared.

The only other season Digweed came close to what you might refer to as first choice was in Chris Cattlin’s 1985-86 squad when he played in 41 games, including a memorable FA Cup third round 2-0 win away to Newcastle when, according to the definitive Albion history book Seagulls! The Story of Brighton & Hove Albion FC (by Tim Carder and Roger Harris): “Perry Digweed was magnificent between the posts.”

By 1992-93, Beeney had established himself as first choice and after Digweed had stepped in when Beeney served a one-game suspension, manager Lloyd declared: “We believe we have on our books the best two ‘keepers in Division Two.”

Older readers will recall how later that season Beeney pulled off the biggest save in Albion’s history: the proceeds of his sale to Leeds United being used to pay off the Inland Revenue who were threatening to close the club down.

With Beeney transferred, Digweed came back in for the final three games of the season, the 3-2 home win over Chester turning out to be his last game for the club.

When finally released by the Albion in June 1993, he joined Wimbledon initially without getting a game but then had two years at Watford where he featured in 29 league games. Among his teammates there was former Albion defender Keith Dublin.

Since leaving the football scene, Digweed has had interests in property and run executive chauffeur-driven cars for racehorse owner Sheikh Mohammed, and other wealthy Arab families.

He also had an acting role (playing a character called Marsden) alongside Vinnie Jones and the stand-up comic Omid Djalili in the 2001 film Mean Machine – a fact that earns him a mention on the goalkeepersaredifferent.com website!

On the same site, bearing in mind I like a parallel line, I was interested to note the aforementioned Meola had also appeared on the silver screen since giving up playing, with a cameo role as a card player in the 2001 Jason Priestly film Zigs.

Pictures from my scrapbook show Digweed’s look of despair as Notts County score in the 1991 play-off final at Wembley; his portrait in the 1983 FA Cup Final programme, and another portrait from the matchday programme.

Welsh international John Robinson began a 500+ game career with the Albion

2-john-robinson-cover RYAN Giggs’ Welsh international roommate started his career with Brighton and in 2003-04 was Cardiff City’s player of the season.

A promising teenage winger at the Albion, John Robinson enjoyed a career spanning more than 500 games.

It also took him onto the international stage where, despite his relatively humble club background, he rubbed shoulders with some of the biggest stars in the game.

One imagines if his career had coincided with an upward period in Albion’s history rather than a decline, we might have seen rather more of him in the stripes than in the red of Charlton Athletic and Wales.

Sadly, his rise coincided with a financial crisis and the club cashed in on his potential.

robbo pyjs Albion’s loss was definitely Charlton’s gain and he went on to enjoy two promotions with the Addicks and to play in the Premiership.

Robinson was born in Bulawayo, Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) on 29 August 1971 to a Glaswegian father and Rhodesian mother and it was after the family settled in Sussex that the young Robinson’s footballing ability came to the fore. He represented Sussex Schools at the age of 12 and joined Southampton’s School of Excellence at Crawley.

When still 12 he won a trip to Real Madrid for skills he displayed at the Bobby Charlton Soccer School and when he was 14, having been released by Saints, signed schoolboy forms for Portsmouth.

“I travelled regularly to Portsmouth and didn’t miss a training session,” he said. “But with the word out that the club was going to sign eight of us as apprentices, a decision was made – I didn’t know why, and still don’t – to sign only two.

“I felt pretty low then, although I hadn’t been particularly happy at Pompey.” Bobby Nash, who’d originally recommended him to Southampton, suggested Albion take him on after the Portsmouth disappointment and he signed as a YTS trainee in July 1988.

“I had the chance of trials at Arsenal but as soon as Albion offered me an apprenticeship I accepted straight away,” he told the matchday programme. Albion gave him his first professional contract in 1990.

After impressing with the reserves, he made his first-team debut in the final third of the 1989-90 season, starting the last four games after coming on as a substitute in a 3-0 defeat away to Portsmouth.

With former Chelsea wideman Clive Walker on the left wing and the experienced ex-England international Mark Barham on the right, Robinson struggled to get many games for a large part of the 1990-91 season.

Nevertheless, his first goal for the club was certainly memorable, scoring the winner in a 2-1 play-off second leg away win at Millwall (to make the aggregate score 6-2) after coming on as a substitute. Unfortunately for him, the not-fully-fit John Byrne was chosen as one of the substitutes in the final against Notts County so he missed out on a Wembley outing that day – something he would rectify a few years later.

As something of a fire sale of talent began in the following season, so there were more openings for the youngsters at Barry Lloyd’s disposal.

Robinson got on as a sub in the opening two games and over the course of the season racked up a further 39 appearances as the team went into freefall and were relegated.

After eight starts the following season, and with the club’s finances in dire straits, Robinson was sold to Charlton for a reported £85,000, which seemed like a bargain.

In his new surroundings, there were some familiar faces. The co-manager, Alan Curbishley, was a former teammate at the Goldstone and the side contained former defensive stalwart Steve Gatting and striker Garry Nelson.

The south London club were on the rise at the time. The move was ideal for Robinson and he went on to spend the majority of his career with the Addicks, clocking up 332 appearances spanning eleven years.

Although born in Rhodesia, he qualified for Wales only because he was a British passport holder. After 16 appearances for Wales under 21s, Robinson earned his first full cap in 1995 and played 30 times for his adopted country, scoring three goals. In 2000, he’d made such an impact with his adopted country that he was named Wales player of the year.

Robinson reckoned Giggs was the best player he played with throughout his career, and he was his roommate on international trips.

“I had the pleasure to be around Giggs for over nine years: his dedication to the game is unbelievable,” Robinson told soccerbanter.org in 2011.

Robinson called time on his international football career following the death of his father, and, on 13 August 2002, told the BBC: “It was a difficult decision to take, but I had to do what was best for myself.

“I’ve been considering it all summer and I didn’t think it was fair to Wales to step down midway through the European Championship qualifying campaign.

“I’ve had seven great years playing for Wales and it’s been a real honour, but I wouldn’t have been giving them 100 per cent and that’s not the kind of person I am.”

The same article reported how then Wales manager Mark Hughes had tried to talk him out of it. “I fully understand John’s decision, but I did try to persuade him to change his mind.

The report said Robinson had “considerable personal problems” following the death of his father, and wanted to spend more time with his family.

“He has been a fine team-mate, a great servant to Wales and for me now, and a joy to have had him as a player in my squad now I’m manager,” Hughes added.

Robinson was the Addicks’ most capped player and that summer Curbishley had awarded him his 10-year testimonial with a game against Porto.

Eventually released by Charlton at the end of the 2002-03 season, Robinson joined Cardiff City in September 2003.

At the time there was some talk of him returning to the Albion. That got no further than his agent’s inquiry because, according to the Argus, Robinson’s wage demands were too high, and he signed a two-year deal with Cardiff instead.

Robinson was quoted at the time as saying: “We gave them what would be our minimum, which was considerably lower than others around, and it never went further.

“We didn’t actually sit down with Steve (Coppell). I don’t think the timing was quite right for them. I had a really good feeling about Cardiff as well, even though theirs was not the biggest offer on the table.

“They are looking for a new stadium and they are not in the First Division to make the numbers up.

“Everyone knows what I think of Brighton. I’ve signed for two years at Cardiff, so we’ll see what happens. I will only be 33 then and hopefully not past my sell-by date.”

As it turned out, he didn’t stay the full two years at Ninian Park but in October 2004, having played 42 games for Cardiff, moved back to Sussex for family reasons.

He had a short, four-game spell with Gillingham and later played a handful of games for both Crawley and Lewes.

He now coaches youngsters as the soccer operations director for Florida-based Elite Soccer Center, a West Ham United partner academy club.He had run youth football camps in England for 10 years and wanted to start them in the States.

In an interview with soccerbanter.org in 2011, Robinson said: “In 2009 I moved the family as I wanted a change of lifestyle for them and the opportunity to experience living somewhere else in the world.”

Signing for Brighton was his favourite memory from such a long career, even though he won two promotions with Charlton and played in one of the most memorable play-off finals ever, the penalty shoot-out win over Sunderland in 1999.

“People will probably be surprised but for me it is when I signed my first professional contract because all the hard work and sacrifices my parents and I had to make were rewarded; my dream since the age of four had been achieved.”

John Robinson pictured in the 1991 play-off finals programme, with an unfortunate crease where sponsor Nobo’s name is displayed.
Also pictured in the ‘pyjama’ strip on the front of an Albion matchday programme and other matchday programme shots.

Chelsea starlet Barry Bridges a Brighton record signing

5-bridges-in-stripes ENGLAND international Barry Bridges was once Brighton & Hove Albion’s record signing for the princely sum of £28,000.

Much of his career ran in parallel with Bert Murray. Both young stars at Chelsea in the early to mid-60s, they were transferred to Birmingham City in 1966 and joined the Albion in the early 1970s.

Norfolk-born Bridges had come to the attention of Chelsea while playing for local side Norwich & Norfolk Boys and had a dream debut in 1959 at just 17, scoring in a local derby against West Ham. It was in the 1961-62 season that he established himself in the Chelsea first team, Jimmy Greaves having been transferred to AC Milan.

In what turned out to be superb 1964-65 season for him and the club, he scored 27 goals in 42 appearances for Chelsea and collected a League Cup winners’ medal when they beat Leicester City 3-2 over two legs.

It was in May 1966 when Tommy Docherty started breaking up his squad and Bridges left Chelsea for Birmingham having scored 93 goals in 205 league appearances for the London club.

Bridges went one better than Murray and earned full England international honours. Four caps in fact. He was just a few days short of his 24^th birthday when he made his debut in a 2-2 draw with Scotland at Wembley in April 1965.

bb-england-w-sir-a

Bridges pictured with Sir Alf Ramsey, Jack Charlton and Nobby Stiles while on England international duty.

He kept the no.9 shirt in the next two games, played in May, a 1-0 win over Hungary at Wembley and was the scorer of England’s goal in a 1-1 draw away to Yugoslavia. His fourth and final game was in a 3-2 friendly defeat against Austria in October 1965. Injury prevented him staking a claim for a place in the 1966 World Cup squad.

In 1971, Bridges went on an end-of-season tour to Australia with an English FA squad that also included Peter Grummitt (then of Sheffield Wednesday) and Dennis Mortimer (of Coventry at the time). The squad went to Dublin first to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the FA of Ireland, drawing 1-1 with the Republic, before heading Down Under where they won all nine of the matches they played in various locations across a month.

BridgesChels

Birmingham paid a then club record fee of £55,000 to acquire Bridges and in two seasons in the West Midlands he scored 46 goals in 104 outings.

Interviewed by bcfc.com in 2014, Bridges said: “What persuaded me to join Birmingham more than anything was the chairman, Clifford Coombs. He was a great guy and wanted to put the club back on its feet. He told me that I was going to be his first signing and he really wanted me to join.”

In his first season he helped Blues to a League Cup semi-final – ironically against Queens Park Rangers – the club he would move to next.

In August 1968, a £50,000 deal saw him move to Loftus Road, where he was part of a strong forward line playing alongside Frank Clarke and the flamboyant Rodney Marsh with his old Chelsea teammate Terry Venables pulling the strings in midfield.

Unfortunately the campaign ended in relegation from the old First Division but in 1969-70 he linked up well alongside Marsh and Clarke and scored 24 goals in all competitions.

Bridges QPR

QPR decided to cash in on him and sold him to Millwall in 1970 and in 1972 he was part of a Millwall side who only narrowly missed promotion to the top division. The Lions were already celebrating promotion on the pitch at The Den when news came through that in fact promotion rivals Birmingham had beaten Sheffield Wednesday to go up, contrary to a rumour that had been circulating in the ground that they’d been losing.

“The four supporters who had been chairing me on their shoulders dropped me. Everyone was stunned, and we had to troop off the pitch all bitterly disappointed and choked,” said Bridges. “I desperately wanted to play First Division football again and so did the rest of the lads. We were all sick.”

When Pat Saward signed him for Brighton in September 1972, it was evident from the start that this was a player who had played at the highest level.

Unfortunately, although Bridges could easily cope at that level, others either didn’t step up or the new players didn’t gel – arguably Saward made too many changes – but, whatever the reason, Brighton couldn’t stop losing and were left floundering at the foot of the table.

Bridges made his debut in a 1-1 draw away to Aston Villa but it was another four matches before he got his first goal, ironically against his old club Millwall, in a 3-1 defeat at home.

Bridges seldom had the same partner up front, early on playing with Willie Irvine, on other occasions with Ken Beamish and later with Lammie Robertson after Saward brought him in from Halifax in exchange for Irvine.

My abiding impression of him was that he appeared to be too good for the rest of the team. His speed of thought was often way ahead of the rest so he would put passes into areas where he would expect a teammate to be, only to be disappointed that they hadn’t read it, so he was made to look wasteful.

One of the few moments of pleasure for Bridges in what was otherwise a season of doom and gloom was the prospect of a FA Cup third round tie against Chelsea at the Goldstone in January 1973. Bridges was in great demand for pre-match interviews in view of his past association with the London club.

“It’s a tremendous draw for the club and a dream draw for Bert Murray and myself who both started our careers at Chelsea,” Bridges told Goal magazine. “Personally it will be nice to see most of the Chelsea lads again. I grew up with Peter Bonetti, Ron Harris and Ossie (Peter Osgood).”

Bridges hoped a good performance in the Cup would help to reinvigorate the lacklustre league form and said: “It’s a crying shame that we’re struggling because the facilities here are second to none. Obviously we need to start getting results now before it’s too late. A win against Chelsea could be just the boost we need to get out of trouble in the league.”

As it turned out, not only did the game end in defeat (2-0) for the Albion but it drew national headlines for all the wrong reasons – ‘day of shame’ for example – as Harris and Brighton left back George Ley were sent off, five were booked and the mood on the pitch led to fighting on the terraces with 25 people arrested.

However, Albion’s fortunes did eventually improve – although it was without Bridges, who in the final few games of the season was restricted to appearances off the bench.

Back in the third division, Bridges was restored to the starting line-up and scored in the opening game in a 1-1 draw at Rochdale.

He was part of the team Brian Clough and Peter Taylor inherited in October and, after they secured their first win courtesy of Pat Hilton’s goal in a 1-0 win away to Walsall, Bridges told the press: “I did more running about in this game than I had in the previous 10 matches.

“I’m 32 now, but with this chap geeing me up I reckon I can go on playing for several more years. We were a bit on edge before the game and the first thing he told us was to relax. Afterwards he told us he was pleased with the effort we showed and we can work from here and go places.

“Though I was sorry to see Pat Saward go – he was a great coach – I think Brian’s got what it takes to make us a good side. He’s just what the club have been waiting for.”

But three games later, as one of the team humiliated in a 4-0 home FA Cup defeat to Walton & Hersham at the end of November, Bridges was unceremoniously dropped and didn’t play again for the first team until February.

Although he then had a run in the team, scoring six times in a 17-game spell, he was among twelve players Clough and Taylor offloaded at the end of the season.

That brought down the curtain on his league career but he continued playing – initially in South Africa with Johannesburg side Highlands Park and then in Ireland – where when player-manager of St Patrick’s Athletic he also gave game time to another former Brighton striker, Neil Martin. He also managed Sligo Rovers before returning to his native Norfolk to manage non league sides Kings Lynn and Dereham Town.

In 2013, the QPR programme caught up with him to discover he was living in Norwich close to where he was brought up, and still getting along to watch matches.

1-england-bridges 2-chelsea-bridges 4-bridges-in-hoops Barry Bridges (Lions) Barry Bridges (Millwall yellow)

Pictures from my scrapbook show Barry in his England and Chelsea days, in Millwall’s white and change yellow shirts, in QPR’s familiar hoops, and in the Albion stripes.

Cup winner Bert Murray: Brighton’s People’s Player

5-bert-v-villa ON HOLIDAY in Jersey in 2016 my eyes were drawn to a picture on a display in St Helier’s Fort Regent entertainment complex.

“That’s Bert Murray,” I declared to my bemused wife, and, let’s face it, who would have thought Brighton & Hove Albion’s combative former Chelsea and Birmingham City winger would still be on a public display 45 years after the picture was taken?

The display featured sports stars from Jersey who had gone on to make a name for themselves – and, ironically, the picture in which Bert appeared (below) was about Geoff Vowden (born in Barnsley but raised in Jersey), then with Aston Villa, but a player who had been a teammate during Murray’s five years at St Andrew’s.

1-jersey-poster Versatile Murray – mainly a winger but equally adept at right back – wrote himself into the Albion’s history books when he was bought from Birmingham with funds raised by fans.

But let’s go back to the beginning. Born in Hoxton, London, on 22 September 1942 Murray started his football career with Chelsea in 1958 and scored in the first leg of their 1960 FA Youth Cup Final win against Preston as part of a team which spawned many future star players, such as Peter Bonetti, Terry Venables and Bobby Tambling.

Bert made his Chelsea first team debut in 1961 and in 1963 was part of the squad that won promotion from Division 2. His form for Chelsea attracted the England selectors and in the 1964-65 season he played in six of England under 23s’ seven games, scoring on his debut.

That was on 25 November 1964 in a 5-0 romp over Romania at Coventry’s old Highfield Road ground when Alan Ball, Mick Jones, Alan Hinton and Martin Chivers also scored.

Sadly for Bert, that was the only win he experienced as an England player: in the remaining games there were four 0-0 draws and a 1-0 defeat to West Germany. Other big name players who were part of the same team included Nobby Stiles, Norman Hunter and George Armstrong

Murray’s final international was in front of 70,000 fans in Austria on 2 June 1965 when his Chelsea colleague Bonetti had taken over in goal from Gordon West and Ball, who, like Stiles would become part of the following year’s England World Cup winning team, was sent off.

2-1965-lge-cup-winners At least at club level in 1965 Murray won some silverware (above image discovered on The Shed End Chelsea fans website), playing alongside Bonetti, Venables, Eddie McCreadie, Barry Bridges and John Boyle as Tommy Docherty’s Chelsea won the League Cup in April via a narrow 3-2 aggregate win over Leicester.

Murray + Bridges Chelsea Murray and Bridges alongside each other in a 1963-64 Chelsea team picture.

In the same season, Chelsea were top of Division One for nearly the whole season, and were looking good for the domestic treble but lost 2-0 to Liverpool in the FA Cup semi-final.

The young team started to show signs of strain and slipped to third in the league. Murray and Bridges were amongst a group of eight players who defied a curfew when the team were staying in Blackpool prior to a game against Burnley and the manager sent them home. The team Docherty put out capitulated 6-2.

According to ‘Bluebeard’ on theshedend.com the following nearly-but-not-quite season – fifth in the league, beaten FA Cup semi-finalists again and Fairs Cup semi-finalists – led to Docherty breaking up the team and selling Murray, Venables, Bridges and George Graham.

So, in 1966, having scored 44 goals in 183 games, Murray was transferred to Birmingham for £25,000 and Bridges went too, as Birmingham’s new wealthy owner, Clifford Coombs, splashed the cash for manager Stan Cullis.

3-brumbert The pair were part of the side which in successive seasons got to the semi-final of the League Cup (in 1967) and FA Cup (in 1968) only to lose on both occasions. Because these things are important in the Midlands, joysandsorrows.co.uk remembers Murray as part of the 1968 Blues side who beat rivals Villa home and away. In five years, he played 132 games scoring 22 goals.

murray brum

It was the Blues former Brighton manager Freddie Goodwin who loaned him to his old club in early 1971. The loan became a permanent move thanks to £10,000 raised through innovative manager Pat Saward’s famous Buy-a-Player scheme which saw fans respond to the club’s lack of cash to bring in new players by coming up with sponsored walks and suchlike to raise the necessary money to enable Saward to bring in new faces. Thus Murray was swiftly dubbed the People’s Player.

4-bertwillie1971 Saward brought in Willie Irvine on loan from Preston at the same time and the pair combined well on 10 March 1971 (pictured above by the Evening Argus before the game) as high-flying Fulham were beaten 3-2. In Irvine’s 2005 book with Dave Thomas, Together Again, he recalls how the pair hit it off and began a friendship that endures.

Murray was an influential right winger who made and scored goals and he became a reliable penalty taker too, notably keeping a cool head from 12 yards in the 12-game unbeaten run in 1972 which culminated in promotion as runners up behind Aston Villa.

In the famous game televised by BBC’s Match of the Day at home to Villa in April 1972, Saward moved Murray to right back to replace previously ever-present Stewart Henderson. It wasn’t completely alien to him, though, because he’d slotted into that role on occasion at Birmingham.

The photographers were busy during that tightly-fought 2-1 win against Villa and several different shots of Bert’s tussle with Villa’s talented winger Willie Anderson appeared in the newspapers and magazines following the game (see pic at top of article).

While others might have been grabbing the bulk of the goals and the headlines, Murray’s consistent performances earned him the player of the season award (below, receiving the award from chairman Tom Whiting).

murray poy

The newly-promoted side struggled badly and Saward chopped and changed the line-up, bringing in a host of new faces – including Bert’s old Chelsea colleague Bridges – as he tried in vain to find the right formula to keep the Albion up. But Murray was one of the few who kept his place at the higher level, mainly back in midfield. He took over the captaincy from Ian Goodwin and contributed nine goals in 39 appearances.

Although eventually the side clicked in the final third of the season, the damage had been done early on and the recovery wasn’t enough to avoid an immediate return to Division 3.

Murray wrote in the matchday programme: “The last two months have been amazing and although I say it myself I beleive that we have played some really good football recently. I also believe we deserve a better fate.”

He added: “We must hope we have learned our lessons well for next season.” Murray appeared in the front row of the 1973-74 team line-up but his time on the south coast was drawing to a close – along with manager Saward. Murray was involved in only two games as a substitute in October and after a total of 102 games and 25 goals he moved on to Peterborough United, initially on loan and then signing permanently.

It was Noel Cantwell, the man Saward had served as assistant manager at Coventry City, who signed Murray for Posh. “He needed a right midfielder,” Murray said in a 2012 interview with the Argus. “I went up there and had four wonderful years. I still see some of the lads now.”

Saward, with his own days at the Goldstone numbered and, without naming any names, wrote some cryptic programme notes for the 13 October home game against Halifax. “In deciding that a player can leave a club, the manager must consider the player’s contribution to the club and decide whether he fits into his plans for the future,” he wrote.

“When a manager decides it is time for the player and club to part he is not necessarily governed solely by the ability of the player but he has to look at his squad as a whole and assess whether there are younger players with longer futures waiting their chance to come through.

“A governing factor must be that the strongest possible team should be fielded at all times and the manager must decide when other players should take over from established favourites.”

In the programme for the 24 October game with Southport – by which time Saward himself had been sacked – there was a brief paragraph under the headline ‘Bert Murray Leaves’.

At 31, Bert still had plenty of football left in him and he went on to make 123 appearances for Posh, scoring another 10 goals, before retiring and going into the pub trade, in Market Deeping, nine miles north of Peterborough.

Many have been the occasions Albion fans following the team at London Road have taken a detour to pop in to see Bert and chat over old times over a pint.

In 2013, when he had his 70^th birthday, The Society of Independent Brewers did an article about his 20 years running Everards pub The Bull in Market Deeping with his wife Eileen. They had also spent 17 years at two other pubs in the town, The Winning Post and The White Horse.

“Everards have been good and seem happy with what we are doing here. So if they are happy, Eileen and I plan to keep on going for a few more years yet as we really enjoy running the pub,” he said.

In September 2013, Bert returned to Stamford Bridge for a 50^th anniversary reunion with the Chelsea ‘class of ‘63’ – chatting over old times over dinner with Terry Venables, John Hollins, Peter Bonetti, Barry Bridges, Ken Shellito and Bobby Tambling.

Pictures from my scrapbook , the internet and the Albion matchday programme.

Below, the Goal magazine feature ‘The Girl Behind The Man’

Ken Beamish dumped by Clough without a word

SWASHBUCKLING Ken Beamish was a good old fashioned centre forward who crowds appreciated for his never-say-die attitude in pursuit of goals.

He mostly played in the third tier but had three seasons at the next level up (one was Brighton’s disastrous 1972-73 season and he had two with Blackburn).

He twice won promotion from the old Third Division – with Brighton in 1972 and Blackburn in 1975 – and scored 198 goals in 642 league and cup games between 1965 and 1982.

Born in Bebington on 25 August 1947, Beamish started his career with nearby Fourth Division Tranmere Rovers in the 1965-66 season and was top scorer in two of his six seasons with the club, helping them to promotion to the Third Division in 1966-67. KB Tran

He joined Brighton on transfer deadline day on 9 March 1972; manager Pat Saward having set off for the north west from Sussex at 5am to ensure he captured his man before the 5pm deadline that existed at the time.

When Beamish signed for £23,000 (plus the surplus-to-requirements Alan Duffy), Albion had just scored 13 goals in three games so supporters were baffled as to why he was needed.

After two substitute appearances, Beamish made his full debut in the oft-talked about televised game v Aston Villa and then got off the mark in the 3-1 Good Friday win over Torquay United (see picture).

He contributed six goals in 14 games, including last minute winners in two games in the same week, against Rotherham and Rochdale.

In an interview in Goal magazine after promotion was clinched, Saward explained why he had signed him when the team was already riding high and looking a good bet for promotion.

Aiming a bit of a sideswipe at the incumbents Willie Irvine and Kit Napier, Saward said: “We had plenty of skilful players up front but none had the devil in him. We wanted more thrust. Beamish gave us it.”

Reporter David Wright wrote: “He added the final spark to an ever-improving Brighton side that, after promising a great deal for two-thirds of the season, finally showed their true force in the last two months of the season when they enjoyed a marvellous run of 12 games without defeat.”

Saward was delighted with his signing and said: “Ken shows great courage and has an insatiable appetite for scoring goals. He would die in the box for you. He goes in where angels fear to tread. The whole side never know when they’re beaten – something they proved over and over again – and Beamish epitomises this. He battles away from the first whistle to the last.”

There was clearly mutual admiration because Beamish reflected in an Albion matchday programme how Saward had helped him to become a better player. “He really put in the work with me on the training pitch,” he said. “My ball control was never the best but he worked hard with me to make sure it improved. He was a good man.”

In Brighton & Hove Albion Supporters’ Club’s official souvenir handbook, produced to celebrate the promotion, coach Ray Crawford, the former England international striker who was part of Saward’s backroom team, said: “I don’t like to single out players because football is a team game, but I must on this occasion. Ken Beamish added the final bite up front, and those vital goals that he scored helped us into Division II. What a player this boy is – he never gives up!”

Unfortunately for Beamish, the goals were harder to come by in the division above, particularly in a struggling side and with a new strike partner in the shape of experienced Barry Bridges. Beamish’s scoring ratio dropped to one in four during 1972-73 and, back in the third tier the following season, it didn’t get much better.

He kept his place in the side after Brian Clough’s arrival in October 1973 but 12 goals in 45 games didn’t impress a manager used to better things and he found himself part of the former Derby manager’s huge clear-out of players – and he was none too happy at the manner of it.

A contributor to Jonathan Wilson’s biography about Clough, Nobody Ever Says Thank You, Beamish spoke about how most of the players failed to get any rapport going with the manager because he was seldom around. “I played most of the games but we never saw much of Clough,” he said. “We saw him on matchday and Friday.”

Clough didn’t help matters when he missed a game altogether so he could go to America to watch a Muhammad Ali-Joe Frazier fight. That left him open to criticism but Clough was not remotely bothered. Instead he went on the front foot and openly criticised the players for lacking moral courage and declared: “There is a gale blowing through this club and the players concerned are about to feel the draught.”

That one of them was Beamish appeared harsh at the time and the manner of his departure clearly left a nasty taste in the mouth.

Beamish told Simon Levenson in his interview for Match of My Life (Know The Score Books Ltd): “I knew my time was up when I wasn’t included in the end of season tour to Torremolinos. We’re all grown men and there are ways of telling people that you’re not part of their future plans. He could have told me face to face, but instead I discovered I’d been transfer listed when my neighbour told me he’d heard it on the radio.”

A subsequent Albion matchday programme interview revealed his dismay at the circumstances, which understandably made it easy for him to leave.

“I never spoke to anyone at Brighton between the end of the season and signing for Blackburn,” he said. “That was the disappointing thing because I’d enjoyed my time at Brighton and made some good friends there.

“It was a sad ending to a happy period in my life.”

Clough’s loss was Gordon Lee’s gain. Lee, who would go on to manage Everton, paid £26,000 to take Beamish to Blackburn Rovers – the start of an association which continues to this day.

After scoring 19 goals for Blackburn in 86 appearances between 1974 and 1976, including promotion in 1975, he then had two years at Port Vale – where he was the player of the year in 1977-78 – a year at Bury and a second spell at Tranmere. He ended his playing days at Swindon Town, where he originally went to become assistant manager to long-serving John Trollope – father of former Albion assistant manager, Paul.

When Trollope senior left Swindon, Beamish ended up taking over as boss for 15 months (as pictured below), from March 1983 to June 1984, but 1983-84 proved to be a nightmare season in Swindon’s history with them finishing 17^th in the old Fourth Division, the lowest finishing position in their history. Beam Swin mgr

Beamish subsequently became commercial manager at Blackburn from 1986 until his retirement in 2012. He then became vice chairman of the Blackburn Rovers Former Players Association.

Pictures from my scrapbook show a great action shot of Beamish scoring against Torquay, as featured in a Brighton & Hove Gazette end of season publication, a portrait of him in Goal magazine. Dig the hairstyle, pear drop collar shirt and tank top in this Goal picture of him with his son. The Argus captured Ken’s elation as he celebrated Willie Irvine’s goal against Aston Villa. And the man himself signed the photo of him being interviewed. Below, interviewed in 1992 by Sky Sports.

Terry Connor had an eye for goal for Leeds and Brighton

Connor action 1 TERRY CONNOR is a familiar face to today’s football fans as a loyal assistant manager to Mick McCarthy.

But Leeds United and Brighton fans of a certain vintage remember him as a pacy striker with an eye for goal.

His time with the Albion saw him at his most prolific with a record of almost a goal every three games (51 in 156 appearances) – form which earned him a solitary England under 21 cap as an over-age player.

Relegation-bound Brighton took the Leeds-born forward south in exchange for Andy Ritchie shortly after they had made it through to the semi-final of the 1983 FA Cup, but the new signing could take no part because he’d already played in the competition for Leeds.

If Brian Clough had allowed Peter Ward to have remained on loan to the Seagulls that spring, who knows whether Connor would have joined, but, when the former golden boy sought an extension of his loan from Nottingham Forest, which would have enabled him to continue to be part of the progress to Wembley, according to Ward in He Shot, He Scored, the eccentric Forest boss told him: ‘Son, I’ve never been to a Cup Final and neither will you’.

So the Connor-Ritchie swap went ahead and, with the rest of the team’s focus on the glory of the cup, the new arrival scored just the once in five appearances, plus two as sub, as the Seagulls forfeited the elite status they’d held for four seasons.

lpool goal Connor would have his moment of cup glory (celebration above) in the following season, though, as the TV watching nation saw him and Gerry Ryan score in a 2-0 win over Liverpool at the Goldstone; the second successive season Albion had dumped the mighty Reds out of the FA Cup.

*Connor was best man when teammate Hans Kraay got married. Frank Worthington (right) was there too.*

Born in Leeds on 9 November 1962, Connor went to Foxwood School on the Seacroft estate in Leeds. He burst onto the football scene at just 17, scoring the only goal of the game after going on as a sub for Paul Madeley to make his hometown club debut in November 1979 against West Brom.

“I got such an early break at Leeds because the club were rebuilding their side after those days when they were riding high,” Connor told Shoot! magazine. “Eddie Gray was still in the team when I came in. He was the model professional. It was terrific to have someone with his experience alongside you.”

Connor went on to make a total of 108 appearances for Leeds over four seasons, scoring 22 goals, before the by-then manager Gray did the swap deal with Ritchie.

In February 2016, voice-online.co.uk carried an interview in which Connor recalled racial abuse he received as a player.

“It was difficult for black players to thrive. I can remember going to many away games and there were bananas thrown on the pitch and `monkey’ chants from the stands,” he said.

“I remember receiving mail from Leeds fans telling me not to wear the white shirt, even though I was born and bred in Leeds. I had bullets sent to me and the police were called on a couple of occasions.”

Even so, the move to Brighton still came as a bit of a shock to him.

“‘I’d never imagined myself playing for anyone else but Leeds,” he told Shoot! at the time. “I was born and bred in the city. My parents and friends live there, and really Elland Road was a second home to me.”

Unfortunately for Connor, manager Jimmy Melia gave him the impression he was going to be forming a double spearhead with Michael Robinson. But after relegation, Robinson and several others from the halcyon days were sold, in Robinson’s case to Liverpool.

TC phoenix The man who bought him didn’t last long either; Melia making way for Chris Cattlin in the autumn of 1983. It didn’t stop Connor making his mark in the second tier and despite having several different striking partners of varying quality, his goalscoring record was good at a time when the side itself was struggling to return to the top with the Cup Final squad being dismantled and under investment in replacements.

In his first full season, he missed only two first team games all season and was top scorer with 17 goals as Albion finished ninth in the league. His main strike partner Alan Young scored 12.

Connor got only one fewer in the 1984-85 season when the side finished sixth; the veteran Frank Worthington chipping in with eight goals in his only season with the Seagulls.

In 1985-86 Connor had two different strike partners in Justin Fashanu and the misfiring Mick Ferguson but still managed another 16 goals, including four braces.

The disastrous relegation season of 1986-87 contained a personal high for Connor when, in November 1986, he was selected as an over-age player (at 24) for England under 21s and scored in a 1-1 draw with Yugoslavia.

He had formed a useful partnership with Dean Saunders but, as money issues loomed, Saunders was sold to Oxford and soon, after being voted player of the season, Connor also left as the Albion were relegated; Barry Lloyd being unable to halt the slide back to the third tier.

Reflecting on his time at Brighton in a matchday programme interview, Connor said: “I really enjoyed my football, playing on the south coast. We also loved the lifestyle and my eldest daughter was born there, I loved playing in the atmosphere created at the Goldstone. There was a bond with the players and their partners, with Jimmy Melia and Mike Bamber, and it was like one big happy family.”

As Lloyd was forced to sell players, Connor returned to the top flight via a £200,000 move along the coast to newly-promoted Portsmouth. A terrible run of injuries plagued his Pompey career meaning he only managed 58 appearances and scored 14 goals over the course of three seasons.

A £150,000 transfer fee saw him join then Third Division Swansea City for the 1990-91 season and although he managed 39 appearances, he scored only six times.

Next stop was Bristol City in September 1991 for £190,000 but he scored only once in 16 games for the Robins. By the summer of 1993 he dropped out of the league to play for Conference side Yeovil Town and when he retired from playing he became a coach at Swindon Town.

John Ward took Connor as a coach to three clubs he managed, Bristol Rovers and City and then Wolverhampton Wanderers, where, across the reigns of several managers, he remained for the next 13 years. He worked at youth, reserve and first team level before becoming McCarthy’s assistant in 2008. He briefly took the reigns himself after McCarthy was sacked in early 2012 but, unable to halt the team’s relegation from the Premiership, reverted to assistant under the newly-appointed Ståle Solbakken for just four games of the new season before leaving Molineux.

Within three months, he resumed his role as McCarthy’s assistant when the pair were appointed at Portman Road. When McCarthy took over as the Republic of Ireland boss in November 2018, Connor once again was his assistant and in 2020 the pair found themselves at the top Cypriot side APOEL. In early 2021, McCarthy and Connor were back in tandem at Championship side Cardiff City.

*In the 2018-19 season, Connor had the chance to work with the England under 21s when the FA decided to provide placements for BAME coaches*

Kurt Nogan’s phenomenal goalscoring record for Brighton

Screen Shot 2023-03-06 at 08.26.32 KURT NOGAN is right up there as one of my favourite all time Brighton & Hove Albion players. The ‘No, no; No, no, no, no; No, no, no Nogan’ fans’ chant still rings around my head when I think about his goalscoring exploits in the stripes.

One of my favourite Albion memories involved Kurt scoring at Filbert Street when he rounded off one of Albion’s best ever performances to give Division 2 Albion a 2-0 League Cup victory over Premiership Leicester.

It was the autumn of 1994 and I had travelled halfway across the country to Cheltenham to meet up with my then exiled Albion-supporting friend Colin Snowball to travel up to Leicester together to watch the game.

Before the match, we parked in a side street near the university and found a tiny back-street boozer where they served a magnificent pint of Everard’s Tiger, the local ale.

In those days, League Cup games were played over two legs and Albion, with Liam Brady as manager, went into the away game leading 1-0, courtesy of another Nogan goal, which had given us optimism rather than confidence that Albion could progress.

Leicester got their Nogans in a twist in the match programme, mistakenly identifying the first leg scorer as Kurt’s older brother Lee who played for Watford at the time: they knew which one it was by the end of the game!

With one of the best away displays I have seen, Brighton took the game to their supposedly more illustrious opponents and caused a major shock when a stunning long range strike from young defender Stuart Munday (celebrating above with Nogan) sailed past Kevin Poole in Leicester’s goal.

There was a curious cameo towards the end of the game when Jimmy Case, who was hard of hearing, trotted over to take a corner and seemed to be wasting time. The ref also thought so and promptly sent him off but Case later claimed he had been waiting for the whistle but hadn’t heard it above the din of the crowd!

With Leicester pushing up for a goal to get themselves back in it, Nogan was left unmarked to seal the win and stun the majority of the crowd into silence.

None of the faithful knew at the time, of course, but it was the last goal Nogan would score for the club.

He subsequently went on a 20-game barren run and, at the end of February 1995, with Albion desperately needing funds, they persuaded Burnley to part with £250,000 for his services.

He might have finished on a downer, but Nogan’s Albion record was 60 goals in 120 games, making him one of the club’s great all-time goalscorers.

Born in Cardiff on 9 September 1970, Nogan arrived at the Goldstone having been released at the end of the 1991-92 season by David Pleat during his second spell as manager of Luton Town. At Luton, Nogan celebrated his top flight debut in 1990 with a goal in a 2-2 draw against Liverpool at Anfield.

The young Welshman was quickly called up for his country’s under-21s for whom he also scored on his debut. However, competing for a place alongside the likes of established forwards Mick Harford and Brian Stein, he struggled to gain a starting berth in the Luton first team, mainly being used as a substitute.

He had just turned 22 when he signed for the Seagulls, and he told the matchday programme in 2020: “I’d been at Luton since I was 16 – cleaned Steve Foster‘s boots as an apprentice, so I did.”

On reflection, he realised it was a crossroads moment in his life. “You can either drop out of the professional game altogether, or something comes along and you get lucky. For me, Brighton came along and I got lucky.”

If Albion had been able to retain the services of the on-loan strike pair Steve Cotterill and Paul Moulden, who started the 1992-93 season up front, Nogan’s chances of making the breakthrough might have been limited.

But finances dictated otherwise and Nogan eventually made his debut in October 1992, taking over up from another free transfer signing, Matthew Edwards, although much of the season he played alongside Edwards, who moved out to the wing, and Andy Kennedy.

nogan salute After a slow start Nogan scored his first goal in one of those lower league meaningless cup matches and then started finding the net regularly in the league, ending the season with 22 goals in all competitions.

For part of the 1993-94 season he enjoyed a particularly fruitful partnership with a young Paul Dickov, the diminuitive Scottish striker on loan from Arsenal for eight matches.

Nogan ended the campaign with 26 goals to his name, and was voted player of the season, even though the team finished in a disappointing 14^th place.

Nogan continued to have a variety of strike partners – often it was Junior McDougald but twice in late 1994 he was alongside the legendary Frank Stapleton who was doing his old Arsenal teammate Brady a favour by turning out for the Seagulls.

nogan ball In fact, one of Stapleton’s two games in a Brighton shirt was away to Cardiff on 5 November 1994. In the Bluebirds line-up that day were future Seagulls Charlie Oatway and Phil Stant, the latter scoring twice in a 3-0 win.

Nogan’s career was detailed brilliantly in a profile by Tony Scholes on clarets-mad.co.uk and he noted that Burnley boss Jimmy Mullen’s gamble on Nogan wasn’t enough to prevent them being relegated. The Welshman scored just three times and got involved in an altercation with the manager after being substituted at Bristol City.

However his goal touch returned in the 1995-96 season when he racked up 26 goals, 20 of them in the league, and got on well with Mullen’s successor Adrian Heath – until halfway through the following season when he was suddenly out of favour.

A move was inevitable after Nogan aired his differences with the manager on local radio. “All of a sudden the crowd hero had become public enemy number one,” said Scholes.

That he moved to near neighbours Preston in February 1997 was somewhat galling and Burnley fans of a certain age recall the inevitability of him scoring against them for his new club.

Three years later he moved to home town club Cardiff but, after only four full games and a few substitute appearances, a ruptured hamstring ended his league career prematurely at the age of 32. He did subsequently turn out for some Welsh League clubs but he wasn’t able to return to the previous level.

It’s Kurt – not Lee!!

Nogan in 2010

Matchday programme pictures include various shots of Nogan in action and, from the Leicester programme for that cup tie, he is wrongly captioned with his brother’s name.

Barry Lloyd’s turbulent time as Brighton boss

Screen Shot 2021-05-05 at 09.51.14

HISTORY may have judged Barry Lloyd’s reign as Brighton manager unfairly: while bleak times cloud the memory, the former Fulham captain did chalk up some successes.

For instance, it’s worth remembering he put together two of the most entertaining strike partnerships in Albion’s history.

However, when managers start getting involved in the boardroom, it’s probably not going to end well and that certainly proved to be the case after Lloyd was handed the role of managing director.

Frankly, there is probably not enough space in one blog post to cover the various off-the-field shenanigans that were an ugly backdrop to the Lloyd era.

From an outsider’s perspective, it appeared he was the unfortunate public figure put up to deal with a huge amount of flak generated by others wielding power in the background.

Inheriting the hotseat at a time of financial turmoil, from a distance it could be said he did well to win promotion as well as coming mighty close to restoring the elite status lost in 1983.

But fans who had seen huge success under high profile bosses were not best pleased to see their club’s fortunes put in the hands of someone who had previously only managed outside of the league.

Let’s look first at Lloyd’s playing career because, from early on, he was obviously a shrewd observer who made contacts he would be able to call on in later years.

Born in Hillingdon on 19 February 1949, Barry’s early footballing ability was rewarded with selection for the Middlesex and South of England schoolboy sides. He was signed up by Chelsea and was in their 1964-65 youth team alongside former Albion right-back Stewart Henderson in defence and future England international and Chelsea legend Peter Osgood up front.

In an extended interview with Fulham’s club historian, Dennis Turner, Lloyd recalled: “I chose Chelsea because under Tommy Docherty’s management they were an exciting team, with the likes of Osgood, Charlie Cooke and Bobby Tambling.”

Former Albion player Dave Sexton was the reserve-team manager – “a really nice man and terrific coach” – and Lloyd says in his four years at Stamford Bridge he learned a lot.

He made his debut in the top flight in April 1967 aged just 18, but competition for places was tough and, after only 10 first team appearances, in January 1969 he moved to neighbours Fulham with their centre half John Dempsey moving in the opposite direction.

lloyd-fulham-goal

Fulham were struggling for survival in the old Second Division having been relegated from the top flight and the man who signed him, Bill Dodgin, was their fourth manager in a year.

They dropped down into the old Third Division but as part of his rebuilding, Dodgin made Lloyd captain in succession to the legendary Johnny Haynes, who was coming to the end of his career.

Lloyd is pictured below getting in a header against the Albion at the Goldstone, watched by John Napier (left) and Stewart Henderson. The packed East Terrace never looked like that by the time Lloyd was sitting in the Albion manager’s chair.

Lloyd at Goldstone

Fulham regained their tier two status in 1971 when they went up from Division III as champions. Manager Dodgin was sent packing in the summer of 1972, though, and Alec Stock took over, famously bringing in a number of top name players nearing the end of their careers – notably one Alan Mullery, along with Bobby Moore.

Lloyd remained part of the set-up but when Fulham surprised everyone by reaching the FA Cup Final against West Ham in 1975, he had to be content with what in those days was the single substitute’s berth on the bench, and didn’t get on.

Nonetheless, he chalked up 290 games for Fulham, before having brief spells at Hereford and Brentford (where Dodgin was the manager) and ending his playing days with Houston Hurricanes in the United States.

“I lived in Texas for a year. The league was never going to last but I learnt a lot about how the game can be promoted. They were very good at that over there,” he said in a matchday programme article. “Everyone was made to feel part of the club. It was an interesting experience; I’ve never regretted going.”

During his brief time at Hereford, Lloyd had an eye to the future and took his full coaching badge at Lilleshall, which wasn’t far away.

After his time in America came to an end, he got his first managerial experience with Yeovil Town (then a non-league club) and then headed to Sussex where he took Worthing from the Second Division of the old Isthmian League to runners-up in the Premier Division.

It was in 1986 when he got the call from Mullery to become reserve and youth team manager at the Albion. Dodgin was also on the staff.

lloyd desk

In January 1987, Mullery was unceremoniously dumped and Lloyd came out of the shadows to take charge. Perhaps what fans didn’t know at the time was that the day after Mullery left, Lloyd was summoned to a meeting with chairman Bryan Bedson and told to “get rid of everyone” because the club was going bust.

Against that backdrop, it was 15 games before the side managed to register a win under Lloyd and, unsurprisingly, Albion were relegated. Some of the mainstays of the side, like Danny Wilson, Eric Young and Terry Connor were sold. Fortunately, Lloyd was able to re-invest part of the proceeds from those sales in some buys who gelled together to form a promotion-winning team.

Screen Shot 2021-05-03 at 20.37.12 He returned to former club Chelsea to secure the signing of centre back Doug Rougvie who was made captain and he paired left winger Garry Nelson, a £72,500 signing from Plymouth, with tenacious Scot Kevin Bremner, from Reading, to lead the line. Nelson in particular was a revelation, scoring 32 goals and voted player of the season.

Lloyd reckoned the backbone of the side were two other shrewd signings: Alan Curbishley and Gary Chivers. “Alan was a very level-headed guy, an excellent passer and really disciplined,” he told Spencer Vignes in a matchday programme article. “Chivers was exactly the same, and a real joker at the same time. But there were a lot of great individuals in that side.”

The following two seasons saw Albion maintain their status with lower half finishes but, with the Goldstone Ground crumbling and debts mounting, there was little investment in the team and Lloyd had to use all his contacts to try to find some gems.

One was former England international winger Mark Barham, another was a former Soviet international, Sergei Gotsmanov, a real crowd-pleaser obviously capable of playing at a higher level (as was proved when he opted to join Southampton the following season).

Then, in 1990-91, he rescued two forwards languishing with also-ran clubs in Europe and together John Byrne and Mike Small were superb in attack as Brighton made it to the play-off final at Wembley only to lose 3-1 to Neil Warnock’s Notts County.

No-one had been expecting Brighton to get a tilt at promotion, particularly as the season had once again begun with big money departures of players like Keith Dublin and John Keeley.

But with Byrne and Small on fire and former Fulham and Chelsea winger Clive Walker added to the squad they clawed their way into contention and famously clinched the play-off spot on the last game of the season, courtesy of Dean Wilkins’ curling free kick past Ipswich Town’s Phil Parkes.

Another crucial signing that season was thanks to one of Lloyd’s old Chelsea teammates, George Graham. The Arsenal boss loaned cultured central defender Colin Pates to the Seagulls and he proved a mainstay in the final third of the season. Pates would later sign permanently.

Even though they were clearly beaten by the better side on the day, looking back now, I don’t think anyone could have realised what bad news it was for Albion not to win the final against County.

Starved of the funds promotion would have delivered, Lloyd was forced to sell star performers Small and Byrne and, 11 months after appearing at Wembley, Albion were relegated back to the third tier.

Lloyd had tried to repeat his previous successful European scouting mission with two former league players, but the hapless Mark Farrington turned out to be one of the worst buys ever, managing to score one solitary goal while former Arsenal youngster Raphael Meade fared slightly better but only just got into double figures.

Mark Gall, a £45,000 signing from Maidstone, arrived towards the end of October and ended up top goalscorer and was player of the season, but his 14 goals were still not enough to spare the team from the drop.

In the following season, the very survival of the club was under serious threat with the taxman chasing an unpaid bill. Lloyd rescued the club at the 11^th hour by managing to secure a £350,000 fee for goalkeeper Mark Beeney (bought two years earlier from Maidstone for £25,000), former Albion winger Howard Wilkinson buying him for League Champions Leeds United.

With the financial issues continuing in the background, a run of only two wins in 18 league games in the first half of the 1993-94 season eventually brought the Lloyd era to an end – the axe wielded by chief executive David Bellotti, who had arrived only a month earlier.

Fans who were euphoric to see Lloyd go might well have felt differently if they’d known what would eventually transpire, but that’s a story for another day.

The record books show Lloyd made a total profit of £1.2m in his seven years at the helm and he certainly knew his way around the transfer market, particularly in Europe, when it was a lot less fashionable than it is today.

Another of his discoveries was Dean Wilkins, playing for FC Zwolle in Holland, and in 2007 – 14 years after he had left the Albion – Lloyd returned as chief scout during Wilkins’ reign as first team manager.

Also part of the set-up then was director of football Martin Hinshelwood, who had been Lloyd’s assistant during his time in the dugout. Lloyd later returned to the club to assist in the recruitment department but retired in 2021.

He died aged 75 on 28 September 2024 and players in the Chelsea v Brighton game that afternoon wore black armbands in tribute to him.

Villa’s European Cup winning captain at the Albion

2-mortimer-in-flight A CULTURED midfielder regarded in many circles as the best ever captain of Aston Villa was almost ever-present in one season with Brighton.

Dennis Mortimer captained Villa when they won the European Cup in 1982 under manager Tony Barton.

Mortimer joined the Seagulls three years later and shone in what was a rather disappointing Division 2 season which saw the Albion finish 11^th.

Brighton’s near-promotion form in the season before had prompted Mortimer to try to help the Seagulls to restore their elite status after he’d been released by Villa.

In a programme feature by Tony Norman in November 1985, he said: “I knew this was a good side to come into; a team that wanted to play good football and win promotion.

“They missed it so narrowly last year and I felt I would like to be part of that challenge this year. I knew there would be excitement in the season ahead, and to me that is one of the most important things in football.

“Obviously I’m coming to the end of a long career in the game. I’ve been a professional for 17 years now and I wanted one final challenge. That’s why I came to Brighton.”

In his programme notes for the opening game of the season (against Grimsby Town), manager Chris Cattlin said of his former Coventry teammate: “He is a truly outstanding professional who will give the team steadiness and experience.”

Fans had a taste of what he would bring to the team when he scored a cracker in a pre-season game against Arsenal.

Unfortunately, while Mortimer was a consistent performer in midfield and the team enjoyed a decent run in the FA Cup – losing in the quarter finals to Southampton – Cattlin’s side were beset by injuries to key players and ultimately fell short of the top spots.

Morty BHA morty writes Knowing his time on the south coast was going to be limited, Mortimer didn’t uproot his family from their Lichfield home and instead lived in the Courtlands Hotel in Hove (above) for a while and also bought a flat where his wife and children could visit during school holidays.

Despite being born in Liverpool, the bulk of Mortimer’s career was connected with West Midlands teams, beginning with Coventry City under the tutelage of Pat Saward, who later managed the Albion, and ending with West Brom where he had a spell as assistant manager after his playing days were over.

He had not been a schoolboy star but was picked up and developed through Coventry’s youth development system. As well as coach Saward, Coventry’s youngsters also benefitted from the experience of Bob Dennison, the man who, at Middlesbrough, brought together as players one of the most famous footballing partnerships in Brian Clough and Peter Taylor.

“As a lad I thought I would be an engineer and, although the whole family were Liverpool mad, and we never missed a home game, it did not enter my head that I might be a professional until I was 14,” Mortimer said in a Goal interview in 1973. Coventry offered him a trial just as he was leaving school and his career built from there.

His initial Coventry boss Noel Cantwell, the former Man Utd and West Ham full back, was sure Dennis was destined for greater things after his first England under-23 call-up. “Dennis will become a big name in football, “ he said. “When he gets in Sir Alf’s side I don’t think he will lose his place easily.”

Although he never won a full cap, in 1971 he went on an end-of-season tour to Australia in an English FA squad that also included Peter Grummitt (then of Sheffield Wednesday) and Barry Bridges (of Millwall at the time). The group played the Republic of Ireland in Dublin, drawing 1-1, before heading Down Under where they won all nine of the matches they played in various locations across a month.

Coventry general manager, Joe Mercer, who was a legendary figure in the game and had a spell as caretaker manager of England, said of Dennis: “He has this great change of pace…he can go into another gear and accelerate out of trouble like all the good ones.”

However, it was after his move to Villa in 1975 that he rose to prominence, culminating in that famous 1-0 win over Bayern Munich in Rotterdam, courtesy of a Peter Withe goal.

As part of a 30^th anniversary celebration of the achievement, Mortimer told the Birmingham Mail in 2012: “It was such a momentous occasion for Aston Villa Football Club and for all of us as young men that you never forget it – and I doubt the fans who witnessed it would ever forget it either.

“You only have to see how big the competition is now and how much hype it gets to realise what an amazing achievement it was for us.

“Every year when the final of the European Cup, or Champions League as it is called now, comes around, I get a glimpse of that fantastic trophy and it all comes flooding back.

“I’ll never get bored of talking about it, but I don’t get reminded about it that much any more. It’s usually me telling the younger kids that Aston Villa won the European Cup.

“Some of them don’t believe me, because it was so long ago, and before a lot of them were born, but they go away and Google it and think ‘Wow, yes, they did win it!’”

DM Villa

In 10 years at Villa, Mortimer made 403 appearances and scored 36 goals. A 1977 League Cup winner, he led Villa to the English Division One title on May 2, 1981, and then lifted the European Cup on May 26, 1982.

The Birmingham Post said in 2010: “The Liverpudlian was at the forefront of the club’s finest era of modern times; a driving force from midfield that helped bring a level of success to Villa Park that his successors can only dream of.”

Although capped by England under-23 and England B, a full cap eluded him. That seems extraordinary now, especially after scoring twice in a 3-1 win for the under-23s against the Netherlands at Highbury, when Goal magazine reported he was being “hailed as the new Bobby Charlton”.

Mortimer was subsequently picked for the senior squad but didn’t get a game. “I got as far as the bench in the home internationals when Villa won the league, but never got on,” he said in a 2010 interview. “I always felt I should have done but there were so many good midfield players around at that time.

“I just needed to get on that pitch for five minutes in that home international, but Ron Greenwood wouldn’t put me on.”

After Cattlin allowed Jimmy Case to leave Brighton (telling the board his legs had gone, even though he then had six seasons at Southampton!), the team was crying out for a seasoned cool head in midfield who could put their foot on the ball and spread the ball about.

Cattlin eventually turned to his former Coventry teammate to bring that quality to a squad that was not quite reaching the heights required to restore the elite status lost in 1983.

Sadly, Mortimer spent just the one season at The Goldstone, but his 49 league and cup appearances were the highest number in that season’s squad.

Cattlin had offered him a two-year contract with the chance to start coaching but, following the manager’s sacking close to the end of the season, and his replacement Alan Mullery not fancying the experienced midfielder, he left the club.

“Player-coach would have been great as I had plenty left in the tank,” Mortimer told journalist Spencer Vignes: “He swapped a player with plenty of experience for one with no experience (Dale Jasper) and I was let go. Four months later (it was actually eight), Alan was let go as well.”

Mortimer returned to the Midlands – making the somewhat controversial decision to join Villa’s arch rivals Birmingham.

Funnily enough at the very same time he was heading back to the Midlands, the captain who lifted the European Cup that month also went on to play for the Albion. Romanian international Stefan Iovan was the Steaua Bucharest captain when they beat Barcelona on penalties in Seville; five years later, he was stepping out at Wembley as part of the Seagulls’ line-up in the Division 2 play-off final with Notts County.

But finally back to Mortimer. Now a sports speaker, pundit and coach, he’s not afraid to speak his mind and has been known to upset a few people with his outspoken comments about Villa’s plight in recent years.

Pictures from my scrapbook show Dennis Mortimer in action for Coventry against Liverpool, from Goal magazine, and an Albion matchday programme shot of him in full flight for the Seagulls. Also pictured is Mortimer when reserve team coach at West Brom during Ossie Ardiles’ reign as manager. When Ardiles moved to Spurs, Mortimer became new boss Keith Burkinshaw’s assistant. Full grey head of hair picture from 2010.

A tale of passion for England v Scotland at Wembley

scotflagtickets

Thistle come as no surprise to those who know me but a fierce football rivalry between England and Scotland was imbued in me by my late father.

A normally easygoing happy-go-lucky chap, when it came to football matches between the two countries he was gripped by a curious passion which wanted the Scots buried whenever the sides met.

It was not surprising, then, that on Saturday May 24 1975, my dad could not contain his delight as he at 51 and the teenage me were in our seats at Wembley watching England annihilate Scotland 5-1.

Except my dad was not in his seat. He was standing on his; arms aloft, chanting “Easy, easy, easy.”

The stadium was almost full to bursting with a 98,000 crowd and all around us – for amazingly Scotland fans seemed to permeate all sections of the ground – there were tartan-clad, tam o’ shanter-wearing Scots, frothing with rage.

Discretion being the better part of valour saw my backside firmly glued to my £5 South Stand seat. Not so my dad. That was until a particularly large gentleman in the row in front rose to what seemed a Hagrid-like height, turned to face my father on his now-elevated perch, and gave him the sort of look which clearly suggested something that might hurt would follow.

Never a man of violence, my dad swiftly weighed up the situation and took the wise decision to resume his seat, and restrain his celebration.

Nonetheless, of course, the deed on the pitch had been done and it was a very contented father and son who made their way back to Sussex that evening.

The Home International tournament at the end of each football season was as much part of the football-watching fabric as the FA Cup Final in those days, England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland playing each other home or away in alternate years.

In an earlier blog post, Striking in claret and blue, I spoke about the occasion in May 1972 when I went to see Brighton & Hove Albion’s very own Willie Irvine playing for Northern Ireland against England at Wembley. A decade later I had the good fortune to see two Albion players in opposition in the same fixture when Steve Foster played one of his three games for England and left back Sammy Nelson was playing for Northern Ireland.

But back to 1975, and that trouncing of Scotland. The experience had started well for me because my footballing hero of that era, Alan Ball, had led out the England team; manager Don Revie having given him the honour of captaining the side.

However, it was to be QPR’s Gerry Francis who made the headlines that day, scoring twice as Scotland’s calamitous goalkeeper Stewart Kennedy abandoned the art of keeping the ball out of the net. Defender Kevin Beattie, mercurial midfielder Colin Bell and centre forward David Johnson also got on the scoresheet and Scotland could only reply once through a Bruce Rioch penalty.

Make no mistake, this was some result because we’re not talking about a Scotland side of modern day standards: their team, managed by Willie Ormond, included giants of the era like captain Sandy Jardine, Danny McGrain, Gordon McQueen and Kenny Dalglish.

If the atmosphere generated by the Tartan Army was designed to put the frighteners on the English, the only person it seemed to be rattling was goalkeeper Kennedy, who put in what can only be described as a butterfingers performance.

It was all to the great amusement of my dad! This wasn’t the first time I’d seen him euphoric at the outcome of this fixture, although the margin of victory was a lot narrower on the previous occasion when, two years earlier, on 19 May 1973 to be precise, a single England goal did for the Scots with Martin Peters taking the honours on that occasion.

I had been to Wembley before but I had never experienced an atmosphere quite like the one generated by the Scots.

What was supposed to be an England home game felt like anything but, with Scotland fans dotted around the whole stadium. Somehow or another they managed to purloin tickets, even if they were at inflated tout prices, to ensure vast swathes of the stadium were occupied by boisterous, vociferous Scots.

Not that all members of the Tartan Army actually got to see the action. I recall the wide-eyed me looking round and seeing men draped in the famous blue and white Saltire, clearly off their faces, slumped forwards in their seats fast asleep.

Empty bottles of whisky littered the concrete floors of the stadium and, wherever you looked, the Royal Banner of Scotland (yellow and red flag) and the Saltire were being waved in unison with multiple renditions of Flower of Scotland.

One such polythene version of the Royal Banner floated on the breeze and landed on my head. It seemed to me to be the ideal souvenir of a memorable day out and I’m delighted to say on my recent loft clearance I found said flag together with the matchday tickets from both the 1973 and 1975 fixtures.

I wonder how many dads in their fifties together with their teenage sons will return from Wembley on 11 November 2016 with memories that will last a lifetime.

In parallel lines

Nick Turrell's Brighton & Hove Albion blog

Category: Uncategorized