Villa cup winner and captain Pat Saward led Albion to promotion

A FORMER Aston Villa captain and 1957 FA Cup winner steered Brighton to the first promotion I witnessed on my Albion journey.

Genial Irishman Pat Saward, who lived in my hometown of Shoreham during his time as Albion boss, galvanised a squad not expected to be promoted from the third tier and took them up as runners up behind his former club in 1972.

As the champagne flowed in the Goldstone Ground home dressing room, Saward took centre stage surrounded by his blue and white stripe-shirted heroes.

When the promotion tilt had looked like faltering, he’d been bold enough to make drastic changes to the side before a top of the table clash with Villa in front of the Match of the Day cameras. After a memorable 2-1 win in which Willie Irvine scored a goal later judged as the third best in the programme’s Goal of the Season competition, Saward added to his squad on transfer deadline day, bringing in Northern Ireland international Bertie Lutton from Wolves and Ken Beamish from Tranmere Rovers, described in the Official Football League Book as “stocky and packed full of explosive sprinting power, a terrific shot and great appetite for the game”.

Saward told the publication: “They were both last ditch signings and Ken made an astonishing difference. I spent only £41,000 in getting my promotion side together so we were very much Villa’s poor relations in that sense.”

The manager put the success down to: “Dogged determination to succeed from all the players. We stamped out inconsistency. I got rid of ten of the players I inherited and got together a team built on character. That’s the key quality, apart from skill of course.”

However, hindsight reveals the club wasn’t really ready for the higher division and some have suggested Saward broke up the promotion-winning squad rather too hastily. Players he brought in who were used to the level now known as the Championship struggled to gel, and the manager turned to rather too many loan signings.

A mid-season run of 13 consecutive defeats was Albion’s undoing and a glamour FA Cup tie at home to First Division Chelsea in early January 1973 gave a welcome respite from the gloom.

Ahead of the match, Saward opened his heart to Daily Mirror reporter Nigel Clarke, revealing that he couldn’t understand why the side had struggled so much.

“I wish I knew. But I’ve learned more about football these last few weeks than at any other time in my career.

“We are five points behind the next club but I must be the luckiest man in the league. There are no pressures on me,” he said, explaining that supporters were still writing to him, backing him and the team.

“When we came up from the Third Division, I was so big-headed, so confident. I thought with the right results we could go straight through to the First Division. I really did.

“There was spirit and ambition here – and there still is….that’s how this club gets you. My heart is in the place.”

Saward revealed that he had turned down two better paid jobs in the First Division to stay at Brighton after the promotion win, telling Clarke: “What I want is importance, appreciation, understanding and love…not being kicked up the backside and put under the lash.

“Adulation is false. I’ve found my oasis at Brighton and I’m wealthy the way I want to be – in feeling.”

Although the Chelsea game ended in another defeat, fortunes eventually changed the following month – but the damage had been done and Brighton went straight back down.

A defiant Saward promised to blood more youngsters like Steve Piper and Tony Towner, who’d done well when drafted in and Piper, in a matchday programme article, said of him: “Saward was more of a coach than a man-manager, very suave and sophisticated. He knew his football from his days at Coventry.”

However, when results didn’t improve on the return to third tier level, and with a new, ambitious chairman – Mike Bamber – at the helm, Saward was sacked and replaced with the legendary Brian Clough.

Albion’s hierarchy had turned to the untried Saward in the World Cup summer of 1970 after Birmingham City poached Freddie Goodwin from Brighton to replace Stan Cullis as their manager. It was second time lucky for Saward, who’d applied to succeed Archie Macaulay two years previously when Goodwin pipped him to the post.

“Give me ten years and I’ll have Brighton in the First Division,” Saward declared when appointed. Prescient words considering they made it within nine – although it came six years after he’d parted ways with the club.

There’s little doubt Saward was an innovative football man and a popular figure during the first two years of his reign.

Apart from success on the pitch in the 1971-72 season, the way he involved fans in helping him to improve the side also proved a winner.

His buy-a-player appeal was a direct attempt to involve the supporters in the affairs of their club and Saward led a sponsored walk on Brighton seafront as one of the initial events geared towards generating funds to help him compete in the transfer market.

“Too many people spend too much time shouting about how hard up their club is, and too little time fighting to improve the situation,” Saward said in an article for the April 1971 edition of Football League Review. “You never get success if you sit around. You must have courage, even audacity, and work hard for survival.”

The first funds generated provided Saward with the money to bring in experienced Bert Murray from Birmingham City, initially on loan, and then permanently. Murray would go on to be voted Player of the Year in 1971-72.

Another player who signed on loan at the same time as Murray was Preston’s Irvine, who recalled in his autobiography, Together Again, how Saward wooed him.

“Pat sold me the place with his charm and persuasive ways,” he said, describing the former male model as “extrovert, infectious and bubbly”.

He added: “Pat Saward was a gem of a manager and a pleasure to play for. He said what he thought, but never offensively; in a matter-of-fact, plain-speaking kind of way, rather than aggressively.”

Irvine continued: “Saward had the knack of making people feel important. He instilled pride and a sense of identity…..Pat loved attacking, entertaining football and worked tirelessly for the club. I would have run through that proverbial brick wall for him.”

As Brighton neared promotion, Irvine said: “Saward, with a joke or a smile, an arm around the shoulder or a bit of geeing up, knew just how to keep a dressing room happy or dispel any tension or nerves.”

Sadly, Irvine’s opinion of Saward shifted dramatically when, during the summer, the manager told him he intended to bring in a replacement – although it was three months before he eventually signed Barry Bridges from Millwall.

*Saward and new signings Barry Bridges (left) and Graham Howell*

Irvine was in the starting line-up at the beginning of the season and scored six times in 13 league and cup games, but, once Bridges arrived in October, his days were numbered, and, before the year was out, he was sold to Halifax Town in part exchange for Lammie Robertson.

Saward had already dispensed with the services of Albion’s other main promotion season scorer, Kit Napier, along with his former captain, John Napier.

Irvine said that once Albion were promoted, Saward changed. “He seemed to become unapproachable, or at least he did to me, and where once I could see him whenever I wanted, now I seemed to have to book an appointment two or three days in advance. We all had to.”

Teammate Peter O’Sullivan, who had repaired his relationship with Saward after some difficult early exchanges which saw the Welshman transfer-listed, also witnessed a change in the manager.

“We had one or two players who were over the hill and Pat just lost the plot. It was grim,” he told Spencer Vignes in A Few Good Men.

Albion’s tier two fortunes were picked over in some detail in a feature reporter Nick Harling compiled for Goal magazine.

“I didn’t foresee the snags and the type of league the Second Division was,” Saward told him. “It’s the hardest division of the four. Everyone is fighting either to stay in or get out.

“It’s a hell of a hard division. It’s a mixture of the First and Third. It’s good and very hard football. They don’t give you an awful lot of time to play.

“It’s a division governed by fear because to drop out of it is not good, while to get out at the top is fantastic. I didn’t believe the gap would be so different.

“Teams are so well organised and supplement their lack of ability with tremendous defensive play. It’s very hard to get results.”

While open and honest, they didn’t sound like the words of a manager very confident of finding a solution, and Saward sought to explain part of the problem when he said: “To me the most important thing is the attitude of mind. Players should have an arrogant attitude, an attitude that they’re going to do well even when the chips are down. But some types are destroyed. These are the ones who succumb and want to rely on other people.

“Here we’ve got some great boys, but I wish to God some of them had more determination.”

Bamber was resigned to relegation but nonetheless confident of where the club was heading. “There’s no doubting it – First Division here we come,” he told the magazine.

Saward added: “I haven’t lost any enthusiasm. I’ve had my hopes dampened slightly, but one overcomes that.

“This club has got to be built for the future. I want to put Brighton on the map.”

Sadly, when Albion’s poor form at the start of the 1973-74 season continued, Saward publicly admitted: “I haven’t any more answers. I am in a fog.”

Unsurprisingly, the Albion’s directors interpreted it as a loss of confidence and sacked him.

*It’s front page news on the Evening Argus as Saward is sacked*

Saward never managed in the English game again, although he coached in Saudi Arabia for a while.

Born in Cobh, County Cork, on 17 August 1928, Saward lived in Singapore and Malta during his childhood, before the family moved to south London.

His first club was Beckenham FC before he turned professional with Millwall in 1951. He made 118 appearances for the Lions in the next four years.

Saward was 26 when Eric Houghton signed him for Villa for £7,000 in August 1955. The legendary Joe Mercer took over as Villa manager in 1958.

Pat enjoyed a goalscoring debut with his new club, hitting the final equalising goal in a 4-4 draw with Manchester United at Villa Park on 15 October 1955. But he struggled to oust left half Vic Crowe and made only six appearances that season.

In Crowe’s absence through injury the following season, Saward became a regular, making 50 appearances.

*Saward (right) descends the steps at Wembley as a FA Cup winner with Aston Villa*

In total, Saward played 170 games for Villa between 1955 and 1960, most notably featuring in their FA Cup winning team in 1957. Villa beat Manchester United 2-1 in the final at Wembley Stadium in front of a crowd of 99,225, Peter McParland scoring twice to win Villa the Cup for a seventh time.

Saward made only 14 appearances as Villa were relegated from the top-flight in 1959 but he was back in harness as captain when they made a swift return as Second Division champions in the 1959-60 season.

In his final season, he made just 12 appearances, his last coming on 22 October 1960 in a second city derby, Villa beating Birmingham 6-2. The following March, he was given a free transfer and moved on to Huddersfield Town.

*Saward in the stripes of Huddersfield Town*

He had first been selected for the Republic of Ireland on 7 March 1954 in a World Cup qualifier in which Luxembourg were beaten 1-0, and he went on to make 18 appearances for his country, the last, on 2 September 1962, coming when he was 34: a 1-1 draw away to Iceland in Reykjavík.

He played twice against England in World Cup qualifiers in 1957, a 1-1 draw and a 5-1 defeat, when he was up against the likes of Duncan Edwards, Johnny Haynes and Stanley Matthews, and in the same competition against Scotland, in 1961, when the Irish lost 4-1, and his teammates included Johnny Giles.

After 59 appearances for the Terriers, he dropped out of the league but acquainted himself with Sussex when moving to Crawley Town.

Jimmy Hill signed him for Coventry as a player-coach in October 1963 and although he made numerous reserve team appearances, he really made his mark as a coach and was responsible for the rapid development of City’s youth team in the 1960s.

*Saward (left) with assistant manager Alan Dicks and Jimmy Hill at Coventry City*

Willie Carr and Dennis Mortimer were just two of several first teamers who made it under his guidance. He stepped up to first team assistant manager when his former Eire teammate, Noel Cantwell, was appointed boss in 1967.

Not long after his switch to the Goldstone, Saward picked up one of his former Sky Blues proteges, Ian Goodwin, initially on loan, and then permanently, and eventually made him Albion captain. The rugged defender’s arrival was remembered in an Argus article.

When Saward died on 20 September 2002 following a period when he’d suffered with Alzheimer’s, an excellent Villa website pieced together a detailed obituary. His career is also recorded on the avfchistory.co.uk site.

Saward was laid to rest in the same Cambridge cemetery as his brother Len, a forward who played a total of 170 games for Cambridge United between 1952 and 1958, scoring 43 times. He went on to serve the club behind the scenes in their commercial department.

Pictures from my schoolboy Albion scrapbook and various online sources.

The Albion legend whose face didn’t fit at Aston Villa

*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 10^th 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.

Gary Williams knew where the goal was – even from left back

A CARTILAGE operation when he was just 17 changed Gary Williams’ career, but, after success at Brighton, it eventually brought his playing days to a premature end at Crystal Palace.

Originally a winger, the operation, when he was an emerging player at Preston North End, took the edge of his pace and led to him converting into an overlapping left back.

Thankfully, as Brighton fans would witness, his ability to score important goals never left him.

Born in Litherland, Liverpool, on 8 March 1954, Gary Peter Williams had unsuccesful trials with Liverpool and Coventry City before starting his career with non-league Marine. He caught the eye of a scout who’d gone to watch a different player and ended up signing for Preston in April 1972.

Williams made his Preston debut in the final game of the 1971-72 season as Preston drew 2-2 at home to Swindon.

He then played in the opening match of the following season, against Aston Villa, but had to wait until the end of March at Brighton for his next appearance.

After his cartilage op, and just when he thought he was set to be released aged 18, Preston’s reserve team left-back got injured, Williams filled in, did a good job, and it was the platform he needed to launch his career.

“Because I used to be a winger, I knew which way to shepherd them to make it difficult to cut inside,” he told the journalist and author Spencer Vignes in his 2005 book, A Few Good Men.

It was the legendary Bobby Charlton, briefly trying out management at North End, who gave Williams his big break into first team football, selecting him at left back for the final eight games of the 1974-75 season.

Young Gary Williams with former England World Cup winner, Nobby Stiles, at Preston, and scoring the winner at Sunderland.

Former Everton boss Harry Catterick took over from Charlton and made Williams the first choice left back in 1975-76. The following season his outstanding performances earned him the Player of the Season award and on 22 March 1977, he made his 100^th league appearance in a 1-0 defeat at Selhurst Park.

By then, Williams was catching the eye of clubs higher up the league and his final game for Preston was the season-ending fixture at Shrewsbury on 14 May, which North End won 2-1.

In July 1977, Preston accepted a £45,000 fee from Brighton to sign Williams shortly after his teammate Mark Lawrenson joined for £100,000. Albion’s Graham Cross and Harry Wilson moved in the opposite direction to fill the positions they’d vacated.

Williams told Vignes how he’d always enjoyed playing against Brighton because of the size of the crowds they got.

“To run out in Division 3 at the Goldstone in front of a full house was amazing. You knew you were in for a hard time but the atmosphere was just infectious,” he said.

Manager Alan Mullery had called him and asked him to get himself down to Brighton and the club booked a room in the Metropole Hotel, the sea view helping to make up his mind about the move.

“I wanted to better myself and get into the First Division but football is such an up and down game that it’s not too wise to look too far ahead,” Williams told Football Weekly News magazine in 1980.

The start to his Albion career was somewhat inauspicious. Although he came on as a substitute in the opening game, a league cup tie away to Cambridge United which finished 0-0, injury then prevented him making his league debut for two months.

It finally came in a 2-0 win away to Sunderland on 1 October 1977 and he then missed only one game through to the end of the season, appearing a total of 34 times as the Seagulls finished fourth, missing promotion on goal difference to Tottenham.

The following season saw Williams play every game, scoring twice, as Brighton were runners-up to Palace gaining promotion to Division One for the first time.

In Albion’s first season amongst the elite, Williams was again ever present – indeed, he remarkably played 146 consecutive games during his time at the club.

The Everton-supporting full-back got the chance to play against his boyhood side in December 1979 and three months later he scored the first of two cracking, memorable Brighton goals in the top division as the Seagulls finished in 16th position.

On 29 March 1980, at the Goldstone, he lashed a shot from 30 yards that flew past England goalkeeper Peter Shilton to earn Albion the double over European Cup holders Nottingham Forest.

Williams beats Nottingham Forest full back Viv Anderson at the Goldstone and, together with Gary Stevens, tries to thwart Liverpool’s Kenny Dalglish.

Williams admits he was about to pass it until skipper Brian Horton urged him to ‘hit the ****ing thing!’

“When you hit the ball that sweetly, you don’t even really feel a thing,” he recounted to Vignes, in that 2005 interview. “By the time I looked up, it was heading for the top corner.”

Although Forest boss Brian Clough declared it a fluke in a post-match interview, because the game took place in front of the TV cameras, it was selected as one of the goals of the season.

Thirteen months after that goal, Williams struck another beauty, this time to silence the Sunderland faithful at Roker Park.

It clinched Albion a 2-1 win and was part of a late flurry of good results which saw the Seagulls escape the clutches of relegation.

Describing it to Vignes, he said: “It was our last attack of the game. Gordon Smith knocks a good ball into the penalty area and I’ve just taken a gamble and gone up from the halfway line. I say so myself but it was a really good volley.

“It fell to me around 10 yards out and you hear the net ripple because the crowd went silent.”

While it contributed to Albion staying up, that summer saw the departure of Mullery, Lawrenson and Horton and the arrival of Mike Bailey into the manager’s chair. It was to signal the end of Williams’ Brighton career.

Bailey favoured a far more defensive approach to his predecessor and brought in the experienced Northern Ireland international Sammy Nelson, who had been displaced at Arsenal by the arrival of Kenny Sansom.

Williams only learned about the signing through The Argus and, when he confronted the manager about it, was told Nelson was only going to be a squad player.

“I’m thinking ‘bollocks’ but he didn’t play him straightaway,” Williams recounted. “He couldn’t drop me because I wasn’t doing anything wrong.”

Ironically, however, he lost his place after bombing forward and scoring in a 4-1 win over Manchester City. Astonishingly, Bailey was annoyed that he had been too adventurous!

With Nelson keen to carry on playing and earn a place in Northern Ireland’s 1982 World Cup squad, it meant Williams was left to languish in the reserves.

By the end of the season, though, Mullery, by now manager of Crystal Palace, came to Willams’ rescue and gave him a chance to resume first team football.

In a swap deal that saw winger Neil Smillie arrive at the Goldstone, Williams moved to Selhurst.

But after only 10 games he was forced to have an operation on his troublesome knee. Expert advice steered him towards a painful decision but he took it and retired from the game aged just 29.

Williams told the Argus: “The trouble with my knee is really wear and tear. I had a cartilage out at 17, and I was told after the operation last October a lot of harm might be caused if I went on playing.”

In A Few Good Men, Vignes gained a great insight into a northern lad who fell in love with the Albion and remains a fan to this day.

“I was very lucky in that I played right at the beginning of the era of overlapping full-backs,” Williams told him. “It was beginning to creep in when I first came onto the scene, and I had an advantage as I’d started my career as a left-winger. I knew all about coming forward.”

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Irish international pals brought wing wonder Steve Penney to Brighton

BRIGHTON & Hove Albion can thank former Middlesbrough goalkeeper Jim Platt for landing one of the most exciting players ever to play for the Seagulls.

Platt was the Teesside club’s man between the sticks for 12 years. During his call-ups on international duty with Northern Ireland, he struck up a friendship with Arsenal defender Sammy Nelson, who joined Brighton towards the end of his career.

When Platt took over as manager of Ballymena United, he quickly recognised that a talented teenage winger at his disposal – Steve Penney – could make a career for himself in England.

Platt tipped the wink to his old pal Nelson, newly-appointed as Albon’s assistant manager to Chris Cattlin at the time, and the youngster was invited for a trial.

Penney was put up in a house near the Goldstone recently vacated by the sacked Jimmy Melia. His housemate was another young triallist: Ian Wright! Penney was taken on while Wright was released. Whatever happened to him?!

Penney’s Albion story is told in fine detail by journalist Spencer Vignes who devotes 12 pages of his excellent book A Few Good Men (Breedon Books) to a player who, for the record, played 148 games (plus 14 as sub) in eight years with Brighton.

Unfortunately, that rather low figure tells its own story, a succession of injuries robbing him of probably twice as many games as you might have expected him to have played over that length of time.

“He was, in short, a breath of fresh air, a flying winger whose close control and devastating pace left opponents and spectators alike lost for words,” said Vignes.

Among former teammates who voiced their appreciation of Penney, full back Graham Pearce told Vignes: “I always thought of Steve as a bright young winger, very naturally talented, who had all the attributes you need in that position, especially pace.”

Born in Ballymena on 6 January 1964, the son of a teacher and a nurse, although he played football at primary school, he went to what he described himself as “a fairly posh grammar school” where rugby was the preferred sport for boys, and he was a scrum half.

He got the chance to play football in the Boys Brigade, where Nigel Worthington, who later managed Northern Ireland, also played.

“I had to choose between rugby and football and when I decided to join Ballymena United, the school were so furious they suspended me,” he told interviewer Dave Beckett in a matchday programme feature.

“Playing for my home town was excellent, although I had the chance to join Linfield who were one of the best teams in the country.

“I guested for them in Holland a couple of times so I knew they were interested and that’s where I expect I’d have ended up if I hadn’t moved abroad.”

Instead, Platt alerted Nelson and, bearing in mind Albion’s high profile having only recently played against Manchester United in the Cup Final, Penney didn’t take much persuading.

Beckett recounted: “Penney, at 19 years old, made his debut in a 3-1 defeat by Barnsley but was soon a hot favourite on the terraces. Even in his opening match he set up the goal goal for Alan Young, and John Vinicombe wrote in the Evening Argus: ‘The eye for an opening that Penney unquestionably has will serve Albion well. The Goldstone are going to like him’.”

It wasn’t long before he was playing to a much bigger gallery when he was part of the Albion side who toppled Liverpool in the FA Cup (for the second season running), winning 2-0 in front of a live television audience.

Penney tormented the experienced Liverpool left-back Alan Kennedy and his perfectly-flighted pass over the top of the Liverpool defence played in Terry Connor to score the decisive second goal.

His first goal came in a 3-0 win at Derby County in March 1984 and such was his impact in that first season that he was voted runner-up to Jimmy Case as player of the season.

Away from football, Penney was a decent golfer, his regular companions on the golf course being Dean Saunders, Chris Hutchings, Steve Gatting and former Albion favourite Peter O’Sullivan.

During the winter, he loved nothing more than playing snooker at a club in Hove, especially taking on Saunders and competing for a trophy awarded each week to the winner.

So, life was sweet for the young Irishman and it got even better when his form with Brighton led to full international honours.

SP w Irish shirt

At the time of writing, he remains the highest-capped Albion player, all of his 17 caps for Northern Ireland being won while with the Seagulls.

After making his debut on 16 October 1984 in a 3-0 friendly win over Israel in Belfast, he was a regular for four years, playing his last game on 21 December 1988 in a 4-0 defeat to Spain in a World Cup qualifying match. He scored twice for his country, in a 1-1 draw with Israel on 18 February 1987 and in a 3-0 win over Malta on 21 May 1988.

The highlight of his international career was playing for Northern Ireland at the 1986 Mexico World Cup.

“The whole experience of going to the World Cup was something I’ll never forget,” he said three months later, in a matchday programme interview.

“Six weeks away from home is a long time, but the spirit in the squad was very good and I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.”

Steve had been in the side that qualified for that World Cup by drawing 0-0 against England at Wembley. “We only needed a draw to get to Mexico and we got it,” he said.

“(Manager) Billy Bingham had been a right winger and obviously appreciated what I could do, which was a source of great strength to me. He’d been part of the team that had played in the World Cup in Sweden in 1958, a lovely man who was very good at getting the best out of his players and encouraged me no end, something I’ll always be grateful to him for.”

Unfortunately, Steve’s World Cup came to a juddering halt after Spain’s hard man Emilio Butragueno went over the top in a tackle and did his ankle in only the second group game.

On his return to Brighton, Penney found himself sufficiently impressed by Cattlin’s successor, Alan Mullery, that he was persuaded to sign a new, three-year contract.

However, it wasn’t long afterwards that Penney started having problems with his left knee and, although he played through the pain barrier, in a game against Derby County in March 1987 a bad tackle damaged his ankle ligaments, sidelining him for the rest of the season.

Barry Lloyd had succeeded Mullery and Penney was in the team at the start of the next season but, after only two games, found himself back on the treatment table after a chip of bone was found floating in a knee.

That kept him out for an agonising seven months before he was able to return to the side in March 1988 to play a crucial part in the final 11 games, scoring three times as the Seagulls earned promotion in second place behind Sunderland.

Penney told Vignes: “At that time, playing for Barry was great. The two of us were getting on even though I always thought there was something not quite right between us. To be honest, he had to play me because I strengthened the team and made a difference.”

Halfway through the 1988-89 season, Crystal Palace tried to sign Penney but weren’t prepared to meet Albion’s £175,000 asking price. And then his left knee went again.

Vignes tells the whole gory story in detail, which I won’t repeat here, but, suffice to say, the wrong treatment by one doctor had to be put right by a Harley Street expert.

Penney row Manager Lloyd and Penney also fell out, principally over Penney putting country before club. “He’d play for them, then come back injured. That didn’t please me,” said Lloyd. “It was a crying shame. He just wanted to play but was so plagued with injuries it was beyond belief.”

The split came in 1991 when Lloyd clearly thought the player’s level of fitness didn’t merit a new contract. Interest was shown in him by Heart of Midlothian, managed by Joe Jordan, and Charlton Athletic, where the joint manager was his ex-Albion teammate Alan Curbishley.

Having played a couple of trial games for Hearts, he plumped for them but suffered a groin strain early on and only played 14 games all season.

A 15^th game would have triggered the award of another one-year deal – and it quickly became apparent that it wasn’t going to happen. Freed at the end of the season, he signed for Burnley, newly-promoted from the old Fourth Division, in August 1992. Continue reading “Irish international pals brought wing wonder Steve Penney to Brighton” →

Goalkeeping guru Eric Steele: a promotion talisman at Brighton

GOALKEEPER Eric Steele was involved in an incredible six promotions as a player before becoming one of the country’s top goalkeeping coaches.

Two of those promotions came in his three years with Brighton & Hove Albion and another during a five-year spell at Watford.

His penchant for coaching began during his time at Brighton who he joined in February 1977 for £20,000 from Peterborough United.

As a replacement for the injured Peter Grummitt, Steele made his debut in a 3-1 defeat away to Crystal Palace but the season was to end in triumph. With Peter Ward making the headlines at one end, Steele kept the ‘keeper’s jersey to the end of the season as Albion won promotion to the old Second Division in runners up spot behind Mansfield Town.

As Albion chased a second successive promotion in 1977-78, Steele’s terrific form meant new signing Graham Moseley had to wait five months to make his debut. Steele played 38 matches but Moseley took over for the final four games of the season, as Albion just missed out.

The following season, manager Alan Mullery opted for Moseley as his first choice but the accident-prone former Derby ‘keeper twice caused himself damage – once with a hedge trimmer and then by falling through a plate glass window – which opened the door for Steele, who, by the season’s end, played 27 times compared to Moseley’s 20.

Steele 4 Albion Steele was between the posts as the Seagulls won 3-1 at St James’ Park to win promotion to the elite for the first time in their history, a particularly sweet moment considering Newcastle had discarded him early on in his career.

“It was important to go back as part of something, to show that I should have been given a chance,” he said in a 2019 Albion matchday programme article. And rather than join the infamous promotion party train ride back to Brighton, after the match Steele stayed over in Newcastle.

“I wanted to be with my family,” he said. “They’d supported me all the way from when I was a kid. To actually do it at my hometown club as well was a bit special. It was a great day for me, a really great day.”

In Spencer Vignes’ excellent book A Few Good Men, it’s interesting to hear Moseley’s view about his rival for the shirt. “He was very dedicated, much more so than I ever was. He would train every day after everybody else had finished.”

Nevertheless, at the higher level, it was not long before Mullery decided to dispense with Steele’s services, and it came within a matter of days of an amazing incident at Old Trafford when Steele exchanged punches with his own defender, Gary Williams, in a 2-0 defeat.

*Steele and Williams together in the 1979-80 Albion squad photo*

Argus reporter John Vinicombe produced a book (Super Seagulls) to document the history of Albion’s memorable first season in the first tier and covered in detail Steele’s somewhat acrimonious departure.

“Mullery knew from the beginning that one day he would have to choose between the lightning-on-the-line reflexes of Steele and the aerial domination of his great rival, Moseley,” said Vinicombe.

Mullery told the reporter: “Eric is an exceptionally good goalkeeper on the line, there’s no doubting that. But I feel he is not as commanding in the air as Graham, especially on crosses.”

Steele’s departure was felt quite keenly by the fans who, as much as his contribution on the pitch, had applauded his coaching in local schools and support for Sussex charities, in particular Chailey Heritage.

Regardless of that, in October 1979, Mullery turned a sizeable profit on his original investment and sold Steele to Second Division Watford for £100,000.

The articulate Steele shared his thoughts with the readers of Shoot! magazine.

“I didn’t want to leave Brighton,” he said. “That’s the first and most important point. It wasn’t my decision, it was Alan Mullery’s. I think he was wrong and I’ll be proved right in time. Once he’d made up his mind, I had to resolve myself to leaving.

“But it hurt. It took me a long time to get to the First Division and I think that in the ten games I played, I proved I was good enough to keep my place at that level. But once I knew I was on the move, I wanted to get away as quickly as I could.

“I went on the list on a Thursday and Watford came straight in for me the next day. I’d signed for them within a week. I was very happy to join such a progressive club. I would never have come here if I didn’t believe we would be a First Division side in a couple of years.”

Steele maintained he was taking one step back to take two forward and must have remembered those thoughts when Watford won promotion to the top division for the first time in their history in 1981-82.

However, vying for the no.1 jersey with Steve Sherwood, he made just 65 appearances in five years and said it was when watching from the stands as Watford played in the 1984 FA Cup Final that he realised he needed to move on.

Born on 15 May 1954, Steele’s path to professional football was the one taken by many talented Geordies – via Wallsend Boys Club to Newcastle United.

He never made it to the first team at St James’ Park but put that right when he joined Peterborough, setting a record of 124 consecutive appearances, including being part of the side that won the Fourth Division championship in 1974.

After those spells with Brighton and Watford, he linked up with former Newcastle United boss Arthur Cox at Derby County, and was part of their promotions from the third tier through to the first.

When he retired in 1988, it was to run a pub, but he also set up Eric Steele Coaching Services and began an illustrious career in which he has been instrumental in the development of some of the country’s top goalkeepers, working with ‘keepers at Manchester City, Aston Villa, Leeds United, Derby County, and Barnsley, as well as overseas in Australia, Switzerland, Norway, Germany and the United States.

When another former Watford ‘keeper, Tony Coton, was forced to retire as Manchester United’s goalkeeping coach because of injury, he recommended Steele as his successor.

Coton told the Republik of Mancunia website: “Eric Steele was my goalkeeping coach when I was a player at Manchester City, and it soon became evident after just a couple of training sessions that Eric was a unique and talented coach.

“Eric was different due to his innovative teaching style. Every session was challenging and interesting, and his breadth and depth of knowledge was second to none. Because of this I decided to call Eric ‘The Guru’, a name that he is now known by throughout the Premier League.”

As well as former Brighton ‘keeper Wayne Henderson at Villa, Steele also coached Kaspar Schmeichel at Manchester City. And at Man Utd, he famously played a part in Ben Foster successfully saving a penalty in the 2009 League Cup Final penalty shoot-out after the game ended 0-0.

Foster explained: “We went into the shootout as well prepared as possible. We have had things to look at over the last couple of days and before the shootout you can see me looking at an iPad with Eric Steele.

“It had actual video on it and showed where players put things. It is a new innovation for us. Eric brought it when he came to the club. I have never seen anything like it. It is a fantastic tool for us.”

Steele was part of Sir Alex Ferguson’s team at United between 2008 and 2013 and helped to recruit long-standing no. 1 David de Gea.

When Ferguson stood down at Old Trafford, Steele returned to Derby – where he’d previously worked as a coach for four years – under Steve McLaren and then went on to coach young goalkeepers for the English FA. He’s also an ambassador for Evolution Goalkeeper Coaching.

*Steele has coached young England goalkeepers*

Scrapbook photos from the Albion matchday programme, the Argus, and the republikofmancunia.com.

Top one shows Steele in action in one of his early Albion matches, a top-of-the-table clash against Mansfield Town in front of a packed Goldstone. I am one of those supporters crammed into that south west corner terrace!
Peter O’Sullivan (left) looks on as Steele claims a cross in a home game against Crystal Palace.
Steele and ref Pat Partridge see the funny side of it as spongeman Glen Wilson fixes a facial injury to Steve Piper.
A thumbs up to the crowd as Steele says his farewell at the Goldstone.
Steele working at Man Utd with David de Gea.

‘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 wizard Peter O’Sullivan an all-time Albion great

WHILE Peter Ward rightly attracted much of the attention during Albion’s rise to the top in the late ‘70s, few would deny that midfield maestro PETER O’SULLIVAN also deserves a place amongst the club’s all-time greats.

Sully had a long career with the Seagulls before a short stint with Fulham towards the end of his playing days.

The statisticians of the modern football era would have needed their calculators to record the ‘assists’ racked up by Sully, who, from the left wing or left midfield, found goalscoring teammates with unerring accuracy throughout a remarkable 11 years with the Albion.

Managers came and went, a huge swathe of teammates were discarded, but Sully stayed put, showed his worth to whoever sat in the manager’s chair, and entertained the watching faithful.

He played in the same position as the Brazilian genius Rivelino and even sported the same style of moustache in homage to him.

As Brighton rose through the footballing pyramid, Sully was a constant, displaying the talent to make an impact in the third, second and top tiers. One of his former teammates, Andy Rollings, maintained: “He should have played at the top level all the time, he was that good a player.

“He had natural ability and great fitness,” Rollings told freelance journalist Spencer Vignes. “What he did at this club was incredible, and as an individual player he was one of the best I ever played with. He’s a lovely, smashing guy.”

In the excellent Vignes’ book A Few Good Men (Breedon Books Publishing), Sully admitted there had been occasions when he couldn’t wait to get away from Brighton, and he had some serious arguments with all of the managers he played under.

Sully shared his thoughts in a Goal magazine article of 22 December 1973, a couple of months after the arrival of Brian Clough and Peter Taylor. Having won promotion from the Third Division, won five Wales under 23 caps and made his full international debut against Scotland, he was disillusioned after relegation from Division 2.

“I was bitterly disappointed at that,” he said. “It seemed at last I was getting over the depression of being in the Manchester United reserves for four years when life began to turn sour again.”

However, with the arrival of Clough and Taylor, O’Sullivan changed his outlook and told the magazine: “I’ve been impressed with their ideas and they have completely overhauled the set up down here. Now I am more than happy to stay – that is if Mr Clough still wants me – and help Brighton back into the big time.

“The potential down here is enormous and I am sure we will realise it under Mr Clough.”

Vignes’ 2007 interview with Sully explained exactly how he ended up at Brighton having been given a free transfer from Manchester United. None other than the great Bobby Charlton was responsible.

sully man u

Young Peter crouches alongside George Best in a Manchester United team photo

Born in Colwyn Bay, north Wales, on 4 March 1951, Sully had trained alongside the United legend while at Old Trafford as a youngster and, on being released on a free transfer in 1970, was considering offers from several different clubs.

He’d gone to Bristol to have a trial with Bristol City when, on a neighbouring pitch, Charlton was taking part in an England training session prior to the 1970 Mexico World Cup.

The kindly maestro exchanged the time of day with his recently departed colleague and asked which clubs were in for him. On hearing that one of them was Brighton, managed by his former Busby Babe teammate, Freddie Goodwin, Charlton advised him to link up with his old pal……and the rest, as they say, is history.

What Charlton and Sully didn’t know, however, was that no sooner had he arrived on the south coast than Goodwin was heading for the exit, en route to Birmingham City. Sully hadn’t even kicked a ball in anger for him.

“I was a little apprehensive about joining Brighton and it was unsettling when Freddie Goodwin left the club before I had even played for Albion,” he said. “I wondered what was going on and how it would affect me.

“But then Pat Saward arrived and I was overjoyed when he put me in the team. My hopes were quickly dashed again, though, when he dropped me after about six games.”

A homesick Sully struggled to settle at first but he stuck at it and went on to cement his place in the side. He ultimately featured under four different managers, Saward, Clough, Taylor and Alan Mullery.

He was part of the promotion-winning teams in 1972, 1976 and 1979, and was player of the season in 1978. He won promotion with Fulham too, going up to the old Division 2 in 1982 when the former Newcastle, Arsenal and England centre forward Malcolm MacDonald was in charge.

Sully had one amazing period with the Albion in which he made 194 consecutive appearances, an Albion record for an outfield player.

The performances of the lad from Colwyn Bay also saw him earn three international caps for Wales, two against Scotland and one in a rout against Malta when he also got on the scoresheet. Unfortunately for him, during the same period, a superb left-sided player called Leighton James was the first choice for the national side.

“When I joined Manchester United from school it was always one of my ambitions to play for Wales,” he told the Albion matchday programme. “But I thought those hopes had been dashed when Manchester United released me.” PO Wales

Sully’s 491 appearances for Brighton made him the club’s longest-serving post-war player. He actually left the club in 1980 to play in America for San Diego Sockers but a £50,000 transfer fee saw him return just five months later.

Eventually Sully moved on to Fulham in 1981 and notched up 46 appearances. There were short loan spells with Reading and Charlton in 1982-83 and his Football League career came to an end when he made 14 appearances for Aldershot in the following season.

In parallel lines

Memories from 55 years following Brighton & Hove Albion

Tag: A Few Good Men