Tag: Chris Hughton

Unstoppable free kick earned Poco’s place in Albion folklore

SÉBASTIEN Pocognoli will forever be remembered by Brighton fans for a spectacular free-kick goal he scored against Queens Park Rangers en route to promotion from the Championship.

Glenn Murray had given the Seagulls the lead in the April 2017 encounter at Loftus Road before, as the BBC reported, Pocognoli “executed a pinpoint free-kick with his left foot which flew in off the crossbar for an unstoppable second”.

Although Rangers pulled a goal back, Albion’s advantage gave them their first win at QPR for nearly 60 years and sent them back to the top of the league.

It was Pocognoli’s first competitive goal for six years and such a sweet strike etched his name in Brighton folklore.

Injuries and suspension dogged the left-back slot during that promotion season. Pocognoli had signed on a season-long loan from West Brom in August 2016 as cover for Gaetan Bong; Liam Rosenior having suffered an ankle injury.

But the loanee himself was troubled by a groin injury and made only 18 appearances for the Seagulls (plus three as a sub).

“Sebastien has a vast amount of experience having played in some of the top divisions in Europe,” Brighton manager Chris Hughton said on the day Pocognoli signed. “He is the type of quality player we want to add to the squad, and we are looking forward to working with him.”

The Belgian international came to the UK in 2014 having played top-flight football in Belgium, Holland and Germany.

Injury denied him the chance of going to Brazil to play in that summer’s World Cup for his country, but his disappointment was tempered by securing a move to the Premier League.

Unfortunately for him, his West Brom career barely got off the ground because the head coach who signed him – Alan Irvine – was soon replaced by Tony Pulis, who preferred Chris Brunt, Chris Baird or Joleon Lescott as left-back.

According to the uefa.com website, Pocognoli is a “technically-assured player, primarily a left-back but can also operate in midfield and is a specialist from dead-ball situations”. You can say that again!

Born in Seraing, near Liege, on 1 August 1987, Pocognoli represented Standard Liège at junior level but joined Genk aged 15, making his first team debut a year later, in 2004.

However, he had to be content with reserve team football until the 2006-07 season when he became a first-team regular, helping the club finish second in the Belgian first division.

In June 2007, Pocognoli joined Eredivisie side AZ Alkmaar, and featured in 33 games under Louis van Gaal, later renowned for managing Holland and Manchester United.

“I was 19 years old, and I worked for two years under him,” he told the West Brom website. “He helped my formation as a footballer, pass-control-pass, tactically, because defensively I was not so strong. And also my personality, because he likes players with personality.

“He’s not only a good trainer but he’s also a good human being.”

After three years at AZ, his first club, Standard Liege, bought him and gave him a three-year contract. He became the established left-back for two seasons but in 2012-13 missed lots of games when sidelined by injury.

With only six months of his contract remaining, German club Hannover 96 took the opportunity to sign him in January 2013. He made an inauspicious start, getting sent off on his debut, and faced competition for the left-back spot.

Only 18 months into a three-year deal, he made the switch to the Premier League with West Brom, head coach Irvine telling the club website: “Sébastien is an experienced left-back who has played at a high level for many years.

“After being named in Belgium’s provisional World Cup squad, he just missed out on Brazil, mainly because he hadn’t played enough games towards the end of the season.

“But he’s joined us with a real hunger to prove himself at Albion and get back into the international set-up.

“We’ve done our due diligence on Sébastien in terms of people who have worked with him, including Romelu Lukaku and Kevin Mirallas.

“You make your own mind up about a player’s ability from watching him play but you put these calls in to find out about their personality. The feedback on Sébastien was very positive.”

The defender had gained international recognition from an early age and played for Belgium’s under 16s, under 17s, under 19s and under 21s. He was called up to the senior squad in 2008 and won 13 caps for his country.

After his Brighton loan expired, he returned to West Brom but was not retained. He expected to re-join Standard Liege when interviewed by the expressandstar.com, saying: “It all adds up: I will soon be a free agent, they need new blood and I’m an ex-player of Les Rouches. At the moment there is no contact, but the board is looking for players who are interested in their project.

“If I did go to Standard, I am one of the leaders in the dressing rooms anyway – not by shouting loudly, by setting a good example. I certainly would be an example for the young players.”

The move was duly confirmed and in his third spell with the club Pocognoli made 32 appearances, including, in March 2018, in the Belgian Cup Final, when Liege beat his former club Genk 1-0.

In 2020, Pocognoli switched to Royale Union Saint-Gilloise, the club owned by Albion owner and chairman Tony Bloom.

Steve Harper’s part in the Seagulls-Magpies goalkeeping ‘trade’

BRIGHTON and Newcastle United clearly have a similar eye for goalkeepers with a string of custodians having played for both clubs.

A few years before I started watching, Dave Hollins, older brother of ex-Chelsea midfielder John, moved to Tyneside in 1960 after three years with the Albion, and played twice as many games for Newcastle in the early part of that decade than he had for Brighton.

Back in the first Alan Mullery era, Eric Steele, who went through the Newcastle ranks without making the first team, arrived at Brighton to replace the injured Peter Grummitt in 1977 and was in the side that won promotion to the elite via a 3-1 win at St James’ Park in 1979.

Dave Beasant, who Newcastle bought from Wimbledon for £850,000 in 1988 – although he only played 20 games for the Magpies – was between the sticks for the Albion for 16 games in 2003.

More recently, Dutchman Tim Krul – who’d been at Newcastle a decade – spent a couple of seasons as back-up to Mat Ryan and would probably be disappointed he didn’t get more game time.

My post on this occasion, though, is about Steve Harper, United’s longest-ever serving player having been there 20 years. He later went back as one of the coaches working with Steve Bruce, as well as being goalkeeping coach to the Northern Ireland international side.

Harper is a qualified UEFA A coach and UEFA A goalkeeping coach, and holds a Masters degree in Sport Directorship.

Back in 2011, Harper was happy to lend his experience to the second tier Seagulls during Gus Poyet’s tenure as manager, a decision applauded by Alan Pardew, Toon boss at the time.

“He just wanted to play,” Pardew told the Chronicle. “Not all the top players in the country would have gone on loan – you’re vulnerable.

“You’re going down a division, but he was prepared to do that, and fair play to him.”

For his part, Harper told BBC Sport: “Everybody knows I haven’t played enough football until the last two-and-a-half years.

“I hadn’t played a competitive game for about six months so it was nice to blow the cobwebs out.”

In his first Seagulls match, unfortunately Albion lost against West Ham to a single goal from Harper’s former teammate Kevin Nolan, and he said: “It was disappointing to lose against West Ham with the possession we had.

“Now I’m here, it’s time to get stuck in. We want Brighton to consolidate and finish as high as we can. People tell me it’s a lovely city. I’m looking forward to seeing more of it.”

Harper recalled the time fondly in an interview for the Albion website in 2019.

He featured in five games for the Seagulls, keeping two clean sheets. While he conceded five goals, three came away to Southampton when the Seagulls were unjustly punished by referee Peter Walton.

Harper told journalist Nick Szczepanik: “I would have stayed longer given the opportunity. They made me feel very welcome.”

He even managed to give two of his new teammates a surprise when he started speaking to them in Spanish. Playing behind Spanish speakers Inigo Calderon and Gonzalo Jara Reyes, he explained to Andy Naylor, then of The Argus: “After five years of Bobby Robson and his multi-lingual team talks my Spanish is okay.

“Calde got quite a shock with how much Spanish I know, but I had Colocinni and Enrique in the team with me at Newcastle.”

After his brief spell with the Albion, Harper returned to Newcastle and played nine more games for them the following season before moving on to Hull City (at the time managed by current Toon boss Bruce), where he played alongside Liam Rosenior.

Born in Seaham on 14 March 1975, Harper grew up in the County Durham mining village of Easington and went to its local comprehensive school. Originally a striker at local Sunday league level, he only started playing in goal from the age of 17 and he turned out for Newcastle’s youth team while he was still at college doing A levels.

In fact he was offered a place at John Moores University in Liverpool to study for a Sports Science degree but he deferred it when Newcastle offered him a one-year contract. He signed in 1993 as a back-up for first choice Pavel Srnicek, later Shaka Hislop and subsequently Shay Given.

Much of his time at Newcastle was as a more than capable deputy to whoever was first choice although in United’s 2009-10 season in the Championship, under Chris Hughton, he was the main man and played 45 matches.

Harper had nothing but praise for Hughton, telling chroniclelive.co.uk: “He came in at an incredibly difficult, turbulent time after relegation.

“Chris was the man at the centre of a perfect storm who steered us through some very choppy waters.

“He did a wonderful job and I don’t think he got enough credit. It was no surprise to me to see him go on to do an excellent job at Birmingham City and then at Brighton.”

In total, Harper played 199 games for Newcastle, featuring under nine different managers – Kevin Keegan and Bobby Robson being his favourites.

Periodically over the years, he went out on loan to gain first-team action, appearing between the sticks for Bradford City, Gateshead, Stockport County, Hartlepool and Huddersfield. The Brighton move was his sixth spell out on loan.

Harper’s long service for Newcastle was rewarded with a testimonial against AC Milan in 2013 before he left the club to join Hull, where he spent two seasons.

Six months after his departure from Hull, he was taken on by then Premier League Sunderland as cover for Jordan Pickford and Vito Mannone, but he didn’t make a first-team appearance and was released at the end of the season.

Canaries hero Culverhouse was Seagulls skipper, then coach

Culvs BHA

A DEFENDER who enjoyed Norwich City’s European journey in the early 90s ended his playing days as captain of the Seagulls before embarking on a coaching career running the reserves.

Ian Culverhouse was part of some of the Canaries’ best years flying high in the football pyramid – later being named by fans as their best ever right-back.

In February 1999, Albion’s then chairman, Dick Knight, told the Argus: “Ian has impressed me greatly with not only his experience but his attitude. He has been a real leader in the dressing room as well as on the field and we are giving him a chance to bring that know-how to bear on the coaching side.”

Manager Jeff Wood added: “Ian has shown on the field that he is a player of immense ability. In his new coaching role, he will now have the opportunity to pass his knowledge on to the younger players at the club.”

Culverhouse added: “This is a good opportunity for me and I am looking forward to it.

“It’s the first chance I’ve had to coach and it’s something I wanted to do anyway when my career finished. It has just come at a nice time.”

It was former boss Brian Horton who first brought Culverhouse to the Albion, from non-league Kingstonian, signing him on a month-to-month contract in August 1998.

In October, it looked like he was being released, but when captain and sweeper Gary Hobson picked up an injury, Horton reinstated Culverhouse on a contract to the end of the season, and appointed him captain.

culvsbw

Culverhouse, by then 34, could look back on the experience of 369 games for Norwich, and 115 for Swindon Town. He said: “The future of Brighton is looking very exciting and it’s great to be considered a part of the plans.”

When Wood was sacked with six games of the season still to be played, Culverhouse told the Argus: “I am shocked and absolutely gutted for the bloke.

“It’s down to the players he puts out there. We have let him down.”

Culverhouse survived the managerial upheaval and when new manager Micky Adams took charge, he told the Argus: “Ian reminds me a bit of myself. You have got to get on the ladder somewhere. He is enthusiastic, has had a good career and sets himself high standards.

“He has a lot to learn in terms of coaching, but I hope he will become fully qualified along with the rest of my staff.

“He will still be registered as a player as well in case we need him in emergencies, but I don’t envisage him playing too many games.”

In 2000, Culverhouse became youth coach at Barnet and two years later joined Leyton Orient in a similar role before being elevated to assistant manager. He left the Os in August 2005 – replaced by future Villa boss Dean Smith – but was then appointed coach at Wycombe Wanderers by Glenn Hoddle’s former no.2, John Gorman.

When Paul Lambert succeeded Gorman, he and Culverhouse developed a strong bond. He followed Lambert to Colchester United to become assistant manager, then returned to Norwich in the same role, where he didn’t forget Wood’s role in setting him on the coaching ladder, being instrumental in the former Albion manager’s appointment as Norwich’s goalkeeping coach.

When Lambert upped sticks from Norwich to join Aston Villa, Culverhouse went with him, and, in June 2013, the Birmingham Mail carried a lengthy article talking about the trust Lambert placed in his right-hand man, and how much he rated his judgement.

But in April  2014 Culverhouse was suspended by the club and, following an internal investigation into “off the field matters”, was dismissed.

Between January 2016 and February 2017, Culverhouse was assistant manager to veteran boss John Still at Dagenham & Redbridge. He left Dagenham to become manager of Southern League Premier Division side King’s Lynn Town. In May 2018, he moved on to Grantham Town but left after only five months and returned to King’s Lynn where he recently signed a new two-and-a-half-year contract.

Born on 22 September 1964 in Bishop’s Stortford, Culverhouse spent his early football career at Tottenham Hotspur and was capped at England Youth level. He impressed in Spurs’ youth and reserve sides and spent three years at the Lane.”I was playing alongside players like Ricky Villa, Ossie Ardiles and Glenn Hoddle, which was tremendous experience,” he said.

He even collected a UEFA Cup winners’ medal in 1984 as an unused substitute in the first leg of Spurs’ win (on penalties) over Anderlecht; future Albion boss Chris Hughton was left-back and recent signing from Albion, Gary Stevens, was in midfield, and scored one of the decisive penalties.

But Culverhouse only made one full appearance for the first team, plus one as a substitute, and in October 1985 moved to Norwich City under Ken Brown for a £50,000 fee.

He was part of the Norfolk club’s old Second Division title-winning side of 1985-86 and became an established defender, usually as a right-back but also as a sweeper, as the Canaries flew high in the Premier League, finishing third in 1992-93 after enjoying three top five finishes in the old First Division.

After nine years as a player at Carrow Road, he was somewhat controversially sold for £150,000 to Swindon where he was a key part of their League One Championship winning squad in 1995-96 but left in May 1998 after falling out with boss Steve McMahon.

He began the 1998-99 season with Kingstonian before Horton revived his league career with the Seagulls.

Halford’s timely role in helping Albion avoid the drop

TIME was of the essence when utility player Greg Halford agreed to make a temporary move to Brighton.

He penned a deal to join the Seagulls temporarily at Nottingham Forest’s training ground at 12.30pm and then got in his car to drive to Brighton for 6pm in time to be involved in the squad for that evening’s game at the Amex against Wigan Athletic.

It was 4 November 2014 and he was Sami Hyypia’s sixth loan signing – even though only five were eligible to play in any matchday squad (emergency loan goalkeeper Ali Al-Habsi only played one game).

Regular centre backs Gordon Greer and Lewis Dunk were perilously close to suspension and deputy Aaron Hughes was sidelined with an ankle injury, so Hyypia moved to bring in an experienced back-up.

Albion hadn’t registered a win in the previous 11 league matches but the 29-year-old Halford proved to be a lucky charm as the side finally reacquainted themselves with the taste of victory. Fellow loanee Gary Gardner got the only goal of the game and Halford made an appearance off the bench towards the end of the game.

“I wasn’t really expecting to get any game time. I thought I’d just be in and around the lads, to get a feel for how everything works,” he told the club programme. “But I’m glad I got a few minutes at the end.”

Halford explained how he’d agreed to join the Seagulls because he’d been frozen out at Forest after Stuart Pearce took over as manager.

The player said he was familiar with the south coast having previously played for Portsmouth.

Asked what he could bring to the side, he added: “I can add a bit of height, I can score goals and obviously I can defend, which is my main attribute. I’m here to help the team and manager in any way I can.”

It wasn’t long before he was helping out a different manager as the side’s run of poor form brought a premature end to Hyypia’s brief time in charge.

Halford, though, hung around at the Amex, his loan extended by Hyypia’s successor, Chris Hughton, and he had made 14 starts and five substitute appearances by the season’s end, when the Seagulls narrowly escaped the drop back to the third tier.

Born on 8 December 1984 in Chelmsford, Essex, Halford began his professional career at nearby Colchester United. I well remember a Chelmsford-based work colleague telling me about this talented young footballer who’d been head and shoulders the best player in a local schoolboy football team his son had played for.

That player was Halford, who progressed from Colchester’s youth team and made his first team debut in April 2003. Loan spells at non-league Aylesbury Town and Braintree Town were part of his development, but he eventually made his mark at Colchester and was named in the PFA League One team of the year in 2005-06.

Played mainly at right-back, Halford’s speciality was his ability to deliver searching long throws which led to a good proportion of goals for Colchester.

After playing more than 150 games in five years for the Us, Halford wanted to prove himself at the highest level. He got a move to Premier League Reading in January 2007 but he couldn’t make the breakthrough there and ended up switching to Sunderland, signed by Roy Keane.

Just six months later, Sunderland made him available on loan and he joined Championship side Charlton until the end of the season. Then he spent the whole of the 2008-09 season on loan to Sheffield United, featuring in 49 of their 56 games that season.

His personal highlight was scoring the only goal of the game as United beat Preston to reach the 2008-09 play-off final.

Unfortunately, United lost the final 1-0 to Burnley, and that summer Halford was on the move again, this time to newly-promoted Wolverhampton Wanderers. Although he featured in 20 games, a regular starting berth eluded him and, in October 2010, he joined Championship side Portsmouth. Initially on loan, he eventually joined Pompey on a permanent basis but relegation to the third tier brought with it the need to trim budgets and in July 2012, they offloaded Halford to Nottingham Forest.

GH ForestUnder Billy Davies, Halford was generally deployed as a striker but when Pearce took over at the City Ground, he didn’t get close to the first team. On his return from Brighton at the end of the 2014-15 season, he was released by Forest and joined Rotherham United on a free transfer.

Manager Steve Evans appointed him captain but, after a winless run of five games, he was deposed and only played one more game for the Millers before joining Birmingham City on loan.

GH CardThat spell was also brief and although he returned to Rotherham and played 15 games for them in the 2016-17 season, he then joined Cardiff City and made 33 appearances in two seasons for Neil Warnock’s side.

Without a club for six months, in February 2019, he joined Scottish Premiership side Aberdeen as defensive cover but only made two appearances.

The multi-million pound striker who scored on his Albion debut

STRIKER Darren Bent spent the last month of 2014 with Championship-struggling Brighton as the hapless Sami Hyypia tried to bring a halt to a dismal run of form.

Unable to command a regular starting spot at Aston Villa, Bent made an encouraging enough start, scoring on his debut against Fulham.

But the game ended in a 2-1 defeat and his only other goal came at Molineux two days before the axe fell on Hyypia’s time in the hotseat as Albion drew 1-1 with Wolves.

Bent told BBC Radio Sussex he’d reached “boiling point” in his frustration at the lack of starts under Paul Lambert at Villa. Previous boss Gerard Houllier had smashed Villa’s transfer fee record to take Bent from Sunderland for an initial £18m in January 2011, but, after Lambert became manager in 2012, he made just 13 Premier League appearances.

albion D BentAt the time he headed to the Amex, Bent had scored 184 goals in 464 career appearances, not to mention scoring four while winning 13 caps for England.

“I hope he will score plenty of goals for us during his time with us,” Hyypia had told the club website. “His record speaks for itself. He is a top-class striker with more than 100 Premier League goals with Charlton, Spurs, Sunderland and Aston Villa.

“Three years ago, he was a regular in the England squad under Fabio Capello; there is no doubting his ability to score goals.

“He also wants to play regular games and that is evident in his willingness to step down from the Premier League to the Championship.”

Bent told the matchday programme: “It doesn’t bother me that I’ve had to drop down a division to play football. Anyone who knows me knows that all I care about is football.

“It has never been about money or anything like that. It has always been about playing football. I’m always at my happiest when I’m playing.”

At least Bent found some familiar faces in the Albion dressing room in fellow Villa loanees Joe Bennett and Gary Gardner and former Fulham teammates David Stockdale and Aaron Hughes.

“Brighton felt like the perfect place to come and play football, especially for someone like Sami Hyypia, who I’ve played against many times over the years,” Bent added. “As a manager, I think he is the right man. He is the kind of guy I want to play for.”

Bent goalBent returned to Villa after playing in five games and although new boss Chris Hughton indicated a willingness to bring him back, the striker was soon on his way to Derby County for the remainder of the season.

He scored 12 in 17 games for Steve McLaren’s Rams and subsequently joined them on a permanent basis in the summer of 2015. After two seasons in the Championship with Derby, scoring 14 in 67 matches, a hamstring injury sidelined him for the start of the 2017-18 season and in January 2018 he went on loan to Championship strugglers Burton Albion.

Having been without a club since released by Derby in the summer of 2018, he announced his retirement at 35 in July 2019.

Since then, he has joined the football pundit circuit, although not everyone is convinced he’s making that good a job of it!

pundit D BentNevertheless, Talksport and Sky Sports are happy to give him a platform and, in an interview with Metro, he suggested what might be the most difficult aspect of it. “I played with some of these guys and regard them as friends so, when they have had a bad game, will I be able to dig them out? It’s finding the line between being objective and respectfully constructive.”

Only in January 2020, Bent could be found arguing the case for Lewis Dunk to be recalled by England. The former striker is also active on Twitter with @DarrenBent attracting just short of 492,000 followers.

Born in Tooting, south London, on 6 February 1984, Bent was probably destined to be a footballer because his dad Mervyn had been on the books of Wimbledon and Brentford as a youngster.

The family moved to Cambridgeshire when the young Bent was only 10 and his early football career was nurtured at Godmanchester Rovers.

Ipswich Town picked him up as a 14-year-old and nurtured him through their youth ranks until he eventually made it to the first team in November 2001.

In four seasons with Ipswich, he scored 56 goals in 141 appearances before then Premier League Charlton Athletic paid a fee of £2.5m to take him to The Valley.

After two successful seasons in which he bagged 37 goals in 79 games for the Valiants, he made another big money move, this time to North London to join Spurs.

It was in June 2007 they paid a club record £16.5m and he scored 25 in 79 games for them before a similar fee saw him move to Sunderland, then in the Premier League, in the summer of 2009.

After 18 months in the North East, Bent put in for a transfer and Aston Villa paid £24m to sign him on a four-and-a-half year contract. He marked his debut with the only goal of the game in a win over Manchester City.

In his second season with Villa, Bent took on the captaincy for a while but managerial changes meant his face didn’t always fit and he spent the whole of the 2013-14 season on loan to Fulham, where he scored six in 30 matches.

Goal-shy journeyman striker Leon Best drew derision

FOR SOMEONE purporting to be a striker, Leon Best fired blanks at a good many of the clubs he played for.

Such was his time at Brighton where he failed to get on the scoresheet in 13 games (six as a starter, seven as a substitute).

When he featured for AFC Bournemouth in the third tier, he fared slightly better. He managed three goals in 14 starts plus three as a substitute when on loan from Premier League Southampton during the 2006-07 season.

The somewhat derogatory phrase ‘journeyman’ was tailor-made for the likes of Best, who appeared for 13 different league clubs, failing to score for five of them and only registering double figure tallies at three.

Brighton supporters, on the whole, are normally supportive of anyone who appears for their team, but feelings boiled over at Best’s apparent lack of desire when pulling on the Seagulls stripes.

He was part of the struggling 2014-15 side which narrowly avoided the drop from the Championship, and I recall him being booed when he came on as a substitute at the Amex. On reflection, of course, such derision was unlikely to improve his demeanour.

The keyboard warriors of North Stand Chat weren’t slow to vent their anger, with one correspondent suggesting: “We’ve not seen much in the way of desire, endeavour, hunger or appetite from someone you would hope feels he has something to prove.”

Chris Hughton had not long been in the manager’s chair when he was casting around for players to help Albion climb away from the foot of the table.

Perhaps not unreasonably, he turned to a player who’d scored goals for him in the Premier League during his time at Newcastle United.

Hughton told the Argus: “I know Leon very well, having signed him during my time at Newcastle and I am delighted to have him here.

Screen Shot 2021-06-10 at 14.55.50“He is a strong, physical presence, he knows the Championship and knows the position we are in. We wanted new faces, to freshen up the squad, and Leon will add competition alongside our existing strikers.

“I signed him previously at Newcastle. I know he can be a very good player and he did very well for me both in the Championship and Premier League. He also had a very good spell with Newcastle after I left the club.”

Best scored 10 in 46 games for the Magpies but, at his next club, Blackburn Rovers, he managed only two in 16, hence them sending him out on loan.

While Best had scored five in 16 playing on loan at Sheffield Wednesday in 2013-14, he scored a big fat zero in 20 games for Derby County earlier in the 2014-15 season so perhaps expectations should not have been high when he arrived at Brighton on 20 January 2015.

Nevertheless, Hughton told Brian Owen: “I am very pleased he is here. He gives us another attacking option and I hope he can produce the same form he did for me when we worked together at Newcastle.” In short, he didn’t.

Born in Nottingham on 19 September 1986, his first steps into the professional game came with his local side Notts County. When international recognition came calling, he chose to represent his mother’s birth country, the Republic of Ireland, and was capped at under 17, under 19 and under 21 levels before gaining seven full caps in 2009-10.

Southampton snapped up Best in 2004 and gave him his league debut aged 18, ironically against his future employer, Newcastle.

But opportunities were limited with the Saints and over the course of three years on their books they loaned him out to QPR, Sheffield Wednesday, Bournemouth and Yeovil Town.

In 2007, Best transferred to then Championship side Coventry City for £650,000 and arguably his most successful goalscoring spell came during his time there, as he netted 23 goals in 104 appearances over three seasons.

It prompted Hughton to spend £1.5m of Mike Ashley’s money to take Best to Tyneside on 1 February 2010.

Maybe the warning bells should have been sounding in those first few months on Tyneside when he didn’t register a goal in 13 Championship appearances and fell behind Andy Carroll and Peter Lovenkrands in the pecking order.

Although he managed a couple of goals in pre-season matches, the early part of the 2010-11 season was marred by a cruciate knee ligament injury. Nevertheless, when he returned to action in the January, he did it in some style, bagging a hat-trick in a 5-0 win over West Ham. He got a further three goals before injury ruled him out once again.

3490663In the following season, he went 12 games without scoring but in the summer of 2012, Blackburn Rovers paid £3m to take him to Ewood Park – only for him to pick up an anterior cruciate knee injury one month into the season, ruling him out of action for six months.

The temporary move to Brighton was one of three loans away from Blackburn before they finally released him by mutual consent in July 2015.

It wasn’t until November 2015 he managed to find another club, pitching up for six months at Championship side Rotherham United. When he couldn’t agree terms on a new deal with the Millers, he instead moved to Ipswich Town, ostensibly as a replacement for Daryl Murphy.

He made six starts and six appearances as a substitute without scoring and, by January 2017, manager Mick McCarthy had lost patience with him and declared he wouldn’t play another game for the club.

Released by Town in the summer of 2017, Best managed to secure a two-month deal with Charlton Athletic in November 2017 but he sustained a knee injury on New Year’s Day 2018 and hasn’t played since.

Illness put paid to John Piercy’s promising career

A FIVE-YEAR professional football career bookended by 3-1 results against Crewe Alexandra almost certainly wouldn’t have been the path John Piercy would have chosen for himself.

One saw him make a promising debut for Tottenham Hotspur on 13 October 1999, subbed off to a terrific ovation from a 25,000 crowd at White Hart Lane on 74 minutes as they progressed in a League Cup game against the lower league opposition.

The other was a League One defeat for Brighton & Hove Albion at humble Withdean Stadium on 6 November 2004, subbed off ignominiously only 12 minutes into the second half with many in the crowd of 6,163 unaware that the hereditary bowel disease afflicting him was putting paid to his hopes of a football career.

Born in Forest Gate, east London, on 18 September 1979, Spurs first spotted Piercy as a stand-out 12-year-old, talented enough to represent England Schoolboys.

He became a trainee with Spurs at the age of 16 and signed as a professional in July 1998.

It was George Graham who gave him his first team debut for Spurs in that game against Crewe, starting him up front alongside Chris Armstrong in a side that featured future Brighton player and assistant manager Mauricio Taricco in defence.

The Spurs goals were scored by Oyvind Leonhardsen, David Ginola and Tim Sherwood, but spursodyssey.com was full of praise for the young Piercy.

“One young man who will remember this night more than most is 20-year-old debutant John Piercy, who won the home fans’ hearts with two terrific efforts on goal, and an eye-catching performance all round,” it said. They even went as far as to suggest he might be ‘the new Ginola’.

The performance was good enough to earn him a place on the bench for the following Saturday’s Premier League game away to Derby County and he was called into action in the second half to replace Armstrong as Spurs won 1-0.

He made two more league appearances that season and an excellent Spurs archive website said of him: “The solidly built East Londoner had the ability to lead the line and to make chances for his team-mates, by going wide and taking people on.

“Some work was needed on his first touch and his pace, but he was strong, direct and knew where the goal was.  Preferred to play wide on the left of midfield, but was deployed at full back in the reserves to good effect.”

Chris Hughton was the Spurs reserve team manager at the time and said of Piercy: “John is able to adapt well to different roles which is why we’ve played him at full-back in pre-season when we’ve been stretched in those areas.  But I’d say his best position is definitely right or left of midfield.”

On 4 April 1999, he started for England under 20s against the USA in the World Youth Championships in Nigeria, but was subbed off in a game England lost 1-0. His teammates that day included future full international Ashley Cole, and the side was managed by former Albion full-back Chris Ramsey.

john piercyFrustrated by the lack of first team opportunities at Spurs, Piercy, by then based in Eastbourne, opted to join Brighton in September 2002 during Martin Hinshelwood’s brief reign as manager.

Hinshelwood told the BBC: “He’s a player who can play in a variety of positions. That will give us plenty of options.”

A first team breakthrough at Brighton was slow to happen, however, with Hinshelwood’s successor, Steve Coppell, opting for experience in the ultimately unsuccessful battle to avoid relegation from the second tier. Piercy top-scored for the reserves that season, netting 13 goals from midfield.

However, shortly after Mark McGhee’s appointment, he did get some game time and in December 2003 also registered his first league goal in a 1-0 win at home to Wrexham.

Later the same month, he went one better playing up front in place of the suspended Leon Knight and scored twice in a resounding 4-0 home win over Wycombe Wanderers.

More often than not, though, he was brought on as a substitute rather than starting games. He made just eight league starts and in six of them was subbed off.

His other appearances (16) were all from the bench and that was the role he found himself in at the 2004 play-off final at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, although his contribution was certainly effective.

Piercy replaced Nathan Jones in the 77th minute. “He (McGhee) made a change with just over 10 minutes left and we went on to win the game, so no one is going to complain, are they?” Jones told walesonline.co.uk.

Reports also recorded how Brighton threatened Steve Phillips’ goal moments after Piercy replaced Jones, Iwelumo glancing the substitute’s cross wide of the far post.

Sadly for Piercy, while he showed promise on the football pitch, he began to suffer the horribly debilitating effects of colitis, as he described in an interview with the Argus.

He praised the support he got from McGhee and reserve team boss Dean White but it reached a point where it was evident the illness was simply sapping too much energy from him to continue a full-time professional football career.

That defeat at home to Crewe proved to be his last game for the Albion and he announced his retirement aged 25 shortly afterwards.

“He knows his capabilties and I know his capabilities,” said McGhee in a matchday programme article. “He’s a player that could easily cope with the standard of the Championship but this illness has just affected him in a way that he just can’t get fit enough to do himself justice.”

Chairman Dick Knight added: “It is a great shame that such a skilful player, with such tremendous natural ability, has seen his career curtailed in such a cruel way. All at the club are devastated for him to be hanging up his boots at the relatively young age of 25.”

Piercy subsequently regained sufficient fitness to play a season with non-league Eastbourne Borough and then took up a coaching role with the club.

Nowadays he is a sports coach at Ocklynge Junior School in Eastbourne where he teaches youngsters football and PE, and is also a coach at CACL Sports in the town.

Piercy Ocklynge Sch

Skilful Joao Teixeira scored six as Seagulls escaped the drop

THERE were few positive aspects to Sami Hyypia’s reign as Brighton manager but his Liverpool connections served the club sufficiently well enough to enable them to secure the loan signing of Joao Teixeira.

Here was a highly talented young player who often had supporters on the edge of their seats when he was on the ball.

It seems remarkable to think his six goals in 35 games (28 starts + seven as sub) for the Seagulls made him second top scorer behind Lewis Dunk’s seven in the 2014-15 season, when Albion narrowly avoided dropping out of the Championship.

Joao THis performances earned him the Young Player of the Year accolade even though his season was cut short by injury.

Having impressed as a substitute going on for Albion against Birmingham, Teixeira was on the scoresheet in his first full start, in a 2-0 win away to Leeds United. Hyypiä told Sky Sports: “Of course I am grateful to them for letting Joao come to us and get the games he needs, but it works both ways. They can benefit too because his time with us can hopefully be a stepping stone towards Liverpool’s first team.

“He is a young player and Liverpool have a very big squad. A player of his age needs to play games to improve. We have a quality player and I am very happy to have him with us.”

JT BHAFCThe Portuguese youngster scored again four days later, netting the winner as Albion came from behind to beat Bolton Wanderers 2-1 at the Amex.

Sadly, with the Seagulls floundering under the puzzling direction of the former Liverpool central defender, Teixeira didn’t get back on the scoresheet until after Chris Hughton arrived on New Year’s Eve 2014.

He twice scored braces (in a 3-2 home win over Ipswich on 21 January and a 4-3 home win over Birmingham on 21 February) but a leg break in a home game against Huddersfield Town on 14 April brought his season, and Albion career, to a premature end.

Born in Braga, Portugal, on 18 January 1993, he first caught the eye with his hometown club, before being snapped up by Sporting Lisbon where he continued to make progress through its youth teams.

Liverpool paid £830,000 in the January 2012 transfer window to take him to Anfield and he impressed playing for their under 21 side which led to him making a loan move to League One Brentford in August 2013. But what was originally due to be a six-month arrangement was cut short in October after only two substitute appearances because the Bees couldn’t guarantee him the game time Liverpool had been expecting him to get.

Back on Merseyside, he made it into the first team squad and on 12 February 2014 Brendan Rodgers sent him on as a substitute for Raheem Sterling in a 3-2 win at Fulham.

getty liv TeixCaptain Steven Gerrard told the Liverpool FC website: “I watched this kid a couple of years ago playing for Sporting Lisbon against Liverpool at Anfield in a youth game; I could see straight away he was the best player on the pitch.

“Credit to him, he has kept working hard. He has been invited to train with the first team. He is competing, he is trying to improve and learn. He listens – I’ve just been speaking to him in the dressing room and you can see he wants to learn and listen.

“He has got respect for the other players in the dressing room. This is the start for him now; I’ve just told him that he needs to push on, keep learning and building on what he has just achieved. He deserved his debut and he made a special tackle which helped us get over the line.”

As it turned out, his next senior action came at Brighton and he had to wait until October 2015 before his next chance at Liverpool. That came in a League Cup game in a 1-0 win over Bournemouth. He went on to make five cup appearances for Jurgen Klopp’s Reds in 2015-16, and scored his only goal for the club in a 3-0 FA Cup win over Exeter City. But he appeared only once in the Premier League.

Although Liverpool offered him a new contract, he chose to return to Portugal and join Porto. After making only eight appearances during the 2016-17 season, Teixeira joined hometown club Braga on a season-long loan, and this season is playing for Primeira Liga side Vitoria Guimaraes.

‘Bright prospect’ James Wilson faded after great start

JW v WolvesGREAT things were expected of James Wilson after he scored two goals on his Manchester United debut.

Caretaker manager Ryan Giggs gave the 18-year-old the opportunity to prove himself at first-team level in a home game against Hull City in 2014 and he was instantly repaid.

Wilson UtdA few months later, Wilson signed a four-year contract, with new manager Louis van Gaal describing him as “one of the brightest young English prospects”.

But that early promise evaporated as injury problems and the emergence of the talented Marcus Rashford overshadowed his progress.

“I wanted to get out of my comfort zone on loan at Brighton and while I was there Rashford came through,” Wilson told ESPN. “I came back and never really got that chance again. Injuries were a big thing.”

The Biddulph-born striker eventually severed ties with Old Trafford in the summer of 2019 having first joined United in 2002 aged only seven.

In the season after his impressive debut against Hull, he made a further 17 appearances for United and scored two more, but he appeared in only one Premier League game and one League Cup game in 2015-16, and didn’t feature for United’s first team again.

JW England u21Wilson represented England at under 16, under 19, under 20 and under 21 levels but a career in England’s top-flight proved elusive and he is now playing for Scottish Premiership side Aberdeen.

One of several loan spells Wilson had away from United saw him join Brighton’s ultimately unsuccessful bid for promotion from the Championship in November 2015.

Although he showed glimpses of real quality, and scored five goals, he often seemed to be fatigued and ended up making just 12 starts plus 15 more from the bench.

Perhaps, rather unfortunately, he is best remembered for being caught by the TV cameras vomiting on the pitch immediately before a game against Wolves on New Year’s Day.

Wilson’s start for the Seagulls was impressive enough: a goal on his full debut in a 3-2 win over Charlton Athletic. “I remember picking the ball up on the edge of the D and just drove at the centre backs. They backed off, I managed to get my shot away and it went through their ‘keeper’s legs,” he said in a subsequent Albion matchday programme.

He followed that one with the opener in a 2-2 draw away to Derby County.

Tomer Hemed and Sam Baldock were more often than not manager Chris Hughton’s preferred selection up front although Wilson rewarded Hughton’s decision to give him his first start for two months in place of Hemed in a home game against Reading on 15 March. He scored the only goal of the game and Albion edged into second place as the promotion race hotted up.

JW scores v DerbyHe also scored (above) in the fifth minute of added on time to secure Albion a point in their penultimate league game at home to Derby, but when runners-up spot eluded the Seagulls courtesy of the last-game 1-1 draw at Middlesbrough, and when Albion failed to overcome Sheffield Wednesday in the Championship play-offs, Wilson returned to Old Trafford.

At the start of the following season, he was on his travels again, this time to Derby, but his season-long loan ended prematurely in October 2016 when he sustained an anterior cruciate ligament knee injury that sidelined him for months.

While he eventually returned to action in United’s under 23 side, he didn’t get a first team chance under Jose Mourinho and instead spent the second half of the 2017-18 season on loan to Sheffield United where he scored once in nine appearances.

He spent the whole of the 2018-19 season on loan at Aberdeen, scoring four goals in 32 games and then signed for them permanently in the summer of 2019, aiming to reignite his career. But having not scored in 16 games in the latter part of 2019, he was allowed to return to the Manchester area, signing on 31 January 2020 for League Two Salford City.

James Wilson Aberdeen

Promotion-winner Sam Baldock part of Albion’s history

BRIGHTON’S football history will record Sam Baldock as part of the squad who earned the club promotion back to the top division after a 34-year absence.

Baldock and Oliver Norwood famously crowd surfed on a train from Falmer to Brighton, held aloft by jubilant supporters celebrating after the April 2017 win at home to Wigan Athletic.

It was one of the many joyous scenes that will live long in the memory banks of Brighton fans following that momentous occasion.

In the cold light of day, though, it’s probably fair to say Baldock divided opinion about his contribution to the cause. Manager Chris Hughton described him as “a great professional and a good character in the dressing room” but, whether because of injuries or lack of opportunity, the diminutive striker never quite made it at the top level his brother George would go on to reach with Sheffield United.

Baldock was certainly a hard-working player but perhaps he didn’t deliver goals consistently enough to warrant the ‘super’ status attributed to him by some of Albion’s more vocal supporters. Injuries seemed to take their toll on a player whose most successful spells have generally been at third tier level.

SB WHUWest Ham United, under Sam Allardyce, gave Baldock a platform to take his lower-league goalscoring prowess to a higher level when they began the 2011-12 season in the Championship. But, after a bright start, he disappointed and eventually only stayed for one year of a four-year deal.

Although he was popular with fans, he clearly didn’t float Allardyce’s boat. West Ham fans are astute observers of the game and one of the best summaries I’ve read about Baldock’s contribution was in a piece on westhamworld.co.uk.

“Baldock is a short, pacey, centre forward. He has an eye for goal, which is great but, he doesn’t have the strength or power like other players we have like (Carlton) Cole or (Ricardo) Vaz Te,” the author of the article wrote.

“In a world where it appears the 4-4-2 system is dying very quickly, especially at the top level, it causes problems for Baldock, who seems to be a player who likes to feed off the other striker who can hold the ball up and thread a pass through for him to run onto.

“He is your ideal little man in the big man and little man 4-4-2 but, with the formation not being used very often and, especially under Allardyce, we don’t see it much at all.”

Born in Buckingham on 15 March 1989, Baldock went to the town’s The Royal Latin School (where his mum was the deputy head) and, at 16, joined Wimbledon’s youth system at the time they relocated to Milton Keynes. He signed on as a trainee in 2004 (pictured below signing a contract with MK Dons owner Pete Winkelman)  and after impressing in FA Youth Cup games earned call-ups to the first team squad.

IMG_5904Former Albion captain, Danny Wilson, gave Baldock his first-team debut at 16 as a late substitute against Colchester United in a 2-1 Football League Trophy defeat on 20 December 2005.

He didn’t feature again until the 2006-07 season, by which time Martin Allen had taken over as manager. One of only two Football League Trophy games he was involved in included a 4-1 defeat against Brighton.

It was when Paul Ince became manager that Baldock got a few more chances at first-team level and he got to appear at Wembley as a substitute in March 2008 when MK Dons beat Grimsby Town to win the Football League Trophy (otherwise known as the Johnstone’s Paint ‘Pot’).

However, it was when Roberto di Matteo took over from Ince in the 2008-09 season that Baldock finally became a Dons regular, netting 13 goals in 44 appearances and catching the eye of the international selectors.

In September 2009, he was selected for the England under 20 squad which took part in the World Youth Championship in Egypt – a squad which interestingly also included goalkeeper Jason Steele, later a back-up ‘keeper at Brighton, and future full England internationals Danny Rose and Kieran Trippier.

Baldock played in the opening 1-0 defeat against Uruguay, went on as a substitute in the following game, a 4-0 defeat to Ghana, and again in the final game, a 1-1 draw with Uzbekistan. England finished bottom of their group and were eliminated.

Baldock didn’t get selected again but, having scored a total of 43 goals in 124 appearances for MK Dons, he became Allardyce’s seventh summer signing for West Ham in August 2011.

SB WHU coloursHe couldn’t have asked for a better start when he scored five times in his first six games for the Hammers. Unfortunately, as has been the case throughout his career, he picked up an injury that sidelined him, and, in his absence, Nicky Maynard and the aforementioned Vaz Te became first choices in the forward line.

The Hammers decided to cut their losses after just one year of his deal and he was sold to Bristol City for £1.1m. His 10 goals in 34 games were insufficient to keep the Robins in the Championship but back at League One level, the goals flowed once more.

Baldock was the Robins captain under Steve Cotterill and scored 26 in 54 games in the 2013-14 season (neatly compiled on YouTube), earning him the League One Golden Boot. That prompted Brighton to snap him up on 27 August 2014, signing for an undisclosed fee (thought to be £2m) on a four-year deal until June 2018.

Signed as part of the regime under head of football David Burke, Baldock, 25, joined the squad assembled under new manager Sami Hyypia, who told the club website: “Sam was one of our key summer attacking targets and I’m delighted we have now completed the transfer.

“He’s a predator, instinctive in front of goal and his career goal record is excellent. He’s played and scored goals at this level, and we are confident he can be a major threat for us going forward.”

As it turned out, Baldock scored only four goals in each of his first two seasons but contributed 12 in the Seagulls’ promotion-winning campaign of 2016-17.

It was enough to earn him a new deal, and he told the club website: “As soon as the club made noises that they wanted to extend my contract it was always in my head that this is where I want to be.

“Last season was probably the pinnacle of my career, and I hope now we can establish ourselves in the Premier League and continue to improve together.”

Hyypia’s successor, Hughton, added: “We are delighted that Sam has agreed a new deal with us. He has been a key member of the squad since he arrived at the club and this new contract is recognition of his contribution over the last couple of seasons.”

However, Hughton ultimately gave him very few chances in the Premier League and, after playing only five games in the 2017-18 season, he was sold to Championship side Reading.

Baldock-ReadingRoyals boss Paul Clement told the Reading website: “I’m very happy that Sam has joined us here at Reading, having pursued his signature throughout the summer.

“I always felt he was the right striker for us to bring to this club in terms of his age, his experience and his quality.”

Although he penned a three-year deal with the Royals, his initial season at the Madejski was blighted by injury and, having scored just five in 23 games, and seemingly not in new manager Jose Gomes’ plans, there were reports during the recent close season that he would be invited to look for a move elsewhere.

On 17 August 2021, Baldock signed a short-term deal with Derby County to cover the injury absence of former Brighton striker Colin Kazim-Richards. When that contract came to an end in February 2022, Baldock joined League One Oxford United until the end of the season, and in May 2022 was given a two-year contract by manager Karl Robinson, another of his former managers at MK Dons.

“I walked through the door back in February and it felt like the right place straight away,” the boyhood U’s fan told oufc.co.uk. “The badge has always had a special place in mine and my family’s hearts ever since it was the first club we watched live at the Manor.

“Having previously worked under the gaffer I knew I wanted to play for him again – he got the best out of me earlier in my career and I hope that can happen again.”

  • Pictures from various online sources.