Tag: Barry Lloyd

‘Sleekly skilful’ Dale Jasper remembered with a smile

FORMER teammates expressed fond memories and a sense of shock when Dale Jasper died in January 2020 aged only 56.

A product of Chelsea’s youth system in the 1980s, he made it through to the first team but moved to Brighton to get more playing time.

Although he succeeded – playing a total of 52 matches plus eight as a sub under Alan Mullery and Barry Lloyd between 1986 and 1988 – he had to move on again, this time to Crewe Alexandra, to establish a regular starting berth.

It was certainly no mean achievement, though, to have on his CV that he won promotion with all three clubs.

In Ivan Ponting’s obituary for Back Pass magazine, Jasper was described as “a sleekly skilful midfielder-cum-central defender”.

Born in Croydon on 14 January 1964, Jasper was an associate schoolboy with Chelsea from the tender age of 10.

He progressed to the youth ranks and turned professional at Stamford Bridge in January 1982. Manager John Neal gave him his first team break against Cardiff City in March 1984, and Chelsea fans remember him for his involvement in some eye-catching matches.

One involved a 4-4 League Cup quarter final against Sheffield Wednesday but in the semi-final v Sunderland he conceded two penalties.

Although part of the squad Neal steered to promotion from the second tier in 1983-84, the form of his friend Colin Pates, who later had two spells with Brighton himself, and Joe McLaughlin, meant first team chances were few and far between.

Nevertheless, former Chelsea star Pat Nevin remembered Jasper’s involvement in a warm tribute on chelseafc.com.

“Dale was about as much fun as you could find wrapped up in one person,” said Nevin. “He had a brilliant personality in the dressing room at Stamford Bridge and was always up for a surreal laugh with all of us, particularly when he was with his great friends Colin Pates and John Bumstead.”

When Neal’s replacement, John Hollins, failed to offer Jasper the first team game-time he craved, he took the chance to join Brighton in May 1986, and enthused about the move in an interview with Albion matchday programme contributor, Tony Norman.

“I signed on the Monday and three days later I flew out to Hong Kong with the team, so it wasn’t a bad week, was it? We played an exhibition match over there. I was a bit disappointed when a goal I scored was disallowed, but I was smiling by the end of the game, because we won 3-1.

“We were away for about a week and it was a very good way for me to meet the rest of the p!ayers and get to know them. It all seemed a bit unreal, because it had all come out of the blue, but it was very enjoyable.”

Unfortunately for him, the manager who signed him for Brighton – Mullery – was unable to recapture the midas touch he’d previously enjoyed at the club.

Jasper started the first 13 games of the 1986-87 season but only three wins were chalked up and Mullery was shown the exit door shortly into the new year.

Jasper played 16 games plus one as a sub under new boss Lloyd but, after the side were relegated back to the third tier, he found it difficult to cement a regular place in the starting line-up.

Apart from a 10-game stint of starts between November and January, he spent most of the 1987-88 season on the subs bench, with Alan Curbishley and Mike Trusson preferred and, for the promotion run-in, Lloyd turned to Adrian Owers. instead.

Although Jasper scored in successive matches in February (one after coming on as a sub in a 2-2 home draw with Chesterfield), his final appearance in an Albion shirt was in a 5-1 defeat at home to Notts County in a Sherpa Van Trophy regional semi-final on 9 March 1988.

Jasper’s well-known sense of humour was evident in his answers for a profile feature in the Albion matchday programme. Perhaps reflecting his lack of first team game time, he said his ambition was “to win the Sussex Senior Cup” and said his favourite actress was teammate Perry Digweed!

Interestingly, he listed (former Chelsea coach) Dario Gradi as one of the main influences on his career, and it was to Gradi’s Crewe side that he moved on leaving the Albion in July 1988.

At the Alex, he made more than 100 appearances in four years, including being involved in their 1989 promotion from the fourth tier. He later played non-league for Crawley Town and Kingstonian.

After his playing career came to an end, he worked in the building trade.

Shocked to learn of Jasper’s death on 30 January 2020, former Albion teammate John Keeley told the Argus: “Dale was really well liked by everyone. He had some real talent and was a top, top lad.”

It was chirpy Chiv of the Cherries after six years with the Seagulls

THESE DAYS Gary Chivers is a familiar face around the hospitality lounges at Brighton’s Amex Stadium and Chelsea’s Stamford Bridge, the two clubs where he spent most of his playing days.

His association with Chelsea goes back to the tender age of 10, when he joined their academy, and he went on to play in their first team for five years. After six years with Brighton, he played out the final two years of his 16-year career at AFC Bournemouth under fledgling boss Tony Pulis. Among his teammates were Mark Morris, Warren Aspinall, Paul Wood and Steve Cotterill, all of whom also played for the Seagulls.

Born in Stockwell, London, on 15 May 1960, Chivers started supporting Chelsea at the age of eight, and, like many future professionals, got a foothold in the game at Stepney-based development club Senrab.

He told journalist Nick Szczepanik in a 2018 Backpass magazine article (below): “My brother had been training with Chelsea and my dad took me along when I was ten, and I went into their academy about two years before I should have.”

Chiv in BackpassAlthough initially a midfielder, coach Ken Shellito turned him into a defender and Chivers’ versatility in defence meant he could play centrally or in either full-back berth. Among his early contemporaries were John Bumstead, Colin Pates and Micky Fillery: Pates would later join him at Brighton.

With Chelsea already relegated, Chivers made his first team debut on 21 April 1979, aged 18, as he recounted in a December 2017 interview on the Chelsea website. Irish legend Danny Blanchflower was the manager who handed him his debut, at Stamford Bridge against Middlesbrough, which finished in a 2-1 win in front of just 12,007.

Chivers did enough to keep his place for the last four games of the season, and he told Szczepanik how in one he had to mark Arsenal’s Malcolm Macdonald and another Manchester United’s Joe Jordan.

In the second tier the following season, an injury to first choice right-back Gary Locke gave Chivers a chance to establish himself under new manager Geoff Hurst, and he retained the shirt for much of the season.

In total he made 148 appearances for Chelsea, scoring four goals, one of which was voted runner-up in Match of the Day’s Goal of the Season competition in 1980-81.

He got on the end of a Clive Walker cross following a delightful flowing move as top-of-the-table Newcastle were beaten 6-0 by second-placed Chelsea.

Chivers deputised at left-back for the injured Chris Hutchings towards the end of the 1982-83 season, by which time John Neal had taken over as manager. Chelsea were at a low ebb and only a point from a goalless draw against Middlesbrough on 14 May 1983 saved from them from relegation to the old Third Division. Neal overhauled the playing staff, and Chivers was amongst the casualities.

Explaining how he didn’t see eye to eye with Neal, he added: “I didn’t want to go, but you have to play games.”

He briefly switched to relegated Swansea City, under John Toshack, but only stayed six months as managers came and went in rapid succession. Seeking a move back to London, he joined QPR under Terry Venables – “the best manager I ever played for” – where he played alongside John Byrne, another player he’d be reunited with at the Albion.

At the end of his contract, he moved on to Watford during the uncomfortable spell when former Wimbledon boss Dave Bassett was in charge, but he got the feeling he didn’t fit in. Brighton boss Barry Lloyd, himself a former Chelsea player, agreed a £40,000 fee with the Hornets as Chivers dropped down a division to third-tier Albion, where he linked up with some familiar ex-Chelsea faces in Doug Rougvie, Robert Isaac and Keith Dublin.

He explained to Szczepanik: “I decided to go to Brighton because I had a look at their fixtures and I even asked for a promotion bonus because I was so confident they would go up.”

The confidence was well-placed because promotion was duly gained, and Chivers went on to become part of the furniture for the next six years, including playing in the play-off final at Wembley in 1990-91.

An incident that led to a Notts County goal still rankles with Chivers. “At 0-0, I played the ball off Tommy Johnson for a goal kick and David Elleray, the referee, gave a corner that they scored from. I saw him a few years ago and went over to set the facts straight. He said: ‘You’re not still going on about that from 20 years ago?’ and I said: ‘Too right I am!’ I walked away from him because it was winding me up, but it was because of how much it would have meant to the club.

“We would have gone on from there if we had got into the First Division but instead we ended up having to sell Mike Small and Budgie (John Byrne) and we went down at the end of the next season.”

Albion played a  benefit match for Chivers against Crystal Palace just before the start of the 1992-93 season and Chivers left the club in 1993, not because he wanted to, but because players on “decent money” had to go.

His enthusiasm for the club continues to this day, bantering with supporters in corporate hospitality and the Albion club website carried an article about the former defender’s divided loyalties when the Albion entertained Chelsea on New Year’s Day.

 

  • Pictures mainly from the club programme.

Wearside hero Gary Rowell blighted by injury after leaving Sunderland

gary rowell tony normanBRIGHTON fans never got to witness the best of prolific goalscorer Gary Rowell who, to this day, Sunderland fans eulogise in the same way Albion fans still sing about Peter Ward.

He died aged 68 on 13 December 2025, exactly 50 years to the day of his first appearance for the Black Cats following a long battle with leukaemia.

Rowell has a place in Sunderland’s best all time XI selection, in 2005 he topped a Football Focus poll as Sunderland’s all-time cult hero and, in 2020, was inducted into the SAFC Hall of Fame, which he described as ‘the best night of my life’.

There is a website that details every one of the 103 goals the Seaham-born footballer scored for the Wearsiders in 297 games after making his debut as a 71st minute substitute for Mel Holden in a 1-0 Sunderland win over Oxford United at Roker Park.

Unfortunately, the free-scoring striker-turned-midfielder was struck by a knee injury which hampered the latter part of his career, including his spells with Norwich City and the Seagulls.

Having left Sunderland on a free transfer after 12 years at the club, Rowell tore ligaments in his right knee on a pre-season tour of Scandinavia with Norwich before he even managed to kick a ball in anger.

In a year at Carrow Road, he made only six appearances – four as a substitute – and scored just the once, coming off the bench to net against Aston Villa. Typical of this spell between August 1984 and July 1985, he was substituted after only 16 minutes of his reserve team debut.

The following season, a £35,000 fee took him back to the North East to play for Middlesbrough, but, at the time, they were in the middle of a financial crisis and lost their second-tier status. Rowell top-scored with 10 goals in 27 appearances – two of them against the Albion at the Goldstone in January 1986 – but Boro were relegated in second-to-last spot (Brighton finished in 11th place that season).

Brighton were not exactly flush with cash themselves in the summer of 1986 when Alan Mullery, the manager who’d previously led them from third tier to the elite, returned to the club to replace Chris Cattlin.

Mullery found a very different set-up to the one he’d left acrimoniously in the summer of 1981. With little money available to be spent on new arrivals, hard-up Albion, not for the first time, had turned to the supporters in an effort to raise transfer funds.

Money from a scheme called the Lifeline fund went towards buying goalkeeper John Keeley for £1,500 from non-league Chelmsford, Darren Hughes for £30,000 from Shrewsbury Town, and Rowell from Middlesbrough on a free transfer (the Lifeline funds being used to help with his relocation to the South Coast).

Mullery explained the Rowell signing thus in his programme notes: “I see his role with us as coming forward from midfield and adding to our power in the box.

“We know he can get goals and he is a versatile player. When we further improve the squad, we may use him a little differently.”

Rowell , who discovered Mullery had tried to sign him back in 1979 (but Sunderland hadn’t informed him), joined just after the start of the season, in time to be given a place on the bench for the away 1-1 draw with his former club Sunderland. He went on for Kieran O’Regan with 18 minutes left.

He kept the bench warm for two more matches before getting his first start in place of Northern Irish centre-forward Gerry Armstrong in a 2-2 draw away to Plymouth Argyle on 13 September.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t long before Mullery was reporting his absence from the side because of an ankle injury sustained in training.

Nevertheless, interviewed by Tony Norman in the matchday programme, Rowell, who was 29 and married with two small children, said: “I’m delighted with the move. I’ve found it to be a very friendly club and people have gone out of their way to make us feel at home. Now I want to repay the club by playing well for the team.”

The longest run of games he got in an Albion shirt came in November and December 1986 when he took over from winger Steve Penney for six matches (two wins, two draws, two defeats).

rowell BW HS

A broken toe and a troublesome hamstring made him feel injury-jinxed but, during his run back in the side, he had what Mullery described as “his best game since joining us” in a 3-0 win over Shrewsbury Town on 21 December. Six days later, the toe went again, and he didn’t play for the rest of the season.

Mullery was then controversially dismissed the following month and Rowell had to wait until the start of the following season for successor Barry Lloyd to select him.

He featured in three pre-season friendlies, all of which ended in defeats and wore the no.4 shirt in the opening two fixtures of the 1987-88 season, but those were his only first-team starts that campaign. His midfield berth was taken over by the experienced Alan Curbishley.

By October, the matchday programme reported Rowell and fellow midfielder Dale Jasper had been placed on the transfer list following long discussions with Lloyd. Curiously, it added: “However, both players are keen to stay with the club, regardless of any offers made, and will be battling hard for first team places.”

Rowell subsequently appeared seven times as a substitute for the first team, but he was largely confined to the Reserves for whom he made 20 appearances and scored once. In February 1988, he moved to Dundee on trial, but, when not taken on, moved the following month to Carlisle United.

After just seven games for the Cumbrians, he finished his professional career at Burnley, where he scored once in 19 appearances.

Born in Sunderland on 6 June 1957, Rowell grew up in the mining village of Seaham, became an apprentice at Sunderland in 1972 and two years later turned professional.

In 1976, when Sunderland were struggling in the First Division, manager Jimmy Adamson gambled on the introduction of the 19-year-old Rowell: it paid off in spades as he scored 44 goals in two and a half seasons.

During that prolific spell, Rowell was in the squad for two end of season England Under 21 Championship preliminary matches; he went on for Laurie Cunningham in a 1-0 win over Finland in Helsinki on 26 May 1977 but wasn’t involved in a 2-1 win over Norway in Bergen six days later. This was an England side including future full internationals Peter Barnes and Peter Reid.

He was also a non-playing member of Dave Sexton’s squad that assembled at the Goldstone Ground three months later, but he had to watch as an over-age Peter Ward (22), playing on home turf, of course, scored a hat-trick in a 6-0 win over Norway. The aforementioned Curbishley was also a non-playing onlooker in that squad.

footballinprint.comUndoubtedly, the stand-out moment of Rowell’s Sunderland career came when he scored a hat-trick in a 4-1 win over arch rivals Newcastle United at St James’ Park, which he referred to in a profile article (see above).

In a vote for Sunderland’s best players of the 1970s, Rowell was described as “a lovely footballer. Though not blessed with blistering pace, he would ghost into goal-scoring positions and his finishing was deadly.” Rowell was an expert penalty taker, scoring 25 of 26 he took for Sunderland.

Some observers reckon but for injury he would surely have gone on to gain full England international honours. However, his career was severely disrupted by a serious knee injury sustained in a March 1979 game against Leyton Orient.

After a lengthy recovery, he resumed scoring goals regularly but there were doubts over his being able to maintain fitness for the duration of a whole season.

As part of a big team rebuilding exercise carried out by manager Len Ashurst in 1984, Rowell was allowed to move to Norwich.

After his playing days ended, Rowell became a financial consultant in Burnley and those loyal Sunderland supporters still got to hear their hero because, for a number of years, he was a commentator on Sunderland games for Metro Radio.

  • Pictures mainly from matchday programmes. Sunderland profile article: footballinprint.com.

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 23rd 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.

Former Gunner Raphael Meade a damp squib for the Seagulls

Meade best

ISLINGTON-born Raphael Meade joined Arsenal as a schoolboy and made it through the ranks to play more than 50 times for the Gunners.

A rather eclectic career saw him play in Portugal, Spain, Scotland, Denmark, Hong Kong and back in England.

Brighton boss Barry Lloyd had something of a penchant for picking up players from these shores who’d rather lost their way playing abroad and, while forwards Mike Small and John Byrne would count as great successes of that genre, Meade was largely a disappointment.

He played 40 times and scored 12 goals in the 1991-92 season, but the Albion were relegated to the third tier, so it was memorable for all the wrong reasons.

Born on 22 November 1962, Meade was on the Gunners’ books from June 1977 to the summer of 1985.

The superb thegoldstonewrap.com unearthed the Arsenal annual for 1981 in its research; it said of the young Meade: “He’s got a hell of a lot of pace and is fantastically brave in the box. He’s got all the makings of a top player. However, he’s another one who has got to work on his control like Brian McDermott with tighter controls and lay-offs. But with his type of pace he will always be a threat.”

The reality was that with the likes of initially Alan Sunderland and John Hawley ahead of him in the pecking order, then Tony Woodcock and Lee Chapman, followed by the arrival of Charlie Nicholas and former Ipswich striker Paul Mariner, his first team chances at Highbury were restricted.

While he was prolific in the Reserves (24 goals in 27 league games in 1983-84), his first team appearances over four years were somewhat sporadic.

Manager Terry Neill handed him his debut in a 3-0 UEFA Cup away win against Panathinaikos on 16 September 1981 and he scored a spectacular goal with his very first kick! His league debut came a month later – and he scored again, netting the only goal in a 1-0 win at home to Manchester City. The 1981-82 season saw the majority of his first team involvement: he played a total of 22 games, scoring five times.

A cartilage injury sidelined him for a large part of the 1982-83 season but when he did return in February 1983 he scored twice against Brighton in a 3-1 win.

CN + RM braces v SpursThe following season, Meade scored a hat-trick in the 3-1 win over Watford, which began Don Howe’s tenure as Arsenal manager, and he also earned a special place in Gunners’ fans hearts when scoring twice (pictured celebrating above with Charlie Nicholas, who also got two) in Arsenal’s 4-2 victory over arch-rivals Spurs on Boxing Day 1983.

Unfortunately, they were sporadic highlights and, in the summer of 1985, he was sold to Sporting Lisbon.

“Sporting Lisbon provided me with a great experience. I really enjoyed myself because the climate was great and, as well as finishing third in the league one season, we also reached the quarter finals of the UEFA Cup,” Meade said in a Shoot/Goal article.

He said it was the arrival of former Spurs boss Keith Burkinshaw that precipitated the end of his time in Portugal because he wanted him to play in an unfamiliar right midfield role.

Thus he was loaned to Spanish side Real Betis towards the end of his three-year contract, and, on his return, was transferred to Dundee United where he made 16 starts, plus six substitute appearances, scoring seven goals.

However, United boss Jim McLean made public his dissatisfaction with the striker and questioned his fitness. Meade hit back saying he was fit but being played out of position on the wing.

Subsequently a shoulder injury saw him sidelined and unable to regain his place and he joined a struggling Luton Town side for a £250,000 fee.

luton moveBut after only four games for the Hatters he was on his way again, this time to Odense BK in Denmark.

During two years on their books, he had loan spells back in the UK, playing once for Ipswich Town and five times for Plymouth Argyle.

As the 1991-92 season got under way, cash-strapped Brighton were forced to sell the previous season’s successful strike duo of Small (to West Ham) and Byrne (to Sunderland).

Byrne’s departure didn’t happen until October, and it was while playing alongside the popular Republic of Ireland international that Meade scored his first goal for the Seagulls, in a 3-1 home win over Port Vale.

He had found himself in the right place at the right time in only the fourth game of the season when an injury sidelined Bryan Wade, who had started the first three games alongside Byrne. smart Meade

Lloyd had watched the former Arsenal striker score in a 2-0 win for the reserves against Fulham and pitched him in against Wolves – a 3-3 thriller in which Mark Barham, Gary O’Reilly and John Robinson netted for the Albion.

“Ideally, I needed one or two games to get match fit but it was great to get the chance in the first team and I wasn’t going to waste it,” said Meade.

Meade in action with another former Gunner, and ex-Albion defender, Steve Gatting (in Charlton’s colours), and a man of the match award for a brace against Grimsby Town.

After Byrne’s departure to the north east, there was seldom a regular strike partner for Meade. The busy and bustling Mark Gall, signed from non-league Maidstone United for £45,000, managed 14 goals but was some way short of Byrne or Small’s quality. And another of Lloyd’s overseas ‘finds’- Mark Farrington from Feyenoord – was an almighty flop.

Meade cover boy

Meade popped up with the occasional goal and one of those rare glimmers of light in an otherwise dark season came in a game I went to see at Vicarage Road on 31 March 1992.

Although Albion were ultimately headed back to Division 3, a brief respite from that tumble came against the Hornets courtesy of a howler by David ‘Calamity’ James in their goal. James came to the edge of his area to collect a routine-looking through ball, spilled it rather than gathering it cleanly and Meade was on hand to pick up the loose ball, round the stranded ‘keeper and slot what turned out to be the only goal of the game.

Meade scored twice more before the season’s end but Albion lost four of the final six games and were relegated along with Port Vale and Plymouth. Meade elected to leave the club and head for Hong Kong.

After a season with Sea Bee, he returned to England and rejoined Brighton but only featured in three games. He moved on to Crawley Town in 1995-96, where he ended his playing days.

Pictures from various sources including the matchday programme, Shoot/Goal, and online.

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

MouldyWORLD 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 CityHe 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.”

SOCCER
PAUL MOULDEN – OLDHAM ATHLETIC

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.

Winger Walker a genuine crowd-pleasing entertainer

CW Nobo 91 progIN MY OPINION, one of the best wingers ever to pull on the famous blue and white stripes was Clive Walker, an evergreen player who remarkably played more than 1,000 games for eight clubs.

Although well into his 30s when he arrived at the Goldstone Ground, the balding former Chelsea and Fulham wideman was an effervescent talent with the ball at his feet.

Asked by the Argus to preview the squad ahead of the 1991 Division Two play-off final at Wembley, Brighton coach Martin Hinshelwood said of him: “Alias Phil Collins. A great character. The dressing room buzzes when he is around. He is good on the ball, a great crosser and has scored some great goals this season.”

Both Albion’s wingers for that game had Wembley experience behind them having been on opposing sides in in the 1985 League Cup Final.

Walker had missed a penalty for Sunderland as Mark Barham’s Norwich City won 1-0 and six years later, against Neil Warnock’s Notts County, Walker’s bad luck continued when a Wembley post denied him as Brighton’s dream of promotion ended in a 3-1 defeat.

Both had played big parts in Albion reaching Wembley, though: Barham levelled for the Seagulls in the first leg of the semi-final at home to Millwall and Walker got the third when the Seagulls upturned the form book and beat Bruce Rioch’s side 4-1.

Born on 26 May 1957 in Oxford, Walker joined Chelsea in 1973, made his league debut in a 1-0 defeat away to Burnley on 23 April 1977 and was a first team squad regular between December 1977 and the summer of 1984, although, in 1979, Chelsea loaned Walker to Fort Lauderdale Strikers (as pictured below) where he scored nine goals in 22 appearances.

CW Fort Laud

“Those were exciting, lively times and we loved our football. We were a bunch of young lads growing up together and, in my last couple of years there, I played with the likes of Kerry Dixon for the side who brought good times back on the pitch,” Walker told Mike Walters of the Mirror. “We were a close-knit bunch with a great sense of camaraderie, and a lot of teams these days would probably envy us in that regard.”

A fast winger with the knack of scoring stunning goals, Walker netted 17 in 1981-1982 and the next season, with Chelsea looking set to be relegated to Division Three, fans still remember how he scored the winner at Bolton Wanderers to maintain their status.

Details of many of his memorable moments at Chelsea are highlighted by the Sporting Heroes website.

And a Chelsea fans’ blog, Game of the People emphasised the impact he had at Stamford Bridge, pointing out: “He was left-footed, as quick as a sprinter and awkward to knock off the ball. And he could shoot! Those that liked wingers were excited by his willingness to run between players and take a pot shot at goal. Put simply, he was exciting to watch.”

In what is an otherwise interesting and informative piece about Walker in 2014, they unfortunately failed to mention his successful stint with the Seagulls.

Although he began the 1983-84 season well, he sustained a broken jaw which put him out for several weeks and, during his absence, another nippy winger – Pat Nevin – seized the opportunity to claim a first-team spot and Walker’s Stamford Bridge days were numbered.

3-2 N v Sun CWalker

Come the end of the season, he was allowed to join Sunderland (above in action v Newcastle) for a fee of £70,000. “He returned to torment Chelsea in the Football League Cup semi-final second leg, scoring twice in what was a dreadful night for the club,” Game of the People observed. “Walker was abused from the stands, too, which was especially heartbreaking for those that appreciated his efforts at the Bridge.”

After two years in the north-east, Walker returned to London in September 1985, initially via a £75,000 move to Jim Smith’s First Division (Premier League equivalent) QPR, where he played 28 games in the 1986-87 season, alongside the likes of David Seaman, Michael Robinson and John Byrne. Just 20 months later, he left on a free transfer to Third Division Fulham for whom he made 127 appearances in three years, scoring 32 goals.

His debut was certainly memorable as he scored twice in a 3-1 home win over York City. Writer Ian McCulloch remembered the occasion in an article on fulhamfc.com.

“Fulham were in the doldrums, on the brink of extinction, owned by property developers, and going nowhere fast. And then, in the midst of all the doom and gloom, appeared one of football’s all-time, genuine crowd-pleasing entertainers. Walker ran the show that night, scored twice, and generally lifted both the fans and the team.”

Walker recalled: “That game really does stand out. And in the pouring rain as well! To score two goals on your debut is very special, and I just look back at it as a fabulous memory. Very, very enjoyable.”

Walker explained that it was Ray Lewington who took him to Craven Cottage, adding: “I had a great rapport with him – of course we were both apprentices at Chelsea – and we’re still good friends today. But then other managers came in, and you couldn’t escape the feeling that the club was going backwards and that was very, very sad because I had a lovely time at Fulham and I’ve got some very fond memories of those years. I loved playing at the Cottage and on the Cottage pitch.”

Walker picked up Fulham’s 1989-90 Player of the Year award before former Fulham captain Barry Lloyd went back to his old club to secure Walker’s services for the Seagulls in the summer of 1990. Even though he was the wrong side of 30, he pulled on the no.11 shirt on his debut away to Barnsley (in a side containing his old Chelsea teammate Gary Chivers in defence) and missed only one game all season as Albion nearly made it back to the elite level.

After that Wembley disappointment and only three games into the new season, Walker suffered another blow when he sustained a serious knee ligament injury away to Barnsley which sidelined him for several weeks.

With the previous season’s goalscoring duo Mike Small and John Byrne having been sold for big money, the side struggled, and eventually ended up being relegated.

Emerging young winger John Robinson had slotted into Walker’s place in the side during his absence although it was Barham who was the odd man out when Walker was fit to return to the line-up.

Back in the third tier the following season, although the return of Steve Foster in defence was a plus point, off the field the rumblings of financial meltdown grew louder and louder. Young Robinson was sold to Charlton Athletic and only the proceeds of the sale of goalkeeper Mark Beeney to Leeds United kept the taxman at bay when there was a winding-up order threat hanging over the club.

Three cup games against Manchester United were rare highlights in that precarious season and one of my favourite Walker moments came at Old Trafford in a League Cup replay on 7 October 1992.

Having managed a 1-1 draw against United in the first game, Albion gave United quite a scare in the replay, largely through Walker giving England full-back Paul Parker a torrid time. I watched the game sat amongst United supporters and they were full of praise for the veteran winger, albeit that United edged it 1-0.

Walker’s final appearance in an Albion shirt came on 24 April 1993 when he came on as a substitute for Matthew Edwards in a 2-1 home defeat to Rotherham United. Alas, as he recounted in an interview with Spencer Vignes for the matchday programme, his time with the Albion came to a sour end.

Together with Chivers and Perry Digweed he was let go by Lloyd apparently because he said as the highest earners the club could no longer afford them. He was unceremoniously ushered out of the door with his boots in a bin bag. “That was the thank-you we got from Brighton,” he said.

When most players would be considering hanging up their boots, at the age of 36, Walker left Brighton and moved into non-league with Woking where he scored 91 goals in 210 games.

A poster called NewAdventuresinWiFi, on Sunderland’s readytogo.net fans website, recalled watching Walker play for Woking, and said: “Walker was an absolute class act when he fancied it. He was instrumental in the cup run of 96-97 when Millwall and Cambridge were dispatched and Premiership Coventry given an almighty fright.

“Also remember a Conference game against Altrincham when we put seven past them and Walker was unplayable that day…to the point the opposition full back ended up getting a straight red for a frustrated desperate two footed ‘challenge’ he attempted on Clive after yet another glorious attacking run.”

Another poster, JumpingAnaconda, remembered: “I saw him playing for Woking in a minor cup final at Vicarage Road, in the season where he won a few big games for them in their FA Cup run. He was 40 years old and he was absolutely quality, up and down the line all night. That season there was some talk of Premiership sides looking at him to come in to do a job for them. His level of fitness was incredible. He ran around like a 20-year-old. He was probably the closest we would get to another Stanley Matthews in the Premiership era in terms of a winger that kept his pace, creativity, ability to beat a man and make crosses into his 40s.”

From Woking, he had a spell as the assistant manager at Brentford under Eddie May but then went back to playing, at Cheltenham Town. Finally, after winning the FA Trophy and the League, he retired at the grand old age of 43, although he continued to turn out for Chelsea Veterans teams.
He had a brief excursion into management with Molesey but a career in the media took off and he became a regular and well-known voice with BBC London, and for Sky TV’s coverage of Conference football.

CW on Chels TVWalker has also worked for Talksport and appears regularly with former Chelsea and Spurs player Jason Cundy on Chelsea TV and radio (as above).

Pictures from a variety of sources but mainly the Albion matchday programme.

Eagles’ Cup Final scorer Gary O’Reilly had two Seagulls spells

GARY O’REILLY was one of those rare players who had two different spells with Brighton – and played for rivals Crystal Palace in between.

Indeed, his career highlight came when he played – and scored – in the 1990 FA Cup Final for Crystal Palace against Manchester United.

It was from Phil Barber’s free-kick on the right that O’Reilly put Palace ahead after 18 minutes, his header looping over goalkeeper Jim Leighton.

United recovered to lead 2-1 before Ian Wright, only six weeks after breaking his leg, came on to score twice, in the 72nd minute and again at the start of extra-time. But Mark Hughes got an equaliser for United seven minutes from the end of extra-time, and, just as they had against Brighton in 1983, United went on to win the replay.

Born in Isleworth on 21 March 1961, O’Reilly started to make a name for himself with the Essex Boys team and, as a schoolboy, played for both England and the Republic of Ireland because his father was from Dublin and his mother English.

Arsenal wanted him on associate schoolboy forms, but it was Spurs who snapped him up at the age of 13. His youth team-mates at White Hart Lane included Kerry Dixon and Mick Hazard.

O’Reilly also had the offer of a sports scholarship at Columbia University before signing for Spurs as a professional. Among a total of 45 first-team appearances in five seasons at Tottenham were games in the Charity Shield at Wembley against Liverpool and a quarter-final victory in the UEFA Cup over German giants Bayern Munich.

Ironically it was the arrival of Gary Stevens from Albion shortly after the 1983 FA Cup Final that began to signal the end of his time at White Hart Lane, together with the emergence of Danny Thomas.

Screenshot

Even though he still had two years of his contract remaining, O’Reilly requested a transfer and, in August 1984, he became part of Chris Cattlin’s Albion squad after signing for a fee of £45,000.

Cattlin recalled: “I watched him eight times before signing him, and six times with Tottenham Reserves he had stinkers. But I thought then he had great potential.”

O’Reilly made his debut at right-back in a notorious home game against Notts County which saw centre-backs Jeff Clarke and Eric Young both hospitalised after clashes with County’s Justin Fashanu, meaning the new arrival hastily shifting into his more familiar position in the centre.

In what was an eventful first few weeks, he also joined that illustrious list of players to score a winning goal AGAINST Palace. That came on 15 September 1984 when 15,044 at the Goldstone Ground saw O’Reilly score the only goal of the game.

His centre-back partner that day – and for most of his time at the Goldstone – was Young, who also later joined the Eagles, having left Brighton for Wimbledon.

O’Reilly made 79 appearances in three seasons with Albion, scoring three goals, and was virtually an ever-present for the first two seasons.

GO'R by the pierOff the field, he became a popular figure with a social conscience, leading a campaign to help youngsters fight drug addiction and becoming president of the Junior Seagulls.

Unfortunately, injuries, including a worrying hamstring condition, restricted him to just eight games in the ill-fated 1986-87 season.

Then, on 3 January 1987, manager Alan Mullery reluctantly sold him to Palace for £40,000. Mullery later recounted: “I remember Gary O”Reilly coming in the day before we were going up to Grimsby. I asked him: ‘Do you want your wages next month?’ He thought it was some kind of quiz question, but I said ‘If you do, you are going to have to leave the club’. That’s how bad it was. We couldn’t afford the wages.” Albion won 2-1 at Grimsby but two days later, Mullery was gone himself – his second spell as manager ending in a sacking.

O’Reilly played 70 times in his first four seasons at Selhurst Park but he did not figure in Steve Coppell’s plans in the 1990-91 season and had just one game on loan with Birmingham City.

At the age of 30, the versatile defender returned to the Seagulls and was given a two-year contract by Barry Lloyd.

“There’s no substitute for first-team football,” he said. “There is nothing like playing regularly to give a player the right degree of confidence.”

Although he made 31 appearances in the 1991-92 season, he was unable to prevent Albion’s relegation back to the third tier and, after a series of unsuccessful knee operations, he was forced to retire from the game in April 1993.

After hanging up his boots, he embarked on a successful broadcasting career for Sky Sports, BBC, ART Prime in Dubai and Trans World International’s Premier League international feed.

On Twitter, with the handle @mythreeleftfeet, he describes himself as “global TV presenter, co commentator, ex professional football player all round sports broadcaster, writer, amateur photographer & someone you might just like…”

worldsoccertalk.com caught up with him in May 2017 to discuss a new venture in which O’Reilly is joint host (alongside stand-up comedian Chuck Nice) of a weekly podcast in America Playing With Science, which explores fascinating topics linking sport and science.

Phoenix O'R w Pompey's Biley

Pictures mainly from the matchday programme.

Above, defending against Portsmouth’s Alan Biley, who later played alongside him.

Elite career eluded Darren Hughes after cup-winning start

HughesDARREN Hughes won the FA Youth Cup with Everton but it was lower down the league where he built a long career which included a season with second tier Brighton & Hove Albion.

Born in Prescot on Merseyside on 6 October 1965, left-back Hughes played for Everton in two successive FA Youth Cup finals.

He was on the losing side against Norwich City in 1983 (when among his Everton teammates was centre forward Mark Farrington, who later proved to be a disastrous signing for Barry Lloyd’s Brighton).

The tie went to a third game after it was 5-5 on aggregate over the first two legs. The Canaries won the decider 1-0 at Goodison Park. The following year, Hughes was a scorer, and collected a winners’ medal, as Everton beat Stoke City 4-2 on aggregate.

Meanwhile, the young Hughes had broken into Everton’s first team as an understudy to stalwart John Bailey, making his Everton debut two days after Christmas in 1983.

Unfortunately, the game ended in a 3-0 defeat away to Wolverhampton Wanderers, for whom former Albion winger Tony Towner was playing.

It wasn’t until May 1985 that Hughes next got a first team opportunity, featuring in a 4-1 defeat to Coventry City at Highfield Road and a 2-0 defeat to Luton Town – manager Howard Kendall resting some of the first-choice players after the League title had already been won and ahead of the European Cup Winners’ Cup Final against Rapid Vienna.

With the experienced Bailey and Pat Van Den Hauwe in front of Hughes in the pecking order, Kendall gave the youngster a free transfer at the end of the season, and he joined Second Division Shrewsbury Town, where he made 46 appearances.

Hughes played against Albion for Shrewsbury at Gay Meadow on 16 September 1986, and, two weeks’ later, Alan Mullery, back in charge of the Seagulls for a second spell, signed the 21-year-old for a £30,000 fee.

D Hughes blue

Not for the first time, hard-up Albion had devised a scheme to raise transfer funds from supporters, and the money for the purchase of Hughes came from the Lifeline fund which also helped Mullery to buy goalkeeper John Keeley for £1,500 from non-league Chelmsford and striker Gary Rowell, from Middlesbrough.

Hughes made his Albion debut in a 3-0 defeat at home to Birmingham in the Full Members Cup on 1 October 1986 and his first league match came in a 1—0 home win over Stoke City three days later.

“I was quite happy at Shrewsbury,” Hughes told matchday programme interviewer, Tony Norman. “But when the manager told me Brighton were interested in signing me I thought it would be another step up the ladder. It’s a bigger club with better prospects and it’s a nice town as well.”

The single lad, whose parents were living in Widnes, moved into digs in Hove run by Val and Dave Tillson. He was later joined there by Kevan Brown, another new signing, from Southampton.

Hughes said away from football he enjoyed golf and had played rounds with Steve Penney, Dean Saunders and Steve Gatting.

Brown, in a similar programme feature, said Hughes had been a big help in him settling into his new surroundings. “He has been showing me around the area and we’ve become good friends,” he said. “I’m glad I wasn’t put in a hotel on my own.”

Unfortunately for Hughes, life on the pitch didn’t go quite according to plan.

Mullery was somewhat controversially sacked on 5 January 1987 and, although Hughes played 16 games under successor Lloyd, those games yielded only two wins and the Albion finished the season rock bottom of the division.

The only consolation for Hughes was scoring in a 2-0 home win over Crystal Palace on 20 April. His final appearance in a Seagulls shirt came in a 1-0 home defeat to Leeds when he was subbed off in favour of youngster David Gipp.

Having played only 29 games, mostly in midfield, for Brighton, Hughes joined Third Division Port Vale in September 1987, initially on loan, before a £5,000 fee made the deal permanent.

It must have given him some satisfaction to score for his new employer in a 2-0 win against Brighton that very same month.

Hughes spent seven years with the Valiants, helping them to win promotion from the Third Division in 1989, making a total of 222 appearances, mainly as a left back.

His time with Vale was punctuated by two bad injuries – a hernia and a ruptured thigh muscle – and they released him in February 1994.

However, he gradually managed to restore his fitness and in 1995, between January and November, he played 22 games for Third Division Northampton Town.

He then moved to Exeter City, at the time managed by former goalkeeper Peter Fox, where he made a total of 67 appearances before leaving the West Country club at the end of the 1996-97 season.

He ended his career in non-league football with Morecambe and Newcastle Town but could look back on a total of 388 league and cup appearances for six clubs over a 14-year career.

After his playing days were over, according to Where Are They Now? he set up a construction business.

D hughes by tony gordon

Pictures: matchday programme.

Irish international pals brought wing wonder Steve Penney to Brighton

BRIGHTON & Hove Albion can thank former Middlesbrough goalkeeper Jim Platt for landing one of the most exciting players ever to play for the Seagulls.

Platt was the Teesside club’s man between the sticks for 12 years. During his call-ups on international duty with Northern Ireland, he struck up a friendship with Arsenal defender Sammy Nelson, who joined Brighton towards the end of his career.

When Platt took over as manager of Ballymena United, he quickly recognised that a talented teenage winger at his disposal –  Steve Penney – could make a career for himself in England.

Platt tipped the wink to his old pal Nelson, newly-appointed as Albon’s assistant manager to Chris Cattlin at the time, and the youngster was invited for a trial.

Penney was put up in a house near the Goldstone recently vacated by the sacked Jimmy Melia. His housemate was another young triallist: Ian Wright! Penney was taken on while Wright was released. Whatever happened to him?!

Penney’s Albion story is told in fine detail by journalist Spencer Vignes who devotes 12 pages of his excellent book A Few Good Men (Breedon Books) to a player who, for the record, played 148 games (plus 14 as sub) in eight years with Brighton.

Unfortunately, that rather low figure tells its own story, a succession of injuries robbing him of probably twice as many games as you might have expected him to have played over that length of time.

“He was, in short, a breath of fresh air, a flying winger whose close control and devastating pace left opponents and spectators alike lost for words,” said Vignes.

Among former teammates who voiced their appreciation of Penney, full back Graham Pearce told Vignes: “I always thought of Steve as a bright young winger, very naturally talented, who had all the attributes you need in that position, especially pace.”

Born in Ballymena on 6 January 1964, the son of a teacher and a nurse, although he played football at primary school, he went to what he described himself as “a fairly posh grammar school” where rugby was the preferred sport for boys, and he was a scrum half.

He got the chance to play football in the Boys Brigade, where Nigel Worthington, who later managed Northern Ireland, also played.

“I had to choose between rugby and football and when I decided to join Ballymena United, the school were so furious they suspended me,” he told interviewer Dave Beckett in a matchday programme feature.

“Playing for my home town was excellent, although I had the chance to join Linfield who were one of the best teams in the country.

“I guested for them in Holland a couple of times so I knew they were interested and that’s where I expect I’d have ended up if I hadn’t moved abroad.”

Instead, Platt alerted Nelson and, bearing in mind Albion’s high profile having only recently played against Manchester United in the Cup Final, Penney didn’t take much persuading.

Beckett recounted: “Penney, at 19 years old, made his debut in a 3-1 defeat by Barnsley but was soon a hot favourite on the terraces. Even in his opening match he set up the goal goal for Alan Young, and John Vinicombe wrote in the Evening Argus: ‘The eye for an opening that Penney unquestionably has will serve Albion well. The Goldstone are going to like him’.”

It wasn’t long before he was playing to a much bigger gallery when he was part of the Albion side who toppled Liverpool in the FA Cup (for the second season running), winning 2-0 in front of a live television audience.

Penney tormented the experienced Liverpool left-back Alan Kennedy and his perfectly-flighted pass over the top of the Liverpool defence played in Terry Connor to score the decisive second goal.

His first goal came in a 3-0 win at Derby County in March 1984 and such was his impact in that first season that he was voted runner-up to Jimmy Case as player of the season.

Away from football, Penney was a decent golfer, his regular companions on the golf course being Dean Saunders, Chris Hutchings, Steve Gatting and former Albion favourite Peter O’Sullivan.

During the winter, he loved nothing more than playing snooker at a club in Hove, especially taking on Saunders and competing for a trophy awarded each week to the winner.

So, life was sweet for the young Irishman and it got even better when his form with Brighton led to full international honours.

SP w Irish shirt

At the time of writing, he remains the highest-capped Albion player, all of his 17 caps for Northern Ireland being won while with the Seagulls.

After making his debut on 16 October 1984 in a 3-0 friendly win over Israel in Belfast, he was a regular for four years, playing his last game on 21 December 1988 in a 4-0 defeat to Spain in a World Cup qualifying match. He scored twice for his country, in a 1-1 draw with Israel on 18 February 1987 and in a 3-0 win over Malta on 21 May 1988.

The highlight of his international career was playing for Northern Ireland at the 1986 Mexico World Cup.

“The whole experience of going to the World Cup was something I’ll never forget,” he said three months later, in a matchday programme interview.

“Six weeks away from home is a long time, but the spirit in the squad was very good and I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.”

Steve had been in the side that qualified for that World Cup by drawing 0-0 against England at Wembley. “We only needed a draw to get to Mexico and we got it,” he said.

“(Manager) Billy Bingham had been a right winger and obviously appreciated what I could do, which was a source of great strength to me. He’d been part of the team that had played in the World Cup in Sweden in 1958, a lovely man who was very good at getting the best out of his players and encouraged me no end, something I’ll always be grateful to him for.”

Unfortunately, Steve’s World Cup came to a juddering halt after Spain’s hard man Emilio Butragueno went over the top in a tackle and did his ankle in only the second group game.

On his return to Brighton, Penney found himself sufficiently impressed by Cattlin’s successor, Alan Mullery, that he was persuaded to sign a new, three-year contract.

However, it wasn’t long afterwards that Penney started having problems with his left knee and, although he played through the pain barrier, in a game against Derby County in March 1987 a bad tackle damaged his ankle ligaments, sidelining him for the rest of the season.

Barry Lloyd had succeeded Mullery and Penney was in the team at the start of the next season but, after only two games, found himself back on the treatment table after a chip of bone was found floating in a knee.

That kept him out for an agonising seven months before he was able to return to the side in March 1988 to play a crucial part in the final 11 games, scoring three times as the Seagulls earned promotion in second place behind Sunderland.

Penney told Vignes: “At that time, playing for Barry was great. The two of us were getting on even though I always thought there was something not quite right between us. To be honest, he had to play me because I strengthened the team and made a difference.”

Halfway through the 1988-89 season, Crystal Palace tried to sign Penney but weren’t prepared to meet Albion’s £175,000 asking price. And then his left knee went again.

Vignes tells the whole gory story in detail, which I won’t repeat here, but, suffice to say, the wrong treatment by one doctor had to be put right by a Harley Street expert.

Penney rowManager Lloyd and Penney also fell out, principally over Penney putting country before club. “He’d play for them, then come back injured. That didn’t please me,” said Lloyd. “It was a crying shame. He just wanted to play but was so plagued with injuries it was beyond belief.”

The split came in 1991 when Lloyd clearly thought the player’s level of fitness didn’t merit a new contract. Interest was shown in him by Heart of Midlothian, managed by Joe Jordan, and Charlton Athletic, where the joint manager was his ex-Albion teammate Alan Curbishley.

Having played a couple of trial games for Hearts, he plumped for them but suffered a groin strain early on and only played 14 games all season.

A 15th game would have triggered the award of another one-year deal – and it quickly became apparent that it wasn’t going to happen. Freed at the end of the season, he signed for Burnley, newly-promoted from the old Fourth Division, in August 1992. Continue reading “Irish international pals brought wing wonder Steve Penney to Brighton” →