Tag: Chris Waddle

The spectre of Trelford haunted them for ages at St James’

BRIGHTON travel to Newcastle in the fifth round of the FA Cup with the backdrop of having won there twice in the competition in the 1980s – not to mention a 1-0 win in the Premier League this season.

The 1-0 third round win at St. James’ Park in January 1983 set Albion en route to that season’s FA Cup final – but Toon supporters of that era blamed the game’s unusually-named referee, Trelford Mills, from Barnsley, for their exit.

Think I’m exaggerating? Newcastle fans’ website themag.co.uk had this to say ahead of another FA Cup game between the two sides in 2013: “It is doubtful that anything could match the anger and frustration that many of us felt nearly thirty years ago.

“Wednesday 12 January 1983 will always be synonymous with the name Trelford Mills, etched into the consciousness of an entire generation of Newcastle fans, convinced he cheated us out of the FA Cup. Well, a chance of the fourth round anyway!”

Neil Smillie, goalscorer Peter Ward, Steve Gatting, Chris Ramsey and Andy Ritchie celebrate after the 1983 win.

Mills disallowed two Newcastle ‘goals’ while Albion nicked it courtesy of a penalty area pounce by Peter Ward, back at the club on loan from Nottingham Forest, on 62 minutes. They did it without captain Steve Foster who was suspended (as, of course, he would be for the final too).

The game was a third round replay four days after the sides drew 1-1 at the Goldstone Ground when Andy Ritchie’s mis-hit shot in the 56th minute put Albion ahead and Terry McDermott (below right, with Tony Grealish) equalised on 77 minutes.

Even though the Magpies were in the old Division Two at the time, they had Kevin Keegan and Chris Waddle in their line-up, and they fully expected to win because Brighton hadn’t previously won away that season.

Albion, competing in the top division for the fourth season in a row, with joint caretaker managers Jimmy Melia and George Aitken in charge, had goalkeeper Graham Moseley to thank for some heroic stops to keep them in the first game.

The replay at St. James’s Park was in front of a typically noisy crowd of 32,687 and Newcastle did everything but score: they had shots cleared off the line and hit the woodwork and, when they thought they’d scored, Mr Mills disallowed them – twice!

In the meantime, Ward made the most of a counter attack to put the Seagulls ahead. It turned out to be the last goal he scored for the Albion, although he was in the side that pulled off a shock 2-1 win at Anfield to knock out Liverpool in the fifth round.

Enterprising reporter Tim Hodges searched out Mr Mills all those years later to hear his version of the events.

“I remember Brighton went one up, then Imre Varadi went through on goal, but quite clearly controlled the ball with his wrist,” said Mills.

“I think the Brighton keeper realised this, just as most of the players did, and let the ball go into the goal just to waste a bit of time. I just restarted with a free kick. I have spoken to Imre since. I think he accepts my version now.”

Mills continued: “Jeff Clarke managed to win a ball in the penalty area, but only because he had his arm around the defender’s neck. Keegan bundled the ball into the goal, but I had blown up a few seconds before it went in.

“Keegan did his Mick Channon cartwheel arm in front of the Gallowgate end, but I just jogged across to where I wanted the free kick taken from and indicated as to why I had disallowed the goal.”

Mills also recalled how he and his fellow officials needed a police escort away from the ground after the match. “When we sat in the dressing room after the match, I remember chatting to one of my linesmen, John Morley, when this police officer turns up,” he said. The copper said to him: “You’d better hang on here a while, Trelford. There are 2,000 Geordies outside and they all want your autograph!”

Three years later, the status of the teams had been reversed with Newcastle promoted back to the top division in 1984 and Albion back in the second tier, relegated the same year as the cup final appearance.

While Keegan had retired, Willie McFaul’s side had a young Paul Gascoigne in midfield and Peter Beardsley in the forward line. Clarke, who’d played four games on loan at Brighton two years earlier, was still in the centre of United’s defence and it was his foul on Terry Connor in the first minute of the game that saw Albion take a shock early lead.

Danny Wilson floated in a free kick from 30 yards out on the right which found centre back Eric Young on the far edge of the penalty box. He hooked the ball into the Newcastle net with only 50 seconds on the clock!

Albion, wearing their change strip of red, had to endure a relentless series of attacks (Toon had 23 corners to Albion’s one!) and Perry Digweed in Brighton’s goal put in a man of the match performance between the sticks, notable saves keeping out shots from John Bailey, Beardsley and Billy Whitehurst.

With five minutes left of the game, against the run of play, a quick throw-in by Graham Pearce found Dean Saunders and he rifled home an unstoppable shot past Martin Thomas for his 10th goal of the season.

Manager Chris Cattlin summed up afterwards: “It was really tough and we had a little luck on our side, but to go away to a club who have won the cup no fewer than six times and come away winners was quite an achievement.

“With the Geordie fervour up there the noise their supporters created was something special, but our efforts speak volumes for everyone connected with our club.”

There would be no fairytale ending that season, though, with Albion being dumped out of the cup 2-0 by Southampton in a quarter-final tie at the Goldstone Ground.

John Barnes and Steve Harper were on pundit duty for ESPN for the 2012 match

Younger fans will doubtless recall two more recent FA Cup meetings between Brighton and Newcastle, in consecutive seasons during Gus Poyet’s reign, at the Amex in 2012 and 2013.

The Championship Seagulls beat the Premier League Magpies on both occasions – 1-0 in the fourth round in 2012 and 2-0 in the third round the following year.

Getting to grips with Will Buckley

A Mike Williamson own goal was enough to give Albion the edge over Alan Pardew’s side in the first of those games; Will Buckley’s 76th minute shot deflecting off the defender and looping over Tim Krul for the only goal of the game. Leon Best, who would later have a torrid time at Brighton, missed two good chances for the visitors.

The 2013 fixture was a more convincing win for Brighton against a weakened Newcastle side who had Shola Ameobi sent off. Andrea Orlandi gave Albion the lead on the half-hour mark and substitute Will Hoskins added a second late on.

Andrea Orlandi hooks in Albion’s first goal
Praise for Liam Bridcutt

“This was an impressive victory for Brighton, a result that will add to the optimism that surrounds this upwardly mobile club and strengthen their resolve to host Newcastle in next season’s Premier League,” wrote Ben Smith, for BBC Sport. “The cool passing game of Liam Bridcutt at the heart of their midfield was tremendous.”

The reporter added: “Sharper to the ball, and swifter to make use of it, the Seagulls toyed with their more celebrated opponents for much of the opening 45 minutes, producing some stylish attacking moves while tackling, battling and dominating territory in their uncomplicated and effective way.”

Will Hoskins buries Albion’s second goal in 2013

Admirable Crichton on standby for the Seagulls at 39

JOURNEYMAN goalkeeper Paul Crichton played 540 games in a 22-year career and, even at the age of 39, found himself on the Brighton subs bench ready to be called on in an emergency.

As things turned out, the former Burnley custodian’s time with the Seagulls remained in a coaching capacity, helping to develop youngster John Sullivan and improve no.1 Michel Kuipers.

However, he was registered as a player and when either Kuipers or Sullivan were unavailable, Crichton answered the call as stand-by ‘keeper, as well as making an appearance as a sub in a pre-season friendly.

Much of Crichton’s career was as a back-up no.1 but he stepped up as a coach, working with the likes of Rob Green and Fraser Forster, and obtained a UEFA A licence in outfield and goalkeeper coaching.

Crichton arrived at Withdean in July 2007 after previous goalkeeping coach John Keeley moved along the coast to take up a similar role with Portsmouth.

Manager Dean Wilkins told the club website: “Paul has impressive coaching qualifications and we have already seen him in action on the training ground.

“He also has a huge amount of experience from over 20 years playing professional football.”

No. 1 Kuipers certainly appreciated the influence the coach had on his game. He told an Albion matchday programme: “Paul approaches things from a different angle. He has given me extra information and a different opinion on how I can get the best out of myself.

“His input has improved me as a goalkeeper and my performances on the pitch have improved. We’ve worked on me playing more as a kind of sweeper, letting the defence sit a little higher up the pitch. It helps the defenders out as they don’t have to worry as much about the space behind them and allows them to go tighter on the strikers and gives them a better opportunity to win the ball or defend against strikers.”

Kuipers said he also felt more confident leaving his goal to claim crosses, and with his kicking. “It’s an aspect I feel has improved,” he said. “Paul and I have practised it on an almost daily basis in training, and the more I am doing it, the better I am getting at it.”

Sullivan was also grateful for Crichton’s input, telling the matchday programme: “Paul’s brought some great new ideas into the club – he’sa very, very good coach. Paul is not long retired so he’s well aware of how the modern game has changed so much for ‘keepers.”

Crichton remained in post until February 2009 when the lure of returning to Norwich City, one of his former clubs, four and a half years after leaving the club as a player, was too great and he went back to East Anglia, even though he had started to put down roots in Sussex.

“We’d just started to get settled in Eastbourne,” he told pinkun.com. “The manager, Micky Adams, and the backroom staff have been fantastic and I’m sad to leave. But I had three great years here, ending in the Championship winning season.

“I didn’t play many games, but I just wanted to return – it’s a great place.”

Adams told the Argus: “I am very disappointed to lose Paul. He was a hard-working and highly-valued member of the backroom staff and he has done a fantastic job with all the goalkeepers at the club.

“I have no doubt he is going to be one of the top goalkeeping coaches in years to come but, after he expressed a desire to go back to Norwich for both footballing and family reasons, it was not right for us to stand in his way.”

Crichton had been understudy to the aforementioned Green during his time as a player at Carrow Road, and boss Bryan Gunn (a former City goalkeeper himself) told the pinkun.com: “We want someone to continue to develop not only the first team goalkeepers but those in the academy and I know he’s looking forward to putting a development programme in place, which is important as we’ve had a good record in this position in recent years.”

Crichton had first moved to City on a two-year contract in June 2001, signed for £150,000 by former Burnley coach Nigel Worthington, who’d taken charge of the Canaries.

At Turf Moor, Crichton had been one of Stan Ternent’s first signings after he took over as manager from Chris Waddle in 1998. He made his debut on 8 August 1998 in a 2-1 win at home to Bristol Rovers and was a regular in their third-tier side, helping them to promotion in 2000.

Clarets fans have mixed opinions of his attributes, if a 2019 discussion on uptheclarets.com is anything to go by. For example, ‘jdrobbo’ said: “Used to be a big fan of his. Thought his kicking was excellent for a keeper at that level. Occasionally left stranded off his line. A key player in our 2000 promotion side, but not good enough for the next level up.”

‘ClaretTony’ reckoned: “A master of a goalkeeper at not being where he should be. Never known a goalkeeper out of position so much.”

Although ‘Lord Beamish’ said: “A key part of the last Burnley team to play in the third tier. He’ll always be fondly remembered by this Claret fan.”

Born in Pontefract, Yorkshire, on 3 October 1968, Crichton began his career with Nottingham Forest, turning professional in 1986. But with Hans Segers and Steve Sutton ahead of him, he didn’t break into the first team at the City Ground and went out on loan to six different league clubs to get games, making his debut across the Trent at Notts County.

Eventually he moved on permanently, in 1988, initially spending two years with Peterborough United, then three years with Doncaster Rovers.

Alan Buckley signed him on a free transfer for Grimsby Town, where he played the most games (133) for any of the clubs he represented. Mariners Memories on Facebook, noted: “Crichton was a good shot stopper…..he was made the Supporters Player of the Season in 1994”.

In September 1996, he followed Buckley to West Bromwich Albion for £250,000.

It was during his time at West Brom that he had two loan spells with Burnley in 1998 before joining them permanently for £100,000 in November that year.

His playing career following his departure from Carrow Road took him to eight different clubs, Gillingham and Cambridge United among them, together with some non-league outfits. During a brief and controversial spell at York City, when he was alleged to have clashed with supporters, he coached a young David Stockdale. He moved to the Albion from King’s Lynn.

His subsequent return to Carrow Road was briefer than expected when Paul Lambert took over from Gunn and brought in his own goalkeeping coach.

In March 2010, Crichton became goalkeeping coach at Northampton Town but, in the summer of 2010, he linked up with Danny Wilson at Sheffield United, where he was also registered as a player to provide emergency cover. He spent two seasons at Bramall Lane before becoming part of Simon Grayson’s management team at Huddersfield Town.

After two years with the Terriers, he switched to Blackpool and spent just over a year working as goalkeeper coach and interim assistant manager alongside Jose Riga.

Next up was a brief spell in London, at QPR, where he was appointed by former Albion full-back Chris Ramsey to succeed Kevin Hitchcock.

After leaving the Hoops in early 2016, his next port of call was Swindon Town, to work under Luke Williams, Brighton’s former under-21s manager, but he left after only a couple of months to move to America.

He had several short spells coaching with different clubs in Florida before becoming assistant head coach at The Miami FC in January 2020, when head coach was Kenny Dalglish’s son, Paul.

He became goalkeeper and interim assistant coach for North American professional women’s team the Washington Spirit during the 2021 and 2022 seasons, helping lead goalkeeper Aubrey Kingsbury to the 2021 NWSL Goalkeeper of the Year award and guiding the club to the 2021 NWSL Championship.

Then in April 2023 he switched in a similar role to Florida based women’s team Orlando Pride.

Left back Harry Wilson “something of a fire-eater”

BRIGHTON boss Brian Clough turned up at Burnley to capture the signings of two of their fringe first team players – and ended up having pie and chips with the groundsman!

When Clough arrived at Turf Moor, he found manager Jimmy Adamson, chairman Bob Lord and secretary Albert Maddox were nowhere in sight, it being lunchtime.

In their absence, as recounted to respected writer Dave Thomas, groundsman Roy Oldfield made the famous visitor a cup of tea, popped to a nearby chippy to get them both pie and chips and chatted all things football until the office re-opened after lunch.

Although Clough hadn’t got quite what he expected on arrival, his journey did bear fruit. In exchange for £70,000, he secured the services of left-back Harry Wilson, a 20-year-old who had made 12 appearances for the Clarets, and midfielder Ronnie Welch, 21, who had played one game.

At the time, Clough was desperately trying to bring in new recruits to a beleaguered Brighton side that he and sidekick Peter Taylor had taken on in October 1973, a period covered in detail in a recent book, Bloody Southerners, by author and journalist Spencer Vignes.

The man who only the season before had led unfashionable Derby County to the First Division Championship, couldn’t quite believe what he had inherited at Third Division Albion.

The players seemed bewildered by what the new celebrity boss expected of them.

Heavy defeats – 4-0 to non-league Walton and Hersham in the FA Cup; 8-2 at home to Bristol Rovers and 4-1 away to Tranmere Rovers in the league – reflected the disarray.

Clough and Taylor weren’t slow in pointing the finger. Their only solution was to find replacements – and quickly.

Former Manchester United reserve Ken Goodeve was first to arrive, from Luton Town, although he failed to impress and made only a handful of appearances before joining Watford at the end of the season.

Goalkeeper Brian Powney was axed in favour of former England under 23 international, Peter Grummitt, initially on loan from Sheffield Wednesday.

Experienced left-back George Ley never played for the Albion again after the defeat at Tranmere, while utility man and former captain, Eddie Spearritt, also lost his place (although he eventually forced his way back into the side briefly).

Lammie Robertson, who knew the pair from his early days at Burnley, was asked to introduce them to their new teammates in the dressing room before an away game at Watford (they’d not been signed in time to play).

Robertson told Spencer Vignes in a matchday programme interview how Wilson was sporting a rather loud checked suit at the time and, in his own inimitable style, Clough boomed out: “Flipping hell, I never want to see that suit again.”

Needless to say the players laughed out loud, only for Clough to say: “What the hell are you all laughing at? They’ll be in the team next week.” And sure enough, they were.

Wilson and Welch made their debuts against Aldershot in a home game on Boxing Day when a crowd of 14,769 saw Albion slump to their fifth successive defeat, although at least the deficit this time was only 1-0.

A win finally came in the next game, a 1-0 success at home to Plymouth Argyle – Ken Beamish scoring the solitary goal.

In a 2010 matchday programme article, Wilson said: “I really didn’t want to go to Brighton. No disrespect but I loved it up at Burnley.

“The people there had been so friendly and helpful when I arrived from the North East so it broke my heart to leave. That said, I thoroughly enjoyed my time at Brighton and met some fantastic people, so, looking back now, I’m glad that Jimmy Adamson let me go.”

In the Evening Argus, reporter John Vinicombe purred about the impact of the new recruits from Burnley, saying Wilson “is looking something of a fire-eater. He has a rare zest for the game and relishes the close, physical contact that is synonymous with his position.

“He knows how to destroy and create, and does both in a manner befitting a five-year background at the academy of fine footballing arts (editor’s note: at the time, Burnley had a reputation for producing highly-talented young players).

“His colleague from Turf Moor, Ronnie Welch, is not so completely extrovert, but is no less involved in midfield, and has a fine turn of speed. He made one mistake through trying to play the ball instead of hoofing it away, but this can only be described as a ‘good’ fault.”

Further signings followed and the ship was steadied. Wilson kept the no.3 shirt through to the end of the season. But Welch made only 36 appearances for Albion before Taylor, by then under his own steam, traded in him and fellow midfielder Billy McEwan as a makeweight in the transfer that brought full-back Ken Tiler to the Goldstone from Chesterfield.

Wilson, meanwhile, became a mainstay in Albion’s left-back spot for three years, including being ever-present in the 1975-76 season.

5 HW action v MillwallEver-present Wilson in action against Millwall at The Den

Suited for England!

Born in Hetton-le-Hole, near Durham, on 29 November 1953, Wilson played for Durham County Schools and made four appearances for England schoolboys (under 15s) in the 1968-69 season. He was taken on as an apprentice at Burnley before signing professional forms in December 1970.

In 1971, he earned an England Youth cap going on as a sub for Coventry’s Alan Dugdale in a 3-2 defeat against Spain in Pamplona. Don Shanks also played in that game.

He made his first-team debut at home to Chelsea on 26 April 1971 and the last of his 12 appearances for the Clarets was on 3 April 1972: away to Sunderland.

Young apprentice Wilson with experienced pros John Angus and Colin Waldron

He was part of Alan Mullery’s Third Division promotion-winning squad in 1976-77, although he was restricted to 22 appearances. The arrival of the experienced Chris Cattlin meant he was no longer first choice left-back, although in several games they both played – the versatile Cattlin being equally at home as right-back.

6 HW promotionA bare-chested Wilson was pictured (above) in the Albion dressing room alongside Mullery enjoying the celebratory champagne after promotion was clinched courtesy of a 3-2 win over Sheffield Wednesday on 3 May 1977. But that game was his Goldstone swansong.

He’d made a total of 146 appearances for the Albion – as well as chipping in with four goals – but when Mullery signed Mark Lawrenson and Gary Williams from Preston that summer, Wilson went in the opposite direction along with Graham Cross.

Only six months after arriving at Preston, Wilson was badly injured in a road accident after his car skidded on black ice and collided with a transit van. He suffered a punctured lung and damage to his knees. Doctors told him he wouldn’t play again, but he proved them wrong and ended up spending three years at Preston, playing 42 games.

“I suppose I was lucky to be alive,” he said in an Albion matchday programme article. “I lost a couple of yards of pace, but then again I ws never exactly the quickest of players.”

With his best days behind him, he moved back to his native north-east in 1980 to play for Darlington, making 85 appearances in three years.

He stayed in the north east in 1983, switching to Hartlepool for a season, but only played 16 times for them before dropping out of the league to play for Crook Town.

According to The Football League Paper, Wilson stayed in the game as manager of Seaham Red Star and, in 1988-89, Whitby Town.

He then worked as a community officer for Sunderland before joining the coaching staff at Burnley in the 1990s.

When Chris Waddle took over as manager, Wilson was sacked but he took the club to an industrial tribunal, which found in his favour.

He later worked for his long-term friend, Stan Ternent, at Bury, and as a monitor for the Football League, a job that saw him checking that the right procedures were being followed by the youth development set-ups of clubs in the north-west.

Wilson was in the news in 2007 when Ternent appeared at Lancaster Crown Court accused of assaulting Wilson’s son, Greg, on the steps of Burnley Cricket Club (a venue familiar to visiting supporters as a popular watering hole before games at the neighbouring football ground).

Greg Wilson required hospital treatment for a deep cut above his left eyebrow and needed nine stitches in his forehead.

Ternent said he had accidentally clashed heads, denied causing actually bodily harm, and was cleared by a jury.

4 HW colour laugh w WardWilson in an Albion line-up alongside Peter Ward

Wilson pictured in 2010

Fluctuating fortunes for Guy Butters after beginning alongside Spurs stars

Spurs’ programme remembers the early years of his career.
A programme cover shows Butts in action for Pompey v Oxford.

GUY BUTTERS saw plenty of highs and lows in a 20-year playing career that started with great promise at Tottenham Hotspur and included six years at Brighton, where he still works.

Butts coaches for Albion in the Community, he’s scouted players, hosted hospitality lounges and still turns out to play in charity matches, not to mention sharing a constant flow of corny jokes with his 3,700+ followers on Twitter!

Promotion via the play-offs at Cardiff in 2004 and being chosen as player of the season would be up there in terms of highs with Brighton.

My personal favourite came on 13 November 2004, when Butters scored the only goal of the game as Albion committed daylight robbery in front of 29,514 packed into West Ham’s Boleyn Ground.

BZ GBBrighton were up against it going into the game and had taken veteran Steve Claridge on for a month to help them out of a striker crisis. Hammers threw everything at the Albion that afternoon but somehow the Seagulls kept the ball out and, on 68 minutes, Butts, up for a Richard Carpenter free kick, got his head on the end of it to send the ball into the back of the net in front of the Seagull faithful.

Even after versatile Adam Virgo and Hammers’ Haydn Mullins were sent off for a scrap on 74 minutes, and West Ham bought on substitute Bobby Zamora, the scoreline remained 1-0 to the Albion.

A couple of months later, it was obviously a special day for Butters when, on 8 January 2005, he was given the captain’s armband to lead the Albion in their third round FA Cup tie against Spurs at White Hart Lane.

  • A programme portrait and skipper for the day in the FA Cup at White Hart Lane.

The matchday programme recalled how Butters “was very much the discovery of the 1988-89 season when manager Terry Venables lifted the tough tackling former Spurs trainee from our reserves to the first team to play alongside Gary Mabbutt and Chris Fairclough in a back three.

“Guy was also in there alongside such names as Paul Gascoigne, Chris Hughton, Chris Waddle, Paul Walsh, Terry Fenwick, Paul Stewart, (former Brighton Cup Final hero) Gary Stevens and Paul Allen. And he kept his regular place the following season when Gary Lineker was added to the squad.”

Born on 30 October 1969 in Hillingdon, he made his debut shortly after his 19th birthday in a League Cup game against Blackburn, and suffered the agony of scoring an own goal. But on his full league debut as a sub against Wimbledon on 12 November 1988, he made amends with a goal in the right end.

“We won that one 3-2 but it’s probably better remembered by Spurs fans as the game in which Gary Stevens was injured following a tackle by Vinnie Jones,” Butters told the Spurs programme.

“I’ve got great memories of my time at Tottenham but, looking back, I recall spending much of my time trying to avoid Gazza who was always up to something! But it was the players around me that I will never forget – I was in there with men who had appeared in World Cups, and that’s my abiding memory.”

The year after his Spurs debut, Butters also earned international honours. In June 1989, he was involved in three England under 21 tournament matches in Espoirs de Toulon matches.

He started in the 3-2 defeat to Bulgaria on 5 June, and was replaced by substitute Neil Ruddock. Two days later, he came on as a sub for Dean Yates in England’s 6-1 thrashing of Senegal in Sainte Mazime. Two days after that, he came on as a sub for Ruddock, as the under 21s drew 0-0 with the Republic of Ireland in Six-Fours-les-Plages.

Of that side, Carlton Palmer, David Batty and David Hirst went on to gain full England caps, but those three games were Butters’ only representative appearances.

After limited game time at Spurs in the 1989-90 season, Butters went out on loan to Fourth Division Southend United, scoring three times in 16 games.

Steve Sedgley, Fenwick and Gudni Bergsson were all ahead of him as potential partners for Mabbutt so, on 28 September 1990, he was transferred to Portsmouth for a fee of £375,000, having made a total of 35 league appearances for Tottenham.

At Pompey, he played at the back alongside Kit Symons and colleagues included Mark Chamberlain on the wing and Warren Aspinall up front, together with his ex-Spurs teammate Paul Walsh, now better known as a Sky Sports pundit.

But there were mixed fortunes for Butters at Pompey, which he spoke about in a November 2016 interview for the Portsmouth website. He was there six years and enjoyed some good times when Jim Smith was manager.

guy butters YouTube

He had a brief spell on loan with Oxford United in 1994 and he eventually realised his time at Fratton Park was up when a regime change saw the arrival of Terry Venables, who was the Spurs boss when he was sold to Portsmouth.

Tony Pulis signed him for Gillingham for £225,000 on 18 October 1996 and, in six years at Priestfield, one game in particular stands out for the unfortunate pivotal moment Butters played in it.

It was 30 May 1999, the Football League Second Division play-off final to determine the third and final team to gain promotion and Gillingham were up against Manchester City, remarkably, at that time, struggling to get out of the third tier of English football.

Goals from Carl Asaba and Bob Taylor on 81 and 87 minutes looked to have given Pulis’ side victory. But Kevin Horlock had pulled one back for Joe Royle’s City and, as normal time expired, former Albion loanee Paul Dickov equalised for City in the fifth minute of added on time to level the scores at 2-2.

With no further scoring in extra time, it went to penalties. City scored three of their first four; Gills had scored only one of their three. So, the pressure was on Butters, the fourth penalty taker, to bury it to keep the Gills in it.

When Butters stepped up and hit it low to ‘keeper Nicky Weaver’s left…. it was within the 20-year-old’s reach, and he pushed it away. Cue wild celebrations as City won the shoot-out 3-1.

“Missing that penalty was one of the worst moments of my life but you have to move on and I am not afraid to have another go,” Butters told interviewer Alex Crook in an article for the 2004 Division Two play-off final match programme. “At the time, I just wanted the ground to swallow me up but nobody blamed me because it was just one of those things.”

Consolation for Butters came the following year when Gillingham returned to Wembley and on that occasion won 3-2 in extra-time against Wigan Athletic. As with Pompey, Butters had six years in total with the Kent club and played 159 league games before being released in the summer of 2002.

IMG_6010The 2002-03 season was already under way by the time Butters joined Albion on a free transfer and, in the September, he was doing his own personal pre-season workout programme in a bid to get fit.

“When I first came here I had to do a lot of extra work with Dean White,” Butters told Brian Owen, of the Argus. “It was a case of trying to cram a lot of stuff into a little space of time. I wasn’t really getting too much time to recover after it.”

The managerial change from Martin Hinshelwood to Steve Coppell didn’t do Butters any favours either. Virgo and Butters were the centre back pairing for Coppell’s first match – a 4-2 home defeat to Bristol City – and both were then discarded into the wilderness.  Virgo went on loan to Exeter and, after Coppell brought in Dean Blackwell to play alongside Danny Cullip, Butters was sent out on loan to Barnet.

But when injury meant Blackwell’s career was over, the door opened again for Butters and he seized the opportunity to such an extent that as Albion won promotion back to the second tier via the play-offs, he was voted player of the season.

GB potseas by Bennett Dean• 2004 Player of the Season pictured by Bennett Dean.

In fact, it was the arrival of Mark McGhee to succeed Coppell that was very much a turning point in Butters’ career because he had previously been considering hanging up his boots.

In Match of My Life (www.knowthescorebooks.com), he said: “Mark was a real breath of fresh air as manager. Straight away he helped me with a special diet and fitness programme aimed at improving my general match fitness, but, more importantly, helping me work towards prolonging my professional football career.

“He was the first manager to do that and under his guidance I began to thrive and really enjoy my football again.”

As the Argus previewed the 2004-05 season with a special publication, they declared: “Buoyed by a great run of form in last season’s run-in and looking in good shape in training, Butters is ready for another stab at the second tier of English football.”

And Butters said: “This year I did a bit in the summer when I was on holiday and the gaffer put us through our paces so I’m sure that when the season starts I’ll be pretty match fit.

“It’s a big step up but, if we can get a few results away from home, not too many of those big teams are going to fancy coming to Withdean.”

  • The Argus spots a lighter refreshing moment!
  • Butters and Cullip were opponents when the Seagulls won at Sheffield United, another moment captured by the Argus.

Three years later, at the age of 37, Butters was still with the Seagulls and looking forward to what would ultimately turn out to be his last in the stripes.

“I thoroughly enjoyed it last year,” Butters told Andy Naylor. “It is probably one of the most enjoyable seasons I’ve had.

IMG_6014“I missed out on pre-season last year through injury. The gaffer was amazed I played as many games as I did.

“I cannot see why, with a decent pre-season under my belt and, as long as I look after myself, that I cannot do the same again.

“I just want to go on playing as long as I can and along the way enhance my CV with coaching badges.”

Manager Dean Wilkins finally released Butters at the end of the 2007-08 season, during which he had been sent off for the first time in his career.

He’d played a total of 187 games for the Seagulls and carried on playing with Havant & Waterlooville briefly plus a seven-game spell on loan at Lewes before trying his hand at management with Winchester City and Eastleigh.

Guy + Nick

  • I got the chance to meet Guy when he kindly presented an award at an event I was involved in organising: what a great bloke!