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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Jeff Minton a rare bright light in Albion’s gloom after dream Spurs debut

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AFTER 10 years at Tottenham Hotspur, Jeff Minton spent five years with Brighton & Hove Albion making just one short of 200 appearances and scoring 32 goals.

He was arguably the stand-out player in an otherwise gloom-laden period for the club when off-field issues overshadowed the playing side.

Minton’s spell in Seagulls’ colours remarkably straddled the reigns of five managers and he eventually left the south to rejoin one of them, Brian Horton, at Port Vale.

It was Liam Brady who brought him to the Albion on a free transfer and it is good to read how he viewed the genial Irishman as “like a father figure to me” and “somebody who had great confidence in my ability during his spell as manager”.

He made his Brighton debut away to Swansea in August 1994 and remained a mainstay of the midfield until the summer of 1999.

It doesn’t say a huge amount about the rest of the Albion side in the 1997-98 season that Minton was the top scorer with seven goals.

It’s to his credit though that, the following season, despite Albion finishing a lowly 17^th in the fourth tier, Minton was chosen by his fellow professionals in the division in the PFA team of the year.

In the October 2017 issue (no.9) of The Albion Mag (below), Tom Stewart featured Minton as one of his cult heroes of yesteryear.

minton albion mag Not exactly a glowing endorsement – “a vaguely skillful midfielder in an era featuring some of the poorest Albion players of all time” – Stewart nonetheless reckoned for the five seasons he was at the club he was “probably our most talented player”.

He went on to say: “Minton stood out from the crowd purely because he had a bit of nous and finesse surrounded by fairly untalented ‘grafters’ and was the only real shining light of that era.”

Stewart posed the conundrum: “Perhaps Minton is a tale of a player with unfulfilled potential, or perhaps he is a player who was decent at Divison Three level but struggled to make an impact at a higher level, or perhaps he was just an alright player in an awful team. Or is he a combination of the three?”

In April 2017, Brighton & Hove Independent gathered together player and fan memories of Albion’s iconic former home, the Goldstone Ground, and Minton was among the contributors.

“I loved the Goldstone, it was a great stadium and it’s a shame it got sold off,” he said. “The fans were all brilliant. I’m not too sure if they took to me in the first couple of years I was there, but the last two or three seasons I got on really well with them. “They were always fantastic and got right behind their side at the Goldstone. You don’t see that at a lot of teams.”

Born on 28 December 1973 in Hackney, Minton initially started training with Arsenal but, as a Spurs fan, he jumped at the chance to join Tottenham as a schoolboy.

“I joined the club as a 10-year-old after the scout Dick Moss watched me playing a district game for Hackney against Enfield in which I scored a hat-trick,” Minton recounted in a January 2018 interview with superhotspur.com (pictured below).

“Joining as a 10-year-old and leaving as a 20-year-old gave me 10 very valuable learning years at a club I supported, and also one of the country’s top clubs which is steeped in so much tradition and history. Those treasured memories will forever live with me.”

Like fellow Spurs schoolboy Junior McDougald, at 14 Minton was invited to become a member of the FA School of Excellence at Lilleshall.

J Minton Spurs Having successfully worked his way through the ranks, Minton was given his first team debut by boss Peter Shreeves on 25 April 1992 in a game that turned out to be Gary Lineker’s last home match for Spurs.

If reaching that promised land wasn’t good enough, the dream debut was complete when he scored in a 3-3 draw against Everton, with Paul Stewart and Paul Allen also on the scoresheet.

However, Minton only played two more games for the Spurs first team: one in the league seven days later in a 3-1 defeat away to Manchester United, the other in the league cup, going on as a substitute for Darren Anderton in a 3-1 win over Brentford.

Managerial upheaval probably didn’t help his cause: Terry Venables had been in charge when he joined, after Shreeves’ spell in charge, Doug Livermore and Ray Clemence took over, and it was Ossie Ardiles who ended up releasing him on a free transfer in July 1994.

It’s interesting to read that Minton’s former youth team manager, Keith Waldon, was disappointed that Minton didn’t make more of a name for himself. Waldon told superhotspur.com: “One of those who disappointed me with how far he went in the game was Jeffrey Minton.

“Jeffrey had phenomenal ability with his feet, was quick off the mark and had wonderful skill. But he didn’t go as far as I hoped he would, and I think that he’d tell you that he wasn’t the most disciplined person, but he was a wonderful player.”

While welcoming the chance to play first division football for Port Vale after his Brighton career came to a close, he struggled to settle in the Potteries and in his second year there moved on loan to second division Rotherham United, who he helped to promotion.

He then returned to London for the 2001-02 season and played 39 league and cup games for Third Division Leyton Orient.

Although offered a contract extension by the O’s, Minton says excessive demands from his agent scuppered a deal and he ended up playing non-league football with Canvey Island for three seasons.

He moved on to Chelmsford City in August 2006 where he played for a further three years, had a brief spell at Welling United and ended his playing days with Isthmian League Ware.

City cult hero Paul Dickov never forgot his Seagulls goals

A POCKET dynamo of a striker who became a Manchester City cult hero never forgot the goalscoring platform a short spell with Brighton provided him.

Paul Dickov is fondly remembered by the City faithful, particularly for his equalising goal (above) in the fifth minute of added on time in the League Two play-off final at Wembley in 1999 (City famously went on to win the penalty shoot-out in which Guy Butters missed a vital spot-kick for Gillingham).

The diminutive Dickov had wowed Brighton fans during the dark days of the 1993-94 season when Barry Lloyd’s replacement as manager, legendary Liam Brady, had secured the striker’s services on loan from his old club Arsenal.

Dickov had managed to break through to the Arsenal first team under George Graham in the latter stages of the 1992-93 season. But his chances were limited by the manager’s preference for the more experienced Ian Wright and Kevin Campbell. Dickov south stand

Earlier in the 1993-94 season, the young forward left Highbury for a 15-game spell with League One Luton Town, but only managed one goal.

His goalscoring fortunes changed when Brady persuaded his former employers to let Dickov join the struggling Seagulls, who, at the time, were fighting to avoid relegation from League Two.

Dickov Sandtex

The tenacious Dickov relished the opportunity and scored on his debut in a 2-0 home win over Plymouth Argyle on 30 March 1994. It was the first of five goals in eight games to help Brighton avoid the drop. (Pictured below, Dickov scores from close range against Fulham).

“I had a great time there. I loved every minute of it, and it has stuck with me,” Dickov told the Argus some years later. “I’ve always looked out for Brighton since then and I want them to do well.”

Born in Livingston, Scotland, on 1 November 1972, Dickov came to the attention of the Gunners while playing for Scotland at the 1989 FIFA Under-16 World Championship.

Having shown his goalscoring potential in Arsenal’s reserve side, Dickov got his first team opportunity when Graham rested players ahead of the FA Cup Final (in which they beat Sheffield Wednesday after a replay).

Dickov made his Arsenal debut against Southampton on 20 March 1993, and he went on to score against Crystal Palace and Tottenham Hotspur at the end of the season.

Over the following three seasons, although on the fringes of the first team, he was competing against the likes of Dennis Bergkamp, Wright and John Hartson and he was restricted to just 17 appearances in which he scored once.

Despite the disappointment of not quite making it at Arsenal, he is still fondly remembered there, with their history recording: “He never gave anything less than his all in an Arsenal shirt and, despite question marks over his height, Dickov compensated for his 5’5” frame with heart and endeavour.

“He was quick, skilful and scurried around up front causing problems for defenders.”

On 23 August 1996, City paid £1m to take him to Maine Road.

Over six seasons with the club, he was involved in two promotions and two relegations, which saw him play in three different divisions.

For all their success in more recent times, that memorable play-off at Wembley in 1999 was still being talked about 20 years later.

In 2000, Dickov won his first full international cap for Scotland and he earned 10 caps between then and 2004.

By then, he had moved on from City to try to keep Dave Bassett’s Leicester City in the top division. He joined the Foxes in February 2002, and, although he scored four goals as Leicester valiantly tried to maintain their Premiership status, they were not enough to prevent them being relegated to the Championship.

When former Albion boss Micky Adams took over the following season, Dickov thrived up front, netting a career-high 20 goals as Leicester won an instant return to the top-flight, finishing second behind champions Portsmouth.

Dickov scored 13 goals in the Premier League the following season but once again the Foxes were relegated. Even so, Dickov almost had a dream final game of the season against the team who had first give him his chance in the English game.

Arsenal were unbeaten throughout the season going into the Highbury finale but Dickov gave Leicester a shock headed lead before Thierry Henry and Patrick Vieira turned the game back in the Gunners’ favour to earn them the ‘Invincibles’ crown for their achievement.

That season at Leicester was also blighted by a shocking series of events during a training camp in La Manga, Spain, when Dickov and teammates Keith Gillespie and Frank Sinclair were falsely accused of sexual assault.

PD Blackburn At the season’s end, Dickov took up an option on his contract which allowed him to leave for a top-flight club and Graeme Souness signed him for Blackburn Rovers. It was not long before Mark Hughes took over and Dickov scored 10 goals in 35 games. Craig Bellamy was Rovers’ main man up front the following season and Dickov’s Premier League appearances were confined to 17 games plus four as a sub.

With his contract at an end, he rejoined Manchester City for the 2006-07 season but his time there was dogged by a series of injuries and he ended up having loan spells at Crystal Palace and Blackpool before returning to Leicester in 2008.

During that spell, when City were in League One, he was mainly back-up to Matty Fryatt and Steve Howard, but managed a further 20 appearances and scored two goals to help the club to promotion back to the Championship.

Eventually, he ended up going out on loan, this time to Derby County to help them out in an injury crisis. His Leicester contract was terminated in February 2010 and he took up a short-term deal to the end of the season with League One Leeds United, who ended the season earning promotion to the Championship.

Dickov’s next move, though, was into management. He initially joined Oldham Athletic as player-manager, before packing up playing in May 2011.

In Dickov’s first game as manager, a young Dale Stephens scored both goals as the Latics beat Tranmere Rovers 2-1. The highlight of his tenure at Oldham was leading the Latics to a shock 3-2 win over Liverpool in the FA Cup fourth round in January 2013, but he resigned a few weeks later because of the side’s poor league form.

Three months later, he took over at Doncaster Rovers, with former Albion captain and manager Brian Horton as his assistant.

Since leaving Rovers in September 2015, Dickov has been on the football speakers circuit and is also a frequent eloquent contributor as a pundit.

pundit Dickov2019

To what extent might the summer of 2019 mirror the summer of 1981?

BECAUSE this blog is all about Albion parallels, it has set me wondering how closely the summer of 2019 might mirror the events of the summer of 1981?

Brighton’s 2019 survival at the end of their second season amongst the elite came about somewhat less convincingly than in 1981 when four wins in the last four games had kept the Albion in the top flight.

As in 2019, relegation had loomed large 38 years ago but the status was retained with that late upturn in performances. Nevertheless, behind the scenes, big changes were about to happen with the departure of a former Spurs stalwart who’d done an excellent job as manager.

That boss (Alan Mullery), who’d led the side so successfully for the previous five years, left under a cloud, albeit of his own volition after a disagreement with the chairman (Mike Bamber) over the sale of star player Mark Lawrenson and a request to cut costs by dispensing with some of his backroom staff.

In a mirror moment to Bruno’s farewell versus Manchester City, Mullery’s captain, Brian Horton, played his last game for the club in the final match at home to Leeds – the difference being Horton had no inkling it would be his last game for the Seagulls.

That fixture also saw the last appearances of Lawrenson, long-serving Peter O’Sullivan and, in John Gregory, a player who would subsequently go on to play for England.

As we await developments regarding the appointment of Chris Hughton’s successor as manager, may we once again see potentially seismic changes on the playing side?

Bruno’s retirement certainly means there is a need to sign a replacement right-back, even though Martin Montoya might consider he can fill the gap.

It’s largely considered Albion’s star players are international defenders Lewis Dunk and Shane Duffy: will one or other of them be sold for big money to enable investment elsewhere in the team?

Lawrenson’s departure in 1981 was mourned by many but it paved the way for the arrival of European Cup winner Jimmy Case, and generated funds new boss Mike Bailey was able to invest in bringing in new players.

While Bailey had a similar top-level background to Mullery as a player, captaining Wolverhampton Wanderers to some of their best achievements, his managerial CV was less impressive, although he had just got Charlton Athletic promoted from the old Third Division.

However, with Case bringing a new top level dimension to the re-shaped side, and Horton’s younger replacement, Eire international Tony Grealish adding bite to the midfield, Bailey, and his relatively unknown coach John Collins, guided the Albion to the club’s highest ever finish of 13th place in his first season in charge.

O’Sullivan had been a fixture under several managers for a decade (apart from a brief stint in the USA) and one wonders whether the not-quite-so-long-serving Dale Stephens might have played his last game for the Albion.

In 1981, Bailey had a busy summer in the transfer market (courtesy of the cash from the sale of Lawrenson to Liverpool) and, in Steve Gatting from Arsenal, signed a quality player who went on to serve the club for a decade. The experienced Northern Ireland international left-back, Sammy Nelson, also arrived from the Gunners.

Might we see again the signing of a squad player (or two) from a top six side who will add much-needed quality to the Albion?

Don’t bet against it!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

Gary Williams knew where the goal was – even from left back

A CARTILAGE operation when he was just 17 changed Gary Williams’ career, but, after success at Brighton, it eventually brought his playing days to a premature end at Crystal Palace.

Originally a winger, the operation, when he was an emerging player at Preston North End, took the edge of his pace and led to him converting into an overlapping left back.

Thankfully, as Brighton fans would witness, his ability to score important goals never left him.

Born in Litherland, Liverpool, on 8 March 1954, Gary Peter Williams had unsuccesful trials with Liverpool and Coventry City before starting his career with non-league Marine. He caught the eye of a scout who’d gone to watch a different player and ended up signing for Preston in April 1972.

Williams made his Preston debut in the final game of the 1971-72 season as Preston drew 2-2 at home to Swindon.

He then played in the opening match of the following season, against Aston Villa, but had to wait until the end of March at Brighton for his next appearance.

After his cartilage op, and just when he thought he was set to be released aged 18, Preston’s reserve team left-back got injured, Williams filled in, did a good job, and it was the platform he needed to launch his career.

“Because I used to be a winger, I knew which way to shepherd them to make it difficult to cut inside,” he told the journalist and author Spencer Vignes in his 2005 book, A Few Good Men.

It was the legendary Bobby Charlton, briefly trying out management at North End, who gave Williams his big break into first team football, selecting him at left back for the final eight games of the 1974-75 season.

Young Gary Williams with former England World Cup winner, Nobby Stiles, at Preston, and scoring the winner at Sunderland.

Former Everton boss Harry Catterick took over from Charlton and made Williams the first choice left back in 1975-76. The following season his outstanding performances earned him the Player of the Season award and on 22 March 1977, he made his 100^th league appearance in a 1-0 defeat at Selhurst Park.

By then, Williams was catching the eye of clubs higher up the league and his final game for Preston was the season-ending fixture at Shrewsbury on 14 May, which North End won 2-1.

In July 1977, Preston accepted a £45,000 fee from Brighton to sign Williams shortly after his teammate Mark Lawrenson joined for £100,000. Albion’s Graham Cross and Harry Wilson moved in the opposite direction to fill the positions they’d vacated.

Williams told Vignes how he’d always enjoyed playing against Brighton because of the size of the crowds they got.

“To run out in Division 3 at the Goldstone in front of a full house was amazing. You knew you were in for a hard time but the atmosphere was just infectious,” he said.

Manager Alan Mullery had called him and asked him to get himself down to Brighton and the club booked a room in the Metropole Hotel, the sea view helping to make up his mind about the move.

“I wanted to better myself and get into the First Division but football is such an up and down game that it’s not too wise to look too far ahead,” Williams told Football Weekly News magazine in 1980.

The start to his Albion career was somewhat inauspicious. Although he came on as a substitute in the opening game, a league cup tie away to Cambridge United which finished 0-0, injury then prevented him making his league debut for two months.

It finally came in a 2-0 win away to Sunderland on 1 October 1977 and he then missed only one game through to the end of the season, appearing a total of 34 times as the Seagulls finished fourth, missing promotion on goal difference to Tottenham.

The following season saw Williams play every game, scoring twice, as Brighton were runners-up to Palace gaining promotion to Division One for the first time.

In Albion’s first season amongst the elite, Williams was again ever present – indeed, he remarkably played 146 consecutive games during his time at the club.

The Everton-supporting full-back got the chance to play against his boyhood side in December 1979 and three months later he scored the first of two cracking, memorable Brighton goals in the top division as the Seagulls finished in 16th position.

On 29 March 1980, at the Goldstone, he lashed a shot from 30 yards that flew past England goalkeeper Peter Shilton to earn Albion the double over European Cup holders Nottingham Forest.

Williams beats Nottingham Forest full back Viv Anderson at the Goldstone and, together with Gary Stevens, tries to thwart Liverpool’s Kenny Dalglish.

Williams admits he was about to pass it until skipper Brian Horton urged him to ‘hit the ****ing thing!’

“When you hit the ball that sweetly, you don’t even really feel a thing,” he recounted to Vignes, in that 2005 interview. “By the time I looked up, it was heading for the top corner.”

Although Forest boss Brian Clough declared it a fluke in a post-match interview, because the game took place in front of the TV cameras, it was selected as one of the goals of the season.

Thirteen months after that goal, Williams struck another beauty, this time to silence the Sunderland faithful at Roker Park.

It clinched Albion a 2-1 win and was part of a late flurry of good results which saw the Seagulls escape the clutches of relegation.

Describing it to Vignes, he said: “It was our last attack of the game. Gordon Smith knocks a good ball into the penalty area and I’ve just taken a gamble and gone up from the halfway line. I say so myself but it was a really good volley.

“It fell to me around 10 yards out and you hear the net ripple because the crowd went silent.”

While it contributed to Albion staying up, that summer saw the departure of Mullery, Lawrenson and Horton and the arrival of Mike Bailey into the manager’s chair. It was to signal the end of Williams’ Brighton career.

Bailey favoured a far more defensive approach to his predecessor and brought in the experienced Northern Ireland international Sammy Nelson, who had been displaced at Arsenal by the arrival of Kenny Sansom.

Williams only learned about the signing through The Argus and, when he confronted the manager about it, was told Nelson was only going to be a squad player.

“I’m thinking ‘bollocks’ but he didn’t play him straightaway,” Williams recounted. “He couldn’t drop me because I wasn’t doing anything wrong.”

Ironically, however, he lost his place after bombing forward and scoring in a 4-1 win over Manchester City. Astonishingly, Bailey was annoyed that he had been too adventurous!

With Nelson keen to carry on playing and earn a place in Northern Ireland’s 1982 World Cup squad, it meant Williams was left to languish in the reserves.

By the end of the season, though, Mullery, by now manager of Crystal Palace, came to Willams’ rescue and gave him a chance to resume first team football.

In a swap deal that saw winger Neil Smillie arrive at the Goldstone, Williams moved to Selhurst.

But after only 10 games he was forced to have an operation on his troublesome knee. Expert advice steered him towards a painful decision but he took it and retired from the game aged just 29.

Williams told the Argus: “The trouble with my knee is really wear and tear. I had a cartilage out at 17, and I was told after the operation last October a lot of harm might be caused if I went on playing.”

In A Few Good Men, Vignes gained a great insight into a northern lad who fell in love with the Albion and remains a fan to this day.

“I was very lucky in that I played right at the beginning of the era of overlapping full-backs,” Williams told him. “It was beginning to creep in when I first came onto the scene, and I had an advantage as I’d started my career as a left-winger. I knew all about coming forward.”

gwms quit cutting

Imperious Mark Lawrenson starred at Brighton before hitting Liverpool heights

MARK LAWRENSON was without doubt in my mind the best player ever to play for Brighton and Hove Albion. Peter Ward was exceptional but Lawrenson did it for Brighton and went on to have a glittering career with Liverpool, the top club in the country at the time.

And, whatever your thoughts about his contribution as a pundit – and many are very disparaging – you can’t take away his longevity on our TV screens and across our media.

Although now slightly less prominent as a TV pundit, for a good many years, Lawrenson reprised his successful Liverpool central defensive partnership with Alan Hansen in the BBC Match of the Day studios.

But where did it all begin? Born on 2 June 1957 in Penwortham, Lancashire, Lawrenson joined nearby Preston at 17 in 1974, who at the time were managed by the legendary Bobby Charlton.

Lawrenson made his full debut for the Lilywhites the following year, two months before his 18^th birthday. However, it was Charlton’s fellow World Cup winner, Nobby Stiles, to whom Lawrenson was most grateful.

“I was a winger when I joined Preston, while he was coach, and he was the one who converted me to my present position – in the middle of the back four,” Lawrenson told Keir Radnedge in Football Weekly News.

“Nobby was very good with the youngsters. He was almost like a father-figure. He commanded respect not only because of what he’d achieved himself but because of the way he’d help iron out your faults.”

At the age of 19, and thinking he’d never be good enough to play for England, Lawrenson opted to play for the Republic of Ireland when player-manager Johnny Giles (perhaps not coincidentally, Nobby’s brother-in-law) found out that he qualified to play for them through his grandfather.

That debut for Ireland in April 1977, in a 0-0 draw with Poland, came at the end of a season in which he was voted Preston’s Player of the Year.

Within weeks, he joined the Albion for £112,000 (£100,000 + VAT @ 12 per cent) after Brighton manager Alan Mullery persuaded Albion to outbid Liverpool to get their man.

Shoot article

Mullery recalled in his 2006 autobiography how he had taken the board of directors to see Lawrenson perform superbly in an end-of-season game at Crystal Palace, where he marked their new star striker Mike Flanagan out of the game.

Lawrenson recollects how he was on an end-of-season ‘jolly’ in Spain with his Preston team-mates when Brighton chairman Mike Bamber and director Dudley Sizen turned up and ‘sold’ the club to him in a Benidorm beachside bar.

There was nearly a hitch in the deal when his medical showed high sugar levels in his blood – but it turned out he had been drinking blackcurrant-flavoured Guinness while on the Spanish holiday.

Mullery was building on the success of guiding the Seagulls to promotion from Division Three in his first season in charge, and the young defender replaced the experienced Graham Cross, who went to Preston in part-exchange.

Shortly after signing Lawrenson, Mullery told Shoot magazine: “I know a lot of people have not heard too much about him yet. But they will – believe me, they will. He is only 20, is big and strong and will make his mark in a big way.”

And, in his autobiography, Mullery said: “Any manager would love to have a player of Mark’s ability in their side. He had a calm, strong temperament, he never caused any problems and he always performed brilliantly on the field. His presence helped to lift the team to a whole new level of performance in the 1977-78 season.”

Lawrenson made his Brighton debut on the 20 August 1977 in a 1-1 draw against Southampton at The Dell and went on to make 40 league appearances by the end of his first season at the club.

The following season, when Albion went one better and earned promotion to the top division for the first time, Lawrenson was a stand-out performer. In his book, A Few Good Men, author Spencer Vignes said: “His timing in the tackle and ability to read the game belied his relative youth, but what really caught the eye was his skill on the ball, which, for a centre-back still earning his wages in English football’s second tier, was little short of remarkable.”

Skipper Brian Horton told Vignes: “The way he used to bring the ball out from the back had to be seen to be believed.”

In a special Argus supplement of April 1997, to mark Albion’s departure from the Goldstone, Lawrenson was interviewed by Mike Donovan, and told him: “The Goldstone was a great place to play and I was extremely happy there.

“It was an excellent team that played good football the way it should be played – by passing it around. Also, we had a great team spirit, mainly because a lot of the team were outsiders coming in and stuck together. We all played and socialised together.”

Unfortunately, Albion’s first season amongst the elite was only five games in when Lawrenson received a serious injury in a clash with Glenn Hoddle at White Hart Lane.

Badly torn ankle ligaments and a chipped bone was the diagnosis and it sidelined Lawrenson for 12 matches, although his absence created an opportunity for young Gary Stevens.

lawro yellow When Lawrenson was fit to return, Mullery sprung a surprise by utilising him in midfield, but it was an inspired decision and he stayed there for the rest of the season, helping Albion to finish a respectable 16^th of 22.

He went on to make 152 league appearances by the end of 1980-81.

It was his sale to Liverpool in the summer of 1981 that was part of the reason Mullery’s reign at the club came to an end. Mullery had negotiated with Ron Atkinson to sell him to Manchester United with two United players coming to Brighton as part of the deal.

But, behind his back, chairman Bamber had been talking to Liverpool and, in exchange for what was then a Liverpool club transfer record of £900,000, he was destined to be heading back to the North West with midfielder Jimmy Case coming South as part of the deal.

Interestingly, though, Lawrenson revealed in his autobiography how new manager Mike Bailey had actually made him Albion captain, but then asked him how he saw his future, which sowed a seed of doubt about the club’s intentions.

“I don’t know if there was a financial crisis and they were looking for a big transfer fee from my sale to sort themselves out, but the uncertainty did unsettle me,” he wrote. Lawrenson was sent off in an ill-tempered pre-season friendly (against FC Utrecht in the Dordrecht Tournament) and put it down to his personal frustration.

“On our return flight, there was a message that Terry Neill of Arsenal was waiting to meet the chairman at Gatwick,” Lawrenson recalled. “Somehow they missed each other and the next day there was talk of me going to Manchester United.

“But then Mike Bailey asked me if I would meet Liverpool, and I travelled to the Aerial Hotel at Heathrow to meet Bob Paisley, Peter Robinson and Liverpool chairman John Smith.

“Terry Neill was, at the time, waiting in the next hotel in case discussions broke down. He missed out because it only took me 15 minutes to agree to move to Liverpool.

“I travelled North and had a medical at 11.30 at night. I even took the registration forms to the League offices myself, because they are only a few doors away from my mother’s home at St Annes.”

Argus front page

Lawrenson went on to form a formidable central defensive partnership with Hansen after England centre back Phil Thompson suffered an injury, but, as he had showed at Brighton, he was versatile enough also to play at full back or in midfield.

Indeed, Lawrenson made his first start for Liverpool at left-back in a 1-0 league defeat to Wolves. In his first season, Liverpool won the League championship and the League Cup. They won it again in 1982 and retained both for another two seasons, becoming only the third club in history to win three titles in a row. They also added the club’s fourth European Cup in 1984.

Many believed Lawrenson and Hansen were the best central defensive partnership in English football by the time Liverpool clinched the League and FA Cup “double” in 1986.

But Lawrenson was being put under pressure by young centre back Gary Gillespie and an Achilles tendon injury in 1988 prematurely ended his career after 332 appearances and 18 goals, although he earned a fifth and final title medal when that season ended.

Lawrenson tried his hand at management at Oxford United in 1988 but, in almost a mirror image of the situation over his own transfer from Brighton, he resigned after their star striker Dean Saunders, the former Albion player, was sold by the board of directors without Lawrenson’s blessing.

Lawrenson later managed Peterborough United for 14 months between September 1989 and November 1990, but it was a largely unsuccessful tenure.

Apart from one brief foray back into football as a defensive coach at Newcastle during Kevin Keegan’s first reign in the North East, Lawrenson’s involvement since has been one step removed as a pundit and newspaper columnist.

At the 2018 World Cup, Lawrenson particularly hit the headlines when many observed his cantankerous and sarcastic observations were just too much.

Never shy of voicing his opinions, they once led to him losing what at the time was a trademark moustache!

He was so convinced that Bolton would be relegated that he said live on Football Focus that he would shave it off if they proved him wrong, which they did!

In 2003, my friend Andrew Setten somehow blagged tickets which gave us the opportunity to go into the exclusive Football Association area at the FA Cup Final between Arsenal and Southampton at the Millennium Stadium and, all those years later, I finally got the chance to meet Lawro and to get his autograph.

• Pictures from Shoot magazine, cuttings from the Evening Argus and the matchday programme.

Coventry’s legendary skipper Ernie Machin also led Brighton

3 Machin Shoot! A MIDFIELD dynamo who captained Coventry City during their glory years at the top of English football’s pyramid was instantly installed as captain when he signed for third tier Brighton.

Ernie Machin was the first signing Peter Taylor made on taking sole charge of the Albion following Brian Clough’s decision to quit and join Leeds United.

Taylor, a former Coventry goalkeeper, had a well-earned reputation for his detailed knowledge of Midlands footballers.

Although Machin had moved to Plymouth Argyle in 1972, after 10 years at Highfield Road, he fitted the bill perfectly to add a bit of bite, experience and leadership to Taylor’s side.

A £30,000 fee took him to the Goldstone in the summer of 1974 but he was still nursing an injury sustained in training at Plymouth and when rushed into action too soon he broke down and missed quite a chunk of matches in the first part of the season.

Eventually he took up a regular spot in the centre of midfield and Argus reporter John Vinicombe observed in his end of season summary: “It wasn’t until the latter part of the season that Machin started to display known form.”

Machin action The midfielder eventually completed 31 games (plus three as sub) but manager Taylor took the captaincy from him and appointed his new centre back signing, Graham Winstanley.

Nevertheless, Machin began the following season and got what would be his one and only Albion goal in the opening fixture, a 3-0 home win over Rotherham United.

He remained ever-present until the arrival in March 1976 of the on-pitch leader who would guide Albion to the promised land – Brian Horton.

Machin shoots Machin played 41 games that season and only shared the midfield with Horton once – in what turned out to be his final game in the stripes, a 4-2 home win over Grimsby Town.

I hadn’t been aware until reading the excellent thegoldstonewrap.com that Machin didn’t move to Sussex during his time with the Albion. “He never settled on the south coast, and still lived in Coventry and trained in the Midlands,” they reported.

So perhaps it was no surprise that when Jimmy Hill, the manager who signed him for City and went on to be Coventry chairman, offered Machin a job back at his old club, he was only too happy to accept.

He took on the role of youth team coach, but it didn’t work out and he left football and went to work for Car Bodies and Massey Ferguson.

Machin was a member of the Coventry City Former Players Association after his career ended and they paid due respect to his part in the club’s history when he died aged 68 on 22 July 2012.

In an extended obituary on their website, they related how he had been born in Walkden, Manchester, on 26 April 1944, and had trials alongside future World Cup winner Alan Ball at Bolton Wanderers, but was not considered good enough.

Instead Machin joined non-league Nelson FC and, in 1962, was spotted by Coventry’s North West scout Alf Walton, who suggested Hill sign him up.

Hill wasn’t entirely convinced but admired the fact he rarely wasted a pass when in possession, and paid the princely sum of £50 to take him to Highfield Road, adding a further £200 when he made it into the first team.

That breakthrough came in April 1963, aged 18, in a 2-0 win over Millwall, and by the start of the following season he was first choice in the number 10 shirt as the Sky Blues headed for promotion.

However, they did it without Machin who sustained a bad knee injury in a home game with Watford in November, and missed the rest of the season, and beyond. Indeed, it was 18 months before he played again, having endured several operations.

Eventually he returned to play a pivotal role in the club’s Second Division title win in 1967, scoring 11 goals along the way.

When regular captain George Curtis broke his leg in the club’s second game in Division One, Machin took over as skipper and missed only three games in the club’s first two years amongst the elite.

ccfpa.co.uk recalled: “Older fans will remember his stunning goal in the 2-0 victory over European champions elect Manchester United in March 1968.

“His never-say-die attitude won him the respect of all his playing colleagues and the fans. He continued to be a regular, when fit, right up to the time of his departure in 1972 but a bad car accident put him out for three months in 1970 and his ‘dodgy’ knee continued to trouble him.”

The history books record that in 1972 he was the first English footballer to go through the courts to challenge a FA fine and suspension using TV evidence. He was sent off in a game at Newcastle for allegedly kicking an opponent, but the footage proved his innocence.

Even so, the FA spotted something else he’d done and upheld the disciplinary action on the basis of that without allowing him to present a defence. The courts ruled against the FA, and the PFA subsequently established the rights of players to legal representation in disciplinary cases.

By the time Coventry’s new managers Joe Mercer and Gordon Milne sold him to Plymouth for £35,000, he had played 289 games and scored 39 goals.

The website greensonscreen.co.uk says: “When Machin moved to Home Park in December 1972 he soon showed his class and intelligence, controlling games from midfield. He was named the Player of the Year in his only full season with the club but, much to the dismay of the fans, requested a transfer and moved to Brighton and Hove Albion.”

Despite his relatively short stay at Home Park, he made such an impression that in 2004 he was named in Plymouth’s Team of the Century.

Although suffering from poor health, Machin attended a reunion of Coventry’s 1967 promotion-winning team in 2007 and in 2008 he was one of 30 former players inducted into the club’s Legends Group for services to the football club.

1 main ernie + cant 2 machin signs

Pictures include one from my scrapbook of Machin in a Coventry team line-up alongside manager Noel Cantwell who kindly gave me his autograph when the Sky Blues played Brighton in a friendly. Also pictured, the Evening Argus coverage of his signing. And a Shoot! magazine portrait. Plus a montage of other images.

Eire captain Tony Grealish swapped one Albion for another

1 main pic TG cover boy THE PLAYER who led out Brighton at Wembley for the 1983 FA Cup Final against Manchester United was an experienced Republic of Ireland international who went on to play for West Bromwich Albion.

Tony ‘Paddy’ Grealish, sadly no longer with us having died of cancer aged only 56 in 2013, was given his international debut against Norway in 1976 by the legendary Johnny Giles, who knew a thing or two about midfield play.

In fact it was Giles, in his second spell as WBA manager, who took Grealish to The Hawthorns in 1984 as the break-up of the Brighton cup final squad continued.

After his untimely death, Giles told the Irish Times: “I obviously knew him at that stage from the Ireland set-up and knew what to expect.

“He wasn’t the classiest of players but he was one of the most hard working and you knew exactly what you were going to get.

“He was a great lad; a social animal who liked a drink after a game but gave you absolutely everything during it.”

Born in Paddington, London, on 21 September 1956, Grealish qualified to play for the Republic through his father, Packie, who was born in Athenry, Galway, and his mother Nora’s parents, both from Limerick.

He began his career across the other side of London, at Orient, and played 171 games for the Os, one of the last being the memorable 3-3 draw against Brighton in 1979 which featured on The Big Match. One of his teammates that day was Henry Hughton, brother of subsequent Brighton manager, Chris.

The previous year Grealish had been part of the Orient side that made it through to the FA Cup semi final against Arsenal, played at Stamford Bridge, but they were beaten 3-0 (the Gunners lost 1-0 to Ipswich in the final).

In 1979, David Pleat paid £150,000 to take him for Luton Town for whom he played 78 games in two seasons.

The managerial upheaval at the Goldstone Ground in the summer of 1981 saw the arrival of Mike Bailey in place of Alan Mullery, and one of his first moves was to bring in Grealish as part of a swap for Brian Horton, the ageing, inspirational captain who led Brighton from the old Third Division to the First.

Grealish was definitely what you’d call a players’ player, someone who did the hard work in the engine room of the team to enable players with more flair to shine.

He talked about just that scenario in an interview with the Daily Mail after Brighton had beaten Sheffield Wednesday at Highbury in that 1983 cup semi-final.

Referring to an incident when he’d charged down a free kick, he told Brian Scovell: “That’s my job. I’m the bloke with the ugly mug so they get me to do it.”

It was Grealish who rolled the ball to Jimmy Case to smash home that memorable opening goal and he relished his teammate’s strike, saying: “It wasn’t just the power, it was the way the ball swerved away from the ‘keeper that did it.”

After the disappointment of missing out in 1978, reaching the cup final was extra special for Grealish and he found himself thrust centre stage as a result of usual captain Steve Foster’s suspension from the first match.

Even all this time later, people remember how Grealish wore the trademark Foster headband as he led Brighton out. “It was a small protest over Steve’s exclusion from the final,” he told the media after the game.

In the News of the World, Fred Burcombe began his report: “Tony Grealish, Brighton’s stand-in skipper, yesterday entered the Wembley arena with a gesture of defiance and left for home in a blaze of confidence.”

In fact, Grealish was involved in both Brighton’s goals in the 2-2 draw. James Mossop reported in the Sunday Express: “Brighton stayed on the attack after a corner. Tony Grealish collected the ball and his teammates began to fan out, all eager for a pass. He chose Neil Smillie on the right. Smillie gave young Gary Howlett the chance to centre – and as the ball curved in Smith met it ideally, sending his header over the ‘keeper’s outstretched forearm and into the net.”

And with the clock ticking down, United by now 2-1 up, it was Grealish who drilled the ball hard into the penalty box where Gary Stevens controlled it and fired the ball past Gary Bailey to net the equaliser.

Grealish lived in Peacehaven during his time with the Seagulls and clearly enjoyed the social life with his teammates.

“The atmosphere at Brighton is particularly good,” he told Tony Norman in a club programme feature. “There’s always plenty going on. I enjoy our Wednesday golf games. There’s often as many as 10 of the players there. That’s always a laugh.”

Following relegation to the second tier, the Seagulls squad was broken up bit by bit; Gary Stevens and Michael Robinson going first. Grealish lasted a little longer and played two thirds of the 1983-84 season before being sold to West Brom in March.

It didn’t stop him being selected alongside teammate Case in the PFA representative side that season (the centre half selection was Mick McCarthy and the forwards included Kevin Keegan and Mark Hateley).

In total, Grealish played 116 games plus five as a sub for Brighton, and his last game for the Seagulls saw him score in a 1-1 home draw with Manchester City, who he would subsequently join in 1986-87. He played 65 games for West Brom, and 11 times for City, who also had former Seagull Neil McNab in their line-up.

In August 1987, Grealish moved to Rotherham United and played 110 games for the Millers before moving to Walsall (36 appearances).

During his time at Rotherham, in 1988-89, he once again found himself in the PFA representative selection, this time for Division Four. Grealish then did the rounds of various non-league clubs in the Midlands: Bromsgove Rovers, Moor Green, Halesowen Harriers, Sutton Coldfield and Evesham United.

He returned to Bromsgrove Rovers as player-manager before calling it a day, and then worked in the scrap metal business. His career record showed he played a total of 589 league games, plus 45 for the Republic of Ireland; 17 of them as captain.

Little surprise, then, that when he died in 2013, the Football Association of Ireland paid a warm tribute. FAI president Paddy McCaul said: “He will be remembered as a great servant of Irish football who was part of the international set-up under John Giles and Eoin Hand that came so close to qualifying for major tournaments and helped change Ireland’s fortunes at that level of the game.”

FAI chief executive John Delaney added: “Tony Grealish was one of my footballing heroes when I was a child and I always remembered him as a great competitor who always gave his all for Ireland.”

It was during Alan Kelly’s brief reign in charge, in 1980, that Grealish was first made Eire skipper – against Switzerland – and he was a central figure in successor Eoin Hand’s team.

“He was a great character,” said Hand. “I don’t think I ever selected a team during my time in charge that didn’t have him in it.

“I think it’s fair to say he raised his game when he was playing international football. I’d say he was a great club player but the commitment he gave for Ireland; he just couldn’t have given that on a twice weekly basis playing club football. He gave absolutely everything.

“He contributed so much (including eight international goals), had an infectious enthusiasm for it all. If ever there was someone who showed how proud he could be to represent his country then Tony was it. He was very much part of it all; a great ambassador; very generous.”

Hand added: “He was a great example to others in the way he dealt with people; other players, supporters, kids….a really wonderful guy. I was very lucky to have him around when I was manager.”

3.TG shoot cover

Pictures from my scrapbook show Grealish on an Albion matchday programme cover, a Match magazine pic of him in WBA colours via Football Past on Twitter, on the front of the 1983 FA Cup Final preview edition of Shoot!, and, below, a montage of various headlines and images.