A WIN ON his debut was as good as it got in Sussex-born tenacious midfielder Stan Brown’s two months as a Brighton player.
Brown, who spent 15 years with Fulham, was one of too many loan signings manager Pat Saward turned to as he dismantled his 1972 promotion-winning side and tried in vain to get Albion to adapt to the old Second Division.
Brown had six seasons as a Fulham regular in the old First Division, two in the Second and two in the Third before his two-month loan with the Albion.
He was following in the footsteps of two of his five brothers, Irvin and Alan, who had both played briefly for Brighton several years earlier.
Stan certainly couldn’t have wished for a better start, in a side with another loanee debutant, Luton’s John Moore (in as a replacement for sold ex-skipper John Napier), for an away match at Huddersfield Town on 14 October 1972.
With only one win (ironically against Fulham) in the opening 12 league games, there was cause for optimism that a corner had been turned when the Albion earned a surprise 2-0 victory in south Yorkshire (Eddie Spearritt and Barry Bridges the scorers).
A Goal magazine picture shows Brown in action for Fulham against Albion’s Eddie Spearritt in 1969-70
“It was as if I had been playing for Albion all my life,” Brown told the matchday programme. “You see, I live at Lewes, the training ground is only four miles from my house and I have known Bert Murray and Barry Bridges for a long time.
“As for the rest of the lads, I felt I knew them too from reading about them in the Evening Argus every night. So, when it actually came to turn out for Albion at Huddersfield I knew all the players by their first names.”
Manager Saward was certainly impressed by the impact of his two new acquisitions. “The new men played a major part in our success,” he said. “It was quite remarkable really the way they slotted into the side as if they had been playing for Albion all season.
“They are, of course, experienced professionals who have been around the game a long time. But even the best professionals sometimes take time to settle into new environments and this is why the performances of these two was so outstanding.”
Injuries to regular midfielders John Templeman and Brian Bromley had provided an opening for Brown and his subsequent involvement helped the side to three successive draws. But the wheels fell off big time in his last five games as Albion lost the lot without scoring a goal.
Brown returned briefly to Craven Cottage before moving on to Colchester United while Albion’s losing streak continued through to the following February!
Although fortunes eventually improved in the final third of the season, the damage had been done and Albion dropped straight back down to the old Third Division.
Born in Lewes on 15 September 1941, Brown played for East Sussex schoolboys and captained Sussex Schools. It was in that representative side that he was spotted by Fulham, who took him on as a 16-year-old apprentice in 1957.
Older brother Irvin, a centre-half, had joined Albion’s staff in 1951 but only played three games in the 1957-58 season before moving on to greater success with Bournemouth; signed by Don Welsh, the manager who’d taken him to Brighton.
The day after Irvin left the Albion in 1958, 6’4” brother Alan signed for the club as a centre-half but was converted into a centre-forward and scored twice in eight first team games before moving on to Exeter City; signed by former Brighton teammate Glen Wilson.
Stan was undoubtedly the most successful of the three although, when he made his Fulham first team debut on 21 January 1961, it was memorable for all the wrong reasons: he was in for the injured Johnny Haynes and Fulham lost 6-1 at home to Sheffield Wednesday.
Johnny Haynes & Stan Brown
Initially a centre-forward, at 5ft 7ins he was on the small side to lead the attack, so switched to midfield – his preferred position – but he also featured in the back four.
It was in the 1962-63 season that he earned a regular place in the side and was known as a “player’s player” for his selflessness and desire to put the team before his own ambitions. He enjoyed playing in midfield alongside Haynes and Alan Mullery but was prepared to slot in anywhere if necessary.
Fulham fan Pete Grinham summed him up as “a high octane team player of the highest calibre without the individual skills of his more illustrious teammates but with the heart of a lion”.
The supporter added: “He was a very effective, tenacious tackler, and his distribution was extremely good. He did the lion’s share of the hard graft allowing others to shine.
“This selfless work for the team was not always appreciated in some fan quarters but if you could ask any player who played with him, they would commend his importance to the team.”
His loyalty to Fulham was rewarded with a testimonial game in late 1970, Fulham losing 2-0 to Chelsea at Craven Cottage watched by a crowd of 11,024.
His total of 393 appearances for Fulham, plus five as a substitute, put him in the Cottagers’ top 20 appearances’ chart. It was only when Mullery returned to the Cottage from Spurs in the summer of 1972 that Brown lost his place.
Grinham was staggered to see Brown appear at the age of 59 in a testimonial for Simon Morgan, another Fulham stalwart, who won promotion with the Albion in 2002.
The game, on 2 August 2000, saw Brown play for a Fulham veterans side against Chelsea veterans, still displaying a remarkable level of fitness.
It was that fitness that had seen his post-Fulham career continue at Colchester for five months (he played 23 matches through to the end of the 1972-73 season), then Wimbledon (1973-74) and Margate.
He continued to play at Sussex County League level for a number of years, turning out for Haywards Heath, Ringmer, Southwick and Burgess Hill, and also playing for the county representative side.
When he died aged 76 on 16 March 2017, the Argus remembered how Brown helped to nurture young talent by coaching junior football teams Lewes Bridge View and Ringmer Rovers, as well as setting up and organising the Lewes Saturday Soccer School.
ONE OF West Ham’s less well-known ‘Boys of ‘86’ tried to boost his stuttering career on a month’s loan with the Seagulls.
Hammers fans still laud the achievements of John Lyall’s title-chasing side of the 1985-86 season because they finished third, the club’s highest-ever position in the top division.
The form of twin strikers Frank McAvennie (26 goals) and Tony Cottee (20) meant chances were few and far between for Greg Campbell, a youngster trying to get a break into the first team.
However, by virtue of one start and two substitute appearances early on in that famous season, Campbell can claim a place amongst the ‘Boys of 86’ whose achievements have since been captured in a book and in a video.
The group of ex-players, that included George Parris who later played for Brighton, regularly get back together for social occasions to raise funds for various charities.
It was in the season following West Ham’s close finish behind champions Liverpool and runners up Everton that Campbell sought to get some first team football at Brighton.
In his matchday programme notes, manager Barry Lloyd said: “He is a young player who has learned the game at West Ham and I believe he has something to offer as a conventional target man.”
Unfortunately for him he joined a club that was sliding inexorably towards relegation from the second tier, Lloyd having taken over as boss the previous month after the controversial sacking of Alan Mullery only six months into his return to the scene of past glories.
When Campbell joined, Lloyd had presided over five straight defeats in which 10 goals were conceded and Albion had dropped to second from bottom in the table.
The manager shook things up for the visit to West Brom on 28 February, dropping goalkeeper John Keeley, Darren Hughes and Terry Connor and putting Campbell, who had made his debut in the Reserves against Norwich, on the substitute’s bench (in the days of only one sub).
A dour 0-0 draw was ground out to earn a much-needed point but Campbell didn’t get on. He led the line for the reserves in a midweek 2-0 defeat at home to Fulham and had to wait until the following Saturday to make his first team debut.
Then, he was sent on as a substitute for Steve Penney in the home game against Derby County but to no avail as Albion succumbed to a 1-0 defeat. It was Dean Saunders’ last game for Brighton; shortly afterwards he was sold to Oxford United for just £60,000 (four years later, Liverpool bought him for nearly £3m).
Four days later, Campbell scored for the reserves in a 4-1 defeat at Swindon Town, but it still wasn’t enough to gain a starting spot. Away to Barnsley the following Saturday, once again Campbell found himself on the bench, the restored Connor and ex-Worthing striker Richard Tiltman preferred up top. Tiltman scored but once again Albion were on the losing side, going down 3-1.
When Ipswich Town visited the Goldstone on 21 March, only 8,393 turned up (700 down on the previous home game) and the increasingly frustrated faithful saw the Albion lose again, 2-1.
Campbell once more only got on as a substitute, replacing right-back Kevan Brown, and that was his last involvement in a Seagulls shirt.
Born in Portsmouth on 13 July 1965, Campbell had footballing footsteps to follow into: his dad Bobby Campbell (a great friend of Jimmy Melia’s) played for Liverpool and Portsmouth, coached Arsenal and QPR, and was manager of Fulham, Pompey and Chelsea.
Campbell and George Parris line up for West Ham’s youth team
After progressing through West Ham’s youth and apprentice ranks, the young Campbell was given his first team debut by Lyall, up front alongside Cottee and Bobby Barnes in a 3-1 home win over Coventry on 4 September 1984.
He made his second start just four days later, in a 2-0 home victory over Watford, but a broken jaw put paid to his involvement in that game.
The injury meant he had a long wait before he was next on first team duty, making a return as a substitute in a 1-0 home defeat to Luton Town on 24 August 1985.
He appeared from the bench again two days later in a 2-0 defeat at Manchester United before making his only start of the aforementioned 1985-86 campaign in a 1-1 draw at Southampton.
He started alongside McAvennie but was replaced by Cottee and that appearance at The Dell on 3 September 1985 was Campbell’s last in the Hammers first team.
After he was released by West Ham, he tried his luck in Holland, playing 15 games for Sparta Rotterdam in the 1987-88 season, during Hans van der Zee’s reign as manager.
On his return from Holland in November 1988, Campbell joined Plymouth Argyle where the former West Ham defender and Norwich City manager, Ken Brown (see picture below), was in charge.
As the excellent greensonscreen.co.uk website records, Campbell’s first match was against his dad’s Chelsea side in the Simod Cup at Stamford Bridge.
It wasn’t a happy return to English football, though, because Chelsea ran out 6-2 winners.
Nevertheless, he celebrated his Argyle league debut two weeks later with a goal in a 3-0 home win over Oldham Athletic.
Campbell spent 18 months with the Devon side and scored six times in 24 starts plus 15 games as a sub.
He moved on to Division Four Northampton Town, where former Cobblers stalwart Theo Foley had returned as manager.
Campbell (circled) lines up for Northampton Town
Campbell teamed up with former West Ham teammate Barnes, who went on to become a respected administrator for the PFA for more than 20 years.
Campbell scored seven goals in 47 appearances for the Cobblers before retiring from the game at the age of 27 in 1992.
A GOALKEEPER with film star looks signed for Brighton from Arsenal just after England lifted the World Cup.
Tony Burns had kept goal for the Gunners in 31 top-flight matches and Albion boss Archie Macaulay, who had played for Arsenal himself, went back to his old club to sign a no.1 to challenge the emerging local lad, Brian Powney.
It wasn’t difficult for Burns to settle at the Goldstone because the dressing room included Northern Irish full-back Jimmy Magill and winger Brian Tawse, familiar faces from his time in north London who’d also made the switch to Brighton.
It also wasn’t long before female fans who admired his smouldering good looks were sending in letters to the office inquiring about his eligibility!
Burns relived his career in detail in 2020 when interviewed by 17-year-old would-be journalist Jed Vine, who watches games at the Amex with his mother, and games at the Emirates with his dad.
Born in Edenbridge, Kent, on 27 March 1944, Burns first showed his goalkeeping prowess during his schooldays in the town before he joined Southern League club Tonbridge (now Tonbridge Angels) who he returned to twice more and later managed three times.
He made his Southern League debut against Yiewsley (later to become Hillingdon Borough) in February 1963 and only his third game for Tonbridge was as an 18-year-old against Arsenal at Highbury.
With long term custodian Jack Kelsey retiring, Arsenal were looking around for likely successors and, liking what they saw of Burns, offered him a contract.
“In his early days at Highbury, he showed immense potential and, after benefitting from Kelsey`s coaching, made encouraging strides,” a 2020 Pitching In piece for the Southern League recalled.
Manager Billy Wright gave him his senior Arsenal debut in a friendly against Enschede in Holland in August 1963, with Magill in defence, and he got his first taste of South Africa on a five-game tour the following May when he was in goal for Arsenal’s 5-1 win over a Western Province XI and their 6-0 win over an Eastern Province XI.
But his big breakthrough came when he made his league debut in a 3-2 home win over Burnley in October 1964 (three days earlier he’d played in goal in a 7-0 friendly win over non-league Corinthian Casuals).
“I felt on top of the world. I had always wanted to play for the Gunners and here I was keeping goal for them, and on the winning side at that,” he told the Albion matchday programme. “There’s only one first match and I’ll never forget this one.”
Once he got the shirt, he had a run of 26 games (32 including friendlies) from October 1964 through to the end of March 1965.
He generally played in front of a defence featuring the likes of Don Howe, Frank McLintock and Ian Ure with John Radford and Joe Baker up front.
During the first half of the 1965-66 season, Burns appeared in seven league games and three friendlies, but his final Gunners first team appearance came on 27 December 1965 in a 4-0 defeat away to Sheffield Wednesday.
Jim Furnell was Wright’s preferred first choice, and, as the season wore on, the emerging Bob Wilson was getting the nod ahead of him as stand-in (although it wasn’t until 1968 that Wilson finally ousted Furnell).
Disappointed to leave, Burns nonetheless went in search of regular football by joining Third Division Brighton for £2,000 in July 1966.
He made his first appearance for the Albion on 17 September 1966, when he took over from the injured Powney, but Brighton went down 2-0 to Grimsby Town.
Powney returned the following week and Burns had to wait until January for his next games – two FA Cup ties against Aldershot.
Burns in action versus Chelsea
He kept his place for the big fourth round FA Cup game against First Division Chelsea at the Goldstone which finished 1-1 when his former Arsenal teammate Tawse controversially had what he thought was a cracking late winner ruled out for a foul by Kit Napier.
Unfortunately, Burns conceded four in the replay at Stamford Bridge as the superior Chelsea side made the most of home advantage to ease their way through comfortably, 4-0. That was the season they went all the way to the final only to lose 2-1 to Tottenham Hotspur, whose ranks included Alan Mullery and Joe Kinnear.
By the end of the season, Burns had played 18 matches against Powney’s 37. But Burns had the upper hand in 1967-68 featuring in 29 games compared to Powney’s 21.
He also started the 1968-69 season as first choice but his 54th and final game for the Albion was in the 2-1 home defeat to Northampton in the second round of the FA Cup on 20 December 1968.
New manager Freddie Goodwin brought in former Wolves and Aston Villa ‘keeper Geoff Sidebottom to challenge Powney and let Burns leave on a free transfer in March 1969.
He joined Charlton Athletic, where he made 10 appearances in their unsuccessful tilt at promotion, but declined what he saw as a derisory contract offer. He returned to Tonbridge briefly and in January 1971 headed off to play in South Africa, initially for Durban United, and later, Maritzburg.
In his interview with Jed, he recalls playing in an English All Stars team managed by Malcolm Allison who invited him to return to England with Crystal Palace when his contract was up.
Burns made the move in October 1973 after previous Palace no.1 (and later Albion youth coach) John Jackson had moved to Orient.
He shared goalkeeping duties with Paul Hammond, playing a total of 90 matches between the sticks for Palace over the next four years under Allison and his successor Terry Venables.
In 1977, Burns played half a dozen games on loan for Brentford before heading off to the States like a lot of ageing players did at that time.
The ‘keeper played a dozen games for Memphis Rogues in the North American Football League. They were coached by former Chelsea defender and manager Eddie McCreadie although Burns had gone there to team up with former boss Allison who was sacked without a ball being kicked because he hadn’t signed enough players!
Burns played for Memphis Rogues in the USA
Among Burns’ teammates were a young Neil Smillie, who’d been struggling for games at Palace, Phil Beal, who had left Brighton the year before, John Faulkner, the one-time Leeds and Luton defender, and the flamboyant Alan Birchenall, beloved by Leicester City supporters of many generations.
Back in the UK in 1978, Burns joined Plymouth Argyle as cover for Martin Hodge, and ended his league playing days in this country appearing in 11 games in the first half of the 1978-79 season.
However, he left Home Park to rejoin Tonbridge Angels for a third time and he also played for Hastings United and Dartford.
After his playing days were over, Burns had three spells in charge of Tonbridge, from August 1980 to December 1982, August 1989 to May 1990, and in a caretaker role from November 2001 to May 2002 (by which time he was goalkeeping coach at Millwall, who he joined in 1992 under Mick McCarthy.
Burns served as goalkeeper coach under several Millwall managers. Picture: Brian Tonks.
He also spent seven years as manager of Gravesend and Northfleet (who became Ebbsfleet United) between 1982 and 1989.
But it was at Millwall where he finally found a permanent home, working under no fewer than 18 different managers, including Steve Gritt and Mark McGhee.
He was even at the helm himself for a while, working as co-caretaker manager with former Lions boss Alan McLeary after Dave Tuttle’s departure in April 2006, when Millwall’s relegation had already been confirmed.
The appointment of Nigel Spackman the following month led to Burns’ departure in July 2006, when he took up a similar role at his old club Palace, working under former Albion boss Peter Taylor coaching Julian Speroni and Scott Flinders.
Goalkeeping coach at Palace under Peter Taylor
He left Selhurst in November 2007 when Taylor lost his job, and Speroni told yourlocalguardian.co.uk: “It was sad to lose Tony Burns because we worked well with him. During last season when I wasn’t playing regular football, Tony was the one who kept me going which was very important.”
Burns moved with Taylor to Conference side Stevenage Borough but later returned to Millwall under Kenny Jackett before stepping down in 2012, when he was succeeded by Kevin Pressman.
Still, he wasn’t finished with the game, though, and at the age of 70, in the summer of 2014, he teamed up with Taylor yet again to become goalkeeping coach at Gillingham. He joined them on a part-time non-contract basis as a replacement for Carl Muggleton.
ANY Brighton player who scores twice in a win over Crystal Palace is generally revered forever. The sheen John Gregory acquired for that feat was somewhat tarnished when he was manager of Aston Villa.
Gregory’s brace in a vital 3-0 win over Palace on Easter Saturday 1981 helped ensure the Seagulls survived in the top-flight (while the Eagles were already heading for relegation).
In 1998, though, he was caught up in a wrangle over Brighton’s efforts to secure a sizeable fee for their input to the early career of Gareth Barry, who’d joined Villa while still a teenage prodigy.
Albion’s chairman Dick Knight pursued the matter through the correct football channels and eventually secured a potential seven-figure sum of compensation for the St Leonards-born player, who spent six years in Brighton’s youth ranks but refused to sign a YTS deal after Villa’s approach.
The Football League appeals tribunal met in London and ruled the Premiership side should pay Brighton £150,000 immediately, rising to a maximum £1,025,000 if he made 60 first-team appearances and was capped by England. Brighton were also to receive 15 per cent of any sell-on fee.
“It was what I had hoped for, although I hadn’t necessarily expected the tribunal to deliver it,” Knight said in his autobiography, Mad Man – From the Gutter to the Stars. “Villa certainly hadn’t; Gregory was furious and stormed out of the building.”
Gregory mockingly asserted that Knight wouldn’t have recognised the player if he’d stood on Brighton beach wearing an Albion shirt, a football under his arm and a seagull on his head.
“For a former Albion player, Gregory surprisingly seemed to take it as a personal affront,” said Knight. “His position was patronising and the behaviour of Aston Villa scandalous.”
Although Villa paid the initial instalment, they didn’t lie down and go with the ruling and ultimately Knight ended up doing a deal with Villa chairman, ‘Deadly’ Doug Ellis, for £850,000 that gave Brighton a huge cash injection in an hour of need.
Barry, of course, ended up having a stellar career, earning 53 England caps, making 653 Premier League appearances and captaining Villa during 11 years at the club.
Knight’s settlement with Ellis meant Brighton missed out on £1.8 million which they would have been entitled to when Barry was sold on to Manchester City in 2009.
But back to Gregory. He had a habit of returning to manage clubs he had previously played for. Villa was one (between February 1998 and January 2002). He also bossed QPR, who he played for after two years with the Albion, and Derby County, who he’d played for in the Third, Second and First Divisions.
His first foray into management had been at Portsmouth. He then worked as a coach under his former Villa teammate Brian Little at Leicester City (1991-1994) and Villa (1994-1996) before becoming a manager in his own right again during two years at Wycombe Wanderers.
The lure of Villa drew him back to take charge as manager at Villa Park in February 1998 when he was in charge of players such as Gareth Southgate, Paul Merson and David Ginola.
During his near four-year reign, Villa reached the 2000 FA Cup Final – they were beaten 2-0 by Chelsea – but won the UEFA Intertoto Cup in November 2001, beating Switzerland’s Basel 4-1.
Although his win percentage (43 per cent) was better at Villa than at any other club he managed, fan pressure had been building when league form slumped as the 2001-02 season went past the halfway mark and a ‘Gregory out’ banner was displayed in the crowd.
Gregory eventually bowed to the pressure and tendered his resignation, although chairman Ellis said: “John’s resignation is sad. It was most unexpected but has been amicable.”
He stepped out of the frying pan into the fire when he took charge of an ailing Derby County, who were bottom of the Premier League, and, after a winning start, he wasn’t able to keep them up.
County sacked him in March 2003 for alleged misconduct but in a protracted legal wrangle he eventually won £1m for unfair dismissal. However, the ongoing dispute meant he couldn’t take up another job and he spent much of the time as a TV pundit instead.
It was in September 2006 that he finally stepped back into a managerial role, taking over from Gary Waddock as QPR manager, and while he managed to save them from relegation from the Championship, ongoing poor form the following season led to him being sacked in October 2007.
It only emerged in 2013 that five years earlier Gregory had discovered he was suffering from prostate cancer. Nevertheless, he continued working, managing two clubs in Israel and one in Kazakhstan.
He had one other English managerial job, taking charge of Crawley Town in December 2013, although ill health brought his reign to an end after a year and former Albion striker Dean Saunders replaced him.
Two and a half years after leaving Crawley, Gregory emerged as head coach of Chennaiyin in the Indian Super League. With former Albion favourite Inigo Calderon part of his side, he led them in 2018 to a second league title win, and he was named the league’s coach of the year.
Born in Scunthorpe on 11 May 1954, Gregory was one of five sons and two daughters of a professional footballer also called John who had started his career at West Ham.
The Gregory family moved to Aldershot when young John was only two (his dad had been transferred to the Shots) but then moved to St Neots, near Huntingdon, when his father took up a job as a security guard after retiring from the game.
Young Gregory went to St Neots Junior School and his first football memories date from the age of nine, and he was selected as a striker for the Huntingdonshire County under 12 side.
He moved on to Longsands Comprehensive School and played at all age levels for Huntingdon before being selected for the Eastern Counties under 15 side in the English Schools Trophy.
Northampton Town signed him on apprentice terms at the age of 15 and he progressed to the first team having been converted to a defender and remained with the Cobblers for seven years.
It was in 1977 that Ron Saunders signed him for Villa for £65,000, which was considered quite a sum for a Fourth Division player.
Gregory famously played in every outfield position during his two years at Villa Park and he welcomed the move to newly promoted Albion because it finally gave him the chance to pin down a specific position.
Chris Cattlin had been right-back as Albion won promotion from the second tier for the first time in their history but he was coming to the end of his career and, in July 1979, the Albion paid what was at the time a record fee of £250,000 to sign Gregory to take over that position. Steve Foster joined at the same time, from Portsmouth.
“I wore every shirt at Villa,” Gregory told Shoot! magazine. “I never had an established position. I was always in the side, but there was a lot of switching around. When Alan Mullery came in for me, he made it clear he wanted me to play at right-back.”
The defender added: “I respect Alan Mullery as a manager and I like the way he thinks about the game.
“Brighton are a very attacking side. There’s nothing the boss loves more than skill. That comes first in his mind. He wants all ten outfield players to attack when they can. That attitude, more than anything else, played a big part in me coming here.”
Gregory started the first 12 games of the season but was then sidelined when he had to undergo an appendix operation.
He returned as first choice right-back in the second half of the season and had a good start to the 1980-81 campaign when he scored in the opening 2-0 home win over Wolves.
His second of the season came against his old club, a header from a pinpoint Gordon Smith cross giving Albion the lead at Villa Park against the run of play. But it was to be an unhappy return for Gregory because the home side fought back to win 4-1.
In November 1980, it looked like Gregory might leave the Goldstone in a proposed cash-plus-player swap for QPR’s Northern Ireland international David McCreery, but the player, settled with his family in Ovingdean, said he wanted to stay at the Goldstone.
“The offer Gregory received was fantastic, but he prefers to stay with us,” chairman Mike Bamber told the Evening Argus. “I regard this as a great compliment.”
The following month, he got the only goal of the game in a 1-0 Boxing Day win at Leicester but in March, with Albion desperate to collect points to avoid the drop, Mullery put Gregory into midfield. He responded with four goals in seven matches, netting in a 1-1 draw away to Man City, grabbing the aforementioned pair at Selhurst Park on Easter Saturday and the opener two days later when Leicester were beaten 2-1 at the Goldstone.
Little did he know it would be his last as a Brighton player because within weeks Mullery quit as manager and Bamber finally couldn’t resist QPR’s overtures.
“I know Alan Mullery turned down a bid but a couple of days after he resigned chairman Mike Bamber accepted QPR’s offer,” Gregory recalled in an interview with Match Weekly. “I hadn’t asked for a move so the news that I was to be allowed to go was quite a surprise.”
He added: “It was a wrench. I found it difficult to turn my back on the lads at Brighton.
“I enjoyed two years at the Goldstone Ground and made many friends, but the prospect of a new challenge at Rangers appealed to me.”
Gregory admitted he used to watch Spurs as a youngster and ironically his two favourite players were Venables and Mullery – and he ended up playing for them both.
Although he dropped down a division to play for QPR, he said: “Rangers are a First Division set up and I’m sure we’ll be back soon.”
Not only did he win promotion with Rangers in the 1983-84 season but, at the age of 29, he earned a call up to the England set-up under Bobby Robson.
He won six caps, the first three of which (right) came against Australia when they played three games (two draws and an England win) in a week in June 1983, in a side also featuring Russell Osman and Mark Barham.
Gregory retained his midfield place for the European Championship preliminary match in September when England lost 1-0 to Denmark at Wembley but he was switched to right-back for the 3-0 away win over Hungary the following month.
His sixth and final cap came in the Home International Championship match in Wrexham in May 1984 when he was back in midfield as England succumbed to a 1-0 defeat to Wales, a game in which his QPR teammate Terry Fenwick went on as a substitute to earn the first of 20 caps for England.
Gregory continues to demonstrate his love for the game, and particularly Villa, via his Twitter account and earlier in the 2021-22 season, his 32,000 followers saw a heartfelt reaction to the sacking of Dean Smith.
“Dean Smith gave Aston Villa Football Club the kiss of life when the club was an embarrassment to Villa fans and he rekindled the love and passion and success on the field where so many others had failed hopelessly,” said Gregory.
• Pictures from the Albion matchday programme, Shoot! magazine and various online sources.
AN AIR of excitement swept around the crumbling terraces of the Goldstone Ground when one of the finest midfield players of his generation became Brighton’s manager.
Liam Brady had been the darling of Highbury in the 1970s, won titles in Italy with Juventus and then brought the curtain down on a glorious playing career in three years with West Ham United.
After six years watching Brighton’s fortunes fluctuate under the low profile guidance of Barry Lloyd, fans who craved a return to the glory days of Alan Mullery’s first reign had great expectations when such a well-known footballing figure as Brady arrived at the Goldstone in December 1993.
But how did it come about? Brady’s first foray into management – at Glasgow giants Celtic – had not gone well and he was unemployed having resigned in early October.
With only four wins in 26 games, Lloyd’s near-seven-year reign at the Goldstone was in its final throes as autumn turned to winter, and in early December he was said to have left “by mutual consent”.
The managerial vacancy caught the eye of former Albion favourite – and Brady’s former Irish international teammate – Gerry Ryan, who’d been forced to retire from playing and was running a pub in Haywards Heath, and he got in touch.
“He asked if I’d be interested. I saw it as another part of my learning curve as a manager and was happy to take it,” said Brady.
Ryan was promptly installed as Brady’s assistant and before long he’d persuaded Jimmy Case to return to the Seagulls at the age of 39 (he’d been playing non-league for Sittingbourne) to bring experience to the battle against relegation and lend a hand on the coaching side.
Brady takes charge at the Albion
By a strange quirk of fate, the opponents for Brady’s first game in charge, Bradford City, were managed by his former Arsenal and Eire teammate, Frank Stapleton, who the following season he recruited for a couple of games.
Unlike the effect of Brian Clough’s arrival at the Goldstone 20 years previously, the gate for the Bradford match the Saturday before Christmas was only 6,535. Albion lost 1-0 but in the next four games, played over the course of 13 days, there were two wins and two draws. Steady improvement on the pitch was helped by the introduction on loan of two exciting youngsters from Brady’s old club Arsenal – firstly Mark Flatts and then Paul Dickov.
The threat of relegation lifted and, looking back, Brady said his favourite match in charge came on 6 April 1994.
“We beat Swansea 4-1 in an evening game towards the end of my first season, when we had (Paul) Dickov on loan in a very good partnership with Kurt Nogan,” he said.
“There was a real buzz that we were going to avoid relegation. The players believed the club was going places again, as we all did.”
At the start of the following season, Brady picked up two youngsters from Arsenal’s north London neighbours, Spurs, in lively forward Junior McDougald and midfielder Jeff Minton.
Right-back Peter Smith, who assistant manager Ryan had spotted playing in a non-league charity match, was brought on board and crowned his first season by being named player of the season.
Brady also brought in the former England international Mark Chamberlain, but the balance of the side remained youthful and, with money remaining tight, a mid-table finish was not entirely unexpected.
In a matchday programme article in 2015, Brady reflected on how relegation had been avoided against the ugly backdrop of what the directors were doing to the club (selling the ground with no new home to go to) and realised subsequently that he should have left at the end of that second season.
“I became aware that Bill Archer had no intention of taking the club forward, despite his public announcements to the contrary. I could tell that the club was going nowhere.
“Archer and Bellotti were winding the club down and it wasn’t right. But it wasn’t a case of me walking away. I was living in Hove, I had grown attached to the club, the fans, and feelings were running high.”
After 100 games in charge of the Seagulls, he quit in November 1995, handing the reins to Case, who was reluctant to take on the job.
Brady’s fondness for the club remained undiminished, though, and he was subsequently involved in Dick Knight’s consortium trying to wrestle control of the club out of Archer’s hands.
It had been planned that he would return as manager but as the negotiations dragged on he was offered the opportunity to return to Arsenal as head of youth development and couldn’t turn it down.
“I had a family to think about and it was a dream job for me. Dick understood, particularly as there were no guarantees with what was happening at the time at Brighton.”
The fact he had the Arsenal job for the following 25 years meant he probably made the right decision! Even after leaving that role, Brady retained his links with Arsenal by becoming an ambassador for the Arsenal Foundation.
Brady was born into a footballing family in Dublin on 13 February 1956 – a great uncle (Frank) and older brother, Ray, were internationals, older brother Frank played for Shamrock Rovers and another brother, Pat, played for Millwall and QPR.
Brady went to St Aidan’s Catholic Boys School but left at 15 in 1971 to join Arsenal after their chief scout, Gordon Clark, had spotted him and Stapleton playing for Eire Schoolboys.
A Goal magazine article of 7 October 1972 featured boss Bertie Mee talking about the pair as future first team players – even though they were only aged just 15 and 16.
Mee said: “Brady is almost established as a regular in the reserve side. He needs building up but has the potential to become a first-team player. Stapleton has made quite an impact in his first season and, providing he maintains a steady improvement, he could also follow the path of Brady.”
It was only Brady’s second season and Clark said at first he thought he would be better suited to becoming a jockey because he was so small and frail!
He quickly changed his mind when he saw his ability with a football. “He was like a little midget, but he had so much confidence. He’s really shot up now and although he’s still not very tall, he’s strong enough to hold his own,” said Clark. “Liam’s got a very mature head on his shoulders. His maturity shows in his play.”
Brady became a professional at 17 in 1973 and made his debut in October that year as a substitute in a league game against Birmingham City. Mee used him sparingly that season and he picked up the nickname Chippy – not for any footballing prowess but for his liking of fish and chips!
Initially dovetailing with former World Cup winner Alan Ball in Arsenal’s midfield, he eventually took over as the key man in the centre of the park. He became a first team regular in 1974-75 and began to thrive when Terry Neill took over as manager with Don Howe returning to Arsenal as coach. In the second part of the decade, Brady was named the club’s player of the year three times and, in 1979, he won the prestigious Players’ Player of the Year title from the PFA.
Brady played in three successive FA Cup finals for Arsenal – in 1978,1979 and 1980 – winning the competition in the 1979 classic against Manchester United, courtesy of his driving run and pass to Graham Rix whose sublime cross from the left wing into the six-yard area allowed Alan Sunderland a simple tap-in for the winner.
Having lost to Ipswich Town the year before, it was Brady’s first trophy with the Gunners and he said: “It was just wonderful to experience being a Wembley winner. It’s something I’ll never forget.”
The opening game of the following season saw Brady line up for Arsenal at the Goldstone in Albion’s very first top level match.
There was nothing more likely to rile Arsenal than a former Spurs captain claiming beforehand what his team were going to do to the Gunners.
Arsenal promptly romped to a 4-0 win and Brady recalled: “Alan Mullery was shooting his mouth off. Brighton had arrived in the big time and were going to turn Arsenal over.
“Mullers was good at motivating players but he motivated us that day.
“We all thought it was going to be a hard game, but once we got the first goal we settled down and Brighton were in awe of us. I scored a penalty and we ran out comfortable winners.”
However, it was the start of Brady’s last season as an Arsenal player. The following May, Arsenal lost to Trevor Brooking’s headed goal for West Ham in the FA Cup Final and Arsenal also lost to Valencia in the Cup Winners’ Cup Final in a penalty shoot-out – Brady and Rix missing their spot kicks in Brussels.
Nevertheless, having played 307 games (295 starts + 12 as sub), arsenal.com recalls one of their favourite sons warmly: “Chippy had everything a midfielder could want – skill, vision, balance, strength, a powerful shot and the ability to glide past opponents at will.
“Like all great players he always had time on the ball and almost always chose the right option. On a football pitch, Brady’s brain and feet worked in perfect harmony.”
Brady moved on to Italy where he spent seven years, initially with Juventus, winning two Italian league titles and then with Sampdoria, Inter Milan and Ascoli. In his second season at Brighton, Brady had the Seagulls wearing the colours of Inter as their change kit – I still consider it to be the best the club has had.
As well as a highly successful club career, Brady won a total of 72 caps for his country. He made his Republic of Ireland debut on 30 October 1974 in a 3-0 home win over the Soviet Union and went on to win 72 caps for his country.
He retired from internationals ahead of qualification for the 1990 World Cup and, although he later made himself available for selection, manager Jack Charlton decided to choose only those who had helped Eire qualify for the finals.
Brady had returned to the UK in March 1987 to enjoy three years at West Ham in which he scored 10 goals in 119 appearances. His first somewhat ironically came against Arsenal while he reckoned his best was a 20-yarder past Peter Shilton that proved to be the winner in a league game against Derby County.
Brady explained the circumstances of his move to the Hammers in an interview with whufc.com. He nearly ended up joining Celtic instead, but he’d given his word to West Ham boss John Lyall and, because he’d retained an apartment in London, it made sense to return there.
Brady in action for West Ham at the Goldstone, faced by ex-Hammer, Alan Curbishley
In only his fourth West Ham game, he found himself up against Arsenal and was mobbed after netting the final goal in a 3-1 win at the Boleyn Ground.
“With ten minutes remaining, I won the ball on half-way before running to the edge of the 18-yard box, where I hit a low curler around David O’Leary and beyond Rhys Wilmott’s dive, into the bottom right-hand corner,” he said. “The place went wild! I certainly wasn’t going to just walk back to the centre-circle without celebrating my first goal for my new team.”
While the Hammers finished 15th that campaign, they were relegated in 1989 which brought about the departure of Lyall. Brady clearly didn’t see eye to eye with his successor, Lou Macari, but was pleased when he was replaced by Hammers legend Billy Bonds.
Brady eventually called time on his playing days in May 1990, Wolves and West Ham players lining up to give him a guard of honour as he took to the pitch for the final game of the season.
He was substitute that day but went on for Kevin Keen and rounded off his remarkable career by scoring in a 4-0 win.
“Having scored at the Boleyn Ground with my last-ever kick in professional football, I couldn’t have written a better script,” he told whufc.com.
After not making the move to Celtic as a player, his first step into management came at Celtic Park as successor to former club legend Billy McNeill in June 1991. He was the first manager not to have played for the Hoops.
It was a big step to take for a novice manager, and hindsight suggested the players he signed didn’t do him any justice. He later admitted: “I didn’t do particularly well as Celtic boss. Second place behind Rangers was seen as a failure and, even if you’ve had a good reputation as a player, it counts for little as a manager.”
Brighton (well, Hove actually) would prove to be as far from the cauldron of Glasgow as he could possibly get, but the club management game clearly didn’t suit Brady, and he didn’t take on any other senior managerial hotseats after the Seagulls.
Alongside his youth team responsibilities at Arsenal, he did assist his country’s national team between 2008 and 2010. He was assistant to Giovanni Trapattoni during his time in charge, also working alongside Brady’s former Juventus teammate Marco Tardelli.
Brady still lives in Sussex and he told whufc.com how he occasionally meets up with Billy Bonds at Plumpton Races and enjoys a round of golf with Trevor Brooking.
A CAREER-ENDING leg break led one-time international hopeful George Dalton into a new career as a football physio.
Geordie-born Dalton was an emerging left-back at Newcastle United being watched as a possible candidate for a call-up to the England Under-23 side.
But he was never the same player after breaking a leg in a tackle with Leeds United’s Johnny Giles.
Then, only seven months after trying to resurrect his career with third tier Brighton, unlucky Dalton sustained a double fracture of the same leg in a freak collision and never played professionally again.
However, he turned his familiarity with the treatment table to good use and he later became Coventry City’s physio for the best part of 20 years.
Born in Dilston, Northumberland, on 4 September 1941, Dalton went through the junior ranks at Newcastle and turned professional at St James’s Park in 1958.
He made his Toon debut on 10 October 1960 in a 4-1 League Cup defeat away to Colchester United, and made his First Division debut the following February, ending up on the losing side in a 5-3 defeat away to Leicester City.
After Newcastle’s relegation to the old Division Two, Dalton made a lot more appearances (including being in the Toon side who thumped Brighton 5-0 at St James’ on 21 October 1961).
He was in and out of the side over the next two years but became a regular from March 1963 and, in January 1964, eagle-eyed Ken McKenzie, reporter for Newcastle’s The Journal, spotted England Under-23 selector Mr E.Smith in the stands at St James’s.
“This visit can only mean imminence of England Under-23s selection to meet Scotland at St James’s Park on Wednesday evening, February 5, and check up, particularly on George Dalton and Alan Suddick, of United,” he wrote. “On this basis, I feel that Mr Smith’s trip to Tyneside holds out very bright prospect of Forest Hall, Newcastle, product, Dalton, gaining his first representative honour on February 5.
“I know that Dalton has been recommended to the England selectors for some time by United directors and manager, and his consistency and clean, strong play has been commented on by influential observers at several away games.”
Unfortunately, the call-up didn’t happen, and revered reporter Ken Jones wrote in the Daily Mirror: “Despite local claims for left back George Dalton and inside forward idol Alan Suddick; neither has been chosen by the England team manager, and clearly they have no place in his ideas at present.”
Interestingly, the left-back berth went to Keith Newton, who later went with England to the 1970 World Cup in Mexico. Mike Bailey and Graham Cross both played in the Under-23s’ 3-2 win over Scotland, while the reserves that day were Peter Grummitt, Alan Mullery and Martin Chivers.
Within a matter of weeks, Dalton’s football fortunes were turned upside down when, in his 40th game of the season, on 30 March 1964, three days after Newcastle had surrendered an eight-game unbeaten run losing 1-0 at home to promotion-chasing Leeds on Good Friday, the full-back suffered a leg break that virtually finished his Newcastle career.
The Journal saw it thus: “This is the tale of a noble resistance by a Newcastle side who had Alan Suddick crippled in the 17th minute and lost George Dalton with a broken right leg (just above the ankle) with 14 minutes to go.”
mightyleeds.co.uk recorded it like this: “Newcastle finished with one man in hospital and another limping, but Leeds just about deserved to win their third hard match in four days. For once, however, there was no malice attached to the game and left-back Dalton confirmed he had broken his right tibia after himself kicking the sole of Giles’ boot.”
Dalton didn’t play his next Newcastle first team game for nearly two and a half years, and then it was just the one game. After that solitary appearance – his 94th for Toon – on 27 August 1966, when they lost a Division One match 2-1 at home to Spurs, he was cast into the shadows and eventually given a free transfer in May 1967.
Albion’s 1967-68 squad with Dalton circled in the back row
Third Division Brighton gave the player the chance to salvage his career and he arrived on the south coast in June 1967 together with a young centre forward, Bob Fuller, who went on to score regularly for Albion’s reserves but subsequently moved to South Africa and in later life became a senior executive at mobile phone companies Orange and 3.
There were a couple of familiar faces amongst Dalton’s new teammates: Dave Turner, had been a fringe player at Newcastle before joining Brighton in December 1963, while forward Kit Napier had moved to the south coast the previous summer.
Stewart Ogden also joined straight from school in the north east in the summer of 1967 and the matchday programme declared: “Instead of Sussex by the Sea, Albion’s rousing signature tune, they may be playing The Blaydon Races this season, with so many Geordies on the staff.”
Dalton took over the no.3 shirt from Bobby Baxter, who had moved on to Torquay United, and went straight into Albion’s starting XI alongside new £25,000 record signing John Napier from Bolton Wanderers.
The matchday programme acknowledged Dalton’s past injury misfortune and said: “We all hope the change of club will see this fine defender recapturing his old form. He is married and recently moved into a pleasant club house at Portslade.”
Dalton made 28 appearances in the first half of that 1967-68 season under Archie Macaulay before tragically suffering a double fracture of his right leg in a 0-0 draw at home to Oxford United.
It was on 27 January 1968 that Dalton was involved in a heavy collision with United’s Graham Atkinson (big Ron’s brother) and Albion goalkeeper Brian Powney.
The cruel blow came almost four years after the injury he’d sustained at Newcastle and the Albion matchday programme commented how he had “completely shaken off the effects and was playing with great confidence” adding: “Albion’s popular left-back has played some fine games this season and his stylish work has been admired by supporters of other clubs, as well as the Albion fans.”
In its Albion Postbag column, a correspondent from Newhaven, calling himself ‘Veteran Player’, wrote: “George Dalton has had two unlucky accidents and we all hope he comes back fit and well and able to continue to delight us with his polished full-back play.
“Brighton have nearly always been lucky with their left-backs, and we have had a string of really fine players in that position. George Dalton can be included in that impressive list.”
Macaulay was optimistic the player would recover and in October 1968 the programme told supporters: “George is doing light training, jogging round the pitch, up the terracing also carrying out weight training exercises.”
In the meantime, Mike Everitt had been brought in to fill the gap and, by the time Macaulay was succeeded as manager by Freddie Goodwin, as 1968 drew to a close, Dalton still wasn’t in contention.
It looked even less likely he’d get back in when Goodwin signed his former Leeds teammate Willie Bell from Leicester City, but his next career step was closely linked to both of them.
In the summer of 1970, Dalton, who’d combined studying physiotherapy with coaching the Albion junior team in the latter part of his contract, joined Goodwin and Bell as part of the new management team at Birmingham City.
Albion took serious umbrage at the exodus and the matter ended up with City having to pay £4,500 compensation for Goodwin (who still had 18 months of his contract remaining) and a £5,000 fine for illegally approaching Bell.
Dalton’s situation was viewed differently because he’d technically been a player out of contract thus free to make a move.
When Goodwin left City in 1976 and returned to manage in America, Dalton moved on to Midlands neighbours Coventry City, taking over as physio from Norman Pilgrim, and he retained the position for two decades.
Several former players had nothing but good things to say about him when interviewed in Steve Phelps’ book 29 Minutes From Wembley. Striker Garry Thompson spoke highly of the care with which Dalton treated him when he suffered a broken leg that put him out of the game for 11 months.
“George Dalton, our physiotherapist, was magnificent with me,” he said. “He kept saying my leg was going to be like a twig and I’d have to rebuild the muscles and learn to walk again.
“My Mum and Dad thought it was career over, but, the way I think about it now, I was so lucky because there weren’t that many options for me and I had to play football.
“George’s own career was ended by injury. He was a very good footballer when he trained with us so, when I broke my leg, he really took care of me and was superb.
“I couldn’t thank him enough and all George had was the sponge and two machines in the treatment room, the electric currents and the ultrasound, that was it.
“He worked miracles down the years with players and, if it wasn’t for him, I would not have played until I was 37. I owe him a lot.”
Garry’s praise for Dalton was echoed by Paul Dyson, who spent prolonged periods in the treatment room with ankle and back injuries during his teenage years. “George was a real character. We all had a lot of time for him and he tended a lot of us through our respective injuries.
“He used to drive us to the hospital in his Morris 1100 and had a great left foot. He’d played left-back for Newcastle United before his own career was ended by injury. There were the two machines in his room and he used to have ice cubes on sticks in his freezer.”
Dalton alongside boss John Sillett in the front row of this Coventry squad picture
Scottish international winger Tommy Hutchison was another admirer. “He was a smashing lad, George, very old-school. He suffered no fools and could always tell if a player was injured or not.
“In our days broken legs did finish careers, along with knee ligament injuries, and George rehabilitated so many players at Coventry. There was no squad rotation as you wanted to stay in the team and play every week because if you didn’t someone else would step in to take your place and you wouldn’t be able to get back in.”
Midfielder Andy Blair added: “George was a great physiotherapist, a terrific calming influence and a great man to have around.”
Experienced full-back Mick Coop was another who appreciated the physio. “George really was a lovely man who worked injured players very hard in the gym to get them back on to the pitch,” he said. “He was very quiet but did his job well and garnered a lot of respect off the playing squad. I can’t speak highly enough of him.”
Dalton keeps in touch with many of his former colleagues through the Coventry City Former Players’ Association, which has reported how he returned to live in Newcastle in retirement.
* Pictures from matchday programmes and various online sources.
HE took a circuitous route back to his hometown club but full-back Graham Pearce eventually made it to Brentford’s first team after Brighton had resurrected his career and given him a chance to play at the top level of the English game.
Pearce was first on Brentford’s books as a teenager between 1971 and 1976, but he didn’t make it as a pro with the Bees and, after also being turned down by QPR, he went non-league, initially with Hillingdon Borough for three years and then Barnet.
When Pearce lined up for Barnet in a FA Cup third round tie on 2 January 1982, it must have been beyond his wildest dreams to imagine just over a year later he’d be playing in that competition’s final at Wembley.
But the steady, assured performances 21-year-old Pearce put in as Alliance Premier League Barnet held Brighton 0-0 before losing 3-1 in a replay at the Goldstone impressed the watching Albion boss Mike Bailey sufficiently to sign him up for the Seagulls.
Although he was itching to join, he had to serve a week’s notice with the Putney printer where he had a full-time job because they weren’t in a position to release him sooner.
Just over a year later, when injuries depleted Jimmy Melia’s cup hopefuls the closer they got to a dream Wembley date, Pearce seized his chance to put his own name in print. Circumstances fell just right for him, but it might not have happened if the experienced left-back Sammy Nelson hadn’t been sidelined.
A packed East Terrace at the Goldstone the backdrop as Pearce faces Newcastle in the FA Cup
Pearce played in the third round 1-1 Goldstone draw with Newcastle – one of six games he played in January 1983 – but he missed the 4-0 demolition of Manchester City in the fourth round and didn’t feature again until 22 March when he was sub for the 2-2 home draw with Liverpool.
Because versatile Gary Stevens was more than capable of playing alongside Steve Foster, normal centre back partner Steve Gatting was preferred at left-back for 14 matches from the end of January.
But when right-back Chris Ramsey was suspended for the semi-final against Sheffield Wednesday, Stevens took his spot, Gatting returned to the middle and Pearce slotted in at left-back.
Because Foster was suspended for the final against Man Utd, Stevens paired up with Gatting in the middle and Pearce retained his place.
Even when Foster returned for the replay, Pearce kept his place because Ramsey had been crocked in the first match and wasn’t fit to play (Melia making the mistake of putting left-footed Gatting at right-back instead of Stevens).
In a pre-match interview with the Daily Mail, Pearce said: “There’s money to be made from appearing at Wembley but the thrill for me is just being there – a player from non-League who thought his chance of playing league football had gone.”
Pearce retained the no.3 shirt at the start of the 1983-84 season back in the second tier but, when Chris Cattlin took over from Melia, he made it clear he wanted someone with more experience in that position.
In his matchday programme notes he wrote: “With Kieran (O’Regan), Eric Young and Graham Pearce all playing together, we have three players who haven’t been long out of non-League football.
“Normally these players would have been blooded slowly into the side, instead of being plunged in the deep end. They have done well and shown the right attitude, but when we play against aggressive sides away from home, some of their inexperience has been exposed.”
Until a suitable replacement could be found, Pearce remained in the side and even poked home his first Albion goal in a 4-3 win away to Cambridge United on 29 October 1983.
But four weeks later, after a 2-2 draw at home to Shrewsbury Town, Cattlin was typically forthright in his next programme notes, declaring: “I was unhappy with our defence and our failings in this department cost us the game.”
Pearce and fellow full-back Ramsey were promptly dropped; the left-back berth going to new signing Chris Hutchings from Chelsea.
Cattlin had high praise for his new recruit as he said: “Chris Hutchings is an enthusiastic, strong and determined defender and has a lot to offer, he’s also a fine footballer.”
After 18 consecutive games, Pearce found himself out of the side for the rest of the season.
It’s interesting to note that the reserve side for the 1 May 1984 fixture at home to Southampton featured five players (Pearce, Ramsey, Gary Howlett, Gerry Ryan and Neil Smillie) who’d been in the FA Cup Final squad a year earlier.
The new season was almost three months’ old before Pearce was seen in the first team again, and, ironically, the opponent was once again Shrewsbury.
The game at the Goldstone finished a goalless draw and, with Hutchings having been switched to right-back, Pearce got a run in the side extending to 19 matches.
Unluckily for him, he was then left out of the side in favour of Martin Keown, who Cattlin managed to bring in on loan from Arsenal, and the future England international quickly proved his calibre.
Pearce made one further appearance, in a 2-1 defeat at Middlesbrough, before the end of the season but in the 1985-86 season he finally cemented his place in the side and played a total of 41 matches.
Three days after Christmas 1985, he scored a rare goal as the Seagulls beat Leeds 3-2 at Elland Road. Ian Baird – later to play for the Albion in the old Fourth Division – missed a penalty but scored one of Leeds’ goals and Pearce clinched the winner on a pitch rutted by a rugby league game played on it only two days earlier.
The matchday programme described the goal thus: “Pearce played a one-two with (Steve) Jacobs and found himself with only Mervyn Day to beat and Leeds screaming for offside. The trusty left foot of the Londoner lobbed goalwards, Day was stranded, and Pearce had scored his first goal in 26 months to give Albion another three valuable points.”
Not such a memorable game came in a 3-0 defeat away to Norwich City on 5 April 1986. The full-back went into the referee’s notebook for a foul on future Albion winger Mark Barham, who was substituted shortly afterwards. Albion had a great chance to pull a goal back when Pearce was through one-on-one with Chris Woods, but the England ‘keeper saved his effort comfortably. Then, eight minutes from time, Pearce fouled Wayne Biggins in the penalty area and Welsh international David Williams buried City’s third from the penalty spot.
Pearce played in Albion’s final game of the season, a 2-0 defeat at Hull City under George Petchey, following Cattlin’s sacking, and it turned out to be his last match in a Brighton shirt.
The returning Alan Mullery explained in his programme notes for the opening game of the new season that he released Jacobs and Pearce because “I felt we had too many defenders”.
Pearce switched to Third Division Gillingham under Keith Peacock and played a total of 48 matches as the Gills narrowly missed out on promotion when losing a play-off final replay against Lou Macari’s Swindon Town in 1987.
Following a disappointing second season with the Gills, when they finished mid-table, Pearce returned to hometown club Brentford where he played 14 times (+ 8 as sub) in Steve Perryman’s 1988-89 side. One of his teammates was fellow former Albion cup star Smillie.
Pearce joined up with Peacock again for Maidstone United’s debut season (1989-90) in the Fourth Division, which culminated in a play-off semi-final defeat at the hands of a Cambridge United side featuring Dion Dublin up front.
The following season, under Phil Holder, Pearce was back at Brentford as first team and reserve coach. He subsequently had spells as player-manager with Isthmian League clubs Enfield and Molesey. He later became a PE teacher at Homefield Preparatory School in Sutton.
Born in Hammersmith on 8 July 1959, Pearce was one of seven children (five boys, two girls) and attended Grove Park Primary School, where he was captain of their under-9 football side. He went on to play for the Middlesex County side and Middlesex Wanderers before his stop-start professional career began.
• Pictures from my scrapbook and matchday programmes.
MALCOLM POSKETT’s goals helped Brighton to win promotion from the second tier after he’d made a terrific start to his Albion career.
Only two days after putting pen to paper in Hove, Poskett netted the equaliser in a 1-1 draw away to Hull City on 4 February 1978 and a week later he marked his home debut with a goal in Albion’s 2-1 win over Burnley.
The game at Boothferry Park was only six minutes old when the home side went ahead but Poskett levelled it up just before half-time after a Tony Towner corner was headed goalwards by Andy Rollings and the new arrival diverted it into the net.
A £60,000 signing from fourth tier Hartlepool United, Poskett had taken over the no.9 shirt from Ian Mellor, who had only been in the side for one game in the injury absence of Teddy Maybank.
Maybank’s big money signing from Fulham four months earlier had broken up the highly successful Mellor-Peter Ward partnership that earned Albion promotion from the old Third Division, and Poskett’s arrival only served to illuminate the Goldstone exit door even brighter for Mellor, who swiftly departed for Chester.
A crowd of 22,694 saw the new man’s Division Two debut on an icy Goldstone Ground pitch. Poskett once again profited from a Towner pass to score. Skipper Brian Horton scored Albion’s other goal.
It all must have felt very showbiz to the lad from Teesside, used to playing in front of 5,000 crowds in the Fourth Division, especially when prior to kick off against the Clarets, Slade, a famous chart-topping pop group of the time, recorded a single on the pitch in front of the North Stand.
While Maybank reclaimed his starting berth from Poskett for six matches, he was troubled by a knee injury and Poskett got the nod for the remaining seven games of the season as Albion chased automatic promotion, which at that time was earned by the top three sides in the division. There were no play-offs.
Poskett repaid Mullery’s faith in him with a hat-trick in a 4-0 win away to Bristol Rovers and by netting the only goal of the game in the penultimate fixture at home to Charlton Athletic in front of 31,203 fans.
What happened next has been well documented: Albion missed out on promotion when Southampton (in second) and Spurs (third) conveniently drew 0-0 in the final match of the season; Spurs edging out the Seagulls on goal difference.
Maybank had a successful cartilage operation during the summer break and was initially the preferred partner for Ward as the new season got under way.
Poskett banged in a transfer request as a mark of his frustration but, after Mullery persuaded him to withdraw it, he got his chance back in the side and made the most of opportunities that came his way.
Mullery admitted in Matthew Horner’s biography of Ward (He Shot, He Scored, Sea View Media) that he wasn’t always fair on Poskett when reverting to the Ward-Maybank partnership.
He pointed out: “Malcolm Poskett did a terrific job when we signed him. He was one of the most under-rated goalscorers – absolutely brilliant.
“He was really similar to Wardy, very sharp and very quick but a bit taller and a bit stronger.”
By the end of the season that ended in promotion to the top tier of English football for the first time, Poskett had contributed 10 goals in 24 games (plus eight sub appearances). He was the substitute in the famous 3-1 win back in his native north-east when Newcastle were beaten by the Seagulls on 5 May 1979.
Brighton struggled to find their feet in more exalted company and Poskett barely got a look-in, coming on as a sub twice and only starting three matches, the last of which was in the resounding 4-0 defeat to Arsenal in the League Cup on 13 November 1979.
He scored twice, though: netting the only goal in an away League Cup win over Northampton Town, and four days later scoring along with Peter O’Sullivan as Albion pulled back a 2-0 deficit to draw 2-2 at West Brom.
Poskett wheels away to celebrate his only top flight goal, away to West Brom
However, with the arrival of Ray Clarke from Ajax, it was clear Poskett’s chances at the Albion were going to remain limited, so he dropped back down a level to join promotion-seeking Watford under Graham Taylor. Albion goalkeeper Eric Steele had already made a similar switch in the autumn of that season shortly after a famous spat with Gary Williams at Old Trafford. Mullery also secured a £120,000 fee for Poskett, so Albion did very nicely out of the deal.
“I would have loved to stay at Brighton for the rest of my career, but it wasn’t to be,” Poskett told Spencer Vignes in a retrospective matchday programme article. “One week I was partnering Peter Ward, the next it would be Teddy with Peter. I never got a run in the team, even though I scored a couple of goals when I did play.
“At least with Watford I got the chance to start games. People called us kick and run, a long ball side, but we had a lot of talented players like Ross Jenkins, John Barnes and Nigel Callaghan.”
Poskett struck up a friendship with fellow new boy Martin Patching and both were on the scoresheet (Poskett scored twice) in a memorable 7-1 League Cup thrashing of Southampton on 2 September 1980.
Although being Watford’s top scorer with 21 goals in the 1980-81season, when the Hornets finished ninth, the following season he found himself in the reserves after a three-game barren spell.
In a Watford matchday programme article, he mused: “It’s a strange profession – one minute you’re up and the next down.
“I played in the first three league games of the season without scoring and was dropped. But I’m scoring fairly regularly in the reserve side and my chance will come if I keep on hitting the net. I’m a battler and not the type of player to give less than 100 per cent, no matter what grade of football I’m playing in.”
Watford won promotion as runners up behind close rivals Luton Town but Poskett couldn’t shift Luther Blissett or Jenkins, who were the preferred strike pairing, and Gerry Armstrong, later to join Brighton, was invariably the back-up option.
Born in Middlesbrough on 19 July 1953, Poskett went to Beechwood Junior School and then on to Brackenhoe Secondary Technical. His footballing ability in school sides eventually led to him being selected for North Riding Schools.
He was a decent all-round sportsman – a useful cricketer who played for Middlesbrough Schools, he also featured in local leagues at table tennis, and enjoyed tennis and badminton too.
But at 16 the budding sportsman started out as an apprenticeship plater at Cargofleet Steelworks, only playing football for the local Beechwood Youth Club and then South Bank in the Northern League.
His performances for South Bank caught the eye of Middlesbrough and he was taken on as a professional. But after 18 months in their reserves, manager Jack Charlton gave him a free transfer and he opted to become a plater on North Sea oil rigs to earn a wage.
He didn’t turn his back on football altogether, turning out part-time for Whitby Town in the Northern League. Scoring an incredible 98 goals over two seasons was bound to attract attention.
George Aitken, later a Watford coach and then a coach under Mullery at Brighton, was Workington manager at the time and tried to sign Poskett, but, disillusioned by his Boro experience he chose to stick with Whitby until Hartlepool manager Billy Horner convinced him he could still make it in the professional game.
For a £25 transfer fee, Horner took him on and devoted hours of extra time working on the youngster’s skills and sharpness. It paid off.
“My work rate was non-existent, but Billy Horner really worked on me and got me going,” Poskett told Shoot! magazine. “If it wasn’t for him, I don’t think I would have got anywhere – I’d still be in non-League soccer. It was so hard at first, I felt like packing it in, but he kept me at it and I’m very grateful now.”
His goalscoring at Hartlepool caught the eye of Ken Craggs when he was a coach at Fulham and when Craggs switched to become Mullery’s no.2 at the Goldstone, Poskett followed soon after, the £60,000 fee representing a tidy profit for the struggling North East minnows.
“I came in during the season when we just missed out on promotion and the lads were fantastic. It was a fabulous place to live as well.
“I had to come from one end of the country to the other but, once I got there, there were lads from up north, the Midlands, so it was a good mixed bunch and I felt right at home.”
After helping Watford to promotion in 1982, Poskett headed back north and played for Carlisle United for three seasons, thriving under the managership of Bob Stokoe, who’d led Sunderland to FA Cup glory in 1973.
In the penultimate game of the 1983-84 season, Poskett scored his 100th career goal – and his 101st – as Carlisle drew 2-2 at home to Crystal Palace in front of a paltry crowd at Brunton Park of just 3,038.
Poskett subsequently had six months at Darlington, before switching to Stockport County in January 1986.
Appearances were few and far between and he went on loan to his old club Hartlepool in March the same year before moving back to Carlisle in August 1986. He finally hung up his boots at the end of the 1987-88 season.
He remained in the town and in 2017 was working as an examiner at Pirelli, the tyre manufacturer.
Pictures from Albion matchday programmes and online sources.
George Petchey twice stepped up from backroom man to Albion caretaker manager
THE FORMER Orient and Millwall manager who introduced Laurie Cunningham to the football world was twice caretaker boss of Brighton ten years apart.
George Petchey, once a player then coach at Crystal Palace, was assistant manager to Chris Cattlin in the mid ‘80s and returned to Brighton in the ‘90s as youth development manager under Liam Brady, before becoming no.2 to Jimmy Case.
Working for the Albion was certainly geographically convenient for Petchey because, even when he played, coached or managed in London, he lived in Southwick.
Petchey first arrived at the Albion in 1983 to take charge of youth development and, as described by wearebrighton.com, was the man responsible for introducing Ian Wright on trial, having been impressed when the future Arsenal and England star had tried to begin his career at Millwall, where Petchey was manager between January 1978 and November 1980.
It’s now part of football folklore that Albion rejected Wright and Cattlin opted to take on another triallist, Steve Penney, instead. Meanwhile, in November 1984, Petchey was promoted to assist the relatively inexperienced Cattlin with the first team.
Although he was seen as a figure in the background, a profile article in the matchday programme gave a little insight into his approach.
“I can’t understand people who earn a living from football and still criticise the game,” he told interviewer Tony Norman. “I’ve been involved with it since the age of 14 and I wouldn’t change a thing.
“Molly (his wife) and I have met a lot of good people. We’ve loved the game and it has been good to us. No complaints.”
When Cattlin was sacked in April 1986, Petchey stepped up to manage the side for the final game of the season (a 2-0 defeat away to Hull City) before Alan Mullery returned as boss.
Petchey’s second stint at the Albion began in January 1994, shortly after Brady had been appointed as manager. With finances perilous during that time, bringing through youngsters was seen as an important route and Petchey was appointed to oversee that side of things.
In explaining the appointment, Brady wrote in his programme notes: “I don’t think there are many better in their field than George Petchey.
“He has had a lot of experience at management level and he has always been able to develop young players and this is something we are determined to do here.”
Brady had been to watch the youth team progress in the FA Youth Cup and he added: “There are several outstanding prospects in the side and I am sure George will guide them in the right direction.”
Within a couple of months, Brady had given a first team debut to one of them in Mark Fox.
The Argus later noted how Gareth Barry was among the young players who came through Albion’s centre of excellence under Petchey, Vic Bragg and Steve Avory.
Petchey became no.2 to Jimmy Case, pictured with George Parris in an Albion line-up
When Brady couldn’t stomach the shenanigans of the Bill Archer-David Bellotti regime any longer, Case took charge and promoted Petchey to be his deputy, but with the background interference affecting performances on the field, Case was relieved of his duties in early December 1996.
Petchey stepped forward once again to take temporary charge, although he made it clear he didn’t want the job on a permanent basis. Indeed, he recommended two of his former Orient players be considered for the post.
“I was asked for my suggestions and I recommended Dennis Rofe and Glenn Roeder,” said Petchey, who was 65 at the time. “Hopefully, it will be one of them.”
It was perhaps par for the course that the hierarchy decided to choose someone else, and, within a week, Steve Gritt was appointed.
When Petchey – the first English coach to complete his UEFA coaching qualifications – died aged 88 on 23 December 2019, the tributes paid to him reflected the impact this highly respected football man had on a good many people.
The football writer Neil Harman said: “We often overlook the genuine, honest people, who made football what it is, who went the extra mile, who turned people’s lives around. RIP the great Leyton Orient manager George Petchey who set Laurie Cunningham and many others on the road to stardom.”
David Gipp, a Brighton player in the late ‘80s, tweeted: “took me from London at 14; taught me so much” and John Sitton, who played under Petchey at Millwall, described him as “one of the best managers in the game”.
Born on 24 June 1931 in Whitechapel, London, Petchey’s early footballing experience was in Essex with the Romford and Hornchurch Schools teams. The excellent theyflysohigh.co.uk website details his career, revealing how, on leaving school he played for Upminster Minors and Juniors from 1945 to 1947 before joining West Ham United as an amateur in August 1947.
He signed professional on August 31, 1948, and two days later made his first appearance as a professional against Chelsea ‘A’ at Upton Park in the Eastern Counties League.
The website explains how National Service interrupted Petchey’s career, although he was still able to play fairly regularly for the Hammers’ ‘A’ team and Football Combination side. It wasn’t until 1 September 1952 that he made his senior debut at the age of 21, playing alongside Ernie Gregory, Malcolm Allison and Frank O’Farrell in a goalless Second Division draw with Hull City at the Boleyn Ground.
Wearing the no.10 shirt, Petchey kept his place for the next game, a 2-1 home defeat by Birmingham City, but he only made one other first-team appearance, on 13 November that year, starting alongside Allison, Noel Cantwell and debuting forward Tommy Dixon in a 3-2 Essex Professional Cup win at Colchester United.
A wing-half, he was described by whufc.com as “a tough-tackling, hard-working defensive midfielder who could also pass the ball with vision and accuracy”.
In July 1953, Petchey moved on to Queens Park Rangers, scoring on his league debut in a 2-1 win at Bristol City on 22 August. Even then, he was commuting to London from Portslade.
Petchey scored 24 goals in 278 league and cup appearances for QPR, in the days when they were a Third Division side.
He dropped down to the old Fourth Division to sign for Palace in June 1960 but helped them to promotion in his first season at Selhurst Park.
Petchey’s playing days at Palace came to an early conclusion due to a serious eye injury but the esteem in which he was held was reflected in the quality of players on show at his testimonial match at Selhurst Park on 15 November 1967.
Palace took on an international XI which featured West Ham’s World Cup winning trio of Bobby Moore, Geoff Hurst and Martin Peters, together with the likes of Chelsea’s Peter Osgood and Manchester City’s Colin Bell in front of a crowd of 10,243.
Petchey turned to coaching at Palace, initially under Arthur Rowe and then Bert Head, under whom Palace won promotion to the old First Division in 1969. That side’s goalkeeper, John Jackson – who subsequently followed Petchey to Orient, Millwall, and the Albion as a coach – attributed his achievements to Petchey, telling cpfc.co.uk: “He used to work me hard but the harder you worked at your game the more you learned and the better you would become.
Petchey the Crystal Palace coach
“He made me a more confident player which led to me being more vocal behind the back four, and I always remember Thursday being called shooting practice day so it would become a session where I would put in a massive shift!”
When Jimmy Bloomfield was lured from Brisbane Road to manage Leicester City in 1971, the Os turned to Petchey to continue to build the side the former Arsenal player had developed.
He did just that over six Second Division seasons between 1971 and 1977, Petchey recruiting a number of players who’d previously played under him at Palace; the likes of goalkeeper Jackson, John Sewell, David Payne, Bill Roffey, Alan Whittle and Gerry Queen.
They came agonisingly close to winning promotion to the elite, missing out by a single point in 1973-74, and they took some notable scalps as cup giant-killers.
It was during his reign at Brisbane Road that Petchey discovered Tony Grealish playing on Hackney Marshes and unearthed the raw talent of the mercurial Cunningham, who he would later reluctantly sell for big money to West Bromwich Albion.
Petchey and his assistant Peter Angell carefully nurtured the young Cunningham, hoping his obvious talent would outweigh some of the demons in his life.
“We had one or two problems with him in the early days,” admitted Petchey, as told here. “There was a time when Peter Angell and I wondered if we could win Laurie over. He had to struggle in life and was the sort of youngster who was used to living on his wits.
“He was suspicious of people outside his own circle. He took a long time to trust other people. He often turned up late for training, the eyes flashed when we fined him, but for all that I loved the spark that made him tick.”
Cunningham later admitted: “It was George Petchey and Peter Angell who showed me that the only person who could make my dreams come true was, in fact, myself.”
Petchey gave 18-year-old Cunningham his first-team debut in the short-lived Texaco Cup tournament against West Ham at Upton Park on 3 August 1974. Although Orient lost 1–0, Petchey said afterwards: “It took him a little time to get adjusted to the pace of the game but I was delighted with the way he played from then on. He has a natural talent. He has the speed and agility to take on men. He never gives up. There’s a big future ahead for him.”
Cunningham’s rise to playing for England and Real Madrid was told in the 2013 documentary film First Among Equals and Petchey was a prominent interviewee featured.
Petchey talks about Laurie Cunningham for First Among Equals
When eventually Orient couldn’t resist big money offers for him any longer, the winger went to West Brom for £110,000 plus two players (Joe Mayo and Allan Glover) on 6 March 1977.
“I did not want to sell him, but we were over our limit at the bank and West Brom were ready with a cheque,” said Petchey at the time. “Obviously I’m very disappointed at losing a player who I have seen progress from the age of 15 and I think he was as reluctant to leave as we were to see him go. But it was an offer of First Division football which he could not refuse.”
Petchey enjoyed less success at Millwall. Although he managed to stave off relegation after succeeding Gordon Jago in early 1978, the Lions were relegated from the second tier the following season.
It was during that term he bought Brighton winger Tony Towner for £65,000 after the Sussex lad had lost his place to new signing Gerry Ryan. It wasn’t all doom and gloom though because Millwall’s youngsters won the FA Youth Cup in 1979, beating Manchester City 2-0 (over two legs).
After he’d left the Albion for a second time, Petchey continued to work in football, appointed chief scout at Newcastle United by Sir Bobby Robson, and he later took on a coaching role.
IT’S NOT often Brighton and Liverpool have had something in common but, when it came to striker Dean Saunders, they both sold him to raise money. And they weren’t alone.
In the Albion’s case, it happened in 1987 when manager Barry Lloyd was forced to cash in on the free transfer signing to raise £60,000 to go towards players’ wages.
For their part, five years later, Liverpool let the Welsh international depart Anfield for £2.3m because boss Graeme Souness wanted the money to buy a central defender.
When Saunders was remarkably transferred for £1m from the Maxwell-owned Oxford United to the Maxwell-owned Derby County, it prompted former Brighton and Liverpool defender Mark Lawrenson to quit as boss at the Manor Ground after he’d been promised there would be no transfers likely to weaken his squad.
Saunders’ long and much-travelled career began in Swansea, the place where he was born on 21 June 1964, the son of former Swansea and Liverpool wing-half Roy Saunders.
He attended GwrossydJunior School and was soon appearing in the school football team on Saturday mornings and playing minor football in the afternoons. He went on to Penlan Comprehensive in Swansea and his career began to blossom, playing in the school team at all levels under sports master Lee Jones, a former British gymanstics champion. Saunders played for the Swansea Schools representative sides at under 11, 13 and 15 levels.
“I can remember enjoying watching the Swansea players train when I was a lad,” he told Tony Norman in an Albion matchday programme article. “I was lucky because my dad was the assistant manager, so I could go to pre-season training and things like that.
“I used to kick a ball around on the sidelines and dream of playing for Swansea.” That dream turned to reality after he joined the Swans in 1980 as an apprentice (when John Toshack was the manager), turned professional in 1982, and made his debut in the 1983-84 season. He scored 12 times in 49 appearances but in his final year had a goalless four-game loan at Cardiff City.
Manager John Bond released him on a free transfer after a turbulent season in which the Swans only narrowly avoided relegation to the basement division and Chris Cattlin, who’d been impressed when he saw Saunders playing for Swansea Reserves at the Goldstone Ground, snapped him up for Brighton.
“I was amazed when the Welsh club let him go for financial reasons,” Cattlin wrote in his matchday programme notes for the opening game of the season. “He is young, quick and, if he works hard, he has a great chance.”
By the end of that season, Saunders had scored 19 goals in 48 league and cup games and was voted player of the season. His performances in the second tier for the Albion caught the eye of the Welsh national team manager, Mike England, and on 26 March 1986 Saunders made his full international debut for Wales as a substitute in a 1-0 win away to the Republic of Ireland. It was the first of 75 caps.
Saunders scored his first international goals when he netted twice in a 3-0 friendly win over Canada in Vancouver on 19 May 1986, after which England said: “He goes past defenders with his tremendous pace and his finishing against Canada was a revelation.
“The experience he gained at Brighton has done him the world of good. To finish top scorer in his first full season of Second Division football tells its own story.”
Saunders, who shared a house with Albion’s young Republic of Ireland international Kieran O’Regan, said being happy at home had helped him to settle down quickly.
“I liked Brighton from the day I arrived,” he said in a matchday programme article. “It reminds me of my home town of Swansea and I like living by the sea.”
A lover of all sports, Saunders revealed how he liked to play cricket in the summer, when he turned out for Haywards Heath, and he played snooker with O’Regan and Steve Penney.
That summer, Saunders told Shoot! magazine: “I had both cartilages out of my left knee at 18 and had both Swansea and Cardiff turn me down. I’ve had my share of the downs. From the moment I joined Brighton, my career has turned for the better.”
The young striker continued: “Swansea just gave me away – despite the fact that I was top scorer in a team coming apart. Cardiff City gave me a few games but always seemed to have reasons for not playing me consistently when I was on loan there.
“So, I had every incentive to make the break from Welsh football and I joined Brighton. Brighton can go places.
“I was disappointed that we didn’t make the First Division first time around. But all the lads are convinced that we will get there next season. I’ve been given a three-year contract so there are tremendous incentives to do better.”
It didn’t work out that way, though. After only a mid-table finish, Cattlin was sacked and there were rumblings of financial issues beginning to reverberate around the corridors of the Goldstone. Alan Mullery returned as manager but had limited funds to invest in the team, and, with echoes of the Pat Saward era back in the early ‘70s, the club turned to fans for financial help to bring in players.
After Mullery’s unseemly swift departure halfway through the season, former Worthing boss Lloyd took over and fans were completely mystified as to how he could leave out Saunders in favour of Richard Tiltman, who Lloyd had plucked from local football. Since then, it has been suggested his omission was more to do with money than football ability.
There was great consternation that Albion collected only £60,000 when Lloyd sold Saunders to Oxford in early March 1987, especially as the Seagulls were fast hurtling back to a level of football they’d manage to avoid for ten years.
That was no longer a concern for Saunders who recovered the goalscoring touch he’d shown during his first season at the Goldstone Ground, scoring 33 goals in 73 games for Oxford before being sold to Derby for £1m against Lawrenson’s wishes 19 months after arriving at the Manor Ground.
A popular goalscorer for Derby
Meanwhile, the goals kept flowing for Saunders as he netted 57 in 131 games for Derby. The side finished fifth in the old First Division by the end of Saunders’ first season with the Rams, and he’d contributed 14 goals. The Derby Telegraph noted: “From the moment ‘Deano’ arrived, the players were inspired and the crowd enthused. The signing also suited the post-war tradition of 5ft 8in goalscoring heroes at the Baseball Ground – Raich Carter, Bill Curry, Kevin Hector and Bobby Davison.
“Derby fans were too wise to comment on height. What mattered was Saunders’ speed, eel-like turn and persistence. He scored six in his first five games, starting with two against Wimbledon when he captured supporters’ hearts with the immediacy of a Kevin Hector. A close-in header and long-range right-footer were beautiful appetisers.”
Despite Saunders scoring 24 goals for Derby in 1990-91, the side was relegated and Saunders and teammate Mark Wright were snapped up by Liverpool. Reds paid £2.9m to take Saunders to Anfield, boss Souness believing he’d be an ideal strike partner for their established Welsh international striker, Ian Rush.
Saunders made his Liverpool debut on 17 August 1991 in a 2-1 win over Oldham Athletic (Mark Walters and defender Wright also played their first league games for Liverpool); Ray Houghton and John Barnes scored Liverpool’s goals.
Saunders scored his first goal for the Reds 10 days’ later in a 1-0 win over QPR at Anfield but a Liverpool history website reckons he struggled to adapt to Liverpool’s passing game. “He was used to Derby’s counter-attacking style, scoring many of his goals by using his exceptional pace,” it said. “Saunders wasn’t very prolific in the league with about one goal every four games but flourished in the UEFA Cup with nine goals in five matches that included a quadruple against Kuusysi Lahti.”
Saunders scored twice in Liverpool’s successful FA Cup campaign, which culminated in them lifting the trophy at Wembley after beating Sunderland.
Although he scored twice in seven games at the start of his second season at Anfield, a cashflow issue meant Souness was forced to sell him to raise funds to dip into the transfer market.
Saunders explained: “Graeme called me in one day and told me he needed a centre-half [Torben Piechnik], and that he could raise the money by selling me to Aston Villa.
“I couldn’t believe he was prepared to let me go, but he said he didn’t think my partnership with Ian Rush had worked out, and Rushy wouldn’t be the one going anywhere. That was it.”
Saunders had scored 25 goals in 61 appearances for Liverpool, the last coming in a 2-1 home win over Chelsea (Jamie Redknapp scoring the other Liverpool goal) on 5 September 1992.
Among the goals again at Aston Villa
The Welshman had the last laugh, though, because only nine days after his departure from Liverpool he scored twice in Villa’s 4-2 victory over the Reds.
“Obviously I had a big incentive to do well today and I’m thrilled to have scored,” said Saunders. “Both my goals went through the goalkeeper’s legs.”
Signed by Ron Atkinson, Saunders spent three seasons at Villa, initially developing a formidable strike partnership with Dalian Atkinson, and then pairing up with Dwight Yorke. Saunders’ brace in the 1994 League Cup final helped beat Manchester United 3-1.
Villa history site lerwill-life.org.uk remembers him as “a spring-heeled attacker and very popular with the supporters” and adds: “Not big in size, he was very speedy and scored some spectacular goals including a 35-yard spectacular against Ipswich.”
His time at Villa Park came to an endwhen Brian Little took over as manager, and Saunders was reunited with his old Liverpool boss Souness in Turkey. A £2.35million fee took him to Galatasaray for the 1995-96 season and he netted 15 goals in 27 Turkish League matches.
Next stop for Saunders was back in the UK at Nottingham Forest, but the 1996-97 was an unhappy one as the manager who signed him, Frank Clark, was sacked in December after a bad run of defeats and Forest’s slide towards relegation continued under Stuart Pearce and Dave Bassett.
Sharpshooter for the Blades
By the time Forest had bounced straight back up, Saunders had left the club, moving in December 1997 to second-tier Sheffield United for a year under Nigel Spackman and caretaker managers Russell Slade and Steve Thompson. United made the play-offs but lost out to Sunderland in the semi-finals. In December 1998, Saunders moved abroad again to link up with Souness a third time, at Benfica in Portugal.
Up front for the Bantams
The following summer, he returned to England and joined Bradford City, where his former Brighton teammate Chris Hutchings was assistant manager, then briefly manager. Saunders was a regular in his first season at Valley Parade, when the Bantams managed to narrowly avoid relegation from the Premier League, but he played only a handful of games in 2000-01, when they were relegated. Saunders retired as a player shortly before his 37th birthday and became a coach at Bradford before linking up with Souness again, this time as a coach.
He joined him at Blackburn Rovers and then Newcastle United, but when Newcastle sacked Souness early in 2006, Saunders lost his job as well.
In the following year he began taking the Certificate in Football Management course run by the University of Warwick; and this led to him being granted his UEFA Pro Licence coaching badge, a qualification that allowed him to be appointed as assistant to John Toshack with the Welsh national team.
In October 2008, Saunders replaced Brian Little as manager of Wrexham, newly relegated to the Conference. He eventually managed to steer the north Wales outfit into the play-offs in the 2010-11 season, but they were knocked out by Luton Town and, in September 2011, Saunders was appointed manager of then Championship club Doncaster Rovers.
Unfortunately, he couldn’t save Rovers from relegation and they went back down to League One with only 36 points from their 46 League fixtures.
Having guided Rovers to second place in League One, Saunders was appointed manager of Wolverhampton Wanderers in January 2013, but he couldn’t prevent them being relegated from the Championship and he was sacked three days after relegation was confirmed courtesy of a 2-0 defeat at the hands of Gus Poyet’s Albion.
Suffering relegation with Wolves
Saunders told the media after the game: “We have to get some players in who think like I’m thinking, who want to win, fresh minds, no damage done to them, no confidence issues, no ‘been here too long’ issues, no ‘I don’t know if the manager likes me’ issues. Once I get my own team on the pitch, imagine what the supporters will be like.”
Saunders, with only five wins from his 20 games in charge, didn’t get that chance and rather ruefully said of his opponents that day: “A few years ago they were bankrupt and without a stadium, but they’ve shown what is possible and, with the momentum, they have could well get into the Premier League.”
Just after Christmas 2014, Saunders was named as the interim manager of Crawley Town after the previous incumbent John Gregory stood down for health reasons.
Saunders then became manager of League One side Chesterfield on 13 May 2015 but his stay there lasted only five months.
In June 2016, Saunders was part of the BBC pundit team for their coverage of the Welsh national team’s games at Euro 2016 and made the headlines during the tournament when it was revealed that he had incurred parking charges of over £1,000 from Birmingham Airport’s short stay car park as he wasn’t expecting Wales to progress as far as they did. The charge was eventually waived by the airport who asked him to make a donation to charity instead.
His subsequent involvement in football has been as a pundit on BT Sport’s Saturday afternoon Score programme as well as on the radio with talkSPORT. He hit the headlines in 2019 when he was jailed for failing to comply with a roadside breath test but the initial punishment was quashed and changed to a suspended sentence. Via the League Managers’ Association, Saunders issued a statement in which he said: “I made a terrible error of judgment for which I have been rightly punished, and I wholeheartedly regret that it happened.”
Pictures from the Albion matchday programme and various online sources.
In parallel lines 