Two goals that etched Sammy Morgan’s place in Albion history

HAVING A cheekbone broken in four places during a pre-season friendly summed up the bad luck of never-say-die Northern Irish international striker Sammy Morgan.

His cause wasn’t helped when the manager who signed him six months earlier quit. And, to top it off, while he was recovering from that horrific injury, an Albion footballing legend in the shape of Peter Ward burst onto the scene.

When a £30,000 fee brought him to Brighton from Aston Villa just before Christmas 1975, it looked like the side had found the perfect strike partner for Fred Binney as they pushed for promotion from the third tier.

Unfortunately, the man with the swashbuckling, fearless approach went eight games without registering a goal. However, in his ninth game he made amends in memorable fashion.

Morgan scored both goals in a 2-0 win over Crystal Palace in front of an all-ticket Goldstone Ground crowd of 33,300 – with another 4,000 locked out.

It was 24 February 1976 and the Daily Mail’s Brian Scovell reported the goals thus: “In the 12^th minute, Ernie Machin struck an early ball into the middle from the right and Ian Mellor headed on intelligently behind the defence for Morgan to steer the ball into the corner of the net.

“The second goal, in the 55^th minute, came when Tony Towner took the ball off Jeffries and set off on a 40-yard run which ended with his shot rebounding off goalkeeper Paul Hammond. Morgan tapped in the rebound.”

Gritty, angular and awkward, Morgan scored five more before the end of the season, including another brace at home to Swindon.

However, Albion narrowly missed out on promotion and Peter Taylor, the manager who bought Morgan, quit the club in the close season. The new season under Alan Mullery hadn’t even begun when, in a pre-season friendly against Luton Town, Morgan fractured his cheekbone in four places.

“I know I’m probably more prone to injuries than other players because of my style of play, but there’s no way I can change it, even if I wanted to,” Morgan told Shoot! magazine. “I made up my mind as soon as I got back in the team that I’d have a real go and that’s what I’ve done. People say I’m a brave player but I don’t really know if that’s true. I just like to give 100 per cent and that way no-one can ever come back at you.”

In the season before he joined Brighton, a groin injury had restricted him to just three top-flight appearances for Villa and, when he was fit to return, Villa had signed Andy Gray, whose form kept him out of the side.

Initially reluctant to move on, he admitted in that Shoot! interview: “I was sad at the time because I had a lot of happy times at Villa but now I think they may have done me a favour. Brighton are a very good ambitious club and I’ve just bought a house in Peacehaven. Really, I couldn’t be happier.”

Born in Belfast on 3 December 1946, Morgan’s family moved to England to settle in Great Yarmouth and, with an eye to a teaching career, he combined studies with playing part-time football for non-league Gorleston Town.

“Deep down I knew I could make the grade, but the opportunity just wasn’t there,” he told Goal magazine in a 1974 interview. “The local league club was Norwich City and in those days they didn’t seem that keen on local talent.”

Morgan enrolled at teacher training college in Nottingham and just when he thought a professional football career might elude him, Port Vale made an approach.

“I jumped at the chance,” he said. “They let me stay at Nottingham to complete my studies and I would travel up to train and play with them. Deep down I thought that the Third Division was as high as I could get, unless, of course, Vale were promoted.”

In his three years with Vale, where his teammates included Albion legend Brian Horton, he scored 24 goals in 113 appearances, and he caught the eye of the Northern Ireland international selectors. He scored on his debut in a European Championship qualifier with Spain on 16 February 1972 when he took over at centre-forward from the legendary Derek Dougan.

Amongst his illustrious teammates that day were Pat Jennings in goal and the mercurial George Best. Future Brighton left-back, Sammy Nelson (then with Arsenal) was also in the side. The game was played at Boothferry Park, Hull, because of the ‘troubles’ in Northern Ireland at that time and it finished 1-1.

Morgan won 18 caps in total over the next six years, scoring twice more, in 3-0 home wins over Cyprus on 8 May 1973 and Norway on 29 October 1975.

The Goal article noted Morgan “earned a reputation of being a hard, no-nonsense striker who could unsettle defences and goalkeepers with his aggression”.

Aston Villa boss Vic Crowe liked what he saw and reckoned he’d be an ideal replacement for that tough Scottish centre-forward Andy Lochhead, who was coming to the end of his career.

Morgan was by now 27 but, in the summer of 1973, Villa paid a £20,000 fee for his services.

“The offer came right out of the blue and I had no second thoughts about the move at all,” he said. “Being part of such a famous club naturally brings pressures, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.

There was a famous incident in a televised game between Arsenal and Aston Villa when the normally calm, cool and collected Arsenal goalkeeper Bob Wilson went ballistic because of the way Morgan tried to stop him clearing his lines.

Swindon goal celeb “The bigger the atmosphere, the more I like it. For instance, my best two games this season were against Arsenal, and in the replay there was a crowd of 47,000.”

At Brighton, new manager Mullery quickly decided he preferred Ward to Binney and, with Morgan sidelined by that pre-season injury, opted to put former midfielder Ian Mellor up front to partner him.

Wardy Morg Between them, they literally couldn’t stop scoring goals, and the success of their striking partnership restricted Morgan to only two starts in 1976-77. He was on the sub’s bench throughout that first promotion season under Alan Mullery, and he scored just once in 16 appearances as the no.12.

He subsequently moved on to Cambridge United before a spell in Holland, where he played for Sparta Rotterdam and FC Groningen.

When his playing days were over, he became a teacher back in Gorleston. He also became involved in the Norwich youth team in 1990, signing full time as the youth development officer in 1998 and becoming the club’s first football academy director (he holds a UEFA Class A coaching licence). He resigned in 2004 and moved to Ipswich as education officer.

In 2014, Morgan was diagnosed with stomach cancer and underwent chemo to tackle it. Through that association, in September 2017 he gave his backing to Norfolk and Suffolk Youth Football League’s choice of the oesophago-gastric cancer department at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital (NNUH) as its charity of the year.

Even when he could have had his feet up, he was helping to coach youngsters at independent Langley School in Norwich.

Pictures from various sources: Goal, Shoot! and the Evening Argus.

Boylers’ service appreciated both sides of the Atlantic

MIDFIELD enforcer John Boyle was born on Christmas Day 1946 and went on to play more than 250 games for Chelsea.

Towards the end of his career, he spent two months on loan at Brighton trying to bolster the Albion’s ailing midfield in the dying days of Pat Saward’s spell as manager.

Indeed, Boyle was in that unenviable position of being at the club when the manager who brought him in was turfed out, and the man who replaced him (in this case none other than Brian Clough) swiftly dispensed with his services and sent him back to Chelsea.

By then, Boyle’s time at Chelsea was at an end and, after his 10-game Goldstone spell was also over, he went the shorter distance across London to play for Orient, before ending his playing days in America with Tampa Bay Rowdies.

Born in Motherwell, Boyle went to the same Our Lady’s High Secondary school that spawned Celtic greats Billy McNeill and Bobby Murdoch and, just around the time he turned 15, his stepbrother, who lived in Battersea, organised through a contact they had with then boss Tommy Docherty for him to go down to London for a trial.

He did enough to impress and 10 days later Chelsea sent him a letter inviting him to join their youth team, together with the train ticket from Motherwell to London.

“When I got off the train, Tommy Doc was waiting for me to take me to my digs,” Boyle told chelseafc.com in a recent interview. “I stayed in the digs that Bobby Tambling and Barry Bridges had stayed in before.”

Boyle – known to all as ‘Boylers’ – made his debut in the 1965 League Cup semi-final against Aston Villa and, at 18, it couldn’t have been much more memorable.

“I played on Monday in a Scottish youth trial and Wednesday I was playing against Aston Villa in the semi-final of the League Cup,” Boyle recounted. “After 20 odd minutes, I tackled this guy and he got injured and carried off. The crowd then booed me, he limped back on and then the crowd booed me more!

“It went to 2-0, to 2-2 and then with about 10 minutes to go I got the ball 30 yards out, rolled it forward and went crack and it went into the top corner of the net. I remember Terry Venables ran up to me and said ‘John, I am so pleased for you,’ and that was my first game. To score the winning goal in your first game was Roy of the Rovers stuff.”

He went on to become Chelsea’s youngest ever cup finalist when he was in the team that won the trophy. In those days, it was played over two legs, and, after beating Leicester City 3-2 in the home game, they drew the away leg 0-0. His teammates in the second leg were Bert Murray and the aforementioned Bridges, who he would go on to play alongside at Brighton in 1973.

The Goldstone Ground was familiar territory to him. On 18 February 1967, he was famously sent off for the visitors in a FA Cup 4^th round tie when Albion held their more illustrious opponents to a 1-1 draw in front of a packed house. Chelsea went on to win the replay 4-0 and that year went all the way to the final where Boyle was part of the side who lost 2-1 to Spurs. In another fiery FA Cup tie between Brighton and Chelsea, in January 1972, Boyle was Chelsea’s substitute as they won 2-0 in a game which ended 10 a side, George Ley and Ron Harris being sent off.

john boyle chels blue When Docherty moved on from Stamford Bridge, and Dave Sexton took over as manager, Boyle’s involvement in the side was more sporadic, as he told fan Ian Morris on his Rowdies blog.

“Dave appreciated my energy and willingness, but I don’t think he really fancied me as a player. Basically, I became an odd-job man, filling in here and there, and in football it doesn’t help to get that reputation,” he said.

Although he wasn’t in the squad that beat Leeds in the 1970 FA Cup Final, he was back in the side when Chelsea beat Real Madrid over two legs in May 1971 to win the European Cup Winners’ Cup.

After Brighton’s disastrous 1972-73 season in the second tier – the general consensus is that they’d not properly been prepared for promotion and didn’t invest sufficiently in the team to have a fighting chance of staying up – the side continued to be in the doldrums as they adjusted to life back in the old Third Division.

Manager Saward was struggling to come up with the right formula and, having transferred former captain Brian Bromley to Reading, sought to boost his midfield with the experienced Boyle, who was surplus to requirements at Stamford Bridge.

With the paperwork signed on 20 September, Boyle was handed the no.8 shirt and made his debut alongside Ronnie Howell in a 0-0 draw away to Grimsby Town.

He made his home debut the following Saturday, but the Albion went down 1-0. Three days later, this time partnering Eddie Spearritt in the middle, Boyle helped Albion to a 1-0 win at Oldham Athletic.

After a 3-1 defeat away to Blackburn Rovers, at home to Halifax Town Boyle had a new midfield partner in John Templeman. But again they lost by a single goal.

With Howell back alongside him for the home game v Shrewsbury Town, Albion prevailed 2-0 in what turned out to be Saward’s last game in charge. Perhaps by way of another interesting historical note, Boyle was subbed off to be replaced by Dave Busby, who became the first black player to play for the Albion.

Caretaker boss Glen Wilson retained Boyle in midfield for the midweek 4-0 hammering of Southport and he was also in the line-up for Clough’s first game in charge, a 0-0 home draw against York City on 3 November. But the 2-2 draw away to Huddersfield Town on 10 November was his last game for the Albion.

As someone who’d gained something of a reputation as enjoying the social side of things at Chelsea, particularly with the likes of Peter Osgood, Charlie Cooke and Alan Birchenall, it maybe doesn’t come as too big a surprise to learn that Clough advised him “always buy two halves instead of a pint, or people will think you’re a drinker”.

Boyle was still only 28 when he tried his hand in Florida in February 1975, being appointed Tampa Bay Rowdies captain, and leading them to victory in the Super Bowl against Portland Timbers in August that year.

His former Chelsea teammate Derek Smethurst scored 18 goals in that inaugural season, playing up front alongside ex-West Ham striker Clyde Best, while former Crystal Palace ‘keeper Paul Hammond was in goal.

A newspaper article about Boyle’s contribution resides on tampapix.com, a hugely entertaining site featuring loads of players of yesteryear who turned out for the Rowdies.

It somewhat flamboyantly says: “‘Captain Rowdie’ John Boyle was a barrel-chested midfielder with legs as white as snow and hair as thin as a wheat crop during a summer drought. He became the role model for the club, as much because of his leadership as well as the fact that he knocked opponents ‘grass-over-tea kettle’ when they came his way.”

He retired from playing in November the same year but, two years later, he stepped in as Rowdies coach when Eddie Firmani quit. However, he had also gone into the pub business in the UK and ultimately the need to be behind the bar at Simon the Tanner in Bermondsey, with his wife Madeline, meant he had to turn his back on the sunshine state and return to London.

Unable to resist the lure of the States once more, Boyle played five matches for indoor league side Phoenix Inferno in the 1980-81 season.

In that wide-ranging interview Boyle gave to chelseafc.com earlier this year, he said: “I wouldn’t change a thing in my life, I am just grateful for what I have done. I have been blessed and one of the great things about it is 50 years later you can still talk about it! I was a lucky young man to have played when I did and meet the people I did.”

An all-too-fleeting, injury-dogged career for the late Bernie Gallacher

WELL-known names from the football world paid their respects at the funeral of tenacious left-back Bernie Gallacher.

Gallacher, who played for Aston Villa and Brighton, died in Sutton Coldfield in August 2011, aged 44, after a short illness.

Ginger-haired Gallacher was born in Johnstone, near Paisley, in Scotland, on 22 March 1967 and he played football for his school teams, St Peter’s Primary and St Aelred’s High.

His brother John played for Scotland schoolboys but Bernie missed out because he broke a leg just before a big game. Nevertheless, scouts from Leicester City and Villa had been tracking him and, at 16, he chose to join Villa, who’d won the European Cup the year before.

“Football was his life and he often played two or three games a day when we were growing up in Johnstone,” his other brother Charlie told the Paisley Daily Express. “I’ll never forget his debut for Villa because it was against Manchester United at Old Trafford and I remember thinking it didn’t get any better than that.”

It was the final game of the 1986-87 season and Villa were already heading back down to the old Division Two (now Championship). In an Albion matchday programme article, Gallacher said: “The Old Trafford match was a great occasion, but a bit unnerving in front of a cpacity crowd.

“The crowd seemed to be breathing down my neck – at that time I was used to only a couple of hundred watching the reserve side.”

The opportunity came under Graham Taylor after Gallacher successfully made it through the apprentice ranks. Taylor told the Birmingham Mail: “Bernie was reliable, wanted to do well and was never going to cause any trouble. He was a manager’s dream.

“He wanted to do his best and he wasn’t going to cause me any problems on or off the pitch.

“There are a number of players who don’t get recognised in football and Bernie was one of those. He would come out and give us a seven out of ten performance every week.

“If he’d had more confidence and belief in himself we might have seen some nine out of ten performances.”

Gallacher made a total of 72 appearances for Villa between 1985 and 1990, but former Villa teammate, Pat Heard, recalled: “Bernie became a cult hero during the 1987-88 promotion season and never gave less than 100 per cent every game.”

That season he played in all but one of Villa’s league games as they earned automatic promotion back to the top tier. But he only played 13 more top-flight games for Villa, seven of which came in the 1989-90 season when the Midlands club were runners up behind Liverpool, seven points ahead of third-placed Tottenham Hotspur. His final appearance in a Villa shirt came against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in November 1990.

He had a brief loan spell at Blackburn Rovers and also played a couple of games for Doncaster Rovers before heading south to join Barry Lloyd’s second tier Brighton in the autumn of 1991, having been released by Villa.

Gallacher took over the left-back slot when Sussex lad Ian Chapman was injured and made his debut in a 1-0 defeat away to Blackburn on 2 November.He kept his place through to the end of what proved to be a disastrous season with Albion relegated in 23^rd spot. While defending was his no.1 priority, Gallacher got on the scoresheet in a 2-1 Boxing Day defeat at Leicester.

North Stand Chat contributor, Blue Seagull, recalled: “The ball was played to him on the left touchline right in front of me; he cut inside one, went past another, and unleashed a shot from the edge of the area. Great goal!”

Gallacher took over the captain’s armband when normal skipper Gary Chivers and club captain Dean Wilkins were both unavailable, but it wasn’t the first time he had led a side. At Villa he’d captained the youth and reserve sides.

“Captaining a side is a privilege and I’ll be happy to do it until either Deano or Chivs is back,” he said.

He played 45 games for Brighton in total but his career was cut short by a bad injury. “Unfortunately, he suffered a horrendous cruciate ligament injury which all but ended a fantastic career,” his brother recalled in 2011. “We were all extremely proud of Bernie, as he really did make a name for himself at Villa Park and is still remembered fondly for his time with the club.”

He made a couple of appearances for Northampton Town after he left Brighton, but he was forced to retire from the game aged just 27. He later worked in the probation service.

Gordon Cowans, Brian Little and Steve Staunton were among the former Villa heroes who paid tribute to him at his funeral.

Northern Irish legend Aaron Hughes was talk of the Toon

AH red black VETERAN Northern Irishman Aaron Hughes only brought down the curtain on his lengthy playing career in June 2019 at the age of 39.

On 12 June he finally confirmed his playing days were over in an emotional speech to his Northern Ireland team-mates in the Borisov Arena after the country’s 1-0 victory over Belarus.

Remarkably, Hughes had first been called up to the Northern Ireland squad at the age of 17, before he’d even broken through at Newcastle United.

“Having known Aaron Hughes for nearly 25 years, it was an honour to be present to witness his typically classy speech to all of the Northern Ireland players and staff to announce his retirement from the game after an amazing career,” former Newcastle keeper and current Northern Ireland coach Steve Harper told the Belfast Telegraph.

Amongst many others paying tribute, former international Paddy McCourt added: “Without doubt the best professional I encountered during my football career. I was fortunate enough to play alongside Aaron Hughes at Brighton and we also spent many years together with Northern Ireland. A true gentleman and brilliant player.”

He had just the one season with Brighton & Hove Albion – in 2014-15. Mainly a central defender, Hughes could also play comfortably in either full-back position or midfield.

He was the first Brighton signing of Sami Hyypia’s ill-fated spell as manager, and Hyypia told the club website: “We wanted to bring another experienced defender, and Aaron fits the bill – having played at Premier League, Champions League and international level.

“I have played against Aaron a few times during my time at Liverpool and also for Finland, and I know his qualities and what he will give us.

“He has a very good footballing pedigree, is an intelligent player, and he has a great mentality and good approach to the game.

“He has that experience I wanted to bring into the squad, which alongside our other senior players, will help our younger players continue to develop and progress in the first-team squad.”

As it turned out, Hughes was only used as cover and during his season with the Seagulls made only 13 appearances.

Nevertheless, Hughes’ stay on the south coast clearly left an impression and fellow Northern Ireland international Oliver Norwood described how Hughes played a part in persuading him to join the Seagulls in 2016.

“I spoke to Hughesy about his time here and he spoke so highly of the club, mentioning the facilities, the stadium and that it’s set up to go to the Premier League,” Norwood told the club website. “He’s a wonderful person that’s achieved so much.

“I know he didn’t get the game time he would have liked here, but if I have half the career he has, then I’ll be very happy.”

Born in Cookstown, County Tyrone, on 8 November 1979, Hughes joined Newcastle United’s youth ranks at 17 and, over eight years, he made 279 appearances for the Magpies.

A Hughes superb footy pics Eyebrows were raised when former Northern Ireland manager Bryan Hamilton took Hughes to Portugal for a World Cup qualifier in October 1997, when he was still only 17, but Hamilton told the Belfast Telegraph: “There was something special in him, even at a young age, and I wanted him in the squad. I felt he could be an outstanding player for Northern Ireland and I knew that coming in early wouldn’t affect or faze him.”

Hughes had to wait until Lawrie McMenemy succeeded Hamilton to make his international debut the following March, and by then he’d made a memorable debut for Newcastle in November 1997 against Barcelona at the Nou Camp. Selected by manager Kenny Dalglish, despite the 1-0 defeat, the 18-year-old showed tremendous promise against the likes of Figo, Ronaldo and Stoichkov. He eventually held down a regular first team place under Dalglish’s successor Ruud Gullitt before Bobby Robson took the helm.

Hughes made his name at St James’s Park in the centre of Newcastle’s defence, playing alongside Sylvain Distin in a side also featuring Craig Bellamy, Gary Speed and Alan Shearer. He spoke about his time playing under Dalglish and Robson in an interview with the Guardian.

Discerning followers of Toon were quick to join in the tributes paid to Hughes when he announced his retirement. Elsewhere they have vented their spleen at the decision Graeme Souness took to sell him to Aston Villa.

Hughes had three seasons at Villa, having been signed by David O’Leary in the 2005-06 season. But Villa fans are a tough lot to please and, despite his previous success at Newcastle, it seems they expected more. “Hughes, despite filling his role admirably as a centre back, never felt integral to our defence as he found himself chopped and changed with (Olof) Melberg, and fellow signing Wilfried Bouma,” declared readastonvilla.com.

Eventually with injury-hit defender Martin Laursen returning to the side under new manager Martin O’Neill, Hughes became more of a squad player at Villa Park. He was allowed to leave to join Fulham and was signed by a former Northern Irish international teammate, Lawrie Sanchez.

hughes fulham At Fulham, he formed a formidable defensive partnership with Brede Hangeland and fulhamfc.com said: “The pair worked brilliantly together, with the fans soon referring to them as our very own Thames Barrier. Their styles complemented each other perfectly, and while Hughes wasn’t the tallest of centre-backs, his leap and reading of the game more than made up for it.”

Hughes was one of three ever-presents – with Mark Schwarzer and Danny Murphy – when Fulham finished seventh in the Premier League in 2008-09, which led to European qualification.

He was part of the side captained by Murphy, with Bobby Zamora up front, who went on a gloriously unexpected UEFA Cup journey in 2010, only to be pipped to the trophy in extra time by Atletico Madrid.

“The way we lost, right at the end of extra-time, still grates with me, so the final is a bitter-sweet memory,” Hughes reflected in a 2014 interview for Albion’s matchday programme. “The Juventus game stands out more, where we came back from 3-1 down from the first leg in Italy to win 4-1 at Craven Cottage.”

On transfer deadline day in January 2014, Hughes signed a short-term deal for Harry Redknapp’s Queens Park Rangers for whom he made 11 Championship appearances.

After his season with Brighton, even at the age of 36 Hughes had no intention of packing up playing. Instead, he headed to Australia and played for Melbourne City and then linked up with India’s Kerala Blasters before he joined Hearts for his final two seasons.

His last club game saw Hearts bring him on in the 68^th minute of their final league game of the season, a 2-1 defeat to Celtic at Celtic Park. Upon replacing John Souttar, the 39-year-old Hughes took the captain’s armband for the final few minutes of a career stretching across an impressive 22 years.

Hughes won an amazing 112 caps for his country across 20 years – a record for an outfield player. He was second only to the legendary Pat Jennings as most-capped player and was captain of his country for eight years. Small wonder, then, that he should be so grateful to so many at the Irish FA for the longevity of his international career.

hughes NI

Pictures from various online sources.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dobson Rovers

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dobson died in Middlesbrough aged 82 on 16 February 2023.

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

‘Mad Dog’ Kennedy’s eyes weren’t always on the ball!

A Ken shot

IN A ‘10 worst Albion strikers you’ve seen’ list, Andy Kennedy would be a leading contender.

On the rare occasions he scored, he would celebrate with an exaggerated swagger befitting scoring the winning goal in a cup final – all rather out of place in a humdrum third tier league match!

The disdain in which the supporters of Watford hold him is hilariously summed up by Darren Rowe in an article on Blind, Stupid and Desperate.

“If an opposing team wanted to keep him under control, they did not need to mark him, merely make sure that he was offside, which, for long spells of the game, he would be,” opined Rowe. “Andy always seemed to have forgotten to put any studs in his boots. If ever he felt he could get away with it, his legs would give way at the edge of the box.”

In the same online title, author Chris Stride is a little more appreciative, before putting the knife in!

“He had good control, strength, ball skills and packed a powerful shot. In his early days at Blackburn, I saw him score a magnificent 25-yard curler and have an all-round blinding game against Aston Villa in the FA Cup.

andy kennedy - wat “When he signed for Watford I was hoping for more of the same. All we ever got was one long range effort away to Southend in the First Round of the Coca-Cola, and a couple of seasons of strolling around the pitch preserving his hairstyle and energy for (page three model girlfriend) Maria Whitaker.”

A Blackburn Rovers fan, posting in February 2018 under the name Drog on roversfans.com, also shared an amusing recollection of Kennedy’s time at his club.

“My main memories of Walsall though are from an occasion at homely former ground Fellows Park where Andy Kennedy netted a brace in a 2-1 win.

“My travelling companions and I managed to gain admission to the less than Babylonian splendour of something exotically named the Terry Ramsden Suite, after a colourful but ill-fated owner, where I was hoping to perhaps pass my congratulations on to Andy and his then-paramour, a lass named Maria Whittaker whom I greatly admired but sadly she had not made the trip to the Midlands.

“I can’t remember exactly what she looked like but the captions which accompanied her frequent newspaper appearances always made me think she’d make a sparkling conversationalist.”

It seems the shapely Ms Whitaker must have occupied Kennedy’s mind quite a lot. Non-League Paper contributor Liam Watson, once a player with Witton Albion, recalled in a 2013 article: “We also signed the striker Andy Kennedy – long dark hair, good looking fella – and he was knocking off the page three girl, Maria Whittaker, at the time. That was all he talked about.”

Born in Stirling on 8 October 1964 the son of an engineer father and beautician mother, Kennedy went to Wallace High School in the town and first gained football representative honours at under 13 level. It was his performances for Stirling Boys Club that caught the eye of Glasgow Rangers scout Davie Provan.

In those days he was a winger but after going through the ranks at Ibrox and signing professional at 17, he was converted into a central striker. He eventually broke through into the first team in 1982.

He mustered 20 games for the Scottish giants, scoring three times, but also spent some time on loan at Seiko in Hong Kong. Clearly it was time to move on from Glasgow!

In March 1985, Birmingham City were faltering as promotion candidates in the chasing pack at the top of the old Second Division when manager Ron Saunders took on the 20-year-old Kennedy at St Andrews.

Andy-Kennedy Kennedy displays a more conventional goalscoring celebration for Birmingham

On 8 April, with regular striker David Geddis suspended and Blues trying to end a run that had seen just one win in the previous six games, Kennedy was called up for his debut at home to Sheffield United.

And what a start he made! Not only did he score with a header past former Villa ‘keeper John Burridge, he also set up Wayne Clarke to make it 3-0 and Blues went on to win 4-1.

Kennedy’s good form continued as he scored four in seven appearances and the stuttering Blues went from fourth to second and won automatic promotion back to the elite.

Kennedy was leading goalscorer the following season….but with just nine goals that didn’t say much, as the Blues went straight back down!

Throughout the course of his three-year contract with Birmingham he made 76 league appearances but scored just 18 goals and, in March 1987, was loaned to Sheffield United, where he scored once in nine games.

In the summer of 1988, he was on the move again, this time to Blackburn Rovers for a £50,000 fee. To be fair, the Ewood Park faithful probably saw the best of him as he netted 25 goals in 59 appearances during his two years at the club.

Watford were his next club and he joined for a fee of £60,000 in August 1990. But he failed to make an impact and was loaned out to Third Division Bolton Wanderers. Unfortunately, a back injury curtailed his time with the Trotters and he only managed one game before returning to Vicarage Road.

In his unhappy time with the Hornets, he made just 25 league appearances and scored only four goals.

A Ken It was a ‘phone call from Barry Lloyd‘s no.2 Martin Hinshelwood that heralded his arrival at the Goldstone. He joined Brighton for a nominal fee in September 1992, making his debut as a substitute for Steve Cotterill in a 1-0 home defeat to Reading on 26 September 1992.

“I am delighted to be here with a great bunch of lads and now I am determined to play my part in scoring goals and getting the club promotion,” he told the matchday programme.

A skip through recollections of Kennedy on North Stand Chat hardly stand as a ringing endorsement to his contribution in the stripes, the most complimentary coming from Austrian Gull, who maintained: “He wasn’t always that bad – we’d been spoilt by the beast that was Mike Small and Kennedy could never come close to reaching that level. Wasn’t the most hardworking but him and (Kurt) Nogan were okay. We certainly had a lot worse than Kennedy to come.”

Meanwhile backson reckoned: “Frustrating player. When we played United in the cup at Old Trafford, I seem to remember he was genuinely fouled in the box but went down so damn theatrically, like he’d been shot, it wasn’t given.”

Others recall him through that nickname ‘Mad Dog’ (first coined in a News of the World article about his affair with Ms Whittaker). Gwylan said: “Mad Dog wasn’t that bad – he was just lazy and looked unfit. If he had the attitude of Gary Hart, say, he’d have been an excellent player for us as he had a fair degree of ability.”

Pinkie Brown also observed: “Certainly had ability when he felt inclined. Sadly, as he had a bad attitude and was lazy, supporters saw little of that ability. One of those players who could have gone further had he been more focused.”

Several fans remember how he didn’t react well to observations from the terraces pointing out his shortcomings. Bladders was amused to recall: “One time, when he lazily chased a ball that went out of play, my old man told him to ‘put some bloody effort in Kennedy’. Kennedy then threatened to jump into the South Stand and smash his face in if he gave him any more lip.”

I must say on checking with the record books, I am staggered to discover he scored 10 times in 42 games for Brighton – although I do remember those over the top celebrations.

It’s said he left the club in 1994 after Liam Brady told him he wasn’t good enough to play for the reserves in the Sussex Senior Cup Final.

He ended his English league career with a cameo at Gillingham and at the age of 30 tried his luck in Hong Kong again, this time with Tsing Tao, before returning to the British Isles to play in Northern Ireland with Portadown and Shelbourne in Dublin.

As he was not the sort of player likely to be invited back to the club to reminisce over old times, he appears to have slipped below the radar in recent times.

However, Kennedy has linked up as a coach with the Rangers Soccer Schools programme at home and in North America. In 2005, Kennedy was part of a team of Rangers coaches who ran soccer schools in Canada. According to a Birmingham Mail report in 2015, Kennedy stayed in Canada at Ajax FC.

Big Chiv’s Brighton cameo at the end of an illustrious career

FORMER England international Martin Chivers rose majestically to head home a goal in a 3-3 draw between Leyton Orient and Brighton & Hove Albion.

It was textbook Chivers – a replica of so many similar goals he’d scored for Spurs and England during his glory days – and it put Albion 2-1 up. It turned out to be his one and only goal for the Albion.

It came in one of just five games he played for the Seagulls as his illustrious playing career drew to a close. In Teddy Maybank’s absence through suspension just as Brighton inched closer to promotion to the elite for the first time ever, Chivers – once one of this country’s top centre forwards – was an ideal stand-in.

The game at Brisbane Road on 7 April 1979 saw former Spurs League Cup winning teammates Chivers and Ralph Coates on opposing sides and, a 3-3 thriller was a cracking match for ITV’s The Big Match to have chosen for showing the following Sunday afternoon.

A month later Albion would travel to St James’s Park, Newcastle and clinch that dream promotion.

John Vinicombe, faithful chronicler of Albion’s fortunes for the Evening Argus, declared: “Make no mistake, Albion are First Division bound after that tremendous match at Orient.”

Mike Calvin in the Sunday Mirror, said: “Chivers’ bullet like header became an instant candidate for ITV’s goal of the season.”

While Ian Jarrett in The Sun said: “Martin Chivers’ 32^nd minute goal came straight out of the former England striker’s scrapbook. ‘It was a dream goal. I’d like to have it on tape so that I could watch it being played back again and again,’ Chivers told him.

In the days when strikers invariably hunted in pairs, Chivers had previously starred for Tottenham Hotspur alongside the late Scot, Alan Gilzean, as Spurs put silverware in the White Hart Lane trophy cabinet in three successive seasons.

The team captain during that successful period was Alan Mullery and after the midfielder had hung up his boots and taken charge of the Seagulls, he turned to his old teammate in his hour of need.

With regular striker Maybank facing a two-match suspension, Mullery bought the 34-year-old Chivers for £15,000 from Norwich City just before transfer deadline day in March 1979 and he made his debut in a home 0-0 draw against Notts County on 31 March.

Chiv v Charlton Even a crocked Chivers (by his own admission, a troublesome Achilles tendon restricted his fitness) could do a job for the Albion in an emergency, the young manager believed.

“I took a bit of a chance on him, but he was terrific for us,” Mullery recalled in a retrospective matchday programme article. “He was a proven goalscorer and helped us both on and off the pitch.”

Chivers explained exactly how it came about in his autobiography, Big Chiv – My Goals in Life, which he discussed in an interview with the Argus in 2009.

Maybank returned to the side for the successful promotion run-in and, during the summer, Chivers had an operation on his Achilles. The new season, amongst the elite for the first time, was 13 games old before Chivers saw action for the Seagulls.

He appeared as a substitute in a 2-1 defeat away to Coventry City on 20 October, and the national media singled him out for mention.

“When Chivers came on for Ward 11 minutes after the break, the game at last came to life. From then on, Brighton were more decisive in attack and played with more confidence,” said the Daily Telegraph.

Sunday Express reporter William Pierce added: “Martin Chivers went on as a substitute for the out-of-touch Peter Ward and the ex-England striker twice might have scored.”

That contribution earned Chivers a starting place at Maybank’s expense in the next game, a 4-2 home defeat to his old club Norwich, and he stayed up top, this time partnering Maybank, in a 0-0 home draw with Arsenal in the fourth round of the League Cup.

But that was the last time he appeared in the first team. Mullery turned instead to another former Spur, Ray Clarke, and he and Ward were the preferred front pairing for the rest of the season.

Chivers remained with the club, appearing regularly in the Reserves through to the end of the season, and doing some scouting work, but his top-flight career was finally over.

But let’s take a look back at what had gone before. It was an impressive rise to fame.

Born in Southampton on 27 April 1945, Chivers was a pupil at the city’s Taunton’s Grammar School and wrote to his local club asking for a trial. His prowess as a goalscorer grew rapidly.

chiv Saint After playing regularly for Southampton’s youth side, his breakthrough came in September 1962 when just 17. He made his first-team debut against Charlton Athletic and signed as a full-time professional in the same week. He became a first-team regular the following season.

In February 1964, Chivers and future teammate Mullery were called up (along with future Albion goalkeeper Peter Grummitt) by Alf Ramsey as Reserves for the England under 23 side for a 3-2 win over Scotland, played in front of 34,932 fans at St James’s Park, Newcastle.

Two months later, at Stade Robert Diochon in Rouen, shortly before his 19^th birthday, Chivers made a goalscoring debut for the Under 23s when coming on as a substitute for Geoff Hurst as England drew 2-2 with France.

It was the start of a record-breaking Under 23 career; in four years he appeared 17 times.

Southampton skipper Terry Paine, who was part of England’s 1966 World Cup winning squad, played alongside Chivers as he developed. “The potential was always there, especially when he made the Southampton first team. But the one thing he may have lacked was determination,” he told Goal magazine.

On Saints’ promotion to the top division in 1966, Bates supplemented his attacking options with the addition of established international Ron Davies from Norwich.

Davies and Chivers proved a twin threat to opponents but Chivers was somewhat overshadowed by the Welshman, and Paine said: “They just weren’t compatible. It didn’t work having two big blokes up there together. Chivers was playing second fiddle. He was no match for Ron in the air, there was never any doubt about that.”

It eventually led to Chivers putting in a transfer request in December 1967 and, a month later, having scored 106 goals in 190 appearances for Southampton, he was transferred to Tottenham for £80,000 with winger Frank Saul, an FA Cup winner with Spurs in 1967, a £45,000 makeweight going in the opposite direction.

Saints fans had a new hero in the emerging Mike Channon and inevitably comparisons were drawn between the two. “Martin had more finesse on the ball when he was Mike’s age, without punching his weight,” said Southampton boss Ted Bates. “Mike, however, has more drive and desire, a ruthless approach which Martin never had.”

Indeed, even in the early days at Spurs, fans failed to see why Spurs had shelled out what at the time was the biggest ever transfer fee in the country for the striker, with the legendary Jimmy Greaves and Scot Alan Gilzean the preferred front pairing.

It didn’t help matters when he was sidelined for months by a serious knee injury, although Bates felt the spell out actually proved to be a turning point in his career.

“During that long spell out of action I think he must have taken a good, long look at the game and examined himself thoroughly,” said Bates. “The result is that he now uses the full range of his talents.”

Bates believed he lacked belief in his own power and seemed reluctant to use his size to his advantage. “We were always trying to get Martin to use his physique properly,” said Bates. “He knew he had to be more aggressive, but in those days a big, strong centre-half could swallow him.”

It looked as though Chivers was going to be an expensive flop and, in an interview with Ray Bradley for Goal magazine, he admitted he’d been through a crisis at Spurs and his career had been at a crossroads.

“It was a hell of a frustrating time for me,” he said. “No matter how hard I tried I just couldn’t strike form. I suppose I was really battling to regain confidence again after injury.

“The fans, disgruntled with the form we had been showing, were gunning for me and finally they got their way when I was dropped.

“Things looked black for me but I was determined to fight my way back into the side. The turning point for me, I think, came in a reserve game against Northampton at the end of the season.”

Reserve team manager, Eddie Baily, took him aside and had a private chat, telling him the only way he’d get back his confidence was to fight for it on the pitch.

“He instilled in me that I must be more aggressive, that I must put myself about more if I was to win back my first team place,” said Chivers. “That little pep talk seemed to do the trick. It was a wet pitch and I really gave it all I had and ended up by scoring five goals.

“His words of encouragement after the match made me realise that it was up to myself if I wanted to succeed.”

With Greaves having departed the club for West Ham, once Chivers was back in the first team he did well up against Jack Charlton and Norman Hunter of Leeds, and he began to recapture his form. A good start to the 1970-71 season saw everything start to slot into place.

“I’ve always liked scoring goals,” he said. “Ever since I was a boy I liked to see the ball hit the back of the net.”

After scoring twice to help Spurs beat Aston Villa in the 1971 League Cup Final, Chivers said: “I feel fabulous. That’s the only way to describe how I feel after scoring two goals in my first-ever appearance at Wembley.

“Spurs are back on the glory trail and those two goals have really sealed my comeback this season.”

In a series of Goal articles about Chivers in November 1971, writer Warwick Jordan declared: “There have been few more exciting centre forwards to grace the game and there is little reason to dispute the claim that the Tottenham striker could become one of the best ever,”

A whole raft of top division players and managers were happy to put on record their admiration for the centre-forward. Everton boss Harry Catterick described him as “the new John Charles” and claimed: “Chivers has emerged this year as the most talented centre-forward in Britain.”

Leeds manager Don Revie was a big admirer, saying: “Chivers is a better player than Geoff Hurst. The comparison is appropriate as both men possess a high degree of skill not normally found in strikers of their heavy build.

“It’s hard to choose between them, but I consider Chivers has the slight edge as he does not rely so much on the men around him. He has the ability to take the ball through on his own and create chances out of nothing.”

Manchester City team boss Malcolm Allison said: “This boy is the best all-round centre-forward in Britain. He’s big, strong, skilful and exciting. A tremendous player who will always get goals.”

Stoke midfielder Mike Bernard told the magazine: “Chivers has got guts, skill, aggression, ball control and tremendous determination. You can’t fault the guy.”

Teak-tough centre back John McGrath, who once had a brief spell on loan to the Albion from Southampton, added: “That bad injury has helped to make him a much more determined player. When your career is in the balance it gives you a greater determination to succeed. Chivers has come back to the game a different player.

“He’s a much more physical player now. A more confident player than he was before. He’s developed more character.

“People don’t realise how fast he is. He’s got a sort of loping run, a bit ungainly. But it’s deceptive because he is gathering speed all the time.”

Despite gaining that record number of England under 23 caps, it wasn’t until early 1971 that he got his chance on the full international stage. His reinvigorated Spurs form led to him making his full England debut away to Malta on 3 February 1971, when England gained a 1-0 win under the captaincy of his Spurs teammate Mullery.

He scored his first goal for England two months later in a 3-0 win against Greece at Wembley.

It was said Chivers really arrived as an international star after a powerful two-goal performance in a 3-1 win over Scotland at Wembley on 22 May 1971.

“This has been the greatest day of my life,” said Chivers, after that win. “I didn’t know I was playing until lunchtime on the same day. I was determined to show I was worth my place.

“I know a lot depended on my display in that game. I know I could have jeopardised my international future if I had not grabbed the opportunity.”

Afterwards, though, he declared: “Now I feel I have established myself as an England player.”

Fellow England striker Francis Lee told Goal’s Jordan: “He’s a football manager’s dream. At his present rate of progress, he could become the greatest centre-forward this country has seen.

“His tremendous potential blossomed during that game in Switzerland (scored in a 3-2 win in Basle, 13 October 1971) where his performance made the difference between victory and possible defeat.

“But his finest game for England so far was the one against Scotland. Today he is the hottest soccer property in the game. He’s going to be a big winner for England.”

In total, he scored 13 times in 22 starts plus two appearances from the subs bench, but, in less than three years, Chivers’ England career was over.

He never played for his country again after being subbed off in the crucial game that meant England wouldn’t qualify for the 1974 World Cup – a 1-1 draw with Poland at Wembley in 1973.

In eight years at Spurs, Chivers scored 174 goals in 367 games, his greatest success coming between 1970 and 1973, when he scored more than 20 goals in successive seasons, and was a key part of the side that won the 1971 and 1973 League Cups, finished third in the league in 1971, and picked up the 1972 UEFA Cup.

He had two seasons in Switzerland, playing for Servette, before returning to the English game with Norwich in 1979-80, before the move to Brighton.

On leaving Brighton, he went initially to Southern League Dorchester Town as player-manager, then Norwegian side Vard and finished playing 10 games for Barnet in 1982-83.

It was a phenomenal scoring record to notch 255 goals in 546 appearances.

After he’d finished playing, Chivers became a hotelier in Hertfordshire (during which time I got to speak to him in a professional capacity, helping to promote my client’s involvement in his business) and for several years he was a matchday host at White Hart Lane.

Chivers died at the age of 80 on 7 January 2025.

Pictures from a variety of sources, especially Goal and Shoot magazines and matchday programmes.

Paul Moulden chipped in with goals for Bournemouth and Brighton before batter days

Mouldy WORLD RECORD youth level goalscorer Paul Moulden now runs a successful chippy in Bolton but he was once in the firing – rather than frying – line for AFC Bournemouth and Brighton & Hove Albion.

The career of the prodigious goalscoring wonderkid tailed off early although it may have taken a new direction in Sussex if the cash-strapped Seagulls had been able to afford to buy him.

Born in Farnworth, near Bolton, on 6 September 1967, Moulden went to the town’s Thornleigh Salesian College where, having excelled for the school football team, he went on to play for England Schools. He also played for Bolton Lads Club under-15s: his staggering personal goal tally of 289 goals in 40 games in a single season earned him a place in the Guinness Book of Records.

He was snapped up by Manchester City as an associate schoolboy during John Bond’s reign as manager and signed on as an apprentice before turning professional on his 17th birthday. He was part of City’s FA Youth Cup winning side in 1986, although manager Billy McNeill had already blooded him in the first team on New Year’s Day that year in a 1-0 home win over Aston Villa.

Moulden City He made two further substitute appearances for the first team that season and finished top scorer for City’s reserves. By late 1986, he had earned a regular place but a broken leg sustained in training restricted him to just three appearances in 1987-88.

In the 1988-89 season, Moulden was City’s top scorer with 13 goals as they won promotion from the old First Division back to the elite. But the young striker elected not to take up the offer of a new contract in the summer of 1989 and ended up joining Bournemouth, where Harry Redknapp was beginning his managerial career. Moulden was valued at £160,000 as the makeweight in a deal which saw Bournemouth’s Ian Bishop move to Maine Road.

City boss Mel Machin, himself something of a legend at Bournemouth (a Cherries player, manager and director of football) spelled the end of Moulden’s career at City.

Moulden told FourFourTwo magazine: “Machin just didn’t fancy me. I was offered a contract but it was a contract you’d have been a fool to sign, so I didn’t sign it and I became for sale. All the backroom staff and everyone else concerned was upset that I was going but to have tied yourself down for three years on the contract they were offering, you would have been a fool. That was the lever to get me out.” The Lancashire lad’s move to Dorset proved to be a success on the pitch – but was brief.

He scored six goals in his first three home league matches, including a hat-trick in a 5-4 win over Hull and both goals in a 2-1 win over Newcastle. “I remember the two goals against Newcastle,” Moulden told the Bournemouth Echo in 2016. “One was a three-inch tap-in and the other was a run from the halfway line.”

While he said in the Echo interview how much he enjoyed his time with the Cherries, he told efl.com: “Moving to Bournemouth was a huge move for me. At the time, I was single and it was exciting, but the novelty soon wore off and I found it hard to settle.

“It was a lovely club but I was delighted to return home and back to Oldham.”

Moulden told FourFourTwo: “Bournemouth had some good players, like Luther Blissett, Paul Miller and goalkeeper Gerry Peyton. The thing that struck me was how many old players they had – I was 22 at the time – but Harry was just starting out and I suppose for his first job he wanted security around himself.

“It was a small club and I’d imagine he had to get success quickly. Harry was a nice guy, a decent manager.”

After just seven months at Bournemouth, and with 13 goals in 37 starts to his name, he was snapped up by Oldham Athletic on transfer deadline day in March 1990.

A £225,000 fee meant a decent profit for Bournemouth but, with Oldham flying high at the time, and Moulden struggling with injuries, he only managed 19 games for the Latics in two and a half seasons. He spent two months at Molde in Norway restoring his match fitness and when Oldham manager Joe Royle suggested he look for a new club, the move to Brighton looked like the ideal opportunity to resurrect his career.

Newly-relegated back to the third tier, Albion desperately needed some inspiration up front and manager Barry Lloyd thought he’d hit the jackpot in securing on loan the services of strike pairing Moulden and Steve Cotterill, from Wimbledon.

Each got themselves a goal in an opening 3-2 defeat to Orient so the signs were promising and the new men duly delivered the goods on the pitch.

The two goals Moulden scored as Albion beat Preston North End 2-0 in September 1992 were especially sweet, as he explained to Brian Owen of the Argus in 2016.

In total, Moulden scored five goals in 11 league appearances and Cotterill four, but the Albion couldn’t afford to sign either of them permanently.

The void was ultimately filled by the arrival of free transfer Kurt Nogan, who subsequently became a prolific goalscorer for the Seagulls. Moulden, meanwhile, ended up being sold to Birmingham later the same season for £150,000 and Cotterill, also deemed too expensive for Albion, was sold to Bournemouth for £80,000 the following summer.

In an interview with Howard Griggs of the Argus, in January 2011, Moulden explained how he would dearly have liked to have made the move to Brighton permanent.

“I played at Bournemouth two seasons before,” he said. “I liked the south coast and I had the chance to go to either Brighton or Plymouth. I jumped at the chance to go to Brighton and I thoroughly enjoyed my time there. I struck up a good understanding with Steve Cotterill.”

Moulden spoke particularly highly of assistant manager Martin Hinshelwood – “he was different class, absolutely brilliant” – and said: “It felt just right from the start. I did well with Steve Cotterill. We both scored goals for the team.”

As an ex-City player, Moulden was particularly miffed that Oldham boss Joe Royle would not let the outcast striker play for Albion against Manchester United in the League Cup that autumn, and he added: “If Brighton had had the money I certainly would have signed.”

He told Griggs: “Manchester City was certainly good, and I enjoyed my time at Birmingham under Terry Cooper, but there were plenty of good times and I can honestly say my two months at Brighton was up there.”

One of Moulden’s best games came in a 2-1 home win over Huddersfield as Albion won 2-1. Steve Foster, back at the club for a second spell, put Albion ahead on 17 minutes with a header from a John Robinson corner. Although Huddersfield equalised through a Iwan Roberts penalty, livewire Moulden popped up with the winner six minutes from time.

The Terriers would ultimately be Moulden’s next destination after leaving Birmingham in 1995 but he made only two appearances before switching to nearby Rochdale where he played 16 times in the 1995-96 season.

In total, Moulden suffered four broken legs and his league career came to a premature end at 28, although he played non-league with Accrington Stanley and Bacup Borough.

He later coached at his old boys’ club and also spent three years with the Manchester City academy but sensibly he had an eye for a career outside of football too and followed in his mum and dad’s footsteps by opening up Paul’s Chippy in Bolton.

Pictures: Albion matchday programme and online sources.

Horton’s place in the hearts of Brighton and Man City fans

ARGUABLY the finest captain in Brighton & Hove Albion’s history went on to have a far less successful spell as the club’s manager having also been a boss at the highest level, at Maine Road, Manchester.

The £30,000 signing of tenacious midfielder Brian Horton from Port Vale on the eve of transfer deadline day in March 1976 proved to be one of the most inspirational moments of Peter Taylor’s managerial tenure at the Albion and for such a fee was widely hailed as “an absolute steal”.

Even though Taylor didn’t hang around long enough to reap the benefit of the man he instantly installed as captain, his successor Alan Mullery certainly did.

In the early days after his appointment, there was some suggestion Mullery would be a player-manager but the former Spurs and England captain reassured a concerned Horton that wouldn’t be the case, admitting that he wouldn’t get in ahead of him anyway!

“Fortunately, that next year went really well. It was my best year without a doubt,” Horton told Evening Argus reporter Jamie Baker. “I’d never met Alan Mullery, and he’d probably never heard of me, so I was delighted and surprised when he made me his captain.”

It was the beginning of a strong bond between captain and manager and Horton added: “We had that relationship for all the five years I was with him.

“That first season was great. We went 20 odd games unbeaten and I was scoring left, right and centre, and I was very proud to be voted player of the year.

“Suddenly everything was coming right for me, although we were disappointed not to beat Mansfield for the championship because we felt we were far better than them.

“You’ve got to hand a lot of our success down to Alan Mullery. He was a terrific motivator of players. He was a bubbly character and it used to rub off on players.

“He was new to the game of management but he brought fresh ideas, and he’d been under some top managers as a player.

“The team spirit during those first three years was incredible. When you are winning games every week it makes a hell of a difference and we had that for three years. You just couldn’t describe how good the team spirit was.

“My treasured memory will always be of the day we beat Newcastle to clinch promotion to the First Division. It was even greater because I scored the first goal. It had always been my ambition to play in the First Division and now I had achieved it.”

In an inauspicious start, Horton found himself in the referee’s notebook as Albion were hammered 4-0 by Arsenal as the season opened at the Goldstone. After a narrower defeat away to Aston Villa, the next game was away to Man City – and Horton had the chance to earn the Seagulls their first top level point.

On 25 August 1979, Albion were trailing 3-2 when Horton had the chance to equalise from the penalty spot with only eight minutes of the game left. But the normally reliable spot-kick taker fluffed his lines, meaning Albion succumbed to their third defeat in a row.

While the superior opposition was clearly testing the Seagulls, it was testament to the resilient skipper that he was continuing to lead them having started out in the third tier and, on 20 December 1980, before a 1-0 home win over Aston Villa, he received a cut-glass decanter from chairman Mike Bamber to mark his 200^th league appearance for the Seagulls.

As the 1980-81 season drew to a close, Albion were perilously close to the drop but four wins on the trot (3-0 at Palace, 2-1 at home to Leicester, 2-1 at Sunderland and 2-0 at home to Leeds) took them to safety. What Horton didn’t realise was the Leeds game would be his last for the Albion (as it also was for Mark Lawrenson, Peter O’Sullivan and John Gregory).

“I’d bought a house in Hove Park off Mike Bamber and I was sunbathing that summer when there was a knock at the door. It was Alan Mullery come to tell me he’d just resigned,” Horton told interviewer Phil Shaw in issue 26 of the superb retro football magazine, Back Pass.

Mullery told him how he’d quit over the proposed Lawrenson transfer, how O’Sullivan and Gregory were off as well, and that the club wanted to sell him too, for £100,000.

Although Mullery advised him to sit tight because he still had a year left on his contract, new boss Mike Bailey – with a swap deal involving Luton’s Republic of Ireland international, Tony Grealish, lined up – told him he’d have to fight for his place and would have the captaincy taken from him.

“I said I didn’t want to go, that I loved the club and the fans, that I’d bought a house, and, at 31 I thought I had two or three good years left.

“I spoke to Mike Bamber and he said: ‘I don’t want you to go but I have to back the manager’.” Horton felt he had no option but to make the move.

He chose the platform of the Argus to thank the supporters for the backing they’d always given him and said his one disappointment was that he didn’t get the chance to lead Albion at a Cup Final. “That I would have really loved.”

Looking ahead, he added: “The Luton move gives me a new challenge. You can get in a rut if you stay at one club too long. Six years at Port Vale and five and a half at the Albion is enough. It will probably put a little sparkle back into my game.”

And so, Horton went to Kenilworth Road and under David Pleat the Hatters won the 1981-82 Second Division championship by eight points clear of arch rivals Watford. Looking back in his interview with Back Pass, Horton reckoned two of his Luton teammates, David Moss and Ricky Hill, were up there alongside Lawrenson as the best players he’d played alongside.

An all-too-familiar tale of struggle in the top division saw Luton needing to win at Maine Road in the last game of the season to ensure their safety, and Raddy Antic scored a winner six minutes from time that preserved Town’s status and sent City down.

Television cameras memorably captured the sight of Pleat skipping across the turf at the end of the game and planting a kiss on Horton’s cheek.

After one more year at the top level, he began his managerial career as player-manager of Hull City in 1984, working for the mercurial Don Robinson, and steered them to promotion to the old Division Two at the end of his first season in charge. He is fondly remembered by Hull followers, as demonstrated in this fan blog.

When he parted company with the Tigers in April 1988, his old Brighton teammate Lawrenson, by then manager of Oxford United, invited him to become his assistant. United at the time were owned by Kevin Maxwell, son of the highly controversial Robert Maxwell.

When Dean Saunders, who Brighton had sold to Oxford for £70,000, was sold against Lawrenson’s wishes – astonishingly he went to Derby for £1million – Lawrenson quit. Horton took over as manager and stayed in charge for five years, during which time he recruited former Albion teammate Steve Foster to be his captain.

Horton’s managerial break into the big time came in August 1993 when Man City sacked Peter Reid as manager four games into the 1993-94 season. Horton didn’t need to think twice about taking up the role, even though City fans were asking ‘Brian who?’

In Neil McNab, Horton recruited to his backroom team a former playing colleague who’d been a City favourite. “I played with McNab at Brighton and knew his strengths and knew he was well liked here,” he told bluemoon-mcfc.co.uk.

Horton brought in Paul Walsh, Uwe Rossler and Peter Beagrie and City managed to stay up.

The new boss acquired the services of Nicky Summerbee (to follow in the footsteps of his famous father Mike) along with Garry Flitcroft and Steve Lomas and at one point City were as high as sixth in the table.

They eventually finished 17^th but fans to this day still stop Horton (who lives in the area) and ask him about a terrific match which saw City beat Spurs 5-2.

It was Horton’s bad luck that when City legend Francis Lee took over the club from previous owner Peter Swales, he was always looking to install his own man in the hot seat, and Lee eventually got his way and replaced Horton with Lee’s old England teammate Alan Ball.

Ball took City down the following season while Horton embarked on a nomadic series of managerial appointments either on his own or in tandem with Phil Brown.

Initially he was boss of Huddersfield Town; then he was a popular appointment when he took over as Albion boss during their exile playing at Gillingham, but, because he wanted to live back in the north, he left in February 1999 to join another of his former clubs, Port Vale.

He led Vale for five years and pitched up next at the helm of Macclesfield Town, where, on 3 November 2004, he marked his 1,000^th game as a manager. It was at Macclesfield where one of his players was the self-same Graham Potter whose stewardship of Swansea City came mightily close to upsetting City in the 2019 FA Cup quarter-finals.

A bad start to the 2006-07 season saw him relieved of his duties in September 2006 but, by the following May, he was back in the game as Brown’s no.2 at Hull City. In March 2010, he was briefly caretaker manager following Brown’s departure, until the Tigers appointed Iain Dowie.

Next stop saw him as no.2 to Brown at Preston North End; then a second brief spell as Macclesfield boss at the end of the 2011-12 season.

In June 2013, he was appointed assistant manager to Paul Dickov at Doncaster Rovers, a role he filled for two years before linking up with Brown once again during his tenure at Southend United. Horton was his ‘football co-ordinator’ but left the club in January 2018. He followed Brown to Swindon Town but, in May 2018, decided not to continue in his role as assistant manager.

Born in the Staffordshire coal-mining village of Hednesford on 4 February 1949, Horton went to its Blake Secondary Modern School. Spotted playing football for the Staffordshire Schools side and the Birmingham and District Schools team, the Wolves-supporting youngster was awarded a two-year apprenticeship at Walsall when he was 15.

But, at 17, his hopes of a professional career were dashed when he wasn’t taken on. He ended up finding work in the building trade while continuing his football with Hednesford Town in the West Midlands (Regional) League.

He played at that level for four seasons and it was there he acquired the moniker Nobby because he gained a reputation for World Cup winner Stiles-like aggression. It was a nickname that stuck.

At the time, he was playing up front and scoring a lot of goals so he caught the attention of a few league clubs, but only Gordon Lee at Port Vale made a move. Lee sealed the deal by buying the Town secretary a pint of shandy and promising to take Vale to play Hednesford in a friendly.

Vale had little money so the squad was made up of free transfer signings but Horton said it made them strong collectively with “a fantastic spirit” and it wasn’t long before he was made their captain.

Vale legend Roy Sproson took over from Lee as manager and in March 1976 the cash-strapped Potteries outfit were forced to sell their prize asset.

When Vale headed to Selhurst Park that month, Crystal Palace player-coach Terry Venables got a message to Horton before the game urging him to sit tight until the summer and they’d sign him then. But Albion stole a march on their rivals and Sproson told him: “I’m sorry but we’re selling you to Brighton for thirty grand. We need the money.”

Funnily enough, the previous summer Horton had a chance holiday encounter in Ibiza with Albion’s Peter O’Sullivan. He later told the Argus: “Sully asked me if I fancied a move. Little was I to know that I would be joining him soon after. There was a wealth of ability in the Albion side when I joined them and it was outrageous that we didn’t go up that year.

“I felt they had to go places and I wanted to be part of it. I’d never been in a promotion side but then to be made captain of it was really the icing on the cake.”

Albion’s gain was certainly a loss to two other clubs who’ve since encountered similar troubles in their past. Horton explained: “I knew clubs were interested although Roy Sproson said he wouldn’t let me go to another Third Division team. I think he released me to Brighton because at the time they looked certain for promotion.

“Also, it was the highest bid they’d had. Hereford and Plymouth had offered £25,000 and I would have been happy to have gone to either club.”

In November last year, Horton reflected on his long and varied career in an interview with The Cheshire Magazine.

Pictures mainly from my scrapbook, originally from the Argus, Shoot / Goal magazine, the matchday programme and various online sources.

Shankly ‘disciple’ George Aitken coached Mariners and Seagulls

MEDIA-friendly Jimmy Melia stole all the limelight as Brighton stormed to the final of the 1983 FA Cup but a quiet, wavy-haired Scot alongside him played a big part in the achievement.

George Aitken was joint caretaker manager with Melia for three months after Mike Bailey’s dismissal in December 1982, and he’d previously been in the dugout alongside Alan Mullery and Ken Craggs during Albion’s rise through the divisions having originally been brought to the club by Peter Taylor.

.When he died aged 78 in August 2006, Jimmy Case told the Cumbrian Times & Star: “George was a great character, a great friend and coach right the way through my time at the club. “Jimmy Melia was in the front line with his white shoes but George was right there in terms of the workings of the club and picking the team. He was well respected for his knowledge of the game.”

Mark Lawrenson also paid tribute in an interview with Argus reporter Paul Holden, telling him: “George never got carried away. He had seen it all before. He was a very wily old fox. He was from the old school, a good, honest, true, loyal man.

“He knew his football, knew his players and liked a laugh. He had one of those infectious laughs.”

Micky Adams said: “He was a great football man, George. When I first joined Brighton as manager, he was one of my biggest allies. He always popped into the office to chew the cud and talk football. He loved Brighton and was a well-respected man who loved the game.”

Holden also reported that at Aitken’s testimonial dinner in 1988, former Albion secretary, Stephen Rooke, said: “He may never have reached the dizzy heights attained by many of his friends and acquaintances over the years but he represents a rare breed, in fact the very lifeblood of our national game.

Aitken tiler sully 78

Aitken puts Ken Tiler and Peter O’Sullivan through their paces in pre-season training in 1978

“Deep down George is a very private person but his reliability and honest, down-to-earth approach has, quite rightly, earned him enormous respect throughout the football world.”

Aitken had been a manager in his own right at Workington, and he and Melia had both been players under one of the game’s legends – Bill Shankly.

Shankly managed Workington between 6 January 1954 and 15 November 1955, when Aitken was a strong and commanding centre back for the Cumbrian side, and five of Melia’s 10 years playing for Liverpool were under Shankly’s managership.

Born in Dalkeith, Scotland, on 13 August 1928, Aitken was educated at Dalkeith High School and played football for Midlothian Schools.

His step up to senior football came at Edinburgh Thistle, which was essentially a feeder side for Hibernian.

David Jack, remembered as the first player ever to score at Wembley, had become manager of Middlesbrough in 1944, and took Aitken to Ayresome Park after the war.

“I was 20 at the time and it took me two seasons to reach the first team,” Aitken recalled in an Albion matchday programme article.

“Middlesbrough had a great team at the time and I played alongside the likes of (England internationals) Wilf Mannion and George Hardwick.”

Aitken made his debut against Fulham in 1951-52, but only made 18 top division appearances and, in July 1953, was sold to nearby Workington for £5,000.

It was the beginning of a long-standing relationship with a club who in those days played in the basement division of the Football League and is now in the Northern Premier League – the seventh tier of English football.

Aitken amassed 262 league appearances for Workington and, in the 1957-58 season, played against the famous Busby Babes at home in the 3^rd round of the FA Cup in front of a record 21,000 crowd – just a month before the Munich air crash. Dennis Viollet scored a hat-trick for United in a 3-1 win.

“The game was an experience that I’ll never forget,” said Aitken, who kept on the wall of his house a picture of him with United’s skipper that day, Roger Byrne, who not long after that match perished in the Munich air crash.

Aitken retired as a player in 1960 but he stayed on at Borough Park as a coach, initially under Joe Harvey, who later enjoyed success at Newcastle United, and then Ken Furphy, who went on to manage Watford, Blackburn and Sheffield United before moving to the USA and taking charge of four different clubs.

Aitken had a brief spell as Workington manager between March and June 1965 (stepping in after Keith Burkinshaw – later famously boss of Spurs – had left) but then followed Furphy to Watford in 1965 as his coach. During that time, Watford, then in Division Two, famously beat Shankly’s Liverpool 1-0 in the quarter-finals of the FA Cup before losing to eventual winners Chelsea in the semi-finals.

The lure of Workington was to draw him back to the north west, though. When the manager’s job became vacant in 1971, Aitken took over and stayed for three seasons, eventually leaving in October 1974.

grimsby 75

In the 1975-76 season, he was trainer-coach during Tommy Casey’s spell managing Grimsby Town (where, as in picture, one of the players was former Albion defender Steve Govier), but left the Lincolnshire outfit to join Peter Taylor’s coaching set-up at Brighton in 1976. The Scot ended up staying for 10 years.

Aitken and wife Celia had three children and I well remember one of them, Bruce, appearing for Worthing FC. Aitken 2

George was clearly football daft, and in a matchday programme feature of September 1985, Celia told Tony Norman: “Football has always been his hobby, as well as his way of earning a living. He really loves the game. It’s not unusual for us to be driving somewhere and to stop because George has seen a game going on in a park by the road. He can’t resist watching for a while.”

During Chris Cattlin’s reign as manager, Aitken was the reserve team manager and chief scout, and in the programme article he said: “I can look back on some very happy memories. I was assistant manager when we took the club to Wembley and that experience is something I’ll never forget. But that is all in the past and what really matters to me is the future for Brighton Football Club. So, I enjoy going out to look for youngsters who could do a good job for us in years to come.”

After being sacked by Brighton, Aitken did scouting work for Graham Taylor during his spells at Watford and Aston Villa and then had three years working for the FA during Taylor’s reign as England manager. His last football role was at Bolton Wanderers when Colin Todd was the manager.

end shot aitken armchair

Pictures from a variety of sources including the matchday programme, online sites and the Argus.

In parallel lines

Memories from more than 55 years following Brighton & Hove Albion

Tag: Aston Villa