STEVE SIDWELL was not a recognised goalscorer but when he did find the back of the net it was often memorable and headline-making.
Such was his most talked about goal for Brighton – hit from the centre circle away to Bristol City in a Championship match on Bonfire Night in 2016.
Eight years earlier, he stunned Goodison Park by rifling home from 25 yards after only 31 seconds of Aston Villa’s 7 December Premier League visit to Everton.
I was at Ashton Gate to see Sidwell’s amazing 50-yard lob over stranded Robins’ ‘keeper Richard O’Donnell (Jamie Murphy added a second in promotion-chasing Albion’s 2-0 win).
Manager Chris Hughton said: “It was a wonderful strike by Sidwell on his left foot when I would have expected it more from his right. It caught everyone by surprise, including their goalkeeper.”
I was also at the City Ground, Nottingham, seven months earlier when Sidwell went on as an 85th-minute sub and scored the winner (below) in the 91st minute to earn a 2-1 victory over Forest.
With his right foot this time, he drilled the ball in from 12 yards giving Albion a fourth win in five games which extended their unbeaten run to nine games.
“We felt that the game was becoming open and we felt we could bring players off the bench who could influence the game,” said Hughton. “One thing about Steve Sidwell is that he can break forward from midfield. I did not bring him on for that, but I am very glad he did it.”
Back to that game for Villa in 2008; moments after kick-off, Everton’s Mikel Arteta lost possession to Ashley Young. He fed James Milner who in turn found Sidwell. Finding himself with a sight at goal from 25 yards, he buried a stunning shot past Tim Howard. In an extraordinary end to the game, Young, who had scored Villa’s second, got a 94th-minute winner for the visitors after Joleon Lescott thought he’d salvaged a point in the 93rd minute, netting his second of the game.
That opener at Goodison was a rare highlight for Sidwell in what overall was an unhappy two and a half years at Villa.
Sidwell had first caught Villa boss Martin O’Neill’s eye when he scored twice for Reading in a 2-0 home victory over Villa in February 2007.
O’Neill tried to land him before he opted to join Chelsea (the team he’d supported as a boy) and, by all accounts, predecessor David O’Leary had also tried to sign him.
So, it appeared to be a case of third time lucky when in July 2008 O’Neill took him for a reported £5million fee from being a Chelsea benchwarmer and gave him a three-year contract.
After success at Reading, where he had been reunited with Steve Coppell (who’d had him on loan at Brentford and Brighton as a young Arsenal player, as covered in my 2017 blog post), Sidwell had a disappointing season at Stamford Bridge, where he made just seven Premier League starts.
Managerial change didn’t help his cause: he’d been signed by Jose Mourinho who left early in the season to be replaced by Avram Grant.
Sidwell later admitted: “I left for Aston Villa in search of regular football. 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.”
At the time, Sidwell told Villa’s official website: “For me personally, it’s about getting back and playing. I have had a year of not playing as much as I would have liked so to get out on the pitch is the first aim.”
Although he played in both legs of the InterToto Cup tie against Odense in July, knee and calf problems delayed his league debut until the end of October which he marked with a goal after going on as a late substitute in a 4-0 win at Wigan Athletic. That and the strike at Everton were two of four league and cup goals he scored for Villa that season when his 25 appearances (20 starts + five as sub) would ultimately amount to nearly half the total he made for the club: 37 starts + 27 as sub.
He didn’t add any more goals in the claret and blue and in the remainder of his time at Villa Park he was never really a regular, eg in 2009-10 only 14 of 33 appearances were as a starter and in 2010-11, three of six under Gérard Houllier.
Although he and O’Neill clashed on occasion, the Northern Irishman did say: “I’ve been very happy with him. It’s just that other players playing in positions all over the place have been playing brilliantly. Some people are playing out of their skin at this minute in our team. But I’ve been very pleased since he’s arrived at the football club.”
Sidwell’s former Reading teammate Nicky Shorey, who’d joined him at Villa Park, had high expectations of him ahead of his second season, telling the Birmingham Mail: “I don’t think Villa have seen the best of him yet. It’s been a strange season for Siddy. He’s been out injured for long periods and he’s picked up niggles here and there. I don’t think he’s ever had that before.
“For as long as I’ve known him, he’s never really been injured, so I think that’s something new for Siddy to try and learn from.”
Shorey said Sidwell had remained positive and upbeat around Bodymoor Heath and Villa Park and reckoned: “When he comes back for pre-season and hopefully has a good pre-season you’ll see the best of him and I think everyone will be impressed with how well he can do.
“When you know Siddy, that’s all he ever does – trains and plays with a smile. You haven’t got any worries with him on that count. He just keeps going and he’ll be fine. He’s just an all-round good midfielder and I’m sure he’ll show that before too long.”
Sidwell found himself competing for a midfield place with the likes of Milner (before his move to Manchester City), Gareth Barry, Stiliyan Petrov, Nigel Reo-Coker and Craig Gardner. He revealed later that he’d fallen out with O’Neill and at one point he went on the transfer list.
After O’Neill quit in protest at the sale of Milner to City, and ahead of Houllier’s appointment, Sidwell hoped to be given a new lease of life in claret and blue.
He overcame an Achilles’ problem and declared himself raring to go after playing 90 minutes in a 4-0 reserve team win over Blackpool at Bodymoor Heath.
“I feel I’ve shown glimpses,” he told the Birmingham Mail. “In the previous years, there have been good games and some poor games.
“If I get a run of games, I am sure I can perform to the best of my ability. Hopefully, now, whoever takes charge I will just get an opportunity and I will take it.
“It is going to be tough but it is down to individuals to perform in training, perform in reserve games and show the manager you are worthy of a start.
“Once you get that, you have to take it with both hands. Fitness wise, I’ve been training really well and looking sharp. It is just games that I need. I wasn’t unfit before the injury took place.”
When the Mail spoke to him ahead of a second city derby at the end of October 2010, Sidwell sought to exploit a two-month injury absence for Petrov saying: “It is all about opinions.
You don’t play under certain managers. Under certain managers you do get a chance.
“Once you get a chance it is about taking it and staying in the team.”
Sidwell started the game but was replaced by young Barry Bannan in the 58th minute of the dour goalless draw – and it turned out to be his last game for Villa (he was an unused sub away to Fulham the following week).
It was in a 2018 interview with Donald McRae of The Guardian that Sidwell revealed the extent of his disillusionment at Villa, telling the journalist: “When I was at Aston Villa I was on the most money in my career. But that was when I was at my unhappiest. I was living in Birmingham away from my wife and family.
“My middle son caught meningitis and was in hospital. The football never really took off and me and Martin O’Neill clashed. So, it was a combination of things.”
Released on a free transfer in January 2011, after being deemed surplus to requirements by Houllier, Sidwell joined Fulham – which is a story for another blog post.
After three years with the Cottagers, he followed ex-Fulham boss Mark Hughes to Stoke City and it was from there that he made his initial return to Brighton, on a half-season loan.
In clinching his signing in January 2016, Hughton told the Albion website: “Steve is an experienced player who has played virtually his entire career in the Premier League. He knows this club, as well as a few of the squad and will supplement our existing midfield options.
“Beram Kayal, Dale Stephens, Andrew Crofts and others have been excellent in midfield for us this season, but we also need to make sure we have good options in every position of the team, and options which will be enough for us through until the end of the season.
“Steve brings that, and in addition, he is another experienced head; he is a player who’s proven at the very top level of English football. Brighton fans will know Steve is also a great athlete and top professional.”
Although he only made six starts, Sidwell went on as a sub 13 times in that half-season. When Albion had to endure the end-of-season play-offs after missing out on automatic promotion by only drawing (1-1) the last game of the season at Middlesbrough, it was Sidwell who stepped in to fill the boots of Stephens, who was suspended after his controversial sending off by Mike Dean at the Riverside Stadium.
Unfortunately, Sidwell was one of four Albion players who had to go off injured in the 2-0 play-off first leg defeat at Sheffield Wednesday. He suffered ligament damage but was taped up and given medication to enable him to play in the home tie, although he later admitted: “I should never have played really.”
He reckoned the Amex atmosphere for that game was the best he’d ever been involved in. In spite of a valiant effort, it ended in a disappointing 1-1 draw although Sidwell said: “I ended up playing one of my better games in a Brighton shirt, which maybe cemented a contract for the following season.”
Released on a free transfer by Stoke, Sidwell signed on a permanent basis for the Seagulls and was a key component in the side that won promotion from the Championship in May 2017. He made 29 starts plus eight substitute appearances that campaign.
“The whole reason behind my return was to help the club into the Premier League,” he said.
Sidwell was on the bench as Albion began life amongst the elite but after that “a slipped disc, surgery, and then before you know it your career’s gone.”
Sidwell later admitted: “It was really hard. I came here to do a job, to get the football club into the Premier League, and then it was time to go and enjoy it. I thought I had two or three years left, but that was cut very short.”
Recognising he was blessed to have enjoyed a 20-year career, he nonetheless said: “To not really say goodbye to football, something I’d done since I left school, and also to Brighton, was really disappointing.”
He stayed on at Albion as under-16s coach (right) for a while but increasingly his work as a pitchside pundit for live TV coverage of matches took up more of his time. He is also now a regular co-host of the popular That Peter Crouch Podcast.
Sidwell is also business development director of Box3 Projects, a company that constructs and designs office spaces to be rented out or sold.
In parallel lines 