Villa cup winner and captain Pat Saward led Albion to promotion

A FORMER Aston Villa captain and 1957 FA Cup winner steered Brighton to the first promotion I witnessed on my Albion journey.

Genial Irishman Pat Saward, who lived in my hometown of Shoreham during his time as Albion boss, galvanised a squad not expected to be promoted from the third tier and took them up as runners up behind his former club in 1972.

As the champagne flowed in the Goldstone Ground home dressing room, Saward took centre stage surrounded by his blue and white stripe-shirted heroes.

When the promotion tilt had looked like faltering, he’d been bold enough to make drastic changes to the side before a top of the table clash with Villa in front of the Match of the Day cameras. After a memorable 2-1 win in which Willie Irvine scored a goal later judged as the third best in the programme’s Goal of the Season competition, Saward added to his squad on transfer deadline day, bringing in Northern Ireland international Bertie Lutton from Wolves and Ken Beamish from Tranmere Rovers, described in the Official Football League Book as “stocky and packed full of explosive sprinting power, a terrific shot and great appetite for the game”.

Saward told the publication: “They were both last ditch signings and Ken made an astonishing difference. I spent only £41,000 in getting my promotion side together so we were very much Villa’s poor relations in that sense.”

The manager put the success down to: “Dogged determination to succeed from all the players. We stamped out inconsistency. I got rid of ten of the players I inherited and got together a team built on character. That’s the key quality, apart from skill of course.”

However, hindsight reveals the club wasn’t really ready for the higher division and some have suggested Saward broke up the promotion-winning squad rather too hastily. Players he brought in who were used to the level now known as the Championship struggled to gel, and the manager turned to rather too many loan signings.

A mid-season run of 13 consecutive defeats was Albion’s undoing and a glamour FA Cup tie at home to First Division Chelsea in early January 1973 gave a welcome respite from the gloom.

Ahead of the match, Saward opened his heart to Daily Mirror reporter Nigel Clarke, revealing that he couldn’t understand why the side had struggled so much.

“I wish I knew. But I’ve learned more about football these last few weeks than at any other time in my career.

“We are five points behind the next club but I must be the luckiest man in the league. There are no pressures on me,” he said, explaining that supporters were still writing to him, backing him and the team.

“When we came up from the Third Division, I was so big-headed, so confident. I thought with the right results we could go straight through to the First Division. I really did.

“There was spirit and ambition here – and there still is….that’s how this club gets you. My heart is in the place.”

Saward revealed that he had turned down two better paid jobs in the First Division to stay at Brighton after the promotion win, telling Clarke: “What I want is importance, appreciation, understanding and love…not being kicked up the backside and put under the lash.

“Adulation is false. I’ve found my oasis at Brighton and I’m wealthy the way I want to be – in feeling.”

Although the Chelsea game ended in another defeat, fortunes eventually changed the following month – but the damage had been done and Brighton went straight back down.

A defiant Saward promised to blood more youngsters like Steve Piper and Tony Towner, who’d done well when drafted in and Piper, in a matchday programme article, said of him: “Saward was more of a coach than a man-manager, very suave and sophisticated. He knew his football from his days at Coventry.”

However, when results didn’t improve on the return to third tier level, and with a new, ambitious chairman – Mike Bamber – at the helm, Saward was sacked and replaced with the legendary Brian Clough.

Albion’s hierarchy had turned to the untried Saward in the World Cup summer of 1970 after Birmingham City poached Freddie Goodwin from Brighton to replace Stan Cullis as their manager. It was second time lucky for Saward, who’d applied to succeed Archie Macaulay two years previously when Goodwin pipped him to the post.

“Give me ten years and I’ll have Brighton in the First Division,” Saward declared when appointed. Prescient words considering they made it within nine – although it came six years after he’d parted ways with the club.

There’s little doubt Saward was an innovative football man and a popular figure during the first two years of his reign.

Apart from success on the pitch in the 1971-72 season, the way he involved fans in helping him to improve the side also proved a winner.

His buy-a-player appeal was a direct attempt to involve the supporters in the affairs of their club and Saward led a sponsored walk on Brighton seafront as one of the initial events geared towards generating funds to help him compete in the transfer market.

“Too many people spend too much time shouting about how hard up their club is, and too little time fighting to improve the situation,” Saward said in an article for the April 1971 edition of Football League Review. “You never get success if you sit around. You must have courage, even audacity, and work hard for survival.”

The first funds generated provided Saward with the money to bring in experienced Bert Murray from Birmingham City, initially on loan, and then permanently. Murray would go on to be voted Player of the Year in 1971-72.

Another player who signed on loan at the same time as Murray was Preston’s Irvine, who recalled in his autobiography, Together Again, how Saward wooed him.

“Pat sold me the place with his charm and persuasive ways,” he said, describing the former male model as “extrovert, infectious and bubbly”.

He added: “Pat Saward was a gem of a manager and a pleasure to play for. He said what he thought, but never offensively; in a matter-of-fact, plain-speaking kind of way, rather than aggressively.”

Irvine continued: “Saward had the knack of making people feel important. He instilled pride and a sense of identity…..Pat loved attacking, entertaining football and worked tirelessly for the club. I would have run through that proverbial brick wall for him.”

As Brighton neared promotion, Irvine said: “Saward, with a joke or a smile, an arm around the shoulder or a bit of geeing up, knew just how to keep a dressing room happy or dispel any tension or nerves.”

Sadly, Irvine’s opinion of Saward shifted dramatically when, during the summer, the manager told him he intended to bring in a replacement – although it was three months before he eventually signed Barry Bridges from Millwall.

*Saward and new signings Barry Bridges (left) and Graham Howell*

Irvine was in the starting line-up at the beginning of the season and scored six times in 13 league and cup games, but, once Bridges arrived in October, his days were numbered, and, before the year was out, he was sold to Halifax Town in part exchange for Lammie Robertson.

Saward had already dispensed with the services of Albion’s other main promotion season scorer, Kit Napier, along with his former captain, John Napier.

Irvine said that once Albion were promoted, Saward changed. “He seemed to become unapproachable, or at least he did to me, and where once I could see him whenever I wanted, now I seemed to have to book an appointment two or three days in advance. We all had to.”

Teammate Peter O’Sullivan, who had repaired his relationship with Saward after some difficult early exchanges which saw the Welshman transfer-listed, also witnessed a change in the manager.

“We had one or two players who were over the hill and Pat just lost the plot. It was grim,” he told Spencer Vignes in A Few Good Men.

Albion’s tier two fortunes were picked over in some detail in a feature reporter Nick Harling compiled for Goal magazine.

“I didn’t foresee the snags and the type of league the Second Division was,” Saward told him. “It’s the hardest division of the four. Everyone is fighting either to stay in or get out.

“It’s a hell of a hard division. It’s a mixture of the First and Third. It’s good and very hard football. They don’t give you an awful lot of time to play.

“It’s a division governed by fear because to drop out of it is not good, while to get out at the top is fantastic. I didn’t believe the gap would be so different.

“Teams are so well organised and supplement their lack of ability with tremendous defensive play. It’s very hard to get results.”

While open and honest, they didn’t sound like the words of a manager very confident of finding a solution, and Saward sought to explain part of the problem when he said: “To me the most important thing is the attitude of mind. Players should have an arrogant attitude, an attitude that they’re going to do well even when the chips are down. But some types are destroyed. These are the ones who succumb and want to rely on other people.

“Here we’ve got some great boys, but I wish to God some of them had more determination.”

Bamber was resigned to relegation but nonetheless confident of where the club was heading. “There’s no doubting it – First Division here we come,” he told the magazine.

Saward added: “I haven’t lost any enthusiasm. I’ve had my hopes dampened slightly, but one overcomes that.

“This club has got to be built for the future. I want to put Brighton on the map.”

Sadly, when Albion’s poor form at the start of the 1973-74 season continued, Saward publicly admitted: “I haven’t any more answers. I am in a fog.”

Unsurprisingly, the Albion’s directors interpreted it as a loss of confidence and sacked him.

*It’s front page news on the Evening Argus as Saward is sacked*

Saward never managed in the English game again, although he coached in Saudi Arabia for a while.

Born in Cobh, County Cork, on 17 August 1928, Saward lived in Singapore and Malta during his childhood, before the family moved to south London.

His first club was Beckenham FC before he turned professional with Millwall in 1951. He made 118 appearances for the Lions in the next four years.

Saward was 26 when Eric Houghton signed him for Villa for £7,000 in August 1955. The legendary Joe Mercer took over as Villa manager in 1958.

Pat enjoyed a goalscoring debut with his new club, hitting the final equalising goal in a 4-4 draw with Manchester United at Villa Park on 15 October 1955. But he struggled to oust left half Vic Crowe and made only six appearances that season.

In Crowe’s absence through injury the following season, Saward became a regular, making 50 appearances.

*Saward (right) descends the steps at Wembley as a FA Cup winner with Aston Villa*

In total, Saward played 170 games for Villa between 1955 and 1960, most notably featuring in their FA Cup winning team in 1957. Villa beat Manchester United 2-1 in the final at Wembley Stadium in front of a crowd of 99,225, Peter McParland scoring twice to win Villa the Cup for a seventh time.

Saward made only 14 appearances as Villa were relegated from the top-flight in 1959 but he was back in harness as captain when they made a swift return as Second Division champions in the 1959-60 season.

In his final season, he made just 12 appearances, his last coming on 22 October 1960 in a second city derby, Villa beating Birmingham 6-2. The following March, he was given a free transfer and moved on to Huddersfield Town.

*Saward in the stripes of Huddersfield Town*

He had first been selected for the Republic of Ireland on 7 March 1954 in a World Cup qualifier in which Luxembourg were beaten 1-0, and he went on to make 18 appearances for his country, the last, on 2 September 1962, coming when he was 34: a 1-1 draw away to Iceland in Reykjavík.

He played twice against England in World Cup qualifiers in 1957, a 1-1 draw and a 5-1 defeat, when he was up against the likes of Duncan Edwards, Johnny Haynes and Stanley Matthews, and in the same competition against Scotland, in 1961, when the Irish lost 4-1, and his teammates included Johnny Giles.

After 59 appearances for the Terriers, he dropped out of the league but acquainted himself with Sussex when moving to Crawley Town.

Jimmy Hill signed him for Coventry as a player-coach in October 1963 and although he made numerous reserve team appearances, he really made his mark as a coach and was responsible for the rapid development of City’s youth team in the 1960s.

*Saward (left) with assistant manager Alan Dicks and Jimmy Hill at Coventry City*

Willie Carr and Dennis Mortimer were just two of several first teamers who made it under his guidance. He stepped up to first team assistant manager when his former Eire teammate, Noel Cantwell, was appointed boss in 1967.

Not long after his switch to the Goldstone, Saward picked up one of his former Sky Blues proteges, Ian Goodwin, initially on loan, and then permanently, and eventually made him Albion captain. The rugged defender’s arrival was remembered in an Argus article.

When Saward died on 20 September 2002 following a period when he’d suffered with Alzheimer’s, an excellent Villa website pieced together a detailed obituary. His career is also recorded on the avfchistory.co.uk site.

Saward was laid to rest in the same Cambridge cemetery as his brother Len, a forward who played a total of 170 games for Cambridge United between 1952 and 1958, scoring 43 times. He went on to serve the club behind the scenes in their commercial department.

Pictures from my schoolboy Albion scrapbook and various online sources.

The Tiger who came to Brighton and fitted to a T

DIMINUTIVE winger Brian Tawse is remembered by veteran Brighton fans for his boyish good looks…. and a stunning disallowed goal.

It perhaps does a disservice to the fact he played 109 games (plus five as a sub) in the second half of the swinging Sixties after joining the club from Arsenal.

Tawse spent two years with the Gunners and made a handful of first-team appearances but with George Armstrong ahead of him it wasn’t until he joined the Albion that he began to play regular league football.

It was a cracking strike by Tawse in the closing minutes of a FA Cup fourth round tie against Chelsea in January 1967 that stuck in people’s memories.

In front of a packed Goldstone Ground crowd of 35,000, a big upset looked on the cards when Tawse’s terrific volley flew past Peter Bonetti five minutes from the end of the game for what would have been a 2-1 win.

Unfortunately, the referee had spotted an infringement by Kit Napier and the ‘goal’ was disallowed. In the replay at Stamford Bridge, Chelsea ran out clear 4-0 winners.

“I smashed a volley past Peter Bonetti from 20 yards out with the score at 1-1 and thought I’d got the winner,” Tawse told Brian Fowlie of the Sunday Post in 2015, ahead of Brighton’s fourth round FA Cup tie with Arsenal. “It was a goal that could have made my career – but the referee chalked it off.”

Tawse had been with the Albion for just over a year when that cup tie came around. He was one of three ex-Arsenal players in the side: the Northern Ireland international full-back Jimmy Magill joined Albion in October 1965, Tawse followed him two months later, and goalkeeper Tony Burns joined in the summer of 1966.

Albion’s boss at the time was fellow Scot Archie Macaulay, a former Arsenal player himself, who during his time at the Gunners had persuaded them to sign Alex Forbes, who later became the coach Tawse played under in Arsenal’s youth team. But more of that later.

Tawse got his first Brighton goal in only his second game, a 4-3 home win over Bristol Rovers on New Year’s Day 1966, and he went on to score six in 22 matches as the Albion finished 15th in Division 3.

Although he started the next season in the no.11 shirt, close season arrival Howard Wilkinson became an automatic choice on one wing and Tawse found himself competing with Wally Gould for a place on the other.

Aside from the excitement of that Chelsea cup game, Tawse did find the net eight times (three times from the penalty spot) as he played in 28 games (+ one as sub) that season.

The winger couldn’t always be relied on from 12 yards, however, as contributor ‘Questions’ recalled on North Stand Chat in 2008. “Ah Tiger Tawse, he of the boyish good looks and ability to blaze a penalty over the north stand roof against Watford, I think. Good little player though….”

The majority of Tawse’s Albion games (41 + 1 sub) came in the 1967-68 season although he only scored twice as Albion finished 10th.

The signing of Paul Flood from Bohemians added forward options to the manager’s selection, but it was the £5,000 signing of speedy Dave Armstrong from Millwall in September 1968 that began to edge Tawse out.

*Tawse (arrowed) in an official Albion team photo ahead of the 1969-70 season*

In the 1968-69 season, which saw the arrival of Freddie Goodwin as manager in place of Macaulay, Tawse made only 16 appearances (+ three as sub), and he featured only twice between the start of December and the end of the season.

My own Albion watching journey began in February 1969 and the only game I saw Tawse play was in the Easter Saturday 4-1 win over Barnsley when he replaced Kit Napier; the only change to the side who had played 24 hours earlier, again at home, when Orient were beaten 2-0.

Goodwin mostly went for Armstrong on the left and Wilkinson on the right.

By the time the 1969-70 season arrived, opportunities were even more limited for Tawse. He was only on the bench once and started just two, his last first-team appearance coming in a 2-0 defeat away to Tranmere Rovers on 25 October 1969.

Former Albion teammate Wilf Tranter writing on North Stand Chat, said: “Brian finally lost the no. 11 shirt to Kit Napier in the 1969-70 season. He had been a very good servant to the club and was regarded with great affection by many supporters.”

*Tawse with rival Kit Napier who became a good friend*

Born on 30 July 1945 in Ellon, just north of Aberdeen, his footballing talent was first spotted while playing for Aberdeen boys’ team, King Street A. He told the Sunday Post’s Fowlie how the big freeze in 1963 worked in his favour.

“I went down for a trial game with Arsenal in 1963 and got stuck in London because of the terrible winter,” he said. “I trained with the youth team that was taken care of by famous Scottish player Alex Forbes.”

Forbes had joined Arsenal just after the war on the recommendation of fellow Scot Macaulay, whose place in the side he subsequently took over.

When Forbes later became youth coach at Arsenal, he took a party of Arsenal youngsters on a summer tour to South Africa, got offered a coaching job in Johannesburg and decided to make it his home for the rest of his life.

*Tawse (centre) between George Armstrong and Jon Sammels in an Arsenal line-up, with Magill (far left) and Billy Wright*

Billy Wright, the former England captain who’d won 105 caps for his country, was manager of Arsenal in the mid-’60s and it was he who took Tawse on as a professional.

Wright may have been a legend as a player but one of Tawse’s fellow Highbury hopefuls, John Ryan, who later starred for Fulham, Luton Town and Norwich City, was not at all enamoured.

Looking back in an interview with a Norwich archive site, he said: “Billy Wright was the only manager of the 12 I ended up playing for who I neither liked nor respected.

“He seemed to take an instant dislike to me and would single me out for some vicious treatment in front of the other young players.”

Ryan shared digs with Tawse and David Jenkins and he recalled how he found out Arsenal were letting him go. “At the end of that season (1964-65), I was sitting in the digs when two large brown envelopes and one small registered white one dropped through the front door. As I opened the small white one that was addressed to me, I wondered where the other two lads had disappeared to.

“It turned out that they’d read the situation as my letter was from the club notifying me I was being given a free transfer whilst the two brown envelopes that were for them both contained contract offers.”

Tawse made his Arsenal debut away to West Brom on 21 November 1964, a game which finished 0-0. Although his first team game time was limited, in the space of three days in February 1965 he played in successive 2-0 wins at home to Fulham and Spurs and at the end of the following month against West Ham away, another 0-0 draw.

Away to Nottingham Forest on 13 March 1965, Tawse took George Armstrong’s place on the wing – and the aforementioned Magill earned a rare outing in place of Don Howe at right back – but they lost 3-0.

*Brian Tawse alongside George Armstrong, the winger he couldn’t dislodge to gain a regular Arsenal place*

Although the official record books only show those league appearances, thearsenalhistory.com details how Tawse also played twice in an end of season five-game tour in Italy. He played in a 2-2 draw against Torino and was one of the scorers in a 3-0 win over Latina.

The following season he was selected in a 5-2 friendly win over non-league Corinthian Casuals on 21 September and a month later – on 23 October 1965 – he was on the substitute’s bench in a 2-2 home draw against Blackburn Rovers, but that was the last of his involvement, and he moved to Albion five weeks later.

“The main problem was that regular winger George Armstrong never seemed to get injured,” Tawse told the Sunday Post.

He also dispelled a myth about how he came to get his nickname Tiger, telling the reporter: “People think it’s maybe because I was a real terrier on the pitch, but the truth is that it was about petrol.

“Esso had a campaign – Put a Tiger in Your Tank – and gave away a free tiger’s tail to put on your car.

“At the age of 19, I turned up for training with one on my Mini and was immediately christened ‘Tiger’ Tawse!”

After leaving Brighton in March 1970, Tawse moved to Brentford where he played in 13 games as new manager Frank Blunstone took the Bees to within three points of promotion from Division Four, finishing fifth just behind Port Vale.

But in the 1970-71 season he made just eight appearance (plus two as sub) and ended up on loan to Southern League Folkestone.

Still only in his mid 20s, he decided to head to South Africa and played for Durban City at a time when dozens of British players, managers and coaches were recruited by that country’s 16 clubs.

He was later joined there by former Albion teammate and fellow Scot Kit Napier and after they hung up their boots, they worked together in the motor trade.

When Napier died in March 2019, Tawse told The Argus: “We remained friends afterwards and we were both golfers. He was a very good golfer, which people probably don’t realise. He played in a lot of pro-ams.

“He was a good lad and, of course, a bit of a legend for what he did with Brighton.”

Tawse spent 17 years in South Africa but returned to the UK and settled in Westdene, Brighton…and watches the Albion from the West Stand at the Amex.

Boss feistily defended crowd-heckled Bobby Smith

B Smith white action TOUGH-TACKLING midfielder Bobby Smith made more than 200 appearances for Manchester United’s reserve side.

He played alongside emerging talents such as George Best and Nobby Stiles but wasn’t able to follow them in making the step up to the first team.

Like many before and since, he had to look elsewhere to establish a career in the game, and 85 of his 307 senior career appearances came in the colours of Brighton & Hove Albion, the fourth of seven clubs he served as a player.

Smith stayed in the game as a manager and coach for 26 years after hanging up his boots, his most notable achievement coming in December 1979 as boss of Third Division Swindon Town when they overcame the mighty Arsenal in a thrilling League Cup quarter final.

Born in Prestbury, Cheshire, on 14 March 1944, Smith won six England Schoolboys (under 15s) caps, playing right-half with future World Cup winner Martin Peters playing on the left.

He went on to win two England Youth caps: on 9 March 1961, he was in an England side (which also included John Jackson in goal and future Luton and Spurs boss David Pleat) that lost 1-0 to the Netherlands in Utrecht and three days later was again on the losing side, this time 2-0, to West Germany in Flensburg, when teammates included John Milkins, Portsmouth’s ‘keeper for many years, and striker John O’Rourke, who played for various clubs. Smith turned professional with United the following month.

I’ve discovered an old programme (above) for a Man Utd reserve fixture against West Brom during that era. It shows Smith alongside Wilf Tranter (who also later played for Brighton, and was Smith’s assistant manager at Swindon), Nobby Stiles in midfield, and George Best on the left wing.

In 1964, when a first team call-up continued to elude Smith, he lowered his sights and went to play for a former United colleague at Scunthorpe United. That colleague was Freddie Goodwin who would later be his manager at Brighton as well.

At Scunthorpe, Smith finally saw league action and played 87 games in two seasons before being transferred for £8,000 to Grimsby Town. In two years with the Mariners, he played 56 games before joining the Albion in June 1968.

My distant memory of Smith was of a tough-tackling midfielder who was in the shadow of the likes of Nobby Lawton and Dave Turner when it came to his popularity with supporters. And manager Goodwin hit back strongly when a section of fans voiced their disapproval of the player.

Smith scored the only goal of the game after only 50 seconds away to Stockport County on 23 January 1970, but in the previous home game (a 2-1 win over Bradford City) there had been a few shouts from the terraces in Smith’s direction.

In his weekly article for the Brighton and Hove Herald, Goodwin said: “I was most disappointed to hear certain sections of the crowd getting at Bobby Smith.

“He has done nothing to warrant this behaviour. He is a 90-minute aggressive player and his value to the team lies in his ability to win the ball from the opposition.

“He is well aware of his limitations as a player, but there is no-one who can accuse him of ever giving less than 100 per cent.

“This sort of behaviour by a small minority of spectators does nothing to help the team or the individual players.

“Any player who takes the field as a representative of Brighton and Hove Albion does so because he has been selected for the team by me.

“It is my responsibility that a player represents the Albion. So, to barrack any player is most unfair to him.”

*Smith in action against the backdrop of the packed East Terrace at the Goldstone. Albion won 4-0*

His 85 games for the Albion came across three seasons: 33 in 1968-69 and 26 in each of the following two seasons. Goodwin’s successor, Pat Saward, released him at the end of the 1970-71 season, and, in June 1971, he went on a free transfer to Chester City.

After only four months in the North West, he switched to the North East, joining Hartlepool United, initially on loan. Over two years, in which Len Ashurst’s side only just avoided the old re-election places, Smith played in 76 matches before moving on to Bury in August 1973. He signed as a player-coach but didn’t feature in the league side, instead taking over as manager – aged only 29 – from Allan Brown in December 1973.

It was the start of a coaching and managerial career that would span more than a quarter of a century.

He took Bury to promotion from the fourth tier by the end of that 1973-74 season, and remained in charge for just under four years, He was at the helm for a total of 215 games; the record books showing he achieved a 41.9 per cent win rate.

A six-month stint followed at Port Vale, between November 1977 and May 1978, but, of his 33 games in charge, he only presided over six wins (there were 14 draws and 13 defeats).

Swindon paid £10,000 compensation to lure him to the County Ground, where, as mentioned, his assistant manager was the aforementioned Tranter.

The official Swindon website remembered: “Despite being a relatively young manager, he guided Swindon to a promotion challenge in his first season in charge – missing out by three points, after losing the last two games of the season.”

Part of the secret had been Smith’s signing of strikers Andy Rowland and Alan Mayes.

Swindon w BS WT Smith (far right) as manager of Swindon, with Tranter (far left), Chris Kamara (circled back row) and skipper Ray McHale (centre front row).

His major achievement came the following year, when Town beat Arsenal 4-3 in a replay to reach the League Cup semi-final.

When one considers the size of League Cup game crowds now, it seems extraordinary to discover around 7,000 Swindon fans (in a gate of 38,024) had made the trip to Highbury for the initial tie, which finished 1-1.

The Gunners had famously lost to lowly Swindon in the 1969 League Cup Final at Wembley, so the humble Wiltshire club smelled history repeating itself.

In the replay, with 21,795 packed into the County Ground, Steve Walford and John Hollins scored own goals and future Brighton manager Liam Brady scored twice for Arsenal. One of the key players for Swindon was future Sky Sports reporter Chris Kamara.

Striker Rowland, who scored an extra time winner, relived the momentous occasion in an interview with SwindonWebTV.

Unsurprisingly, the giant killing attracted plenty of media attention and Smith was interviewed live on Football Focus by presenter Bob Wilson.

Smith pointed out that his side had been well grounded and, after the initial draw against Arsenal, had thumped his old club Bury 8-0, equalling Swindon’s biggest winning margin in a league game. Amongst the scorers were Rowland and Billy Tucker – two of four ex-Bury players in Swindon’s starting line-up. Another was Brian Williams – Bury’s youngest ever player – and one of the other goalscorers, Ray McHale, (later to play for Brighton in the top division) went on to have a loan spell at Gigg Lane later in his career.

The Robins beat top-flight opponents Wolverhampton Wanderers 2-1 at home in the first leg of the semi-final but went down 3-1 at Molineux in controversial circumstances, Wolves scoring the decisive goal five minutes from the end.

“We were so unfortunate because Wolves should have been down to 10 men,” Kamara told the Swindon Advertiser. “Alan Mayes got hit by the goalkeeper (Paul Bradshaw). He came out of his goal, didn’t get anywhere near the ball and he clattered Alan and broke his two front teeth and his nose but didn’t get sent off.

“I know everyone looks at situations and says ‘You were unlucky’ but that was a turning point in the game, and we ended up losing.”

It later emerged that the tie could have had a dramatic impact on Kamara’s playing career. In a 2010 interview with FourFourTwo magazine, he explained how he was once on Manchester United’s radar during Ron Atkinson’s reign.

“I was at Swindon and my manager Bobby Smith said, ‘Big Ron’s coming to watch you.’ We were playing in the 1980 semi-final of the League Cup against Wolves, but I had the ’flu and didn’t play so well. I’m not saying that’s the reason he didn’t sign me, but Ron went back to his old club, West Brom, and signed Remi Moses instead.”

With the benefit of hindsight, the cup run took its toll on the Swindon side. Before the semi, they were just five points from a promotion place, with four games in hand. But only five of their last 18 games were won, and they lost nine away games on the trot, resulting in a disappointing 10th place finish.

Smith had spent large – by Swindon’s standards – including £250,000 on two players, David Peach and Glenn Cockerill, both of whom never fitted in at the club.

When Swindon lost their first five matches of the 1980-81 season, Smith was relieved of his duties.

He later took charge at Newport County and Swansea City, as well as coaching at the Swans, Blackpool, Cardiff City, and Sheffield Wednesday, together with a spell as assistant manager of Hereford United.

He was assistant manager to Frank Burrows at the Vetch Field but when the chairman at the time announced his intention to sell up, and no funds were being made available for new players, Burrows left of his own accord and Smith became caretaker manager.

Contributor Colin_swansea, on the fans website scfc2.co.uk, observed: “After Tosh left we had caretakers Doug Livermore for 30 days, Les Chappell for 23 days prior to Tosh returning, and after Tosh had left for a second time on the 5th March 1984 Les returned as caretaker until the end of the season.

“Our manager’s position was even more farcical after Frankie Burrows left with his assistant Bobby Smith taking over until a bust up during the Xmas period when Doug Sharp wouldn’t sanction the buying of rubber studded boots to combat the winter conditions.

*Smith interviewed after his Swindon side held Spurs to a 0-0 draw in the FA Cup*

“Smith left on 22 December 1995, Jimmy Rimmer was caretaker to 7 February 1996, Kevin Cullis became manager for a week, a two-game spell of two defeats, Rimmer returned for eight days as caretaker, before Jan Molby’s appointment on 22 February 1996. Molby’s replacement as manager on 9 October 1997 was Micky Adams who lasted 13 days and three league defeats with his assistant Alan Cork taking over until the end of the season.

“Cork didn’t fit the profile for the club’s new owners, Silver Shield, and he was offloaded at the end of the season. Ironically his successor, John Hollins, didn’t sign one player the following season when the club reached the play offs.

“Never a dull moment being manager of the Swans during the 80s and 90s!”

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.

Fans took Alan Duffy to their hearts after debut goal

Hair-raising moment

Distinctive ‘mutton chops’ look

Debut goal v Bradford City

In action v Reading

In the the thick of it v Rotherham

Heading for goal v Shrewsbury

TWENTY-year-old Alan Duffy couldn’t have wished for a better start to his Brighton career than scoring a belter on his debut.

A £10,000 signing from Newcastle United, he was quickly off the mark on 17 January 1970 in a 2-1 Third Division win over Bradford City.

He appeared to be “the Third Division answer to George Best by beating two Bradford players and smashing a ferocious shot in off the crossbar” according to Seagulls TV, which recounted he was a “stocky striker with a robust style”.

Fan Mo Gosfield, posting on North Stand Chat in January 2011, described the goal as “one of my top 10 Albion moments, because it took your breath away”.

Mo added: “He had all the makings of a cult figure at Brighton. The swagger, the shock of hair, the slight beer belly. I loved him, but he never quite lived up to that sensational start.”

The fans in the old North Stand adapted the Hare Krishna chant to incorporate his name and, after that promising debut, the young striker kept his place in the starting line-up through to the end of the season.

He repaid manager Freddie Goodwin’s faith in him with five more goals. Particularly memorable were Duffy’s two goals in Albion’s 2-1 win over Reading on Good Friday when a huge crowd of 32,036 packed into the Goldstone.

2 AD action BW.jpg

Brighton were top of the league going into the game and looking a good bet for promotion.

Former goalkeeper Brian Powney discussed that game – and Duffy – when he was interviewed by Brian Owen for an article in the Argus on 20 February 2017.

There were question marks over both Duffy’s goals – a suspicion of handball for one, the other possibly offside – but, while both stood, a seemingly good goal from the youngster was ruled out later on.

Looking back on the game was a painful reminder for Powney, who dislocated a finger which physio Mike Yaxley had to put back while out on the pitch, it being the era long before substitute goalkeepers were available.

Unfortunately, too, Albion blew their promotion chances by losing four of the last five games after that Easter win over the Royals.

The only other points collected came in the penultimate game, a 2-1 home win over Rotherham, when Duffy again scored twice – one a penalty.

Asked about Duffy in that 2017 interview, Powney said: “Alan was hit and miss, a bit madcap.

“He had a lot of talent and, had he applied himself, he would have had a longer career. He was a good player but not such a good pro.”

Like many a player before and since, a change of manager in that World Cup summer of 1970 didn’t help Duffy’s progress at Brighton although, according to Seagulls TV: “Weight issues and injury woes, starting with a thigh problem on the opening day, marred his 1970-71 campaign.”

Duffy began in the no.8 shirt for the opening two games of that season under Goodwin’s replacement,Pat Saward, but a thigh injury picked up away to Bristol Rovers proved more problematic than first thought and he missed a large part of the first half of the season.

montage Duffy action v Bob Tooze (Shrews)

Duffy was out of the side from mid-October to February and, on his return to the starting line-up, was involved in one of the most curious incidents I ever saw at the Goldstone.

On 27 February 1971, against Preston North End, Albion won a controversial penalty at the south stand end of the pitch after Duffy somewhat unconvincingly tumbled in the area.

Centre forward Kit Napier took the spot-kick; ‘keeper Alan Kelly saved it, but referee Tom Reynolds ordered a retake because of encroachment. As Napier steadied himself for the retake, Duffy stepped forward, pushed his teammate out of the way, took the penalty himself – and missed!

In the Argus, reporter John Vinicombe wrote: “Napier watched aghast as the ball thudded against the bar. Duffy hung his head, as well he might.” The game finished in a disappointing 0-0 draw.

“The manager went mad at him afterwards,” Powney recalled, and Saward promptly dropped Duffy to the bench for the next two matches.

In the meantime, the manager brought in the experienced Bert Murray and Willie Irvine on loan to add some nous and quality. Although Duffy did get back in the side for six games, the rest of the time he was on the bench.

One time when he entered the fray from the bench against Aston Villa, a BBC radio commentator described him as “a square little man – an oddity” but he was soon singing his praises for a through ball that set up Napier to score.

His only goals of the season came in the same match – against Bradford City, in a 3-2 win at Valley Parade on Easter Monday. Duffy struck twice in the second half as Albion came back from being 2-1 down at half-time.

By the season’s end, he had made just 15 starts, and was subbed off on five occasions. There were seven appearances off the bench, plus three occasions when he was a non-playing sub.

In 1971-72, he made just one start – in a league cup match – and was only ever a substitute in the league, coming on 12 times and not being used on 10 other occasions.

A Brighton & Hove Gazette special publication noted that shortly after coming on as a substitute in a second round FA Cup game at home to Walsall in December 1971, he was booked for fighting with the Saddlers’ goalkeeper, Bob Wesson.

A subsequent post-match incident with the goalkeeper led to Duffy being suspended for six weeks. His final appearance saw him come on for Murray in a 4-2 win away to Oldham Athletic in mid-January 1972.

Saward clearly didn’t see Duffy as a long-term part of his plans and when he plunged into the transfer market on deadline day in March, the Geordie was used as a makeweight in the deal which brought Tranmere Rovers striker Ken Beamish to the Goldstone for a fee of £25,000. On the same day, Wolves’ Irish international Bertie Lutton returned to the Albion following a loan spell earlier in the season.

In two years at Prenton Park, Duffy made 33 appearances and scored just twice, before heading back to the north east in 1973 to join Darlington.

In the 1973-74 season, he played 24 games for Darlington without getting on the scoresheet and the following season drifted into non-league football, playing for Consett.

It was quite some fall from that glorious day on 21 September 1968 when he had made his Newcastle first team debut against Manchester United at Old Trafford in a 3-1 defeat.

Born on 20 December 1949 in Stanley, Co Durham, Duffy joined Newcastle in 1966 and on 7 April 1968 won an England Youth international cap when he featured in a 0-0 draw away to Bulgaria.

The game took place in Nimes, France, and was part of the UEFA Youth tournament. Amongst his teammates were Burnley’s Dave Thomas and Steve Kindon and fellow Magpie Alan Foggon.

After that debut at Old Trafford, Duffy didn’t play for the first team again until 9 August 1969, coming on as a sub in a 1-0 defeat v West Ham.

His next chance came on 20 September 1969 when he came on as a sub in a 1-1 draw with Southampton.

A week later, he got a start in another 1-1 draw, this time against Wolverhampton Wanderers. But Toon1892.com recounted: “In his time at Newcastle he was always considered to be Pop Robson’s deputy rather than a first team choice.”

When the Toon decided to let him join Brighton, Duffy had to admit he’d never previously ventured that far south before. At least there was a familiar face waiting for him when he arrived: at the time, Albion had a young Newcastle goalkeeper, Martin Burleigh, on loan.

The matchday programme revealed how manager Goodwin and club secretary Alan Leather had quite a journey travelling to the North East to clinch the deal for Duffy because bad weather caused them to alter their train and plane arrangements.

Leather then had to dash from Newcastle to the Football League headquarters at St Annes on the Lancashire coast to register the paperwork ahead of the 48-hour deadline for new signings so that Duffy would be eligible to play in Albion’s away game at Barrow. He managed it…..but then the match was postponed!

Pictures from my scrapbook either originated in the matchday programme or were published in the Evening Argus. Also featured, a special publication produced by the Brighton & Hove Gazette.

Steve Coppell not the first ex-Man U player to quit the manager’s chair

coppell crop STEVE Coppell was not the first former Manchester United player I saw become manager of Brighton. More than 30 years previously Busby Babe Freddie Goodwin had been at the helm when my Albion-watching passion began.

Unfortunately, there was a parallel in their outcomes: both were wooed by better opportunities elsewhere (Goodwin to Birmingham; Coppell to Reading). One other parallel to record, though, is that each of their successors (Pat Saward and Mark McGhee) got Albion promoted.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but, if Coppell hadn’t been jet lagged the first time chairman Dick Knight interviewed him for the Brighton job, the 2002-03 season may have panned out differently…and Kolo Touré, a future Premier League winner with Arsenal and Manchester City, might have spent a season helping the Seagulls to retain their recently-won second tier status. Let me explain.

Coppell had been out of the country in Thailand during the summer of 2002 and, although Knight wanted to interview him with a view to appointing him as Peter Taylor’s successor, when the meeting in London eventually came about, Coppell began to nod off with the effects of his long-distance travel.

A frustrated Knight, under pressure on several fronts that summer (as told in his autobiography Mad Man: From the Gutter to the Stars, the Ad Man who saved Brighton) left him to it and took the decision to appoint third choice Martin Hinshelwood instead. (Knight had also considered German Winfried Schäfer, who had just managed Cameroon at the World Cup, but his poor command of English went against him).

As the opening to the season drew closer, Knight went with Hinshelwood to watch an Arsenal under 23 side in a friendly at Barnet. He was running the rule over Steve Sidwell with a view to taking him on a season-long loan but the stand-out player who caught his eye was Touré, and Albion’s cheeky chairman said he’d take the pair of them.

To his delight, Arsène Wenger and Liam Brady agreed…but astonishingly Hinshelwood said they weren’t needed because, in his opinion, they weren’t any better than Albion’s own youngsters, who he had been coaching, and who he was now intending to blood in the first team. An incredulous Knight kept schtum, believing he needed to support his new manager.

When they started the season with a 3-1 win at Burnley, it seemed maybe Hinshelwood had a point. But, after a disastrous run of 12 defeats, leading to the inevitable sacking of Hinshelwood, Knight reverted to Plan A and succeeded in attracting Coppell to manage the side.

He then swiftly went back to Arsenal to secure the loan services of Sidwell (who’d played for Coppell at Brentford the previous season). But he was too late as far as Touré was concerned. He’d already played his way into first team contention for the Gunners and was no longer available.

coppell + booker

With Albion at the foot of the table, Coppell had a rocky start at the helm of the Seagulls, including an embarrassing 5-0 defeat to Palace, but he quickly brought in some quality players such as Dean Blackwell and Simon Rodger, and, together with Bobby Zamora up front and the busy Sidwell in midfield, they put together some decent results that dared to suggest a great escape was possible.

Albion notched up some surprise results, including a 1-0 Boxing Day win at Norwich and a 4-1 home win over Wolves, who ended up in the play-offs. There was also a memorable 2-2 draw at Ipswich, a 4-0 home win over Watford and a 2-1 win at Reading, most notable for a rare appearance and goal from former Premiership striker Paul Kitson, who had been injured for much of the season.

Sadly, it wasn’t quite enough to keep the Seagulls in the division and they went down second from bottom, five points adrift of 21^st placed Stoke City.

The following season was in its infancy when West Ham decided to sack Glenn Roeder as their boss. The Hammers were determined to replace him with Reading’s Alan Pardew; and Reading, once they realised their fight to keep Pardew was fruitless, turned to third tier Albion’s Coppell as his replacement.

Chairman Knight knew Reading could offer Coppell the opportunities that were still some way in the distance if he’d stayed at the Albion, so he did the next best thing which was to get a healthy sum in compensation which went a long way to funding that season’s wage bill.

Knight was a big fan of Coppell and admired his meticulous preparation for games through in-depth viewing of opponents.

In an interview with The Guardian, Knight said: “He is probably the most analytical mind brought to football management for many a year. His preparations are detailed to the point of fastidious. His briefings are second to none. He spent hours with the video in the afternoons breaking down moves in slow-mo to work out how the opposition operate. He is very perceptive.”

Knight added: “People say he’s cold and uncaring, but he came to one of our marches on the seafront to campaign about the new stadium at Falmer long after he left for Reading. That’s Steve. He left a big impression on us.”

coppell at reading.jpg

Coppell left the Albion with a 36.7 per cent win ratio over his 49 games in charge, just over three percentage points behind his first spell as Palace manager, but higher than his other three spells at Selhurst.

To avoid this blog post turning into War and Peace, I’m not going to cover the whole of Coppell’s career but, in the circumstances, it is worth touching on how he came to be a star on the wing for Manchester United and England.

The Liverpool lad went to the same Quarry Bank Grammar School that produced Joe Royle and Beatle John Lennon, but head teacher William Pobjoy ensured football mad Coppell stuck to his studies.

It didn’t deter Coppell from having a trial with Liverpool and playing for an Everton junior side a couple of nights a week. But both rejected him as too small and his dad Jim told playupliverpool.com: “He lost faith in ever becoming a footballer and took up golf and became quite good.” He still played football for a local side but that was just for pleasure.

A Tranmere Rovers scout made several approaches but Steve wasn’t interested, and decided he was going to go to Liverpool University to take a degree in economics and social history.

Ron Yeats, the famous colossus around who Bill Shankly built his Liverpool team in the 1960s, became Tranmere manager in the early 1970s. He remembered of Coppell: “We signed him so he could combine it with university.”

Around the same time, Coppell shot up from 4ft 11in to 5ft 7in in a year, and went on to play 38 times for Tranmere, scoring 10 goals.

Word reached Manchester United boss Tommy Docherty who paid a £35,000 fee to take him to Old Trafford. He was playing for United in the old second division while still completing the third year of his degree course. United’s deal with Tranmere had it built in that they’d pay an extra £20,000 if Coppell made it to 50 appearances. They paid it after only two games, such was the impact Docherty knew he was going to have.

Indeed, he went on to make 373 appearances for United and scored 70 goals; and the 207 games he played between 1977 and 1981 broke the record for the most consecutive appearances for an outfield Manchester United player, and still stands to this day.

coppell utd action

He played in three FA Cup Finals for United, in 1976, 1977 and 1979, only ending up with a winners’ medal when Liverpool were beaten 2-1 in 1977.

Coppell was still at United in 1983, and had been United’s top scorer on the way to the Milk Cup Final that season, but he was recovering from a cartilage operation on his damaged left knee so was unable to play in the FA Cup Final against Brighton.

He told Match magazine: “I was always fighting a losing battle against time to get fit for the final. In my heart of hearts, I knew when I had the cartilage operation that five weeks wasn’t enough time to get fit for a match of this importance. I was struggling to make it from the off.”

Coppell told Amy Lawrence of The Guardian: “’I had nine wonderful years there and I still remember running on at Old Trafford for the first time. It was a real heart-in-the-mouth moment, an incredible experience for a 19-year-old whose biggest crowd before then was probably about 5,000.”

He also won 42 caps for England and Sir Trevor Booking, one of his contemporaries in the England team, spoke in glowing terms about Coppell the player in his book My Life in Football (Simon & Schuster, 2014).

“He was a winger at a time when wingers were unfashionable,” he said. “He had the pace to reach a 30-yard pass, the skill to wriggle past a defender and send over the perfect cross. But he also had the energy to run back and provide cover for his defensive team-mates down the right flank that set him apart from so many other wingers at that time.

“When his team lost possession, Steve didn’t hang about on the flank waiting for someone to win it back. He wanted to win it back himself. He was involved all the time – a quality that is a prerequisite for today’s wide players.”

Coppell made his England debut under Ron Greenwood against Italy at Wembley in 1977 in a very exciting line-up that saw him play on the right, Peter Barnes on the left, and Bob Latchford and Kevin Keegan as a twin strikeforce. It was a favoured foursome for Greenwood and when they all played together against Scotland in 1979, Coppell, Keegan and Barnes all scored in a 3-1 win.

It was while on England duty that Coppell picked up the injury that would eventually lead to a premature end to his career. Brooking recalled: “A tackle by the Hungarian József Tóth at Wembley in November 1981 damaged his knee and although he played on for a year or so more, the knee condition worsened.

“He was able to play in the first four games of the 1982 World Cup but the problem flared up after the goalless draw with West Germany and he had to miss the decisive match against Spain.”

From 2016, Coppell spent three years as a manager in India. Amongst the players he worked with at Kerala Blasters (owned by cricketing great Sachin Tendulkar) in 2016-17 was Aaron Hughes, who had a season with Albion.

The following season Coppell became the first head coach of newly-formed Jamshedpur, owned by Tata Steel, and for the 2018-19 season he took charge of Indian Super League club ATK, once part-owned by Atletico Madrid. Among its owners were former Indian cricket captain Sourav Ganguly.

thoughtful coppell

Goalscoring Busby Babe Alex Dawson my first Brighton hero

ALEX DAWSON remains the youngest player to have scored a hat-trick in a FA Cup semi-final.

He was just 18 years and 33 days on 26 March 1958 when his perfect treble (header, right foot and left foot shots) for a makeshift post-Munich Manchester United helped to secure a 5-3 win over Fulham in a replay in front of 38,000 fans at Highbury.

Eleven years later he scored twice for Brighton & Hove Albion in what for many might have been a meaningless Third Division match against Walsall.

But for me, it was the beginning of a lifelong journey supporting the Albion. It was the very first Brighton game I saw and the burly Dawson, wearing number 9, became an instant hero to an impressionable 10-year-old.

Little did I know then of the famous background of the man who played a big part in Brighton’s 3-0 win over the Saddlers that afternoon.

What I’ve learned since makes him even more of a hero, and it’s evident that fans of other sides he played for remembered him with great fondness when learning of his death at the age of 80 on 17 July 2020.

Returning to that 1958 match, it was just six weeks after the Munich air disaster that claimed the lives of eight of United’s first choice team – Dawson’s pals – so youngsters and fringe players had to be drafted into the side to fulfil the remaining fixtures that season.

Thirteen days after the accident, Dawson took his place beside survivors Bill Foulkes and Harry Gregg and scored one of United’s goals as they beat Sheffield Wednesday 3-0 in the fifth round of the Cup. He scored again as United drew 2-2 with West Brom in the sixth round, before winning through 1-0 in a replay to go up against Fulham in the semi-final.

Dawson told manutd.com: “In our first game with Fulham (played at Villa Park), Bobby Charlton scored twice in a 2-2 draw, and I was put on the right wing. I was a centre-forward really and, when we played the replay at Highbury four days later, I was back in my normal position.

“Jimmy (Murphy) said before the game: ‘I fancy you this afternoon, big man. I fancy you to put about three in.’ I just said: ‘You know me Jim, I’ll do my best,’ but I couldn’t believe it when it happened.

“The first was a diving header, I think the second was a left-footer and the third was with my right foot.

“It was a long time ago, of course, and it’s still a club record for the youngest scorer of a hat-trick in United’s history. Records are there to be broken and I’m surprised that it’s gone on for over half a century.

“I’m a proud man to still hold this record. Even when it goes, nobody can ever take the achievement away from me.”

Also in the United side that day was Freddie Goodwin….and he was the manager of that Brighton side I watched for the first time v Walsall in February 1969.

Born in Aberdeen on 21 February 1940, Dawson went to the same school as United legend Denis Law, but his parents moved down to Hull where he went to Westbourne Street School. Dawson joined United straight from Hull Schoolboys.

Dawson and future Preston and Brighton teammate Nobby Lawton were both on the scoresheet as United beat West Ham 3-2 in the first leg of the 1957 FA Youth Cup Final and Dawson scored twice in the 5-0 second leg win. West Ham’s side included John Lyall, who later went on to manage them.

On redcafe.net, Julian Denny recalled how Dawson once scored three hat-tricks in a row for a United reserve team that was regularly watched by crowds of over 10,000.

He scored on his United first team debut against Burnley in April 1957, aged just 17, and in each of the final two matches that season (a 3-2 win at Cardiff and a 1-1 draw at home to West Brom) to help win the title and secure United’s passage into Europe’s premier club competition.

They were the first of 54 goals in 93 United appearances, but was it all too much too soon? Some say Dawson’s career with United may have panned out differently if he hadn’t been thrust into first team action at such a young age.

Was he mentally scarred by the loss of those teammates, in the knowledge he could well have been with them on that fateful journey?

Let’s not forget he was just short of his 18^th birthday when the accident happened. In an interview with Chris Roberts in the Daily Record (initially published 6 Feb 2008 then updated 1 July 2012), he recalled: “I used to go on those trips and had a passport and visa all ready but the boss just told me I wasn’t going this time. I had already been on two or three trips just to break me in. I know now how lucky I was to be left in Manchester. The omens were on my side.”

Dawson went on to describe the disbelief and the feelings they had at losing eight of the team, including Duncan Edwards several days later.

A Daws MU BW “We were all so close and Duncan was also a good friend to me before the accident,” said Dawson. “Duncan was such a good player, there is no doubt about that. He was a wonderful fellow as well as a real gentleman.

“I will never, ever forget him because he died on my birthday, 21 February, and before that he was the one who really helped me settle in.”

Dawson gradually became an increasingly bigger part of the first-team picture at United, making 11 appearances in 1958-59 and scoring four times. The following season he scored 15 in 23 games then went five better in 1960-61, scoring 20 in 34 games.

He was at the top of his game during the last week of 1960 when he scored in a 2-1 away win at Chelsea on Christmas Eve, netted a hat-trick as Chelsea were thumped 6-0 at Old Trafford on Boxing Day, and then scored another treble as United trounced neighbours City 5-1 on New Year’s Eve.

A fortnight later he had the chance to show another less well-known string to his footballing bow…. as a goalkeeper!

It was recalled by theguardian.com in 2013. When Tottenham were on their way to the first ever double, and had an air of near-invincibility about them, they arrived at Old Trafford having lost only once all season, and had scored in every single game.

Long before the days of a bench full of substitutes, when ‘keeper Harry Gregg sustained a shoulder injury, Dawson had to take over in goal.

Dawson excelled when called upon, at one point performing, according to the Guardian’s match report, “a save from Allen that Gregg himself could not have improved upon”.

The article said: “Tottenham’s attempts to get back into the game came to nought and Dawson achieved what no genuine goalkeeper had all season: keep out Tottenham’s champions-elect. In the end, there were only two games all season in which Spurs failed to score, and this was one of them.”

Tottenham’s north London neighbours, Arsenal, finished a disappointing 25 points behind Spurs in 11^th place, but United manager Matt Busby had been keeping tabs on the Gunners’ prolific centre forward David Herd (Arsenal’s top scorer for four seasons), and in July 1961 took him to Old Trafford for £35,000. It signalled the end of Dawson’s time with United.

When the new season kicked off, Dawson had a new apprentice looking after the cleaning of his boots….a young Irishman called George Best. In his 1994 book, The Best of Times (written with Les Scott), Best said: “Alex Dawson was a brawny centre forward whose backside was so huge he appeared taller when he sat down. To me, Alex looked like Goliath, although he was only 5’10”. What made him such an imposing figure was his girth.

“He weighed 13st 12lbs, a stone heavier than centre half Bill Foulkes who was well over 6ft tall. What’s more, there wasn’t an ounce of fat on Alex – it was all muscle.”

Best’s responsibilities for Dawson’s boots didn’t last long, however, because in October that year, Busby sold the centre forward to Preston for £18,000.

During a prolific time at Preston, Dawson scored 114 goals in 197 appearances, and became known as The Black Prince of Deepdale. In the 1964 FA Cup Final at Wembley, Dawson scored in the 40^th minute but Preston lost 3-2 to a Bobby Moore-led West Ham United.

The Preston captain that day was his former Man Utd teammate Lawton, who he subsequently joined at Brighton.

Lawton, now no longer with us, mentioned “that great striker Alex Dawson” in an interview he gave to the Lancashire Evening Post, published in May 2004.

“I’d known Alex since we were both on the groundstaff at Old Trafford,” Lawton recalled. “He was a bull of a centre-forward and was a Deepdale hero.

“He’s a lovely man and I was best man at his wedding. He hasn’t changed at all, and we are still great friends.

“Alex and the rest of the team would have graced any Premiership side today.”

Clearly Preston fans felt the same way. ‘Albertan’ on pne.net in 2012 said: “Alex Dawson was a super player … He was the complete centre forward – powerful, mobile and lethal with either foot or his head. He was also brave, committed and characterful.”

While ‘sliper’ on the same forum added: “In his prime Dawson was a powerhouse and great to watch. I can safely say I’ve never seen a better header of a ball at Deepdale.”

‘Curlypete’ recalled: “You could literally see goalkeepers tremble when Dawson was running at them, it was either the ball, ‘keeper or more likely both who ended up in the net.”

In 1967, Dawson took the short journey to Bury FC where his goalscoring exploits continued with 21 goals in 50 appearances. I was intrigued to see in a team photo of the Bury squad before the 1968-69 season, a young Lammie Robertson sitting at Dawson’s feet.

In December 1968, the aforementioned Freddie Goodwin had just taken over as Brighton manager and he paid Bury £9,000 to make his old United teammate his first signing at the Goldstone. An early programme profile revealed the surprising news that Dawson also had a sideline as a men’s hairdresser.

He certainly added a cutting edge to Albion’s attack, finding the net no fewer than 17 times in just 23 games, including three braces and four in an away game at Hartlepool. Dawson was no mean cricketer, either. An all-rounder who used to play for the Newton Heath club, as well as a collection of half-centuries to his credit, he once took eight wickets for 35 runs as a lively fast-medium bowler.

The following season, Goodwin added Allan Gilliver to the strikeforce and he outshone Dawson in the scoring stakes, although the Scot still scored 12 in 36 games.

As is so often the case, it was a change of manager that marked the end of his time with the Albion. With Goodwin departed for Birmingham, replacement Pat Saward didn’t give the old-timer much of a look-in and he went out on loan to Brentford where he showed he could still find the back of the net with familiar regularity.

Greville Waterman, on bfctalk.wordpress.com in July 2014, recalled: “He was a gnarled veteran of thirty with a prominent broken nose and a face that surely only a mother could love, but he had an inspirational loan spell at Griffin Park in 1970 scoring seven times in eleven games including the winner in that amazing late, late show FA Cup victory against Gillingham.

“Typical of the times at Griffin Park, he departed after his loan spell as apparently the club was unable to agree terms with him. A classic example of both parties suffering given that Dawson never played another Football League game and Brentford lacked a focal point in their attack until the arrival of John O’Mara later that same season.”

Released by the Albion at the end of the 1970-71 season, Dawson’s final footballing action was with non-league Corby Town.

Nevertheless, he could look back on a fantastic career as a goalscorer, with a strike rate the envy of many a modern day forward.

Pictures: Top: Alex Dawson portraits – in the 1969-70 and 1970-71 kits.

A montage showing Dawson:
- scoring the first of his goals in the 1958 FA Cup semi final
- in a Bury line-up (from the Bury Times) with future Albion forward Lammie Robertson also encircled.
- powering a header for the Albion.
- in a portrait from pnefc.net.

Freddie Goodwin left Albion in lurch after missing promotion

Screen Shot 2021-05-01 at 19.13.47

FOLLOWING Archie Macaulay’s decision to stand down as Albion manager two months into the 1968-69 season, former Busby Babe Freddie Goodwin, still only 35, was brought in as his successor.

Goodwin had already managed Scunthorpe United and had recently been in the United States at the helm of New York Generals. The then Third Division Brighton side responded positively to his arrival, going 15 games unbeaten at home.

Utility player John Templeman, who was at the Albion throughout Goodwin’s reign, told the Argus: “When I heard he was taking over I thought the news was brilliant. His youth was a really big plus for the players.

“For many of us, we were working with someone from the same age group. We talked about the same things after training or on away trips.”

Goodwin was Albion’ manager when I first started watching them and it hadn’t been long into his reign when he populated his side with players whose attributes he had witnessed first hand in other settings.

Two former Manchester United teammates were already at the Albion before he arrived: Nobby Lawton, who was captain, and former United reserve Bobby Smith who’d played for him at Scunthorpe United.

Centre forward Alex Dawson, a teammate in United’s losing 1958 FA Cup final side, was one of his first signings at the Goldstone, and Brighton were the third club for who he signed former Wolves and Villa goalkeeper Geoff Sidebottom.

At the start of the 1969-70 season, he brought in his former Leeds teammate Willie Bell as player-coach from 1969 FA Cup finalists, Leicester City.

freddie goodwin If Goodwin appeared to be relying on experienced pros on the way down the football pyramid, he wasn’t afraid to blend them with talented younger players, signing utility player Eddie Spearritt from Ipswich Town and bustling striker Alan Duffy from Newcastle United, both of whom went straight into the side and kept their places.

Before he arrived at the Goldstone, Goodwin had already given a league debut to goalkeeper Ray Clemence, who went on to play for Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur and won 61 caps for England. And, after he left Brighton, Goodwin gave a Birmingham City debut to 16-year-old Trevor Francis who was England’s first £1 million player when transferred to Nottingham Forest in 1979, and he played 52 times for England.

As young lads, we always got to the Goldstone as the gates opened at 1.30pm and as we claimed our places at the front of the perimeter wall near the players’ tunnel, Goodwin would have a few words with us as he came out to inspect the pitch, one time in particular I recall him commenting how heavy going it would be after an almighty downpour.

In his only full season in charge, 1969-70, Brighton were looking good bets for promotion to Division Two. They were top after a cracking 2-1 Good Friday win over Reading but lost 1-0 the following day at Halifax and 4-1 at Fulham on Easter Monday.

With three games to go, they lost two of them, away to Rochdale and home to Mansfield (only managing to beat Rotherham 2-1 at the Goldstone) and ended up fifth, seven points behind champions Orient.

Goodwin’s last signing for the Albion saw him return to his old club, Manchester United, to bring exciting young Welshman Peter O’Sullivan to Hove. Although he didn’t stay to see the youngster flourish, O’Sullivan ended up staying for 10 years.

In the summer after narrowly missing out on promotion, Goodwin still had 18 months left on his contract but Birmingham came in an offered him a three-year deal to succeed Stan Cullis.

“Albion’s board were stunned,” wrote Evening Argus Albion reporter John Vinicombe. “They felt Goodwin was the man to take them up, and initially tried to prevent his release.

“The atmosphere was strained for a day or two. When the Albion board realised it was unrealistic in attempting to hold Goodwin, they came to a financial arrangement with City.”

When Birmingham played Albion in a First Division match at The Goldstone on 7 November 1981, Vinicombe wrote about his memories of Goodwin’s time at the helm.

“I recall him telling me that during his time at New York Generals he occupied his spare time by studying Spanish, book-keeping and accountancy,” wrote Vinicombe. And when he arrived at the Albion he told the players: “Results are nothing to do with you. They are my problem. Forget them and just give me 90 minutes effort, whatever the score.”

Templeman told the Argus: “He was a success for Brighton because he represented a fresh start. Who knows what would have happened if he had stayed at the club? He won promotion with Birmingham and I think he would probably have done the same at Brighton.”

Albion’s stuation with Birmingham was further soured because Goodwin decided he wanted to take Bell and youth coach George Dalton with him. So eager was he to hire them that he made an illegal approach while they were still under contract at Brighton and Birmingham were later fined £5,000 for a breach of regulations.

Born in Heywood, Lancashire, on 28 June 1933, Goodwin came to the attention of Manchester United when playing for Chorlton County Secondary School and became a professional under Matt Busby in October 1953. He made his senior debut for the club on 20 November 1954 against Arsenal in a 2-1 home win.

However, he wasn’t able to hold down a regular spot until the Munich air disaster in February 1958 decimated the United first team. Alongside Dawson, Goodwin was given a chance to establish himself and he played in the side which lost 2-0 in that year’s FA Cup Final to Bolton Wanderers (pre-match line-up at Wembley, below). Wembley line-up

By the time United decided to sell him for £10,000 to Leeds United in March 1960, he’d played 107 games over five seasons.

From being a teammate of Bobby Charlton, Goodwin partnered Bobby’s brother Jack in the Leeds defence and captained the side until the arrival of Bobby Collins in 1962.

After 120 games for Leeds, his playing career was virtually ended when a tackle, ironically by former Leeds legend John Charles, playing for Cardiff, on 4 January 1964, fractured a leg in three places.

Goodwin went on to become player-manager at Division Three Scunthorpe (his injury restricted him to just six appearances) where he first signed Sidebottom whose place was eventually taken by the emerging Clemence.

When Goodwin tried his luck in America in 1967-68, Sidebottom was one of his first signings at New York Generals, and the ‘keeper played 44 games over there.

Birmingham fans will always remember how Goodwin launched the career of teenager Francis. In 1972, Francis, Bob Latchford and Bob Hatton spearheaded promotion for the Blues and a place in the FA Cup semi finals.

The 1973-74 season saw Birmingham escape relegation from the elite by a single point. They were marginally safer the following season, and reached the semi-final of the FA Cup again (losing in a replay to Fulham).

With Blues struggling at the foot of the table at the start of the 1975-76 season, Goodwin was sacked in September and Bell took over.

In 1976 Goodwin returned to America to become the first coach and president of the Minnesota Kicks where he remained until the early 1980s before retiring.

He settled in the US and lived there until his death from cancer aged 82 in Gig Harbour, Washington, on 19 February 2016.

In paying tribute to the man who gave him his big break, Francis told the Birmingham Mail: “I will forever be indebted to him for having the courage to put me into the team at such a young age – that tends to be overlooked.

“I had only had a season of youth football and not even a handful of reserve team games but he still gave me my opportunity.

“I held him in very high regard and had enormous respect for him. I was most saddened the day he was sacked.

“He looked after me and took care of me. He was like a father figure to me. He knew when to play me and when to take me out and give me a little bit of a rest – not that I understood that at 16 years old.

“Just before I went to Detroit, Freddie was already in the States coaching the Minnesota Kicks and he put a very lucrative offer in front of me to go out there and play.

“That alerted a lot of other NASL clubs and in the end I went to Detroit, who were managed by Jimmy Hill. I owe much of that to Freddie’s foresight.”

‘Unsung hero’ Dave Turner was Brighton captain at 22

DAVE TURNER, one of Brighton & Hove Albion’s youngest ever captains in the 1960s, had already been at the Albion just over five years by the time I got to see my first game.

Over the course of eight and a half years with the club, he played 338 games, scoring 34 goals. In old-fashioned parlance, Turner was a wing half – what today would be known as a predominantly left-sided midfield player.

Born in Retford, Nottinghamshire, on 7 September 1943, as a youngster he played for Notts Boys and had two trials for England Boys before joining Second Division Newcastle United straight from school as an apprentice in 1960.

He was part of the Newcastle side which beat Wolves 2-1 in the 1962 FA Youth Cup, playing alongside Toon’s future legendary captain Bobby Moncur and long-serving Northern Irish full back David Craig.

Newcastleunited-mad.co.uk says he was “highly thought of when he helped Newcastle win the Youth Cup in 1962, but never broke into the first team”. In fact, that wasn’t quite true because he was given his first team debut in the very last game of the 1961-62 season, a 3-0 home defeat to Leeds United.

He made one more appearance for the Magpies under new manager Joe Harvey but became Archie Macaulay’s first signing for a fee when he headed to Sussex in December 1963 for the princely sum of £6,000.

Turner made his debut in a 2-0 home win over Darlington on 7 December 1963 and, in only his second season at the Goldstone Ground, he made 40 appearances and scored twice as Albion marched to the Fourth Division championship.

“That was a great season,” Turner told Goal magazine in 1970. “Bobby Smith (former Tottenham and England international) was with us then. I was very surprised he joined Brighton, but what an asset he was.

“We scored plenty of goals, the crowds flocked back, the atmosphere was great.”

The following year, Dave was appointed captain – the youngest Albion ever had.

*Albion’s matchday programme introduces the new young captain*

“I was surprised but very pleased,” Dave told the magazine. “There were several players older than I was, so it was a great honour to be made skipper.

“I was a bit frightened at first but after a game or two I realised that the rest of the team were backing me up, so everything was all right.”

It was only when the experienced former Preston North End skipper Nobby Lawton arrived in 1967 that Turner relinquished the job.

“He had a fine reputation and I asked to be relieved of the job, suggesting Nobby should take over,” he said.

Remarkably both Turner and Norman Gall, another player hailing from the North East, reached the milestone of their 285^th Albion game at the same time.

Brighton were looking odds on for promotion under Freddie Goodwin in the 1969-70 season and it was rare for a Third Division team to get coverage in Goal, a popular national football magazine at the time.

The article began: “Dave Turner is one of the unsung heroes of Brighton. He has played nearly 300 games for the club, been involved in a Fourth Division Championship victory, and is now in the middle of another bid for glory.

“Brighton are fighting hard to get into the Second Division and the 26-year-old midfield star is a key man in their battle.

“Ever since he joined them from Newcastle in December 1963, Turner has played a vital role in the Brighton set-up.

“Stars like Rodney Marsh, Hugh Curran and Bruce Rioch, all of whom have gone on to better things, have played against (and been overshadowed by) Brighton’s non-stop wing half.

“It is Turner’s consistency which is helping Brighton in their promotion struggle. And he thinks they can do it.”

Turner told the magazine: “I’m pretty confident we can go up. But so can any of the top 10 at the moment. We’ve been playing well all season, but early on we just couldn’t get the right results. Everyone was getting a bit disappointed.

“Then everyone started getting stuck in a bit more – it began to pay off. We had a long undefeated run in the League after November and conceded only one goal in nine games. Even that was a penalty.

“The defence has been playing well and the whole team has been coming back and doing its share of the work. It would be nice to score a few more goals but if you don’t let any in it means you have at least one point before you start.”

Unfortunately although Brighton were top after a 2-0 win over Reading on 27 March 1970, they blew the chance of promotion with four defeats in the remaining five games and ended up fifth.

In the following two seasons under Pat Saward, Turner was hard hit by injuries and only made 19 appearances in the 1971-72 Third Division promotion campaign, appearing in his suit in the champagne-raising dressing room picture after promotion was achieved.

In its pen pictures of each of the members of the squad, the Argus said of him: “Turner never knows when he is beaten and few players have achieved greater popularity with the Goldstone crowd.”

The arrival of the cultured Brian Bromley to occupy his midfield berth meant Turner was given a free transfer in the summer of 1972 and, together with Kit Napier, he joined Ken Furphy’s Blackburn.

Turner made 25 appearances for Rovers but his injury issues returned and he was forced to retire in 1974. He followed his former boss Furphy to Bramall Lane where he was youth coach for a while. He then moved on to Aldershot before heading to Canada.

He coached at Toronto Blizzard under former Watford and Sheffield United midfielder Keith Eddy and stayed under Eddy’s successor, Bob Houghton, who was a former Brighton teammate. Houghton was at the Goldstone in 1969-70 although he didn’t feature in the first team. He famously managed Swedish side Malmo when they lost 1-0 to Nottingham Forest in the 1979 European Cup Final.

Turner stayed in Canada with Toronto Blizzard and had a season with Toronto Dinamo but he returned to the UK in 1990 and rejoined the coaching staff at Aldershot.

Pictures from my scrapbook show Turner leading out the Albion at the Goldstone, as featured in Goal, part of a team line-up in 1969-70, a portrait from the Argus in the 1971-72 season, joining in the 1972 promotion celebrations alongside Ian Goodwin with Brian Bromley (front left) and physio Mike Yaxley.

Turner the coach: at Toronto Blizzard with Bob Houghton and some well-known English players, and at Sheffield United and Aldershot.

Steady Eddie Spearritt ‘Mr Versatility’ and a long throw specialist

2-signed-eddie-spearritt IN THE days before managers had a bench of substitutes, players who could slot into virtually any position were a major asset. One of my favourites was Eddie Spearritt.

A wholehearted, tough character, Spearritt was equally comfortable playing in midfield, at full back or sweeper, would occasionally get on the scoresheet, and even turned his hand to goalkeeping when necessary.

Long before anyone had heard of Rory Delap, Spearritt was a top exponent of the long throw which could sometimes be as effective as a free kick or corner. It was a skill which earned him a place in a Longest Throw competition staged by BBC’s sport show Grandstand in 1970-71, although he didn’t win it.

Born in Lowestoft on 31 January 1947, Spearritt started out at Arsenal but on failing to make the grade there, switched to Ipswich Town as an apprentice in August 1963.

On prideofanglia.com, Tim Hodge details Eddie’s Ipswich career. He made his league debut in the 1965-66 season in a 1-0 win away to Preston in the old Division Two.

Over the next two years, he made a total of 69 appearances (plus 10 as sub) for Bill McGarry’s side, scoring 14 goals along the way (Spearritt is pictured in Ipswich squad photos above, including the side who were Second Division winners).

A 1-0 home defeat to Spurs in October 1968 was his last for the Suffolk club and three months later, surplus to new manager Bobby Robson’s requirements, was one of Freddie Goodwin’s first signings, for £20,000, just a few weeks before my first ever Albion game. ES debut Crewe

He made his debut in a 3-1 home win over Crewe Alexandra (above with the superb backdrop of a packed EastTerrace at the Goldstone Ground) and kept the number 10 shirt to the end of the season, by which time he had scored five times, including both Albion’s goals in the 2-2 draw at home to Tranmere Rovers.

1-spearritt-v-wolves-69-copy In the 1969-70 season, not only was he part of the Third Division Albion side who pushed his old manager McGarry’s First Division Wolverhampton Wanderers side all the way in a memorable third round League Cup tie, it was his header from Kit Napier’s free kick that put the Albion 2-1 ahead just before half-time (aftermath pictured above).

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

ES Shoot action

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

Spearritt was a midfield regular in his first two seasons but Goodwin’s successor, Pat Saward, switched him to left back halfway through the 1970-71 season and that’s where he stayed throughout the 1971-72 promotion campaign. Player-of-the-season Bert Murray generously declared the award could have gone to Eddie for his consistency that season.

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

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

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

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

Spearritt took up the story in a subsequent matchday programme.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

In common with lots of players from the Saward era, Spearritt was a victim of the great Clough clear-out. Perhaps surprisingly, though, his next step was UP two divisions to play in the First Division with then newly-promoted Carlisle United.

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

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

He moved back south in August 1976, signed by Gerry Summers at Gillingham, and made his debut against Reading, going on to make 22 appearances in his one season at the club, scoring once, from the spot, against Rotherham United at Priestfield.

One of those games was against the Albion on December 29 1976, when the home side won 2-0 on a slippery, snow-covered pitch.

Eddie emigrated to Australia the following summer and settled in Brisbane where he played for and managed the Brisbane Lions before retiring. He subsequently became estates manager for L’Oréal.

3-spearritt-graydon 4-spear-pen-v-black 5-gill-eddie-v-mellor-dec-76

Pictures from my scrapbook show him celebrating after scoring in the League Cup against Wolves; an autographed Goal action shot in the white with blue cuffs kit — when I was an autograph hunter around the players’ tunnel before a game, Eddie was always happy to oblige; a Shoot colour shot of him in action against winger Ray Graydon in the famous 1972 televised win over Aston Villa; from a matchday programme, Eddie’s successful penalty kick in a 2-1- home defeat to Blackpool in December 1972 nestles in the back of the net, with ‘keeper John Burridge beaten, and, from the Argus, challenging Ian Mellor playing for Gillingham against the Albion in December 1976.

In parallel lines

Memories from more than 55 years following Brighton & Hove Albion

Tag: Freddie Goodwin