Goal machine Frank Stapleton ended his playing days in a Brighton shirt

stapleton stretch

FRANK STAPLETON hit the heights as a goalscorer for Arsenal and Manchester United but his prize-winning playing days came to an end in a Brighton & Hove Albion shirt.

Stapleton was the scorer of the first top flight goal at the Goldstone Ground – unfortunately, it was the opener in Arsenal’s 4-0 win in 1979! He was also one of the Manchester United scorers in the 1983 FA Cup Final against Brighton, having moved to Old Trafford two years earlier (above, however, he just fails to connect for Arsenal against Brighton with Steve Foster and Gary Williams looking on).

His two appearances for Brighton came in 1995 when his old pal Liam Brady brought him in to try to improve the front line of an ailing side.

Born in Dublin on 10 July 1956, the promising young Stapleton was rejected by United as a teenager but the Gunners reaped the benefit of that decision by snapping him up at the tender age of 15 on chief scout Gordon Clark’s recommendation.

Arsenal’s confidence in the prospects for the promising young Irish duo were reflected in a Goal magazine article of 7 October 1972 in which boss Bertie Mee talked about them as future first team players. At the time, they were still part of the club’s junior ranks, aged just 15 and 16.

goal cutting

Mee said: “Brady is almost established as a regular in the reserve side. He needs building up but has the potential to become a first-team player. Stapleton has made quite an impact in his first season and, providing he maintains a steady improvement, he could also follow the path of Brady.”

It was only Brady’s second season and Clark, the Arsenal chief scout who unearthed him, said, at first, he thought he would be better suited to becoming a jockey because he was so small and frail!

He quickly changed his mind when he saw his ability with a football. “He was like a little midget but he had so much confidence. He’s really shot up now and although he’s still not very tall, he’s strong enough to hold his own,” said Clark.

Stapleton, at 15, joined Arsenal in the summer of 1972 and quickly developed a reputation as a goalscorer, netting 11 goals in seven games.

“Frank is tall and very good in the air,” said Clark. “He seems to get up and hang for the ball. He is also very good on the floor and reads the game intelligently for a youngster.”

As expected, Stapleton progressed to the first team and made his debut in 1975 against Stoke City. He initially formed an impressive partnership with England striker Malcolm Macdonald and in three successive seasons was Arsenal’s leading goalscorer.

Such prowess brought him to the attention of the Republic of Ireland international selectors and player-manager Johnny Giles gave him his full debut aged just 20 in 1976 against Turkey in Ankara.

It was the first of a total of 71 caps for his country, during which time he became their captain and scorer of 20 goals. He led Eire when they famously beat England 1-0 at the Euro 1988 finals in Germany. Although he was part of the 1990 World Cup squad – alongside former Albion boss, Chris Hughton – he was by then behind Niall Quinn, John Aldridge and Tony Cascarino in the pecking order.

Stapleton was part of Arsenal’s three successive FA Cup final teams (1978, 1979, 1980), scoring against United in Arsenal’s 3-2 win in 1979.

When the Gunners sold Brady to Juventus in 1980, Stapleton started to question the club’s ambition and, the following year, on expiry of his contract, decided he would move on himself.

He had scored 108 goals in 300 appearances for Arsenal – some strike rate! – and it wasn’t a popular move to join a major rival in the same division, but he wasn’t the first or last player to have done so.

In the Sixties, United had taken David Herd from the marble halls of Highbury to lead their line and, of course, in more recent times, United signed Alexis Sanchez.

stapleton utd

When Robin van Persie made the same transfer switch from Arsenal to Manchester United in 2012, the Daily Mail took Stapleton back 30 years to talk about the circumstances of his own move.

Stapleton was Ron Atkinson’s first major signing for United and in his first season was partnered up front with Garry Birtles. Stapleton was the leading scorer for United in that first season, with 13 goals in 41 league games.

Subsequently, his main strike partner was the Northern Ireland international, Norman Whiteside.

Stapleton scored United’s first goal, a 55th minute equaliser, in the 2-2 Cup Final draw against Brighton: one of 19 he notched during the 1982-83 season in which he played in 59 of United’s 60 games.

By the end of the following season, Stapleton’s regular strike partner was Mark Hughes and he scored in the 1985 FA Cup semi-final against Liverpool to set up yet another Wembley appearance, this time collecting his third winners’ medal when Whiteside’s winner beat Everton.

Despite a good start to the following season, with Stapleton once again amongst the goals, poor league form eventually cost Atkinson his job and his successor, Alex Ferguson, began rebuilding the side.

After six years at United, Stapleton, by then 30, was amongst those to be let go, and he was sold to Ajax of Amsterdam, lured by the fact they were managed by Johan Cruyff. But the move failed to live up to expectations, as detailed by the42.ie, and he ended up having a spell on loan at Anderlecht.

It was the first of a series of moves which didn’t really work out for him, although in the 1988-89 season he found himself playing in France alongside fellow Irish international – and future Brighton striker – John Byrne for Le Havre.

stapleton 4 derby

Derby County offered him a platform back in the UK game and he featured 10 times for them in 1987-88 and, after his stint in France came to an end, he spent two seasons with Blackburn Rovers.

He played once for lowly Aldershot and five times for Huddersfield Town before landing a player-manager’s post with Bradford City. In three years at Valley Parade, he made 68 appearances before the axe fell, and he answered Brady’s call for help at the Goldstone Ground.

The brilliant The Goldstone Wrap detailed his brief involvement in a March 2015 post, explaining how he featured as a substitute in a 0-0 draw at home to Bournemouth and started in a 3-0 defeat away to Cardiff City.

It was a final swansong for his playing career, as he looked to get back into coaching or management. He had two stints working under his former United teammate Ray Wilkins: at QPR and, in 2014, with the Jordan national side.

Stapleton spent eight months in 1996 as the first head coach of American Major Soccer League side New England Revolution, of Massachusetts.

His last appointment in the English game was briefly as a specialist striker coach at Bolton Wanderers, appointed during Sam Allardyce’s reign, in 2003-04.

Nowadays, Stapleton is more likely to be found talking about his illustrious career, his availability for bookings listed by football-speakers.com.

Matthew Upson was a class act in Albion’s defence

ARTICULATE pundit Matthew Upson was deservedly player of the season after starring in Brighton & Hove Albion’s back line during the 2013-14 season.

Earlier, in a career spanning eleven clubs, he played more times (144 plus once as sub) for West Ham United than any of his other clubs. He also won 21 England caps.

Upson initially joined the Seagulls during the second half of the 2012-13 season, signing on loan from Premier League Stoke City, where, in two years, he’d only managed 21 games (plus four as sub) following four years with the Hammers.

On signing him for Brighton at the age of 33, manager Gus Poyet told seagulls.co.uk, “When we had the chance to bring a player with the quality of Matt until the end of the season we went for him.

“He’s experienced, he’s been a regular Premier League player and there were no doubts about it. He has presence, he’s a leader as well and it’s a good opportunity for us to use him the right way and for him to play football.”

Upson joined a side already blessed with the on-loan presence of another former England international in the shape of left-back Wayne Bridge, but unfortunately the side couldn’t get past arch rivals Crystal Palace in the play-offs to gain promotion from the Championship.

Although Poyet departed, Upson decided to make his move to Brighton permanent and played 41 games, mainly alongside skipper Gordon Greer. Unfortunately, Oscar Garcia’s squad also stumbled in the play-offs.

Hampered by an ankle injury towards the end of the season, although Upson played in the first leg 2-1 home defeat to Derby County – when he conceded a penalty with a clumsy foul – he was one of several players to miss out through injury in the away leg, when the Rams prevailed 4-1.

At the season’s end, Upson declined a new contract offer with the Albion and decided to seize the opportunity to return to Premier League football with newly-promoted Leicester City.

As it turned out, injury delayed his debut by seven months and he made just six appearances for the Foxes before ending his playing days with MK Dons, where he was limited to four full appearances plus three as a sub.

Upson is now a regular pundit on our TV screens, displaying verbally the sort of calm assuredness he demonstrated out on the pitch.

So where did it all begin? Born on 18 April 1979 in Eye, a small Suffolk market town, Upson went to Diss High School, over the border in Norfolk, and his football ability first shone at Diss Town FC. He went on to the Ipswich Town Centre of Excellence but it was Luton Town who took him on as a trainee after his Ipswich coach, Terry Westley, had switched to the Hatters.

It was to be a lucrative decision by Luton because, after signing him as a professional in April 1996, a year later they sold him to Arsenal for £2million. He only ever made one first team appearance for Luton and that was as an 88^th minute substitute against Rotherham United in August 1996.

Unfortunately, his time with the Gunners was dogged by injury and lack of opportunity because of the solid form of the likes of Tony Adams, Steve Bould and Martin Keown.

Just as he was beginning to make a breakthrough in the 2001-02 season, taking the ageing Keown’s place, he broke his leg and missed out on the Gunners’ end-of-season League and FA Cup double, although he earned a league winners’ medal. At the season’s end, he’d made 16 appearances plus six as a sub.

While waiting for his chance at Arsenal, he had gone out on loan, to Nottingham Forest and Crystal Palace, then Reading after his return from the leg break. But after a total of 39 appearances, plus eight as a sub, for Arsenal spanning five and a half years, he made a £1m move to Birmingham City in January 2003.

City were halfway through their first season in the Premier League, under Steve Bruce, and Upson made 14 appearances as the side finished in 13^th place.

Upson told the dailystar.co.uk: “I had a good four and a half years under him at Birmingham. We had quite a successful period there.”

It was during his time with the Blues, during which he made 127 appearances plus one as sub, that his form was recognised with a call up to the England squad.

He had played at youth level and 12 times for the under 21 side but his first call-up for the senior squad came in February 2003, when he was an unused sub for England’s 3-1 win over Australia.

Three months later, coach Sven-Göran Eriksson gave him his debut when he came on for the second half In England’s 2-1 win over South Africa in Durban on 22 May 2003.

His final international appearance also came in South Africa – when he scored in England’s 4-1 defeat to Germany which brought about their exit from the 2010 World Cup. His involvement in the tournament was keenly followed by relatives and the whole community back in Diss.

He was involved in the squad for two subsequent games in September that year, but didn’t get to play. In total, he won seven caps while with Birmingham and 14 under Fabio Capello, after he had moved to West Ham. Of his 21 England appearances, 16 were as a starter, five as a sub.

Birmingham boss Bruce was reluctant to lose him but, on the final day of the transfer window in January 2007, the recently appointed Hammers boss, Alan Curbishley, paid £6million to take him to Upton Park, where enjoyed the longest spell of his playing career.

As he’d experienced at previous clubs, injury hampered him early on but eventually he got a regular spot in the side and subsequently took on the captaincy after the departure of Lucas Neill in August 2009.

It was after relegation from the Premiership during Sam Allardyce’s tenure as manager that Upson finally left the Hammers at the end of the 2010-11 season.

studio upson

Pacy Paul Brooker an in-and-out talent on the wing

PAUL BROOKER, a winger at one time mentioned in the same breath as Ryan Giggs, played more games for Brighton – 147 – than any of his other clubs but only managed a Premier League cameo with Leicester City.

Brooker certainly had the capacity to excite fans but there could be frustration in equal measure and, although he won back-to-back promotions with the Albion, his career didn’t come close to the achievements of the great Manchester United winger.

The national football fanzine, When Saturday Comes, ran a superb piece about Brooker in April 2002, in which Adam Powley talked about his “conspicuous talent” and maintained: “Brooker was indeed very good, blessed with real pace and an ability to keep control while running at full pelt.”

Born in Hammersmith on 25 November 1976, Brooker was with Chelsea as a schoolboy but it was Fulham who picked him up and gave him his professional opening.

Ian Branfoot handed him his first team debut – in a 0-0 draw away to Bury on 14 October 1995 – and he was part of Micky Adams’ promotion-winning Fulham side of 1997.

Amazingly, he made just 18 starts for Fulham, but came off the bench 54 times. Across those 72 appearances, he scored six goals. He was eventually frozen out in the Kevin Keegan era, playing his last first team game in September 1998, and then spent time on loan at Stevenage, where he played eight games.

In February 2000, he joined his former Fulham boss, Adams, on loan at Brighton and, after a 15-game spell, he joined Albion permanently for a £25,000 fee.

Screen Shot 2021-05-20 at 20.29.32 Brooker scored after only three minutes in a 2-0 win away to Plymouth Argyle on 14 April 2001 (celebrating above) which secured promotion for the Seagulls, and he was a regular on the wing that season, making a total of 41 appearances. He remained a key member of Albion’s third tier promotion-winning squad in 2001-02, Argus reporter Andy Naylor summing up his contribution thus: “Most wingers have an inconsistent streak and ‘Bozzy’ is no exception, but he is a matchwinner on his day.

“Quick and an elusive runner with the ball, he hit scoring form as well towards the end of the campaign with three goals in eight games. The First Division should suit his style.”

Brooker also featured in Steve Coppell’s 2002-03 side – I remember seeing him score in a 2-1 away win at the Madjeski Stadium – but as Brighton exited the second tier at the wrong end in 2003, so Brooker ended his association with the club.

Coppell had hoped he would stay, telling The Argus: “We obviously want to keep him at the club. I think he is a terrific asset. He has still got a lot to add to his game and improve but he makes us that little bit different.

“He is hard to tie down. Teams cannot afford to leave him and yet they don’t really want to assign somebody to him.”

For his part, Brooker told Howard Griggs of The Argus in an April 2011 interview: “I absolutely loved my time at Brighton; it was the best three years of my career.

“By nature I am a Chelsea fan but I always look out for Brighton and so do a lot of my family and friends.”

A free transfer move to Leicester City, once again working under Adams, finally gave Brooker a Premier League platform to display his talent but his chances were limited and he ended up starting just two League Cup games as well as getting on as a substitute in three League games and a FA Cup match.

With his top tier opportunities limited, he elected to play under Coppell again and joined Championship side Reading on loan. He made 11 appearances in 2004 before joining the Royals permanently in July 2004.

After just one season at Reading, when he played 34 games, Martin Allen signed him on a free transfer for Brentford.

He had two seasons with the Bees but his time at Griffin Park came to an end shortly after the start of the 2007-08 season.

“When Terry Butcher came in, I think he’d made his mind up about me before he’d even seen me play,” Brooker told fulhamfc.com. “We just didn’t see eye to eye about things, and that was the end of it for me there.”

A Brentford blog, the entertaining BFC Talk, spoke about Brooker in a July 2015 piece. “Paul Brooker was another who flattered to deceive and throughout his career never did justice to his vast ability,” it said.

“He scored a goal of sheer brilliance after running the length of the pitch at Swindon, but on other days he appeared to be lethargic, disinterested and peripheral to the action.

“He did not take criticism well, either from fans, or indeed, his manager, Terry Butcher, and reacted badly before having his contract cancelled.” Although Brooker started taking his coaching badges, he admitted to the Fulham website: “I’ve not really kicked a football since I left Brentford; I lost a lot of my passion and love for the game.

“I’ve set up a carpet cleaning business with a friend just for something to do and that’s going quite well. I’m enjoying doing something different from football.”

Brooker played non-league for Chertsey Town in 2008-09 although he did have a short spell back training at the Albion, during Adams’ brief return as manager.

He also turned out for Havant & Waterlooville and Dorking Wanderers. After his playing days ended, he took up after school sports coaching in the Kingston, Twickenham and Hounslow areas. red Brooker

Pictures from the matchday programme; Simon Dack in the Argus, and the Reading website.

Mis-firing Mick Ferguson couldn’t repeat goalscoring prowess for Everton or Brighton

MICK FERGUSON was a prolific goalscorer for Coventry City but the goals dried up in spells with Everton and Brighton & Hove Albion.

Ferguson’s arrival at the Goldstone in the early autumn of 1984 was certainly not amid a great fanfare. The Albion, under new chairman Bryan Bedson, were wrestling with debt and, to bring in some much-needed funds, sold striker Alan Young to Notts County for £50,000 and full-back Mark Jones to Birmingham for £30,000.

Needing a cut-price replacement for Young, and with Ferguson unwanted at Birmingham having been responsible for getting them relegated (see below), he came to the Goldstone as part of the deal that took Jones to St Andrews.

In modern-day football, loan players don’t generally play against their parent clubs but, amazingly, at the end of the previous season, Ferguson was allowed to play against Birmingham while on loan at his old club Coventry, and ended up scoring a goal that kept the Sky Blues in the top division but sent Birmingham down.

It was such an unusual saga that as recently as May 2017, the Guardian revisited the tale, catching up with Ferguson to explain the circumstances.

As the article explains, shortly before the player’s 30th birthday, manager Ron Saunders offloaded him to Brighton, where the manager was Ferguson’s former Coventry teammate, Chris Cattlin. Just to prolong Saunders’ agony, Ferguson made his Seagulls debut in a 2-0 home win… over Birmingham! This time he didn’t score. And, for Brighton, that state of affairs existed for several months.

I remember his second game quite vividly. It was a midweek league cup tie away to Fourth Division Aldershot and I went to the game with my pal Colin Snowball, who at that time was living in nearby Bagshot. There wasn’t anything subtle about Albion’s tactics that night. Goalkeeper Graham Moseley would kick the ball long for Ferguson to get on the end of it.

But, as the striker tried to lay it off, all he succeeded in doing was heading it into touch – repeatedly. The new signing did not impress! Despite their superior status in the league, Albion succumbed 3-0 in what was a pretty humiliating exit. Ferguson was remarkably selected for the following Saturday’s game, an away defeat to Oxford, after which he was omitted for four games. Cattlin gave him another chance with a four-game spell but still the dismal form continued and he didn’t get another look-in for four months.

Freelance journalist Spencer Vignes did a retrospective article about Ferguson for the Albion matchday programme and discovered the striker didn’t have a high opinion of his former playing colleague. “Several of the players just didn’t get along with him, and I was one of them,” he said. “His man-management skills left a lot to be desired. As a manager you need to have the players on-side. Chris certainly didn’t have us on-side.”

Ferguson admitted to being frustrated by Cattlin chopping and changing the side and said there were times he turned out when only 80 per cent fit, which didn’t do justice to himself, the team or the supporters. “My ankles weren’t great and towards the end I did struggle with my back, but I felt when I was fit I could certainly do a good job.”

The striker felt with the ability in the squad at the time they should have achieved more but pointed the finger at Cattlin for it not happening. “Some people aren’t cut out for management and I don’t think Chris was. It doesn’t surprise me that he never worked as a manager again.”

The history books (many thanks to Tim Carder and Roger Harris) recall him as the goalscorer in a 1-1 draw away to Portsmouth on 6 April 1986 but, having been to that game too, I seem to recall it was a rather desperate claim for what looked more like an own goal by Noel Blake.

The start of the following season saw the arrival of former £1m striker Justin Fashanu from Notts County and Dean Saunders, a free transfer from Swansea City, so Ferguson’s prospects of a starting place looked bleak.

However, the 1985-86 season was not very old before Cattlin had a striker crisis on his hands. Gerry Ryan was out long-term with the horrific leg break from which he never recovered, Terry Connor and summer signing Fashanu were also sidelined with injury and a big man was needed to play alongside Alan Biley.

Cattlin had little choice but to bring back the previously mis-firing Ferguson, and to everyone’s surprise and delight his goal touch returned, albeit briefly.

“I was virtually forced into the team through injury,” Ferguson admitted in a matchday programme interview. “But, fortunately, things turned out quite well. It was nice to get a goal against Blackburn in my first match back. That seemed to pave the way.”

The programme article had tried to give some perspective to the dismal form when he had first arrived. It said: “Mick’s confidence was affected by his loss of form, but he never lost an inner belief that he would pull himself out of the bad patch. And what a difference the goals make. He has shown great character this season and did a marvellous job for the team while Justin Fashanu was out with injury.”

Ferguson himself said: “It took us quite a while to settle down. We were in a flat at first and I was having a lot of problems, one way and the other, so it wasn’t an easy time.”

Eventually Ferguson, his wife and two daughters settled into a house in Hove, and the striker admitted: “When you’re having a bad time there is a tendency to bring your problems home. It’s unfair on your family. I didn’t notice at the time, but, looking back, I think I probably was a little snappy with my wife and children.

“I think you can reach the stage where you really start to wonder, but I always knew I could score goals for Brighton. I’ve scored goals everywhere else I’ve played. It was just a question of time and waiting for the right break.”

Indeed, Ferguson scored in three successive matches in September 1985, prompting Cattlin to give him a special mention in his programme notes for the league cup game at home to Bradford City. “The form of Mick Ferguson is bound to improve even more with the confidence he is gaining through his three goals in three games,” wrote the manager. “His header against Wimbledon was a true indication of his ability; it was of the highest class.”

The renewed confidence saw him add another consecutive pair the following month – before on-loan Martin Keown took over the no.9 shirt and demonstrated he could score goals as well as defend!

Sadly, the revival in Ferguson’s fortunes were not to last. When Fashanu was fit again, Ferguson was dropped and only stepped in a couple more times. His goal in a 4-3 home win over Huddersfield on 16 November was the last he scored for the club.

Apart from a lone outing in January, in a 3-0 defeat at Sheffield United, Ferguson was on the outside looking in until, to everyone’s astonishment, after a five-week absence from first team action, he was selected by Cattlin to lead the line in a FA Cup Sixth Round tie against First Division Southampton on 8 March 1986.

Ferg action Shilts Bond Case Ferguson, sandwiched between Kevin Bond and Jimmy Case, is foiled by Southampton goalkeeper Peter Shilton in what turned out to be the striker’s final Brighton game.

A crowd of 25,069 packed into the Goldstone – when the average attendance at the time often dipped below 10,000 – but it ended in a disappointing 2-0 defeat and the manager admitted he had made a mistake with his selection. It turned out to be Ferguson’s last game for the club.

Just over three weeks later, he moved to fourth-tier Colchester United – whose manager Cyril Lea was promptly sacked!

United’s reserve team manager, Mike Walker (who would later manage Everton) took over the first team as caretaker and, as the team went on an unbeaten run of eight games, Ferguson scored seven times, the first of which came in a 4-0 win over Leyton Orient on 8 April.

The following season he played 19 games and scored four times before leaving on 7 November 1986 to join non-league Wealdstone.

It was quite a fall from the heady days of the early Seventies.

Born in Newcastle on 3 October 1954, Ferguson was picked up by Coventry City’s youth scheme in 1970 and, although he made his debut in 1975, shortly after the sale of Scotland international Colin Stein, it wasn’t until the start of the 1976-77 season that he became a Highfield Road regular.

In tandem with Ian Wallace (who was later a strike partner of Peter Ward’s at Nottingham Forest), he really started to attract attention, as the Coventry Telegraph recounted when describing him as a “truly great goalscorer”.

The article reckoned he was strongly tipped for international honours at one point but injury and loss of form affected him over the next two seasons. Forest, Villa and Ipswich were all supposedly keen to sign him, with Brian Clough agreeing a £500,000 deal, then pulling out.

However, in the summer of 1981, he finally left City having scored 57 goals in 141 games (plus eight sub appearances) all in the top flight when Everton paid £280,000 for him. Ferguson scored six times in his first eight games – but the goals dried up after that and he was gone within less than a year having made only made 10 appearances (plus two as a sub).

In 2007, David Prentice, in the Liverpool Echo, sought out Ferguson for an explanation of his less than happy time on Merseyside.

Manager Howard Kendall initially loaned him to Birmingham City, before making the deal permanent, but injury disrupted his chances at St Andrews, hence the loan move back to Coventry.

After retiring from playing in 1987, Ferguson stayed in the game working in community development roles for Sunderland – for 10 years, until he fell out with manager Peter Reid – Newcastle United and Leeds United, where he was head of Football in the Community.

Pictures from Albion matchday programes and, via YouTube, from Coventry City’s Sky Blues TV.

Mike Bailey took the Seagulls to their highest-ever finish

ONE OF the all-time greats of Wolverhampton Wanderers led Brighton & Hove Albion to their highest-ever finish in football.

Midfield general Mike Bailey played for Wolves for 11 seasons between 1965 and 1976, leading the team to promotion from the Second Division in 1966-67, helping them to top-flight positions of fourth and fifth in 1971 and 1973, getting to the final of the UEFA Cup in 1972, and lifting the League Cup at Wembley in 1974.

MB WWFCLgeCup Mike Bailey holds aloft the League Cup after Wolves beat Manchester City 2-1 at Wembley.

It was perhaps a hard act to follow Alan Mullery as manager of Brighton, particularly as the former Spurs and Fulham captain had led the club from Third Division obscurity to the pinnacle of English football within three years.

But Bailey had just got Charlton Athletic promoted from the Third Division and in the 1981-82 season led Albion to a 13^th place finish, a record which was only threatened in 2017-18 by Chris Hughton’s side, who eventually ended up 15^th.

Unfortunately, although Bailey’s team was relatively successful, the style of play he adopted to achieve that position was a turn-off to the fans who deserted the Albion in their hundreds and thousands.

Eventually, chairman Mike Bamber felt he had to address the slump in support by sacking Bailey in December 1982. “He’s a smashing bloke, I’m sorry to see him go, but it had to be done,” said Bamber. There are plenty – in particular Bailey! – who feel he acted a little too hastily.

Bailey shared his feelings in an interview he gave to the News of the World’s Reg Drury in the run-up to the 1983 FA Cup Final.

Mike Bailey talks to the News of the World; his often frank programme notes; his assistant, John Collins, a former Luton Town player.

“It seems that my team has been relegated from the First Division while Jimmy Melia’s team has reached the Cup Final,” he began.

Wanting to put the record straight having been hurt by some of the media coverage he’d seen since his departure, he explained: “I found the previous manager Alan Mullery had left me with a good squad, but, naturally I built on it and imposed my own style of play.”

Bailey resented accusations that his style had been dull and boring football, pointing out: “Nobody said that midway through last season when we were sixth and there was talk of Europe.

“We were organised and disciplined and getting results. John Collins, a great coach, was on the same wavelength as me. We wanted to lay the foundations of lasting success, just like Bill Shankly and Bob Paisley did at Liverpool.

“The only problem was that winning 1-0 and 2-0 didn’t satisfy everybody. I tried to change things too soon – that was a mistake.

“When I left, we were 18^th with more than a point a game. I’ve never known a team go down when fifth from bottom.”

It was clear from the outset of Bailey’s reign that he didn’t suffer fools gladly and there were numerous clashes with players, notably Steve Foster, Michael Robinson and Neil McNab, the displaced Gordon Smith and Mickey Thomas, a Bailey signing who repeatedly went missing because his wife didn’t like it in the south.

Bailey would vent his feelings quite overtly in his matchday programme notes; he was not afraid to hit out at referees, the football authorities and the media, as well as trying to explain his decisions to supporters, urging them to get behind the team rather than criticise.

Happier times as Mike Bailey becomes Albion manager and signs Tony Grealish to replace outgoing stalwart midfielder and skipper, Brian Horton.

Attempting to shine a light on the comings and goings associated with his arrival, he explained: “The moves we have been making are designed to provide Brighton with a better football team and one that can consolidate its position in the First Division, rather than struggle, such as in the last two seasons.”

By Christmas, the team were comfortably in the top half of the table and in an interview with the Argus, Bailey said: “I must admit that as a player and captain of Wolves I was a bit of a bastard, slagging others off, and that sort of thing. But being a manager, one sees everything in a different light. I am still trying to learn as a manager, especially now that I am with a First Division club.”

Three months later, shortly after he had appeared at a fans forum at the Brighton Centre, he very pointedly said: “It is my job to select the team and to try to win matches.

“People are quite entitled to their opinion, but I am paid to get results for Brighton and that is my first priority.

“Building a successful team is a long-term business and I have recently spoken to many top people in the professional game who admire what we are doing here at Brighton and just how far we have come in a short space of time.

“We know we still have a long way to go, but we are all working towards a successful future.”

As he assessed his first season, he said: “Many good things have come out of our season. Our early results were encouraging and we quickly became an organised and efficient side. The lads got into their rhythm quickly and it was a nice ‘plus’ to get into a high league position so early on.”

He had special words of praise for Gary Stevens and said: “Although the youngest member of our first team squad, Gary is a perfect example to his fellow professionals. Whatever we ask of him he will always do his best, he is completely dedicated and sets a fine example to his fellow players.”

Meanwhile, in his own end of season summary, Argus Albion reporter John Vinicombe maintained: “It is Bailey’s chief regret that he changed his playing policy in response to public, and possibly private, pressure with the result that Albion finished the latter part of the season in most disappointing fashion.

“Accusations that Albion were the principal bores of the First Division at home were heaped on Bailey’s head, and, while he is a man not given to altering his mind for no good reason, certain instructions were issued to placate the rising tide of criticisms.”

Vinicombe recorded that the average home gate for 1981-82 was 18,241, fully 6,500 fewer than had supported the side during their first season amongst the elite.

“The Goldstone regulars, who are not typical of First Division crowds (but neither is the ground) grew restless at a series of frustrating home draws, and finally turned on their own players,” he said.

At the beginning of the following season, off-field matters brought disruption to the playing side. Arsenal’s former FA Cup winner Charlie George had trained with the Seagulls during pre-season and senior players Foster, Robinson and McNab publicly voiced their disappointment that the money wasn’t found to bring such a player on board permanently.

McNab in particular accused the club of lacking ambition and efforts were made to send him out on loan. Similarly, Robinson was lined up for a swap deal with Sunderland’s Stan Cummins, but it fell through.

Meanwhile, Albion couldn’t buy a win away from home and suffered two 5-0 defeats (against Luton and West Brom) and a 4-0 spanking at Nottingham Forest – all in September. Then, four defeats on the spin in November, going into December, finally cost Bailey his job. Perhaps the writing was on the wall when, in his final programme contribution, he blamed the run of poor results on bad luck and admitted: “I feel we are somehow in a rut.”

It would be fair to say Bailey the player enjoyed more success than Bailey the manager. So, where did it all begin?

Born on 27 February 1942 in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, he went to the same school in Gorleston, Norfolk, as the former Arsenal centre back Peter Simpson. His career began with non-league Gorleston before Charlton Athletic snapped him up in 1958 and he spent eight years at The Valley.

M Bailey charlton During his time there, he was capped twice by England as manager Alf Ramsey explored options for his 1966 World Cup squad. Just a week after making his fifth appearance for England under 23s, Bailey, aged 22, was called up to make his full debut in a friendly against the USA on 27 May 1964.

He had broken into the under 23s only three months earlier, making his debut in a 3-2 win over Scotland at St James’ Park, Newcastle, on 5 February 1964.He retained his place against France, Hungary, Israel and Turkey, games in which his teammates included Graham Cross, Mullery and Martin Chivers.

England ran out 10-0 winners in New York with Roger Hunt scoring four, Fred Pickering three, Terry Paine two, and Bobby Charlton the other.

Eight of that England side made it to the 1966 World Cup squad two years later but a broken leg put paid to Bailey’s chances of joining them, even though he got one more chance to impress Ramsey.

Six months after the win in New York, he was in the England team who beat Wales 2-1 at Wembley in the Home Championship. Frank Wignall, who would later spend a season with Bailey at Wolves, scored both England’s goals. Many years later, Wignall was playing for Burton Albion when a certain Peter Ward began to shine!

In 1965, Bailey broke his leg in a FA Cup tie against Middlesbrough and that was at a time when such injuries could be career-threatening.

“I was worried that may have been it,” Bailey recalled in his autobiography, The Valley Wanderer: The Mike Bailey Story (published in November 2015). “In the end, I was out for six months. My leg got stronger and I never had problems with it again, so it was a blessing in disguise in that respect.

“Charlton had these (steep) terraces. I’d go up to them every day, I was getting fitter and fitter. But it was too late to get in the 1966 World Cup side – Alf Ramsey had got his team in place.”

Bailey missed out on the 1966 England World Cup squad but he won Football League representative honours and enjoyed success as captain of Wolves.

During his time with the England under 23s, Bailey had become friends with Wolves’ Ernie Hunt (the striker who later played for Coventry City) and Hunt persuaded him to move to the Black Country club.

Thus began an association which saw him play a total of 436 games for Wolves over 11 seasons, leading a side with solid defenders like John McAlle, Francis Munro and Derek Parkin, combined with exciting players like forwards Derek Dougan and John Richards, plus winger Dave Wagstaffe.

However, when coach Sammy Chung stepped up to take over as manager, he selected Kenny Hibbitt ahead of Bailey so the former skipper chose to end his playing days in America, with the Minnesota Kicks, who were managed by the former Brighton boss Freddie Goodwin.

Nevertheless, Bailey’s contribution to the team famous for their old gold kit saw him inducted into the Wolves Hall of Fame in 2010.

On his return to the UK, Bailey became manager of Hereford United, then he returned to The Valley as manager of Charlton and, immediately after getting them promoted to the third tier, took over at Brighton in the summer of 1981.

A somewhat extraordinary stat I discovered about Bailey’s management career in England through managerstats.co.uk was that he managed each of those three clubs for just 65 games. At Hereford, his record was W 32, D 11, L 22; at Charlton W 21, D 17, L 27; at Brighton, W 20 D 17, L 28.

In 1984, he moved to Greece to manage OFI Crete, and he later worked as reserve team coach at Portsmouth. Later still, he did some scouting work for Wolves.

Pictures from various sources: Goal and Shoot! magazines; the Evening Argus, the News of the World, and the Albion matchday programme.

Imperious Mark Lawrenson starred at Brighton before hitting Liverpool heights

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Shoot article

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Argus front page

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Goals dried up at Brighton for Pompey favourite Alan Biley

1 150th goal v Leeds (1-1) ALAN BILEY was a fans favourite at all six English league clubs he played for but the prolific goalscoring that made his name at Cambridge United and Portsmouth wasn’t replicated at Everton or Brighton.

His spiky, long blond hair reflected his devotion to singer Rod Stewart and, on the pitch, the way he wore his football shirt outside his shorts, clutched the cuffs, and saluted a goal with a raised forefinger was a tribute to Scottish footballing legend Denis Law, another of his heroes, .

Biley was quite the hero at Portsmouth, with a goalscoring record of more than a goal every other game, having been signed by Bobby Campbell in 1982.

But when he fell out of favour with Campbell’s successor, Alan Ball, Brighton’s Chris Cattlin stepped in and paid £50,000 to take the striker along the coast in March 1985.

Within a month of the move, he was back at Fratton Park in Albion’s colours for an Easter Saturday south coast derby when honours were even in a 1-1 draw.

Biley had made his Seagulls debut as a substitute for Frank Worthington in a 0-0 draw away to Barnsley, then got his first start the following game (another goalless draw, at home to Oxford) and kept his place to the end of the season.

The first of four goals during that spell came in a 2-0 win at home to Oldham, and the goal he scored in a 1-1 home draw with Leeds on 20 April was his 150^th in league football (top picture). Although Albion finished with three wins, it wasn’t enough to reach the promotion places, and they finished sixth.

Biley made a great start to the 1985-86 campaign, scoring against First Division Nottingham Forest in a remarkable 5-1 pre-season friendly win, and then in the opening league fixture, a 2-2 home draw with Grimsby Town.

However, competition for places in Albion’s forward line had intensified. In addition to Terry Connor, £1m man Justin Fashanu arrived together with Dean Saunders, on a free transfer from Swansea, (Saunders went on to be named player of the season).

With the much-derided Mick Ferguson also managing a brief purple patch of scoring, it meant Biley struggled to hold down a regular spot, making 24 starts plus three appearances as a sub, and only managing to add three more goals to that season’s opener.

Cattlin’s dismissal as boss, to be replaced by the returning Alan Mullery, also spelled the end of Biley’s time at the club. He initially went back to Cambridge on loan, then tried his luck with New York Express in the States, had a spell in Greece before ending up in Ireland, playing for Waterford who were managed by his old Everton teammate, Andy King. He ended up back at Cambridge on a non-contract basis in November 1988 and made three more appearances for United before hanging up his boots.

But let’s go back to the beginning. Born in Leighton Buzzard on 26 February 1957, Biley was spotted by nearby Luton Town at the tender age of 10 and signed schoolboy forms aged 12. He was then offered an apprenticeship and professional forms as he worked his way through the different levels. But financial issues hit the club and when their chief scout left to link up with Cambridge, he recommended Biley to manager Ron Atkinson, and in 1975 he made the move to Fourth Division United.

Biley netted a total of 82 in 185 games as United rose from the Fourth Division to the Second between 1975 and 1979, when his eye for goal caught the attention of First Division Derby County, who paid £450,000 for his services.

Biley continued to find the net regularly in the top flight, scoring nine in 18 games for the Rams, but he couldn’t prevent them from being relegated. He stuck with them in the 1980-81 season and scored 10 playing in the second tier but was sidelined through injury for several months.

He recounted recently how he fell out with manager Colin Addison and there was talk of him being sold to West Brom, where his old boss Atkinson had moved, but instead, in July 1981, he became new Everton manager Howard Kendall’s first signing for a £300,000 fee. Everton fans who go back that far refer to the Magnificent Seven – because that’s how many players Kendall signed in a short space of time.

Biley EVE Biley was an instant hit, scoring on his Everton debut as Birmingham City were beaten 3-1. He scored again in his next game away to Leeds, but things quickly started to go wrong for him, as he explained in great detail to Everton fan website bluekipper.com.

“I was always appreciative of the Evertonians’ footballing knowledge and the support and gusto, particularly through the tough times,” said Biley. “They were very loyal through the tough times, and they are a different class.

“I would like to think they took to me but my only big regret was that I wasn’t there long enough to enjoy them.”

By October, Kendall had dropped his new signing and Biley was mystified.

“Years later, as I look back at it, I wasn’t Howard Kendall’s cup of tea. Whatever that was, I can’t put my finger on it because history tells you what I was and what I did and where I played, and he had a different opinion of that.

“I would have loved him to have had the faith in me he had in lots of other players.”

Eventually his lack of involvement in first team action saw him go out on loan to struggling Stoke City and in eight games he helped them to retain their status in the top division, but hopes of a permanent move fell through.

Instead he departed Goodison Park with just 18 appearances (plus three as sub) and three goals to his name and dropped down to the Third Division with Portsmouth.

The Pompey faithful had already had a taste of what they could expect when, at Christmas 1977, as a 20-year-old playing for Cambridge, Biley had scored twice for table-topping Cambridge at Fratton Park.

And, sure enough, when paired up front with Billy Rafferty, he became an instant hit and the duo scored 40 between them as Pompey won promotion. Biley’s performances earned him a place in the PFA select XI that included Gillingham’s Steve Bruce and Micky Adams, Portsmouth colleague Neil Webb and Kerry Dixon, then of Reading.

The following season saw Biley gain a new strike partner in the shape of Mark Hateley, who would go on to earn England international recognition. However, a series of 10 home defeats put paid to their promotion hopes and Campbell was sacked on the coach on the way back from the season’s penultimate game at Derby. In the final game of the season, with Alan Ball in temporary charge, Biley hit a hat-trick in a 5-0 demolition of Swansea.

Ball was installed as manager and Biley was very much a part of the side that began the 1984-85 season. He played in 22 games and came off the bench twice, scoring a total of 13 goals before Ball mysteriously sold him to Brighton in March.

Biley’s heart never left Fratton Park, though, and in 2015 he told Neil Allen, the author of a book Played Up Pompey: “Pompey was – and still is – my club.

“Pompey was a three-year box in time and if I could possibly open that box again and recover moments, a day even, then I would die happy. I fell in love with the club and it has never gone away.”

Biley has revelled in many opportunities to reminisce about his playing days, attending numerous reunions and enjoying all the memories.

In June 2017, he got together with other former players to talk about his goalscoring days at Cambridge and in October 2017, broadcaster and Albion fan Peter Brackley helped a number of former Pompey players, including Biley, recall a famous occasion when a fan ran on the pitch dressed as Santa Claus and, after the disruption, Biley scored two late goals to win a dramatic cup tie against Oxford.

But in all my research for this piece, I could find no loving references to his time with the Albion, although five years ago the excellent thegoldstonewrap.com brought together some footage of some of his best moments.

After his playing days were over, he moved back to his Bedfordshire roots and got involved in non-league football with various sides in and around the Home Counties, alongside running his own gym in Biggleswade.

Pictures from the Albion programme / Evening Argus and various online sources.

‘Save of the season’ one of few bouquets for goalkeeping florist Alan Blayney

blayney intense GOALKEEPER Alan Blayney only played 15 games on loan to Brighton from Southampton but if finances had been better at the time he could have signed permanently and his career may have taken a different turn.

Blayney is still playing, nifootballleague.com reporting only in December 2017 a move to Ballyclare Comrades from Warrenpoint Town. He also runs a florist business with his wife Laura in Newtownabbey.

Only a month earlier he opened his heart to the belfasttelegraph.co.uk and talked about the demons he’s had to face during a career that rarely hit the heights in England but has seen him represent his country and enjoy success in his native Northern Ireland.

Born in Belfast on 9 October 1981, Blayney was picked up by the city’s Irish league side Glentoran at 16 before moving to the UK aged 19 to join Premier League Southampton.

Blayney was initially loaned out to Stockport County, but his time there was cut short by a broken finger.

He also had a couple of games along the coast at Bournemouth when he suffered one of his most embarrassing goalkeeping moments. In a Q and A for the Albion programme, Blayney told interviewer Dan Tester: “I’d rolled the ball outside the 18-yard box in readiness to kick it up field. The Rochdale striker, my former Northern Ireland under 21 teammate Lee McEvilly, was running away and it hit him on the head and flew over mine into the back of the net.”

Back at Southampton, the young ‘keeper finally got a first team chance in May 2004, a couple of months after Paul Sturrock had replaced Gordon Strachan as manager.

It was some debut because the game against Newcastle United finished 3-3 and a save Blayney made from an Alan Shearer header won him the accolade of Sky Sports save of the season.

The young Irishman kept his place for the following game, a 2-1 defeat at Charlton and he played twice more the following season, in a 2-2 league draw against West Bromwich Albion and a 5-2 League Cup defeat to Watford.

With future Albion goalkeeping coach Antti Niemi and Paul Smith ahead of him in the pecking order, Blayney went on loan to Rushden & Diamonds, where he played four games, before securing the first loan to Brighton in early 2005.

Albion’s regular ‘keeper Michel Kuipers had sustained a horrific shoulder injury in a home game against Nottingham Forest and the no.2 at the time, Chris May, had no experience so manager Mark McGhee needed emergency reinforcements.

Initially he obtained David Yeldell from Blackburn Rovers and also brought in Rami Shabaan from Arsenal, but Blayney, no doubt recommended by McGhee’s old pal Strachan, became the preferred option and played seven games at the end of the season.

Amongst several impressive displays was a game I went to with my son, Rhys, at Burnley, on 16 April 2005.

Against the odds, it finished 1-1 but the media was keener to focus on the post-match news that striker Mark McCammon had been ordered off the team bus by McGhee for his reaction to being substituted at half time.

Reporter Peter Gardner, on telegraph.co.uk, said: “The incident overshadowed a rousing second-half comeback to a game Brighton might ultimately have won, not least through the contribution of Jake Robinson, McCammon’s half-time replacement.

“However, McGhee’s men were equally fortunate not to have been overwhelmed by the home side in the opening 45 minutes when only splendid saves by Alan Blayney from Graham Branch (twice) and Mo Camara, plus Burnley’s own profligacy, prevented an avalanche of goals.”

Blayney was also between the sticks for the nail-biting final game of the season when a 1-1 draw with Ipswich Town kept the Seagulls in the Championship by the skin of their teeth.

Such had been Blayney’s contribution that McGhee was keen to sign him permanently, the manager telling skysports.com: “Alan did absolutely brilliantly here for us. We have to see how realistic an option that is, and whether they’re even prepared to consider letting him go, and what the conditions would be.”

The answer was that Brighton couldn’t afford the fee Southampton wanted so at the start of the following season Wayne Henderson was brought in instead on a three-month loan from Aston Villa.

When Henderson returned to Villa, McGhee was keen to buy him outright but in the meantime brought Blayney back for an eight-game stint.

Blayney told BBC Southern Counties Radio: “If I don’t perform they’ll end up going for Wayne instead of me. I have to come in and show I’m as good as Wayne, if not better. This first game at Stoke is really important.”

Unfortunately, the game at Stoke ended in a 3-0 defeat and a 3-2 reverse at home to Crystal Palace followed.

After a point was gained away at Cardiff City, Blayney saved a penalty from Inigo Idiakez in a 0-0 draw with Derby at Withdean on 26 November 2005, and the following week he helped earn another point, repeating the feat against Watford’s Marlon King.

The Watford Observer reported: “King passed up a glorious chance to fire Watford ahead on 58 minutes when he saw his penalty saved. King’s tame penalty was parried by Blayney, who dived low to his left, and the keeper then gathered the rebound.”

After a 5-1 hammering away to Reading, Blayney returned to Southampton in mid-December and within a matter of weeks Southampton’s technical support director, Sir Clive Woodward, informed him he had been sold to Doncaster Rovers for £50,000.

Blayney told the Belfast Telegraph in November 2017: “My response was, ‘Do I not have any say in this?’ He said the deal was done but I didn’t want to live in Doncaster. I loved it in Southampton. I didn’t settle in Doncaster, they gave me an apartment, but it was a tip. If I was getting those wages now I would bite your arm off but then it felt I wasn’t getting much and it was a terrible time.”

Although he started out as no.1, and made 24 appearances for Rovers, following an ankle injury he slipped to third choice behind Ben Smith and Jan Budtz, and came to an agreement to terminate his two and a half year contract early.

Blayney admitted in his Belfast Telegraph interview: “I do regret going out and drinking in my later career in England when I was at Doncaster. I was getting injuries and was a bit disillusioned with the game. I regret it because people had opinions of me at that club which is not the real me. They only saw me behave like that for a few months.”

He wasn’t quite done with England, though, and in February 2007 joined League One Oldham Athletic until the end of the season, after impressing in a reserve team match. However, he only played one first team game, in a 1-2 home defeat against Bournemouth.

There had been the possibility of a return to Brighton to replace Henderson, who had been sold to Preston, but the Argus reported on 2 February 2007: “Albion are not re-signing goalkeeper Alan Blayney after all. They have not been able to agree a length of contract with the former loan signing.”

On his return to Northern Ireland, he initially managed just three games as an understudy at Bohemians, but then he played 32 times for Ballymena United in 2008-09 as a prelude to what would turn out to be the most successful period of his career.

In five seasons with NIFL premiership side Linfield, he played 164 games and, in 2010-11, when Linfield won the league and cup double, he was named Ulster Footballer of the Year.

His form for Linfield also earned him a recall to the Northern Ireland squad. He had initially made his debut in 2006 under Lawrie Sanchez on a summer tour of the United States.

An appearance from the bench in a drawn friendly against Morocco in November 2010 saw Blayney concede an embarrassing goal as his clearance rebounded off Marouane Chamakh, then of Arsenal, to give the Africans the lead.

Manager Nigel Worthington put the incident into context after the game, telling the media Blayney had travelled to the ground just hours after his partner had given birth to a son.

“I was disappointed for Alan but it has been a terrific day for him and we have come out of the game unbeaten,” said Worthington. “He’s fine and I have given him every encouragement. It is one of those you learn from. You cannot take a split second to delay.”

Blayney said it was the worst moment of his career. He told the Belfast Telegraph: “I came on at half-time for Jonny Tuffey but took a terrible touch and Chamakh came in to challenge me. I kicked the ball off him and it went into the net.

“Everybody had welcomed me onto the pitch and you don’t forget moments like that. You aren’t used to playing against players who are as quick as that. I looked up and he was there. I wanted the ground to swallow me up but earlier that same day Phoenix was born. It was a bittersweet day.”

In May 2011 Blayney shared goalkeeping duties with Tuffey as an inexperienced Northern Ireland team endured an embarrassing Carling Nations Cup defeat to the Republic of Ireland. Although left exposed by a threadbare defence, Blayney was culpable in at least two of the goals in a 5-0 hammering, one of which was scored by debut-making Stephen Ward, a future left back loanee for the Seagulls. bbc.co.uk reported: “Blayney was badly at fault six minutes later as he spilled a tame Treacy cross which allowed Ward to poke home from close range.”

With Linfield, Blayney continued to rack up honours until they signed Tuffey in 2013, and he was no longer first choice. In January 2014, he joined Ards on loan but couldn’t help them avoid relegation.

After spending 2014-15 with Glenavon, he returned to Ballymena where he had two successful seasons, before losing his place. In January 2017, he dropped down to the Premier Intermediate League with Dundela. At the start of this season, he returned to the higher division with Warrenpoint Town but, in December, moved to be closer to home, with semi-professional Ballyclare.

Blayney save dec 17 blay cut Blayney cover

Goalkeeping guru Eric Steele: a promotion talisman at Brighton

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

*Steele has coached young England goalkeepers*

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

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

Twelve goals in 26 games for Scottish striker Alan Young

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

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

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

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

alanyoung6 2

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Screenshot — *Leicester strike partner for Gary Lineker*

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Twitter enthusiasts can follow Alan @alan9young

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

In parallel lines

Memories from more than 55 years following Brighton & Hove Albion

Tag: Brighton & Hove Albion