When Albion legend Peter Ward went from hero to villain

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

*Ward and Mellor were a prolific goalscoring partnership*

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

When football didn’t deliver the right break for Colin Dobson

THE architect of Brighton’s humiliating 8-2 home defeat to Bristol Rovers in 1973 was none other than a player who might have been wearing Albion’s stripes if injury hadn’t struck.

Goalscoring winger Colin Dobson turned goal provider the day Rovers were rampant at the Goldstone Ground. Twenty-one months earlier he’d left the same pitch on a stretcher, not certain that he’d ever be able to play again.

Dobson had joined Brighton on loan in January 1972, making his debut in a mid-season friendly against his parent club, Huddersfield Town, on 18 January.

Ironically, his first meaningful Albion action came against Rovers when he was a substitute in a 2-2 draw at Eastville on 22 January.

Dobson was also on the bench for the home 1-0 win over Swansea City the following Saturday. He was elevated to the starting line-up away to Wrexham on 5 February, when goals from Willie Irvine and Peter O’Sullivan sealed a vital 2-1 win.

It was during his full home debut against Walsall on 12 February that his short-lived Albion career came to a sudden halt. Albion lost 2-1 and Dobson suffered an ankle fracture.

It had been expected that Albion would sign him permanently, and he told the Evening Argus that he had been offered a good deal to do so, but the injury put paid to the transfer being completed.

With Pat Saward’s side heading towards promotion with Aston Villa, the Irish manager instead went back to Wolverhampton Wanderers to sign Bertie Lutton, who had been on loan earlier in the season.

Lutton duly played his part as the Seagulls acquired the necessary points to earn promotion, while Dobson nursed an injury which at the time threatened to end his playing days.

His six-year Huddersfield career at an end, in the summer of 1972 he accepted a role as player-coach at Bristol Rovers, working under his former Sheffield Wednesday teammate, Don Megson.

Dobson Rovers

Thus it was that he was part of a Rovers side who had gone 18 matches unbeaten when they showed up at the Goldstone on a cold winter’s day on the first day of December 1973 to tackle Brian Clough’s Albion in front of The Big Match television cameras.

The game was only five minutes old when Dobson played in Alan Warboys who beat Norman Gall before passing to his strike partner Bruce Bannister to open the scoring.

Seven minutes later, Dobson took Warboys’ pass and laid on a pinpoint centre for Gordon Fearnley to score with a header. The game was still six minutes short of half-time when another Dobson centre was met by Warboys to make the score 5-1 to the visitors.

John Vinicombe, Albion reporter for the Argus, declared in his summary: “To Colin Dobson, freed by Albion when a broken ankle looked like ending his career, the accolade for a thinking player.

“He masterminded the operation in unbelievably generous space. Bruce Bannister knifed through for the early, killing goals, and Alan Warboys, superbly balanced and fast on the slightly frozen pitch, looked the perfect striker, taking his four goals so cleanly.”

An incandescent Clough told the media: “I was ashamed for the town and the club that 11 players could play like that. I feel sick. We were pathetic. This side hasn’t got enough heart to fill a thimble.”

Rovers went on to win promotion to the second tier that season and Dobson eventually completed 63 league and cup games for them before retiring at the end of the 1975-76 season.

Born on 9 May 1940 in Eston, North Yorkshire, Dobson joined Sheffield Wednesday at 15, and made a name for himself with the Owls in the days when they played in the top tier of English football.

He earned a reputation as a goalscoring winger after making his debut in 1961 and scored 52 goals in 193 games over the next five years.

He was twice capped by England Under 23s: on 29 May 1963, he came on as a substitute for Alan Suddick as England beat Yugoslavia 4-2 in Belgrade. Alan Hinton scored a hat-trick for England and the other goal was a penalty by Graham Cross, then with Leicester but later a Brighton player. Future England World Cup winner George Cohen was the side’s right-back.

Four days later, with Ernie Hunt leading the line, Dobson started for England when they lost 1-0 to Romania in Bucharest.

In 1966, Dobson made the switch to second division Huddersfield for a £21,000 fee and he was Town’s top scorer in the 1967-68 season (with 14 goals) and 1968-69 (with 11).

Although full international honours eluded him, in the summer of 1968, he was selected for the Football Association Commonwealth tour of the USA, New Zealand, Malaysia and Hong Kong.

He was also part of the side Ian Greaves led to the 1969-70 Second Division title, but he only made a handful of top-flight appearances, and his last Huddersfield appearance was against Stoke City in an FA Cup fourth-round replay in January 1971.

Once his playing days were over, Dobson worked for a whole host of clubs in a coaching or scouting capacity, including Port Vale, Coventry City, Aston Villa, clubs in the Middle-East (Bahraini side West Riffa; Al Rayyan in Qatar; Kuwaiti side Al Arabi, and Oman’s Under-17s), Portugal’s Sporting Lisbon, Gillingham, Watford and Stoke, where he renewed his acquaintance with John Rudge, who he had known at Huddersfield and Bristol Rovers, who was director of football for the Potters.

It was during his time with Stoke that he discovered the future Manchester United and England goalkeeper Ben Foster, a chef playing part-time non-league football at the time.

Foster later told the Birmingham Mail: “There was a scout called Colin Dobson who worked for Stoke but was living in Warwick.

“One night he saw some floodlights, stopped off and had a watch of the game and I caught the eye. That was it. He made a note of it and came to watch me a few more times.

“I owe it all to him. Top man. Whether I’d still be working as a chef if he hadn’t spotted me, I don’t know.”

Dobson died in Middlesbrough aged 82 on 16 February 2023.

Pictures from my scrapbook. Originally sourced from the Evening Argus, Shoot! and Goal magazines.

Cross the colossus majestic in promotion-winning season

1-cross-clincher GRAHAM Cross won promotion from the third tier in successive seasons – one with Brighton & Hove Albion, the next with Preston North End.

They came after a record-breaking 15-year spell with his hometown club Leicester City.

Cross was a tower of strength and ever-present in Alan Mullery’s 1976-77 promotion-winning team. He was so consistent that his fellow professionals named him and fellow Seagulls Brian Horton and Peter Ward in the division’s PFA team of the year.

One standout performance I recall was in a cracking League Cup replay at the Goldstone against Division 1 side Ipswich Town on 7 September 1976 (see picture above).

Despite the Albion being down to 10 men, having had Phil Beal carried off injured after sub Ian Mellor had already come on, Cross scored the winning goal two minutes from time to give Albion their first competitive victory against a first division team for 43 years!

“Graham had an absolutely tremendous 1976-77 season for us and I can’t speak too highly of him,” Mullery told Shoot! “When I first started planning for the new term I reckoned on having him in the side for our step up into the Second Division.”

G Cross BW HS However, when he realised he could land the highly promising 20-year-old Mark Lawrenson from Preston for £112,000, those plans changed.

Lawrenson had played brilliantly against the Albion during the promotion season and was eager to take the step up so he headed south together with full back Gary Williams and Cross and left back Harry Wilson went in the opposite direction.

“I wish him well at Preston and can assure their supporters they are getting one of the most honest lads in the game in Graham,” said Mullery.

Cross certainly played his part as Preston earned promotion from the third tier – one of his teammates was centre forward Michael Robinson, who joined Albion in 1980 – but in the following season the magic touch eluded him when he played 19 times for Lincoln City but didn’t manage to stop them being relegated to the Fourth Division.

3-gc-leicester Cross had been part of the furniture at Leicester and the meashamfox blog recalls how he scored on his debut on 29 April 1961 against Birmingham City in a 3-2 win at Filbert Street.

He was a real ‘Mr Versatility’ who played in eight different positions, although mostly in midfield – the history books describe him as an inside forward or wing half – and at centre back.

During all the hullabaloo surrounding Leicester’s remarkable Premiership title win in 2016, there were flashbacks to the last time a Leicester side went that close to clinching the league title – in 1962-63 – with Cross a member of that side.

In an interview with the Leicester Mercury, his former Scottish international teammate Frank McLintock spoke about a so-called signature move called ‘the switch’ Leicester employed whereby Cross dropped back and McLintock bombed past him.

“It was a load of rubbish, really,” McLintock told the paper. “It was just that I was really fit and Graham, who was a great player, would be a bit puffed out when he got back. We just swapped positions for a bit.

“The opposition would get confused with who was picking up who. Even Bill Shankly copied it later on at Liverpool.”

Unlike the 2016 vintage, the 1963 side blew their title chances by losing their last four league games. However, they did reach the FA Cup Final that year. Cross was in the side that lost 3-1 to Manchester United. He was also in the Leicester side that lost the 1969 final 1-0 to Manchester City.

His performances in 1963 were good enough to earn him a call up to the England under 23 team, making his debut in a 0-0 draw with Yugoslavia at Old Trafford. In the return fixture two months later, he scored a penalty to supplement an Alan Hinton hat-trick as England won 4-2.

He was a permanent fixture in the side for 10 matches (including a 4-1 win over West Germany, when future Albion colleague Peter Grummitt was in goal). But in November 1964, Leeds’ Norman Hunter took over the no.6 shirt.

Cross was recalled for one more game, in April 1966, when the under 23s beat Turkey 2-0 at Ewood Park. Two of the side that day – Martin Peters and Roger Hunt – would go on to be part of the England World Cup winning team three months later, but Cross never progressed to the senior England team.

Nevertheless he did pick up a League Cup winner’s medal when Leicester beat Stoke City in 1964 but was a loser the following year when they were beaten narrowly by a Chelsea side containing Barry Bridges and Bert Murray.

Three years before joining Brighton, Cross received a long service clock to mark 500 first class appearances.

Throughout this period, he was also one of that rare breed who played county cricket too.

A right-arm medium-fast bowler, he played 83 first class matches for Leicestershire between 1962 and 1976 and took 92 wickets at an average of 29.95. His top batting performance was a knock of 78.

I am indebted once more to the meashamfox blog to learn that it was Cross’ dual sporting prowess that eventually brought his Leicester career to an end.

In the summer of 1975, he was part of the Leicestershire side captained by Ray Illingworth that won the county championship and the Benson and Hedges Cup, making him the only man to have played in cup finals at Wembley and Lord’s.

But the Leicester board took a dim view of him carrying on playing cricket instead of reporting back for pre-season training and he was suspended.

He was sent out on loan to Chesterfield and played 12 times for them in the 1975-76 season, before being released.

He arrived at the Goldstone on May 25 1976 at the same time as full back (and future manager) Chris Cattlin.

Manager Peter Taylor had impeccable contacts in the Midlands and in Cattlin, from Coventry, and Cross, from Leicester, he acquired two experienced campaigners who had played at the top level in the game for many years.

Taylor’s intention was that Cross would have the sort of impact at Brighton that the ageing Dave Mackay had on Derby when Taylor and Brian Clough signed him from Spurs. G Cross LEic

Taylor had tried to sign Cross before, in the pair’s early days at Derby. Leicester even accepted an £80,000 bid but Cross prevaricated over the move and they turned their attentions elsewhere. He admitted his regret at missing out on the £4,000 cut of the deal but told Goal magazine: “I’m happy in Leicester and I’m pleased that I decided to stay.”

That decision would ultimately lead him to become the all-time appearance record holder for Leicester, having played 599 games; a feat still not surpassed.

Clough and Taylor were renowned for building their sides on solid defences and, having already captured Grummitt, Graham Winstanley, Andy Rollings and Wilson, Taylor added Ken Tiler, Dennis Burnett, Cattlin and Cross.

Taylor, of course, didn’t hang around to see how Cattlin and Cross would contribute. With only four weeks to go to the start of the season, he decided to quit and renew his partnership with Clough, this time at Nottingham Forest.

One of the first images fans saw of his replacement, Alan Mullery, showed him embracing Cross and Cattlin at the pre-season press photocall.

Cross mostly played alongside Rollings, with Burnett and Winstanley filling in when Rollings was sidelined.

Interestingly, Cross never actually moved to Brighton during his spell with the Seagulls: the deal he agreed allowed him to continue to train with Leicester because he and his wife had business interests in the Leicester area.

The meashamfox blog declared “Graham Cross was Leicester City’s finest ever player” although the author was also sad to report how in February 1993 “he had been jailed for using post office funds to pay off his gambling debts”.

The blog concluded: “Despite this blip in his life, for me ‘The Tank’ Graham Cross is a true Leicester legend.”

Pictures from my scrapbook show:

A cracking Argus picture and headline record the winner Graham Cross scored against Ipswich in the League Cup.
A full page colour photo in Goal magazine when at Leicester.
Celebrating his inclusion in the PFA division 3 team of the year with Brian Horton and Peter Ward at the annual awards dinner.
Another Goal article, from 1973, marking a clock presentation to Cross in recognition of 500 senior appearances for Leicester.
Cross in the Preston team line-up alongside Michael Robinson, who would eventually join the Seagulls via Manchester City.

*Cross aged 77 was interviewed and photographed by* The Times ahead of Leicester’s 2021 FA Cup Final win over Chelsea

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

murray brum

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

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

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

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

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

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

murray poy

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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