WHEN RADOSTIN Kishishev signed for the Albion in the summer of 2010, they acquired the services of an experienced international footballer to help in their push for promotion from the third tier.
That ‘Kish’ was 35 at the time might have been a concern but the nous he brought to the side more than compensated for the inevitability that his best years were behind him.
As manager Gus Poyet told the Argus: “He is an excellent professional and has kept himself in superb shape throughout his career.
“His quality is obvious, there is no doubt about that, but we had to be sure about his fitness. But he has proved that age is no barrier.
“That experience and quality will bring a lot to the team and will also help our younger players in their development.”
With 88 caps for Bulgaria to his credit (he was in his country’s Euro ’96 squad for the tournament in England, then played in the 1998 World Cup in France and was involved up to 2009), Kishishev had seen Premier League action with Charlton Athletic, mainly as a right-back, as well as playing for Leicester City and Leeds United, when Poyet was assistant manager to Dennis Wise.
Kishishev expressed his gratitude to Poyet for rescuing his English football career at Brighton. “I thought I was going to retire after moving back to Bulgaria,” he said. “I thought I would stay there and finish my career.
“I am very pleased with the way things have worked out and I really appreciate the chance I have been given to play for Brighton.”
In a matchday programme article, he said: “My desire for football is still so strong. As a footballer you should keep plying for as long as you can because you are a long time retired.”
However, in the autumn of 2010, Kishishev was indicating his stay on the south coast would only be for the one season because of the wear and tear he was feeling.
After being part of the side in season-defining away wins 3-0 at Peterborough and 4-0 at his old club Charlton, he told the Argus: “It is becoming harder and harder every year. My legs are getting tired and painful so it’s difficult to continue playing.”
Nonetheless, Kishishev was heavily involved throughout the season, starting a total of 25 games and coming on as a substitute in 11 others.
He missed a couple of months of action when allowed compassionate leave to return to Bulgaria, but Poyet was glad to welcome him back in March 2011 to bring a steadying influence to the final run-in.
For instance, after coming on as a sub when Albion eventually overcame Carlisle 4-3, Poyet said: “Kish came on and understood the game better than anyone else on the pitch.
“He knew where the danger was, how to pass it, when to make a foul. That is down to experience and quality, so I’m pleased to have him back.”
Kishishev was released in May 2011 and he returned to Bulgaria to play one last season with the club where it all began for him 20 years earlier: Chernomorets Burgas.
He started 16 League games for them, came on as a substitute in three more, and played his final game on 19 May 2012 in a 1-1 home draw with Locomotiv Sofia.
The background to his compassionate leave became public a few months later when in October 2012 his wife died of cervical cancer aged just 38. She had first been diagnosed with the illness while Kishishev was in the UK playing for the Albion.
Born in the Black Sea coastal city of Burgas on 30 July 1974, Kishishev also made 75 appearances for the city’s Neftochimik side and although he subsequently moved to Turkey to play for Bursapor, after only 20 games in six months there he returned to Bulgaria in January 1998 to join Litex Lovech, who he helped to win two league titles (1998 and 1999).
The bulk of his English career was spent in the top flight with Charlton under Alan Curbishley, and on a return visit to The Valley in 2017, Kishishev told the Charlton website: “It was always good when we beat the best teams. Arsenal; we beat them 1-0 on New Year’s Day and I think Graham Stuart scored. Chelsea; we beat them in their first year of Roman Abramovich on Boxing Day.
“I have great memories of games first of all, and then the crowd. The warmness they gave me all the time is one of the first things I remember.
“When I look back, I was one of Curbs’ favourite players. He always picked me and believed in my skills and ability, and I was so glad to have been part of that great team.”
Towards the end of his Charlton days, he joined Leeds United on loan and Leeds fan site ozwhitelufc.net details Kishishev’s career and explains his popularity at Elland Road, where he made 10 appearances as they unsuccessfully battled against relegation from the Championship.
When released by the Addicks in June 2007, he chose to join Leicester City on a two-year contract, with boss Martin Allen telling the BBC: “I watched him play against Belarus recently. I wanted to check he still had energy and enthusiasm – and he played well.
“I’m delighted that he has agreed to come here. He gives us some steel in the centre of midfield.”
Unfortunately, the move came during the reign of Milan Mandaric as chairman and managers came and went with alarming regularity. Allen was replaced by Gary Megson, but he only lasted nine games, and then Ian Holloway took over.
Just four months after signing for the Foxes, and having made only six starts plus five appearances as a sub, Kishishev headed back on loan to Leeds. He told the Leeds website: “I signed a two-year at Leicester and the start wasn’t very good, for the team and myself as well.
“Life changes all the time and I’ve got another spell here and I hope it will be for longer. Once I knew that Gus and Dennis wanted me to come, I agreed 100 per cent.
“I’m happy and I hope I can play some part for Leeds and keep the same standards.”
Just six days after he signed, Poyet quit Leeds to become first team coach at Tottenham and five days after his three-month loan came to an end, Wise moved on to become a director at Newcastle.
Kishishev made only seven appearances in that second spell and it seemed his time in England was over when he chose to move back to Bulgaria and rejoin Litex Lovech.
That was until he was reunited with Poyet once more at Brighton. He was already studying for his UEFA A coaching licence at that time and he has since managed and coached in Bulgaria.
FULL-BACK Kevan Brown made more than 120 appearances for Southampton reserves during three years as a young professional but it took a move east along the coast to Brighton to play league football.
Brown arrived at the Goldstone Ground for a fee of £7,500 shortly after Barry Lloyd had taken over from Alan Mullery early in 1987.
Lloyd preferred the youngster from Andover as right-back to the ageing Les Berry, who’d joined on a free transfer the previous summer.
The club put Brown into digs in Hove (run by Val and Dave Tillson) with another young player who had moved away from home, former Everton youngster Darren Hughes.
In a programme profile feature, Brown said Hughes had been a big help in him settling into his new surroundings. “He has been showing me around the area and we’ve become good friends,” he said. “I’m glad I wasn’t put in a hotel on my own.”
Unfortunately, Brown was only on the winning side twice in the 15 matches he played that season and Albion were relegated from the second tier in rock bottom place.
Brown was a permanent fixture in the no.2 shirt for 46 league and cup matches in the 1987-88 season until the arrival of experienced defender Gary Chivers from Watford.
With promotion in sight, while Lloyd dropped the experienced captain Doug Rougvie in favour of the relatively untried Robert Isaac in the centre of defence, he saw Chivers rather than Brown as the better option at right-back.
Chivers went straight into the side for the promotion run-in and the 2-1 home win against Walsall on 12 March 1988 was the last time Brown appeared that season.
He played in the opening two games of the following season but Chivers on the right and Keith Dublin on the left were Lloyd’s preferred full-back pairing, and Brown found himself on the outside looking in.
Born on 2 January 1966, Brown was an associate schoolboy with Southampton at the age of 13, following in the footsteps of his father Peter, who had played for Saints in the late 1950s.
Brown said in an Albion profile feature that his father and Saints youth development officer Bob Higgins had been the biggest influences on his career, although Higgins later drew opprobrium.
Lawrie McMenemy awarded Brown a professional contract but neither he nor his successor Chris Nicholl elevated the young full-back to the first team, although he did get to play against Manchester United in Trinidad and Tobago while on tour with Southampton.
Having had his fill of reserve team football at Saints, rather than repeat the experience at Brighton, he moved on to Aldershot in the autumn of 1988.
He spent four years there and made quite a few more appearances than the 175 that the record books show: the 1991-92 season records having been expunged after the club went out of business.
Aldershot found themselves in a worse financial situation than the Albion were to suffer later that decade and the club was finally wound up owing £1.2m on 25 March 1992.
Five days earlier, Brown played in a match – alongside future Albion hero Robbie Reinelt – that was the last game Aldershot would play.
Although his next career move saw him drop out of the league, he enjoyed huge success in terms of silverware and recognition.
He joined Geoff Chapple’s Woking in the Football Conference and captained The Cards to three FA Trophy wins – in 1994, 1995 and 1997 – with veteran former Albion winger Clive Walker the side’s talisman.
In addition to leading his team up the steps at Wembley to lift the silverware, Brown’s performances with Woking earned him international recognition with the England semi-professional ‘C’ side.
He made his debut in a 1-0 win over Wales at Huish Park, Yeovil, on 28 February 1995. He made three more appearances that year: away to Netherlands (0-0) on 11 April, home on 19 May (played in St Albans) against the Highland League (3-4), then away to Gibraltar (3-2) on 31 May.
His fifth and final appearance was on 2 April the following year as England beat the Netherlands 3-1 at the Nene Park home of Rushden & Diamonds.
Brown’s loyalty to Woking – he made more than 350 appearances across six years – was rewarded with a testimonial game at home to West Ham United in August 1998.
More than 5,500 turned out at the Kingfield Stadium to see the Hammers edge it 2-1 with goals from Frank Lampard and Steve Lomas. Rio Ferdinand limped off early in the match and Ian Wright played up front for West Ham.
The game took place five months after Brown had moved on from Woking to Yeovil Town.
Chapple’s former assistant, Colin Lippiatt, had taken charge at Huish Park in January that year, having joined three months earlier as a coach under Graham Roberts.
One of his first moves was to sign Brown and teammate Steve Thompson (who ended up staying with The Glovers for ten years). Brown stayed for two years, making a total of 88 appearances, latterly playing under Thompson when he took over as caretaker manager following Lippiatt’s departure.
The arrival of former Chelsea defender David Webb as manager in March 2000 spelled the end of Brown’s time at Yeovil and he returned to Woking to play a further 25 games as they battled against relegation from the Conference in the 2000-2001 season.
Playing part-time had enabled Brown to pursue a teaching career and in April 2007 he was appointed director of sport at independent co-educational St Francis School in Pewsey, Wiltshire.
Brown’s devotion to the club who set him on the road remains undimmed and on his Twitter account @KevanBrown05 he declares himself a Saints season ticket holder.
HINDSIGHT is a wonderful thing but few would disagree that Sami Hyypia’s reign as Albion manager was doomed almost from the start.
Inexperienced boss Hyypia had barely got his feet under the table at the Amex before former Liverpool assistant manager, Sammy Lee, pulled the rug from under his proposed new regime.
Hyypia, not unreasonably, had thought the former no.2 to Rafa Benitez would bring vital experience to his backroom team because the Albion position was only the former Reds central defender’s second managerial job.
Hyypia had only been in post three weeks, so, it would be fair to say, Lee’s decision must have been a hammer blow – especially as his first choice for no.2 said ‘no’ too! Jan Moritze Lichte, who’d been at Bayer Leverkusen when Hyypia made his managerial bow – which lasted only nine months – had already declined to join him in the UK for “personal reasons”.
Thus, Hyypia had to rely on two of previous boss Oscar Garcia’s coaching staff, Nathan Jones and Joaquin Gomez, to assist on the coaching side, although his fellow countryman, Antti Niemi, did accept the offer to become goalkeeping coach.
On the playing side, there had been a large turnover of personnel in the wake of Garcia’s departure – and, it emerged, the players coming in weren’t being signed by Hyypia but were the picks of head of football operations, David Burke.
It was always going to be a tough ask to replace Leonardo Ulloa up front – and journeyman Chris O’Grady certainly didn’t provide an answer.
There was a sense of excitement when Hyypia’s Liverpool links saw the arrival on loan of Joao Teixeira, but the number of players only at the club on a temporary basis should have been something of a wake-up call.
The permanent signing of one-time West Ham forward Sam Baldock looked like a sound investment – he’d hit the net regularly enough at Bristol City in the division below – but he found goals hard to come by at the higher level.
As if to highlight the player upheaval and shaky managerial team foundations, Albion lost the first two games of the season, single goal defeats at home to Sheffield Wednesday and away to Birmingham City.
If a 2-0 win away to Leeds United followed by a 2-1 home win over Bolton suggested a corner had been turned, Albion then went on an 11-game winless run.
If he hadn’t been aware beforehand, Hyypia would have quickly realised the calibre of player Burke provided him with fell way short of what was required if the side were going to repeat the previous two seasons’ achievement of finishing in the play-off positions.
Not only was there a lack of consistency in personnel on the pitch, those who were selected appeared to be confused as to exactly how Hyypia wanted them to play.
Andy Naylor tried to analyse Hyypia’s philosophy early on in the season, reporting: “We have already seen 4-1-2-3, 4-1-2-2-1, 4-4-1-1. Hyypia is combining Southern European technical accomplishment in possession and mobility with a more Northern European tempo and directness.
“The width is provided by advanced full-backs, the chances for a narrower strike force by the players who like to operate, in modern coaching speak, ‘between the lines’, exploiting pockets of space in the area dividing the opposition defence and midfield.”
The theory might well have been sound but the practice was found wanting.
Having won only one game in 18 matches, and after only six months in charge, Hyypia resigned shortly before Christmas.
At his last home game in charge – a 1-0 defeat to Millwall – the Albion faithful demonstrated they’d had enough, calling for him to go and, in the North Stand, unfurling a banner making that message loud and clear.
Hyypia himself admitted the atmosphere had been tough to handle but, in an interview with the Argus, had vowed to turn things round.
It was an unseemly end for someone who as a player had been rated one of the best defenders ever to pull on a Liverpool shirt. But Hyypia was by no means alone in not being able to continue the prowess he’d shown on the playing side into management.
Liverpoolway.co.uk charts the player’s career succinctly; a Gerard Houllier signing in 1999, over the course of a decade he collected winners medals across several competitions: the Champions League, the FA Cup (twice), the UEFA Cup, the UEFA Super Cup (twice), the League Cup (twice) and the Charity Shield.
Born on 7 October 1973 in Porvoo, Finland, Hyypia’s football career blossomed with now dissolved Kuusankosken Kumu before switching to MyPa, where he stayed four years, helping them to win the Finnish Cup in 1992 and 1995. He moved to Holland to play for Willem II for four years where for a time his defensive partner was Jaap Staam, who subsequently played for Manchester United. Liverpool signed Hyypia for £2.6m in 1999, ironically following up a tip from a TV cameraman!
After being capped 27 times by Finland under 21s, he earned his first full cap in 1992 and, with 105 caps for Finland, he is second only to Jari Litmanen as his country’s highest capped player.
After his Liverpool playing days came to an end, Hyypia went to play in the Bundesliga for Bayer Leverkusen and two years later joined the club’s coaching staff.
In a rather unusual arrangement, Hyypia and former under19s coach Sascha Lewandoski jointly replaced Robin Dutt as head coach but Hyypia took sole charge in June 2013. He was sacked in April 2014.
After his brief time in charge of Brighton, it was another eight months before he found another head coach role, this time taking charge of FC Zurich in August 2015. But with the club heading for relegation in May 2016, he was sacked.
The Finn has yet to re-appear in the dugout, although he has pulled on his boots again to play for a Liverpool Legends side. It remains to be seen whether he’ll give coaching or management another go, although he told BT Sport in February 2019: “I will coach and manage again one day but not yet. I get some enquiries quite regularly, but nothing has yet been that interesting I would jump into it.”
He added: “I wouldn’t change any decision to go so quickly into coaching. A lot of people said I made a mistake going into it so early, but I learned a lot.
“You learn a lot more from the bad moments than the good moments. Those years when things were not going my way, I learned so much and I am much better and more ready now.”
Steve Foster challenges Spurs’ Steve Archibald at White Hart Lane
LEGEND is overused far too much in football circles but, in some circumstances, it is justified. That applies to Steve Foster.
He played 800 games in a 21-year career which included nine years with Brighton in two separate spells.
His performances in the top-flight for Brighton led him to play for England at the 1982 World Cup and he lifted the League Cup in 1988 as the captain of Luton Town.
He might have enjoyed a longer spell at Aston Villa if the European Cup-winning manager who signed him hadn’t been unceremoniously dumped by ‘Deadly’ Doug Ellis.
Foster became – and, to older fans, still is – synonymous with Brighton & Hove Albion, and football followers the world over could readily identify the captain with the white headband.
In several interviews over the years, he has explained how the distinctive headpiece was actually a piece of padded white towel designed to protect a forehead split open in collisions with centre forwards Andy Gray and Justin Fashanu.
I wonder if physio Mike Yaxley’s wife Sharon, who made up the dressing before every game, realised at the time the key role she played in helping to make Foster one of the most identifiable characters in football.
Foster’s illustrious career is warmly documented in Spencer Vignes’ excellent 2007 book A Few Good Men (Breedon Books Publishing), featuring an interview with the player himself and those who played with him.
For example, Gerry Ryan told Vignes: “Fozzie was a huge player with a huge personality, a real leader and deceptively quick for a big man.
“When he played against the best, like Ian Rush and Kenny Dalglish, he was the best. People talk about giving 100 per cent, but Fozzie gave 150 per cent in everything he did, and I mean off the field as well.”
Gordon Smith added: “He was a fantastic person, great fun and a terrific centre half.”
Vignes himself observed: “Steve’s willingness to put his neck on the line for the cause earned him hero status among the fans, together with the complete respect of the dressing room.”
Unsurprisingly, Foster pulls no punches in describing the various characters and events surrounding his colourful career, for instance describing Chris Cattlin as “definitely the wrong man. I told him the truth and what I thought of him.” And, of predecessor Jimmy Melia: “When Jimmy took over it was more like a circus than a football club.”
Foster said the two biggest influences on his career were Frank Burrows, the manager of his first club, Portsmouth, who taught him about balance as the key to strength on the pitch, and Brian Horton, the dynamic midfield driving force he succeeded as Albion captain.
“He shouted and screamed for 90 minutes to help us get results, and to keep everyone on their toes,” said Foster. “If he made a mistake, 10 other people would shout and scream at him, and he would take it. When I was captain at Brighton, and my other clubs, that’s how I tried to be.”
Such a recognisable figure as Albion’s centre-half
Fortunately, sufficient archive film footage remains for fans of different generations to see what a dominant force Foster was at the heart of Brighton’s defence, while I retain plenty of now-yellowing cuttings from the numerous columns of newsprint he filled during his pomp.
Born on 24 September 1957 in Portsmouth, Foster went to St Swithin’s Junior School before moving on to St John’s College. A centre-forward in the early days, he played for the Portsmouth Schools under-12s side but it was Southampton who took him on as an associate schoolboy.
He played in the same youth team as Steve Williams and Nick Holmes, who both went on to have long careers.
But Saints boss Lawrie McMenemy let Foster go at 16, urging him to go elsewhere and prove him wrong. After Foster won his first England cap, McMenemy sent him a congratulatory telegram. “That was class, nothing but class,” Foster told Vignes.
Southampton’s loss was Portsmouth’s gain, courtesy of a tip off from local schoolteacher Harry Bourne to Pompey youth team coach Ray Crawford (who’d previously held a similar role under Pat Saward at Brighton). Bourne ran the Portsmouth and Hampshire schools teams.
Crawford describes in his excellent autobiography Curse of the Jungle Boy (PB Publishing 2007) how he called at the family’s house in Gladys Avenue, Portsmouth, but Foster’s mother was at a works disco at the local Allders store. Wasting no time, he immediately went in pursuit and, against a backdrop of deafening music and flashing lights, shouted above the din that they were interested in signing her son.
Foster called the club the following day and he was invited to play in a youth team game for Portsmouth – against Southampton! “I scored twice because I was playing as a centre-forward then, and they ended up offering me an apprenticeship on £5 per week which was my entry into the professional game,” said Foster.
Reg Tyrell, a respected former chief scout from Crawford’s time at Ipswich, watched the young striker in a youth team training game and declared: “That no.9, he’s no centre-forward but he’d make a good number 5.” A few weeks’ later, manager Ron Tindall’s successor, Ian St John (later Saint and Greavsie TV show partner of Jimmy Greaves), gave Foster his debut as a centre half!
Foster played more than 100 games during Pompey’s slide down through the divisions, and, at 21, had developed something of a fiery reputation. But Brighton boss Alan Mullery saw him as “big and brave, strong in the tackle and good in the air” providing “much-needed stability at the back” as the Seagulls began their first adventure into the top-flight of English football in 1979. He was signed for £150,000.
A couple of disciplinary issues in the early days of the new season looked like proving the doubters right to have warned Mullery off signing him, but an injury to first choice centre back Andy Rollings forced the manager to backtrack on a temporary ban he’d handed out. Foster made the most of his reprieve and never looked back.
By the end of a season in which the side grew collectively Foster was named Player of the Year and he earned international recognition, gaining an England under 21 cap as a substitute for Terry Butcher in a 1-0 defeat against East Germany in Jena on 23 April 1980 (Peter Ward was playing up front).
While the 1980-81 season saw Albion struggle and flirt with relegation, Foster’s tussles with some of the top strikers in the game saw his reputation grow, and he even chipped in with a vital goal in the final home game of the season against Leeds.
When Horton and Mullery departed at the end of that season, Foster took over the captaincy under new boss Mike Bailey, and, even though fans didn’t much like the way Bailey set up his side, Foster thrived with the emphasis on defence first.
England boss Ron Greenwood, who lived in Hove, was in the process of shaping his squad for the 1992 World Cup in Spain and, with injuries affecting some of the other centre backs in contention, Foster was given a chance to prove himself.
I can remember travelling to Wembley on 23 February 1982 to watch him make his debut against Northern Ireland, a game England won 4-0 courtesy of goals from Ray Wilkins, Kevin Keegan, Bryan Robson and Glenn Hoddle.
I had been to the stadium 10 years before to watch another Albion player – Willie Irvine – make his international comeback in a 1-0 win for the Irish, but it was something special – and rare – to see a Brighton player line up for England.
To break through to the senior team in a World Cup year was a notable achievement, although, by his own admission, he accepted his good fortune directly correlated to injuries ruling out other players.
Although the record books show Foster earned three caps, in fact he represented the country four times that year.
A month after his debut against Northern Ireland, on 23 March, Foster played for an England XI in Bilbao against Athletic Bilbao. The game finished 1-1 with Keegan scoring for England. It didn’t qualify for a cap because it was a testimonial match for retiring Bilbao player Txetxu Rojo, but Greenwood used the fixture to familiarise the players with what was the venue for England’s opening round matches at the World Cup.
Foster also featured in a 2-0 friendly win over the Netherlands (goals by Tony Woodcock and Graham Rix) on 25 May as Greenwood continued to assess his options.
Foster (circled) in Ron Greenwood’s 1982 World Cup squad
When it was clear neither Alvin Martin nor Dave Watson would be fit for the tournament in Spain, Foster was selected as back-up to first choice centre back pairing Terry Butcher and Phil Thompson. Ahead of the third group match, Greenwood didn’t want to risk a ban for the already-booked Butcher, so Foster played alongside Thompson and England won 1-0 against Kuwait; Trevor Francis getting the England goal.
When England didn’t progress past the second phase, Greenwood’s spell as boss came to an end and he was replaced by Bobby Robson who, for his first game in charge, partnered Russell Osman with Butcher – both having played under him at Ipswich Town.
Foster didn’t play for England again.
Much has been written already about the 1982-83 season and Albion’s path to the FA Cup Final. Foster demonstrated real heroism in the semi-final at Highbury, playing through the pain of a septic elbow, and, memorably, towards the end of the game, launched into an overhead kick to clear a goal-bound shot to safety (pictured above).
History records Foster being suspended for the Cup Final – a well-documented appeal to the High Court against a two-game ban for accumulated bookings couldn’t get the decision reversed – but, as is often the case in football, his misfortune presented a golden opportunity for stand-in Gary Stevens who capped a man-of-the-match performance with the equalising goal. What he did that day persuaded Spurs to sign him.
Foster, of course, eventually got his Wembley chance in the replay but with a rampant Manchester United running out easy 4-0 winners, their fans also rather cruelly derided the Albion skipper with the chant I can still hear ringing around Wembley that evening: “Stevie Foster, Stevie Foster, what a difference you have made!”
In truth the whole defence lacked balance in the replay because manager Melia had elected to fill the right-back berth vacated by injury to Chris Ramsey with the left-footed Steve Gatting. He figured Stevens couldn’t be moved from the centre where he had performed so well on the Saturday, but it was a mistake, especially as Stevens had often played right back previously.
The relegation that went in tandem with Albion’s Wembley loss sparked the beginning of a big clear-out of the best players. First to go was Stevens, closely followed by Michael Robinson.
It wasn’t until the following March that Foster followed them through the exit, although, according to Foster, he might have gone sooner – even though he didn’t want to leave; a point he made clear in an interview with Match Weekly shortly after he signed for Villa for £150,000.
“I never wanted to move,” he said. “I had nearly seven years of my contract to run at Brighton and would have quite happily played out my career there. It’s a great little club.
“But economies dictated otherwise and, although manager Chris Cattlin wanted to keep me, he was under pressure to sell me and help ease the club’s financial problems.
“It was a wrench to leave Brighton because the club has treated me tremendously well and I’ve had some great times there – not least the FA Cup run last season.”
Cattlin had a slightly different take about the transaction in his matchday programme notes. “I feel that Steve Foster has been a fine player during his four-and-a-half years at the Goldstone, but I felt that the time was right and the offer good enough to let him go,” he said.
“I hope the move will benefit both Steve and the club. I hope it rejuvenates his career because he has been unlucky with injuries this season. It gives me breathing space for Eric Young to develop and it will also allow me to strengthen other positions if necessary.”
In a rather oblique reference to the need to get rid of high-earning players, Cattlin added in another matchday programme article: “Certain players have left Brighton in moves which I feel are important for our future. Salaries and bonuses of individual players are confidential and obviously I cannot disclose details, but the moves I have made I am certain are right.”
He added: “I can’t explain all the matters that have been considered but I will once again emphasise that we are building for the future and every move I make in the transfer market is being made with this in mind.”
Foster revealed that Villa boss Tony Barton, a former coach at Foster’s first club, Portsmouth, had tried to sign him twice before, but the clubs hadn’t been able to agree on a fee. Eventually, the transfer saw defender Mark Jones (who’d made seven top-flight appearances for Villa that season) move in the opposite direction, in addition to a £150,000 fee.
Barton wanted Foster to tighten up a leaky defence, to fill the position previously occupied by former European Cup winning centre-half Ken McNaught, who had moved to West Brom.
The relatively inexperienced Brendan Ormsby had been playing alongside McNaught’s former partner, Allan Evans, and the signing of Foster put his nose well and truly out of joint. “It’s obvious that I’m just going to be used as cover for Steve Foster or Allan Evans now and so it’s probably in my best interests to try and find another club,” he told Match Weekly.
As it turned out, it was Barton who was ousted; Ormsby stayed, and new manager Graham Turner decreed it would be Foster who was the odd one out. But I jump ahead too soon.
Foster’s arrival at Villa Park as featured on a matchday programme cover
A picture of Foster being introduced to the Villa faithful appeared on the front cover of the programme for the 17 March home game against Nottingham Forest although he didn’t make his Villa debut until 14 April 1984, away to Leicester City, which ended in a 2-0 defeat.
Foster made seven appearances by the end of the season and he got on the scoresheet in only his third game, netting together with future Albion player Dennis Mortimer, in a 2-1 win over Watford on 21 April.
Villa finished the season in 10th place but it wasn’t good enough for the erratic chairman Ellis. Suddenly Foster found the man who signed him had been sacked, and the side Barton had led to European Cup success was gradually dismantled.
To the astonishment of the Villa faithful, Barton was succeeded by former Shrewsbury Town boss Turner.
Foster played 10 games under the new boss, and scored twice, once in a 4-2 win over Chelsea on 15 September and then again the following Saturday in a 3-3 draw away to Watford.
He’d started the season alongside Evans but Turner then offered a way back to Ormsby. While Foster played a couple of games alongside Ormsby, Turner preferred Evans and Ormsby together, making the new man surplus to requirements.
His last game for Villa was away to Everton on 13 October and the following month he was sold to Luton for £70,000 – less than half the fee Villa had paid for him eight months earlier. Foster simply put it down to his face not fitting with the new man.
It was a completely different story with Luton boss David Pleat and Foster’s time at Kenilworth Road coincided with the club’s most successful period in their history, even though Pleat left to manage Spurs.
Alongside representing his country, Foster said the best moment of his career was captaining the Hatters as they won the League Cup (then sponsored by Littlewoods) at Wembley in 1988 with a 3-2 win over Arsenal, his former Brighton teammate Danny Wilson scoring one of their goals (Brian Stein got the other two).
They reached the final of the same competition the following year too, but on that occasion lost 3-1 to Nottingham Forest. By then Foster was assistant manager to Ray Harford, and it looked like he was on a path to become a boss in his own right.
But that summer, when his old Albion captain, Horton, who had taken over from Mark Lawrenson as the manager of Oxford United, asked him to join him as a player at the Manor Ground, he was unable to resist and a new chapter in his career began.
It meant a drop down a division but Foster accepted the challenge and went on to play more than 100 games for United, many being quite a struggle as the side fought for survival at the foot of the second tier.
In the autumn of 1991, injury sidelined Foster from the U’s team and he believed it could have been the end of his career.
However, when the following summer he was contemplating whether or not to retire, he gave Brighton boss Barry Lloyd a call and asked if he could keep his fitness going by joining in pre-season training with the Seagulls.
Lloyd could see that the former skipper was still able to perform and, although the club was in a downward spiral, Foster seized the opportunity to extend his career and help out his old side.
Another veteran of that side, Clive Walker, told Vignes for A Few Good Men: “Fozzie might not have been so mobile then but his positional sense was absolutely brilliant, as was his ability in the air.”
Foster said: “Funnily enough during that second period I played probably some of my best football. I had to because of the position the club was in. There was no money so you had to pull out all the stops.”
Foster continued to play after Lloyd had departed, and he vented his anger publicly about the off-field shenanigans new boss Liam Brady was having to operate under.
Foster eventually called it a day at the end of the 1995-96 season, saddened at the club’s plight. He was granted a testimonial match against Sheffield Wednesday, played as a pre-season friendly in July 1996. Throughout Foster’s career he had continued to live in Hove and he retains his affection for the Albion to this day.
During his second spell at the club, Foster was the PFA rep and he had to deal with the heartbreak of telling the parents of a young player (Billly Logan) that an ankle injury was going to end his career. The youngster got just £1,500 compensation.
As a result, after his own playing days were over, Foster set up an insurance business (Pro-Secure) which continues to this day, making sure players are properly covered and get suitably recompensed if things don’t turn out as they’d hoped.
Although Foster hasn’t always been popular with the Albion’s hierarchy (courtesy of suggested involvement in potential takeovers), his association with the club hasn’t dimmed and Seagulls fans of two generations took him to their hearts for his on-field performances and leadership spanning a total of 332 games.
• Pictures from my scrapbook, the Albion matchday programme over several seasons, and some online sources.
FORMER Burnley manager Steve Cotterill hasn’t always been popular during a nomadic football career that’s taken him the length and breadth of the country.
But he made a lasting connection with Brighton fans after impressing during an all-too-brief playing spell in 1992.
“I thoroughly enjoyed my time at Brighton and, whenever we’ve gone there, I’ve always had a great reception from their supporters. They’ve been terrific,” he wrote in his programme notes prior to a Cheltenham v Brighton fixture.
Injury curtailed Cotterill’s playing career – he endured 18 knee operations – but he made up for it by taking charge of nine different clubs over a period spanning more than 20 years.
His three years and seven months keeping Burnley in the second tier while seeing key players sold or injured was largely recognised as a decent achievement in the circumstances. Many of his other appointments were a lot shorter, and at times acrimonious.
Starting out as a player on the non-league circuit, it was Cotterill’s prolific scoring for Burton Albion (44 goals in 74 games) that prompted Wimbledon to snap him up in 1989.
Unfortunately, he sustained a serious cruciate ligament knee injury that halted his progress with the Dons and Albion boss Barry Lloyd gave him a lifeline to try to resurrect his career with the Seagulls.
Against a backdrop of financial instability, Lloyd had struggled to find adequate replacements for the prolific Mike Small and John Byrne in the 1991-92 season. Mark Gall, signed from Maidstone, offered a glimmer of hope, but Raphael Meade and Mark Farrington were disappointing to say the least, and Albion had been relegated back to the third tier a year after being one game from winning their place back amongst the elite in a play-off final against Notts County.
As the 1992-93 season got under way, Gall was unavailable due to a knee injury that eventually forced him to retire, Meade had departed and questions continued over Farrington, so Lloyd turned to loan signings Cotterill and Paul Moulden from Oldham Athletic.
It looked like he’d cracked it as the pair combined well and started scoring goals. Indeed, Cotterill scored four in 11 games, which was a promising start. Unfortunately, parent club Wimbledon wanted the sort of fee for him that cash-strapped Albion couldn’t afford, so he returned to south west London and eventually moved on to Bournemouth the following summer for £80,000.
In an interview with the Argus in October 2016, Moulden told Brian Owen: “One of the reasons I loved playing for Brighton was Mr Banter himself, Steve Cotterill. We met up like we had never been apart. I’d start the banter and he’d finish it or vice versa.
“We destroyed many a centre-half partnership during that three months. I was gutted to leave. I mean that very sincerely – absolutely gutted. I couldn’t believe nobody would have bought me and Steve as a pairing.
“We were both out of favour with our clubs and we hit it off so well. But it wasn’t to be – at Brighton or at any club.”
Born in Cheltenham on 20 July 1964, Cotterill’s injury-ravaged playing career came to a close at Dean Court. He’d won the player of the year title three times and scored 18 goals in 55 starts for the Cherries, but another knee injury finally put paid to his playing career, and he turned his attention to managing.
His first assignment was in Ireland where he succeeded his former Wimbledon teammate Lawrie Sanchez at League of Ireland’s Sligo Rovers. But his hometown club Cheltenham Town offered him a management opening back in England in 1997, and he steered them from Southern League football into the Conference and then into the bottom tier of the Football League. He twice won the Manager of the Year title and earned another promotion, to the third tier, via a play-off final victory over Rushden & Diamonds.
After leaving Cheltenham, Cotterill had a controversial five-month, 13 game stay as Stoke City boss at the start of the 2002-03 season before quitting to join Sunderland as Howard Wilkinson’s no.2. In May 2020, Cotterill endeavoured to explain to the Stoke Sentinel the circumstances surrounding his tenure, and the board interference regarding players.
The stay on Wearside was also short lived, with the pair being dismissed after only 27 games in March 2003.
The collapse of ITV Digital coincided with Cotterill taking over from Stan Ternent as Burnley manager in the summer of 2004. When he joined, they had only eight players on the books and, despite reassurances to the contrary, within six months Robbie Blake and Richard Chaplow, who he’d hoped to build a team around, had been sold.
When Blake’s replacement Ade Akinbiyi started scoring on a regular basis, he too was sold, and when he returned to the club later, he wasn’t the same player in front of goal.
Even after Cotterill had left, Burnley directors acknowledged the platform he’d provided for their eventual elevation to the Premier League under Owen Coyle.
The excellent uptheclarets.com, summed up his time at Turf Moor, thus: “He kept us in the second tier of English football for three years and that, looking back, was some achievement in, at times, difficult financial circumstances.”
It probably said something about the Championship that when Cotterill finally departed Turf Moor in the autumn of 2007, he’d been its longest serving manager at three years and seven months.
The following year, Cotterill was offered the opportunity to try his hand in America with Minnesota Thunder but work permit issues meant it never materialised. He didn’t resurface in the English game until 2010, when he enjoyed a short but successful reign – five months in charge of Notts County. He took charge on 23 February 2010 and they were crowned League Two champions on 27 April. A month later Cotterill was on his way, appointed in June 2010 as the manager of Portsmouth.
He helped to stabilise the then Championship club against a background of financial troubles and other clubs began to cast eyes on his achievements. The persistence of Nottingham Forest finally paid off and he moved there in October 2011, but a change of ownership of the club spelled the end of his time by the Trent.
He was out of the game for six months but in January 2013 accepted Harry Redknapp’s offer to join the coaching team at Queens Park Rangers until the end of the season.
He turned down the chance to stay in post the following season and in December 2013 took charge of League One Bristol City, signing another three-and-a-half-year contract.
In his second season at Ashton Gate, he steered City to promotion from League One as champions and they won the Football League Trophy. It earned Cotterill the League One Manager of the Year award.
As with other times in his career, Cotterill found his club’s better players were sold, ultimately weakening the squads he was in charge of. For example, when Sam Baldock moved from Bristol City to Brighton. Cotterill told bcfc.com: “He was a very good captain and very good goalscorer; we were sorry to see him go…that happens in football.”
Ultimately, as City struggled to attain the same level of success in the Championship as they’d experienced in the division below, Cotterill was sacked in January 2016.
Perhaps to prove the point about Cotterill not always being everybody’s cup of tea, former Albion defender Adam El-Abd vented his feelings in September 2020, explaining why he fell out of love with football following a bust-up with the manager only a short time after he moved to Bristol City.
With only three matches of the 2016-17 season left to play, Cotterill once again was grateful to Redknapp, by now manager at Birmingham City, and he joined him there as first team coach.
He subsequently left in the close season in the hope of landing a manager’s role in his own right. Ironically, that opportunity arose back at St Andrews when Redknapp was sacked in October 2017.
Cotterill told The Sun’s Graham Hill how he felt he had mellowed after 20 years in the hotseat at various clubs, although, at the time, he probably didn’t expect to be out of work again five months later.
After leaving Birmingham in March 2018, Cotterill ruptured a disc in his neck while trying to keep fit but in an interview with gloucestershirelive.co.uk declared himself fit and ready for the next challenge.
That challenge emerged in November 2020 when Cotterill took charge of League One Shrewsbury Town but he faced a bigger fight – to his health – after contracting Covid-19 and he was twice admitted to Bristol Royal Infirmary, spending some time in intensive care, suffering badly from the virus and pneumonia. He was released from hospital in March 2021 to recover at home.
He left the Shrews job in June 2023 and was out of work until January 2024, when he took charge of Forest Green Rovers.
He was unable to stave off relegation from the Football League, but he rebuilt the side during the summer of 2024 to push for promotion back to League Two. When Southend United visited The New Lawn on 15 March 2025, the 2-2 draw was Cotterill’s 1,000th game as a manager. At the time, Rovers were joint-second in the National League.
JUNIOR MCDOUGALD played professional football for 23 years and managed to combine it with acting, featuring in Sky 1’s Dream Team series.
Brighton fans of a certain vintage will remember him as a nippy, diminutive forward who scored 22 goals in 88 matches (+ seven as sub) during a difficult period for the club.
By his own admission (in an interview with the Argus), he left too soon, and a move to Rotherham United didn’t work out.
Born in Big Spring, Texas, on 12 January 1975, McDougald grew up in the UK and his early potential saw him associated with Tottenham Hotspur from the age of nine.
He was subsequently chosen as part of a group of the country’s top 25 14-year-old footballing prospects to be nurtured at the FA’s National School at Lilleshall.
On his graduation from Lilleshall in 1991, he joined Spurs as a trainee. Alongside McDougald both at Lilleshall and Tottenham was Sol Campbell, the defender who went on to star for Spurs and Arsenal, as well as England. Campbell told tottenhamhotspur.com: “I’ve some fond memories of Junior. We used to play against each other when we were 13, then we were at Tottenham and Lilleshall when we were 14.
“He’s a smashing lad and I can’t speak highly enough of him. He’s a good bloke, a good man and a fabulous footballer.”
McDougald joined the full professional ranks at White Hart Lane in the summer of 1993, but when he didn’t make the breakthrough to their first team, he made the switch to Brighton.
He described his time at Spurs as “a dream come true” and, in an article on tottenhamhotspur.com, said: “I know it’s an old cliché but I’d always supported Spurs.
“I think it’s well documented now that I even wrote to Jim’ll Fix It to ask to go training with them!”
He added: “It was a great experience, a positive experience and it was always my dream to play for the club.”
Spurs fanzine My Eyes Have Seen The Glory (mehstg.com), recalled him as “a young striker who scored a large number of goals for the Tottenham junior sides, but progressed no further than the reserves at White Hart Lane. Blessed with good pace, but a little on the short and light side.”
Unfortunately, while his contemporary Campbell went on to superstardom, McDougald was released at the age of 19.
“It was very disappointing to leave,” he said. “But at the same time, I was ambitious and, when Liam Brady at Brighton called me, I saw it as a great opportunity. I wanted first team football.
“Any disappointment was hidden by excitement. It was a new start.”
I can remember seeing McDougald make his debut in the opening game of the 1994-95 season, away to Swansea City at their old Vetch Field ground; Albion resplendent in the turquoise and black striped shirts in the style of the kit once worn by boss Brady at Inter Milan.
McDougald’s subsequent one-in-four scoring ratio with the Seagulls was set against the backdrop of financial turmoil at the club and he was there when the club was relegated to the fourth tier.
“There was no stability off the field and that could transfer itself on to it,” he told the Argus. “I was very young and Liam Brady was a great help. I was pleased to have played with legends like Steve Foster, although he was coming to the end of his career.
“The supporters were fantastic and really good to me as a young player. Overall, I had two enjoyable years there and I’m delighted to see them doing so well now. They’ve always had the potential and the fans deserve the success.”
Towards the end of his second season with the club, he was loaned to Chesterfield, where he scored once in nine games, and he then chose to move to Rotherham United for £50,000 in August 1996.
“It is only when you leave somewhere sometimes that you realise how good a club it was,” he told the Argus. “I have fantastic memories of Brighton. The support was so good and they have such potential.
“I thought I was doing the best thing for my career when I left. I wasn’t to know I would go to Rotherham, score on my debut, get injured in the same game and not play for three months.”
He had a relatively successful six-month spell at Toulon in France but efforts to re-establish himself back in the UK with Cambridge, Millwall and Orient didn’t work out.
“With the gift of hindsight maybe I would have stayed at Brighton for another season or two and established myself,” McDougald said in the Argus interview.
It was only when he signed for Dagenham & Redbridge in 1999 that he got back in the headlines, in particular when, in January 2001, he scored in the FA Cup 3rd round as the non-league Essex side held Alan Curbishley’s then Premier League Charlton Athletic to a 1-1 draw.
The 4th round draw paired the winners of the tie with Spurs, so it looked like it would be a perfect match for the former Spurs youngster, but the Addicks edged the replay 1-0 in extra time to spoil his dream.
Nevertheless, his form for Dagenham saw him selected for the England semi-professional side at a Four Nations Trophy tournament in 2002, where he was up against his clubmate Tony Roberts, the former Spurs goalkeeper.
Alongside the serious business of earning a living from playing football, McDougald also appeared for the fictional Harchester United side in Sky’s Dream Team, together with former Albion players Peter Smith and Andy Ansah.
“It was through Andy who actually recruits the players,” he said. “Pete Smith told me it was fun and it is. We just do what footballers do and are filmed playing, in changing rooms and night clubs. It is a good little avenue.”
By the time Dagenham made it into the Football League, McDougald had moved on to St Albans and, in the 2003-04 season, he was part of a Canvey Island squad that also included former Brighton players Mickey Bennett, the aforementioned Peter Smith, and Jeff Minton.
He later played for Kettering Town, Histon, and Cambridgeshire side St. Ives.
McDougald, a Born-again Christian, has since become the co-founder and director of children’s charity Sports Connections Foundation which uses sport to help and inspire children.
SÉBASTIEN Pocognoli will forever be remembered by Brighton fans for a spectacular free-kick goal he scored against Queens Park Rangers en route to promotion from the Championship.
Glenn Murray had given the Seagulls the lead in the April 2017 encounter at Loftus Road before, as the BBC reported, Pocognoli “executed a pinpoint free-kick with his left foot which flew in off the crossbar for an unstoppable second”.
Although Rangers pulled a goal back, Albion’s advantage gave them their first win at QPR for nearly 60 years and sent them back to the top of the league.
It was Pocognoli’s first competitive goal for six years and such a sweet strike etched his name in Brighton folklore.
Injuries and suspension dogged the left-back slot during that promotion season. Pocognoli had signed on a season-long loan from West Brom in August 2016 as cover for Gaetan Bong; Liam Rosenior having suffered an ankle injury.
But the loanee himself was troubled by a groin injury and made only 18 appearances for the Seagulls (plus three as a sub).
“Sebastien has a vast amount of experience having played in some of the top divisions in Europe,” Brighton manager Chris Hughton said on the day Pocognoli signed. “He is the type of quality player we want to add to the squad, and we are looking forward to working with him.”
The Belgian international came to the UK in 2014 having played top-flight football in Belgium, Holland and Germany.
Injury denied him the chance of going to Brazil to play in that summer’s World Cup for his country, but his disappointment was tempered by securing a move to the Premier League.
Unfortunately for him, his West Brom career barely got off the ground because the head coach who signed him – Alan Irvine – was soon replaced by Tony Pulis, who preferred Chris Brunt, Chris Baird or Joleon Lescott as left-back.
According to the uefa.com website, Pocognoli is a “technically-assured player, primarily a left-back but can also operate in midfield and is a specialist from dead-ball situations”. You can say that again!
Born in Seraing, near Liege, on 1 August 1987, Pocognoli represented Standard Liège at junior level but joined Genk aged 15, making his first team debut a year later, in 2004.
However, he had to be content with reserve team football until the 2006-07 season when he became a first-team regular, helping the club finish second in the Belgian first division.
In June 2007, Pocognoli joined Eredivisie side AZ Alkmaar, and featured in 33 games under Louis van Gaal, later renowned for managing Holland and Manchester United.
“I was 19 years old, and I worked for two years under him,” he told the West Brom website. “He helped my formation as a footballer, pass-control-pass, tactically, because defensively I was not so strong. And also my personality, because he likes players with personality.
“He’s not only a good trainer but he’s also a good human being.”
After three years at AZ, his first club, Standard Liege, bought him and gave him a three-year contract. He became the established left-back for two seasons but in 2012-13 missed lots of games when sidelined by injury.
With only six months of his contract remaining, German club Hannover 96 took the opportunity to sign him in January 2013. He made an inauspicious start, getting sent off on his debut, and faced competition for the left-back spot.
Only 18 months into a three-year deal, he made the switch to the Premier League with West Brom, head coach Irvine telling the club website: “Sébastien is an experienced left-back who has played at a high level for many years.
“After being named in Belgium’s provisional World Cup squad, he just missed out on Brazil, mainly because he hadn’t played enough games towards the end of the season.
“But he’s joined us with a real hunger to prove himself at Albion and get back into the international set-up.
“We’ve done our due diligence on Sébastien in terms of people who have worked with him, including Romelu Lukaku and Kevin Mirallas.
“You make your own mind up about a player’s ability from watching him play but you put these calls in to find out about their personality. The feedback on Sébastien was very positive.”
The defender had gained international recognition from an early age and played for Belgium’s under 16s, under 17s, under 19s and under 21s. He was called up to the senior squad in 2008 and won 13 caps for his country.
After his Brighton loan expired, he returned to West Brom but was not retained. He expected to re-join Standard Liege when interviewed by the expressandstar.com, saying: “It all adds up: I will soon be a free agent, they need new blood and I’m an ex-player of Les Rouches. At the moment there is no contact, but the board is looking for players who are interested in their project.
“If I did go to Standard, I am one of the leaders in the dressing rooms anyway – not by shouting loudly, by setting a good example. I certainly would be an example for the young players.”
The move was duly confirmed and in his third spell with the club Pocognoli made 32 appearances, including, in March 2018, in the Belgian Cup Final, when Liege beat his former club Genk 1-0.
In 2020, Pocognoli switched to Royale Union Saint-Gilloise, the club owned by Albion owner and chairman Tony Bloom.
STEVEN THOMSON didn’t enjoy his year playing for Brighton in League One and the former Crystal Palace midfielder seized an escape route to return to Scotland to see out the remainder of his long professional career.
It had been considered quite a coup when Dean Wilkins secured the signing of the Falkirk captain in January 2008. In effect a replacement for the departing Dean Hammond, Thomson was soon a victim of Wilkins’ tinkering with the formation, and over his 41 matches for the Seagulls had a conveyor belt of midfield partners, not to mention a change in manager, as Wilkins’ replacement, Micky Adams, introduced a different style – in vain – to try to galvanise the side during his second spell as boss.
Although Thomson had signed a two-and-a-half-year contract with the Seagulls, in January 2009 the disillusioned Scot headed back north of the border.
“I didn’t enjoy it there at all and was keen to try and get myself back up the road,” he admitted in an interview with the Daily Record in 2018.
Having wound down his full-time career at St Mirren, after 18 seasons as a professional, and having moved to London to begin a business career, Thomson linked up with his former Albion teammate Nicky Forster to spend a season as a part-time player with Dover Athletic, where the former Seagulls striker was manager at the time.
In an in-depth interview for the Dover Athletic website, Thomson gave a great insight into his career, revealing the lengths he went to to get a break into the professional game.
Born in Glasgow on 23 January 1978, he explained: “After playing for a local boys club I was invited to go and train with a few clubs, so, at the age of 10, I found myself training with Rangers on a Monday, Celtic on a Tuesday, Hearts on a Wednesday and Hibs on a Thursday.”
When he reached 14, he was advised to choose one club over the others and opted for Rangers. Daunted by the high numbers of youngsters all trying for the same opportunity, aged just 16 he took the bold move to head to Croydon and signed on as an apprentice with Palace.
He progressed from the youth team to be offered a pro contract at 17, worked his way through the reserves and then got some calls up to the first team subs bench when they were still in the Premier League. He also played for Scotland’s under-18 side between 1995 and 1997.
During his brief return as manager, Terry Venables gave Thomson his debut aged 19 in the 1998-99 season. Thomson wasn’t renowned for goalscoring, but Palace fans do remember a particularly sweet strike he succeeded with in a 3-0 Worthington Cup win at Leicester City in November 2000.
Leicester’s back-up goalkeeper Simon Royce, who would later join Albion on loan, was beaten from 35 yards by Thomson’s spectacular shot.
The midfielder’s 121 games spanned the spells of five managers – Venables, Steve Bruce, Trevor Francis, Steve Coppell and Dave Bassett – before he left the club at the end of the 2002-03 season. It would be fair to say he divided opinion among Eagles supporters.
On fans forum cpfc.org, ‘Hairybear’ said: “Thomson was a warrior. Very little ability but did a good job when called upon under Bruce and co. He would never let you down.”
But ‘Baron Greenback’ said: “As well as THAT goal against Leicester, he also scored great goals at home to Sunderland in the FA Cup and Wolves.”
It was the ebullient Barry Fry who took Thomson to Peterborough United, (above) where he played 75 games in two seasons before moving back to Scotland to play for Falkirk in the Scottish Premier League.
When Brighton signed him, his former Falkirk teammate and one-time Albion loanee, Graham Barrett, told the Argus what Seagulls supporters could expect.
“They are getting a fantastic professional and a really good player,” said Barrett. “We have been going really well and he has been a massive part of that.
“He is a box-to-box player, he is comfortable on the ball and he has got a bit of everything.
“He is not particularly big (5ft 8in) but he is also very good in the air for his height.”
Barrett reckoned he would be “a massive influence” if he could continue the form he’d shown in Scotland. “He is great in the dressing room as well, a real leader,” said Barrett.
Thomson made his Albion debut in a 1-1 draw at home to Huddersfield on 19 January, starting at the base of a midfield diamond with Paul Reid and David Martot out wide and Dean Cox at the top of it.
Brian Owen, of the Argus, described him as “a neat and tidy passer who only gave the ball away when trying something ambitious”.
Within a couple of months, the Argus was reporting: “It has not been easy for Thomson since his January move back to England from Falkirk.
“He has had to adjust to playing with a number of different partners and now Adam El-Abd is a long-term casualty with the medial knee ligament injury he suffered at Huddersfield.”
Although mostly recognised as a centre back, El-Abd had been one of the options tried in midfield. Thomson admitted to the newspaper: “I know I can perform better. There is more to come. I am adjusting to playing so many games. In Scotland you just play Saturday to Saturday.
“It has been a big move for my family as well. My wife (originally from London) is a lot closer to her parents now and she has got a lot of family around, which helps with our young son.”
In rather a similar vein to the Palace faithful, Brighton fans were also divided as to Thomson’s merits. ‘The Complete Badger’ declared on North Stand Chat: “The only midfielder of any class we’ve got. A real touch of quality about everything he does in my opinion. Much better than Hammond, and much better than anyone else we’ve got.”
But ‘Napper’ reckoned: “Thomson just seems to have nothing about him, not quick, no killer passes. Just seems to either waste possession or go backwards. I’ve really given him more than enough time, but facts are he just isn’t very good. I’ve been watching him closely for many games now.”
In his end-of-season summary, Andy Naylor, Albion reporter for the Argus in 2008, reckoned Hammond had been a hard act to follow, and commented: “Thomson looks a tidy player who will benefit from playing as a central midfielder in a 4-4-2, not the dreaded diamond.”
After Wilkins was shown the door, new boss Adams recognised Thomson’s leadership qualities, making him vice-captain to skipper Nicky Forster, as well as saying he was going to play him in a role further forward than he had been previously.
“I enjoyed the responsibility at Falkirk and I will be willing to help Nicky as much as I can,” Thomson told the Argus. “The manager has stressed that he wants me to try and push forward a lot more, rather than just sitting in front of the back four, and I am quite happy with that.
“I look after myself off the park, so I’m quite fit. Maybe he thinks I have got the engine to get up and down!”
However, problems mounted for Adams when Forster was ruled out by injury and, as in the previous season, Thomson found himself alongside different midfield partners, including, at one time, the flamboyant Robbie Savage, trying to recover some fitness on loan from Derby.
As the year drew to a close, it became public knowledge that Thomson was unsettled and itching to go back to Scotland, so a deal was lined up for him to join St Mirren as soon as the January transfer window opened.
He joined them on the day they played their final game at Love Street ahead of their move to Greenhill Road, and he went on to make more than 100 appearances for the Buddies.
Their fans’ abiding memory of his time there centre on a surprise 4-0 win over Celtic on 24 March 2010, when Thomson scored twice. The result so shocked the Parkhead bosses that they sacked Hoops boss Tony Mowbray.
On joining Dover in May 2012, Thomson told the club’s website: “I made the decision last year that this would be my final season as a full-time player. I have been studying for four or five years and I’m now fully qualified and have secured a job in London.
“My wife Bryony is from London anyway and she wanted to move closer to her family. I’ve been a footballer for 18 years and now it’s time to enter the real world.”
Thomson now works as a financial advisor, with a stylish looking profile on LinkedIn.
BARRY LLOYD made a number of astute signings during some turbulent years in charge of the Seagulls; Mark Farrington wasn’t one of them!
Although Lloyd struck gold when he picked up Mike Small after seven years playing in Europe, his luck evaporated when he brought former Everton youth player Farrington back to the UK after a five-clubs-in-five-years spell in Holland, Belgium and Germany.
Lloyd agreed a £100,000 fee to sign him from respected Dutch outfit Feyenoord in 1991 – as a replacement for Small, who’d been sold to West Ham for £400,000. But in three years on the Albion’s books, Farrington mustered just four goals in 28 appearances. Subsequently, apart from a single league appearance for Hereford, he ended up at non-league Runcorn.
It’s no secret he’s gone down in Albion folklore as one of the club’s biggest flops, as evidenced by comments on the popular fans forum, North Stand Chat.
In 2004, in one of those discussions about all-time-worst player, ‘Metal Micky’ gave his vote to Farrington, adding: “The only one who came close to his utter shiteness was Ashley Neal.”
On another occasion, noting that Farrington managed to get on the scoresheet in a 3-1 win away to Burnley, ‘Pinkie Brown’ declared: “Mark Farrington scoring a goal rates alongside stepping in rocking horse crap, spotting Lord Lucan and going for a ride on Shergar. The last three are more realistic.”
On the same forum, ‘Withdean and I’ described him as: “The most expensive player ever to make so little impact at the Albion.”
It seems only right and fair, though, to try to balance the picture and I’m grateful to a November 2018 look-back article in the Sussex Express which recalled an occasion on 26 February 1994 when Farrington scored a goal in a 3-1 win at Huddersfield, and earned a plaudit from Lloyd’s replacement as manager, Liam Brady.
The newspaper reported: “For Farrington in particular, it had been a difficult season. He had made only sporadic appearances under Lloyd, but Brady was committed to give everyone a chance. ‘I brought Mark Farrington back into the side,’ said Brady. ‘As far as I am concerned, the slate is clean with everyone at the club and I am prepared to look at each and every player and Mark has done particularly well (in the reserves) and shown a good attitude’.”
It was good of Brady to give him the opportunity but at the start of the following season he brought in Junior McDougald to play alongside Kurt Nogan, and, in October 1994 Farrington left the club.
Born in the Allerton district of Liverpool on 15 June 1965, Farrington’s dad was a long distance lorry driver and his mum a shoe shop manageress. He attended Springwood Primary School and moved on to Hillfoot High School, where his footballing ability began to be recognised.
He also played for the local Allerton side and an Everton scout, Ray Marshall, spotted him. He was taken on as an associate schoolboy and then progressed to an apprenticeship. Unfortunately, his hopes of making it at Everton were dashed within weeks of him ending up on the losing side in the 1983 FA Youth Cup Final.
Farrington scoring features on the front cover of the Everton programme
Ironically, Farrington scored four times against Norwich City (see picture of one of them on front of programme) over two legs but City won a play-off and collected the trophy 6-5 on aggregate.
Everton decided not to offer Farrington a professional contract, but the opposition’s manager, Ken Brown, liked what he saw and took him on at Carrow Road.
A year later, he was blooded in an end-of-season top tier game away to Coventry City which the Canaries lost 2-1.
City history site Flown From The Nest notes he made a total of 18 appearances and scored twice before he was loaned to Cambridge United, where he scored once in 10 matches, and was then transferred to Cardiff City in July 1985.
City were newly relegated from the second tier. Farrington scored in the first game of the new season, a 4-1 win at Notts County, but Cardiff had a disastrous season and finished up relegated to the bottom tier. According to mauveandyellowarmy.net, Farrington scored only three more times in a total of 36 appearances for the Bluebirds before being sacked for a breach of club discipline by manager Alan Durban, who was sacked himself following relegation.
After an unsuccessful trial with Portsmouth, Farrington tried his luck on the continent.
At Dutch side Willem II Tillburg, he got into his goalscoring stride and bagged 26 in 61 appearances – by far his best scoring ratio for any club.
At RC Genk he scored five in 17 matches, and 10 in 30 games for Fortuna Sittard, including a hat-trick against PSV Eindhoven and four against Volendam. Next up on his European travels was Hertha Berlin for eight months, but he struggled to settle in Berlin and didn’t register a goal in nine games.
Dutch giants Feyenoord came to his rescue and, after he’d scored twice in a friendly, they bought out the rest of his Hertha Berlin contract. He scored once in five matches but when Gunther Bensson, the coach who’d bought him left, he failed to see eye to eye with his successor and began to seek a move. Lloyd took him on trial at Brighton and he scored in a reserves match against Ipswich.
“In May 1991 I had the chance to go to Spain to play for Seville but that fell flat and in August Barry called me again and I came to the Goldstone,” he told the matchday programme. “I had missed the pre-season training and all the other players had a head start and I suffered. I injured an ankle early on and one thing led to another. It soon became a nightmare, one injury followed another,” he said.
Farrington saw various specialists to try to get to the bottom of several niggles that were keeping him sidelined and months went by before he finally got the all-clear.
MANCHESTER United youngster Jesse Lingard scored four goals in 17 appearances for Brighton in their 2013-14 Championship season.
As well as helping the Seagulls to reach the play-offs, the move proved a useful development step for Lingard, who later become a regular at United and played for England at the 2018 World Cup.
Former United boss Jose Mourinho spoke about the value of the experience in an interview with manutd.com ahead of a Brighton v Man Utd Premier League game in May 2018.
Although Sir Alex Ferguson involved him in the first team squad a couple of times in the 2011-12 season, his real senior football education began during a three-month loan to Leicester City (he was sent with Michael Keane) in November 2012.
And, although Lingard went on United’s pre-season tour Down Under in the summer of 2013, he joined Birmingham City on loan in September 2013.
He scored a total of six goals in 13 games for the Blues, including a debut four goals at home to Sheffield Wednesday.
Birmingham hoped to keep Lingard
They’d been hoping to re-sign him for the rest of the season but Albion nipped in at the end of February 2014 and he headed south to join Oscar Garcia’s promotion-chasing side until the end of the season.
Garcia told the club website: “We are delighted we have finally secured Jesse until the end of the season. He is one of the most exciting young English players and has already created a lot of interest following his successful loan spell at Birmingham.
“We worked hard to secure a talent who has already shown that he can play at Championship level, and I am very pleased to have added Jesse to our striking options.
“He has an excellent pedigree, having come through the academy at Old Trafford, and there is no doubt that he has a lot of talent and ability. I am really looking forward to working with him.”
Lingard got on the scoresheet in the 4-1 away win at already-crowned champions Leicester City, and four days later also found the net in a 3-0 win over Charlton.
In the third minute of added on time at home to Yeovil Town, Lingard added to Kazenga LuaLua’s opener to secure a 2-0 win in the last home league fixture.
He then scored Albion’s goal in the play-off first leg at home to Derby, but, with Albion losing the game 2-1, they were always on the back foot going into the second leg when County ran riot against the injury-ravaged Seagulls to win 4-1.
Lingard went back to United and got his first competitive first team start under Louis van Gaal in the season-opener against Swansea at Old Trafford, but the occasion was marred by him having to go off with a knee injury after only 24 minutes – and United lost 2-1.
The injury set his career back six months and, on his recovery, Lingard was sent out on loan again in February 2015 when former United assistant manager Steve McLaren took him to Derby County.
Back at Old Trafford the following season, he got his first United goal in November 2015 when United beat West Brom 2-0, and he began to establish himself, making a total of 40 appearances by the season’s end.
In fact, that season ended on a particularly high note for Lingard when he came off the bench to score the winning goal for United in the 2016 FA Cup Final against Crystal Palace.
The 2017-18 season saw him involved even more, when he made 48 appearances, and, even through managerial upheaval, he continued to be a regular member of the United first-team squad.
Born in Warrington on 15 December 1992, Lingard went to the town’s William Beaumont Community High School and was on United’s books from the age of seven.
He progressed through the different age groups but, as a slow developer physically, was still playing at under 16s level when he was 18.
Nevertheless, as a youth player at Manchester United, he helped them to win the FA Youth Cup in 2010-11.
An extended feature on Lingard’s development appeared in the matchday programme for Albion’s game at Old Trafford in November 2017.
One of the coaches involved in his development, academy advisor Tony Whelan, said: “Jesse has had to be patient throughout his career. As a younger player, he was physically under-developed so he had to play a younger age group. That wasn’t easy, but he had the patience, intelligence and trust in the coaching staff to know that those decisions were made in his best interests, that we knew at some point he was going to grow. At some point, all that ability would be able to come out.
“He’s got a wonderful mindset, so his ability to come on and make an impact on the game is down to the fact he’s resilient, he has a wonderful mentality, and he is a great observer of the game. That comes out all the time in the way he deals with things. And on top of that, he has his excellent technical ability.”
Whelan added: “He’s only of slight build, so he’s developed great technical ability, good passing, dribbling, he’s a really good mover – very fluid, a wonderful mover – and he’s athletic without looking that athletic.”
The coach said: “You don’t get in our first-team squad without being a very accomplished player. He’s also playing for the national team fairly regularly. That’s testimony to Jesse’s abilities as an all-round footballer now.”
Lingard was 23 when he made his full England debut, at Wembley against Malta, on 8 October 2016, and he went on to become part of the England squad that reached the World Cup semi-finals in 2018.
He scored his first England goal in a 1-0 win away to the Netherlands in March 2018, and has since scored three more times in 24 matches; against Panama at the World Cup, against the USA at Wembley in November 2018 and three days later also at home against Croatia.
He’d already appeared on the international stage earlier in his career, playing three times for England under 17s in 2008 and scoring twice in 11 games for the under 21s between 2013 and 2015.
Coach Whelan summed up Lingard thus: “From the day he first walked into this football club at seven years of age, he always had a smile on his face. He’s always loved playing, always loved the game, always had wonderful enthusiasm, and in some ways he’s inspired the coaches with his love of the game and love of the ball.
“You never had to ask him to work hard, he was always running around, always energetic, always mischievous, and those are the qualities he brought.”
In an interview with the Albion matchday programme for Brighton’s home game with United in 2017-18, Lingard reflected on his loan spell with the Seagulls and said: “I wanted to go to the club because I knew they were a good club with a great stadium and great fans – it was the perfect club to go on loan to.”
He added: “The stadium, the staff, the fans, you could see the ambition of the club. I always knew that the club would make it into the Premier League. It was heading in that direction for a couple of seasons.”
The 2019-20 season saw a marked decline in Lingard’s fortunes with his starts for United under double figures, and most of his involvement coming off the bench. He also lost his place in the England squad.
It was revealed a business venture had performed badly and, sadly, trying to cope with personal issues involving his family impacted Lingard’s form and demeanour.
After United boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer challenged him publicly over his declining performances, he decided to talk about the problems publicly.
After the curtain came down on the season, Lingard told his 6.6 million Instagram followers: “This season has been difficult for so many reasons. I lost who I was as a player and person, but I never wanted to give up.
“I knew who I really was on and off the pitch and knew that having been there before I could get there again.”
“This meant working harder than I’d ever done before and trusting in those around me that they knew how to best help me achieve that.
“I know the fans have been frustrated but in all this time my love for this club and everyone connected to it has never left me.”
“This team, this club is my family and I will continue to keep working harder than ever to help this team achieve its goals.”
However, with several new faces arriving at Old Trafford prior to the start of the 2020-21 season, football’s rumour mill was busy suggesting Solskaer was looking to offload Lingard.
In January 2021, Lingard joined West Ham on a half-season loan and the change of scene seemed to give his career a boost. He scored twice on his debut in a 3-1 win over Aston Villa and finished the season with nine goals in 16 appearances for the Hammers.
He returned to Man Utd for the 2021-22 season, playing in 22 league and cup games but only scoring twice.
When his contract wasn’t renewed at Old Trafford, in the summer of 2022, Lingard signed a one-year deal with newly promoted Nottingham Forest on a reported £200,000 a week.
In parallel lines 