Teenage Teddy Maybank’s Chelsea promise dashed by injury at Brighton

TEDDY MAYBANK signed for the Seagulls for what at the time was a club record transfer in November 1977 and went on to score Brighton’s first ever top division goal.

But the new signing came in for some flak from the terraces and, over two years, never really delivered a significant return on the investment.

Maybank himself reckons the club forced him to play on with an injured knee when he shouldn’t have, which led to irreparable damage and ultimately a premature end to his career.

The former Chelsea centre-forward was signed to replace Ian Mellor, Peter Ward’s prolific strike partner in the 3^rd Division, after Brighton had won promotion to the second tier.

“We let Ian Mellor go because we felt that he had reached a certain age and had probably peaked,” Alan Mullery told Matthew Horner, in his Peter Ward biography, He Shot, He Scored. “When Teddy Maybank became available, we thought that he was probably a better option.”

Born in Lambeth on 11 October 1956, Maybank lived the first 15 years of his life in Brixton and went to Christchurch Primary School, close to his home, where one of his playground footballing mates was Ray Lewington — now loyal deputy to Roy Hodgson — who, together with Maybank, went on to play for Chelsea and Fulham.

At the age of 11, Maybank moved to Stockwell Manor Secondary School and played various age group levels for South London Boys. One of the representative matches he played in took place at the Goldstone Ground on 25 September 1971, against Brighton Boys.

The Maybank family moved to Mitcham, close to the Chelsea training ground, and, when Teddy was 15, he joined them straight from school.

Maybank and Lewington progressed through Chelsea’s youth ranks at a time when the club’s focus was on bringing through home-grown talent. “It was a good time at Chelsea,” he said. “We had such a good youth side and I loved playing under Ken Shellito.”

That team, which won the South-East Counties Championship four years in a row, included Ray and Graham Wilkins, Lewington and John Sparrow.

Maybank’s first-team debut came in a 2-0 defeat at Tottenham Hotspur in April 1975 aged just 18, and he scored in only his second game, a 1-1 home draw against Sheffield United, but Chelsea were relegated from the top division that year.

The following campaign saw Maybank, still a teenager, become a first-team regular under Eddie McCreadie, grabbing five goals in 26 appearances between August and February.

After falling out of favour, he went out on loan to Fulham just before Christmas 1976 and then signed permanently for a £65,000 fee later that season.

Back in the ‘70s, Chelsea were a long way from the force they are now and Maybank admitted: “I wouldn’t say I ever played that well at Chelsea. I didn’t find it easy to score goals there.”

It was a different story at Craven Cottage. After scoring more than a goal every other game – 17 times in 31 games – Maybank was sold to Brighton for £238,000, which gave Fulham a swift and substantial profit that they used to pay off money owed on their recently-built Eric Miller Stand (now, the Riverside Stand).

Blond locks flying, Maybank comes up against QPR’s Dave Clement in a 1978 pre-season friendly. (Above right) This overhead kick against Sunderland at The Goldstone scraped the bar … otherwise would have been a Goal of the Season candidate!

Maybank made a good enough start for the Seagulls, scoring after just six minutes on his debut in a 2-2 home draw with Blackburn Rovers, played on a bitterly cold day in front of a crowd of 26,467. Tony Towner scored the Albion’s other goal and another debutant in that game was tough-tackling midfield player, Paul Clark.

Maybank was on the scoresheet again in the very next game as Albion recorded their first ever win, 1-0, at Blackpool.

It was in a game against Orient a week before Christmas that Maybank got a kick on his knee from defender Dennis Rofe (who later played for Leicester and Southampton) which caused an injury which he maintains wasn’t properly managed by the club.

He told fulhamfc.com in 2013: “They kept giving me injections, taking all the fluid out every Sunday after the game.

“I was barely training. I could run in a straight line but any time I put weight on my leg I would fall over. I wouldn’t feel any pain because of the injections, but I just fell over.”

The Brighton fans thought they had bought Bambi and were soon on his back, leading to a “pretty terrible time” that Maybank never really recovered from.

“The club should never ever have allowed me to play in that situation,” he said. “A surgeon saw me outside of the club, opened me up and said: ‘if you ever play football again, you’ll be the luckiest bloke in the world’.

“Brighton had told me, basically, that I couldn’t do any more damage. They wouldn’t do it now, but because I was the highest transfer fee they ever paid, they didn’t really take my welfare into consideration at all. In the end, it ruined my career.”

Shoot! article and (above right) Maybank goes full length to head the second of his three goals against Cardiff on Boxing Day 1978.

In an article in Shoot! magazine at the time, Maybank talked about how he hadn’t had the best of starts with his new club. He said: “I wasn’t playing well. I knew that. My early form was a disappointment to the fans. They expected me to come in and start scoring regularly and doing incredible things.

“It’s always hard when you change clubs and you need a while to settle in. I have to adjust to my new team-mates but they’ve also had to change and adapt to playing with me.”

Mansfield were trounced 5-1 at the Goldstone on 21 January 1978 when Peter Ward shone with a hat-trick. Maybank also got one, but it was his last of the season. He made only six more appearances between January and the end of the season and new signing Malcolm Poskett seized his chance alongside Ward.

Albion narrowly missed out on promotion (by goal difference) and during the close season Maybank went under the knife for a cartilage operation.

Fit for the new season, Maybank was among the goals as Albion beat Millwall 4-1 at The Den on 2 September. He got a brace that day but in the same month was in trouble with the manager who’d had an anonymous tip-off that the star striker and Welsh international winger Peter Sayer had been seen in a nightclub on the eve of what turned out to be a 4-1 defeat by Leicester City.

Mullery made an example of the pair and they were both ‘persuaded’ to donate a fortnight’s wages to the local Guide Dogs for the Blind Association.

On the pitch, the goals dried up for Maybank until Boxing Day when he netted a hat-trick in a 5-0 win over Cardiff City. In an Albion matchday programme in 2015-16, Maybank admitted to Spencer Vignes: “The crowd started getting on my back, and I got in a pretty dark place.

“When I got that hat-trick, I went from villain to hero and yet it had got so bad that the day before Alan Mullery picked the squad I’d told him I never wanted to play for the club again.

“From the changing room before a game, I used to hear the crowd boo my name when the team was read out over the tannoy.”

In total, Maybank scored 10 times as Albion won promotion, and he was leading the line in the famous promotion-clinching 3-1 win at Newcastle on 5 May 1979.

In that season’s Rediffusion Player of the Year competition, Maybank finished third behind winner Mark Lawrenson and runner-up Brian Horton.

In much the same way Pascal Gross was feted for scoring Brighton’s first-ever goal in the Premiership, so Maybank scored the Albion’s very first goal in the top division.

After being hammered 4-0 by Arsenal in the opening fixture at the Goldstone, the Seagulls were away to Aston Villa in the second game.

Arms aloft, Maybank celebrates Albion’s first ever top division goal with skipper Brian Horton and Peter O’Sullivan. (Above right) Maybank battles with Arsenal’s David O’Leary watched by John Hollins and O’Sullivan.

Latching on to a John Gregory through pass and, with the very last kick of the first half, Maybank buried a shot past ‘keeper Jimmy Rimmer.

Albion lost the game 2-1 but the national newspapers were full of praise for the newcomers to the division.

Frank Clough in The Sun wrote: “Teddy Maybank and Peter Ward tore great holes in Villa’s jittery defence and were only stopped by inadequate finishing and fine goalkeeping by Rimmer.”

It was the first of three Maybank goals at the top level, but, according to Ward, the striker had a big falling out with Mullery. The manager brought in Ray Clarke as his first choice centre-forward and, in December 1979, Maybank was sold back to Fulham for £150,000.

He had scored a total of 16 goals in 64 appearances for the Seagulls, less than half the ratio he’d been scoring when bought.

After just 19 games for Fulham, Maybank joined Dutch side PSV Eindhoven for £230,000 in August 1980 (Fulham making another tidy profit on the player).

His debut for the Dutch giants came in front of a packed house at the Nou Camp, where Barcelona were staging a four-team tournament with Vasco da Gama and River Plate.

However, only a few games later his knee flared up again.

“They opened me up and saw what a state my knee was in,” Maybank explained in that 2013 interview with fulhamfc.co.uk. “I was told in no uncertain terms that if I didn’t retire I would be playing with the youth team or reserves. I think they thought they’d been taken for a ride.”

Maybank was left with no choice. At the age of 24, he retired from the game.

Pictures from my scrapbook sourced from Shoot! magazine and the matchday programme.

Goalkeeping guru Eric Steele: a promotion talisman at Brighton

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

*Steele has coached young England goalkeepers*

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

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

Twelve goals in 26 games for Scottish striker Alan Young

GARY LINEKER’S former strike partner at Leicester City had a good goals to appearances ratio for Brighton & Hove Albion.

Sadly, Scotsman Alan Young only managed 26 appearances in his one season (1983-84) with the Albion, although his 12 goals meant he finished second top goalscorer behind Terry Connor.

His brief Brighton career got off to a great start with a memorable debut goal, an overhead kick to net against Chelsea at the Goldstone. Young twice scored braces for the Seagulls but his season was injury-hit and, with manager Chris Cattlin bringing in his old pal Frank Worthington for the 1984-85 season, Young was sold to Notts County.

In more recent times, Young courted controversy as a radio pundit sharing his opinions about Leicester, and in 2014 BBC Radio Leicester dropped him from his role supporting commentator Ian Stringer.

alanyoung6 2

Back in September 2013, Young was berated online for his criticism of winger Anthony Knockaert. Foxello, on ja606.co.uk, wrote: “If there’s one thing that annoys me more than just about anything else at this football club, it is that grumpy, nasty egotist Alan Young and his never-ending agenda against certain members of the football club.”

The correspondent bemoaned: “Knocky is now the butt of every joke, and the object of every jibe Young throws out…. It’s almost as if he doesn’t want us to have skilful players who occasionally misplace a pass due to their advanced vision, and just have hoofers and cloggers like in his day.”

So let’s take a look back at ‘his day’. Born in Kirkcaldy on 26 October 1955, Young was football-daft and showed sufficient promise to earn Scottish schoolboy international honours.

His boyhood favourite team was Raith Rovers, whose star player at the time was Ian Porterfield, who famously scored the winning goal when Second Division Sunderland beat Leeds in the 1973 FA Cup Final.

Surprisingly overlooked by Scottish professional clubs, Young also experienced early disappointment in England when Nottingham Forest rejected him. “Nottingham Forert didn’t want me and I left there thinking I was no good,” he told Shoot! magazine.

Nonetheless, when he was playing as an unattached player for Scotland Schoolboys against England at Old Trafford, Oldham Athletic scout Colin McDonald, a former Burnley and England international goalkeeper, noted his promise and persuaded the young forward to head south of the border to begin his professional career.

In five years at Boundary Park he scored 30 goals in 122 games, and, to a large extent, learned his trade from old pro Andy Lochhead, a prolific goalscorer in his day for Burnley, Leicester and Aston Villa.

In the 1978-79 season, Young netted a hat-trick against Leicester which caught the eye of fellow Scot and former Rangers boss, Jock Wallace, who had taken over at Filbert Street and was building a team with his fellow countrymen at its core.

When Young joined Leicester, and played alongside his boyhood pal Martin Henderson, it began a love affair with Leicester that endures to this day.

In three years at Leicester, Young scored 26 times in 104 games, eventually forming a partnership with the emerging Lineker. TV’s favourite football frontman was generous enough to pen the foreword to Young’s 2013 autobiography, Youn9y (written in conjunction with Simon Kimber and published by the historypress.co.uk) and said of him: “He was an old-fashioned, aggressive centre forward. He possessed, though, a delicate touch and finesse that belied his big target man status – the perfect partner for a nippy little goalhanger trying to make a name for himself.”

Screenshot — *Leicester strike partner for Gary Lineker*

Young scored on his full debut for City in a league cup game v Rotherham and followed it up with two on his league debut at home to Watford.

The only time Young was sent off while playing for Leicester was, ironically, at the Goldstone Ground in 1981, at Easter, which was the second of four games at the end of the season that Albion won to stay in the top division.

Young was dismissed for two bookable offences, the first for clattering into goalkeeper Graham Moseley and the other a clash with Steve Foster, although, in his autobiography, he says Foster play-acted a knee injury, which the referee bought. Foster even teased him about it when he joined the Seagulls two years later. In that Easter 1981 fixture, Young’s teammate Kevin McDonald was also sent off, Brighton won 2-1 – and Leicester ended up being relegated together with Norwich and bottom-placed Crystal Palace.

Back in the old Second Division, Young did his cartilage in a game on QPR’s plastic pitch which he says was the beginning of the end of his career, because his knee was never the same afterwards (years later he had a knee replacement).

He also had the disappointment of losing to Spurs in the 1982 FA Cup semi final, although he maintains if a certain Chris Hughton had been sent off for two fouls on Lineker, it might all have been a different story.

Before the next season kicked off, Jock Wallace, the manager he idolised, decided to move back to Scotland to manage Motherwell and his successor at Filbert Street, Gordon Milne, swiftly chose to pair the emerging Alan Smith up front with Lineker, signalling the exit for Young.

Managerial upheaval was to become a familiar cause of Young’s departures in the years that followed, too. But I am getting ahead of myself.

Ian Porterfield, his footballing hero from yesteryear, had taken over as manager at Fourth Division Sheffield United and, although he didn’t really want to drop down the leagues, the Blades were a big club so Young moved to Bramall Lane.

A year later, though, after Brighton’s relegation from the elite in 1983, striker Michael Robinson was sold to Liverpool so there was a centre forward vacancy – and manager Jimmy Melia chose Young to fill it.

The fee was either £140,000 or £150,000 depending on which account you believe, but Young was happy because he pocketed a £20,000 signing on fee (four times what he had received only a year earlier when moving to Sheffield).

His first involvement with the squad was on a close-season tour of the Balearic Islands (with associated eye-opening tales recalled by thegoldstonewrap.com) but he also picked up an injury that was to dog his season on the south coast.

While Young had a lot of time for Melia, when Cattlin took over it was a different story and, in his book, there are plenty of colourful expletives used to describe exactly what he thought! He also castigates physio Mike Yaxley – “the most useless physio I have ever worked with” – although he says the team spirit was very good…seemingly fuelled by long post-training ‘sessions’ in Woody’s wine bar.

A young He said: “The football was very enjoyable there and never more so than when Jimmy Case and I were playing together; I loved playing with Jimmy.”

For a short time in that 1983-84 season, Albion had three Youngs in their squad, none of whom were related. Along with Young the forward, there were centre backs Eric Young and on-loan Willie Young.

When Cattlin decided to bring in his old Huddersfield teammate Worthington the following season, Young was on his way, this time to Notts County. The manager who signed him was the former Liverpool and Nottingham Forest defender Larry Lloyd, but his tenure in the managerial chair was very short so, once again, Young found himself playing for a manager who hadn’t chosen him.

In two years at Meadow Lane, Young scored 12 in 43 games for County. He moved on to Rochdale where the Leeds legend Eddie Gray was in charge, but injury took its toll and he only scored twice in 28 games in the 1986-87 season before retiring at 31. He had scored a career total of 89 goals in 349 appearances.

While there were a few non-league appearances, he eventually landed a job back at Notts County in the early days of community football schemes. He made a success of the job, obtained his coaching qualifications and eventually they combined the community scheme with the centre of excellence.

Brighton fans will be interested to know that among the young lads who emerged during Young’s time there were Will Hoskins and Leon Best. The star player, though, was Jermaine Pennant.

Young has fond memories of Neil Warnock’s time as County manager, because of his interest in the work being done at grassroots level. However, the mood changed when Sam Allardyce took over.

Allardyce initially cut Young’s salary and then showed him the door. “I can’t and I never will forgive Sam Allardyce,” he said.

Away from football, Young has had a tempestuous love life – read the book to gather the detail – and has three sons and a daughter. While he also had spells working for Chesterfield and Leeds, he dropped out of the game and then had a very dark period dominated by heavy drinking in isolation, including a time living alone in a caravan on the banks of Loch Lomond.

Eventually a return to England and his break into radio punditry brought him back from the brink.

In 2013, his autobiography Youn9y was published, the sleeve notes describing the story of “a talented, brave striker who played at the highest level of the domestic game but also experienced human misery at its lowest once his playing career was over”.

The notes add: “Youngy doesn’t just recount the good times of his playing career; he also offers valuable insight and moments of perception and understanding of some of the darkest days of his life.”

After four years as match summariser, in 2014 BBC Radio Leicester dispensed with his services and replaced him with another former Fox, Gerry Taggart.

However, Young still gives his opinions about Leicester on the community radio station Hermitage FM.

Twitter enthusiasts can follow Alan @alan9young

Pictures show a shot of Alan on Brighton seafront from an Albion matchday programme; the front cover of his autobiography; other matchday programme action shots, and in the Hermitage FM radio studio from Twitter.

Midfielder Alan Curbishley helped Seagulls to promotion

Screenshot

ALAN Curbishley completed a hat-trick of promotions with new clubs when he was part of Brighton’s successful third tier side in 1988.

He’d previously been promoted after switching from West Ham to Birmingham City and also when moving from Aston Villa to Charlton Athletic.

Curbishley was what you might call West Ham through and through.

Born at Forest Gate on 8 November 1957, within a mile of West Ham station, he was one of five children (elder brother Bill famously promoted and managed The Who and Led Zeppelin and was producer of the films Tommy and Quadrophenia).

Curbishley first played in Brighton at under 11 level, in a Newham Boys side against Brighton Boys at Longhill School, in May 1967. He was later capped for England Boys aged 15 and after joining the Hammers straight from school played for England Youth.

Curbishley won nine England Youth caps under Ken Burton, scoring on his debut in a 1-1 draw against Poland in Las Palmas on 21 January 1975 when England went on to win the Atlantic Cup. Among his teammates were future England captain Bryan Robson, Peter Barnes and Keith Bertschin.

He vied for a starting berth with Mark Nightingale (Palace, Bournemouth, Norwich, Peterborough), making six starts and three appearances off the bench. His last appearance was in a 1-0 win over Wales in Cardiff on 11 February 1976, playing alongside Glenn Hoddle and Gary Owen.

Almost a year earlier, on 29 March 1975, he had made his first team Hammers debut at the tender age of 17, lining up in midfield alongside Trevor Brooking and Graham Paddon in a 1-0 home defeat against Chelsea. Mervyn Day was in goal for West Ham and guarding the opposition net was John Phillips.

At the time, Curbishley was the youngest to play in the senior team although that record was subsequently eclipsed by Paul Allen.

A contemporary of Geoff Pike, Paul Brush and Alvin Martin, they were all in the West Ham youth team defeated 5-1 on aggregate by Ipswich in the 1975 FA Youth Cup Final.

In a midfield dominated by Brooking, Paddon and Pat Holland, and later Alan Devonshire and Pike, Curbishley found first team chances limited, although in 1977-78 he made 36 appearances.

After 85 matches for the Hammers, in 1979 he moved to Birmingham for £275,000. Manager Jim Smith used the proceeds of the £1m transfer of Trevor Francis to Nottingham Forest to buy Curbishley, Frank Worthington, Colin Todd and Archie Gemmill. Curbishley was still only 21 when he made his debut for the Blues on 18 August 1979 in a 4-3 defeat at home to Fulham and he went on to be ever present for Birmingham in that 1979-80 season.

Curbishley earned his one and only England Under 21 cap in a 5-0 thrashing of Switzerland at Portman Road when Justin Fashanu was among the scorers. He had hopes of going to the 1982 World Cup with England, having broken into the England B squad but fractured a kneecap sliding into a tackle with Albion’s Brian Horton. “I missed the rest of the season and the start of the next, and the World Cup squad which I might have broken into otherwise,” he said. “It was the worst disappointment I’ve ever faced.”

He was on the front cover of the matchday programme for a game I went to watch at St Andrew’s on 27 March 1982 when he played for Ron Saunders’ Blues in a 1-0 win over Brighton. But financial issues meant the side was broken up and, the following year, after a total of 155 games, he committed what today seems to be viewed as a cardinal sin by signing for Villa for £100,000, ironically making his debut against Birmingham in a 1-0 win on 4 April 1983.

“I had high hopes of success there with them just having won the European Cup,” he told Dave Beckett in an Albion matchday programme article. “It was soon obvious though that Tony Barton was under pressure from the moment he took over and all the players thought it was just a matter of time before he was sacked.

“He got a raw deal. That season we finished ninth in the league, got to the semis of the League Cup and were knocked out of the UEFA Cup in the last minute on the away goals rule. Villa have never been near that form since, but Tony Barton’s face didn’t fit and he was soon on his way along with all the men he signed.”

After only 36 appearances, scoring once, Curbishley returned to London, dropping back down to the 2^nd division, to begin what would be a long association with Charlton Athletic, punctuated only by his spell at Brighton.

Amazingly, although homeless at the time and playing at Selhurst Park, Charlton won promotion back to the 1^st Division. Unfortunately Curbishley sustained an achilles tendon injury and only played 10 games in the 1986-87 season.

“I knew I had an achilles injury but the operation was delayed until a week before the start of the new season and consequently I wasn’t fit again until December,” he said. “The manager bought two new midfield players, which I understood, but when I was fit again I couldn’t get back into the side.

“It became apparent that I wouldn’t get much of a chance unless something drastic happened so I’m pleased to have a fresh start.”

After 13 seasons playing in the top two divisions, he left Charlton having scored six times in 63 games and dropped down to the Third to join the Albion for £32,500.

He made his debut in a goalless draw at Chesterfield on 22 August 1987 in front of a crowd of just 2,286.

After the departure of Jimmy Case in 1985, the centre of Albion’s midfield had been crying out for someone who could put their foot on the ball and pass it, and Curbishley stepped neatly into that role, scoring six goals – mostly penalties – in 34 appearances as Brighton won promotion.

“Alan was a very level-headed guy, an excellent passer and really disciplined,” Albion boss Barry Lloyd told Spencer Vignes in a matchday programme article.

In total, over three years on the south coast, Curbishley played 127 games (plus five as sub) – making his 400th league appearance during the 1988-89 season – and scored 15 goals.

curbs pen The Albion matchday programme featured Curbishley when the Seagulls hosted the Hammers for a Barclays League Division 2 game on 16 September 1989. Describing his time with the East London club, he said: “It was a brilliant set up although I was definitely a bit headstrong in my early days.

“I didn’t really grow up until I moved to St Andrew’s and that’s where I had my best playing days.”

Lou Macari’s side in 1989 included Curbishley’s old pal Alvin Martin and future Albion manager Liam Brady but the Seagulls ran out 3-0 winners (goals from Kevin Bremner, Robert Codner and Garry Nelson).

In 1990, Curbishley began his coaching career, returning to Charlton initially as player-coach under Lennie Lawrence. When Lawrence left in 1991, Charlton made the somewhat unusual decision to appoint joint managers: Curbishley and Steve Gritt (who would later be at the helm when Albion narrowly escaped dropping out of the league).

Curbishley’s first signings for Charlton were former Albion teammates Nelson and Steve Gatting and he later plundered young winger John Robinson from the Seagulls. After four years, Curbishley took sole charge at The Valley and led Charlton to some of the most successful times in their history.

Considering their resources, Curbishley turned Charlton into a steady top flight club and model of stability, consistently securing a mid-table finish.

Sean Cole in The Bleacher Report described him as “one of the most promising managerial talents of the new millennium” and in 2006, in the wake of Sven-Goran Eriksson’s departure as England manager, Curbs had ‘tea and biscuits’ with then chief executive Brian Barwick – but Steve McLaren got the job instead.

In December 2006, Curbishley landed what surely would have been considered his dream job – manager of West Ham.

It was quite a reunion of old pals when Brighton visited Upton Park for one of his first games in charge, in the third round of the FA Cup in January 2007. Albion boss Dean Wilkins and coach Ian Chapman had both been teammates while physiotherapist Malcolm Stuart was still wielding the magic spray.

In front of 32,874, Hammers ran out fairly comfortable 3-0 winners with Mark Noble scoring his first senior West Ham goal and Carlos Tevez a real handful up front. These were the respective line-ups:

West Ham: Carroll, Dailly, Ferdinand (Spector 45), Gabbidon, McCartney, Benayoun, Mullins, Noble, Boa Morte (Newton 73), Cole (Bobby Zamora 68), Tevez.
Subs not used: Green, Sheringham. Goals: Noble 49, Cole 58, Mullins 90.

Brighton: Wayne Henderson, Joe O’Cearuill, Joel Lynch, Guy Butters, Kerry Mayo, Tommy Fraser (Gary Hart 51), Adam El-Abd, Dean Hammond, Alexandre Frutos (Sam Rents 67), Alex Revell (Joe Gatting 84), Jake Robinson. Subs not used: Michel Kuipers, Richard Carpenter.

Fans’ website westhamtillidie recalled: “Perhaps Curbs’ greatest legacy at the club was the £7m signing of his former Charlton protégé Scott Parker, who went on to win the Hammer of the Year prize three times and pick up a Football Writers’ Player of the Year Award during his time at the club.”

Sadly, though it was to all end in tears and Curbishley quit in protest at the then Icelandic owners’ failure to consult him over the sale of defenders Anton Ferdinand and George McCartney.

In what must have been a tough heart-v-head decision, he resorted to a legal resolution of the situation and eventually won a case for constructive dismissal, eventually receiving £2.2m in compensation. But it was the last manager’s job he had.

“It took me a year to sort out my problem at West Ham,” he told The Independent. “And then, after that, I was perhaps a little too picky. I was told by other senior managers ‘don’t be out too long’ but I was waiting for a job that I thought was the job for me.”

Job vacancies came and went, Curbishley’s name was generally on all the shortlists, but he never again made it through to the manager’s chair. There was a brief moment at Fulham when he was technical director assisting Rene Meulensteen but when Meulensteen was swiftly axed, new manager Felix Magath brought in his own people.

He rejoined the Fulham coaching staff in March 2015 and took charge of training in November 2015 when Kit Symons was relieved of his managerial duties but Stuart Gray took charge of the team before Slavisa Jokanovic was appointed.

In 2016, Curbishley brought out a book, Game Changers: Inside English Football: From the Boardroom to the Bootroom (published by HarperSport) and was a regular pundit on the Football on 5 programme covering Football League games.

Key building blocks for Steve Sidwell’s Premiership future

seagull-sid WHEN a flame-haired midfield player called Steve Sidwell joined the Albion on loan from Arsenal in 2002, it wasn’t the first – or last – time he would link up with manager Steve Coppell.

Coppell had organised a similar arrangement the season before when he was in charge at Second Division Brentford, and Sidwell played 30 times for the Bees.

When Coppell acquired his services for the bottom-of-the-second-tier Seagulls, it was instantly apparent that here was a talent destined to perform on a much bigger stage. In a 12-game spell, he scored five goals. They were the building blocks of a career that saw him go on to play in the Premiership for 11 seasons, and against Huddersfield in early 2017 made his 500^th career appearance.

So many things are easy in hindsight but presumably if Albion had already been playing at a new stadium at Falmer, Sidwell may have stuck with the Albion rather than moving on to Reading where the Madejski Stadium was already a reality.

In the Royals matchday programme for the Reading v Albion Championship clash in 2005-06, cover boy Siddy was interviewed at great length and recalled his time with Brighton with fondness.

“It was the first time I had played at this level – before then I had been in Arsenal’s youth team and on loan at Brentford in the Second Division – so I was grateful for that opportunity,” he said. “The best description of my time there would be ‘short but sweet’.

“The fans at Brighton were fantastic, especially away from home,” he continued. “”At the time we were bottom of the league and battling against relegation, but they still turned up every week and always backed us.”

Sidwell recounted how it was during that time that he forged his long term friendship with Bobby Zamora and he also spoke of how he played in the same Colliers Wood Sunday football team as fellow midfielder Alexis Nicolas.

Eleven months after Sidwell went to Reading, Coppell made the same choice and enjoyed the best of Sidwell as his scintillating partnership with James Harper in the centre of midfield helped to take Reading out of the Championship and into the Premiership.

Let’s just go back to the 2002-03 season, though, and recall the impact Sidwell made in Brighton’s valiant effort to defy the relegation odds.

A disastrous run of 12 defeats in the first part of the season had dumped Albion at the foot of the table and manager Martin Hinshelwood had been replaced by Coppell, who rung the changes and started turning round the fortunes on the pitch.

Sidwell came in from Arsenal and scored the first of his five goals in a 2-2 draw away to Preston. He scored the only goal of the game in a Boxing Day win at Norwich and two days later scored both the goals in a 2-2 home draw with Burnley (celebrating in this Argus picture below).

Siddy youthful One of my favourite memories came at Highfield Road, Coventry, on January 11 2003 when Albion probably deserved to win but had to settle for a point in a 0-0 draw. Before the kick off, Albion fans were chanting his name during the warm-up, urging him to stay, because there had been speculation linking him with moves to other clubs.

Sidwell’s performance that day was acknowledged by no less an authority than the Scotland midfield maestro Gary McAllister, who was player-manager of Coventry at the time.

McAllister told the press after the game: “I was very impressed with Brighton. They passed it well. The front two were always a threat to us, joined by Steve Sidwell creating in the middle of the park and the two guys wide.

“Brighton were as good a side as we have seen at Highfield Road this season.”

Two days later, the Argus was reporting on the clubs interested in signing the promising youngster, including Stoke and Reading. Coppell told them: “What will be will be. I personally think the level of his performance will almost demand Arsenal not letting him go because he has done so well.

“Alternatively, they are going to move him on and take what money they can now. There will, I’m sure, be a lot of people in for him.

“He just wants to play football. I think the more we take these kind of decisions off his shoulders and just let him turn up and play then we are going to get the best out of him.”

siddy arse Sidwell, who was out of contract at Arsenal at the end of the season, said: “Stoke put a bid into Arsenal. I went up there and it’s a great set-up and a fantastic club but we will see what happens.”

Interesting then, that the Potters did eventually get their man several years later.

However, in 2003 Reading was his destination and he spent four and a half years with them, helping them to win promotion from the Championship and playing in their debut Premier League season.

In July 2007, at the end of his contract, Sidwell moved on a free transfer to Chelsea, the team he’d supported as a boy. “People think that because I was with Arsenal from the age of nine to 20 that I support them, but I’ve always been Chelsea. I was born in Tooting, my mum and dad are from Tooting Bec and Balham, so I was born into a Chelsea-supporting family,” he said in an Albion matchday programme article.

So, he said it was a “no-brainer” to go there. “I was joining a club that had won back-to-back titles under a manager who was a breath of fresh air in the game and I’d be playing and training with some of the best players in the world.”

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The wealth of talent meant competition for places at Stamford Bridge restricted Sidwell’s game time, although he did clock up 25 games for the Blues. With the benefit of hindsight, he said: “It was the right move, it just came at the wrong time. I was only 24 so it came too soon. I’d only had one season of Premier LEague football under my belt and wasn’t quite ready for such a big jump from Reading.

“Maybe if I’d gone to Newcastle or West Ham (they’d both been interested) for a couple of years and played really well there, then I would have been better equipped but, like I said, when Chelsea comes knocking you don’t turn the opportunity down.”

He added that off-field issues, such as Mourinho leaving in the September to be replaced by Avram Grant, caused unrest amongst the players. But he added: “In hindsight, I wished I’d stayed another six months because Luiz Felipe Scolari came in and you never know what might have happened then.”

However, in the summer of 2008, in search of more regular playing time, he moved on to Aston Villa on a three-year deal. His time at Villa Park was often interrupted by injury and he made 64 appearances in two and a half years before Mark Hughes ended up signing him twice – for Fulham and Stoke City.

In 2011, Sidwell returned to London and scored 17 goals in 115 appearances over three and a half years, before leaving Craven Cottage when Fulham were relegated from the Premiership in 2014. “I went there on the back of their Europa League run and they were still riding the crest of a wave,” he said in an Albion matchday programme article. He reckoned he played the best football of his career there and said: “In my first year we finished eighth in the Premier League.

“When I first went there, our home record was phenomenal. It didn’t matter who came to the Cottage, we always thought we would get the win. In the season we got relegated, it was surprising how quickly that mentality had changed.”

siddystoke Hughes took him on a free transfer to Stoke but he managed only 13 appearances so jumped at the chance once again to link up with his old pal Zamora to join Albion on loan in early 2016 to supplement their efforts to get promoted from the Championship.

Although the form of Beram Kayal and Dale Stephens meant he struggled to nail down a regular spot, he was a great option to bring off the bench and memorably got the last-gasp winner in a televised away match at Nottingham Forest. “When I was getting taped up, I said to the bench I was going to score, it was just fate,” he said. “I managed to pop up with the goal, and it was a great feeling to see the ball hit the back of the net and you could see from the celebrations what it meant to us all.” Screen Shot 2021-04-04 at 17.19.48

I was in the away end that evening and despite a persistent Nottingham drizzle making the post-match walk back to my hotel pretty unpleasant, I dried off in the company of some other Albion followers in the hotel bar and reflected on a great skin-of-the-teeth win.

As we know, Siddy signed permanently in the summer of 2016, and has had a lot more game time this season. I was also fortunate to be at Ashton Gate on Bonfire Night that year when he scored that magnificent long range effort from inside the centre circle.

Footnote: I didn’t have to join in the last line of the Stevie Sidwell song….because I’m already in possession of similarly-coloured locks. We gingers have to stick together!

sidwell-reading

Pictures show the young Sidwell in Brighton’s away kit in 2002-03, as he appeared in the Coventry programme, and a portrait from Reading’s programme for the 10 December 2005 game v Brighton.

Villa’s European Cup winning captain at the Albion

2-mortimer-in-flight A CULTURED midfielder regarded in many circles as the best ever captain of Aston Villa was almost ever-present in one season with Brighton.

Dennis Mortimer captained Villa when they won the European Cup in 1982 under manager Tony Barton.

Mortimer joined the Seagulls three years later and shone in what was a rather disappointing Division 2 season which saw the Albion finish 11^th.

Brighton’s near-promotion form in the season before had prompted Mortimer to try to help the Seagulls to restore their elite status after he’d been released by Villa.

In a programme feature by Tony Norman in November 1985, he said: “I knew this was a good side to come into; a team that wanted to play good football and win promotion.

“They missed it so narrowly last year and I felt I would like to be part of that challenge this year. I knew there would be excitement in the season ahead, and to me that is one of the most important things in football.

“Obviously I’m coming to the end of a long career in the game. I’ve been a professional for 17 years now and I wanted one final challenge. That’s why I came to Brighton.”

In his programme notes for the opening game of the season (against Grimsby Town), manager Chris Cattlin said of his former Coventry teammate: “He is a truly outstanding professional who will give the team steadiness and experience.”

Fans had a taste of what he would bring to the team when he scored a cracker in a pre-season game against Arsenal.

Unfortunately, while Mortimer was a consistent performer in midfield and the team enjoyed a decent run in the FA Cup – losing in the quarter finals to Southampton – Cattlin’s side were beset by injuries to key players and ultimately fell short of the top spots.

Morty BHA morty writes Knowing his time on the south coast was going to be limited, Mortimer didn’t uproot his family from their Lichfield home and instead lived in the Courtlands Hotel in Hove (above) for a while and also bought a flat where his wife and children could visit during school holidays.

Despite being born in Liverpool, the bulk of Mortimer’s career was connected with West Midlands teams, beginning with Coventry City under the tutelage of Pat Saward, who later managed the Albion, and ending with West Brom where he had a spell as assistant manager after his playing days were over.

He had not been a schoolboy star but was picked up and developed through Coventry’s youth development system. As well as coach Saward, Coventry’s youngsters also benefitted from the experience of Bob Dennison, the man who, at Middlesbrough, brought together as players one of the most famous footballing partnerships in Brian Clough and Peter Taylor.

“As a lad I thought I would be an engineer and, although the whole family were Liverpool mad, and we never missed a home game, it did not enter my head that I might be a professional until I was 14,” Mortimer said in a Goal interview in 1973. Coventry offered him a trial just as he was leaving school and his career built from there.

His initial Coventry boss Noel Cantwell, the former Man Utd and West Ham full back, was sure Dennis was destined for greater things after his first England under-23 call-up. “Dennis will become a big name in football, “ he said. “When he gets in Sir Alf’s side I don’t think he will lose his place easily.”

Although he never won a full cap, in 1971 he went on an end-of-season tour to Australia in an English FA squad that also included Peter Grummitt (then of Sheffield Wednesday) and Barry Bridges (of Millwall at the time). The group played the Republic of Ireland in Dublin, drawing 1-1, before heading Down Under where they won all nine of the matches they played in various locations across a month.

Coventry general manager, Joe Mercer, who was a legendary figure in the game and had a spell as caretaker manager of England, said of Dennis: “He has this great change of pace…he can go into another gear and accelerate out of trouble like all the good ones.”

However, it was after his move to Villa in 1975 that he rose to prominence, culminating in that famous 1-0 win over Bayern Munich in Rotterdam, courtesy of a Peter Withe goal.

As part of a 30^th anniversary celebration of the achievement, Mortimer told the Birmingham Mail in 2012: “It was such a momentous occasion for Aston Villa Football Club and for all of us as young men that you never forget it – and I doubt the fans who witnessed it would ever forget it either.

“You only have to see how big the competition is now and how much hype it gets to realise what an amazing achievement it was for us.

“Every year when the final of the European Cup, or Champions League as it is called now, comes around, I get a glimpse of that fantastic trophy and it all comes flooding back.

“I’ll never get bored of talking about it, but I don’t get reminded about it that much any more. It’s usually me telling the younger kids that Aston Villa won the European Cup.

“Some of them don’t believe me, because it was so long ago, and before a lot of them were born, but they go away and Google it and think ‘Wow, yes, they did win it!’”

DM Villa

In 10 years at Villa, Mortimer made 403 appearances and scored 36 goals. A 1977 League Cup winner, he led Villa to the English Division One title on May 2, 1981, and then lifted the European Cup on May 26, 1982.

The Birmingham Post said in 2010: “The Liverpudlian was at the forefront of the club’s finest era of modern times; a driving force from midfield that helped bring a level of success to Villa Park that his successors can only dream of.”

Although capped by England under-23 and England B, a full cap eluded him. That seems extraordinary now, especially after scoring twice in a 3-1 win for the under-23s against the Netherlands at Highbury, when Goal magazine reported he was being “hailed as the new Bobby Charlton”.

Mortimer was subsequently picked for the senior squad but didn’t get a game. “I got as far as the bench in the home internationals when Villa won the league, but never got on,” he said in a 2010 interview. “I always felt I should have done but there were so many good midfield players around at that time.

“I just needed to get on that pitch for five minutes in that home international, but Ron Greenwood wouldn’t put me on.”

After Cattlin allowed Jimmy Case to leave Brighton (telling the board his legs had gone, even though he then had six seasons at Southampton!), the team was crying out for a seasoned cool head in midfield who could put their foot on the ball and spread the ball about.

Cattlin eventually turned to his former Coventry teammate to bring that quality to a squad that was not quite reaching the heights required to restore the elite status lost in 1983.

Sadly, Mortimer spent just the one season at The Goldstone, but his 49 league and cup appearances were the highest number in that season’s squad.

Cattlin had offered him a two-year contract with the chance to start coaching but, following the manager’s sacking close to the end of the season, and his replacement Alan Mullery not fancying the experienced midfielder, he left the club.

“Player-coach would have been great as I had plenty left in the tank,” Mortimer told journalist Spencer Vignes: “He swapped a player with plenty of experience for one with no experience (Dale Jasper) and I was let go. Four months later (it was actually eight), Alan was let go as well.”

Mortimer returned to the Midlands – making the somewhat controversial decision to join Villa’s arch rivals Birmingham.

Funnily enough at the very same time he was heading back to the Midlands, the captain who lifted the European Cup that month also went on to play for the Albion. Romanian international Stefan Iovan was the Steaua Bucharest captain when they beat Barcelona on penalties in Seville; five years later, he was stepping out at Wembley as part of the Seagulls’ line-up in the Division 2 play-off final with Notts County.

But finally back to Mortimer. Now a sports speaker, pundit and coach, he’s not afraid to speak his mind and has been known to upset a few people with his outspoken comments about Villa’s plight in recent years.

Pictures from my scrapbook show Dennis Mortimer in action for Coventry against Liverpool, from Goal magazine, and an Albion matchday programme shot of him in full flight for the Seagulls. Also pictured is Mortimer when reserve team coach at West Brom during Ossie Ardiles’ reign as manager. When Ardiles moved to Spurs, Mortimer became new boss Keith Burkinshaw’s assistant. Full grey head of hair picture from 2010.

Bertie Lutton’s memorable Easter goal at Bournemouth

STANDING amongst the writhing crush of Albion fans squeezed in behind the goal at Dean Court on the afternoon of Easter Saturday 1972, I struggled to get a clear view of the frenzied action on the pitch.

Brighton equalised, that much was evident from the eruption and movement of the swaying masses, but who applied the finishing touch was anybody’s guess as far as I was concerned.

I later discovered it was none other than Bertie Lutton, the £5,000 Northern Irish international winger signed only three weeks previously from Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Lutton had got himself into the penalty area and with a centre forward-like instinct headed Peter O’Sullivan’s cross past Fred Davies in the Bournemouth goal to cancel out the lead Ted MacDougall** had given the promotion-chasing Cherries.

It was Lutton’s second Albion goal in two days. On Good Friday at the Goldstone, he was on the scoresheet with Bert Murray and Ken Beamish as a bumper crowd of 27,513 (remember this was the third tier of English football) saw Albion beat Torquay United 3-1.

It’s difficult for modern day fans to contemplate but literally 24 hours later, the Albion had travelled nearly 100 miles west to take on Third Division promotion rivals Bournemouth and 22,540 fans crammed into the stadium.

In what was a classic game of two halves, the Cherries dominated the opening 45 minutes and took the lead through MacDougall, a prolific scorer of that period who went on to play for Manchester United, West Ham, Norwich City and Scotland.

Albion threw everything at them after the break and Lutton’s equaliser was fully deserved on the balance of play in the second half.

The goal was enough to keep him in the side for the following three games. After that he reverted to the bench to the end of the season, but was on the pitch, having replaced Kit Napier, when the whistle blew at the end of the 1-1 Goldstone draw with Rochdale that earned Albion promotion as runners up behind Aston Villa…..with Bournemouth three points behind in third place (there were no play-offs in those days).

Raising a glass of promotion-winning champagne in the dressing room with his Brighton teammates after that game must have felt good, but that Dean Court moment was probably as good as it got for the blond-haired Ulsterman in his time on the south coast.

Born in Banbridge, County Down, on 13 July 1950, Bertie’s brief footballing career began with his hometown club, Banbridge Town, and it’s reported just £50 exchanged hands to take him to then English elite side Wolves in 1967. Lutton WWFC

At a time when Wolves were blessed with some outstanding players like Derek Dougan, Hugh Curran, Dave Wagstaffe, Jim McCalliog and Mike Bailey, Bertie managed just 25 matches for Wolves between 1967 and 1971.

Brighton manager Pat Saward, nicknamed The Loan Ranger because of the number of players who he brought in on loan, first acquired Bertie’s services on a temporary basis between September and November in 1971.

He made his debut in a 2-0 defeat at Aston Villa and scored twice in seven games before returning to his parent club.

Then, on 9 March 1972, with the clock ticking down to what in those days was the 5pm transfer deadline, Saward completed a double transfer swoop, securing Lutton’s permanent signing for £5,000 together with Beamish from Tranmere for £25,000 (plus the surplus-to-requirements Alan Duffy).

A delighted Saward declared to Argus reporter John Vinicombe: “Bertie can do a job for us anywhere. This can’t be bad for us. At 21 and with two caps for Ireland he has a future and played very well for us while on loan.

“He can play right or left, up the middle, or midfield and Beamish can fit into a number of positions.”

Maybe it was the versatility Saward referred to that worked against Lutton. When Brighton began the 1972-73 season in the second tier, Lutton was still on the bench. He came on in three games, then got four successive starts before going back to the bench.

Albion were finding life tough at the higher level and although Saward switched things around and brought in new faces, the results went from bad to worse.

bertielutton Lutton started three games in December which all ended in defeat and the 3-0 Boxing Day reverse at Oxford United turned out to be his last appearance for the Albion.

It fell in the middle of a spell of 12 successive defeats during which only five goals were scored – and two of those were penalties, another an own goal!

Saward couldn’t put his finger on the reason for the slump and declared himself dismayed by the attitude of certain players: Lutton was one of three put on the transfer list.

Astonishingly he stepped up a division and went on loan to West Ham. He did well enough to secure a full-time switch to Upton Park and almost a year to the day of his arrival at the Goldstone, he was gone and the shrewd Saward turned a £10,000 profit on the enigmatic Irishman.

Those two caps Saward referred to had come while on Wolves’ books in April 1970 against Scotland and England in the old end-of-season Home International tournament. After his move to West Ham, he gained four more. Indeed, in the history books, he became the first Hammer ever to represent Northern Ireland. He came on as sub in three games in May 1973 and his final appearance was in November that year as a starter in a 1-1 draw away to Portugal.

His only goal for West Ham came in a 1-1 draw away to Derby County on 21 April 1973, where one of his teammates was the aforementioned MacDougall. Sadly Lutton’s West Ham career lasted just 12 games. He was forced to quit English football in 1974 at the age of just 23.

He emigrated to Australia and played semi-professional football in the Australian Soccer League for a number of years and settled in Melbourne.

The ‘where are they now’ website reveals he most recently worked as a supervisor for a logistics company.

The website wolvesheroes.com tracked down Lutton in March 2010 and reported a fascinating tale about what happened to a 1970 Mexico World Cup England shirt Bobby Moore had given his old West Ham teammate.

** MacDouGoal! the striker’s autobiography.

Pictures from my scrapbook show Bertie Lutton

celebrating a goal for the Albion
appearing for Wolves
heading the equaliser in the Easter Saturday draw at Bournemouth

3-lutton-stripes

luttoningoal

*Lutton alongside George Best during Northern Ireland training*

*Lutton pictured in 2010 on wolvesheroes.com*

Willie Irvine restored Irish international career at Brighton

NORTHERN Ireland international Willie Irvine has encountered the highs and lows in life and I would urge anyone who hasn’t yet read his autobiography, Together Again (written by Dave Thomas) to add it to their book collection.

The Albion provided a platform for a brief resurgence in Willie’s career in the early 1970s but in the mid Sixties he was a big star scoring goals for fun as Burnley strutted their stuff amongst English football’s elite.

He scored 97 goals in 144 games (plus four as a sub) for the Lancashire side between 1962 and 1968 and in the 1965-66 season notched 29 league goals (37 including cup games) in what was the equivalent of today’s Premiership.

On the excellent Clarets Mad website, Tony Scholes wrote: “In my time watching the Clarets, none have been quite able to match the goalscoring exploits of Willie Irvine who, for two and a half years, was as good as anyone in English football when it came to putting the ball in the net.”

Sadly his highly-promising career at Burnley was never the same after he suffered a broken leg in a tackle with Johnny Morrissey in a FA Cup third round match at Everton in 1967.

A year later, the Turf Moor club turfed him out, transferring him to nearby Preston North End. By 1971, he was surplus to requirements there, and Pat Saward brought him to Third Division Albion on loan.

His first game, on the evening of 10 March 1971 at home to Fulham, couldn’t have gone much better because he marked his debut by scoring two in a 3-2 win.

He also scored in 1-0 wins over Shrewsbury and Bury, in a 3-0 win at Reading and in the last game of the season, a 1-1 draw with Plymouth Argyle. Not surprisingly, those goals led to him signing on a permanent basis that summer and the following season saw him play a key role as Brighton secured promotion to the second tier as runners-up to champions Aston Villa.

Irvine described warmly how Saward attracted him to up sticks from the North West and move to Sussex. “Pat sold me the place with his charm and persuasive ways,” he said, describing the former male model as “extrovert, infectious and bubbly”.

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

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

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

Fans of a certain vintage will recall a memorable goalscoring season for Irvine was capped off (literally!) by a most magical strike against Aston Villa in front of the Match of the Day cameras.

Willie’s goal was judged by the legendary manager Jock Stein as the third best goal of the season shown on Match of the Day and Brighton went on to win promotion. It was undoubtedly the best of the 17 he scored in 40 matches that season.

It was the first time I had experienced the excitement of going up, but there was one further thrill in store for me before the season came to a complete close.

In those days, there was an end-of-season tournament played between the “home” nations (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland). I had already been to a couple of England internationals at Wembley but the England international on May 23 1972 was extra special because lining up for Northern Ireland was Albion’s very own Irvine.

Now, I had not been a football supporter for very long, but even I knew that it was virtually unheard of for Third Division teams to have current international players playing for them.

Born at Eden in County Antrim on 18 June 1943, Irvine was the youngest of 18 children, and was brought up with seven siblings in the seaside town of Carrickfergus by his mother, Agnes, after his father Alec died during a wartime blitz in Belfast.

He had played five times for Northern Ireland’s under 23 side before stepping up to the full international team and winning 21 caps at the height of his career. But I never dreamt – and, on reading the autobiography many years later, neither had he – that he would re-appear for his country after dropping down to the third tier of English football.

My allegiances were split that day and I have to say it didn’t really upset me that Northern Ireland ended up 1-0 winners thanks to player-manager Terry Neill’s solitary goal – laid on by Irvine!

Here is how The Official FA Year Book (1972-73) described the goal: “From Hegan’s corner, Irvine beat Shilton to the ball and headed it down to Neill, the Irish player-manager, playing in his 50^th international, to shoot into an empty net from two yards range.”

The game saw England give international debuts to Colin Todd and Tony Currie, and Colin Bell was England captain in the absence of Bobby Moore. Two players who would later join the Albion – Martin Chivers, as a substitute for Malcolm Macdonald, and Sammy Nelson, the Arsenal left-back – were also on show.

“I was delighted to have won my place back in my national team and I thought I did reasonably well,” Irvine told the Albion matchday programme. “When I reported back for international duty Derek Dougan welcomed me like a long lost uncle. He is a little older than I am. But I feel that at 29 I still have something to offer to the Irish side.

“It’s a wonderful experience playing for one’s country. I always get a great thrill when I hear I have been selected. My last three appearances, I believe, were solely due to that much publicised and televised goal against Aston Villa.”

Irvine also said he hoped to earn more caps, especially as he opened the new season with four goals in three games. But he wasn’t selected again, and his days as an Albion player came to an end before Christmas that year.

It’s no surprise that Irvine played alongside George Best in some matches for their country and in a 2010 interview with Suzanne Geldard in the Lancashire Telegraph, he recalled how they became roommates in 1964.

“I was 18, George was only 16, so because we were the babies in the team they put us together,” said Irvine. “He was the kindest, nicest lad you could ever meet in your life.

“People adored him. I’ve even seen people cutting pieces of his hair off for keepsakes, but he would just shrug his shoulders.

“George Best was without doubt an amazing footballer. You had to get on his wavelength, but that was difficult because he was way above everyone else. He picked me out two or three times and helped me score.”

Life has been rather unkind to Irvine since his glory days but, as the title of the book implies, he has got it back together after reaching a very low ebb.

Together Again reveals how it all turned sour for him at the Albion when his relationship with Saward deteriorated badly. Despite scoring five in 13 league and cup appearances in the opening months of the new season, in December 1973, against his wishes, he was transferred to Halifax Town in part exchange for Lammie Robertson.

On reading that he had no memorabilia of his time at the Goldstone, 35 years after he left the Albion, I sent him my copy of the Albion programme for that famous win over Villa and he kindly returned an autographed photo showing him in action with Chris Nicholl, which I had sent with the programme.

Irvine died aged 82 in July 2025.

In parallel lines

Memories from more than 55 years following Brighton & Hove Albion

Tag: Aston Villa