Tag: George Best

Irish goalscoring legend who knew football’s ups and downs

GERRY ARMSTRONG was a raw youngster not long over from Ireland when he was part of a Spurs team relegated from the top division.

“We were playing poorly. People kept telling us we were too good to go down but what a load of rubbish that was. You don’t want to believe that sort of nonsense,” Armstrong told Neale Harvey in a tottenhamhotspur.com interview.

“We started thinking they were right but you had to earn the right to stay up and we lost too many games, simple as that.”

It was 49 years ago when Armstrong suffered that fate, and Spurs bounced straight back courtesy of a mightily convenient last day 0-0 draw at second-placed Southampton (Brighton finished on the same number of points but were edged into fourth spot on goal difference).

Eight years later, Armstrong, fresh from playing for Northern Ireland at the 1986 World Cup in Mexico, joined Brighton during Alan Mullery’s unhappy second spell in charge, and endured a turbulent season.

He went 17 games before scoring, joined Millwall on loan when Mullery was unceremoniously shown the door in January 1987, and was then recalled by new manager Barry Lloyd  for the final eight games of the season. He only managed one goal (in a home 1-1 draw with Plymouth) to add to the three he scored earlier in the season, and he experienced relegation again, this time from second to third tier, as Albion finished bottom of the league.

Like Spurs, Albion bounced straight back up but by then Armstrong’s involvement was as a perennial substitute (in the days of two subs). In 1987-88, with Kevin Bremner and Garry Nelson on fire up front, he started one League Cup game early in the season and was a sub on no fewer than 25 occasions, only getting off the bench 11 times.

Albion’s Armstrong gets stuck in at Chesterfield, one of his former clubs

He scored twice, once on the last day of August, when he scored away at Northampton after going on as a sub for John Crumplin and, six months later, he went on for the injured Kevan Brown and netted the only goal of the game in extra time as Albion beat Hereford United in an away Sherpa Van Trophy tie.

Chances of a starting berth in the 1988-89 season were limited because Bremner, Nelson and Paul Wood were regulars, but Armstrong managed four starts and went on three of the seven times he was a sub.

He was eventually appointed reserve team player-coach but his time with the club ended ignominiously. Playing for the reserves in a Sussex Senior Cup tie at Southwick in January 1989, he was shown a red card and, as he walked off, he took exception to a comment from a supporter, jumped into the crowd and headbutted the person concerned.

Armstrong left the club a fortnight after the altercation but the matter ended up in court and the footballer received a conditional discharge.

It wasn’t the first time the red mist had descended, though, as Armstrong explained in an interview with Lionel Birnie for watfordlegends.com. He originally played Gaelic football for St John’s GAC and the Antrim senior team.

“I only started playing soccer at 17. I’d played Gaelic football and hurling. I got suspended for an altercation in Gaelic,” he said. “It’s an amazing game but fights used to break out all over the pitch. It was fun, I loved it but it was a very confrontational game.

“There was an incident where I broke a guy’s jaw in several places and got suspended. I didn’t mean to break it but I caught him one.”

It was while he was suspended from playing Gaelic football that he was picked up by Bangor and in no time at all he found trouble in football too.

“I made my debut for Bangor, came on as a sub with 20 minutes to go, got sent off with 10 minutes to go for whacking the centre- half,” Armstrong told Birnie. “I went past him and put the ball in the net to make it 2-1 and he said, ‘Next time you do that I’m going to do you.’

“When he said he was going to do me, I decided to do him first and I whacked him. The manager, Bertie Neill, gave me a bollocking. He chewed a couple of strips off me and I learned that soccer wasn’t a fighting game.”

It was another three years before he signed for Spurs and, by his own admission, “a load of clubs came to watch me but no one took me on because I was very inconsistent, still learning about the game, really didn’t get to grips with the offside”.

The Gaelic game helped him build stamina and strength and soccer made him sharper. After Bangor won some trophies, Spurs invited him for a week’s trial and he told Harvey: “I thought I did okay but I heard nothing for weeks.

“Arsenal were trying to sign me but, out of the blue, Terry (Neill) came over (in November 1975) and signed me on a one-year contract, with a one-year option. It was an opportunity I couldn’t turn down.

“I was overawed. I’d never been to London before, so it was like ‘Paddy’ coming to the big city and being lost. But all the lads were great and there were a lot of Irish boys, like Chris McGrath, Noel Brotherston and, of course, the legendary Pat Jennings.”

Armstrong was a late starter at 21 but he lapped it all up, enjoying training and working on his ball skills in the gym in the afternoons with Peter Shreeves. After six months, he broke into the first team.

Armstrong in Spurs action against Nottingham Forest’s John McGovern

He made his debut on the opening day of the 1976-77 season, in a 3-1 defeat at Ipswich and lost his place after only three matches. He was restored to the first team in February for the final 18 games but Spurs slid all the way to relegation.

Armstrong reckoned with hindsight that it was a five-week pre-season tour that took its toll on the squad. They travelled to Canada, USA, Hawaii, Fiji, New Zealand, Australia and India and, he said: “When I got back, I was absolutely knackered. But we only had 10-12 days to recuperate before pre-season began.”

After Neill left for Arsenal, his replacement, Keith Burkinshaw, often played Armstrong as a central defender having liked what he saw in a pre-season game.

Armstrong told Birnie: “He wanted me to play there because I was quick, strong, good in the air. It was nice in one sense but I didn’t want to play at centre half, I wanted to be up front where the action is.” Even so, he also played at right-back, in midfield and wide on the right.

Brighton fans of a certain vintage remember all too painfully how Spurs managed to gain promotion on the last day of the season.

Armstrong recalled: “We nearly lost it three games from the end when we lost 3-2 at home to Sunderland after I made a mistake playing at centre-half. But then we beat Hull and went to Southampton needing a point.

“It was tense, obviously, but they needed a point as well and it was one of those games where nobody really tried to push on because of the fear factor. We got our point and went off to Cornwall for four days to celebrate!”

For a while, Armstrong and Chris Jones were a forward pairing for Spurs but he admitted that neither of them scored enough goals and the beginning of the end for both of them came when Tottenham bought Steve Archibald for a million and Garth Crooks for £650,000.

Armstrong dropped down a division to join Watford in November 1980 for a £250,000 fee – at the time, a record sale for Spurs, and a record buy for the Hornets. He signed in the same week that Graham Taylor also signed Armstrong’s fellow countryman Pat Rice from Arsenal.

He was part of their promotion-winning squad of 1981-82 and said: “Graham Taylor taught me so much about movement and he took my level of fitness up another notch.

“I was fit and strong but I hadn’t tapped into all my resources. The two years at Watford prior are one of the reasons I had such a good World Cup [in 1982].”

Indeed, it was his winning goal for Northern Ireland against Spain at the 1982 World Cup that he is most remembered for and Armstrong later told The Argus: “If I had to pick one moment in football to relive again it would be that. It would be the highpoint of any player’s career to perform in the World Cup finals. But to score the winning goal against the home nation would be a dream. It was for me.”

In an interview with Andrew French of the Watford Observer, he recalled: “The goal came early in the second half. I was playing as a right-sided midfield player, and I won the ball off the Spanish left-back Gordillo.

“I went on a run for about 60 yards, went past a couple of players – I remember Xavi Alonso’s father, Joaquin, tried to clip my heels – but I then played the ball out wide to Billy Hamilton and kept my run going.

“Billy put in a great cross which the keeper, Luis Arconada, came for and palmed straight out to me. I was about 12 yards out and I just got my head and my knee over the ball and hammered it as hard as I could, and it hit the back of the net.

“It was actually a funny one as the ground went silent because the Spaniards weren’t going to celebrate, and the South American referee had been so poor and given us nothing. I was worried and I remember thinking ‘why isn’t anybody cheering?’

“But then I saw Norman Whiteside and Sammy McIlroy throwing their hands in the air, and then I looked at the ref and he was pointing to the centre. Once I knew he’d given the goal, that’s when the celebrations started.”

Armstrong had already netted in a 1-1 draw with Honduras and in the next round he scored in Ireland’s 4-1 defeat against France (pictured above); those goals were enough to earn him a golden boot (right) for best British Player of the Tournament.

On his return to the UK, he was back in the top flight but was sidelined for several weeks with a broken ankle sustained when he fell awkwardly in a reserves match.  Towards the end of the season, Real Mallorca bid £200,000 for him and he spent two seasons playing in the Spanish league.

Armstrong told Birnie: “I didn’t want to leave. It was a case of Mallorca coming in. It was 200 grand so the club would get almost all their money back on me after three years, which was not a bad deal at all.

“When you go to talk to them and see the money they are going to offer and you realise the tax situation is very different there suddenly it is very attractive. You realise you can make in two years at Mallorca what you could make in six or seven years at Watford or any other English club.

“There was a challenge in Spain, playing in a different country, learning a different language and it did appeal to me in ways other than the money. I was 30, 31, so I thought I’d give it a go because I knew the opportunity would probably not come up again.”

The experience served him well because after his playing days were over he was a TV co-commentator on Spanish football.

In that respect, Armstrong’s typically Irish gift of the gab long made him an ideal pundit for broadcasters and a journalist’s dream interviewee: tales from his playing days have filled plenty of columns and air time over a good many years, and in 2021 Curtis Sport published his autobiography, Gerry Armstrong: My Story, My Journey.

Born in the County Tyrone village of Fintona on 23 May 1954, Armstrong was a teenager in Belfast at the height of Northern Ireland’s sectarian and political conflict. “There were bombs going off, paramilitaries burning buses and it was a horrific time,” he said.

“At times it felt as if you were living in a movie set, but it was real life. The book isn’t just about the highs, it also paints a picture of what it was like growing up back then.”

Armstrong won 63 caps for Northern Ireland and scored 12 goals, making his debut in 1977 at the age of 22 alongside George Best and Pat Jennings in a 5-0 friendly defeat to West Germany in Cologne.

His first two international goals were scored in a 3-0 World Cup qualifying win over Belgium at Windsor Park seven months later.

Without a doubt, though, 1982 was when he was at the pinnacle of his career. While he’ll forever be remembered for the winner against Spain, he also fondly remembered scoring against Portugal and Israel in qualifying.

“We had to beat Portugal at Windsor Park and we only got one chance that night. Terry Cochrane crossed and I managed to head it into the roof of the night,” he said.

“That win set us up and it then came down to the last game at home to Israel which we had to win to reach Spain. I managed to score the winner and the noise was unbelievable.

“There were 43,500 people inside Windsor. It was only supposed to hold 40,000, so I don’t know how everyone got in. But that’s one of a lot of very special memories.”

By the time of the 1986 World Cup, Armstrong had been in a bit of limbo. He’d returned to the UK the previous August and signed for West Brom on a free transfer but he struggled with travelling to and from London to train and play, didn’t see eye to eye with manager Ron Saunders, and picked up some injuries.

It was former Spurs teammate John Duncan who rode to his rescue. Duncan was in charge of Division Three Chesterfield and he took Armstrong on loan and then signed him permanently, giving him a dozen games, which were enough to put him in contention to be selected by Northern Ireland for the upcoming World Cup in Mexico.

Billy Bingham’s side didn’t make it past the group stage (drawing 1-1 with Algeria; losing 2-1 to Spain and 3-0 to Brazil) and Armstrong only saw action as a 71st minute sub in the Brazil game. Albion winger Steve Penney started the first two matches and was subbed off in each.

It was while Armstrong was away with the Irish squad that Mullery made contact with an offer for the following season.

Although Brighton was the last professional English club Armstrong played for, he lived in the area for several years afterwards. His second wife, Caron, came from Brighton and although his final games as a player were at Glenavon, back in Ireland, he spent some time as a player-coach at Crawley Town, who were in the Beazer Homes League at the time.

In November 1991, he became manager of Worthing and led them to a promotion before being appointed assistant manager of Northern Ireland by his former teammate Bryan Hamilton. He reprised that role for two years under Lawrie Sanchez between 2004 and 2006.

Head ‘master’ Neil Martin scored hundreds in Scotland and England

PROLIFIC goalscorer Neil Martin was once considered to be one of the finest headers of a ball in football.

A Scottish international who was among an elite group to net 100 goals in both the Scottish and English leagues, Martin scored 46 of them in 99 top flight appearances for Sunderland.

It was 50 seasons ago that he arrived at Brighton towards the end of his career, almost at the same time as Peter Ward (right, above) was starting his. In fact, for a few weeks they shared a club-owned house overlooking the sea (until they each found their own homes) and Martin gave the youngster a lift into training.

Ironically, although Martin scored on his Albion debut and netted nine goals in 18 starts (plus five sub appearances), it was his departure from the club after only eight months that led to Ward’s introduction to first team football.

The previous season, Martin had scored the first goal of Brian Clough’s reign as Nottingham Forest manager, the only goal of the game in a FA Cup third round replay win against Spurs at White Hart Lane in January 1975.

The Scot had been at Forest for four years by then and, as if to prove there’s no sentiment in football, he was given a free transfer at the end of the season. That’s when Clough’s former managerial partner, Peter Taylor, picked him up for Brighton.

After a lacklustre first season in sole charge of the Albion (Clough had quit Brighton for his ill-fated 44 days at Leeds), Taylor brought in some experienced old heads to bolster a tilt at promotion with the signings of 34-year-old Martin, Phil Beal (30) and Joe Kinnear (28) from Spurs.

It was Albion’s 75th anniversary season and the popular blue and white striped shirts were reinstated as the first-choice kit having been dropped the previous season for all white with blue cuffs and collar.

Martin played up front with Fred Binney and the pair were on the scoresheet in the opening day 3-0 home win over Rotherham United (his former Coventry teammate Ernie Machin got the other).

Martin scored twice in his third match, a 3-3 draw at Sheffield Wednesday, but the impatient Taylor soon chose to give Binney a new partner in on-loan Barry Butlin.

Restored to the side after Butlin’s return to parent club Forest, Martin made 11 successive starts and scored six times. But his brace in a 4-2 home win over Hereford United on 6 December 1975 were his last goals for the club.

Taylor seized an opportunity to sign Aston Villa’s out-of-favour Sammy Morgan (who he’d previously tried to sign when he was assistant manager at Derby) and Martin swiftly found himself on the outside looking in.

He only made one more start, replacing the injured Morgan, in a 1-0 win over promotion rivals Millwall at the start of February 1976 and he was then transfer-listed following a disagreement with Taylor when subbed off in a reserve game a week later, and was even banned from the ground by the disciplinarian boss. At the time, he had only just bought a house in Seaford.

The first team squad vacancy meant Ward was moved up the pecking order of strikers and he made his debut in a Goldstone friendly against Ipswich Town (Albion won 3-1, Ian Mellor got two, Andy Rollings the other). The following month, Martin moved to Crystal Palace where he scored just the once in nine appearances.

By then 35, he took a similar journey to lots of other English and Scottish players in their 30s edging towards the end of their careers by going to play in the North American Soccer League (NASL).

He played in the same San Antonio Thunder team as former England captain Bobby Moore, ex-Arsenal and Wolves left-back Bob McNab and former Sunderland teammate Harry Hood, and scored five goals in 19 games for the Texas-based club.

It wasn’t Martin’s first involvement in the NASL though because, in the summer of 1967, he was part of a Sunderland contingent who played as Vancouver Royal Canadians. The 16-man squad also included goalkeeper Derek Forster, who also later played for Brighton.

Born in Tranent, just east of Edinburgh, on 20 October 1940, Martin started out with Tranent Juniors and looked back on his career in a 2020 interview with Ninian Cassidy for Alive & Kicking, published on Facebook.

After leaving school, he began working at the local coal pit but he got his break into professional football with Alloa Athletic.

He described having to make a circuitous near 50-mile bus journey from his home in Tranent to make his debut for Alloa. Hungry after the long journey, he downed pie, beans and chips for lunch before going out and scoring in his first game for the Wasps.

He was still self-training at the local dog track twice a week before meeting up with his teammates to play on a Saturday but after scoring 25 league and cup goals in his first season (1960-61), he earned a move to Queen of the South.

Still remembered fondly as a legend of the club, former teammate Iain McChesney said of Martin: “Neil was a big gem. It didn’t matter what you did to him, he never got involved. He got kicked stupid but still, he picked himself up and got on with the game and scored goals. I remember him saying to me, ‘That’s the best thing you can do, that’s the best reply of the lot, stick the ball in the net and they can’t do anything about it’.”

When Queen of the South were promoted back to the top division as Division 2 runners up in 1961-62, Martin scored 30 league and cup goals. Fan chat group contributor Ronnie Rae said: “Brilliant player. He had a fantastic partnership with Ernie Hannigan playing for Queen of the South, his heading ability was outstanding. We had a great team back in the day.”

In 1963, he got the chance to move for a £7,500 transfer fee to Hibernian, the club he’d supported as a boy, and the following year the legendary Jock Stein, who he later said had the biggest influence on his career, took over as manager. Martin netted 29 league and cup goals for Hibs in the 1964-65 season.

Supporter Andy Szafer remembered Hibs beating Falkirk 6-0 in 1964 when Martin scored four: “I’ve still to come across anyone who could head a ball like Neil,” he said. “No one comes close…maybe Ronaldo, but Neil tops that list for me.”

During that time, he played and scored for a Scottish League representative side against an English League XI in a 2-2 draw at Roker Park. The following year, in October 1965, that became his home ground when he switched from Edinburgh for a £45,000 fee.

By then, he’d collected two of his three full Scottish international caps. He partnered the legendary Denis Law up front in World Cup qualifiers against Poland (1-1) and Finland (2-1) within four days of each other in May 1965.

In the month after his move to Sunderland, he played alongside Tottenham’s Alan Gilzean in a 1-0 win over Italy in front of 100,000 at Hampden Park.

The blog Roker Report noted that he joined Sunderland in the same season as fellow Scot Jim Baxter who grabbed most of the headlines (not always for the right reasons). “Martin was a coup that we never quite realised,” it said. “Martin was a battler and shied away from no one at a time when every team had cloggers, enforcers and hard men.

“He scored all sorts of goals, though was a danger in the air and in the box from corners and free kicks.”

One particular man-of-the-match performance by Martin came when he scored twice in a 3-2 defeat to high-flying Manchester United at Roker Park on 11 December 1965. This was a Man Utd side with George Best – who scored twice – Denis Law and Bobby Charlton in their line-up.

Roker Report recalled: “On five minutes, Neil Martin beat (Nobby) Stiles to the ball and holding off the challenge of another defender he blasted a left-foot shot from the edge of the box that beat (Pat) Dunne all-ends-up. What a cracking goal this was and Roker Park was bouncing in acknowledgement.

“On seventy-five minutes came probably the best goal of the game. George Herd was strong in the tackle and came through two challenges before sending a glorious cross to Neil Martin standing approximately ten yards out. He towered above his marker and powered a header past a stranded Pat Dunne to lift the net and light a touch paper for the last fifteen minutes.”

After Martin’s 26 goals in 1966-67, no other Sunderland player managed 20-plus in a season for 11 years!

A personal highlight for the player at the end of that season was playing in a combined Newcastle-Sunderland XI alongside Jackie Milburn in the Newcastle legend’s testimonial game against an international XI that included Hungarian and Real Madrid ‘master’ Ferenc Puskas and the World Cup winning brothers (Milburn’s first cousins once removed) Jack and Bobby Charlton.

The blog author noted that when he was sold in 1968 for twice the amount Sunderland paid for him, it might have been regarded as good business but it seemed “short-sighted and an opportunity missed. Neil Martin would always make my top 10 Sunderland strikers.”

Fan chat group contributor Ronnie Scott added: “Great player for Sunderland; had tremendous heading ability. Always remember a bullet header he scored against the Mags (Newcastle) at St James’ in a 3-0 win…absolute quality…and yes l think he was underrated!”

That move in February 1968 was to Coventry City and, in his chat with Ninian Cassidy, he admitted he was “tapped up” by the Sky Blues, taking a ‘phone call about his willingness to make a move while he was in a hotel about to play an away game at Sheffield Wednesday.

Noel Cantwell, who had taken over from Jimmy Hill as manager five months earlier, added Martin to a line-up that already included his former Queen of the South teammate Ernie Hannigan on the wing. Indeed, occasionally he was able to field an all-Scottish front five (the others were Gerry Baker, Willie Carr and Ian Gibson).

Martin certainly answered Cantwell’s need for more goals, netting a hat-trick in only his second game, a 3–0 home victory over Sheffield Wednesday. All three came in 36 first half minutes (a third-minute penalty, 32 and 39). He could have had four but missed a second penalty Coventry were awarded.

When City played in the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup in 1970, Martin scored the winner in a famous 2-1 victory over Bayern Munich at Highfield Road (unfortunately they’d lost the away leg 6-1).

Over his three years with the Sky Blues, he captained the side for a while and scored 45 goals in 122 first team games.

It was something of a surprise when he moved to Nottingham Forest, under Matt Gillies, in the spring of 1971 but he helped the struggling side stay up. Martin was 30 by then and when Forest were relegated at the end of the following season, it marked the end of his days playing top flight football.

In the 1974-75 season, Martin’s two goals in a 3-2 win over Sheffield Wednesday meant he passed the landmark of scoring 100 goals in English league football as well as in Scotland and he finished the season with 12 goals. He left the City Ground having scored 28 goals in 119 matches.

Martin’s final playing days were in the Republic of Ireland, with Dublin-based St Patrick’s Athletic, interestingly being given a lifeline by another former international striker who’d played for Brighton, Barry Bridges.

Recounting old times in a 2020 interview

In total, Martin played 248 club games in Scotland netting 161 times, he scored 135 goals in 401 appearances for English clubs and six times in 30 appearances abroad.

After hanging up his boots, Martin spent time as a youth coach at Walsall when Dave Mackay was the manager and the pair later spent 10 years together in Kuwait and Dubai (they won six league titles with Al-Arabi in Kuwait). He also had a difficult spell as joint manager of Walsall with Alan Buckley in the 1981-82 season.

After leaving football, he ran two pubs in Birmingham before retiring back to Tranent.

In 2012 he was in the news when he nearly lost the sight in his left eye through retinal vein occlusion (RVO) – a blockage in a vein which can cause blindness. A drug treatment – new at the time – saved the sight. Martin had initially thought the blurred vision he was suffering was cataracts.

Hero and Villain Sammy Morgan got off Albion mark v Palace

FEARLESS NORTHERN Ireland international centre forward Sammy Morgan and his former Port Vale teammate Brian Horton were bought to win promotion for the Albion.

The gamble by manager Peter Taylor didn’t quite pay off and although midfield dynamo and captain Horton went on to fulfil that promise under Alan Mullery, Morgan’s part in the club’s future success was eclipsed by the emergence of Peter Ward.

Morgan, who was in the same Northern Irish primary school year as George Best, was the first to arrive, a £35,000 signing from Aston Villa in December 1975, replacing the out-of-favour Neil Martin alongside Fred Binney. He wasn’t able to find the net in his first seven matches but when he did it was memorable and went down in the annals of Albion history.

Morgan opens his Albion account in style against Crystal Palace

He scored both goals in a 2-0 win over Crystal Palace in front of a 33,000 Goldstone Ground crowd that took Albion into second place in the table, manager Taylor saying afterwards: “I am delighted for Morgan. It must have given him a great boost to get a couple of goals like this.”

That breakthrough looked like opening the floodgates for the aggressive, angular forward who went on to score in five consecutive home games in a month.

And when Horton arrived in March 1976, with Albion still in second place and only 11 games to go, promotion looked a strong possibility.

But an Easter hiccup, losing 3-1 to rivals Millwall, followed by three 1-1 draws to end the season, saw Albion drop to fourth, three points behind the south London club, who went up behind Hereford United and Cardiff City.

Short-sighted Morgan – he wore contact lenses to play – might not have seen it coming, but it was something of a watershed moment for him too.

The man who signed him decided to quit, saying: “I signed two players gambling on them to win us promotion. We didn’t get it, and the only consolation I have in leaving is I feel I have helped build a good team which is capable of going up next time.”

Before he managed to kick a ball in anger under new boss Mullery, Morgan suffered a fractured cheekbone in a collision with Paul Futcher in a pre-season friendly with Luton in August 1976. The injury sidelined him for months.

Morgan shares a training ground joke with Peter Ward

By the time he was fit to resume towards the end of November, young Ward and midfielder-turned-striker Ian Mellor had formed such an effective goalscoring partnership that Morgan could only look on from the substitute’s bench where he sat on no fewer than 29 occasions.

He got on in 18 matches but only scored once, in a 2-1 home win over Chesterfield. Of his two starts that season, one was a New Year’s Day game at Swindon in which Albion were trailing 4-0 when it got abandoned on 67 minutes because of a waterlogged pitch (and he was back to the bench for the rescheduled game at the end of the season).

Nonetheless, Taylor’s promotion premonition was duly achieved at the completion of Mullery’s first season, and Ward had scored a record-setting 36 goals.

Morgan wasn’t involved in Albion’s first two games of the new season – consecutive 0-0 draws against Third Division Cambridge United, in home and away legs of the League Cup – and, by the time of the replay, he had signed for the opponents, who were managed by Ron Atkinson.

So, in a strange quirk of fate, £15,000 signing Morgan’s first match for the Us saw him relishing a bruising encounter up against former teammate Andy Rollings, although Albion prevailed 3-1.

Morgan spoke about the encounter and his long career in the game in a fascinating 2015 televised interview for 100 Years of Coconuts, a Cambridge United fans website.

Morgan’s easing out at Brighton followed a similar pattern to his experience at Aston Villa who replaced him with 19-year-old Andy Gray, a £110,000 signing from Dundee United. Morgan only made three top flight performances for Villa after a pelvic injury had restricted his involvement in Villa’s second tier promotion in 1975 to just 12 games (although he did score four goals – three in the same match, a 6-0 win over Hull City early in the season). He was injured during a 1-1 draw at Fulham in November and subsequently lost his place in the team to Keith Leonard.

Villa scorer

Morgan had been 26 when Vic Crowe signed him from Port Vale as a replacement for the legendary Andy Lochhead. The fee was an initial £22,222 in August 1973 with the promise of further instalments of £10,000 for every 10 goals up to 20. Vale’s chairman panicked when the goals tally dried up with the total on nine but Morgan eventually came good and Villa ended up paying the extra.

He made his Villa debut on 8 September 1973 as a sub for Trevor Hockey on the hour in a 2-0 home win over Oxford United, the first of five sub appearances and 25 starts that season, when he scored nine goals.

Villa writer Eric Woodward said of him: “Sammy was never a purist but he was a brave, lively, enterprising sort who put fear into opposing defences.”

He carved his name into Villa legend during a fourth round FA Cup tie against Arsenal at Highbury in January 1974 when he was both hero and villain.

Morgan put the Second Division visitors ahead with a diving header in the 11th minute but in the second half was booked and sent off for challenges on goalkeeper Bob Wilson. After his dismissal, Arsenal equalised through Ray Kennedy.

Esteemed football writer Brian Glanville reckoned: “Morgan had scored Villa’s goal and had played with fiery initiative but, alas, he crossed the line dividing virility from violence.

“He should have taken heed earlier, when booked for fouling Wilson. But a few minutes later, going in unreasonably hard and fractionally late as Wilson dived, he knocked the goalkeeper out and off he went.”

An incensed Morgan saw it differently, though, telling Ian Willars of the Birmingham Post: “Neither my booking nor the sending-off were justified. I never touched Wilson the first time and the second time I was going for the ball, not the man. It was a 50-50.

“I actually connected with the ball not Wilson. I went over to check if he was hurt and, in my opinion, he was play-acting.”

Morgan had sweet revenge four days later. No automatic ban meant he was able to play and score in the replay at Villa Park which Villa won 2-0 in front of a bumper crowd of 47,821.

Randall Northam of the Birmingham Mail wrote: “Providing the sort of material from which story books are written, the Northern Ireland international Sammy Morgan, who was sent off on Saturday, scored in the 12th minute.

“He had scored in the opening game in the 11th minute and to increase the feeling of déjà vu it was another diving header.” Fellow striker Alun Evans scored Villa’s second.

Northam added: “It was never a great match but the crowd’s enthusiasm lifted it to a level which often made it exciting and they had their reward for ignoring the torrential rain in a driving Villa performance which outclassed their First Division opponents.”

For his part, an unrepentant Morgan said: “It was obvious that we had to put Wilson under pressure as anyone would have done in the circumstances. My goal could not have happened at a better time.”

How heartening to hear in that 100 Years of Coconuts interview that when Morgan was struck down with cancer 40 years later, one of several well-wishing calls he received came from Bob Wilson.

Best and Morgan (back row, left) in the same Belfast school photo

Born in East Belfast on 3 December 1946, Morgan went to the same Nettlefield Primary School as George Best and the first year at Grosvenor High. But Morgan left Belfast as an 11-year-old with his family, settling in Gorleston, near Great Yarmouth (his mother’s birthplace).

His Irish father, a professional musician, took over the running of the Suspension Bridge tavern in Yarmouth and Morgan’s footballing ability continued to develop under the watchful eye of his teacher, the Rev Arthur Bowles, and he went on to represent Gorleston and Norfolk Schools.

Morgan went to the same technical high school in Gorleston that also spawned his great friend Dave Stringer (a former Norwich player and manager), former Arsenal centre back Peter Simpson and ex-Wolves skipper Mike Bailey, who managed Brighton in the top flight in 1981 and 1982.

Morgan’s early hopes of a professional career were dented when he had an unsuccessful trial at Ipswich Town. Alf Ramsey was manager at the time and the future England World Cup winning boss considered him too small. He also had an unsuccessful trial with Arsenal.

Morgan continued to play as an amateur with Gorleston FC and although on leaving school he initially began working as an accountant he decided to study to become a maths and PE teacher at Nottingham University. It was Gorleston manager Roger Carter who recommended him to the then Port Vale manager Gordon Lee, who was a former Aston Villa colleague.

“I loved my time under Roger and my playing days under him were the most enjoyable years of my footballing career even though I went on to play at a higher level,” said Morgan.

He was the relatively late age of 23 when, in January 1970, he had a successful trial with Vale and signed amateur forms. But by July that year he was forced to make a decision between full-time professional football or teaching. He chose football and made a scoring Football League debut against Swansea in August 1970.

However, that summer he was spotted as a future talent by Brian Clough and Peter Taylor when he played against their Derby County side in a pre-season friendly. Clough inquired about taking him on loan but he cemented his place in the Vale side and it didn’t go any further.

nifootball.blogspot.com wrote of him: “The burly centre-forward, he weighed in at up to thirteen and a half stone during his career, proved highly effective in an unadventurous Vale side.”

His strength and aggression in Third Division football caught the attention of Northern Ireland boss Terry Neill and he scored on his debut for his country in a February 1972 1-1 draw with Spain, played at Hull because of the troubles in the province, when he teamed up with old school chum Best.

Morgan remembered turning up at the team hotel, the Grand in Scarborough, and encountering a press camera posse awaiting Best’s arrival – and he didn’t show! The mercurial talent did make it in time for the game though, when another debutant was Best’s 17-year-old Manchester United teammate Sammy McIlroy, who earned the first of 88 caps.

In the home international tournament that followed, Morgan was overlooked in favour of Derek Dougan and Albion’s Willie Irvine who, having helped Brighton win promotion from Division Three (and scored what was selected as Match of the Day’s third best goal of the season against Aston Villa) earned a recall three years after his previous appearance.

In October of 1972, though, Morgan was selected again and took his cap total to seven while at Vale Park, for many years a club record.

While at Brighton, he earned two caps during the 1976 home international tournament, starting in the 3-0 defeat to Scotland and going on as a sub in a 1-0 defeat to Wales.

He earned his 18th and final cap two years later during his time at Sparta Rotterdam in a 2-1 win over Denmark in Belfast. The legendary Danny Blanchflower was briefly the Irish manager and he selected Morgan up front alongside Gerry Armstrong but he reflected that he didn’t play well, was struggling with a hamstring injury at the time, and was deservedly subbed off on the hour mark.

Morgan’s knack for helping sides win promotion had worked at Cambridge too, where he partnered Alan Biley and Tom Finney (no, not that one!) in attack, but after Atkinson left to manage West Brom, he fell out with his successor, John Docherty, and in August 1978 made the switch to Rotterdam.

After one season there, he moved on to Groningen in the Eeste Divisie (level two) and although he helped them win the title, he suffered a knee injury and called time on his professional playing days.

He returned to Norfolk to teach maths and PE in Gorleston, at Cliff Park High School and then Lynn Grove High School, and carried on playing with his first club, Gorleston, where, in 1981, he was appointed manager.

As well as coaching Great Yarmouth schoolboys, he also got involved in coaching Norwich City’s schoolboys in 1990 and in January 1998 he left teaching to work full-time as the club’s youth development manager. As the holder of a UEFA Class A licence, he went on to become the club’s first football academy director, a position he held until May 2004.

In October that year, Morgan was unveiled as Ipswich Town’s education officer, a role that involved ensuring Town’s young players received tuition on more than just football as they went through the academy system. In 2009, he became academy manager and during his three years notable youngsters who made it as professionals included strikers Connor Wickham and Jordan Rhodes.

He admitted in an interview with independent fan website TWTD: “If I’ve contributed to anybody in particular it probably would be the big number nine [Wickham] and Jordan because I was a number nine, and I kick the ball through them – I play the game through the number nines.”

He went on: “I’m very proud to have played a part in the development of a lot of young players. I’m equally proud of those lads who haven’t quite got there in the professional ranks but have maybe gone on to university and have forged other careers and are still playing football at non-league level, still enjoying their football. That means a lot to me as well.”

Morgan continued: “I finished playing in 1980 and I’ve been in youth development since then. I did the Norfolk schools, Great Yarmouth schools, representative sides and the Bobby Robson Soccer Schools. That’s 32 years, I’ve given it a fair crack and I love my football as much now as I ever did.

“I’ve been privileged to work with young people, very privileged. It’s kept me young, kept my passion and kept my enthusiasm going. One thing you could never accuse me of is not having any enthusiasm or passion for the game, and that will remain.”

In 2014, Morgan was diagnosed with stomach cancer and underwent chemo to tackle it. Through that association, in September 2017 he gave his backing to Norfolk and Suffolk Youth Football League’s choice of the oesophago-gastric cancer department at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital (NNUH) as its charity of the year.

Even when he could have had his feet up, he was helping to coach youngsters at independent Langley School in Norwich.

Morgan was on good form in this interview for 100 Years of Coconuts TV

Albion promotion winner with a place in West Ham history

BERTIE LUTTON has a place in the West Ham history books even though he only made 13 appearances.

He was the first Hammer ever to play for Northern Ireland, winning four caps in 1973 (more on these later).

Lutton, frozen out at second tier Brighton less than a year after signing from Wolverhampton Wanderers, stepped back up a level to join Ron Greenwood’s side.

Although he had played at the elite level for Wolves, having been unable to hold down a regular first team spot at Molineux, he joined Pat Saward’s promotion-chasing Brighton in the 1971-72 season.

Lutton played his part in helping Albion go up from the old Third Division as runners up behind Aston Villa in the spring of 1972, as described in my 2016 blog post about his contribution.

But, when Brighton struggled to cope with the higher grade football, Saward questioned the commitment and attitude of certain players and Lutton was put on the transfer list.

It was certainly something of a surprise when, unable to get a start in a second tier side, he went on loan to First Division West Ham.

Lutton did well enough to secure a full-time switch to Upton Park. Almost a year to the day of his arrival at the Goldstone, he was London-bound and the shrewd Saward turned a £10,000 profit on the player.

The enigmatic Irishman made his Hammers First Division debut in a 1-0 away win against Norwich City on 10 February 1973, alongside the likes of Bobby Moore, Billy Bonds and Trevor Brooking, in front of a crowd of 32,597.

Bryan ‘Pop’ Robson scored the only goal of the game and finished the season as the club and League top goalscorer with 28 goals from 46 games. Lutton didn’t reappear until April when he went on as a sub in a 1-1 draw at home to Leeds and a 4-3 Good Friday win over Southampton at the Boleyn Ground (when George Herrington captured the action picture below of him).

Reviving his scoring feat for Brighton at Bournemouth a year previously, given a start on Easter Saturday, Lutton scored his only goal for the Hammers in a 1-1 draw away to Derby County. He then played in the last two games of the season, a 0-0 draw at Birmingham City, and a 2-1 defeat at home to Arsenal. West Ham finished the season in sixth place, though, which was the highest league position they’d achieved under Greenwood.

Lutton’s crucial equaliser for Brighton at Bournemouth on Easter Saturday 1972

Those league appearances earned Lutton a recall to the Northern Ireland squad and manager Terry Neill sent him on as a second half sub for Bryan Hamilton in a World Cup qualifier against Cyprus on 8 May 1973.

The game was played in front of a paltry 6,090 at Fulham’s Craven Cottage because of the troubles in Northern Ireland at the time. The Irish were already 3-0 up at half time and that’s how it finished: Sammy Morgan (later to play for Brighton) scored one and Man Utd’s Trevor Anderson hit two.

Eight days later, Lutton went on for goalscorer Anderson in Glasgow as the Irish succumbed to a 2-1 defeat to Scotland in the Home International tournament.

Three days after that, he saw action again when he once again replaced Ipswich Town’s Hamilton, who’d scored the only goal of the game as the Irish beat Wales 1-0 at Everton’s Goodison Park. Only 4,946 watched that one.

Back with West Ham at the start of the 1973-74 season and Lutton was in the starting line-up for home defeats to Newcastle United (2-1) and QPR (3-2) and was a sub in a 3-1 defeat away to Manchester United.

He started a 1-0 home defeat to Burnley, but was subbed off, as the Hammers’ torrid first half of the season continued. Previously imperious captain Bobby Moore was dropped and the side were bottom of the table at Christmas.

Lutton only re-appeared in the starting line-up in January when, in a FA Cup third round replay away to Third Division Hereford United, West Ham embarrassingly lost 2-1.

He retained his place three days later when, although the Hammers were missing Moore, Brooking, Kevin Lock, John McDowell and Robson, they made amends by beating Man Utd 2-1 at Upton Park. Billy Bonds and Pat Holland scored for the home side, Sammy McIlroy for United.

A week later, Lutton played his last Hammers match when appearing as a sub in a 1-1 draw at Newcastle United.

It came two months after he had made his last appearance for his country. That was in another World Cup qualifier, on 14 November 1973, when the Irish earned a 1-1 draw against Portugal in Lisbon. He played in midfield alongside Tommy Jackson and captain Dave Clements behind George Best, Anderson and Morgan up front.

Lutton had made his Northern Ireland debut three years earlier when his Wolves teammate Derek Dougan led the line in a 1-0 Home International defeat against Scotland in Belfast.

N Ireland training with George Best

Three days later, on 21 April 1970, he played the first half against England at Wembley when Best scored but the hosts won 3-1 (Lutton was replaced by sub John Cowan for the second half).

That was the game in which Bobby Charlton won his 100th England cap (and was made captain for the occasion) and his Man Utd teammate Brian Kidd made his debut. Ralph Coates also won his first England cap. Charlton, Martin Peters and Geoff Hurst scored the English goals.

Born in Banbridge, County Down, on 13 July 1950, Lutton’s brief footballing career began with his hometown club, Banbridge Town, and it’s reported just £50 exchanged hands to take him to Wolves in 1967.

At a time when Wolves were blessed with some outstanding players like Dougan, Hugh Curran, Dave Wagstaffe, Jim McCalliog and Mike Bailey, the young Irishman managed just 25 matches for Wolves between 1967 and 1971.

Although he may have only had a brief spell in the limelight, he seems to have had a penchant for earning a place in footballing history.

His one and only First Division goal for Wolves was also the club’s 2000th goal in that league to be scored at Molineux.

Goal v Arsenal in frront of the Match of the Day cameras

Arsenal were the visitors on 15 November 1969 and Lutton seized on a fortunate deflection off the aforementioned Terry Neill to net in the 47th minute past the Gunners’ back-up ‘keeper Geoff Barnett. The home side won 2-0 with Scottish international Curran scoring the second just two minutes after Lutton’s opener.

Not listed in the matchday programme line-up, Lutton played instead of the injured Mike O’Grady in the no.8 shirt (players didn’t wear a squad number shirt in those days).

The game was featured on Match of the Day with the legendary Kenneth Wolstenholme commentating and the rather grainy black and white coverage of the game can still be found on the internet wolvescompletehistory.co.uk/arsenal-h-1969-70/.

Lutton only made one start and one sub appearance in the 1970-71 season but was a regular in the Wolves reserve side in which the emerging John Richards was banging in the goals.

The pair were room-mates as teenagers with Wolves and were reunited after 37 years by the wolvesheroes.com website.

They hadn’t seen each other since 12 May 1973 at Goodison Park when Lutton was an unused sub for Northern Ireland in a Home International against England and Richards was playing up front for the English alongside two-goal Martin Chivers. (England won the game 2-1).

Lutton has popped up on the Wolves history site on several occasions over the years, often when he has returned from his home in Australia to the Black Country to see his son, Lee, who still lives in the area.

Brighton fans had first seen Lutton back in September 1969 when he played for them in a memorable third round League Cup match in front of a packed Goldstone Ground.

Two years later Saward, quite the specialist at using the loan market, acquired Bertie’s services on a temporary basis between September and November, 1971.

He made his debut in a 2-0 defeat at Aston Villa and scored twice in seven games (in a 2-2 draw at Torquay United and a 3-1 home win over Bristol Rovers) before returning to his parent club.

Celebrating a goal at the Goldstone for Brighton

Then, on 9 March 1972, with the clock ticking down to what in those days was the 5pm transfer deadline, Saward completed a double transfer swoop, securing Lutton’s permanent signing for £5,000 together with Ken Beamish from Tranmere for £25,000 (plus the surplus-to-requirements Alan Duffy).

A delighted Saward declared to Argus reporter John Vinicombe: “Bertie can do a job for us anywhere. This can’t be bad for us. At 21 and with two caps for Ireland he has a future and played very well for us while on loan.

“He can play right or left, up the middle, or midfield and Beamish can fit into a number of positions.”

It’s likely that versatility counted against him and, in the days of only one substitute, he was more often than not a sub, being able to go on in a variety of positions.

He was on the bench when Brighton began the 1972-73 season in the second tier and went on in three games. He then got four successive starts before going back to the bench.

Albion were finding life tough at the higher level and although Saward switched things around and brought in new faces, results went from bad to worse.

Lutton started three games in December which all ended in defeat and the 3-0 Boxing Day reverse at Oxford United turned out to be his last appearance for the Albion.

It fell in the middle of a spell of 12 successive defeats during which only five goals were scored. Saward couldn’t put his finger on the reason for the slump but Lutton found himself one of three put on the transfer list.

The West Ham move must have seemed ideal but sadly it was all over after just 13 games. Injury forced him to quit the professional game and he had a brief spell playing non-league for Horsham before emigrating to Australia.

There he played semi-professional football in the Australian Soccer League for a number of years before settling in Melbourne where he worked for the paint giant Dulux.

The FA Cup semi-final hat-trick hero who wore red and blue

ALEX DAWSON was even younger than Evan Ferguson when he scored a FA Cup semi-final hat-trick.

The bull-like centre forward who broke through at Manchester United in the wake of the Munich air crash wrote his name in football record books on 26 March 1958.

Dawson was just 18 years and 33 days old when he netted three goals in United’s 5-3 win over Fulham in front of 38,000 fans at Highbury, north London. No-one that young has ever repeated the feat.

Eleven years later, Dawson scored twice for Brighton in a Third Division match against Walsall. It was my first ever Albion game. He followed up the two he got in that game with six more in four other games I saw that 1968-69 season. They were enough to sow the seeds of a lifetime supporting the Albion and the burly Dawson, wearing number 9, became an instant hero to an impressionable 10-year-old.

Dawson scored twice v Walsall in 1969

Dawson is no longer with us but the memory of his goalscoring exploits live on amongst those fans of a certain vintage who had the pleasure of seeing him in action.

A man who played alongside him at Wembley in 1958 – Freddie Goodwin – made Dawson his first signing for Brighton, for £9,000, not long after he had taken over as manager in the winter of 1968.

By then, he was plying his trade with Bury. He had left United in 1961 after scoring a remarkable 54 goals in 93 games, including one on his debut aged just 17 (in a 2-0 win over Burnley).

After losing 2-0 to Bolton Wanderers in 1958, another losing Wembley appearance followed six years later. He scored a goal for Preston North End but the Lancastrian side lost 3-2 to West Ham United.

United pair Freddie Goodwin and Alex Dawson were reunited at Brighton

Nevertheless, Dawson was prolific for Preston scoring 132 goals in 237 league and cup games over six years. The purple patch I saw him have for Brighton saw him find the net no fewer than 17 times in just 23 games, including three braces and four in an away game at Hartlepool. That was only one behind top scorer Kit Napier whose 18 came in 49 matches.

Alex Dawson in snow action at the Goldstone Ground

In a curtain-raiser to the 1969-70 season, Dawson scored four times as Albion trounced a Gibraltar XI 6-0 at the Goldstone. But the signing of Allan Gilliver and, in the New Year, young Alan Duffy, began to reduce his playing time. He got 12 more goals in 28 appearances (plus three as sub) but, when Goodwin left the club, successor Pat Saward edged him out.

Even in a loan spell at Brentford he scored seven in 11 games. 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.”

Still smiling and scoring goals at Corby

Released by the Albion at the end of the 1970-71 season, Dawson’s final footballing action was with non-league Corby Town, where he didn’t disappoint either.

In his first season at Occupation Road, he finished top scorer with 25 goals in 60 appearances and by the time he retired from playing on 4 May 1974, his tally for the Steelmen was 44 in 123 appearances.

When the curtain came down on his career, Dawson had scored 212 goals in 394 matches – more than one every two games. A true goalscorer.

It was in the wake of the decimating effect of the Munich air disaster that Dawson found himself thrust into the limelight at a tender age.

The crash claimed the lives of eight of United’s first choice team – Dawson’s pals. Youngsters and fringe players had to be drafted into the side to fulfil the remaining fixtures that season. One was Dawson, another was Goodwin.

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.”

While Dawson was my first Albion hero, when he died in a Kettering care home at the age of 80 on 17 July 2020 the esteem in which he was held by others also came to the fore in the tributes paid by each of the clubs he played for.

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 and 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.

After that goalscoring first team debut against Burnley in April 1957, he also scored 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 United win the title and secure their passage into Europe’s premier club competition.

Obviously, circumstances dictated Dawson’s rapid rise but, with the benefit of hindsight, some say his United career may have panned out differently if he hadn’t been thrust into first team action at such a young age.

He was just short of his 18th 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.

“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.”

Scoring for Preston North End

Tottenham’s north London neighbours, Arsenal, finished a disappointing 25 points behind Spurs in 11th 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.

In 1967, Dawson took the short journey to Bury FC where his goalscoring exploits continued with 21 goals in 50 appearances, before he joined Goodwin’s regime at Brighton.

What a career to look back on: Alex Dawson recalling his goalscoring exploits

John Ruggiero scored on his Brighton league debut

JOHN RUGGIERO was one of four signings Alan Mullery made for newly promoted Albion in the summer of 1977.

That one of the quartet was Mark Lawrenson from Preston North End for £115,000 rather eclipsed Ruggiero’s arrival from recently relegated Stoke City for £30,000.

Nonetheless, Ruggiero made an immediate impact, scoring on his league debut as a substitute for Peter O’Sullivan to earn the Seagulls a 1-1 draw at Southampton.

Ruggiero had begun the season in the starting line-up in Albion’s home and away goalless draws against Ron Atkinson’s Cambridge United in the League Cup before relinquishing a starting berth for the opening Division Two fixture at The Dell.

His 77th minute equaliser, after Alan Ball had put the home side ahead just before half time, was added to a fortnight later and, for a brief moment, he was joint top scorer with Steve Piper – on two goals.

The pair were both on the scoresheet to help the Seagulls to a 2-1 win at Mansfield Town on 3 September; the home side’s first defeat at Field Mill in 38 matches.

Shoot! magazine previewed Ruggiero’s eager anticipation at returning to the Victoria Ground for a league game on 15 October but he was only a sub that day and, although he went on for fellow summer signing Eric Potts, Albion lost 1-0.

A young Garth Crooks taking on Chris Cattlin the day Ruggiero returned to Stoke

After only seven league and cup starts (and three appearances off the bench), Ruggiero then had to wait six months for another sub appearance.

He went on as a second half substitute for injured Paul Clark in a 1-0 win at Blackburn, combining with Potts who went on to score the only goal of a game described by Argus writer John Vinicombe as “the most exhilarating match I have seen for years”.

Ruggiero didn’t make another start until the very last game of the season; but what a match to play in. A crowd of 33,431 packed in to the Goldstone to see the Seagulls take on Blackpool, with another possible promotion finely poised.

Albion dutifully won the game 2-1 (sending Blackpool down) with goals from Brian Horton and Peter Ward but their hopes of going up were cruelly dashed when Southampton and Spurs, who each only needed a draw to go up, lo and behold ground out a 0-0 draw playing each other.

As the Argus reported: “When news came of the goalless draw at The Dell there were cries of ‘fix’ and Albion had to suffer the bitter disappointment of missing promotion by the difference of nine goals.”

Before his recall for that clash, Ruggiero had continued to find the back of the net for the reserves – indeed he was the side’s top scorer for two seasons.

The Albion matchday programme reported his scoring exploits in some detail. For instance, in a 4-1 win away to Portsmouth. “John Ruggiero was the star of our win at Fratton Park with two fine goals and might have scored a hat-trick,” it said.

And in a 5-2 Goldstone win over Charlton Athletic, Ruggiero opened the scoring with a header from a Gary Williams cross, Steve Gritt pulled one back for the Addicks and Ruggiero volleyed in a fourth goal from the edge of the box.

Ruggiero, who lived in Shoreham with his wife Mary, discovered competition for a first team spot intensified after his summer signing: Clark from Southend adding steel to the midfield and Fulham’s Teddy Maybank taking over from Ian Mellor as Ward’s striking partner. O’Sullivan, meanwhile, comfortably stepped up to the higher level and kept his place.

When Albion were on course for promotion to the elite the following season, Ruggiero’s first team involvement was almost non-existent (a non-playing sub on one occasion).

He was sent out on loan to Portsmouth, then in the old Division 3, where he was a teammate of Steve Foster. Ruggiero scored once in six appearances, netting in a home 2-2 draw with Cambridge United on 27 December 1977.

He was released before Albion took their place amongst the elite and moved on to Chester City, signed by player-manager Alan Oakes, the former Manchester City stalwart.

Ruggiero joined just as ex-Albion teammate Mellor was moving on from Sealand Road, but, in a Chester team photo (above right), Ruggiero is standing alongside Jim Walker, who’d played at the Albion under Peter Taylor, and in the front row is a young Ian Rush.

Ruggiero scored within three minutes of his first league game for Chester, setting them on their way to a 3-2 win over Chesterfield. But he only made 15 appearances for them before dropping into the non-league scene.

The legendary England World Cup winner Gordon Banks, formerly of Stoke, signed Ruggiero for Telford United in the 1979-80 season when he was briefly manager of the Alliance Premier League side.

Born in Blurton on 26 November 1954 to Italian parents, the young Ruggiero went to Bentilee Junior School then Willfield High School. His prowess on the football field saw him represent Stoke Boys and the county Staffordshire Boys side and he was one of 24 young players who had a trial at Middlesbrough for the England Schoolboys side but missed the final cut.

He had the chance to join Stoke City at 15 but stayed on at school and passed five O levels: English Language, English Literature, Technical Drawing, History and Art.

“I had a lot of interest from many clubs: Blackpool, Leicester City, Derby County, Blackburn Rovers, Bolton Wanderers, Coventry City, West Brom and I even had a letter from Arsenal inviting me to go training with them,” Ruggiero told Nicholas Lloyd-Pugh for the svenskafans.com website in an April 2011 interview.

“I nearly signed for Coventry but the very last club to ask me was Stoke City and, once this happened, I knew where I would go. I joined as an apprentice when I was 16 in 1970.”  

Ruggiero explained how he started in the A youth team, progressed to the reserve side and finally made his first team debut under Tony Waddington on 5 February 1977, in a home 2-0 defeat against league leaders Manchester City.

He had made his league debut the previous season during a short loan period with Workington Town, playing three games in Division Four, which gives him the relatively rare distinction of having played in all four divisions of English football.

Even as a reserve team regular at Stoke he got to play at big stadiums like Old Trafford, Anfield, Elland Road, Hillsborough and Goodison Park. “It was great for the young players but you always hoped to make the first team at some point,” he said.

“It was a real dream for me to have players like Gordon Banks, Geoff Hurst, Alan Hudson, Peter Shilton and many more being part of your life.

“Tony Waddington loved his team and he always went for experience, so the younger players found it really hard to make the first team. However, a few younger players did well such as Alan Dodd, Sean Haslegrave, Stewart Jump, Ian Moores and Garth Crooks.”

He continued: “Players like Terry Conroy and John Mahoney were really friendly and always had a word of advice for you. I really liked Alan Dodd; he was a much underrated player and would have played for England at a bigger club.”

Ruggiero also spoke warmly of Alan A’Court, Stoke’s first team coach who had played for Liverpool, who took him on a football holiday to Zambia in 1973 where he played for Ndola United. A’Court was Zambia’s national coach at the time.

Two years later, Ruggiero earned a ‘Player of the Tournament’ accolade while playing for Stoke in a youth tournament in Holland.

Waddington’s successor as manager, former player George Eastham, also played a part in Ruggiero’s development by arranging for him to play in South Africa for eight months in 1975 where he was a league and cup winner with Cape Town City.

“I knew that George liked me as a player so I felt that this could be good for me when he took over the team,” Ruggiero told Lloyd-Pugh. “He had already played me in a friendly match against Stockport which was a showcase for the return of George Best from America.

“Whilst Best, Hudson and Greenhoff were doing their party tricks, I was quietly having a good game and it was clear that I was ready for another chance.”

That came in a home game against Liverpool, Ruggiero playing in midfield. “The next 90 minutes was my best of all time,” he said. “We drew the game 0–0. I would like to think I was the man of the match and George spoke very highly of me to the press after the game. The Liverpool team included Kevin Keegan, Ray Kennedy, Ray Clemence and many other big names.”

Stoke had turned to youngsters like Ruggiero because big name players had been sold off to pay for a replacement Butler Street stand roof at the Victoria Ground.

And while the youngster kept his place after that impressive display v Liverpool, they only won one of their remaining nine games and were relegated. It was little consolation that he scored twice away to Coventry because they lost 5-2.

“After the Liverpool game I was on a high, I really thought I’d made the big time and would be a first team player at Stoke for years to come,” he said. “I played nearly all the games left that season and was pretty consistent in all of the games.

“I was just enjoying my time and never really thought about relegation.”

But the 1-0 last day defeat at Aston Villa would prove to be his last game for Stoke because Brighton, who had gained promotion from the third tier, were bolstering their squad to compete at the higher level.

Ruggiero signed for the Seagulls along with Lawrenson and Williams, who moved from Preston (swapping places with Graham Cross and Harry Wilson), and Sheffield Wednesday winger Potts.

While Lawrenson was on the path to greatness, and Williams established himself in Albion’s left-back spot, Potts found his involvement was mainly from the bench and Ruggiero’s early promise faded.

After his short football career was over, Ruggiero joined the police, serving in the Cheshire force, rising to the rank of detective sergeant and mainly working in the Crewe area.

When the Goldstone Wrap blog checked on him in 2014, they unearthed a Facebook message in which he said: “Loved my short time in Brighton. Would have liked to have played a few more games but still love the place and the team were buzzing at that time.”

And in 2020, a former police colleague, Steve Beddows, informed the Where Are They Now website that Ruggiero had retired and was continuing to live in the Stoke area.

“He remains a very fit man with a keen eye for precise action posed wildlife photography and undertakes huge amounts of charitable work,” said Beddows. “A great sense of humour but very dogged, smart and highly professional. He does masses for charity with Stoke City Old Boys Association still and had the nickname ‘Italian Stallion’ because of his good looks.

“I never heard a bad word about him from anyone and he can still run marathons and plays lots of golf.”

Wilf’s son Paul helped develop a string of top players

A HIGHLY RESPECTED coach who guided a succession of young hopefuls from Manchester United’s youth ranks through to their first team once aimed to re-ignite his playing career at Brighton.

Paul McGuinness, son of former United player and manager Wilf, was in charge of the United side (that included Paul Pogba, Jesse Lingard and Michael Keane) who won the FA Youth Cup in 2011, and Danny Welbeck and Tom Cleverley also emerged under his guidance.

Wind the clock back to the autumn of 1990, though, and McGuinness, the 24-year-old captain of United’s reserve side in 1989-90, arrived on loan on the south coast.

Albion boss Barry Lloyd would go on to take Albion to Wembley for a play-off final against Neil Warnock’s Notts County the following May.

But in October and November Lloyd was still casting around to see who might supplement Albion’s efforts to get among the division’s pacesetters, and McGuinness had lost his starting berth in United’s Central League side.

McGuinness made his debut for the reserves in a 3-0 defeat away to Crystal Palace. He also played right-back in a 2-1 defeat against QPR Reserves at the Goldstone, in a side in which Soviet international Igor Gurinovich (playing up front with new arrival Bryan Wade) scored Albion’s goal.

In those days of two subs, McGuinness was selected on the bench for five first team games in succession. But he was never put on and, after a 2-1 defeat away to West Ham, he went back to United.

Born in Manchester on 2 March 1966, McGuinness aspired to follow in his dad’s footsteps, but he found him a hard taskmaster and an ultimate competitor, something he reckoned dated back to an upbringing by Sir Matt Busby’s right-hand man Jimmy Murphy.

“The standards were relentless,” McGuinness told manutd.com. “In a primary school match, I scored 10 goals and my main memory of the day is getting an absolute b******ing for leaving mud in the bath afterwards and not sticking to the right standards. To this day, I rinse the bath and shower down afterwards, every single time!

He continued: “I scored a hat-trick in a cup final and when I came off, he told me off for remonstrating with the referee during the game.”

McGuinness declared: “I didn’t want to be a manager because, over time, dad’s experiences really put me off it, but every school holidays I’d be with him at whatever club he was with at the time.

“At York, Hull and Bury, I’d go and join in with the apprentices while he worked. I’d be 12 playing with 16-year-olds, 14 playing with the reserves, 16 training with the first team.

“Just having him as my dad gave me a massive head start when it came to coaching. He’d take me to games and tell me to pick out the best players and explain why, and he’d always study what was happening in the game, and tell me what was going to happen next, and he was always right.

Wilf McGuinness and son Paul

“He’d tell me who was going to get booked, or if a team was over-committing and leaving themselves prone to conceding, and he was always right. That really helped me learn the game at a young age.”

Not to mention the unbelievable experience of getting to play alongside some of United’s biggest household names from their golden era.

“When I was a teenager, there used to be charity games with United, City, Piccadilly Radio and all sorts,” McGuinness recalled. “The ex-players were all in their 40s, and dad would tell me to come along and bring my boots.

“I’d almost always get some playing time, and I ended up playing with Bobby Charlton, George Best, Nobby Stiles, Paddy Crerand, David Sadler, Alex Stepney, but also the City legends too, like Colin Bell, Mike Summerbee, Franny Lee, Tony Book, Glyn Pardoe. It was just incredible.

“This was sometimes just on school fields or non-league grounds, and Bobby was just awesome in every single game. He scored three or four every time.”

Eventually the young McGuinness got the chance to fulfil his dream when he got taken on by United. He was a youth team player between 1982 and 1984 and then spent two years as a professional at Old Trafford, playing alongside Paul McGrath, Kevin Moran, Mark Hughes, Clayton Blackmore, Frank Stapleton and Alan Brazil.

On the teamsheet with some big names

He recounted the circumstances when paying tribute to Eric Harrison, the acclaimed founder of United’s ‘Class of ‘92’, who died in February 2019. “Eric was fundamental in my career as both a player and then for many years as a coach,” McGuinness told traininggroundguru. “I can still vividly remember the moment I convinced him I should get a first pro contract with Manchester United.

“We were playing 6 v 6 on a full-length pitch at The Cliff with no goalkeepers. You could only score if you were inside the six-yard box, which made it a real test of character.

“A player on the opposition team broke free from deep and I chased him all the way back and slide tackled him before he was about to shoot.

“Eric stopped the game. ‘Now that is what we want.’ That got me a two-year contract at the age of 17.”

Perhaps somewhat unusually at that time, McGuinness was also determined to get an education as well as pursue his professional football dream, and he took a degree in PE and Sports Science at Loughborough University.

Having studied under the tutelage of Mike ‘Doc’ Holliday, McGuinness showed his gratitude in subsequent years by taking United academy teams to play matches against the university’s football side.

When that first United contract came to an end in 1986, McGuinness tried his luck with Crewe Alexandra and he played in 13 matches for Dario Gradi’s side in the 1986-87 season.

His studies completed, McGuinness admitted his return to United happened almost by chance.

“This was the time of the ‘Fergie Fledglings’ and I popped into the training ground one day to say hello,” he told traininggroundguru. “ ‘You could have played for the reserves last night,’ Eric said, and I ended up playing the next few games for them. It went from there and Sir Alex Ferguson gave me another contract for a couple of years.”

It was during the second year of that deal that he joined the Albion on loan and the following year he switched to Bury, although he didn’t play any league games for them. Eventually he moved on to Chester City and played in seven matches for Harry McNally’s side.

“Eric got me back in at United after that, first as the club’s welfare officer and then as Centre of Excellence Director,” McGuiness recounted. “He was a constant mentor and you couldn’t help but learn from him.”

He also worked with Nobby Stiles and took over as head of the centre of excellence from the World Cup winner in 1994.

McGuinness has clearly spent a long time absorbing advice and in that manutd.com interview recounted another anecdote about his father.

“When I was a kid, dad would have me shoot from the halfway line, time after time. Eventually, in a university game, I scored from the kick-off with one of those shots and he was there. I was so made up with that.

“He was forever trying to get you to try something different and that stuck with me in my coaching. I had Ollie Norwood trying that from the kick-off, or I’d tell Fraizer Campbell or Marcus Rashford to dribble towards goal straight from the kick-off. Just try something different.

“For me, it was about the spirit of football, something which I talk about a lot to this day, and that’s something that my dad has always embodied.”

It was obviously quite an emotional moment when United finally parted company with McGuinness in February 2016. He told the Manchester Evening News: “It has been an honour and a privilege to follow in my father Wilf’s footsteps and to serve Manchester United in a variety of roles for a total of 28 years.

“To have seen 86 Academy players develop to make their debut for the first team and 23 to become full internationals has been thoroughly rewarding.

“I have especially enjoyed working behind the scenes with devoted colleagues, nurturing and coaching young players to reach their potential.

“I will be forever grateful to Sir Alex Ferguson for making my dreams come true and inviting me to represent Manchester United as a player and for the last 23 years as a proud member of staff.”

McGuinness has frequently shared his knowledge and coaching experience at seminars and online in interviews and podcasts. For example, he told fourfourtwo.com: “One of the first things we look at in young players is how they move with and without the ball.

“You can never be certain, but it gives us a good idea whether they will go on to become athletic. I have seen many talented youngsters who are technically very good but are finished by 12 or 13 because athletically they are not quite good enough.”

Not the case with Rashford, though. “Marcus was a great mover, he was very quick and had a great flow about him,” said the coach.

United built several cage pitches to recreate school playground learning, where older and younger players would compete in small spaces. “They would play 8v8 or 7v7 to increase their speed of thought and improve their skills,” said McGuinness. “At 12, Rashford was playing cage football with Paul Pogba, Jesse Lingard and Ravel Morrison, who were 16.

“He learned from them, but he could also express himself more. With his own age group he might only play a single one one-two, but with Pogba, he could play two or three.”

Scott McTominay is among the current crop of United players to have acknowledged McGuinness’ influence on his career. “We were always brought up to have an elite mentality,” he told manutd.com. “That’s one of the most important things for Paul McGuinness and Warren Joyce – how strong you are in games when it might not be going so well. You have to keep all the right habits off the pitch as well, which I’ve completely bought into from Paul and Warren.

“That was probably one of the best things I’ve done: listening and learning from everything they’ve said and trying to put it into the first team.”

In October 2017, McGuinness was appointed national coach developer by the FA and in December 2021 he became head of academy player development at Leicester City.

He had overall responsibility for players from the under nines through to the under 18s, with a brief to ensure players were ready for the transition to the under 23s and the first-team squad. But in September 2022, it was reported he had stepped down from the role to help care for his father who, like several players of that generation, had dementia.

More than 19,000 followers on Twitter can see on McGuinness’ timeline an appreciation of the finer arts of football and memories of his dad Wilf’s playing and coaching career.

Lanky Lurgan lad lined up alongside George Best

JOHN NAPIER is still coaching youngsters in America at the age of 75. NICK TURRELL’s In Parallel Lines blog caught up with him for a trip down memory lane.  Here, in the third of five articles, we look at how it all began.

This cracking Bolton News picture shows Napier leading out Bolton’s under 18 side at Bromwich Street in January 1963, during the big freeze of that winter.

JOHN NAPIER was born in Lurgan, 18 miles south west of Belfast, on 23 September 1946.

Napier was football daft from a young age and he said: “Looking back at my childhood, I always wanted it from a young age. It was my dream. I had two uncles that played at pro level in Northern Ireland and they worked with me at a young age.

“I would say they toughened me up. I was never afraid to try new things. I left home at 15 to pursue my dreams, and it worked out. It was not easy – it never is – but you must keep at it. Failure was not an option in those times.”

In another interview, Napier said he adopted Spurs as his favourite side when he was 10 or 12. He had three uncles living in north London who were all avid Tottenham supporters and they would send him programmes, pictures and pennants that the youngster put up on his bedroom wall.

𝗟𝘂𝗿𝗴𝗮𝗻 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗺𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗮𝘁𝗲 – 𝗜𝗿𝗶𝘀𝗵 𝗦𝗰𝗵𝗼𝗼𝗹𝘀 𝗦𝗲𝗻𝗶𝗼𝗿 𝗖𝘂𝗽, 𝗠𝗶𝗱-𝗨𝗹𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗴𝘂𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗖𝗮𝗳𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗮 𝗖𝘂𝗽 𝘄𝗶𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝟭𝟵𝟲𝟭

Napier was good enough to represent his country at every level. He played for the schoolboy side at under 15 and under 16 level, and was the youngest Irish player, at 17, in the youth side that reached the final of the UEFA European Under-18 Championship tournament in April 1963.

In front of a crowd of 34,582 at Wembley, he had the misfortune to score an own goal with his head after only five minutes and England went on to beat the Irish 4-0 (Ray Whittaker, Jon Sammels and John Sissons scoring the other goals).

Remarkably, Northern Ireland’s greatest ever player, George Best, only played in two youth internationals for his country.

Napier was in the same side as Best when the Irish drew 1-1 with England at Boundary Park, Oldham, on 11 May 1963.

A week later they were selected together again and Best scored his country’s goal as they drew 1-1 with Wales in Aberystwyth.

After winning his only full cap against West Germany in 1966 (see previous article), Napier won two Under-23 caps, also both against Wales. He was in the side that beat Wales 2-1 at Windsor Park, Belfast on 22 February 1967, although the game was abandoned on 72 minutes because of a waterlogged pitch and Welsh and Irish sources differ as to whether the result stood.

Napier had moved to the Albion by the time he made his second appearance; this time the game took place at Ninian Park, Cardiff, on 20 March 1968 and the Irish included the likes of Pat Rice, Tommy Jackson, Dave Clements, Bryan Hamilton and Sammy Todd, who all became established full internationals. But the game was the last of Napier’s international career, at the age of 21.

As Napier said above, he was only 15 when he joined Bolton, choosing them over Everton and Sunderland, who had also shown an interest.

“I really enjoyed my early experience at Bolton,” he told thefootballnetwork.net. “George Taylor and George Hunt, my first coaches at Bolton, and also Nat Lofthouse had a lot to do with my early development. I used to talk to Nat a lot about my game.”

Napier training with Francis Lee and Brian Bromley

Napier rose through the youth ranks alongside the likes of Brian Bromley, Dave Hatton and future England and Manchester City star Francis Lee.

The boots of longstanding centre half Bryan Edwards were big ones to fill but Bolton boss Bill Ridding gave Napier the opportunity to stake his claim. He made his first appearances in the senior side in the final two games of the 1964-1965 season.

Napier helped the side keep clean sheets against Leyton Orient and Cardiff City as the Trotters just missed out on promotion, finishing third, as Newcastle went up as champions along with runners up Northampton Town.

As well as Lee and Bromley, Bolton at that time had a side that included Welsh international striker Wyn Davies (often Napier’s roommate for away matches), England international goalkeeper Eddie Hopkinson and Gordon Taylor, who went on to become chairman of the PFA.

For the following 18 months, Napier was a regular at the heart of the Bolton defence, missing just three games in his first full season and playing a part in the game against Charlton Athletic which saw the Addicks’ Keith Peacock become the first substitute used in English football when replacing goalkeeper Mike Rose in a game at Burnden Park on 21st August 1965.

The Ulsterman himself was involved in the first ever Bolton substitution when, following injury, he was replaced in the 3-2 defeat at home to Southampton by Gordon Taylor.

• In the next instalment of this five-part series of articles, Napier describes the camaraderie that existed amongst the Brighton players during his time at the club, and his approach to the opponents he faced.

‘Rattling good’ Tranter’s 50-plus Albion games

WILF TRANTER, who died in July 2021, was one of a number of former Manchester United players to pitch up at Brighton in the 1960s.

He arrived at the Goldstone Ground on 5 May 1966, signed by Archie Macaulay, and made his debut the following day, taking over Derek Leck’s no.4 shirt in a 3-1 defeat at Shrewsbury Town.

A back injury kept him out of action at the start of the 1966-67 season and he had to wait until the end of October to return to the first team, in a home 1-1 League Cup draw against Northampton Town. He must have been thankful to have been a non-playing sub for the replay at Northampton as the Cobblers smashed Albion 8-0 to progress to the fifth round.

Restored to the side for the 5 November 2-0 home win over Oldham Athletic, Tranter settled into a regular slot and, according to the matchday programme, had a run of “rattling good games”.

“Strongly-built Tranter has played his part in our recent recovery and climb up the league table,” it declared. He only missed three games over the following four months, through to the beginning of March.

He then dropped right out of the picture, with Albion flirting dangerously close to the drop, before returning in a much-changed line-up for the last game of the season (a 1-1 draw away to Doncaster) after safety had been secured two games previously, courtesy of a 1-1 home draw against Middlesbrough.

Tranter and fellow defender Norman Gall

With big money signing John Napier preferred alongside Norman Gall in the centre, and young Stewart Henderson looking to take over the right-back shirt from the ageing Jimmy Magill, there was stiff competition for places in defence.

However, at the start of the 1967-68 season, Tranter made the right-back spot his own and even managed to get on the scoresheet with a goal in Albion’s 3-1 win at Mansfield on 21 October 1967.

The Albion programme said Tranter raced through and caught Town by surprise before hammering home and Evening Argus Albion reporter John Vinicombe described the goal as “a truly splendid effort”. It was Tranter’s only goal for the club. One of the other scorers that day, John Templeman, notched his first for the Albion. Charlie Livesey had opened the scoring.

A familiar face arrived at the Goldstone that autumn when former United midfielder Nobby Lawton joined for a £10,000 fee from Preston North End. Tranter missed only a handful of matches as Albion hovered in mid-table but his time at the club drew to a close with 55 league and cup appearances to his name, plus two as a sub.

His final start for Brighton came in an ignominious 4-0 defeat at Watford on 23 March 1968. He did appear as a substitute for Dave Turner in a 1-1 home draw with Barrow on 27 April but, at the season’s end, he was one of seven players transfer listed.

Maybe if he’d stuck around, his Albion career would have been longer because by the end of that year another of his former United colleagues, Freddie Goodwin, took over as manager, and among his first signings was former Busby Babe Alex Dawson.

But, by then, Tranter was playing for Baltimore Bays in the North American Soccer League (NASL), featuring in 12 matches during a six-month spell alongside former Manchester United inside forward Dennis Viollet. The side was coached by Gordon Jago, later QPR and Millwall manager.

Tranter in action for Baltimore Bays

On his return to the UK in January 1969, Tranter signed for Fulham where he played 23 matches in three years. Among his teammates at Craven Cottage were Barry Lloyd, who later managed Brighton, together with goalkeeper Ian Seymour and midfielder Stan Brown, who both had loan spells with the Albion.

Tranter returned to the UK at Fulham

Tranter was born in Pendlebury on 5 March 1945 and went to St Gregory’s Grammar School, Ardwick Green, Manchester, from 1956 until 1961.

He progressed from his school team to become captain of Manchester Boys and also played for Lancashire Boys before signing apprentice forms with United in September 1961.

Although he was taken on as a professional in April 1962, he had to be content with reserve team football for the majority of his time at Old Trafford. In United’s reserve side, Tranter played alongside Bobby Smith (who also later played for Brighton) and Nobby Stiles in midfield, when George Best was on the left wing.

On 7 March 1964, Tranter got to make his one and only first team appearance for United in a 2-0 win away to West Ham.

A crowd of 27,027 at the Boleyn Ground saw him take Bill Foulkes’ place in the side. While United’s goals were scored by David Herd and David Sadler, by all accounts Tranter did well to quell the threat of Hammers’ striker Johnny Byrne.

Manager Matt Busby rested Denis Law, Best and Bobby Charlton for the game – because United were facing the Hammers in the FA Cup semi-final the following Saturday. The weakened Reds might have won the league game but the back-to-full-strength side lost the Cup semi-final 3-1 in front of 65,000 at Hillsborough.

In the final at Wembley, the Hammers won the cup 3-2, beating Preston North End, captained by the aforementioned midfielder, Lawton. Hammers conceded two goals, one scored by the also-referrred-to Dawson.

After his previous post-Albion stint in the States, Tranter returned four years later and played 14 NASL matches for St Louis Stars. Amongst his teammates in Missouri was John Sewell, the former Charlton, Crystal Palace and Orient defender, who later managed the Stars.

Back in the UK, Tranter dropped into non-league football with Dover Town but in the late ‘70s linked up with fellow former United reserve Smith as assistant manager at Swindon Town.

His time in the County Ground dugout proved eventful in more ways than one.

Towards the end of the 1978-79 season, when Town and Gillingham were both chasing promotion, a fiery encounter at Priestfield in March (when a fan got on the pitch and knocked out the referee!) was followed by an even more explosive encounter between the two clubs in May.

The whole story is told from different angles but Town midfielder Ray McHale, who would later join Brighton, was at the centre of some ugly tackling by the Gills. In the tunnel after the game Tranter was alleged to have made some “unsavoury” remarks which led to someone punching him in the face. He had to go to hospital for treatment.

Two Gillingham players – future Albion coach Dean White and Ken Price – were accused of inflicting Tranter’s injuries but they were subsequently found not guilty at Swindon Crown Court.

The following season, Swindon memorably beat Arsenal in the League Cup after forcing a draw at Highbury, although Tranter was lucky to be at the game. On the eve of the match, he escaped serious injury when his car spun out of control in heavy rain and skidded through a gap in a roadside hedge before landing safely in a field.

After leaving Swindon, Tranter had spells managing non-league sides, notably following in the footsteps of his old United teammate Foulkes by taking the reins at Southern Midland Division side Witney Town.

He then had a season in charge at Banbury United and took over at Hungerford Town between 1992 and 1993. At Hungerford, he is fondly remembered for overseeing the refurbishment of the old changing rooms, leaving a 20-year legacy at the club.

According to the Pitching In title, Tranter eventually left the game to focus on business interests in property and care homes.

His wife Carol died aged 70 in 2016 and Tranter died in his sleep aged 76 on 2 July 2021.

• Pictures from matchday programmes and online sources.

Cobblers hero Mike Everitt started out with the Gunners

CONTACTS made as a youngster at Arsenal stood versatile Mike Everitt in good stead for the rest of his career.

He went on to play under his former Gunners teammate Dave Bowen at Northampton Town as part of one of football’s most remarkable stories and earned a place in the Cobblers’ ‘team of the century’.

Later, he joined a small enclave of former Arsenal players at Brighton. Everitt swapped Devon for Sussex in March 1968 when he moved from Plymouth Argyle for a £2,500 fee.

The man who signed him, Archie Macaulay, was a former Arsenal man himself who’d already brought three other ex-Gunners to Hove in goalkeeper Tony Burns, Irish international full-back Jimmy Magill and winger Brian Tawse.

Everitt started the new season as first choice left-back in Macaulay’s side and an uninterrupted 14-game run in the team as autumn turned to winter straddled Macaulay’s departure and the arrival of new boss Freddie Goodwin.

Everitt slotted home a penalty as Albion drew 1-1 away to Bristol Rovers on 18 January 1969 but the 3-1 home win over Crewe Alexandra the following Saturday was his last outing of the season.

Everitt, Howard Wilkinson and Dave Turner from this Albion line-up all went on to become coaches

He picked up an injury and, with Goodwin having signed his former Leeds teammate Barrie Wright from New York Generals, local lad John Templeman able to fill either full-back slot, not to mention the addition of Eddie Spearritt from Ipswich Town, Everitt couldn’t win back his place in the starting line-up.

Competition for a starting place only intensified in the summer of 1969 when Goodwin’s former Leeds teammate, Willie Bell, arrived from Leicester and was installed as the regular choice at left-back, while Stewart Henderson cemented the right-back slot to the extent he was named Player of the Season.

While Everitt deputised for Bell on a couple of occasions and filled Bobby Smith’s midfield spot for four matches, his only other involvement was as sub on a handful of occasions. He was a non-playing sub in the final game of the season (a 2-1 home defeat to Mansfield Town) and then left the club during the close season.

Born in Clacton on 16 January 1941, Everitt represented Essex Schoolboys and London Schoolboys before being taken on as an apprentice by Arsenal in 1956. He turned professional in February 1958 and, thanks to the excellent records of thearsenalhistory.com, we know that he first played in the first team in the Harry Bamford Memorial match at Eastville against a Bristol XI on 8 May 1959.

He then went on Arsenal’s end-of-season tour to Italy and Switzerland. He was an unused sub for friendlies against Juventus and Fiorentina but came on as a substitute in a 4-1 win over Lugano of Switzerland on 24 May 1959.

Everitt (circled back row) lines up for Arsenal – with (left to right trio in centre of front row), David Herd, Tommy Docherty and Jimmy Bloomfield

It wasn’t until Easter 1960 that he made his competitive first team breakthrough, but when he did it was a baptism of fire in George Swindin’s side.

He made his first team debut in front of 37,873 fans packed into Highbury on Good Friday (15 April 1960) as the Gunners beat a Johnny Haynes-led Fulham side 2-0.

Modern day players might not be able to comprehend it but Everitt also played the following day when Arsenal travelled to Birmingham City, and lost 3-0. Two days later, away to Fulham this time, Everitt was again in the starting line-up as Arsenal lost 3-0.

He kept his place for the following Saturday’s match – at home to Manchester United – and in front of 41,057 he was part of the side that beat United 5-2. Future Albion teammate Alex Dawson led the line for a United team that included Bobby Charlton and Johnny Giles.

That was the penultimate game of the season and Everitt retained his place for the final game, which ended in a 1-0 defeat to West Brom at The Hawthorns.

The 1960-61 season got off to a good start for him too as he played in the opening four matches and, into the bargain, scored Arsenal’s only goal as they beat Preston North End at home on 23 August. Unfortunately for him, a tigerish Scot called Tommy Docherty edged him out of the first team picture and in February 1961 he moved to Fourth Division Northampton Town (for a fee of £4,000) who were managed by the aforementioned Bowen.

His stay with the Cobblers spanned one of the most remarkable stories in football history as they were promoted season on season from the Fourth to the First….and then relegated all the way back down again (although Everitt had left for pastures new before they reached the basement again).

What he was part of, though, was achieving three promotions in five years. Glenn Billingham recalled that heady era in a 2017 article for thesefootballtimes.co.

In 1961-62, Everitt was a regular at wing-half and scored five goals in 41 appearances. He switched to left-back the following season and played 30 matches as Town went up as champions.

A season of consolidation in 1963-64 saw Town finish 11th in Division Two, when Everitt played 45 matches. He played in 43 games in the 1964-65 season which culminated in the historic promotion to the top-flight courtesy of finishing in runners up spot, a point behind champions Newcastle United.

Necessary investment in improving the squad was slow to materialise and Bowen initially had to rely on the same squad of players who’d got them up. Everitt was one of only five Town players who had previously played at that level.

A 5-2 defeat away to Everton in the opening fixture was perhaps a portent of what was to follow for the rest of the season. They didn’t record a win until their 14th game, at home to West Ham (when they won 2-1), but the underdogs performed heroics in their first two home matches. It must have been quite an occasion when in only the second game of the season Everitt lined up in the Northampton side to face Arsenal.

The game finished 1-1, although Everitt had to be replaced at half-time. However, he also played in the return fixture at Highbury which also finished in a 1-1 draw.

Town also drew 1-1 at home to Manchester United, stifling the attacking threat of Best, Law and Charlton, although United exacted revenge at Old Trafford where they dished out a 6-2 thrashing. Charlton got a hat-trick, Law scored a couple and John Connelly was also on the scoresheet.

Everitt made 34 appearances (plus one as sub) that season and scored two goals, one in a rare win, in the penultimate game, when the Cobblers beat Sunderland 2-1 (the Wearsiders scorer was Neil Martin, who later played for the Albion). Graham Carr (father of comedian Alan Carr) played 30 times for the Cobblers that season.

Back in the second tier, Everitt featured in 17 games but as Town plummeted straight through the division, he moved on to Plymouth Argyle in March 1967, where his former Arsenal teammate Jimmy Bloomfield had moved to from West Ham. Everitt was still only 26 when he made his debut in a 1-0 home defeat to Wolverhampton Wanderers. After 31 games for Argyle, he made the move to Brighton.

Everitt had already gained his preliminary coaching badge when still a player and after leaving Brighton in 1970 he initially moved to Plymouth City as player-manager. Within months, he seized the opportunity to move up a level when he landed the player-manager role at then Southern League Wimbledon.

In a January 2010 interview in The Guardian, it was revealed the two candidates he beat to land the position were David Pleat, who went on to manage Luton, Leicester and Spurs, and his former Albion teammate Howard Wilkinson, who won the league title with Leeds United.

Pleat recalled: “The director, Stanley Reed, went for Mike and Howard ended up at Boston United while I was eventually appointed by Nuneaton Borough in the Southern League.”

A few eyebrows were raised in 1973 when Everitt was appointed manager of newly-relegated Brentford just seven days before the start of the 1973-74 season, taking over from Frank Blunstone, who’d left to become youth team manager at Manchester United.

Greville Waterman, on a Bees fan blog, said Everitt polarised opinion, declaring: “He was undoubtedly a cheap option and received little support from the directors (now where have we heard that before) and did his best with a wafer thin squad.”

A classic example saw defender Stewart Houston sold to Manchester United for a club record £55,000 in December 1973, but the money wasn’t immediately reinvested in the squad.

Nevertheless, Waterman pointed out: “His approach did not go down well with some of his players and he brought in a number of tough bruisers. Under his management, Brentford declined rapidly, fell to the bottom of the Football League and barely escaped the need to apply for re-election.”

Legendary Brentford defender Alan Nelmes was particularly disparaging about Everitt. “He didn’t have the technical expertise that Frank had and you felt as if the club wasn’t going anywhere with him. Frank was very advanced in his thinking, ahead of his time, really, and it was a step backwards to have Mike.”

Everitt finally got some backing from the boardroom on transfer deadline day. Experienced forward Dave Simmons was brought in from Cambridge United and former Everton and Southampton defender Jimmy Gabriel from Bournemouth and a 10-match unbeaten run from mid-February to early April did enough to assure the Bees avoided bottom spot even though their finishing position of 19th was their lowest position for nearly 50 years. Crowds were hovering around only 5,000 too.

It didn’t get much better the following season and in spite of getting a vote of confidence in November 1974 from new chairman Dan Tana, Everitt only lasted a few more weeks in the hotseat.

Ironically, after a poor start to the campaign, he’d begun to turn results round and lifted the side to a mid-table position on the back of four wins and a draw in a seven-game spell between late November to mid-January, but he was sacked on 16 January and replaced with John Docherty, who’d only packed up playing for the Bees the previous summer.

Everitt’s next role came as a coach (pictured above) under his old Arsenal pal Bloomfield at Leicester City, and former winger Len Glover came up with an amusing reminiscence on lcfc.com.

Glover recalled when he was 17 playing against Everitt for Charlton Athletic against Northampton.

“He had massive thighs, and had his sleeves rolled up. In the first five minutes he had kicked me when the ball was nowhere near, and now he was our coach!

“He was just the same when he was our coach. When he started, he gathered us round at the training ground. His opening gambit was, ‘You don’t know me, and I don’t know you, but we will soon change that!’

“Then he noticed Frank Worthington who was not with the group but was with the apprentices who were crossing the ball for him to volley like they did every morning. He went, ‘Oi, get over here!’ Frank went, ‘Yeah, in a minute’. Instead of saying, ‘Over here, now!’ Everitt just went, ‘Well, hurry up then’.

“Before Everitt left we went to Leeds and we got stuffed 3-0. After the game Birch (Alan Birchenall) was doing his hair with his hair dryer. Win or lose he would always do his hair. Mike Everitt came in and said, ‘It’s a pity you’re not as good with the ball as you are with that hair dryer!’ Birch replied, ‘If I was as good with the ball as I am with the hair dryer, I wouldn’t be playing for Leicester!’”

After leaving Leicester, Everitt managed Kuwaiti side Al-Shabab when another former Arsenal teammate, George Armstrong, was manager of the Kuwaiti national side (Armstrong’s daughter, Jill, posted a picture of them in Kuwait on Twitter in 2019).

Jill Armstrong posted this picture on Twitter of her with dad George and Everitt in Kuwait

After Kuwait, Everitt managed Cairo-based Egyptian teams Al Mokawloon and Al Ahly, the club Percy Tau joined in the summer of 2021.

According to Wikipedia, Everitt had particular success at Al Mokawloon, winning the 1982-83 Egyptian Premier League title and two African Cup Winners Cups.

• Pictures from matchday programmes and online sources.