Tag: Brian Powney

Villa’s Tommy Hughes helped stop rock-bottom Brighton rot

BRIGHTON were in a sorry state floundering at the bottom of the old Second Division when manager Pat Saward turned to a former Aston Villa teammate to borrow his back-up goalkeeper.

Albion had gone on a horrendous run of 14 consecutive defeats between November and February in the 1972-73 season and Saward decided to take regular custodian Brian Powney out of the firing line.

Inexperienced reserve goalkeeper Alan Dovey had twice conceded four goals (in defeats at Preston and Sunderland) during that awful run and between him and Powney they’d conceded 37 goals.

After seeing Albion succumb 3-1 at home to Villa and 5-1 at Fulham, Saward had a word with Vic Crowe, a former Villa teammate who by then was in the manager’s chair at Villa Park, and got him to agree a loan move for Tommy Hughes.

Hughes, who had spent years in Peter Bonetti’s shadow at Chelsea, arrived on the south coast to try to stem the tide and help Brighton get back on the winning trail.

His first run-out for the Albion came in a home friendly against then First Division Stoke City – both sides had been knocked out of the previous round of the FA Cup. Saward also gave a debut to 17-year-old Tony Towner although, unfortunately, Albion were once again on the losing side, 2-0. Nevertheless, the Albion matchday programme said Hughes “had a storming game”.

The losing streak finally came to an end the following Saturday when Hughes made his league debut at home to Luton Town. As well as the change in goal, Saward stuck with Towner on the wing and put another teenager, Pat Hilton, up front alongside Ken Beamish who scored both Albion goals in a 2-0 win.

Unsurprisingly, Hughes kept the shirt for two more league matches, a 3-1 defeat at Bristol City and a 2-0 reverse at Hull City.

Sandwiched between those games, he appeared in a Friday night friendly against visiting Moscow Spartak on 23 February which Albion won 1-0; captain Ian Goodwin scoring the only goal of the game.

Saward wanted to sign Hughes permanently but the powers-that-be couldn’t come up with the required fee and Powney resumed his place. Although Albion put up a bit of a fight, only losing two of the remaining 11 games, winning five and drawing four, the damage had already been done over the winter and they were relegated along with Huddersfield Town.

Hughes at Hereford

Hughes, meanwhile, returned to Villa Park but was soon on the move to a permanent home, where he stayed for many years.

Transferred to Hereford United in August 1973 for £15,000, he became something of a club legend and stayed in the area apart from one brief return to Scotland.

As the official club website noted: “He was an immediate success at Hereford and won the Player of the Year award in his first season and repeated the feat five seasons later.”

Manager Colin Addison brought him in when David Icke, the conspiracy theorist and former BBC sports broadcaster, was forced to retire through injury and regular no.1 Fred Potter was also sidelined.

Hughes made 240 appearances over nine seasons with The Bulls, and was in their Third Division championship-winning side of 1975-76. He later became Hereford’s caretaker manager during the 1982-83 season.

In 2006, he demonstrated his prowess at golf when he became the Herefordshire County Senior Champion. Posting a gross score of 72 at the Sapey course, the local newspaper said he had “produced a championship winning round in tricky conditions”. It added: “The course was beautifully manicured but many competitiors struggled to cope with the extra run and bounce off fairways baked hard after weeks of relentless sunshine.”

Born in Dalmuir, West Dunbartonshire, on 11 July 1947, Hughes started out with Scottish Second Division side Clydebank before Tommy Docherty signed him for Chelsea in 1966.

Only ever an understudy to Bonetti, he played two league games in each of 1966-67 and 1967-68, once in 1968-69 and six times in 1969-70.

His competitive debut came on 19 November 1966, when he was only 19, in a 1-1 Stamford Bridge draw against Sheffield United.

The following month he shipped six as Chelsea were thumped 6-1 at Sheffield Wednesday on New Year’s Eve.

In 1968, he was in the Chelsea side that won 5-3 at Southampton and 2-1 at Sheffield United.

In the six games he played between January and April 1970, he conceded 15 goals which included five goals in front of 57,221 at home to Leeds and five to Everton (who went on to win the First Division title) when 57,828 packed in to Goodison Park. Everton were 2-0 up (through Howard Kendall and Alan Ball) within five minutes of the start!

During his time at Chelsea, he was twice selected to play for the Scotland under 23 side. He made his debut on 3 December 1969 in a 4-0 win over France.

The following March he was between the sticks when the England under 23s beat the Scots 3-1 at Roker Park (his Chelsea teammate Peter Osgood scored twice, Brian Kidd the other) but the game was abandoned on 62 minutes when a snowstorm made it impossible to play the full 90 minutes.

His last game for Chelsea came the following month, on 15 April 1970, when Burnley beat the London side 3–1 at Turf Moor.

After Hughes broke his leg in a pre-season friendly in Holland, manager Dave Sexton brought in John Phillips from Villa to understudy Bonetti and, the following May, the displaced Hughes moved in the opposite direction, for £12,500. Phillips would later spend the 1980-81 season as Albion’s back-up goalkeeper under Alan Mullery.

Hughes might have thought he had finally claimed a no.1 spot of his own in a Villa side that had just been relegated to the third tier. He made his Third Division debut at home to Plymouth Argyle on 14 August.

But he only played 16 games under Vic Crowe before losing his place to Jim Cumbes, who had signed from West Brom. Cumbes was one of those rare breeds of sportsmen who also played county cricket for Lancashire, Surrey, Worcestershire and Warwickshire.

Hughes’ 23rd and last game for Villa saw him make a horrible blunder in a first round FA Cup match at Fourth Division Southend United in November 1971. He dropped a free kick at the feet of Bill Garner (who later moved to Chelsea) who set up Billy Best to score the only goal of the game for the Shrimpers.

The ‘keeper’s long run as Hereford’s first choice came to an end in the 1977-78 season, when new signing Peter Mellor, once of Burnley and Fulham, took over the gloves.

Hughes decided to return to Scotland and signed a one-month contract with Dundee United. He contemplated moving his family back up north permanently, but they wanted to return to Hereford, which they did.

“The club and the fans welcomed him back with open arms and Tommy remained at Edgar Street until he finally hung up his boots in 1982,” said the club website. “Tommy never lost his love for Hereford and jumped at the chance of having spells as commercial manager and even as caretaker manager when the financial situation at Edgar Street was fraught.”

As it turned out, he was to make one final appearance at Edgar Street in the 1983-84 Radio Wyvern Cup Final. He had attended as a spectator but turned out for Worcester City after their ‘keeper Paul Hayward dislocated a finger in the pre-match warm up.

Hughes had a spell as manager of Trowbridge Town but his home remained in Hereford where he ran his own successful carpet-cleaning business for many years.

Steady Eddie had plenty of strings to his bow

ONE TIME Albion captain and utility player Eddie Spearritt played in the top flight for Ipswich Town and Carlisle United.

He made five starts and five appearances off the bench for second tier champions Ipswich at the beginning of the 1968-69 season before joining third tier Brighton for £20,000 in January 1969.

Play anywhere Spearritt was then a permanent fixture in the Albion line-up for almost five years, making 225 appearances, before Brian Clough turfed him out at the end of the 1973-74 season.

But he found himself back amongst the elite when newly promoted Carlisle United snapped him up for their one and only season (1974-75) amongst the big boys.

Spearritt made 17 starts and six appearances as a sub for the Cumbrians but, in spite of a superb winning start when they briefly topped the division, United finished the season in bottom spot.

Spearritt shapes to challenge Aston Villa’s Ray Graydon

Equally comfortable playing in midfield, at full back or sweeper, Spearritt had on-off spells as Albion’s chosen penalty-taker as well as chipping in with goals from open play. He even turned his hand to goalkeeping when necessary.

Another key attribute to his game was an ability to send in long throw-ins which could sometimes be as effective as a free kick or corner. It was a skill which earned him a place in a Longest Throw competition staged by BBC’s sport show Grandstand in 1970-71, although he didn’t win it.

Born in Lowestoft on 31 January 1947, Spearritt went to Lowestoft Grammar School and on leaving school was picked up by Arsenal. But when the Gunners didn’t keep him on, he returned to East Anglia and joined Ipswich as an apprentice in August 1963.

He signed a professional contract with Town in February 1965 and, as Tim Hodge details on prideofanglia.com, he made his league debut in the 1965-66 season in a 1-0 win away to Preston in the old Division Two.

That was the season when substitutes were first introduced into the English game and the record books show that Spearritt was the first Ipswich sub to score a goal.

He went on for Irish international Danny Hegan in a match away to Derby County on 15 January 1966 and scored Ipswich’s second goal. The game finished 2-2; Gerry Baker having scored Town’s first.

Over the next three years, Spearritt made a total of 69 appearances (plus 10 as sub) for Bill McGarry’s side, scoring 14 goals along the way. Twenty of those games came in the 1967-68 season when Ipswich won the old Second Division.

A 1-0 home defeat to Spurs in October 1968 was his last for the Suffolk club and he parted company with Town shortly after McGarry left Portman Road to take over at Wolverhampton Wanderers.

A debut v Crewe (left) and slaloming through the Plymouth Argyle defence (right)

Spearritt was one of Freddie Goodwin’s first signings for Brighton – just a few weeks before my first ever Albion game. He made his debut in a 3-1 home win over Crewe Alexandra and kept the number 10 shirt to the end of the season, by which time he had scored five times, including both Albion’s goals in a 2-2 draw at home to Tranmere Rovers.

In the 1969-70 season, not only was he part of the Third Division Albion side who pushed his old manager McGarry’s First Division Wolves side all the way in a memorable third round League Cup tie, it was his header from Kit Napier’s free kick that put the Albion 2-1 ahead just before half-time.

Scottish international Hugh Curran scored twice in eight second half minutes to clinch the win for Wolves but a bumper Goldstone Ground crowd of 32,539 witnessed a terrific effort by their side.

A few weeks’ later, in a marathon FA Cup second round tie with Walsall that required three replays before the Saddlers finally prevailed 2-1, Spearritt took over in goal during the second replay when a concussed Geoff Sidebottom was stretchered off on 65 minutes. Albion hung on for a 1-1 draw.

Spearritt was a midfield regular in his first two seasons but Goodwin’s successor, Pat Saward, switched him to left back halfway through the 1970-71 season and that’s where he stayed throughout 1971-72 when Albion won promotion from the old Third Division as runners up behind Saward’s old club, Aston Villa.

It was in the first half of that season that Spearritt took a call from ex-Ipswich teammate Ray Crawford, the former England international centre forward, who had returned homesick from a short stint playing in South Africa.

He persuaded Saward to offer Crawford a trial and although he didn’t make the league side he scouted upcoming opponents, played for the reserves and subsequently ran the youth team.

Meanwhile, Spearritt was a key part of the promotion side and player-of-the-season Bert Murray generously declared the award could have gone to Eddie for his consistency that season. As it happened, Spearritt did get the award the following season, although somewhat more ignominiously considering Albion were relegated.

All smiles as Pat Saward’s side toast promotion in 1972

In the close season after promotion, Spearritt tied the knot with Penelope Biddulph, “an accomplished professional dancer,” the matchday programme told us, and they moved into a new home in Kingston-by-Sea.

Spearritt started out at left back in Division Two but after ten games was ousted by the arrival of George Ley from Portsmouth. He then switched back into midfield, but by the end of that relegation season was playing sweeper alongside Norman Gall (for nine games) and Steve Piper (for two).

He scored (pictured above), along with Barry Bridges, in a 2-0 win at Huddersfield on 14 October but the team went on a disastrous run of 16 games without a win, although Spearritt did get on the scoresheet three times, including notching two penalties.

When Albion went to that footballing outpost Carlisle on 16 December, they had lost five in a row without managing a single goal. Carlisle were 5-0 up, goalkeeper Brian Powney was carried off with a broken nose, replaced between the sticks by Murray, then Albion won a penalty.

Spearritt took up the story in a subsequent matchday programme. “I used to be the club’s penalty taker but, after I had missed an important one at Mansfield in 1970, I lost the job. Penalty-taking is really all about confidence,” he said. “After I had missed that one at Mansfield, which cost us a point, the players lost confidence in me and the job went first to John Napier and was then taken over by Murray.

“Bert would have taken the penalty at Carlisle. He has already scored two this season. But he had gone in goal and it was decided it was too risky to fetch Bert out of goal to take the penalty.

“Nobody else seemed to want to take it so I just picked the ball up and put it on the spot. We were 5-0 down by then but I thought from a morale point of view that it was extremely important that I scored. You can understand my relief when I saw the ball hit the back of the net.

“Everybody was beginning to wonder when we would score again. I suppose with the run of bad luck we have been having it was almost inevitable that we should break our goal famine from the penalty spot.”

Towards the end of the dismal run, Albion drew First Division Chelsea at home in the third round of the FA Cup. The game was won 2-0 by Chelsea but it was an ugly, violent affair – The Argus labelled it ‘Goldstone day of shame’ – in which five players were booked and each side had a player sent off.

Spearritt, the first to be booked, found himself caught up in a huge controversy which resulted in Chelsea hard man Ron Harris being sent off by Leicester referee Peter Reeves; remarkably the only time in his career he was dismissed.

The Brighton man insisted he’d been hit by the defender and Saward said in diplomatic terms after the game: “Spearritt said he was struck on the mouth and that it was not an involuntary action but a blow. From what I saw, I couldn’t understand it.”

Esteemed football writer Norman Giller subsequently recorded it like this: “Harris got involved in a tussle with Spearritt, and, as he pushed him, Spearritt went down holding his face as if he had been punched. The referee directed Ron to an early bath. All the bones he had kicked, and here was Harris being sent off for a playground push.

“A Brighton-supporting vicar, with a pitchside view, wrote to the Football Association telling them what he had witnessed, and ‘Chopper’ was vindicated.”

Whatever the truth of the matter, Spearritt told Argus Albion reporter John Vinicombe that he’d been threatened by a Chelsea player after the incident. “He spoke to me several times and made it quite clear what he had in mind.”

Albion’s Ley was sent off for bringing down Tommy Baldwin and then getting involved in an altercation with Peter Osgood, who scored both Chelsea goals. Two minutes later David Webb went into the book for a ‘blatant foul’ on Spearritt.

Albion finally returned to winning ways the following month with a 2-0 win over Luton (on 10 February), and then beat Huddersfield, Carlisle and Swindon, prompting Saward to refer to “some outstanding individual performances” and adding: “I have been particularly pleased with the way Eddie Spearritt has been playing in recent weeks.

“He has maintained a high level of consistency this season and his work in defence and in midfield has been invaluable as the side has plugged away trying to turn the tide of results.”

Saward made Spearritt Albion’s captain at the start of the 1973-74 season back in Division Three and with the return of central defender Ian Goodwin and then the emergence of Piper in the sweeping role, he was soon back in midfield.

But when Saward was sacked in October and sensationally replaced by former Derby County League title winning management duo Brian Clough and Peter Taylor, Spearritt was one of the first to have his nose put out of joint by the new arrivals.

Journalist Spencer Vignes described what happened in Bloody Southerners (Biteback Publishing, 2018), his excellent book about that era.

Clough sought out long-serving centre back Norman Gall and, because he hailed from the same part of the country (ie the north east), told him he was making him the captain. Gall told Vignes: “Suddenly I’m captain, which I was really happy about. Eddie Spearritt didn’t like it though. He’d been captain up until then. In fact, he didn’t talk to me after that. That was the beginning of the end for Eddie.”

Spearritt was part of the side who capitulated 4-0, 8-2 and 4-1 in successive games against Walton & Hersham, Bristol Rovers and Tranmere Rovers, and he was dropped for six games, along with Ley (who never played for Albion again). Clough went into the transfer market and brought in midfielder Ronnie Welch and left back Harry Wilson from Burnley.

Although Spearritt was restored to the team in mid January, and had a run of seven games — including his 200th league game for Albion — when he was subbed off in a home win over Hereford United on 10 March 1974, it was to be his last appearance in an Albion shirt.

In five years he’d played 225 games (plus seven as sub) and scored 25 goals.

Come the end of the season, Spearritt was one of 12 players released by the club in what became known as the great Clough clear-out.

Perhaps surprisingly, though, his next step was UP two divisions to play in the First Division with then newly promoted Carlisle United.

One of his teammates there was defender Graham Winstanley, who later joined the Albion. The side was captained by Chris Balderstone, who was also a top cricketer. Journeyman striker Hugh McIlmoyle played up front while John Gorman, who later played for Spurs and became Glenn Hoddle’s managerial sidekick, was also in the team.

They memorably topped the division after three games…but predictably finished bottom of the pile by the end. In his two-year stay with the Cumbrians, Spearritt played 29 times, was sub twice and scored a single goal.

He moved back south in August 1976, signed by Gerry Summers at Gillingham, and made his debut in a League Cup first round second leg tie against Aldershot, then made his league debut against Reading.

In total, he made 22 appearances in his one season at the club — one of them at the Goldstone Ground on December 29 1976, when the Albion won 2-0 on a slippery, snow-covered pitch. Spearritt scored just the once for the Gills, from the penalty spot against Rotherham United at Priestfield.

He emigrated to Australia the following summer and settled in Brisbane where he played 56 games for the Brisbane Lions between 1977 and 1980 and was their head coach in 1979. He subsequently coached Rochedale Rovers in the Brisbane Intermediate League, steering them to promotion to the Premier League in 1983.

Outside of football, he became estates manager for L’Oréal and in later years was better known as the uncle of Hannah Spearritt, once of the pop group S Club 7, who became an actress in the ITV drama Primevil.

John ‘Stonewall’ Jackson a loyal George Petchey disciple

NOT TO BE confused with the founder and first manager of Brighton & Hove Albion, that man’s namesake, John Jackson, was a coach at the Goldstone in the ‘80s and the ‘90s.

Less well known was that he could have been in goal for Albion for the 1983 FA Cup Final. Rather like Steve Foster, back-up ‘keeper Perry Digweed was serving a suspension when the game against Manchester United came round.

Digweed had been sent off in a reserve match in early May 1983 and was banned for the final and the replay. So, if anything had happened to first choice Graham Moseley – and let’s face it, he had been known to have off-field mishaps at other times during his Albion career – the man between the sticks at Wembley could well have been Jackson.

Jackson had signed on emergency Combination forms in February 1983 and played for the Reserves in a 1-1 draw at home to Luton when Moseley and youth team ‘keeper Martin Hyde were both injured. He stayed on and helped coach the youth team alongside John Shepherd and with Moseley fully fit was not needed for first team duty (in those days, there were no substitute goalkeepers on the bench).

Jackson, who died aged 80 four days after Christmas 2022, had spent the earlier part of the 1982-83 season at Hereford United, who had just finished bottom of the Fourth Division. He had appeared in six matches at the end of a 19-year career. bullsnews.blogspot.com reveals that Jackson was the oldest league player to turn out for United. He was six days past his 40th birthday when he played against Darlington on 11 September 1982.

It was all a far cry from the days when he was Crystal Palace’s first choice goalkeeper for eight seasons. He subsequently followed his former Palace coach George Petchey to Orient (where he played in the same side as Albion’s 1983 FA Cup Final captain Tony Grealish) and Millwall.

It seemed wherever Petchey went, Jackson was sure to go too. When Petchey was Chris Cattlin’s assistant manager at Brighton, he brought in Jackson to coach the Albion goalkeepers once a week. It was certainly a job close to home for Jackson, who lived in Hangleton with his wife and three daughters.

In an interview with Football Weekly News in 1979, Jackson said: “Petchey was coach at Palace, and manager of Orient, when I was with them, therefore I felt it was right to join the devil you know than the one you don’t know! I find George a straightforward and honest man to work with.”

When Petchey returned to the Albion in January 1994, as part of Liam Brady’s backroom team, it wasn’t long before Jackson was added to the staff to help his mentor develop young players.

And after Brady’s departure and Petchey’s elevation to become Jimmy Case’s assistant, Jackson took over running the youth team.

Jackson remained in post throughout the managerial upheavals of Case’s departure, the Steve Gritt reign, and the arrival of Brian Horton. But he left at the end of the 1997-98 season when Horton brought in Martin Hinshelwood as director of youth and former captain Dean Wilkins as youth team coach.

Born in Hammersmith on 5 September 1942, Jackson went to St Clement Danes School and spent time with Brentford as a junior. But it was Palace who swooped to sign him up, as Jackson explained in a 2019 cpfc.co.uk interview.

“Arthur Rowe spotted me playing for a London grammar school against an FA youth XI made up of players from other London teams and he got in touch with my teacher, and from that conversation I ended up having a couple of games with the Palace reserve side aged 18. Then, when I joined full-time, I eventually took the opportunity with both hands, literally!”

Jackson was often described as the best goalkeeper England never had. While he was unfortunate not to earn a full international cap, he played seven times for England Youth between February and May 1961, his teammates including the likes of Bert Murray, Ron Harris, Francis Lee and David Pleat.

He signed as a trainee at Palace in March 1962, and in the 1964-65 season initially shared the ‘keeper’s jersey with Welsh international Tony Millington (whose younger brother Grenville was briefly back-up ‘keeper to Brian Powney at Brighton).

Once Jackson established himself as first choice, he kept the shirt for the next eight seasons. At one stage, he played 222 consecutive games for Palace.

On the where-are-they-now.co.uk website, contributor Martin Wiseman said: “He was definitely one of the best goalkeepers I ever saw as Palace were pretty terrible most of the time and often he was the only thing that kept us in the game. When we played one of the bigger teams, the game was often just a succession of John Jackson saves. Brilliant player.”

Indeed, he was nicknamed ‘Stonewall’ Jackson (after the famous American Civil War Confederate general). Of his mentor Petchey, he said: “He used to work me hard but the harder you worked at your game the more you learned and the better you would become. He made me a more confident player.”

Unluckily for Jackson, it was an era when England were blessed with a string of fine goalkeepers. Apart from Gordon Banks, there was Gordon West (Blackpool and Everton), Jim Montgomery (Sunderland), Peter Bonetti (Chelsea) and, at under 23 level, Peter Grummitt was preferred.

The closest Jackson came to senior international recognition came on 17 March 1971 when he kept goal for a Football League XI that beat a Scottish League XI 1-0 at Hampden Park. Ralph Coates scored the only goal of the game and the English line up included World Cup winners Bobby Moore and Geoff Hurst. Playing in defence alongside Moore were Paul Reaney (Leeds), Roy McFarland (Derby) and Derek Parkin (Wolves).

Jackson’s reign between the sticks for Palace came to an end when flamboyant Malcolm Allison took over as manager. Palace fans were not happy. In the book We All Follow The Palace edited by Tony Matthews (Eagle Eye 1993), Keith Brody wrote: “When Jacko left us, it marked the end of an era, culturally as well as football-wise.

“It is oddly fitting that he was swept away with the same disrespect that has come to symbolise the generation that replaced his ilk. Even though we have plenty to thank Big Mal for, his treatment of our hero means it should always be done through clenched teeth.

“It would have been offensive if a loyal, but crap, goalkeeper had been replaced by Paul Hammond and Tony Burns, but to do it to Jacko was unthinkable.

“Watching the ineffective Hammond for three long years after the joys of Jackson was almost unbearable. Every game was spent pondering on the value of what we’d given away.”

It was on 16 October 1973 that Jackson followed his former coach Petchey to Orient for £25,000 (Gerry Queen, Phil Hoadley, Bill Roffey and David Payne were other ex-Palace players who made that switch) and at Bloomfield Road he went on to attract a whole new band of admirers. Indeed, in Tony McDonald’s book Orient in the 70s, Jackson is described as “Orient’s greatest ever goalkeeper”.

Palace did give Jackson a testimonial match, however, and on 11 December 1973, a Selhurst Park crowd of 11,628 turned out for a match opponents Chelsea won 3-1.

Orient were a second tier side throughout Jackson’s time at the club, during which they had some unsuccessful tilts at promotion but enjoyed some exciting FA Cup runs, including making it to the semi-final in 1978 before losing 3-0 to Arsenal.

Their run to the semis included a memorable fifth round replay win over Chelsea, with Jackson pulling off a superb save to deny Clive Walker an equaliser as Orient clung on to a 2-1 lead courtesy of two Peter Kitchen goals.

Jackson had taken over from Ray Goddard as Orient’s no.1 and it must have been a very happy Christmas for him when promotion contenders Orient beat Palace 3-0 at home on Boxing Day 1973 in front of a bumper crowd of 20,611.

Come the end of the season, they missed out on promotion by a single point to Carlisle United after failing to beat Aston Villa (it was 1-1) in front of another huge crowd of 29,766, and the LWT cameras for The Big Match.  Days earlier Villa had lost 2-0 at Carlisle for whom Graham ‘Tot’ Winstanley proved an able deputy for suspended captain Bill Green.

Another memorable game filmed for The Big Match saw Jackson concede three on 7 April 1979 when Albion were on their way to promotion from the Second Division. Orient took the lead at Brisbane Road but Brighton equalised thus: “Paul Clark cracked in a seemingly unstoppable shot, miraculously John Jackson parried the effort but only to Peter Sayer, and (pictured above) the little Welshman slammed the ball joyfully into the home goal,” the matchday programme recorded. The game eventually finished 3-3, Albion’s other goals coming from Martin Chivers (his only one for Brighton) and Clark.

Three years earlier, Orient were finalists in the rather curious Anglo-Scottish Cup tournament of that time: 16 English teams and eight Scottish sides played a mix of group stage games and two-legged knockout matches.

Orient topped their group above Norwich, Chelsea and Fulham; they beat Aberdeen 2-0 on aggregate in the quarter finals and Partick Thistle 4-2 in the semis. They eventually lost out 5-1 on aggregate to Nottingham Forest, but it was Brian Clough’s first piece of silverware as Forest manager, and he said in his biography: “Those who said it was a nothing trophy were absolutely crackers. We’d won something, and it made all the difference.”

In common with many other English players at the time, Jackson tried his luck in the United States and in 1977 played for St Louis Stars, returning in 1978 when they became Californian Surf. His head coach was John Sewell, who’d been a playing colleague at Crystal Palace and Orient. Ironically, his predecessor at St Louis was Bill Glazier, the former Coventry City ‘keeper, who’d also been his predecessor at Palace.

It was the arrival of former West Ham ‘keeper Mervyn Day at Brisbane Road that signalled the end of Jackson’s time in Leyton and, in August 1979, Petchey, who’d taken over from Gordon Jago as boss at Millwall, signed him for £7,500.

“I have been in the game too long to end it in the reserves and decided that if I was to finish playing, it would be in the first team,” Jackson told Football Weekly News.

The then Third Division Lions went on to win the league. Jackson played a total of 53 matches for them that season and he was chosen by his fellow professionals in the 1979-80 PFA team of the year. (Former Brighton winger Tony Towner played 50 games for Millwall that campaign and scored 13 goals)

After two years with Millwall, by a curious turn of events, Bobby Robson signed him for the previous season’s First Division runners up Ipswich Town as a back-up to Paul Cooper.

His one league appearance for Ipswich was in a top-of-the-table clash against Manchester United, with Ipswich needing to win to stay in with a chance of winning the League Championship. And they did, 2-1, with John Wark scoring both and John Gidman replying for United.

The game was played in front of a 25,763 crowd at Portman Road and Jackson was given a standing ovation at the end after he’d pulled off three important saves. Robson was quoted in the Guardian as saying: “We have paid him a year’s salary to make those saves, but it was worth it!”

However, while Ipswich finished the season five points ahead of United, they were once again runners up, finishing four points behind champions Liverpool.

Even a second placed finish was enough to convince the English FA to give Robson the job of replacing Ron Greenwood as England manager after the country’s unbeaten exit from the World Cup in Spain.

While Jackson might have thought his playing days were over, they weren’t quite. Frank Lord signed him for Fourth Division Hereford United. Lord wasn’t long in the job, though, and he was succeeded by the Bulls’ long-serving former ‘keeper Tommy Hughes, who had played on loan for Brighton in 1973.

Jackson’s move into goalkeeper coaching at Brighton under Cattlin was to prove a career-defining moment for another top goalkeeper of that era: former Manchester City custodian Joe Corrigan.

“I got talking to him and it inspired me to look into doing something similar,” Corrigan told the Manchester City matchday programme on 29 September 2018. “So, it was down to Brighton indirectly that I moved into the next phase of my career.”

Corrigan had been signed by Jimmy Melia and was coming to the end of his illustrious playing career. He fell out with Melia’s successor, Cattlin, and went on loan to Stoke City, but eventually was forced to quit after being injured in an Albion reserve match.

He went on to become goalkeeper coach at Liverpool for 10 years, and also worked at Stockport, West Brom and Hull.

Jackson took a variety of different jobs outside of football – fitting blinds, working for a golf magazine, selling golf equipment and as a courier for Lewes Council. During his second spell back at the Albion, amongst the youngsters he took through was goalkeeper Will Packham.

Jackson signed him on as a YTS trainee after he left Blatchington Mill School in Hove, and he spent nine years on the club’s books.

Teenage debutant ‘keeper Forster forever just a back-up

A GOALKEEPER who held a ‘youngest ever’ record for 58 years played second fiddle between the sticks for Charlton Athletic and Brighton.

Derek Forster had started out at Sunderland and was only FIFTEEN when he played in goal in front of a 45,000 Roker Park crowd in the opening game of the 1964-65 season.

The youngster let in three – but so did his opposite number, Gordon Banks, the England international who was in goal for opponents Leicester City.

“Derek’s a wonderful prospect. From what I could see, he didn’t make a single mistake,” said Banks after the game.

Forster had played in front of an even bigger crowd a few months’ earlier when 95,000 at Wembley saw him keep goal for England Schools against West Germany.

But those early tests of nerves were of little consequence because Forster’s career didn’t pan out quite as he might have wanted.

Sunderland’s first choice ‘keeper, Jim Montgomery, was one of the country’s top goalkeepers, best known for a match-winning double-save for the Wearsiders in the 1973 FA Cup Final at Wembley when second tier Sunderland beat high-flying Leeds United 1-0.

Montgomery remained largely injury-free – and made a record 627 appearances for Sunderland – meaning over the course of eight years the 5’9” Forster only got to play 30 league and cup games for the Mackems.

It was only after that amazing FA Cup win in 1973 that Forster finally left his home in the north-east and tried his luck in London. He joined third tier Charlton who were managed by Theo Foley, a former Eire international teammate of his old Sunderland playing colleague, Charlie Hurley.

Forster was soon in action for the Addicks, ironically playing against Brighton twice within 18 days at the Goldstone (they won 2-1 in the League Cup and in the League). Below left in a collision with Lammie Robertson.

But he was not able to dislodge the experienced John Dunn permanently from the no.1 spot and was limited to nine appearances. He moved during the close season to the Albion, where Brian Clough and Peter Taylor had dispensed with the services of long-serving Brian Powney as part of a 13-player clear-out.

Forster actually joined Albion on the very day that it was announced Taylor was staying at Brighton to take sole charge after his managerial mate Clough quit to join Leeds United.

At the Goldstone, though, Forster found the holder of the no.1 jersey, Peter Grummitt, was another in the same ilk as Montgomery. Grummitt, who’d been one of the pair’s first signings not long after they’d arrived at the Goldstone in the autumn of 1973, had played more than 350 games at the highest level for Nottingham Forest and won three caps for England’s under 23 side, where he vied for the goalkeeper position with Chelsea’s Peter Bonetti.

Arguably one of the best Albion goalkeepers ever, it was perhaps no surprise Grummitt’s form restricted Forster to only three appearances. Ironically, when Forster did get his first team break, he conceded six in his first match.

In spite of pre-season optimism from Taylor, Albion had only three wins on the board from their first 13 games, and when the side went to Fellows Park, Walsall, on 1 October, Forster was like a sitting duck as the Saddlers thumped Albion 6-0. Grummitt was back between the sticks for the following five matches.

No stranger to strong disciplinary measures when he deemed it right, in October Taylor made six first teamers who’d lost 3-2 at Grimsby the previous evening play for the reserves at home to Millwall the following day.

Forster was the last line  of defence in that experienced line-up, and made some important stops on three occasions, but still conceded three. However, the involvement of the first team contingent saw Albion win 5-3: Ian Mellor scoring all five Brighton goals.

Three weeks later, after player-manager Bobby Charlton’s visiting Preston North End side won 4-0 at the Goldstone, Forster stepped in for Grummitt for the second time – and once again was on the losing side: 2-1 at Gillingham.

His one and only winning experience in an Albion shirt came the following week at Prenton Park when Albion beat Tranmere Rovers 2-1. In front of just 2,134 supporters, that win proved to be Forster’s third and last first team appearance.

Taylor obviously wasn’t wholly convinced by his back-up ‘keeper that autumn because he took a look in the reserves at triallist Jim Inger, from assistant manager Brian Daykin’s old club, Long Eaton.

Nevertheless, Forster remained the back-up ‘keeper, a role he continued throughout the 1975-76 season without being called on for the first team because Grummitt was ever-present. The disillusioned Forster departed, admitting he was “cheesed off at Brighton”.

In fact, he quit the professional game, returned to the north-east and played local league football while taking on a job at Washington Leisure Centre (run by Sunderland city council’s leisure department), where he worked for 30 years.

He was in the news in 2010 when it was revealed that three years earlier he had lost the sight in his left eye through cancer.

“It changes your whole life,” he told the Northern Echo. “You either jump off the bridge or you tell yourself to get on with it.

“It makes you realise that it doesn’t matter how hard you train, or how careful you are about what you eat, it’s someone else who’s calling the shots.”

Forster, who retired from the city council, added: “We presumed that we’d do all sorts when we retired and then I realised that I mightn’t even have got that far.

“Now we don’t presume anything. I’ve changed a lot; if that tumour had spread I was a goner. Now every day is a Sunday.” Forster fought on for a few more years before he died aged 75 on 2 May 2024.

Born in the Walker suburb of Newcastle on 19 February 1949, Forster went to Manor Park School in the east end of the city: actor Jimmy Nail and Sunderland and England footballer Dennis Tueart were other alumni.

As a promising centre forward, Forster had trials with the city’s under-11s. “One of the goalies didn’t turn up, so they asked me to play there,” Forster recalled.

“I’d honestly never kept goal in my life, not even in the back street, but I had a blinder. Caught every ball. After that, I never played anywhere else.”

The young Forster’s prowess earned him selection for the England Schools side on nine occasions, in a squad that included future stars Trevor Brooking, Colin Todd,  Colin Suggett and Joe Royle.

Sixty years on, it seems extraordinary to discover crowds of 95,000 would fill Wembley to watch the cream of England’s schoolboys, but vintage black and white film footage available on YouTube confirms it.

The all-things-Sunderland website rokerreport.sbnation.comisa detailed source of how Forster made history, and it is certainly a rather curious tale.

Initially signed as an amateur by Sunderland, he was then taken on as an apprentice but for two weeks of the 1964-65 pre-season month he’d been on a family holiday in Blackpool.

He’d trained for just a week and had never seen his new teammates play competitively. Then regular goalkeeper Montgomery sustained a hairline fracture of his left arm in training.

The opening game of the season – Sunderland’s first game back in the top flight after winning promotion – was only a matter of days away and they were without a manager because Alan Brown had left in acrimonious circumstances to take charge of Sheffield Wednesday.

Brown was temporarily replaced by a ‘selection committee’ of club officials and team captain Charlie Hurley.

The assumption was that the 20-year-old reserve goalkeeper, Derek Kirby, would deputise for Montgomery but, instead, they turned to Forster, who’d had that experience of playing in front of a huge crowd at Wembley.

After being called into club secretary George Crow’s office on the Thursday morning to be told he’d be starting, he said: “This is the greatest moment of my life. I had no idea that I would get my chance so soon, even after Monty’s unfortunate injury.

“I only hope I will justify the confidence shown in me and don’t let anyone down.

“I expect I shall be a little bit nervous, but it will be wonderful – and inspiring – playing behind Charlie Hurley and company.”

Even though he let in three, not only did he have the praise of Banks ringing in his ears, but his captain Hurley said: “A great game. If he goes on like this, he’ll have an exceptional future.”

The following Monday’s Echo said the young ‘keeper had “the agility of a panther” and was “bursting at the seams with talent”.

While The Journal’s Alf Greenley reported: “The crowd were with him to a man, even, I suspect, the not inconsiderable contingent of Leicester followers who had made the trip and the reception accorded to him when he turned out was only exceeded by that at the end.

“It was a truly remarkable performance for one so young.

“He handled the ball in the swirling wind with the confidence of a veteran, positioned well and stood up to the onslaught of the Leicester forwards like one far in advance of his years.”

Forster was just 15 years and 185 days old on the day of the match and he remained the youngest-ever top-flight footballer until 18 September 2022 when Arsenal’s Ethan Nwaneri rewrote the record books coming off the bench in the 89th minute of the Gunners’ 3-0 win at Brentford yesterday. He was aged just 15 years and 181 days.

It remains to be seen what sort of future Nwaneri might have in the game. For Forster, although he played the next few games, Montgomery returned and the teenager was left to hold a watching brief although he was still young enough to play a key role in Sunderland’s successful youth team of the mid-1960s.

In 1965, Sunderland lost the two-legged FA Youth Cup semi-final 5-0 to Everton for whom two goals in the Goodison first leg 4-0 win were scored by Jimmy Husband, who’d been a schoolmate of Forster’s in Newcastle.

Sunderland lost the 1966 final 5-3 on aggregate to Arsenal (who included Pat Rice and Sammy Nelson), when Forster’s teammates included the future Cup Final side captain Bobby Kerr, Billy Hughes, Suggett and Todd, who went on to win the league with Derby County and play for England.

Forster was still the last line of defence when the Wearsiders (above) finally won the trophy in 1967, a 2-0 aggregate scoreline seeing off a Birmingham City side that had future England international Bob Latchford at centre forward.

Less than 48 hours after the game, Forster, Hughes and Suggett travelled to North America as part of a squad selected by manager Ian McColl to represent the club in the United Soccer Association, where they played seven matches under the guise of the Vancouver Royal Canadians.

Retrospectively, Forster regretted not moving on sooner from Sunderland. But he told the Northern Echo: “Sunderland were one of the top youth clubs and they were very good to me. I should have left much earlier, seen the signs, but in those days players were genuinely loyal.

“You didn’t just ask to leave as soon as you were dropped. I decided to stay. It was my mistake. Monty never got injured again for five years, though I tried hard to kick him in training. He was an exceptional goalkeeper.”

Forster likened his situation to Newcastle’s Shay Given and Steve Harper. “Both very good goalkeepers, but maybe one a bit better than the other.”

Back-up ‘keeper Alan Dovey’s limited chances to shine

THE LIFE of a back-up ‘keeper can be pretty soul destroying, with first team opportunities often few and far between.

Such was the lot of former Chelsea youngster Alan Dovey, who was deputy to longstanding no.1 Brian Powney at the start of the 1970s, and only played eight first team matches for Brighton in two years.

Dovey initially joined on loan in March 1971. Powney’s rival for the no.1 shirt at the start of the season had been the experienced Geoff Sidebottom but he had been forced to retire because of a head injury.

Saward subsequently brought in Ian Seymour from Fulham on a temporary basis when Powney was out for three games, but Chelsea boss Dave Sexton, who’d previously played for the Albion, did his old side a favour by lending them youth team goalie Dovey until the end of the season.

He had to wait until the last two games before getting his chance to shine, making his debut in a 3-1 win away to Bristol Rovers and then appearing in the season’s finale at Wrexham, which ended in a 1-1 draw.

The loan became a permanent transfer that summer, Albion securing the young ‘keeper’s services for £1,000.

He played three times in Albion’s 1971-72 promotion season, and manager Pat Saward appeared content with the youngster, telling Goal magazine “It’s hard having to leave him out again, but what can you do. Chelsea manager Dave Sexton did us a great favour when he let Alan go for £1,000.”

His first game of the season was at Carrow Road, Norwich, when Albion were knocked out in the second round of the League Cup 2-0.

However, under the headline ‘Dovey’s daring display’ the matchday programme declared: “Despite the 2-0 defeat, the former Chelsea goalkeeper had a fine game and thrilled spectators with some daring saves. He had been nursing an injury and this was an in-at-the-deep-end experience but he came through it with great credit.”

It was more than three months before he got his next first team outing, but he once again earned rave notices for his performance in a 2-1 win away to York City, earning Albion’s Man of the Match accolade from Evening Argus reporter John Vinicombe.

The following matchday programme reported: “It was ‘all go’ for Alan. He had to race out of his goal in one York raid and was booked for an infringement, and also had numerous adventures in keeping out shots, centres and breaking up penalty box scrambles.”

Dovey was only ever back-up to Brian Powney

Saward didn’t next call on Dovey until 15 March, a 1-0 home defeat to Oldham Athletic which temporarily put the brakes on Albion’s bid for automatic promotion. Remarkably, that game against Oldham (which also saw a debut as substitute from new signing Ken Beamish) was the first time Dovey had played in front of the Goldstone faithful.

When Albion entertained Exeter City in the first round of the League Cup on 16 August 1972, the crowd may have been 6,500 down on the attendance for the season opener against Bristol City four days earlier but the game presented Dovey with another chance to show what he could do. (The game also saw the return of former captain John Napier to the centre of defence, although he was most likely being ‘shop windowed’ with a view to a transfer).

It is interesting to read an Exeter-angled summary of the game, which declared: “There was no denying that the first half belonged to City, and they deservedly led after 22 minutes with Fred Binney’s goal. There were a few moments early on when the back four and reserve goalkeeper Alan Dovey were little more than strangers in the night. 

“Eventually the pattern knitted together and Dovey gained confidence to make two fine saves in the last 20 minutes from Binney (who two years later joined the Albion in exchange for John Templeman and Lammie Robertson) and Dick Plumb – shots that could so easily have caused a shock defeat.”

Albion eventually prevailed thanks to goals from Willie Irvine and Beamish.

The two league matches Dovey featured in that season were not games he’d look back on fondly. Away to Preston North End on 25 November, Albion’s rookie ‘keeper conceded four when he deputised for ‘flu-hit Powney.

It was the same scoreline at Sunderland, who hadn’t won in 11 games, but who went on to reach that season’s FA Cup Final in which they famously beat Leeds United 1-0.

The Wearsiders hadn’t won at home since September but Brighton went to Roker Park having lost their previous nine matches and, according to the Sunderland Echo, “The winning margin could well have been doubled…. they applied themselves to the task of mastering Brighton’s strong-arm tactics and taking them apart.”

Sunderland took the lead in the ninth minute. Joe Bolton’s hammered left-foot shot struck Dovey in the face, knocking him over, and Billy Hughes pounced on the rebound to drive home a low shot.

Dennis Tueart added a second in the 45th minute and Brighton found the going tougher still in the second half.

After surviving a goalmouth scramble, Sunderland got their third goal in the 58th minute. A free-kick against George Ley for pushing Tueart was taken by Bobby Kerr, whose well-placed drive to the near post was brilliantly headed into goal by Hughes.

Hughes twice came close to completing a hat-trick but it was Bolton who hit what the Echo described as the goal of the game: “a right-foot drive, of such power that Dovey had no chance”.

Struggling to come up with a solution to the disastrous run, Saward went public and started to point the finger at players who he reckoned weren’t cutting it.

Dovey was transfer-listed along with veteran defender Norman Gall and Bertie Lutton. Lutton got a surprise move to West Ham but Gall stayed put and Dovey was released at the end of the season without playing another game.

Born in Stepney on 18 July 1952, Dovey grew up in Chadwell St Mary in Essex and played for Thurrock Boys before joining Chelsea straight from school in 1968 after writing to them to ask for a trial.

He became a youth team regular as well as playing a handful of games for the reserves. On 18 January 1969, he was in goal for a Chelsea side (which also included future first teamer and England international Alan Hudson) when they beat Brighton 5-2 in a South East Counties League youth team fixture.

It was always going to be difficult for Dovey to progress at Stamford Bridge because Worthing-born Peter Bonetti was an almost permanent fixture in Chelsea’s first team and he was understudied initially by Scotland under-23 international Tommy Hughes (who later played three games for the Albion on loan from Aston Villa in 1973) and then future Welsh international John Phillips, who was briefly Graham Moseley’s back-up during Albion’s second season (1980-81) in the First Division.

However, Dovey made national newspaper headlines when he came close to making a first team appearance on 10 January 1970.

Both Bonetti and Hughes went down with ‘flu ahead of a key match between third-placed Chelsea and Leeds United, who were in second place. Chelsea tried to get the game postponed but the Football League wouldn’t hear of it.

The Daily Mirror reported: “Chelsea failed to convince the Football League last night that it would be unfair to put 17-year-old Alan Dovey in goal against Leeds today.

“Dovey, untried beyond an occasional game in the reserves, stands by to face the League Champions.”

Veteran football reporter Ken Jones wrote: “Bonetti has no chance of playing. Unless Hughes has improved by this morning, Dovey will be drafted into the team.”

Chelsea boss Sexton told Jones: “We are hoping Hughes will recover. But if he doesn’t, we shall just have to put Alan in.

“It’s not the sort of thing we like doing with a youngster, but he won’t let us down if he has to play.”

Jones noted that although Dovey had only been a professional for six months, he didn’t display any nerves when interviewed.

“The things that happen in League football happen in youth football,” Dovey told him, “so it will only be the pace and the skill which will be different.

“When Dave Sexton told me I might have to play, that itself was a great thrill. It will be an even greater thrill if I do play against such a great side as Leeds.”

As it turned out, Hughes was adjudged fit after all, although he might have regretted it. In what was only his fifth senior game in five years at the club, he shipped five goals as United won 5-2 in front of a Stamford Bridge crowd of 57,221.

In August that year, Dovey was once again on standby to step up to the first team squad when Hughes suffered a broken leg. But Sexton went into the transfer market instead and bought Phillips from Aston Villa.

The Goldstone Wrap in 2014 noted Dovey stepped away from full-time football after the Albion let him go to pursue a career in insurance. Nevertheless, he played part-time for various Sussex clubs.

Notably he was at Southwick, along with former Albion teammate Paul Flood, at the same time as Ralf Rangnick, later to take temporary charge of Manchester United, was on their books.

Dovey also played for Worthing for three seasons, in their double promotion-winning squad of the early ‘80s, until, in April 1984, manager Barry Lloyd publicly criticised him, telling the Argus: “Alan has done exceptionally well for us over the past three years, but he’s not really aggressive enough in this premier division.”

Duffy had Burleigh pal for company on his Albion arrival

HISTORY has seen a whole string of goalkeepers play for both Newcastle United and Brighton. Dutchman Tim Krul was the most recent and others stretching back over the years – Eric Steele, Dave Beasant, and Steve Harper – have featured in this blog at various times.

My post this time, though, centres on Martin Burleigh, for many years an understudy to Northern Irish international Iam McFaul.

When stocky striker Alan Duffy travelled 350 miles from home to join Brighton in early 1970, it was with some relief that he found the familiar face of Burleigh amongst his new teammates.

How Albion’s matchday programme reported Duffy’s delight in meeting up with a familiar face

The goalkeeper, who was only 18, was on loan at the Albion at the time. The previous year he and Duffy had been in the same Newcastle United youth team.

Not only did that side do the Northern Intermediate League and cup double, 10 days before the first team won the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, the youth team brought even more silverware to Tyneside – winning a prestigious international youth tournament at Feyenoord’s ground in Rotterdam.

Toon’s trophy-winning youth team of 1969

Unlike Albion’s new £10,000 permanent signing, though, Burleigh was to have only a short-lived stay in Sussex. Manager Freddie Goodwin had brought in the Toon no.3 ‘keeper (Iam McFaul was first choice and John Hope his deputy) as cover while Albion were reduced to only one fit goalkeeper (Brian Powney) following a serious head injury to Geoff Sidebottom in the first match of a marathon second round FA Cup tie against Walsall (it took four games to decide it; those were the days before penalty shoot-outs).

Thankfully Powney avoided injury so young Burleigh was not called into match action, and he returned to the north east still waiting to make his league debut. Indeed, he had to wait until Boxing Day 1970 for that chance. Although Toon went down 3-0 at Leeds United, opposition manager Don Revie praised the youngster, saying: “I thought he had a fine game. He had no chance with the goals. Some of the saves he made showed he has a fine future ahead of him.”

It would seem Toon boss Joe Harvey wasn’t so sure and it was more than a year before Burleigh got his next chance to shine, making his home debut in a 4-2 win over Coventry City on 8 January 1972.

Once again it was to be his only first team appearance of the season, but in the 1972-73 season he finally got a run of games when McFaul was injured. He played in 11 matches but then had the misfortune to fracture a finger in a collision with Mick Channon during a 1-1 draw at Southampton, and McFaul returned.

The Toon 1892.com website recalls Burleigh then having a struggle with weight issues and he had a public dispute with manager Harvey which saw him walk out of the club saying he was going to join the RAF. But Newcastle retained his registration and when the dust settled on the dispute he was sent on loan to Darlington before making the move permanent in October 1974 for a fee of £8,000.

He was only at Darlington for a season before switching across country to Carlisle United, where he spent two seasons.

When Burleigh died at the age of 70 on 27 September 2021, Carlisle chairman Andrew Jenkins said: “Martin was a big character who was a pleasure to have around. He was tall and strong in stature and very stylish in the way he kept goal.

“We used to talk about how he very much had the manner of how the goalkeepers in Europe used to do things, with flair and a bit of theatre.

“I remember that Alan Ashman was really keen to get him signed and over here to join us. When he was speaking to the board about him, he said that the fans would be queuing along Warwick Road to watch him – he felt he was that good.”

His death was mourned by former Newcastle teammates too and several ‘Toon Legends’ remembered him at a gathering at the Tyneside Irish Centre.

Tribute on Twitter following Burleigh’s death

“Martin was a great friend and a lot of players who played alongside him at Newcastle from junior to first team level want to pay their respects to a real character,” Toon Legends official Chris Emmerson told Chronicle Live.

After his spell at Carlisle, where he also had to bide his time behind first choice Allan Ross, Burleigh returned to Fourth Division Darlington for two more seasons, during which time (in October 1978) he kept goal when the north east minnows only narrowly lost (1-0) to First Division Everton in a third round League Cup tie.

Burleigh went on to spend three seasons in goal for Hartlepool, ending his league career with a total of 222 appearances.

He then became a painter and decorator but continued playing for non-league sides in the area, appearing for Bishop Auckland, Spennymoor and Langley Park until packing up playing in 1984.

Born in Willington, County Durham, on 2 February 1951, Burleigh was playing for his hometown team at 17 when Newcastle signed him in 1968, initially as an amateur.

Kenneth Scott, in The Toon1892 Chronicles, wrote: “He displayed within the junior and reserve teams that he was more than capable between the posts and it was not long before he turned professional.”

That happened in December 1968 and before the end of the season he was in goal for the Newcastle youth team under coach Keith Burkinshaw (who later managed Spurs) when they won the international tournament in Holland, beating an Arsenal side containing the likes of Ray Kennedy, Sammy Nelson, Charlie George, Eddie Kelly, and Pat Rice.

The achievement was somewhat overshadowed by the first team’s triumph in the old Inter-Cities Fairs Cup when Toon beat Hungarian side Ujpest in the two-legged final, skipper Bobby Moncur lifting the trophy in Budapest.

Although Burleigh managed to edge out McFaul’s deputy Hope to become the no.2 at St James’s Park (Hope joined Sheffield United along with David Ford in exchange for John Tudor in 1971), the form and fitness of the Northern Irish international (who later spent three years as manager of Newcastle) always kept him on the sidelines.

• Incidentally, in line with the tradition of Albion ‘sharing’ goalkeepers over several decades, when McFaul was in the manager’s chair in January 1988 he took Albion’s long-serving Perry Digweed on a month’s loan with the Magpies. He played in their reserves but didn’t appear in the first team. The following month he went on loan to relegation-threatened Chelsea where he featured in three matches: a 3-3 draw away to Coventry City, a 0-0 home draw v Everton and a 4-4 draw at Oxford United.

‘Kingpin’ and skipper dropped for top-of-the-table clash

JOHN NAPIER is still coaching youngsters in America as he approaches his 76th birthday. NICK TURRELL’S In Parallel Lines blog caught up with him for a trip down memory lane.  In the second of five articles, John recalls Pat Saward signalling the end of his time with the Albion.

SUCH WAS JOHN Napier’s prominence at Brighton, he made an extraordinary 106 consecutive appearances for Albion. Until March 1972.

“I was lucky with injuries, which normally keeps players out,” he recalled. “Mine were mostly cuts around the head area or a broken nose – but nothing serious to keep me out.

“And with Norman Gall beside me, we had a great understanding together. I always took pride in my role in the team. Nothing is for ever, for sure, but you always wanted to be on the field.”

Captain Napier in the number 5 shirt was the status quo as winter turned to spring in 1972 and Albion’s chances of promotion from the Third Division looked ever more promising as they vied for one of the top two spots with Aston Villa and Bournemouth.

On the back of two defeats, Albion prepared to face Villa at the Goldstone on 25 March.

Manager Pat Saward – a former FA Cup winner with Villa – mysteriously and controversially dropped his ‘kingpin’ for what was undoubtedly one of the biggest games of the season. Even BBC’s Match of the Day had taken a rare foray into the lower leagues to feature the match.

Napier found himself replaced by Ian Goodwin, a rugged but injury-prone defender who had played under the manager during his coaching days at Coventry City. Regular right-back Stewart Henderson was also left out.

Not only had Napier been ever present and the captain up to that point, only two months earlier, Saward had been publicly singing his praises to the extent that he was suggesting the defender deserved a recall to the Northern Ireland side.

“The way he is playing, he ought to walk into the side,” Saward told Goal magazine. “He has been consistent all season. Recently Ted MacDougall hardly got a kick against him (that was in a 2-0 Boxing Day win for the Albion against Bournemouth). Ted is dangerous when he is inside the box but John hardly let him get near the ball.”

The article referred to Napier as “the kingpin of the Brighton defence” and went on to say Napier, 25, formed “one of the best pairings in the Third Division with 28-year-old Norman Gall”.

Speculation around Napier’s possible call-up came because Liam O’Kane, who normally partnered Allan Hunter in the Ireland side, was sidelined with a broken leg at the time.

How the programme covered Napier’s omission

The matchday programme following Napier’s shock dropping highlighted that he had previously played 239 matches for the Albion “the last 106 of these being played successively, a splendid record”.

Saward didn’t refer specifically to the player but in his column for the Evening Argus ahead of the Villa game had written: “A manager must always make decisions for the good of the club as a whole. There can be no room for sentiment. There are times when a player who has given his all, and fallen under severe pressure, has to come out of the side for a rest.”

In his programme notes for the following match, he simply said: “We had lost the previous two matches (1-0 at home to Oldham and 2-1 at Bradford City) and I made several team changes which I thought were necessary, and our players responded magnificently.”

Indeed, Albion won the match 2-1 and Willie Irvine scored a terrific goal, still available to watch on YouTube, that was judged by legendary Celtic manager Jock Stein to be Match of the Day’s third best goal of the whole season.

So, all these years later, can Napier shed any more light on exactly what happened? In short, no. “I still am not sure why that happened,” he said. “I know it is all part of the game. There were no signs that I was playing any different.

A signed photo from my scrapbook

“I was the club captain when Pat arrived and he did not change that. I played many games with him as the manager. He had me in the office the week before the Villa game and we talked about a lot of things, as we were right in the promotion mix with a good chance of going into the Second Division.

“I should have probably realised when he wanted to talk in the office. That was not too common with Pat, it was usually a full team meeting.

“He did say he was leaving me out and I would be sub (ed. he wasn’t). Obviously, I was not happy and told him so. I really did not get an explanation as to why, and that is the part that was difficult.”

Perhaps not surprisingly, Napier added: “That is about the time my relationship with Pat started to go downhill fast. Even though we won promotion, I felt that there were going to be changes going into the Second Division.

“I had been in that promotion side for mostly all the season and felt I did not get the recognition for being part of our success. We were barely on speaking terms at the end of the season.

“Players react in different ways with different managers. I also was a little stubborn back then and was not afraid to speak my mind. I have nothing bad to say about Pat: he had success at the club which was needed at that time. We moved on. It happens all the time in soccer.”

I imagined it must have been hard to watch from the sidelines as the team went on to win promotion, and Napier admitted: “Every player wants to play, of course, and being a sub or even not in the game day squad, I had never experienced that part before, so it was tough.”

But he added: “Even though I was disappointed in not playing the last few games, I was really happy for the club and the players.

“Those guys at that time were my brothers; we went through a lot the previous few years trying to battle out of the Third Division, and the Goldstone crowd deserved it.

“We had an unbelievable year; the stadium was full each home game towards the end, everywhere we went the town was buzzing with excitement, nothing brings the fans and players closer than a promotion race.”

I wondered too whether it was a small consolation that it was Napier’s former Bolton teammate Brian Bromley who took over as captain.

“Brian was a great friend. We were both young 15-year-olds on the Bolton Wanderers ground staff, so we were together every day for many years, and both got in the Bolton first team about the same time and played many games together.

“He was very much a technical player. I thought he would go on to play for England, I really did. When he came to Brighton from Portsmouth, I was happy we got him, and knew he would do well at this club. Brian was always a leader; he led by example on the field with his play, never really a ‘get in your face’ person, but respected as a player. There are always different types of leadership qualities that help with teams.”

The defender was not involved in any of the 12 games that rounded off the season with promotion from the old Third Division in runners up spot, although he did return to the side for an end-of-season joint testimonial game for Brian Powney and Gall which First Division Chelsea won 3-2.

Nevertheless, Saward let it be known he would entertain offers for both him and his namesake Kit.

How the Argus reported the transfer listing of John and Kit Napier

Napier takes up the story. “I asked Pat for a transfer at that time. I thought about it deeply as I loved the area and my home on Shoreham Beach. My daughter was born in Hove (she is 52 now), but I did not see me getting back in the team whilst the management remained, so I felt it was best for me to try to move my family back to the north of England.

“I worked hard every day in training hoping maybe there would be reconciliation, but it was not to be, and I was still on the outside looking in. I wanted to play and realised that was not going to happen.

“Pat did say he would help but would want a decent size fee for me to move on. We were both hotheads and I wasn’t a very patient person and wanted it to happen as quickly as possible.”

Both Napiers were still at the club as the new season got under way although Kit was transferred to Blackburn Rovers in September and John eventually got his move north the following month. Before that, though, he was recalled for a 2-1 home win over Exeter City in the League Cup.

A rare Division Two outing for Napier shortly before he left the club.

He went on as a substitute for Ken Beamish in a 1-1 draw at Aston Villa, and then, with Goodwin hospitalised for knee cartilage surgery, Napier was restored alongside Gall for a five-game run in September 1972. But his last appearance for the Albion came at home to Hull City on 7 October, when a 14,330 crowd saw Albion recover from a half-time deficit to draw 1-1 with a goal from Bert Murray.

“Back then, as there were no agents, you had to try to help yourself as a player and it was not uncommon for players to call other clubs and managers or coaches they knew,” Napier explained. “But it is not so easy when there is a transfer fee involved.

“I did get a call from Bryan Edwards who had taken over as the manager of Bradford City in the Third Division. Incidentally, I had taken over the centre-half position at Bolton when Bryan retired as a player.”

Edwards had a long career at Bolton and was in their 1958 FA Cup winning side when two Nat Lofthouse goals settled the game against a Manchester United side depleted by the Munich air disaster three months earlier. Freddie Goodwin and Alex Dawson were in the United line-up that day.

Napier eventually signed for Bradford City after a wrangle over the fee

But back to October 1972. Edwards was told Albion wanted £15,000 for Napier, who said: “I did go in to see Pat after Bradford talked to them, but he told me the club wanted the full asking price. I was mad at the time and some heated words were said. Finally, after a few weeks of happenings, they both decided to make the fee £10,000, and I moved north to Bradford.”

Napier enjoying life playing in the States

He played 107 games for Bradford City across six seasons at Valley Parade, interspersed with loan spells in the USA at Baltimore Comets, playing alongside former Albion and Bradford teammate Allan Gilliver, and its franchise follow-up, San Diego Jaws (which later became San Diego Sockers).

Following his release by Bradford, and temporary return from the States, Napier joined non-league Mossley in September 1975.

His central defensive partner there was his former Bradford City teammate, and former Leeds United and Huddersfield Town defender, Roy Ellam.

Napier made his Mossley debut in a 4-0 win over Macclesfield Town on 23 August 1975, and he went on to play in all but one of the Lilywhites’ next 24 games. He even got on the scoresheet in a 2-1 win over Gateshead in November 1975.

But, by the end of the month, he had returned to Bradford City as an assistant coach, which was an area of the game he had always looked to move into.

• In the next instalment of this series of articles, we look at the early days of Napier’s career.

Even fearsome John McGrath couldn’t stop the rot

IN ALBION’S bleak midwinter of 1972-73, manager Pat Saward was desperate to try to reverse a worrying run of defeats.

The handful of additions he’d made to the squad promoted from the old Third Division in May 1972 had not made the sort of improvements in quality he had hoped for.

An injury to Norman Gall’s central defensive partner Ian Goodwin didn’t help matters and Saward chopped and changed the line-up from week to week to try to find the right formula.

Previously frozen out former captain John Napier was restored for a handful of games (before being sold to Bradford City for £10,000). The loan ranger’ (as Saward was dubbed for the number of temporary signings he brought in) then tried Luton Town’s John Moore in Goodwin’s absence.

Youngster Steve Piper was given his debut at home to high-flying Burnley, but Albion lost that 1-0. Then Saward tried left-back George Ley in the middle away to Preston, but that didn’t work either. North End ran out comfortable 4-0 winners with Albion’s rookie ‘keeper Alan Dovey between the sticks after regular no.1 Brian Powney went down with ‘flu.

As December loomed, and with Goodwin still a couple of weeks away from full fitness after a cartilage operation, Saward turned to John McGrath, a no-nonsense, rugged centre-half who had played close on 200 games for Southampton over five years.

“With his rolled-up sleeves, shorts hitched high to emphasise implausibly bulging thigh-muscles, an old-fashioned haircut and a body dripping with baby oil, ‘Big Jake’ cut an imposing figure,” to quote the immensely readable saintsplayers.co.uk.

In Ivan Ponting’s obituary in the Independent following McGrath’s death at 60 on Christmas Day 1998, he reckoned his “lurid public persona was something between Desperate Dan and Attila the Hun”.

Although McGrath had begun the 1972-73 season in the Saints side, the emerging Paul Bennett had taken his place, so a temporary switch to the Albion offered a return to first team football.

Albion had conceded eight goals in three straight defeats and hadn’t registered a goal of their own, so, even though the imposing centre-half was approaching the end of a playing career that had begun with Bury in 1955, it was hoped his know-how defending against some of the best strikers in the country might add steel in the heart of the defence, and stem the flow of goals.

In short, it didn’t work. McGrath played in three matches and all three ended in defeats, with another eight goals conceded.

In his first match (above left), Middlesbrough won 2-0 at the Goldstone. At least the deficit was slimmer in his second game: a 1-0 loss away to George Petchey’s Orient in which Lewes-born midfielder Stan Brown played the last of nine games on loan from Fulham.

McGrath’s third match saw Albion succumb to a thrashing at Carlisle United. By then, Brighton had lost five in a row and still hadn’t managed to score a single goal. Stalwart Norman Gall was dropped to substitute to allow the returning Goodwin to line up alongside McGrath, and Bert Murray led the side out resplendent in the second strip of red and black striped shirts and black shorts.

Carlisle hadn’t read the script, though, and promptly went 5-0 up. To compound Albion’s agony, with 20 minutes still to play, goalkeeper Powney was carried off concussed and with a broken nose.

In those days before substitute goalkeepers, Murray (who’d swapped to right-back that day with Graham Howell moving into his midfield berth) took over the gloves. Miraculously, Albion won a penalty and because usual spot kick taker Murray was between the sticks, utility man Eddie Spearritt took responsibility having relinquished the job after a crucial miss in a game in 1970.

Thankfully, he buried it, finally to make a much-awaited addition to that season’s ‘goals for’ column.

No more was seen of McGrath, however. Gall was restored to the no.5 shirt and was variously partnered by Goodwin, Piper and, towards the end of the season, Spearritt.

After another heavy defeat, 4-0 at Sunderland, which had seen another rare appearance by Dovey in goal, he was transfer-listed along with Gall and Bertie Lutton, as Saward pointed the finger. Lutton got a surprise move to West Ham but Gall stayed put and Dovey was released at the end of the season without playing another game.

The run of defeats eventually extended to a total of 13 and was only alleviated after a big shake-up for the home game versus Luton Town on 10 February.

Powney, who’d conceded five at Fulham in the previous game, was replaced by Aston Villa goalkeeper Tommy Hughes on loan; out went experienced striker Barry Bridges in favour of rookie Pat Hilton and exciting teenage winger Tony Towner made his debut. Albion won 2-0 with both goals from Ken Beamish, and the monkey was finally off their backs.

Although the following two games (away to Bristol City and Hull) were lost, results did pick up, but it was all too little too late and Albion exited the division only 12 months after their promotion.

Born in Manchester on 23 August 1938, McGrath sought unsuccessfully to get into the game as an amateur with Bolton Wanderers but at 17 he joined Bury who were in the old Division Two at the time.

Although they were subsequently relegated, McGrath was part of the 1961 side that went on to win the Third Division Championship. By the time they lifted the trophy, though, he had moved on to Newcastle United for a fee of £24,000, with Bob Stokoe (later renowned for steering Second Division Sunderland to a famous FA Cup win over Leeds United in 1973) a makeweight in the transfer.

It was a busy time for the young defender. On 15 March 1961, he made his one and only England Under-23 appearance against West Germany at White Hart Lane, Tottenham, playing alongside future World Cup winners George Cohen at right-back and the imperious Bobby Moore.

Also in the young England side for that 4-1 win was Terry Paine, who would later become a teammate at Southampton.

Newcastle had hoped the defender would prevent their relegation from the top flight, but it didn’t happen as they went down having conceded 109 goals; their worst ever goals against tally.

Joe Harvey eventually succeeded Charlie Mitten as manager as Newcastle adapted to life back in the Second Division, and McGrath (below left and, in team picture, back row, far left) played 16 matches in a side in which full-back George Dalton (below, back row, far right) had started to emerge.

Future Brighton captain Dave Turner was one of the successful FA Youth Cup-winning side Harvey inherited, but his first team outings were rare and he was sold to the Albion in December 1963.

Meanwhile, McGrath really established himself, featuring in 41 games in 1963-64 (Dalton played in 40) as Newcastle finished in a respectable eighth place.

The 1964-65 season saw McGrath ever-present as Toon were promoted back to the First Division, pipping Northampton Town to the Second Division championship title by one point. McGrath – “a monster of a centre-half, who was as tough as he was effective” was “the cornerstone” of the promotion side, according to newcastleunited-mad.co.uk.

McGrath retained his place in Toon’s first season back amongst the elite but the arrival of John McNamee and the emergence of Bobby Moncur started to restrict his involvement.

That pairing became Harvey’s first choice, and young Graham Winstanley was in reserve too, so, after playing only 11 games in the first half of the 1967-68 season, McGrath, by then 29, was sold to Southampton for £30,000. He’d played 181 games for United.

In Ted Bates’ Saints side, McGrath was a rock at the back alongside Jimmy Gabriel, although, as saintsplayers.co.uk records, he wasn’t too popular with opposing managers: Liverpool’s Bill Shankly accusing Southampton of playing “alehouse football”.

He went on to make 194 appearances (plus one as a sub) for Saints, before becoming youth coach at the club, part of the first team coaching staff when Southampton won the FA Cup in 1976, and then reserve team manager.

Not content with a backroom role, McGrath took the plunge into management and made his mark with two clubs in particular: managing Port Vale on 203 occasions and Preston North End in 205 matches.

According to Rob Fielding he became a cult hero at Vale Park with his unorthodox ways, once putting FIFTEEN players on the transfer list…which resulted in a six-match unbeaten run!

Winger Mark Chamberlain, who went on to play for Stoke and England, and later Brighton, was one of the young players McGrath introduced.

Long-serving Vale defender Phil Sproson, who was originally signed by former Albion midfielder Bobby Smith, rose to prominence under McGrath and said: “I’ll always be grateful because he taught me how to play centre-half.”

Fielding reckoned McGrath’s finest hour was steering Vale to promotion from the old Fourth Division in 1982-1983, even though by then he had sold Chamberlain to Stoke.

Against a backdrop of player unrest and what were perceived to be ill-judged moves in the transfer market, McGrath was sacked in December 1983 and replaced by his assistant, John Rudge.

He wasn’t out of work for long, though, and took the reins at basement side Chester City where he was in charge for just under a year. Most notably in that time, he gave future Arsenal and England defender Lee Dixon his first taste of regular football.

While success eluded him at Chester, his arrival at Preston in 1986 proved fruitful, North End striker Gary Brazil recalling: “It needed a catalyst and it needed a change and very fortunately for the club and for the players, John McGrath came walking through the door who was like a Tasmanian devil. He came in and the world changed really, really quickly for the better.”

McGrath led Preston to promotion from the bottom tier in 1987 with a squad built around Sam Allardyce and veteran Frank Worthington.

Manager McGrath and Frank Worthington celebrate promotion

“Frank Worthington was a delight to have around and set a real high standard for a lot of us in terms of how we train,” said Brazil. “He just stunned me how he was always first out training.”

The turnround McGrath oversaw, with Deepdale crowds rising from below 3,000 to more than 16,000, rejuvenated the club and the city.

Brazil reminisced: “It was the best year of my football life that year that we got promoted. It wasn’t just an experience playing but an experience of a group of players and how well they could bond and John was integral to that. He was a very, very clever man.”

Indeed McGrath was viewed as having saved North End from the ignominy of losing their league status, the club having had to apply for re-election the season before he arrived at Deepdale.

Edward Skingsley’s book, Back From The Brink, features a black and white photograph of McGrath on its cover and tells the story of North End’s transformation under his direction.

Describing his appointment as “a masterstroke” he reckoned the club owed him a massive debt for masterminding their resurgence and subsequent stability.

“Without him, it is debatable whether Preston North End would even exist today, never mind play in the latest fantastic incarnation of Deepdale,” said Skingsley. “Thank goodness he caught Preston North End before it died.”

McGrath left Preston in February 1990 and had one last stab at management, this time with Halifax Town. He succeeded Saints’ FA Cup winner Jim McCalliog and was in charge at The Shay for 14 months but left in December 1992. Five months later they lost their league status, finishing bottom of pile.

The silver-tongued McGrath was subsequently a popular choice on the after-dinner speaking circuit and a pundit on local radio in Lancashire but died suddenly on Christmas Day 1998.

Tony Burns handled the art of goalkeeping for decades

A GOALKEEPER with film star looks signed for Brighton from Arsenal just after England lifted the World Cup.

Tony Burns had kept goal for the Gunners in 31 top-flight matches and Albion boss Archie Macaulay, who had played for Arsenal himself, went back to his old club to sign a no.1 to challenge the emerging local lad, Brian Powney.

It wasn’t difficult for Burns to settle at the Goldstone because the dressing room included Northern Irish full-back Jimmy Magill and winger Brian Tawse, familiar faces from his time in north London who’d also made the switch to Brighton.

It also wasn’t long before female fans who admired his smouldering good looks were sending in letters to the office inquiring about his eligibility!

Burns relived his career in detail in 2020 when interviewed by 17-year-old would-be journalist Jed Vine, who watches games at the Amex with his mother, and games at the Emirates with his dad.

Born in Edenbridge, Kent, on 27 March 1944, Burns first showed his goalkeeping prowess during his schooldays in the town before he joined Southern League club Tonbridge (now Tonbridge Angels) who he returned to twice more and later managed three times.

He made his Southern League debut against Yiewsley (later to become Hillingdon Borough) in February 1963 and only his third game for Tonbridge was as an 18-year-old against Arsenal at Highbury.

With long term custodian Jack Kelsey retiring, Arsenal were looking around for likely successors and, liking what they saw of Burns, offered him a contract.

“In his early days at Highbury, he showed immense potential and, after benefitting from Kelsey`s coaching, made encouraging strides,” a 2020 Pitching In piece for the Southern League recalled.

Manager Billy Wright gave him his senior Arsenal debut in a friendly against Enschede in Holland in August 1963, with Magill in defence, and he got his first taste of South Africa on a five-game tour the following May when he was in goal for Arsenal’s 5-1 win over a Western Province XI and their 6-0 win over an Eastern Province XI.

But his big breakthrough came when he made his league debut in a 3-2 home win over Burnley in October 1964 (three days earlier he’d played in goal in a 7-0 friendly win over non-league Corinthian Casuals).

“I felt on top of the world. I had always wanted to play for the Gunners and here I was keeping goal for them, and on the winning side at that,” he told the Albion matchday programme. “There’s only one first match and I’ll never forget this one.”

Once he got the shirt, he had a run of 26 games (32 including friendlies) from October 1964 through to the end of March 1965.

He generally played in front of a defence featuring the likes of Don Howe, Frank McLintock and Ian Ure with John Radford and Joe Baker up front.

During the first half of the 1965-66 season, Burns appeared in seven league games and three friendlies, but his final Gunners first team appearance came on 27 December 1965 in a 4-0 defeat away to Sheffield Wednesday.

Jim Furnell was Wright’s preferred first choice, and, as the season wore on, the emerging Bob Wilson was getting the nod ahead of him as stand-in (although it wasn’t until 1968 that Wilson finally ousted Furnell).

Disappointed to leave, Burns nonetheless went in search of regular football by joining Third Division Brighton for £2,000 in July 1966.

He made his first appearance for the Albion on 17 September 1966, when he took over from the injured Powney, but Brighton went down 2-0 to Grimsby Town.

Powney returned the following week and Burns had to wait until January for his next games – two FA Cup ties against Aldershot.

Burns in action versus Chelsea

He kept his place for the big fourth round FA Cup game against First Division Chelsea at the Goldstone which finished 1-1 when his former Arsenal teammate Tawse controversially had what he thought was a cracking late winner ruled out for a foul by Kit Napier.

Unfortunately, Burns conceded four in the replay at Stamford Bridge as the superior Chelsea side made the most of home advantage to ease their way through comfortably, 4-0. That was the season they went all the way to the final only to lose 2-1 to Tottenham Hotspur, whose ranks included Alan Mullery and Joe Kinnear.

By the end of the season, Burns had played 18 matches against Powney’s 37. But Burns had the upper hand in 1967-68 featuring in 29 games compared to Powney’s 21.

He also started the 1968-69 season as first choice but his 54th and final game for the Albion was in the 2-1 home defeat to Northampton in the second round of the FA Cup on 20 December 1968.

New manager Freddie Goodwin brought in former Wolves and Aston Villa ‘keeper Geoff Sidebottom to challenge Powney and let Burns leave on a free transfer in March 1969.

He joined Charlton Athletic, where he made 10 appearances in their unsuccessful tilt at promotion, but declined what he saw as a derisory contract offer. He returned to Tonbridge briefly and in January 1971 headed off to play in South Africa, initially for Durban United, and later, Maritzburg.

In his interview with Jed, he recalls playing in an English All Stars team managed by Malcolm Allison who invited him to return to England with Crystal Palace when his contract was up.

Burns made the move in October 1973 after previous Palace no.1 (and later Albion youth coach) John Jackson had moved to Orient.

He shared goalkeeping duties with Paul Hammond, playing a total of 90 matches between the sticks for Palace over the next four years under Allison and his successor Terry Venables.

In 1977, Burns played half a dozen games on loan for Brentford before heading off to the States like a lot of ageing players did at that time.

The ‘keeper played a dozen games for Memphis Rogues in the North American Football League. They were coached by former Chelsea defender and manager Eddie McCreadie although Burns had gone there to team up with former boss Allison who was sacked without a ball being kicked because he hadn’t signed enough players!

Burns played for Memphis Rogues in the USA

Among Burns’ teammates were a young Neil Smillie, who’d been struggling for games at Palace, Phil Beal, who had left Brighton the year before, John Faulkner, the one-time Leeds and Luton defender, and the flamboyant Alan Birchenall, beloved by Leicester City supporters of many generations.

Back in the UK in 1978, Burns joined Plymouth Argyle as cover for Martin Hodge, and ended his league playing days in this country appearing in 11 games in the first half of the 1978-79 season.

However, he left Home Park to rejoin Tonbridge Angels for a third time and he also played for Hastings United and Dartford.

After his playing days were over, Burns had three spells in charge of Tonbridge, from August 1980 to December 1982, August 1989 to May 1990, and in a caretaker role from November 2001 to May 2002 (by which time he was goalkeeping coach at Millwall, who he joined in 1992 under Mick McCarthy.

Burns served as goalkeeper coach under several Millwall managers.
Picture: Brian Tonks.

He also spent seven years as manager of Gravesend and Northfleet (who became Ebbsfleet United) between 1982 and 1989.

But it was at Millwall where he finally found a permanent home, working under no fewer than 18 different managers, including Steve Gritt and Mark McGhee.

He was even at the helm himself for a while, working as co-caretaker manager with former Lions boss Alan McLeary after Dave Tuttle’s departure in April 2006, when Millwall’s relegation had already been confirmed.

The appointment of Nigel Spackman the following month led to Burns’ departure in July 2006, when he took up a similar role at his old club Palace, working under former Albion boss Peter Taylor coaching Julian Speroni and Scott Flinders.

Goalkeeping coach at Palace under Peter Taylor

He left Selhurst in November 2007 when Taylor lost his job, and Speroni told yourlocalguardian.co.uk: “It was sad to lose Tony Burns because we worked well with him. During last season when I wasn’t playing regular football, Tony was the one who kept me going which was very important.”

Burns moved with Taylor to Conference side Stevenage Borough but later returned to Millwall under Kenny Jackett before stepping down in 2012, when he was succeeded by Kevin Pressman.

Still, he wasn’t finished with the game, though, and at the age of 70, in the summer of 2014, he teamed up with Taylor yet again to become goalkeeping coach at Gillingham. He joined them on a part-time non-contract basis as a replacement for Carl Muggleton.

Career-ending leg break spawned physio role for George Dalton

A CAREER-ENDING leg break led one-time international hopeful George Dalton into a new career as a football physio.

Geordie-born Dalton was an emerging left-back at Newcastle United being watched as a possible candidate for a call-up to the England Under-23 side.

But he was never the same player after breaking a leg in a tackle with Leeds United’s Johnny Giles.

Then, only seven months after trying to resurrect his career with third tier Brighton, unlucky Dalton sustained a double fracture of the same leg in a freak collision and never played professionally again.

However, he turned his familiarity with the treatment table to good use and he later became Coventry City’s physio for the best part of 20 years.

Born in Dilston, Northumberland, on 4 September 1941, Dalton went through the junior ranks at Newcastle and turned professional at St James’s Park in 1958.

He made his Toon debut on 10 October 1960 in a 4-1 League Cup defeat away to Colchester United, and made his First Division debut the following February, ending up on the losing side in a 5-3 defeat away to Leicester City.

After Newcastle’s relegation to the old Division Two, Dalton made a lot more appearances (including being in the Toon side who thumped Brighton 5-0 at St James’ on 21 October 1961).

He was in and out of the side over the next two years but became a regular from March 1963 and, in January 1964, eagle-eyed Ken McKenzie, reporter for Newcastle’s The Journal, spotted England Under-23 selector Mr E.Smith in the stands at St James’s.

“This visit can only mean imminence of England Under-23s selection to meet Scotland at St James’s Park on Wednesday evening, February 5, and check up, particularly on George Dalton and Alan Suddick, of United,” he wrote. “On this basis, I feel that Mr Smith’s trip to Tyneside holds out very bright prospect of Forest Hall, Newcastle, product, Dalton, gaining his first representative honour on February 5.

“I know that Dalton has been recommended to the England selectors for some time by United directors and manager, and his consistency and clean, strong play has been commented on by influential observers at several away games.”

Unfortunately, the call-up didn’t happen, and revered reporter Ken Jones wrote in the Daily Mirror: “Despite local claims for left back George Dalton and inside forward idol Alan Suddick; neither has been chosen by the England team manager, and clearly they have no place in his ideas at present.”

Interestingly, the left-back berth went to Keith Newton, who later went with England to the 1970 World Cup in Mexico. Mike Bailey and Graham Cross both played in the Under-23s’ 3-2 win over Scotland, while the reserves that day were Peter Grummitt, Alan Mullery and Martin Chivers.

Within a matter of weeks, Dalton’s football fortunes were turned upside down when, in his 40th game of the season, on 30 March 1964, three days after Newcastle had surrendered an eight-game unbeaten run losing 1-0 at home to promotion-chasing Leeds on Good Friday, the full-back suffered a leg break that virtually finished his Newcastle career.

The Journal saw it thus: “This is the tale of a noble resistance by a Newcastle side who had Alan Suddick crippled in the 17th minute and lost George Dalton with a broken right leg (just above the ankle) with 14 minutes to go.”

mightyleeds.co.uk recorded it like this: “Newcastle finished with one man in hospital and another limping, but Leeds just about deserved to win their third hard match in four days. For once, however, there was no malice attached to the game and left-back Dalton confirmed he had broken his right tibia after himself kicking the sole of Giles’ boot.”

Dalton didn’t play his next Newcastle first team game for nearly two and a half years, and then it was just the one game. After that solitary appearance – his 94th for Toon – on 27 August 1966, when they lost a Division One match 2-1 at home to Spurs, he was cast into the shadows and eventually given a free transfer in May 1967.

Albion’s 1967-68 squad with Dalton circled in the back row

Third Division Brighton gave the player the chance to salvage his career and he arrived on the south coast in June 1967 together with a young centre forward, Bob Fuller, who went on to score regularly for Albion’s reserves but subsequently moved to South Africa and in later life became a senior executive at mobile phone companies Orange and 3.

There were a couple of familiar faces amongst Dalton’s new teammates: Dave Turner, had been a fringe player at Newcastle before joining Brighton in December 1963, while forward Kit Napier had moved to the south coast the previous summer.

Stewart Ogden also joined straight from school in the north east in the summer of 1967 and the matchday programme declared: “Instead of Sussex by the Sea, Albion’s rousing signature tune, they may be playing The Blaydon Races this season, with so many Geordies on the staff.”

Dalton took over the no.3 shirt from Bobby Baxter, who had moved on to Torquay United, and went straight into Albion’s starting XI alongside new £25,000 record signing John Napier from Bolton Wanderers.

The matchday programme acknowledged Dalton’s past injury misfortune and said: “We all hope the change of club will see this fine defender recapturing his old form. He is married and recently moved into a pleasant club house at Portslade.”

Dalton made 28 appearances in the first half of that 1967-68 season under Archie Macaulay before tragically suffering a double fracture of his right leg in a 0-0 draw at home to Oxford United.

It was on 27 January 1968 that Dalton was involved in a heavy collision with United’s Graham Atkinson (big Ron’s brother) and Albion goalkeeper Brian Powney.

The cruel blow came almost four years after the injury he’d sustained at Newcastle and the Albion matchday programme commented how he had “completely shaken off the effects and was playing with great confidence” adding: “Albion’s popular left-back has played some fine games this season and his stylish work has been admired by supporters of other clubs, as well as the Albion fans.”

In its Albion Postbag column, a correspondent from Newhaven, calling himself ‘Veteran Player’, wrote: “George Dalton has had two unlucky accidents and we all hope he comes back fit and well and able to continue to delight us with his polished full-back play.

“Brighton have nearly always been lucky with their left-backs, and we have had a string of really fine players in that position. George Dalton can be included in that impressive list.”

Macaulay was optimistic the player would recover and in October 1968 the programme told supporters: “George is doing light training, jogging round the pitch, up the terracing also carrying out weight training exercises.”

In the meantime, Mike Everitt had been brought in to fill the gap and, by the time Macaulay was succeeded as manager by Freddie Goodwin, as 1968 drew to a close, Dalton still wasn’t in contention.

It looked even less likely he’d get back in when Goodwin signed his former Leeds teammate Willie Bell from Leicester City, but his next career step was closely linked to both of them.

In the summer of 1970, Dalton, who’d combined studying physiotherapy with coaching the Albion junior team in the latter part of his contract, joined Goodwin and Bell as part of the new management team at Birmingham City.

Albion took serious umbrage at the exodus and the matter ended up with City having to pay £4,500 compensation for Goodwin (who still had 18 months of his contract remaining) and a £5,000 fine for illegally approaching Bell.

Dalton’s situation was viewed differently because he’d technically been a player out of contract thus free to make a move.

When Goodwin left City in 1976 and returned to manage in America, Dalton moved on to Midlands neighbours Coventry City, taking over as physio from Norman Pilgrim, and he retained the position for two decades.

Several former players had nothing but good things to say about him when interviewed in Steve Phelps’ book 29 Minutes From Wembley. Striker Garry Thompson spoke highly of the care with which Dalton treated him when he suffered a broken leg that put him out of the game for 11 months.

“George Dalton, our physiotherapist, was magnificent with me,” he said. “He kept saying my leg was going to be like a twig and I’d have to rebuild the muscles and learn to walk again.

“My Mum and Dad thought it was career over, but, the way I think about it now, I was so lucky because there weren’t that many options for me and I had to play football.

“George’s own career was ended by injury. He was a very good footballer when he trained with us so, when I broke my leg, he really took care of me and was superb.

“I couldn’t thank him enough and all George had was the sponge and two machines in the treatment room, the electric currents and the ultrasound, that was it.

“He worked miracles down the years with players and, if it wasn’t for him, I would not have played until I was 37. I owe him a lot.”

Garry’s praise for Dalton was echoed by Paul Dyson, who spent prolonged periods in the treatment room with ankle and back injuries during his teenage years. “George was a real character. We all had a lot of time for him and he tended a lot of us through our respective injuries.

“He used to drive us to the hospital in his Morris 1100 and had a great left foot. He’d played left-back for Newcastle United before his own career was ended by injury. There were the two machines in his room and he used to have ice cubes on sticks in his freezer.”

Dalton alongside boss John Sillett in the front row of this Coventry squad picture

Scottish international winger Tommy Hutchison was another admirer. “He was a smashing lad, George, very old-school. He suffered no fools and could always tell if a player was injured or not.

“In our days broken legs did finish careers, along with knee ligament injuries, and George rehabilitated so many players at Coventry. There was no squad rotation as you wanted to stay in the team and play every week because if you didn’t someone else would step in to take your place and you wouldn’t be able to get back in.”

Midfielder Andy Blair added: “George was a great physiotherapist, a terrific calming influence and a great man to have around.”

Experienced full-back Mick Coop was another who appreciated the physio. “George really was a lovely man who worked injured players very hard in the gym to get them back on to the pitch,” he said. “He was very quiet but did his job well and garnered a lot of respect off the playing squad. I can’t speak highly enough of him.”

Dalton keeps in touch with many of his former colleagues through the Coventry City Former Players’ Association, which has reported how he returned to live in Newcastle in retirement.

* Pictures from matchday programmes and various online sources.