DAVID GONZÁLEZ might well have been an experienced international goalkeeper but conceding a soft goal on his debut didn’t go down well with the Albion faithful.
Brighton fans were a whole lot happier when the same player shipped five AGAINST the Seagulls four months later.
Columbian González, who’d spent two years as a Manchester City back-up ‘keeper, only played twice for the Seagulls during a short-term deal in 2012.
After signing him in January that year, manager Gus Poyet finally gave him a chance at the end of the season after Peter Brezovan had conceded six in a thrashing at West Ham. González was one of six changes to the line-up that had capitulated at the Boleyn Ground.
But, against Watford at the Amex three days later, there were only six minutes on the clock when the Colombian saw Sean Murray’s cracker of a free-kick sail over him into the net.
When González did make a routine save, supporters in the North Stand greeted it with sarcastic applause, which incensed Poyet. In his post-match interview with the Argus, he said: “If David had let a goal in through his legs I wouldn’t agree but I would understand that sometimes we take the mickey out of somebody, but it wasn’t like that so they need to be careful.
“I don’t like it because they are being unfair to an unbelievable group of players who are bringing plenty of joy to this football club and attacking any single person is attacking the whole club.”
The ‘keeper’s debut hadn’t got much better when Troy Deeney put Watford 2-0 up with a penalty a minute before half-time. Thankfully Albion hit back in the second half and forced a draw with goals from captain Inigo Calderon and former Hornet Will Buckley.
Ironically, the Watford ‘keeper that night, Tomasz Kuszczak, was brought in by Poyet that summer and González ended up at Barnsley – the side he made his only other Albion appearance against in the last game of the season.
González keeps goal for Albion at Barnsleyand, below, sees five go past him when playing FOR the Tykes at the Amex at the start of the next season
At least he didn’t concede at Oakwell, although the 0-0 bore draw was a dire spectacle: a typical end-of-season encounter.
Almost the only things of note were that Barnsley included a young John Stones in their line-up together with David Button in goal and former Albion flop Craig Davies was up front.
In one of those strange quirks of football, González was back at the Amex at the end of August having been drafted in by the Tykes to cover a goalkeeping injury crisis.
It was not a happy return. As the Yorkshire Post reported: “Brighton were 2-0 up after only 14 minutes, with goals from Ashley Barnes and former England defender (Wayne) Bridge, with Barnsley goalkeeper David González at fault on both occasions.”
González dropped a free-kick by Craig Noone for Barnes to tap in after three minutes and the Colombian was “simply a bystander” when Bridge beat him to his left with a low drive from 25 yards. It was Bridge’s first league goal for nine years.
Ashley Barnes wheels away after scoring past Albion’s former ‘keeper
Barnsley pulled a goal back with a 36th-minute penalty from Davies after Andrew Crofts fouled Jacob Mellis, but Craig Mackail-Smith got the final touch on Barnes’s shot a minute later.
Mackail-Smith scored again four minutes after half-time with a close-range header and Barnes made it 5-1 10 minutes from time, slotting home Kazenga LuaLua’s cross.
Barnsley boss Keith Hill said afterwards: “We had 12 players out but I have no excuses whatsoever. It was inept and I include myself in that. The opposition were excellent and it could have been up to 10-1.”
Born in Medellín on 20 July 1982, González began his career at his hometown club Independiente Medellín and he played more games for them than any other club he subsequently joined (he returned for a four-year spell between 2015-19). And in June 2022 he was appointed their manager.
González also had two separate spells with another Columbian side, Deportivo Cali (he ended his playing career with them in 2020) and left South America for Turkey in 2007, spending two seasons with Çaykur Rizespor.
After failing to make an impression with Argentinian side Club Atlético Huracán he had a successful trial at Manchester City in late 2009 during Roberto Mancini’s reign. He wasn’t named in their 2010-11 Premier League squad but he was the reserve side’s regular ‘keeper until, in the second half of the season, he was sent on loan to Leeds, where he remained back-up behind Kasper Schmeichel and Shane Higgs.
He was unlucky not to get a chance back at City when he sustained an injury at the same time as Shay Given and no.2 Stuart Taylor. Marton Fulop was brought in on loan from Sunderland instead.
At the start of the following season, González was sent on a six-month loan arrangement to Aberdeen, where he hoped his performances would catch Mancini’s eye.
“I want to have a good spell at Aberdeen and to show Mancini that I should be considered for the team,” he told the Daily Record. “But Man City have so much money they can go out and buy just about any player they want.
“The way things are going they will become the best team in the world and I see that happening sooner than a lot of people think.”
The goalkeeper featured in 14 games for the Scottish Premier League club when first choice Jamie Langfield was sidelined following a seizure. On his return to Manchester, his contract was terminated by mutual consent and the free agent was taken on by Brighton, where Poyet had just dropped Casper Ankergren and installed Brezovan as his first choice ‘keeper.
Poyet told seagulls.co.uk: “David is an international with an excellent pedigree, playing over 300 senior games at the top level in South America, Turkey and Scotland. He has won the league in Colombia and has been capped by the national team.
“The idea is for David to compete with Peter and Casper to be first choice. Peter has come in recently and done very well, and is currently number one, but it’s now up to both David and Casper to put pressure on him to be first choice.”
That mauling at the Amex in August 2012 was one of only three Championship games González played for Barnsley and in Albion’s matchday programme he had admitted he saw his time with the Tykes as a shop window.
“I want people to come and have a look, to see what I’m capable of, but nothing else has been said really,” he said. “I’m just here for the time being while the boys are out with injury and suspension, so I’m just going to enjoy it and try to do the best I can.” Oops!
The following year he moved back to Columbia, initially playing for Deportivo Pasto, then Águilas Doradas before returning to Independiente Medellín in 2015.
DALE STEPHENS spent nearly seven years at the Albion and was a pivotal cog in the club’s rise from the Championship to the Premier League.
He got his first taste of life at a big club playing alongside Adam Lallana and Dean Hammond….for Southampton!
That was back in 2011 when Saints won promotion from League One as runners up behind the Albion although he was an unused sub when Saints left Withdean on St George’s Day with all three points from a last gasp 2-1 win.
Stephens had gone on loan at St Mary’s from Oldham Athletic to cover an injury to Morgan Sneiderlin. “It was a strange one actually, there were only six or seven weeks left of the season,” he told the Albion matchday programme.
“Oldham weren’t really in any fear of going down or making the play-offs, so when Southampton came in for me, I was allowed to leave.”
The loanee played in six of the final 10 games of the season, making his debut against future employer Charlton Athletic alongside Lallana and Hammond.
“I looked at it almost as a trial period for being at a big club,” he said. “It was a chance for me to showcase myself. Playing for a club like Southampton at that level, with the players they had, was good for my experience and I really enjoyed being in a big-club environment.
“It was a good experience but just a shame that it was cut short by the season coming to an end.”
Explaining that everything was a level above what he’d previously been used to, Stephens added: “I didn’t feel out of place, though. I felt comfortable in that environment and it gave me the belief and the confidence that I could reach the next level.”
That didn’t turn out to be with Southampton, because his next club turned out to be the Addicks, where Chris Powell was building a side to try to get back into the Championship. Stephens found them to be similar to Saints, and like in his stint in Hampshire, he once again became a League One promotion-winner.
“I had a great first season there, helping the club win the League One title,” he recalled.
He then established himself as a Championship player before switching to the Albion in January 2014 when Andrew Crofts was ruled out by injury.
It was Nathan Jones, the former Albion player who had returned to assist Oscar Garcia, who recommended the move for Stephens, having seen him close-up when working as a coach at Charlton.
“Dale was one I recommended very strongly to the club and staked my reputation on, really,” he told the Argus. “When I was at Charlton, I saw Dale in probably three or four training sessions and a friendly at Welling and I knew then he could play at the highest level.”
Garcia needed little convincing and told the newspaper: “He’s a midfielder who can do everything and he does it all well. He’s got great physical capacity, a very good strike, he gets into the opposition box, and he is aggressive without the ball.”
It would be fair to say he was something of a Marmite player for many fans, often accused of being too slow and favouring a sideways pass. I’d say I wasn’t a fan at first but grew to appreciate his importance to the way the side played.
By his own admission, Stephens said: “With the sort of player I am, I’m not going to get fans on the edge of their seat. I’m not going to be a crowd pleaser, but I know my job and the levels I need to hit.”
Credit to him that his time at the club actually spanned the reigns of four different managers: Garcia; Sami Hyypia – although injuries prevented him appearing under him; Chris Hughton, who successfully paired him with Beram Kayal, and the early part of the Graham Potter era which saw him partner Dutchman Davy Pröpper.
Stephens’ arrival pretty much put the tin hat on the progress Rohan Ince had been making as a defensive midfielder with the Albion and, together with Kayal, he formed the key midfield duo as Albion sought to climb from the Championship under Chris Hughton.
A rare goal from Dale Stephens, this one away to West Ham
Once the promised land had been reached, Pröpper took over from Kayal but Stephens retained his place, proving a few doubters wrong about his ability to play at the higher level.
It was only with the emergence of Yves Bissouma as the consummate holding midfielder that Stephens found himself gradually edged out.
Born in Bolton on 12 June 1989, Stephens was football daft from an early age and although he had a try-out at Manchester City when he was 12, nothing further came of it.
After his final year at Ladybridge High School, he went onto a building site to do plastering and joinery.
But the coach of North Walkden, the local side for whom he was playing weekend football, wrote to Bury asking if they would take him on trial. After impressing in a work-out involving 28 triallists in front of youth team coach Chris Casper, he was invited back on a six-week trial basis.
Young Dale at Bury
“After two weeks, I played for the reserves and was offered a two-year scholarship,” Stephens explained. “I then became a first-year pro, making my debut as a sub against Peterborough, and never looked back. I was actually a striker when I joined but was quickly converted to a midfielder and I went on to play 12 first team games.”
Out of contract in 2008, he had the opportunity to step up a league and join Oldham Athletic. When game time was limited in his first season with them, he had loan spells with Droylsden, Hyde United and Rochdale, where he played alongside Will Buckley.
Back at Boundary Park, he became a regular for 18 months, in a side managed by former Brighton loanee striker Paul Dickov, and when Oldham visited Withdean in the 2010-11 season, a matchday programme article drew attention to him. “He is a big player for us in midfield,” wrote contributor Gavin Browne, sports editor of the Oldham Advertiser. “He has a great range of passing and has the ability to play at a higher level.”
A serious ankle ligament injury sustained when Albion beat bottom-of-the-table Yeovil 2-0 on 25 April 2014 sidelined him for 10 months but he returned to play a part in helping Hughton’s relegation-threatened side maintain their Championship status in 2015.
The promotion-deciding match at Middlesbrough in May 2016 will live long in the memory of those who saw it and witnessed referee Mike Dean’s controversial dismissal of Stephens four minutes after he’d brought the Albion back level with a narrow-angled header.
Once Brighton finally got to show what they could do amongst the elite, Stephens declared: “I was always confident of competing at this level but the more you play the more confident you become and the more belief you get.”
He ended up playing 99 Premier League games for the Seagulls out of a total of 223 appearances and perhaps as a mark of respect when he finally left the club for Burnley in September 2020, chairman Tony Bloom said: “He was key in both our promotion from the Championship and in establishing the club in the Premier League.
“Albion fans will have great memories of Dale as a regular in the midfield in that promotion-winning campaign, and also for the way he comfortably adapted to life in the Premier League – where he has been a model of consistency.”
His last game for Brighton saw him wear the captain’s armband in a 4-0 Carabao Cup win over Portsmouth.
Things didn’t pan out as expected when he moved to Burnley. Due to injury, he was limited to 14 appearances in two seasons, and he told talkSPORT’s Sunday Session programme: “It was disappointing on both sides. When I initially went there I was excited for the challenge, but for whatever reason it didn’t work for me or the football club.
“It probably sums my time up there, but I found out on Twitter, of all places, that I wouldn’t be getting a new contract.”
Stephens expected to find a new club, probably at Championship level, who would be interested in using his experience, and although he came close to joining Middlesbrough, and there was some interest from Watford and West Brom, nothing materialised.
“I’d played in the Premier League for the last five years, but I understood I hadn’t played much for two,” he told Andy Naylor of The Athletic. “I thought people would see the reasons behind it and that I’d get the opportunity to play at a club that wants to try to get promoted.”
Apart from being allowed to join in pre-season training at Brighton and spending six weeks with his former Bury captain Dave Challinor at Bury, he trained alone to keep up his fitness level, but, when he was unable to get fixed up with a club, in March 2023 he announced his retirement from playing.
Ongoing problems with the ankle injury suffered during his time at Brighton also contributed to his decision to retire.
In his interview with Naylor, he said he aimed to take the UEFA B licence course to try to become a coach, having spent time out following ankle surgery watching Sean Dyche’s managerial methods, as well as opposing bosses.
A MIDFIELD player who helped keep Crystal Palace in the Championship frustrated Brighton fans in an injury-plagued two seasons with the Seagulls.
Kemi Agustien, who hailed from the Dutch Caribbean island of Curaçao, wasn’t fully fit when he joined Oscar Garcia’s Seagulls from Swansea City in the summer of 2013, and injuries he picked up restricted him to just 10 starts and seven appearances off the bench.
Albion’s ‘keyboard warrior’ followers were not at all impressed and poured out their vitriol, accusing the player of being overweight and not being committed to the cause.
The main gripe seemed to be frustration that a player who had played 31 games in the Premier League only fleetingly showed his capabilities in the division below.
It seems remarkable that Agustien once scooped the official man of the match award for a powerful display in Swansea’s midfield in a 1-1 top flight draw against Manchester United.
As Brighton fans would later discover for themselves, Agustien wasn’t shy at singing his own praises, saying after that United match in March 2013: “I put out a statement to the manager, the staff and for myself and my family.
“There were doubts over my fitness or if I had the ability to play in the Premier League but hopefully everybody who watched the game against Manchester United will have seen what I can do.
“I always put pressure on myself, I’ve been in and out of the team and, like every footballer, I want to play and start every week. It was my first start for such a long time and I thought I did well.
“I am not the sort of player who likes to talk about himself, but I think I can be proud with how I played.”
As so often seemed to be the case in his career, an injury stopped any hoped-for progress in its tracks and by the end of the season boss Michael Laudrup dispensed with his services on a free transfer, even though he still had a year left on his contract.
There was a sense of irony that the midfield slot Agustien took on at the Albion had become vacant when the Seagulls managed to offload Ryan Harley, another ex-Swansea player who had been a disappointment. Harley was allowed to join Swindon Town after a settlement was agreed on the remaining 11 months of his contract.
What Albion were getting in return was, on the face of it, an upgrade, and Agustien’s agent, Wessel Weezenberg, somewhat bullishly told the Argus: “Brighton are getting an excellent, all-round midfielder. He is a very technical player, physically good and strong, and will fit in well with their type of football due to his Dutch background.”
Head coach Garcia seemed to buy into it, too, saying: “He has experience in the Premier League with Swansea and his technical level, experience and confidence with the ball will help us a lot with the way we want to play.
“We will work with him, because he is not fit enough to play 90 minutes at the moment, but he wants to be fit as soon as possible and, with our fitness coaches, I don’t think it will take much time.”
Somewhat immodestly, Agustien reckoned he could fill any of the Albion’s midfield positions, explaining: “I feel I can play box-to-box, I have the power and the ability to do that. I can be dangerous in the final third, but if I need to hold I can do that as well.
“I think I’ve got all the strengths to do both but I know I can still improve. There is more to come from me.”
When he was sidelined with calf injury issues not long into his time at Brighton, he told the matchday programme: “I want to be an important part of this team, but the only way I can do that is when I’m fully fit.
“I can’t do myself justice on 80 or 90 per cent. I know when I’m 100 per cent I can bring quality to this team.”
Reflecting on his ill-fated spell at the Albion in a March 2020 interview with Tom Coleman of Wales Online, Agustien admitted: “It started all wrong. There was a certain pressure coming out of Swansea and going to Brighton.
“I had a meeting with the manager back then, and he told me how he wanted to play a certain way and that he wanted me to play in a certain position, as a number 10.
“For me, to start in that position was like adapting to a new style, and I wasn’t really fit because I didn’t really have a pre-season because of what happened with Swansea. I came quite late and I was overweight.”
Over the course of the 2013-14 season, Agustien made just eight starts plus six appearances off the bench in Garcia’s side, and he was an unused substitute on eight other occasions. Rohan Ince, Jake Forster-Caskey, Andrew Crofts and loan signing Keith Andrews formed the mainstay of the midfield before the arrival of Dale Stephens.
Albion supporters were, it would be fair to say, divided in their opinions about Agustien’s contribution. For example, ‘Clean Sheet’ on the Argus comment section said: “This guy has the potential to be a game-changer. He needs to get fit and motivated. If this happens, then he could be like a major new signing.”
But ‘Steveg1958’ reckoned: “This guy is unbelievable. He needs firing now and kicking out. What a joke. If any of the rest of us worked like him, we would be given the push. How he has got away with this for so long at Albion is nothing short of scandalous.”
On the popular fans forum North Stand Chat, ‘BensGrandad’ said: “He shows great skill and some brilliant passes but he appears to be lazy and not prepared to tackle back when required, or when he loses the ball. Perhaps that is where the problem lies.”
‘Stumpy Tim’ maintained: “He’s not mobile enough to play centre-mid. Wouldn’t mind seeing him in one of the forward positions as he’s definitely one of the more creative players in the team.”
If Agustien thought his Albion fortunes might change when Sami Hyypia replaced Garcia, he was to be disappointed. He made just two starts under the former Liverpool man, plus one substitute appearance, all at the start of the season.
He was sent on as a sub for Forster-Caskey in the opening day 1-0 home defeat to Sheffield Wednesday that got Hyypia’s reign off to an ignominious start.
I do recall him putting in a decent shift away to Leeds United later the same month, contributing to a fine 2-0 win which saw Albion leave Elland Road with all three points, although he had to go off after twisting an ankle.
He started in a 2-0 League Cup win over Cheltenham Town but was replaced by Kazenga LuaLua on 68 minutes and wasn’t seen in first team action again.
He underwent surgery for a persistent thigh muscle injury, and Hyypia’s successor Chris Hughton didn’t rule him out altogether, but he said at the end of February 2015: “At this moment he is quite a way from being fit and ready to play.
“He hasn’t been fit for most of the season. If he is able to get fit and available for any part of the season we’d be delighted.” But he left the club without reappearing in the first team.
It wasn’t that he hadn’t done OK at that level, either, because he had already played 18 games for Birmingham City in the Championship during the 2008-09 season, and, in the 2010-11 season, three starts for Swansea under Brendan Rodgers and, when he hadn’t been able to win his City place back after injury, six starts and two appearances off the bench on loan at Dougie Freedman’s Crystal Palace as they fought to avoid the drop at the end of the season.
Explaining the Palace loan, Rodgers told Sky Sports News: “I felt Kemy needed games. He has found it difficult this season. I brought him in and he is a good lad, but some players are all right if they are not playing and others are not.
“Kemy is the type who wants to play. He came here injured and the players in his position have done very, very well.
“He has another season on his contract with us and, while it hasn’t quite happened for him here as he would have wanted, I want to see him getting games. Hopefully, come the start of pre-season, he will be fully fit.”
He got off to a decent start under Freedman when Palace won 2-1 against a Barnsley side which had former Brighton loanees Paul McShane in defence and Diego Arismendi, who went on as a substitute.
The Palace website reported Agustien impressed with his distribution on his debut, combining well with James Vaughan, and in a 2-1 defeat at Ipswich, it was an Agustien free kick that found skipper Paddy McCarthy who scored the visitors’ goal.
The loanee was in the starting line-up for Palace’s crucial away trip to Hull City when both sides needed a point to be sure of staying up. It finished 1-1. And his last game in Palace colours was in the final game of the season when the home side succumbed 3-0 to Nottingham Forest.
PROLIFIC second tier goalscorer Leroy Lita was a Gareth Southgate free transfer signing for Middlesbrough where he scored 20 in 82 games.
Two years after Boro cashed in and sold him for £1.75m to newly promoted Premier League side Swansea City, Lita joined an injury-hit Brighton side three months into Oscar Garcia’s reign.
Goals had been harder to come by for Lita after Brendan Rodgers had signed him for the Swans and he was sent out on loan, spending time back in the Championship with Birmingham City and Sheffield Wednesday.
It was a familiar story for Lita who had been Reading’s first £1m player when Steve Coppell signed him from Bristol City in 2005.
He netted a goal every three games for the Royals, but towards the end of his four years at the Madejski Stadium, he’d gone on loan to Charlton Athletic and Norwich City.
By the autumn of 2013, Lita had become something of a footballing nomad, fed up with a lack of first team action under Michael Laudrup.
With Albion’s leading striker Leo Ulloa out for two months with a broken foot, and Craig Mackail-Smith and Will Hoskins also sidelined, Garcia brought the diminutive striker to Brighton on a three-month loan arrangement.
“He is strong, fast and direct, and he has shown he can score goals in the Championship,” Garcia told the club website. “He offers us something different going forward.”
I can remember being at the Keepmoat Stadium, Doncaster, when he scored his only goal for the club two minutes after going on as a substitute for Jake Forster-Caskey (he’d played with his stepdad Nicky Forster at Reading).
Forster-Caskey had scored a wonder goal with his left foot from 35 yards before Rovers equalised but visiting Albion went on to collect three points in a 3-1 win (David Lopez scored the other with a long range free kick).
Lita had made his debut in a 0-0 draw at Yeovil on 11 October, going on as a sub for Ashley Barnes and his home debut saw him replacing another loanee, Craig Conway, in a 1-1 draw with Watford.
The eager striker made a public plea via the Argus to be given a start but Garcia only ever used Lita off the bench for the Seagulls (he went on as a sub on five occasions and was an unused sub for three games).
“The staff have a bit of doubt but I feel fine,” Lita said. “When I am on the pitch my mind just takes over anyway. “I don’t ever feel tired or not match fit. I know you still need your match fitness, but you have to get that at some point, so hopefully this week.”
Having got off the mark for the fifth Championship club he had served on loan, he added: “Once you get that first goal you are thinking about the next one and the next one. I am just looking forward to scoring plenty of goals.
“I know I can score goals wherever I go so I’ve never had that doubt. Whoever has doubted me it’s up to them. My belief in myself is not going to end until I am 50 years old and can’t move!”
But with Ulloa’s fitness restored, Lita’s final appearance in an Albion shirt was on 3 December when he went on for Barnes at the Amex as the Seagulls succumbed 2-1 to Barnsley.
Maybe Lita’s Albion spell was cursed from the start when he was handed squad number 44 (all the fours, droopy drawers)?
He was still only 28 when he arrived at the Amex with an impressive record of 101 goals in 330 league and cup games, 14 of which had been in Reading’s 2006-07 Premier League season.
“I know the Championship well,” Lita said in the matchday programme. “Consistency is the main thing at this level because everyone beats everyone; some teams start well and drop off, while others start badly then pick up a run of results. So, it’s all about putting a good run together then you never know what might happen.”
Lita followed in the footsteps of former Swansea teammates Kemy Agustien and Andrea Orlandi to the Amex, but he also knew Liam Bridcutt and Andrew Crofts from his time as a youngster at Chelsea.
He recalled summer training camps at Horsham with Bridcutt and he played in the same Chelsea junior side as Crofts. “They have both gone on to become really good players,” he said.
“It helps when you go to a club and know a few people but I think the style of play here will also suit me.
“It is similar to Swansea and the club only signs players here who know the system.
“I played against Brighton last season, scoring on my home debut for Sheffield Wednesday, and although we won that day, I was still impressed by the way the team played.” He had also played at the Amex before when he was on loan at Birmingham and (below right) was the subject of a page feature in the matchday programme.
Born in Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo on 28 December 1984, it was as a teenager on Chelsea’s books that he couldn’t believe his luck to be sharing a training pitch with Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and Eidur Gudjohnsen.
“I would go home and see them on TV and the next day I would be training with them,” he told The Guardian. “It was unbelievable.”
Reporter Jon Brodkin wrote: “Chelsea broke his heart by releasing him but his three years at the club he supports were hardly wasted. The thrill of being a ballboy was surpassed by training with the first team’s front two.”
Lita told him: “I was 15 and the academy director said he had spoken to my school and I could have a couple of days off a week to train with the first team and the ressies [reserves]. It was a great opportunity and I learned a lot from it.
“Hasselbaink’s finishing was unbelievable, he didn’t mess about. He could place it and smash it. I mainly did finishing with them, not much else, but I could see as well how professional they were and how they looked after themselves.”
After Lita’s release, he contacted a few clubs – Fulham were interested but didn’t offer a contract – and he was aware that after leaving Arsenal Andy Cole had made a new start to his successful career at Bristol City.
It was the Robins who gave Lita an opportunity and former Albion skipper Danny Wilson handed him his first team debut at the beginning of the 2002-03 season when he was still only 17.
His first league goal was a late winner on 28 September 2002 to secure a 3-2 victory after going on as a substitute at Port Vale (for whom an 18-year-old Billy Paynter had scored).
“The striker hit a glorious goal to end Vale’s hopes of a point after they had fought back to level matters just a minute earlier,” said the BBC report of the game.
It wasn’t until the following season that he was given a professional contract and it was only after Brian Tinnion succeeded Wilson as manager in 2004-05 that Lita established himself in the City side. He scored 29 goals in all competitions and that form earned him a call-up to the England under-21s, Lita having decided not to play for his birth country.
He scored on his debut on 8 February 2005 when he went on as a sub for Justin Hoyte in a 2-1 defeat against the Netherlands at Derby’s Pride Park.
Those goals also earned him a £1m move to Reading, even though Tinnion advised him against the move, believing a Premiership club would come in for him.
“Once I got down here, I knew it was right,” Lita told The Guardian. “I want to go a step at a time. Reading are a good club, they’re looking to get into the Premiership and that’s where I want to be.”
He went on to score 15 goals in 25 league and cup games (+ seven as a sub) as Reading topped the Championship, and he returned to the England under-21 fold in February 2006.
He was on home turf at the Madejski Stadium when he earned his second cap, again as a sub, replacing David Nugent in a 3-1 win over Norway (future Albion loanee Liam Ridgewell was among his teammates).
A year later, after finding the net in the Premier League with Reading, Lita got a third cap as a substitute (for James Milner) and scored again in a 2-2 draw against Spain at Pride Park. Liam Rosenior was also a substitute that day.
Lita’s first start for the under 21s came the following month, on 24 March, in a 3-3 draw with Italy in the first game played at the new Wembley Stadium, in front of 55,700. On 5 June the same year, Lita scored England’s fifth goal in a 5-0 win over Slovakia at Carrow Road after he’d gone on as a sub for Nigel Reo-Coker.
Lita was an overage player in the 2007 UEFA European Under 21 Championship: he missed an 88th minute penalty after going on as a sub in a 0-0 draw with the Czech Republic but scored in each of the three games he started: 2-2 v Italy, 2-0 v Serbia and 1-1 v the Netherlands (who won the tie 13-12 on penalties). But a full cap eluded him.
Lita was a regular throughout Reading’s first top-flight campaign. In a side that include Ivar Ingimarsson and Steve Sidwell, Lita scored 14 times in 26 league and cup starts plus 12 appearances off the bench.
But with Kevin Doyle and Dave Kitson the preferred strike duo in 2007-08, Lita’s game time was much reduced and he went on loan to Charlton in March 2008.
It was a similar story the following season when he scored seven times in 16 games during a three-month loan at Norwich City – the haul included a hat-trick against eventual champions Wolves.
The excellent Flown From The Nest website, that profiles former Norwich players, recalled how that treble attracted the interest of plenty of other clubs, but City boss Glenn Roeder said: “It’s a better problem to have than him not scoring and playing rubbish – then none of us want him. What can you do?
“He was brought here to score goals. He was a little bit rusty in his first game which was understandable. He did better in the second game against Bristol City when he had a couple of chances which unfortunately never went in, and then in the third game on Tuesday night, we saw the real Leroy Lita and what he is all about.”
Lita returned to Reading and played in a FA Cup third round defeat at Cardiff and although Sheffield United made a bid for him, he preferred to stay with the Royals.
Nevertheless, at the end of the season, he finally left the Madejski and headed to Teesside on a three-year deal.
On signing for Boro, Lita said: “The manager has been after me for about a year, it’s great to feel wanted. I have a lot of respect for the gaffer and I want to do well for him and the club.
“I aim to repay him for his faith in me with goals. That’s the main strength to my game and I’m looking forward to scoring goals for Middlesbrough.”
He told the Northern Echo: “I’m raring to go. I haven’t enjoyed the last two seasons one bit, but this is a fresh start and I’m excited about the challenge.
“Other clubs were interested in signing me, but there was only once place I wanted to go and that was Middlesbrough.”
Southgate added: “Leroy has a hunger to score goals and his goalscoring record in the Championship in particular is very strong.
“His record says he gets one in two at this level so that will be important for us. I think he has a point to prove and, when he’s fully fit, he will relish the challenge.”
It wasn’t long before Southgate was succeeded by Gordon Strachan but Lita made the second highest number of appearances (41) in that season’s squad and scored nine goals as Boro finished mid-table.
There was yet another managerial change the following season, with the return of former player Tony Mowbray, but Boro once again finished mid-table with a side that featured Joe Bennett at left back and Jason Steele in goal.
Lita scored 11 times in 40 matches, which was enough to attract newly-promoted Swansea. “I’ve had a good chat with Leroy,” said Mowbray. “He has a chance to play in the Premier League and good on him. His talent has earned him that chance.”
But he only scored twice in six starts (+ 12 appearances off the bench) all season and in September 2012, Lee Clark signed him on a three-month loan for Birmingham.
“I know Leroy very well having worked with him at Norwich during a loan spell in which he scored seven goals in 16 games,” said Clark. “He’s a proven goalscorer who has power and pace and there’s no doubt that he’ll add quality to my squad.”
Lita scored three goals in 10 games for Birmingham before being recalled early, but in late January 2013, he joined Sheffield Wednesday on loan until the end of the season.
Wednesday manager Dave Jones told BBC Radio Sheffield: “Leroy has a lot of experience at this level and the one above. It could be with a view to a permanent deal. This lets us have a look at him and he can have a look at us.” But he only scored twice in nine appearances for the Owls.
Released by Swansea at the end of the 2013-14 season, Lita was then reunited with Danny Wilson, manager at newly relegated League One Barnsley.
“He was my first manager and I like the way he works,” said Lita. “He’s got a lot of trust in me and I’ve got a lot of trust in him.
“I enjoyed my time under him as a youngster. He helped me a lot and helped me progress in my career so far. I just want to get back to playing football regularly again and I’m going to get that opportunity here.”
He scored in his first two league games but didn’t register again for 21 games. When Wilson was replaced by Lee Johnson in February 2015, within a matter of weeks Lita joined lowly Notts County on loan until the end of the season but was unable to prevent their relegation.
On expiry of his Barnsley contract, Lita moved to Crete side AO Chania in August 2015 but was back in England the following March, signing a short term deal with League Two Yeovil Town, where he scored once in eight games. That was his last league club in England.
He scored five goals in 21 games for Thai Premier League side Sisaket in 2017 and on his return to the UK turned out for a number of non-league clubs: Margate, Haverhill Rovers, Salisbury and Chelmsford City.
In May 2020, the Coventry Evening Telegraph hailed his signing for Nuneaton Borough, whose manager Jimmy Ginnelly told the newspaper: “His partner is from Nuneaton and they’ve recently moved into a house on The Longshoot, which is just five minutes from the ground, so this is a win-win situation for both parties.
“These sorts of players don’t come onto Nuneaton’s radar very often so we moved quickly and obviously all of us here at the Boro are very excited.”
He scored eight goals in 33 appearances for Nuneaton, went on to play for Southern League Premier Division Central rivals Stratford Town before moving on to Hednesford Town, where he’s still playing.
In March 2022, the Express and Star reported: “Lita lit up Keys Park last night as he smashed a debut hat-trick to help Hednesford to a 3-1 victory over Stourbridge.”
Bradley Johnson scores on his debut v Leicester (photo Simon Dack)
THE COCA-COLA Kid’s cousin was an instant hit when he joined seventh-from-bottom Brighton on loan from second-placed League One rivals Leeds United in October 2008.
Bradley Johnson, who’d heard about the Seagulls from his relative Colin Kazim-Richards, scored twice on his debut as the Seagulls turned round a 2-0 half-time deficit to beat Leicester City 3-2.
“I hadn’t played for two months and Micky (Adams) asked if I was fit and I admitted I wasn’t match fit, but he said he would throw me in anyway,” Johnson recounted.
“The two goals I scored gave me great confidence as a player, but the win helped everyone,” he said. “On the night, the fans were immense and the result gave us all a good boost.”
In an Argus interview in March 2021, Johnson recalled: “I was a young boy from Leeds coming into a struggling team against a team who were flying so it was a bit daunting for me.
“I didn’t know what to expect but, as debuts go, I don’t think it could have gone any better.
“Anyone who knows me knows I like a shot and I’ve always had that since a young age. Some don’t go where planned but thankfully on that night they did.”
Albion had failed to score in their three previous games, against Hereford, Peterborough and Hartlepool, and soon found themselves 2-0 down to City courtesy of two Matty Fryatt goals.
Adams hauled off a somewhat better known loanee – the ineffective Robbie Savage – at half-time, along with wideman Kevin McLeod, and the changes galvanised the Albion in the second half.
Right-back Andrew Whing reckoned the withdrawal of Savage might have helped Johnson to shine. “Maybe he’d felt a bit in Robbie’s shadow up until that point,” he told Spencer Vignes. “But he really stepped up in the second half and scored twice, one of them an unbelievable strike. We needed a spark and that was it.
“Bradley deserved a lot of credit that night. He’d come to us from Leeds and he just took responsibility, scored twice and got us back into it. He really made an impression.”
After Johnson’s pair of long range strikes past David Martin in the Leicester goal, City defender Jack Hobbs sealed a memorable comeback for the Seagulls when he diverted Joe Anyinsah’s cross past his own ‘keeper.
It was a tad ironic that Johnson should have scored against Leicester too because at the start of that year he came very close to signing for them but couldn’t agree terms and ended up at Leeds instead.
Five days after his impressive Albion debut, Johnson was on the scoresheet again as Adams’ side beat Millwall 4-1 at the Withdean Stadium (Glenn Murray, two, and Dean Cox, the other scorers).
Kazim-Richards, whose £250,000 transfer from Bury to Brighton had been paid for via fan Aaron Berry winning a competition organised by the soft drink giant, had already moved on to Fenerbahçe in Turkey via Sheffield United by the time Johnson arrived in Sussex.
But he said: “My cousin Colin had played there so I knew Brighton and I knew a few lads, and that it was a good place to be. But it was Micky that really sold the place to me and I just wanted to play. That is all I wanted to do; I didn’t look at the side’s league position. I just wanted to be a part of what Micky spoke about and help the club beat relegation.”
Unfortunately, the mini revival in the autumn of 2008 didn’t continue although Johnson was on the winning side again when, in his 10th and last game for the Albion, two Nicky Forster goals earned a 2-0 win at Swindon Town, spoiling Danny Wilson’s first game in charge of the Robins (Peter Brezovan was in goal for Town).
By then, Johnson, who’d lost his place at Leeds following an injury, had scored four times for the Albion (some records show he scored twice in a 4-2 home defeat to MK Dons, others that the second Brighton goal was netted by Stuart Fleetwood).
Somewhat gallingly, Johnson was next seen at Withdean less than three weeks into the new year – back in the fold with Leeds as they took all three points in a 2-0 win on 17 January 2009.
“When I was out on loan, Leeds were struggling and when I went back Gary McAllister got the sack. Simon Grayson came in and I didn’t know where my future lay, but Grayson told me I had a part to play and it was down to me to train hard and prove myself,” he said.
“He was true to his word, and I kept my head down, then I ended up coming back to Brighton and played against them for Leeds. It was a bit surreal to be in the away dressing room, but that is football.”
Johnson became a regular at Elland Road for the next two years and was part of the Leeds side who won promotion to the Championship in 2010, as well as earning headlines in memorable FA Cup ties against Premier League opposition.
In particular, in a third round replay against Arsenal at Elland Road in January 2011, Johnson scored a spectacular goal for the home side although they lost the tie 3-1.
Having spent five years on Arsenal’s books as a promising youngster, it was a bittersweet moment for Johnson who said afterwards: “It was a goal I’m not going to forget. I’m an Arsenal fan myself and so are all my family.”
On the transfer list at the time because he couldn’t agree a new deal with Leeds, he eventually got the chance he craved to play in the Premier League that summer when he moved to newly promoted Norwich City, where his teammates included Elliott Bennett and Andrew Crofts.
It was Canaries boss Paul Lambert who sold the club to him at the time but he also sang the praises of his successor, Chris Hughton.
Johnson joined the Canaries
“Hughton did come in with a different style of play,” he told pinkun.com. “He was very tactical. He was mindful that we were playing in the Premier League against good players whereas Paul Lambert wouldn’t care, if we were playing Manchester United, he’d say ‘if they score two, we’ll score three’.
“Different approaches, different ideas and different philosophies. People weren’t happy with the way he played but we finished 11th. I can only speak for myself, but I really enjoyed my time there and Chris is a great manager.”
He added: “Credit to him when he got the sack because he stuck by his morals and got Brighton promoted.”
After three seasons in the Premier League, the 2014–15 Championship season was one of Johnson’s most successful seasons with the Canaries: he became vice-captain to Russell Martin, appeared in 44 of the 46 league matches (including one appearance as a sub) and scored 15 goals.
He was voted fans’ Player of the Year and was part of the side that won the play-off final 2-0 against Middlesbrough to ensure City won back their Premier League place.
However, unable to get a place in Alex Neil’s side back among the elite, he switched to Derby County for £6m in September 2015.
That was the start of seven more seasons in the Championship: after 140 appearances over four years with the Rams, he moved on a free transfer to Blackburn Rovers, where he made 86 appearances over three seasons.
He eventually left Ewood Park at the end of the 2021-22 season and in the summer of 2022 joined MK Dons on a free transfer.
Johnson scored both goals as MK Dons turned round a disappointing start to the season by beating Port Vale 2-1 in their fourth match.
Johnson interviewed after scoring twice for MK Dons
Born in Hackney on 28 April 1987, Johnson was on Arsenal’s books from 1997 to 2002 but was released aged 15.
“Like any kid, being released from a club was horrible and I didn’t really feel like going back on a round of trials with other professional clubs, so instead I just played locally in Leyton.
He went to Ryman Premier side Waltham Forest but when he was 17 was invited for a trial at Cambridge United. He signed on a non-contract basis for eight months and was then offered a professional contract.
Johnson attracted suitors when playing for Northampton Town
But Northampton Town had been tracking him. “They made me a counter-offer which I accepted and that is where my career began,” he said.
That was in May 2005, and after he had been out on loan to gain experience at Gravesend & Northfleet and Stevenage Borough, he became a regular starter under Stuart Gray and his performances attracted scouts from clubs further up the league.
When that aforementioned move to Leicester fell through in January 2008, a few days later Leeds stepped in and paid a £250,000 fee for him.
He played in the same Leeds side as Casper Ankergren that lost the 2008 League One play-off final 1-0 to Doncaster, but picked up a back injury in pre season that led to him being sidelined. Although he returned to fitness, the side was doing well in his absence which meant he was unable to force his way back in. And then the chance to play competitive football was presented by the Albion.
DIMINUITIVE winger Sébastien Carole has a double entry in the history of Brighton and Hove Albion.
Not only was he the first Frenchman to play for the club, he was also the first to play under three completely separate contracts for Brighton’s first team.
As well as three different spells with the Seagulls (2005-06, 2009 and 2010), he spent two years at Leeds United where his son is now in their under 18 side.
Ironically Carole scored his first goal for Albion against Leeds, but his first Brighton manager, Mark McGhee, thought the player’s ability should have yielded far more goals.
“He’s got to get more goals,” McGhee told the Argus in November 2005. “He’s a great finisher, a great ball striker and he can manipulate the ball.
“He is going to get himself in scoring positions, because he makes space for himself when he comes inside, and in training he scores.”
That goal against Leeds came in a memorable 3-3 draw at Elland Road on 10 September 2005 but Carole’s only other goal that season came in a rare victory, 2-1, over Hull City on 16 December (Charlie Oatway got the other).
An eleven-game winless run from January to the end of March, in which only four points were picked up, pretty much sealed Albion’s fate and the promise of Carole on one wing and fellow Frenchman Alexandre Frutos on the other didn’t live up to expectations. Albion lost their Championship status with only seven wins across the whole campaign.
To cap it off, a disappointed McGhee saw Carole exercise a clause in his contract that meant he could leave Brighton on a free transfer if they were relegated.
“We gave Seb the opportunity to come here and be part of the team,” McGhee told the Argus. “Regardless of that clause, the decent thing for him to do would have been to stay, at least at the start of the season.”
Seagulls chairman Dick Knight explained the clause had to be inserted into Carole’s contract to ensure he’d join from Monaco in the first place.
“If that clause hadn’t gone in then Seb’s wages over the two years would have been higher and the signing-on fee would have been more, so it was a no-brainer,” he said. “We fought hard to keep him, but the agent has persuaded Seb to go.”
The winger chose to move to Leeds, beginning the first of several occasions he’d link up with manager Kevin Blackwell. But Blackwell was sacked after only three months and his eventual replacement, Dennis Wise, told the Frenchman he wouldn’t be part of his plans.
“I had a think about it, had a chat with my wife and I said that I would stay and fight for my place,” said Carole. “I had signed for three years and I wanted to prove I could be a good player for Leeds.
“That summer, Leeds were relegated, and I could have gone back to France and joined Le Havre but I chose to stay and fight for my place. Then, by a twist of fate, the left winger got injured, I got on, played well and after that Dennis Wise told me he didn’t want me to go.”
Wise’s assistant at Leeds was of course Gus Poyet – and the winger’s relationship with the Uruguayan would later be of use back on the south coast.
Unfortunately, when Wise left Leeds for Newcastle, replacement Gary McAllister wanted to bring in his own players so once again Carole found himself sidelined, and there was a mutual agreement to cancel his contract.
He was without a club for a few months although his old boss Blackwell, by now at Sheffield United, invited him to train with them and he played a few games for their reserve side, and he spent a short while training with Bradford City.
However, in December 2008 and January 2009 he linked up with League Two Darlington, where he played seven matches. “It was not far from where I was living and I needed some games for fitness,” he said. “I signed a monthly contract and left a week before I came back to Brighton on trial.”
Micky Adams, back at Brighton for what turned out to be an unsuccessful second spell, tried all sorts of permutations to try to turn round a string of disappointing results and the invitation extended to the Frenchman was one of the last avenues he explored before the Albion parted company with him.
He scored twice and created two more in a practice match against the youth team as Adams ran the rule over him at a trial. “He’s not somebody I’ve worked with before, but everyone at the club speaks highly of him so we will take a look,” said the manager.
The early signs for Carole under Adams were good: he went on as a 56th-minute substitute for Chris Birchall at home to Hartlepool on 2 February, putting in a cross for Nicky Forster to convert.
Sections of the Withdean faithful voiced their disapproval of Adams’ choice of change, but the manager was typically forthright in his response, telling the Argus: “We can all sit in the stands sometimes and play football manager.
“I decided Seb Carole would give us an impetus. That was no reflection on what Chris Birchall had done. I can’t be worried about what the fans are thinking. I’ve got to do what I think is best and stand there and be as brave as I can be.
“Seb travels well with the ball, delivered a couple of great crosses and put one on a plate for Fozzie.”
It wasn’t long before Adams was on his way and although Carole liked what he heard from incoming boss Russell Slade, the new man preferred Dean Cox as his wide option.
Carole told Brian Owen of the Argus: “I love the way he talks. He’s got so much passion and he has tried to do something different.
“He wants us to play a bit of football at times when it’s possible because obviously the pitch doesn’t allow you to play that much. We can see something has happened since he came here.”
However, Carole’s part in ‘the great escape’ was somewhat peripheral, making only five starts plus seven appearances off the bench.
He later said: “Micky Adams signed me and I think I did well under him, then he left and Russell Slade came and I wasn’t really in his plans.
“I wasn’t really involved in the team. I was on the bench most of the time and I didn’t understand why, because I thought I could bring something to the club.
“I was a little bit upset about the whole situation. I didn’t get the chance to do well in that second spell.”
Released by the Albion in June 2009, Carole was attracted by the prospect of playing under the legendary John Barnes at Tranmere Rovers and signed a short-term deal at the start of the 2009-10 season.
However, once again managerial upheaval would be Carole’s downfall. Rovers won only three of their first 14 matches and Barnes was shown the Prenton Park door.
“I was disappointed when he was sacked,” Carole told the Argus. “When I went there we had a long chat about how he wanted to play and I signed because of him, because I knew what he was like as a player and would play the way I like.
“I think it was a little bit unfair and a little bit early for him to be sacked, because he didn’t get the finance to make the signings he wanted.
“I definitely think if he had stayed then I would have stayed longer. When they put the physio (Les Parry) in charge, I just felt it wasn’t that good for me.”
The third coming of Carole at the Albion, on a week-to-week deal, was as a direct result of his having played under Poyet at Leeds, the winger telling the Argus: “He knew what to tell me in a certain way to get the best out of me. That is what he was good at when he was at Leeds.
“He was only the assistant manager to Dennis Wise but, more than anyone else, he was talking to the players in the right way and players were listening to him.
“He brings you confidence and you trust him and he will bring a togetherness to Brighton, which is important to get the team back on track.
“He is exactly the same as when he was at Leeds. He is really relaxed and wants to play a certain system. Obviously, that will take time. I think what he is trying to put in place here will bring the club back to where it deserves to be.”
Poyet was equally positive about taking on the Frenchman. “I know Seb better than anyone,” he said. “Seb’s a winger, not just right or left. People say he’s right-footed but he did a terrific job for us at Leeds on the left.
“We’ve been playing without a natural left-sided winger. People look at Dean Cox out there but I see him a bit more inside. I don’t think we have another player like Seb.
“People will compare him to Elliott (Bennett) but he’s a different type of player. Elliott is more direct, more about speed, more going past people with his speed. Seb is about checking in and out and dummies, taking players out of position with his skills. We don’t have that player. That’s why he is coming in.”
It was six weeks before he got his first start and he fancied his chances of getting a longer deal, especially when a hamstring injury forced Kazenga LuaLua to return to Newcastle.
“With Kaz injured for the rest of the season, I think I have got a massive chance now,” he said. “It’s up to me and how I perform.
“I was pleased to be back in the starting eleven. You always get frustrated when you are not playing but I trust Gus and I know exactly what he wants.
“I kept my head down and kept working hard and knew I would get another chance.”
His best run in the side saw him feature in four games on the trot: a 2-0 win at Oldham, a 3-0 home win over Tranmere, a 2-2 draw at home to Southampton and a 2-0 defeat at Hartlepool.
Carole certainly felt pumped up for the game against Rovers, reckoning he had a point to prove to Parry. “He didn’t play me at all. I want revenge and to show him,” he told the Argus before the match. “If I could score and just kill them I’d be happy.”
Carole didn’t score but he did put in an inviting cross that Andrew Crofts seized on to score a second goal for the Albion on the half hour. Glenn Murray had opened the scoring in the seventh minute and debutant Ashley Barnes went on as a sub to score the third.
Dropped after the Hartlepool defeat in favour of on-loan Lee Hendrie, Carole was a non-playing substitute for four matches and, although he played in the season’s finale, a 1-0 win at home to Yeovil, that was his last game in an Albion shirt.
Born in Cergy-Pontoise, a suburb of Paris, on 8 September 1982, Carole’s first memories of football were as a five-year-old having a kickabout with his dad, Jean-Claude, who had played for Paris Saint Germain’s academy but whose career didn’t take off because of an accident.
Carole went to La Fiaule school in Vaureal from the age of three to 10 where he played football every Wednesday. Apart from football, he also had an aptitude for maths. He went on to La Bussie and joined Monaco at the age of 14. He progressed through the ranks before eventually playing 11 times for the first team, including once in the Champions League.
Carole was 21 when he first came to the UK in January 2004, joining Alan Pardew’s West Ham on loan at the same time that Bobby Zamora joined the Hammers from Tottenham Hotspur.
But the young Frenchman only made one substitute appearance, going on in the 87th minute for Jobi McAnuff as the Hammers beat Crewe Alexandra 4-2 at the Boleyn Ground on 17 March.
The following season he was sent on loan to French Ligue 2 side Châteauroux where he scored once in 11 matches.
It was truly the long and the short of it when in August 2005 Albion announced the joint signing of 5’7” Carole and 6’5” Florent Chaigneau, a French goalkeeper on loan from Stade Rennes. Describing them as “exciting additions to the squad”, Albion chairman Knight said: “The fact that we have been able to attract these young players who have already represented France at various levels, is a measure of the progress we are making at this club. We will give them the stage to make their names in England.”
Carole made his debut in the third game of the season, rather ironically once again Crewe Alexandra were the opponents, in a 2-2 home draw, and Chaigneau played his first match 10 days later as Albion bowed out of the League Cup 3-2 away to Shrewsbury Town. While Carole established himself in the side, Chaigneau only made two more appearances.
Although Carole played for France through the age groups up to 19, in 2010 he played three games for Martinique, the Caribbean island side, in the Didgicel Cup.
After failing to get the hoped-for longer contract at Brighton, Carole spent the 2010-11 season with French Ligue 1 team OGC Nice. He subsequently returned to the UK and spent six months at League One strugglers Bury, managed by his old boss Blackwell, but was released having made just five substitute appearances. He then proceeded to drift around various non-league sides in Yorkshire.
He later set up his own football school, which he ran for a year, and has since been an agent (C & S Football Management). His son Keenan is currently playing for the Leeds under 18 team.
A 93RD-MINUTE winning goal in a Championship match against Peterborough United was as good as it got in Stephen Dobbie’s brief stay with Brighton.
Dobbie left the Albion for Crystal Palace just five months into a three-year contract after failing to live up to the hope that he would be the answer to Albion’s shortage of a genuine goalscorer.
“He has great quality which will unlock defences and I have no doubt he will also score plenty of goals,” Poyet said on capturing a player who had a goalscoring pedigree at Championship level with Swansea City and Blackpool, as well as in Scotland.
“He has played and proven himself at this level and in the Premier League. His goals helped Blackpool win promotion in 2010 and he returned on loan to help them reach the play-off final last season,” he said.
Dobbie was one of four players who joined Brighton on 31 August 2012; fellow Swansea player Andrea Orlandi also arrived, along with Dean Hammond, on loan from Southampton, and Athletic Bilbao’s David Lopez.
Seldom a starter, Dobbie’s first Albion goal came after he’d gone on as a 64th minute substitute for Andrew Crofts at home to Peterborough. Despite relentless Albion pressure, the game looked to be heading for a goalless draw when Dobbie produced a composed finish from an Ashley Barnes pass in the third minute of added on time.
A delighted Poyet said: “We needed quality and Dobbie showed us what he is capable of and that won us the game. It was real quality and that’s what we needed to score tonight.
“On another day, another player would have smashed that and it would not have gone in. The touch was magnificent and we are all delighted.”
Dobbie added: “Before I came on the gaffer told me to keep doing what I have been doing in training. I was confident that my time would come. Hopefully I can kick on and show the sort of form I have showed before in the Championship.”
As it happened, Dobbie did score in the next match too although an astonishing game at Molineux possibly summed up his time with the Albion. He had a great chance when through on goal that Carl Ikeme saved; he then put Albion 3-2 up with an 89th minute penalty – but 10-man Wolves hit back with a 90th-minute equaliser.
“We are all a bit gutted because the three points were there to be taken and on another day we probably would have scored four or five,” said Dobbie afterwards.
Dobbie didn’t score again and after just five starts plus 10 appearances off the bench Poyet decided to cut his losses and ship the player out on loan to Palace.
He couldn’t put his finger on exactly why it hadn’t worked out and was open in his assessment when talking to the Argus about it.
“I don’t think there is one reason, one person responsible,” said Poyet. “I think it didn’t click, that’s all. I am more than happy to take the blame but it’s a mix of things, the way we play, the player, the results, the team.
“The moment it was a possibility to get him I was convinced he was the perfect player for us, to play between the lines, arrive late, get goals, play in different positions in a front three or even behind the striker.”
Earlier in the season, Dobbie said matters off the pitch had made it difficult for him to settle. He had been living in a hotel with his wife and young son for a month during which time his wife gave birth to their second child.
“It was quite hard living in the hotel with my wife and little boy but thankfully we’re now settled in a house and another little boy has since come along, so I can concentrate fully on my football,” he told the matchday programme. “It’s not easy when you’ve got so much going on, it takes a period of adjustment, but now I’m able to just focus on what I’m doing on the training ground.”
At least the move to Palace reunited Dobbie with a familiar face: he had played under Palace boss Ian Holloway during two loan spells at Blackpool. Dobbie scored three times in 15 matches for Palace as they won promotion via the play-offs (thankfully he didn’t play in the semi-finals v Brighton).
Albion and Palace had to make the transfer a loan initially to comply with FIFA regulations regarding the number of clubs a player can play for on a permanent basis in one season, but the loan became permanent in the summer.
Although he signed a two-year deal at Selhurst Park, he only played in one Premier League game and one League Cup tie before returning to Bloomfield Road on loan to Blackpool for a third time.
It was perhaps inevitable that Dobbie should score an equaliser for relegation-threatened Blackpool when they salvaged a point in a disappointing 1-1 draw at the Amex on 21 April 2014.
Blackpool player-manager Barry Ferguson said:“It was a great strike. [Dobbie] has quality and it’s up to him to produce it more often.
“I let him play where he wants to. I’ve known him a long time and, apart from what he does on the ball, his work-rate off the ball is excellent.”
Although still under contract with Palace, Dobbie spent the 2014-15 season on loan at newly promoted League One side Fleetwood Town.
Released by Palace at the end of that season, he spent pre-season on a trial basis at Championship side Bolton Wanderers and when boss Neil Lennon liked what he saw he was given a one-year contract with the Trotters.
In 2016, Dobbie returned to the club where he’d previously been most prolific as a goalscorer: Queen of the South. In his first spell (2006-09), he scored 55 goals in 105 games for the Scottish First Division outfit.
That level of goalscoring prowess returned second time around, as he netted 111 goals in 178 games over five seasons in the Scottish Championship. He topped the Championship scoring charts in 2017 and 2018 and his 43 goals in 2018-19 was the best ever total for a Queens player in a single season.
Born in Glasgow on 5 December 1982, Dobbie grew up in the tough Barlanark district of the city, and in an interview with the Daily Record he described his experience playing street football in the area.
He was a Rangers fan and, although it was Hearts who first showed interest in him, he spent two years as a youth player at Ibrox Park.
“I signed for the club when I was about 10 or 11,” he recalled. “I was quite lively as a kid but I was soon brought back down to earth whenever I got to meet my heroes. It was intimidating walking into a room and there’s Gazza, Brian Laudrup and Ally McCoist sitting there.”
He added: “They were world class and although I never got to follow them into the first team, it was a brilliant club and I loved my time there.”
While he scored goals for Rangers reserves, he didn’t break through to the first team with his boyhood heroes. The first of many loan moves in his career saw him go to Sydney in Australia and score three times in three games for Northern Spirit.
In the summer of 2003, he was transferred to Hibernian and made a total of 33 Scottish Premier League and cup games during his first season at Easter Road. But a regular starting berth eluded him and he went on loan to Scottish First Division St Johnstone.
That move was turned into a permanent switch but in 2006-07, when once again he couldn’t nail down a regular starting spot, he was loaned to Third Division Dumbarton, where he hit a purple patch, scoring 11 goals in 18 matches.
Such form attracted Queen of the South; he joined them on 5 January 2007 and enjoyed a successful two-and-a-half-year spell.
After he’d finished the 2008-09 season as the Scottish First Division’s top goalscorer with 24 goals, Swansea City, then in the Championship, made him an offer he couldn’t refuse.
“Dobbie has reinvented himself in the last two seasons and is at the best stage of his career,” said Swansea manager Roberto Martinez.
Aged 26 at the time, Dobbie was reunited with Swans top scorer Jason Scotland who he’d played with at St Johnstone in 2005-06.
“He has been through many different moments since his Rangers days, but I firmly believe he is now ready for a new challenge,” said Martinez. “He is a typical Swansea player – very gifted and strong technically.
“He’s also a natural goalscorer, has high standards and is hungry to show off his talent in the Championship.”
Dobbie’s first goals for Swansea somewhat ironically came against Brighton when the Welsh side dumped Russell Slade’s side out of the Carling Cup with a 3-0 victory at the Liberty Stadium.
He scored again in the next round but injury then kept him out of the side and by the following February he was on his way to Blackpool on loan for the first time.
Ironically, Dobbie went on to play for Blackpool in their 3-2 Championship play-off win over the Swans bitter rivals Cardiff City, which saw him branded “Secret Agent Dobbie” by a certain section of the Swansea faithful.
Back at Swansea, Dobbie finally got his place back after Brendan Rodgers had taken over from Paulo Sousa in the manager’s chair.
Dobbie score four times for the Swans but he eventually found himself back on the bench playing second fiddle to loan signing Marvin Emnes and Craig Beattie.
Nevertheless, he chipped in with some important goals from the bench and once again found himself playing in the Championship play-off final, this time getting on the scoresheet as Reading were beaten 4-2.
Remarkably, he featured in a third successive Championship play-off final, again with Blackpool, having failed to hold down a place in Swansea’s Premier League side. He made eight appearances at the elite level but didn’t get on the scoresheet.
Dobbie joined Holloway’s Blackpool in March 2012 but they missed out on another promotion when West Ham beat them 2-1 at Wembley.
In April 2021, Dobbie announced his departure from Queen of the South, with the Daily Record declaring: “The 36-year-old has scored 166 times in 282 games over two spells with the club and is regarded as one of their best players of all time.”
Having put down roots in the North West (even when he was playing for Queen of the South he would commute from his home on the Fylde coast), it was little surprise to see him start the 2021-22 season with AFC Fylde of the Vanarama National League North.
Dobbie became part of Steve Bruce’s coaching team at Blackpool
THE PHRASE ‘journeyman striker’ sits perfectly with Welsh international Craig Davies who, despite success later in his career, fired blanks for Wolverhampton Wanderers and Brighton.
To use that rather amusing, though well-worn phrase, he couldn’t hit a cow’s arse with a banjo during his time with the Seagulls.
He arrived on the south coast in January 2009 during Micky Adams’ second, unsuccessful, spell in Albion’s managerial chair.
Oldham Athletic received a reported £150,000 for his signature and, in 23 games for Brighton, he managed just the one goal – on his debut!
That strike came at Withdean – the opening goal in what ended up a 4-2 defeat to Peterborough United (for whom a certain Craig Mackail-Smith equalised).
When a 4-0 home thrashing by Crewe Alexandra meant it had been six games on the trot without a win, Adams was fired by Dick Knight at a Little Chef on the A23. He’d managed just seven wins in 34 matches, and ‘fireman’ Russell Slade arrived just in time to rescue the Seagulls from the League One relegation trapdoor.
Many different striker permutations were tried that season, with main men Nicky Forster and Glenn Murray sidelined by injury, and Albion’s survival was largely due to the goals of loan arrival Lloyd Owusu. Davies huffed and puffed but simply couldn’t make a meaningful connection when the goal beckoned.
Typical of the fans’ eye view was this observation by wearebrighton.com: “That Adams actually paid money for Craig Davies remains one of the more startling moments of his reign of terror.
“Rarely has a Brighton player enraged the Seagulls support like Davies, a man who mixed incompetence – such as the ability to put the ball over the bar when faced with an open goal three yards away – with a complete lack of effort.”
There had been such promise on his arrival, with chairman Dick Knight telling the matchday programme: “Craig is an exciting player with loads of potential, he is lightning-quick and his direct approach can be a nightmare for defenders. This is a major career move for him and he has every chance to be a crucial part of our future.”
Davies himself clearly thought he’d finally found a place to further his career, saying: “I’ve had a few ups and downs through my career but hopefully now I can get settled at Brighton and start knocking in the goals here.
“The gaffer seems to have a bit of faith in me so hopefully I can repay that by putting in some performances and getting a few goals.”
Albion cut their losses on Davies and loaned him to Yeovil Town (he didn’t score in four games for them, either) and then Adams re-signed him, this time for League Two Port Vale, where he finally managed to find the back of the net again.
In the summer of 2010, Davies came to a mutual agreement to end his Brighton nightmare and he joined League Two Chesterfield, from where his career began an amazing upward trajectory.
Born in Burton-upon-Trent on 9 January 1986, Davies began his career as a schoolboy at Shrewsbury Town, but did his apprenticeship at Manchester City. In August 2004, he moved on to League Two Oxford United, where he made his league debut the same month in a 1-0 win at Notts County.
In two seasons with Oxford, managed by former Ipswich and Arsenal midfielder Brian Talbot, he scored eight times in 55 appearances. In the summer of 2005, he made his debut for Wales (qualifying because he had a Welsh grandfather) as a substitute in a 0-0 draw v Slovenia. Reports linked him with a move to Premier League Charlton Athletic, but nothing came of it and instead, in January 2006, he moved to Italy to join Hellas Verona for a £85,000 fee.
It proved to be too big a step for someone who was then only 20, and he referred to feelings of homesickness in an interview with the BBC.
Remarkably, Davies hit the headlines in May 2006, when in the sixth of seven games he played for the Wales under-21 side (which featured Gareth Bale, Andrew Crofts and Arron Davies) he scored a hat-trick in a 5-1 win over Estonia, and it earned him a recall to the full international side.
Wales under-21 manager Brian Flynn told the BBC: “Craig has sometimes been frustrating to watch, but he has skill and we will help him, and them all, to flourish.”
Davies hoped the international goals would attract a club to rescue him from Italy. “I have found it very hard to settle in Italy,” he told the BBC. “Verona want me to come back and have a year on loan somewhere and then they will look at the situation again when I have a bit more experience.”
It was Wolves, then in the Championship, who offered him a lifeline back in the UK and he moved to Molineux on loan, playing 23 games, mainly in the first half of the 2006-07 season.
The only goals he scored for Wolves both came in a FA Cup tie against Oldham Athletic who, ironically, turned out to be his next club. He joined them for an undisclosed fee from Hellas in June 2007.
Davies netted 13 times for a League One Latics side in 2007-08 but, after a 10-game barren spell the following season, he was sent on loan to Stockport County where he scored six times in 13 games, including bagging a hat-trick against Bristol Rovers, and scoring a penalty against Albion as County won 2-0.
When Adams rescued Davies from his Seagulls horror spell, he was rewarded with seven goals in 24 matches for League Two Port Vale between January 2010 and the end of the season.
Chesterfield stepped in to sign him on a one-year deal for the 2010-11 season – and he was promptly sent off in his first competitive game for the Spireites!
Things did get much better, though, and he ended the season with 25 goals to his name, Chesterfield were promoted, and Davies was chosen in the divisional PFA select team for the season.
Such success drew attention from other clubs and he opted to join Championship side Barnsley under Keith Hill. He struggled to find the net in the opening nine matches but eventually finished the season with 11 goals in 42 appearances.
In September 2012, Davies scored FOUR goals in the space of 19 minutes in a 5-0 demolition of Birmingham City at St Andrews and, with nine goals in 22 appearances to his name in the first half of the 2012-13 season, Bolton Wanderers came forward with a £300,000 bid to take him to the Reebok Stadium.
He scored four goals in 18 Championship games for Wanderers but another of his barren spells struck in the opening half of the following season. Wanderers loaned him to League One Preston and he got a goal on his debut as well as a hat-trick in a 6-1 thrashing of Carlisle United. North End reached the play-offs, and Davies made his way back to Bolton having scored five in 15 games.
Hamstring injury issues plagued him in 2014-15 and manager Neil Lennon released him at the end of the season.
He didn’t have far to travel for his next port of call when newly-relegated Wigan Athletic offered him a two-year contract. He only scored twice in 30 appearances, but Wigan won promotion as League One champions.
With just one goal in 14 Championship games in the first part of the 2016-17 season, Davies was on the move again, this time linking up with League One Scunthorpe United until the end of the season. Cue another barren spell: no goals in 21 games.
The 2017-18 season saw Davies return to his old club, Oldham Athletic, and despite scoring 14 goals in 44 appearances, could not prevent the club being relegated to League Two. Davies had strong views about the ownership of the club as he departed for Mansfield Town.
He signed a two-year deal with the Stags, but injury curtailed his involvement in 2018-19.
When a 4-0 home thrashing by Crewe Alexandra meant it had been six games on the trot without a win, Adams was fired by Dick Knight at a Little Chef on the A23. He’d managed just seven wins in 34 matches, and ‘fireman’ Russell Slade arrived just in time to rescue the Seagulls from the League One relegation trapdoor.
Born in Burton-upon-Trent on 9 January 1986, Davies began his career as a schoolboy at Shrewsbury Town, but did his apprenticeship at Manchester City. In August 2004, he moved on to League Two Oxford United, where he made his league debut the same month in a 1-0 win at Notts County.
In parallel lines 