I WAS SAD to learn of the recent death of George Ley, a classy left-back who brought higher level experience to newly-promoted Brighton in September 1972.
Ley, who died in a Tiverton, Devon, nursing home aged 80 on 22 April 2026, was a £28,000 signing from Portsmouth not long after Pat Saward had steered the club to promotion to the old Division Two.
It was a level Ley was more than comfortable with having been a regular for Pompey in that division for over five years. At the Albion, he linked up again with his old teammate Brian Bromley who he described as “one of my best mates”.
Interviewed several years later, Ley recalled: “He used to play just in front of me in midfield when I was at full back, that was one of the reasons why I left – to go and play with Brom again in that position.”
History has since shown that manager Pat Saward acted too hastily in breaking up the side that had won promotion from the Third Division four months earlier.
But Ley certainly added extra quality and he became a fixture on the left side of Albion’s defence throughout the remainder of Saward’s tenure, which sadly included relegation back to the third tier.
Fourteen months after signing, when Brian Clough and Peter Taylor took over the reins at Brighton, it was quite a different story for a player once voted the best-looking footballer in the country!
Ley was unceremoniously dumped after Albion had suffered three humiliating defeats in a row (4-0 v non-league Walton & Hersham in the FA Cup, 8-2 at home to Bristol Rovers and 4-1 at Tranmere Rovers) – and he never played for the club again.
George Ley in action for Brighton against Burnley
Clough brought in Burnley youngster Harry Wilson and he immediately took over Ley’s left-back spot, a position he held for the next three years.
Ley moved on to Gillingham for a couple of seasons before heading to the States where he eventually spent the majority of the rest of his life.
Born Oliver Albert George Ley in Exminster, Devon, on 7 April 1946, he went to Dawlish Secondary school and fellow pupil David Hill remembered fondly: “The games master Peter Gale arranged a football tour to Southampton. There was a competition for keepy-uppies with a football, George had to be stopped as he was doing too many!”
Teenage Ley had a three-month trial at Arsenal but didn’t earn a contract, instead joining Athenian League side Hitchin Town. At 17, he moved back to Devon to sign for Exeter City and made his first team debut aged 19 as a left-winger on 11 September 1963 in a 1-0 home win over Carlisle United.
After a run of nine games up until the middle of October, he slipped out of contention and made just five more league appearances as the Grecians won promotion from the old Division 4 in fourth spot. Ley made 18 appearances at the higher level the following season, when City finished 17th.
The excellent Grecian Archive notes that Ley cemented his place in the team after manager Ellis Stuttard, a full-back himself during his playing days, switched Ley to the left-back spot from October 1965 onwards. It records that Swansea showed an interest in him in June 1966 and at the start of the 1966-67 he asked for a transfer.
However, he stayed at the club and made 33 starts in the 1966-67 campaign, before being transferred to Portsmouth in May 1967 for a fee of £8,000.
He reportedly received a £1,000 signing-on fee and his weekly wage went up from £20 to £30. He made his Pompey debut in the final match of the 1966-67 campaign at Huddersfield.
“This was a special talent swimming in a sea of mediocrity, a player who stood out a mile and was always destined to go on and sample greater things,” wrote columnist Vince Coulter in the south west Sunday newspaper, the Sunday Independent.
At Portsmouth, Ley made 204 appearances in five years and became something of a fans’ favourite. Readers of the Football League Review even voted him the best-looking player in the country – just ahead of George Best.
Ley in his pomp at PompeyLeft-back Ley against BlackpoolHall of Fame inductee in 2015
As an indication of his enduring popularity among the Pompey faithful, in March 2015 he was inducted into Portsmouth’s Hall of Fame.
In his first full season, 1967-68, Pompey were top of the league at Christmas and looked on course for promotion to Division 1. But they won just three of their final 13 games and fell away to fifth.
There was a highlight in the FA Cup, though, when in February 1968 Pompey beat top-flight Fulham 1-0 in a fourth-round replay. A crowd of 44,050 packed into Fratton Park to see the home side overcome a team that included the likes of Johnny Haynes and a young Allan Clarke.
Portsmouth’s goal was scored by Mike Trebilcock, who’d scored twice for Everton in the 1965 FA Cup Final.
Another titanic FA Cup fourth round encounter at Fratton Park came in 1971 when Double-chasing Arsenal were held 1-1, Trebilcock grabbing a last-gasp leveller.
Ley in the thick of FA Cup action tangleswith Arsenal’s Ray Kennedy
In the replay at Highbury, with Pompey trailing 2-1, Ley unleashed a 30-yard shot which rocketed into the top corner to level it up. However, Arsenal won it 3-2, a Peter Storey penalty clinching it for the home side, who did indeed go on to win the Double.
Ley and good pal Brian Bromley reunited at Brighton
There was an amusing anecdote from that match which saw tempers flare in a tense finish and the aforementioned Bromley get sent off. Apparently, with only two minutes of the game to go, Ley hit Gunners full back Pat Rice. Bromley tried to intervene to hold his pal back – and ended up getting the marching orders instead!
There must have been something about the competition that fired Ley up because in a stormy third round FA Cup tie between Brighton and Chelsea at the Goldstone Ground in January 1973, he was sent off in the 85th minute for bringing down Tommy Baldwin from behind and then getting involved in a punch-up with England international Peter Osgood.
There was no defence from manager Saward either, who said: “He will get no sympathy from me. Any of my players who kicks opponents will have to deal with me. The club will not condone it. I will not tolerate it. To do a thing like that is disgraceful.”
On leaving Brighton, Ley played 10 matches for Dallas Tornado in the North American Soccer League before joining Gillingham under Len Ashurst in August 1974.
Ley tackles Albion’s Gerry Fell at Priestfield Stadium
He made his debut against Aldershot the following month and in two seasons with the club made 89 appearances.
According to contributor RichardFallaize in a‘Where are they now?’ article, Ley “got roasted by a very young Steve Coppell who was playing for Tranmere Rovers at Gillingham”.
After leaving Priestfield he returned to the States and Tornado where in five years he made 124 appearances, twice being named in the North American Soccer League’s All-Star team.
There’s a picture (below right) of him in action against the great Pele, who was playing for New York Cosmos, and he shared the experience in a letter to Exeter City-100 Club member John Brand.
“I played against Pele four times. In two of the games I had the job of marking hime in a man-to-man role. I saw a lot of his skills from a very close position and it was a great education.
“He was a complete player with great balance, wonderful touch, smooth movement and total awareness. He was always two or three moved ahead of the game. Pele looked at the game of football as an art.
“Pele did play a wall pass against my shins in one of the games. We looked at each other and share a smile. These games were a great experience for a boy from Exminster.”
Between 1979 and 1982, Ley played for indoor Soccer League side Wichita Wings, alongside former Pompey teammate Norman Piper, and he finished his career at Oklahoma City Slickers, where he was also assistant-coach.
When Ley’s Dallas Tornado and Wichita Wings teammate Jim Ryan was appointed manager of Luton Town in January 1990, Ley joined him as the Hatters’ youth team coach at Kenilworth Road.
Ley and John Moore part of Jim Ryan’s Luton Town coaching staff
A fellow coach was Luton stalwart John Moore, who’d briefly played on loan at Brighton alongside Ley in October/November 1972. Town had Kurt Nogan and Andy Petterson on their books at the time.
Ley also coached at League of Ireland side St Patrick’s Athletic but he returned to the States, settled in Austin, Texas, and coached teams at various levels: youth, amateur and professional such as Austin Sockadillos, River City Rangers and Crossfire Soccer Club.
George Ley pictured in 2022
He returned to Devon in 2018 and, sadly, in his final years suffered dementia. In January 2024, an Exmouth bus driver, Jon Davis, said: “George is a regular on our bus services.
“Unfortunately, I believe George has been suffering from some form of dementia in older years. He’s sometimes very confused but he’s a lovely fella and we all make sure he gets home safe and sound.”
Former clubsExeter and Portsmouth paid tribute on news of his death and in an obituary in Backpass magazine, Ivan Ponting described Ley as “a pacy, stylish full-back” and Kirsty Fitzpatrick wrote: “I got to know George in his later years and he spoke with such enthusiasm and pride about his football career. He had some great stories.”
THE NEW season opening game 26 years ago saw Darren Freeman score a hat-trick as the back-in-Brighton Seagulls hammered Mansfield Town 6-0.
For Freeman, who’d previously played under Micky Adams at Fulham and Brentford, it really couldn’t have been a better debut for his hometown club as the 1999-2000 season got under way at the Withdean Stadium.
Freeman hit the headlines again when he scored the first league goal of the millennium, crashing home a volley after only two minutes in a noon kick-off 4-2 Withdean win over Exeter City on 3 January 2000. It also earned him a magnum of champagne from league sponsor Nationwide.
Headline-maker
“It was a dream come true to play for my hometown club,” Freeman later admitted. After he’d scored that hat-trick at Withdean, he managed to pick out his dad’s face in the 5,582 crowd and fondly recalled his ‘That’s my boy!’ look of pride.
If the start of the season was spectacular, trouble was lurking round the corner with Freeman ending up suspended for seven matches – all in the first half of the season. He incurred a three-game ban after being dismissed for a stamping incident at Cheltenham and worse was to follow after he spat in Plymouth defender Jon Beswetherick’s face.
Beswetherick said: “He caught me in the face with his fist just inside the 18-yard box. I ran after him to have a word in his ear and on the way back up the pitch he just spat in my face.
“He had to go. Footballers all say that is the lowest thing you can do. It was probably in the heat of the moment, but I am sure he regrets it now.”
Not only did he receive a four-game suspension, manager Adams fined him a week’s wages and said: “He let himself down, the club down, his family down and everybody connected with Brighton. He knows that and he is full of remorse. He has been left in no doubt at all that it’s not good enough.”
Freeman was top scorer with 13 goals by the end of the season but a new goalscoring hero had begun to emerge in the shape of raw teenager Bobby Zamora!
That’s not to say Freeman’s days in the stripes were over, but his second season was dogged by injuries. Two hernia operations ruled him out from the start of September to the middle of December, then, after he had worked his way back into the starting line-up, in February 2001 he put in a transfer request after being left out of the side for a home game against Blackpool, sparking an angry reaction from Adams.
“I picked a side against Blackpool which I thought would win us the game and he wasn’t in it,” he said. “He is entitled not to agree, but there is a wrong way and a right way of knocking on my door and he chose the wrong way.
“I’ve never had one player ask to leave a club where I have been a manager. This is somebody as well who I had the utmost time and respect for, having taken him to two of my previous clubs.”
Freeman had a change of heart the following month after Adams restored him to the bench.
“I want to be a part of things,” he explained. “Obviously I’ve had a bad season with injuries and a lot of it was frustration.
“When me and Micky had a chat and I asked for a transfer we both said a few things. We didn’t have a massive fall-out. We are both adults and we have got to get on with it.”
The Argus revealed Freeman’s mentor, and former Albion forward and Northern Ireland international Gerry Armstrong played a part in the decision.
“I speak to Gerry a couple of times a week,” Freeman said. “A man of his experience can only give you good advice. I’ve had a number of conversations with him. It was my own choice to come off the transfer list, but Gerry has talked some great sense into me.”
Albion finished the season as division champions but by then Freeman was having a third hernia operation having made just six starts plus 12 appearances off the bench.
“I admit that as much as I was pleased for the lads, I felt gutted I wasn’t really part of it,” Freeman admitted. He went to Lilleshall and worked through the summer in an effort to regain fitness and earn a new contract.
But it was an uphill battle and although he struggled through pre-season and played in Albion’s opening friendly at his old club Worthing, he told the Argus: “I could hardly walk after the game. I was up all night in absolute agony.”
He was sent to see Harley Street specialist Jerry Gilmore who delivered devastating news: “There is no way you can carry on playing professional football. You are in a right mess, but hopefully we can do something to give you a better quality of life.”
A fourth hernia operation followed but not being able to resume his career hit him hard.
“The club have played an absolutely massive part in helping me through and all of my family and friends, because it has really been a rough time,” he told the Argus.
“It has been great working with him (Adams). He gave me the opportunity to experience promotions, the freedom to express my way of playing and the opportunity to fulfil my ambition.”
In a matchday programme interview several years later, Freeman told Spencer Vignes: “On reflection, I was lucky. Some people play their entire career and don’t win anything, and yet every club I played for got promoted.”
Born in Brighton on 22 August 1973, Freeman went to Varndean School, started playing football with Hollingbury Hawks and then joined Whitehawk as a teenager before playing at Isthmian League level for Worthing and Horsham.
“I came through the non-league system and was given the opportunity to fulfil my dreams,” he told Vignes. “I wasn’t the greatest player but what I can say is I gave everything for every club I played for.”
Freeman turned professional with Gillingham under Tony Pulis in August 1994, where he played alongside future Fulham and Albion teammates Richard Carpenter and Paul Watson. He recalled how it was while he was playing for the Gills against Fulham that Adams’ no.2 Alan Cork got in his ear and told him not to sign a new contract at Priestfield because Fulham wanted to sign him.
Sure enough, as Freeman admitted to Vignes: “Once I knew Fulham were interested, then I was interested. They were, and are, a massive club and it was nice that a team like that wanted me.”
Impressed by Adams’ man-management skills, he said: “He made me feel wanted and that I was a big part of his plans for the 1996-97 season. He sold Fulham to me, saying we were going to do well. And we did, because we won promotion.”
In full flow for Fulham
Fulham fans website HammyEnd.com recalled: “The £15,000 Micky Adams paid to Gillingham for the services of shaggy-haired Darren Freeman proved to be a bargain.
“The popular forward quickly became a firm favourite with the Fulham faithful on account of his ability to terrorise defenders, either out wide or through the middle as a conventional centre forward.
“Injuries robbed Freeman of the chance to make good on his undoubted talented, but he still scored nine goals as the Whites went up from Division Three in 1997.”
In an interview with fulhamfc.com, Freeman said: “Micky brought in a great bunch of lads and the togetherness was fantastic. The team morale was really, really good.
“He was quite a young manager, I think he’d actually played that season, but he’d got a great bunch of lads together and we really kicked on.
“When you consider that it was Micky’s first full season as a manager, it’s incredible what he achieved. He went about his business and did his job fantastically.”
He added: “Micky had a lot of faith in me and I feel very privileged to have achieved my goals and my ambitions from when I was a kid, and to be a part of Fulham was the icing on the cake.
“We were paid to do a job but, when I look back at it, it was a dream come true and I don’t think you realise until later on in life how important it was. Fulham, to me, the fans and the whole club, it was just a special time for me.”
As with many others at Craven Cottage, Freeman’s fortunes changed when Kevin Keegan and Ray Wilkins were installed as managers by Mohamed Al Fayed and he joined something of an exodus across London to Brentford.
Coincidentally, Freeman scored on his league debut for Brentford in a 3-0 win over Mansfield (the Stags must have loved him!) and his teammates in that 1998-99 season included Watson, Lloyd Uwusu, Warren Aspinall and Charlie Oatway. Owusu ended the season as top scorer with 25 goals (Freeman scored nine) as the Bees won the Third Division championship.
After his playing days were brought to a premature end, Freeman spent five years as manager of his first club, Whitehawk, leading them to three promotions (from the Sussex County League to the Conference South) and in 2012 to winning the Sussex Senior Cup.
He briefly managed Peacehaven and Telscombe before occupying the manager’s chair at Lewes for nearly three years.
He subsequently became a football agent, initially spending 18 months with Sports Total, one of Europe’s leading football agencies, before joining forces with his former Brentford team at Dirk Hebel Sports Consulting (Hebel named one of his sons Darren after his teammate!).
Freeman told Vignes he relishes the opportunity to pass on his knowledge of the game to current players. “They say nothing compares to playing, but I find it very rewarding. It’s the next best thing to being out there, definitely.”
VIKING lookalike Paul Clark made a lasting impression on plenty of players with robust tackling which earned him ‘legend’ status among fans of Brighton and Southend United.
Described in one programme article as “the big bustling blond with the biting tackle”, Clark was given the nickname ‘Tank’ for his no-nonsense approach. A Southend fan lauded “his crunching tackles and never say die attitude”.
Clark himself reflected: “Wherever you go the supporters tend to like someone who is wholehearted and when it came to 50-50 challenges, or even sometimes 60-40, I didn’t shy away from too many, and the supporters just took to it.”
In Albion yellow against Palace
Giving further insight to his approach, he said: “You can go right up to the line – as long as you don’t step over it, then you’re OK.
“I used to pick up a booking during the first five or 10 minutes, then I knew I had to behave myself for the rest of the game. Despite the reputation I had, I was never sent off in over 500 games.”
A trademark strike at home to West Ham
Former teammate Mark Lawrenson said of him: “You would hate to have to play against him because quite often he would cut you in two. With him and ‘Nobby’ (Brian Horton) in the side, we definitely didn’t take any prisoners. One to rely on.”
A former England schoolboy international, it was said of the player in a matchday programme:
“Paul is the first to admit that skill is not his prime asset but there is no doubt as to the strength of his tackle. He is a real competitor and is also deceptively fast, being one of the best sprinters on the Goldstone staff.”
Born in south Benfleet, Essex, on 14 September 1958, Clark went to Wickford Junior School where he played for the school football team and the district primary schools’ side. When he moved on to Beauchamp Comprehensive, selection for his school team led to him playing for the Basildon Schools’ FA XI.
Clark as an England schoolboy
This in turn led to him being selected to play for England Schools at under 15 level, featuring against Scotland, Ireland, Wales, West Germany and France before going on a tour of Australia with the same age group. Contemporaries included future full time professionals Mark Higgins, Ray Deakin, Kevin Mabbutt and Kenny Sansom.
Clark left school at 16 before taking his O levels when Fourth Division Southend offered him an apprenticeship. He made his first team debut shortly before his 18th birthday in a 2-1 win over Watford.
Two months later, he won the first of six England Youth caps. He made his debut in the November 1976 mini ‘World Cup’ tournament in Monaco against Spain and West Germany alongside future full England internationals Chris Woods, Ricky Hill and Sammy Lee.
The following March, he played in England’s UEFA Youth tournament preliminary match against Wales when they won 1-0 at The Hawthorns. Sansom was also in that side. And he featured in all three group matches at the tournament that May (England beat Belgium 1-0, drew 0-0 with Iceland and 1-1 with Greece). Teammates included Russell Osman and Vince Hilaire.
Clark was only a third of the way into his second season at Southend when Alan Mullery sought to beef up his newly-promoted Brighton side in the autumn of 1977, and, in a part exchange deal involving Gerry Fell moving to Roots Hall, Clark arrived at the Goldstone. He made his debut for the Seagulls in a goalless draw at White Hart Lane on 19 November 1977 in front of a crowd of 48,613. And he came close to crowning it with a goal but for an outstanding save by Spurs ‘keeper Barry Daines.
In full flight, as captured by photographer George Erringshaw
When Spurs visited the Goldstone later that season, Clark put in a man of the match performance and scored a memorable opener, following a solo run. A subsequent matchday programme article was suitably poetic about it.
“It showed all the qualities looked for in a player: determination, speed, skill and most of all the ability to finish….if any goal was singled out, Paul’s was certainly one to treasure.”
Albion went on to beat Spurs 3-1, although the game was remembered more because it was interrupted twice when the crowd spilled onto the pitch.
After only 12 minutes, referee Alan Turvey took the players off for 13 minutes while the pitch was cleared of Albion fans who’d sought safety on the pitch from fighting Spurs’ hooligan fans.
In the 74th minute, with Spurs 3-1 down and defender Don McAllister sent-off, their fans rushed the pitch to try to get the game abandoned. But police stopped the invasion getting out of hand and the game continued after another four-minute delay.
Clark’s goal on 16 minutes had been cancelled out six minutes later when Chris Jones seized on a bad goal kick by Eric Steele but defender Graham Winstanley made it 2-1 just before half-time.
Albion’s third goal was surrounded in controversy. Sub Eric Potts claimed the final touch but Spurs argued bitterly that Malcolm Poskett was offside.
Clark remembered the game vividly when interviewed many years later by Spencer Vignes for the matchday programme. The tenacious midfielder put in an early crunching tackle on Glenn Hoddle and after the game the watching ex-Spurs’ manager Bill Nicholson told him: “Well done. You won that game in the first five minutes when you nailed Hoddle.”
Said Clark: “I was 19 at the time so to get a pat on the back from him was much appreciated.”
It was one of three goals Clark scored in his 26 appearances that season (nine in 93 overall for Albion) but he wasn’t always guaranteed a starting berth and in five years at the club had a number of long spells stuck in the reserves.
Midfield enforcer or emergency defender were his primary roles but Clark was capable of unleashing unstoppable shots from distance and among those nine goals he scored were some memorable strikes.
For instance, as Albion closed in on promotion in the spring of 1979, at home to Charlton Athletic, Clark opened the scoring with a scorching 25-yard left foot volley in the 11th minute. Albion went on to win 2-0.
The following month, Clark demonstrated his versatility at St James’ Park on 3 May 1979 when Albion beat Newcastle 3-1 to win promotion to football’s elite level for the first time. Clark played in the back four alongside Andy Rollings because Mark Lawrenson was out injured with a broken arm.
Celebrating promotion with Peter O’Sullivan and Malcolm Poskett
“Not many people can say they played in a side that got Brighton up to the top flight,” said Clark. “It’s something I’m still immensely proud of.”
Once they were there, Clark missed the opening two matches (defeats at home to Arsenal and away to Aston Villa) and had an ignominious start to life at the higher level when he conceded a penalty within three minutes of going on as a sub for Rollings away to Manchester City on 25 August 1979.
Some observers thought Clark had played the ball rather than foul Ray Ranson but referee Pat Partridge thought otherwise and Michael Robinson stepped up to score his first goal for City from the resultant penalty. It put the home side 3-1 up: Teddy Maybank had equalised Paul Power’s opener but Mike Channon added a second before half-time.
Partridge subsequently evened up the penalty awards but Brian Horton blazed his spot kick wide of the post with Joe Corrigan not needing to make a save. Peter Ward did net a second for the Seagulls but they left Maine Road pointless.
Ahead of Albion’s fourth attempt to get league points on the board, Clark played his part in beating his future employer Cambridge United 2-0 in a second round League Cup match.
Three days later, he was on the scoresheet together with Ward and Horton as Albion celebrated their first win at the higher level, beating Bolton Wanderers 3-1 at the Goldstone.
It was Clark’s neat one-two with Ward that produced the opening goal and on 22 minutes, Maybank teed the ball up for Clark, who “belting in from the edge of the box, gave it everything and his shot kept low and sped very fast past (‘Jim’) McDonagh’s right hand,” said Evening Argus reporter John Vinicombe.
Gerry Ryan replaced Clark late in the game and after 12 starts, when he was subbed off three times, and four appearances off the bench, his season was over, and it wasn’t even Christmas.
A colour photo of a typical Clark tackle (on QPR’s Dave Clement) adorned the front cover of that season’s matchday programmes throughout but he didn’t start another game after a 4-0 League Cup defeat at Arsenal on 13 November.
Programme cover shot
He was sub for the following two games; the memorable 1-0 win at Nottingham Forest and a 1-1 draw at Middlesbrough, but Mullery had signed the experienced Peter Suddaby to play alongside Steve Foster, releasing Lawrenson to demonstrate his considerable repertoire of skills in midfield alongside skipper Horton and Peter O’Sullivan.
Young Giles Stille also began to press for a place and later in the season, Neil McNab was added to the midfield options, leaving Clark well down the pecking order in the reserves. Portsmouth wanted him but he rejected a move along the coast, although he had a brief loan spell at Reading, where he played a couple of games.
But Clark wasn’t finished yet in Albion’s colours and, remarkably, just over a year after his last first team appearance, with the Seagulls struggling in 20th spot in the division, he made a comeback in a 1-0 home win over Aston Villa on 20 December 1980.
Albion had succumbed 4-3 to Everton at Goodison Park in the previous match and Mullery told the Argus: “We badly needed some steel in the side and I think Clark can do that sort of job.”
Under the headline ‘The forgotten man returns’ Argus reporter Vinicombe said Mullery hadn’t changed his opinion that Clark was not a First Division class player, but nevertheless reckoned: “Paul’s attitude is right and I know he’ll go out and do a good job for me.”
For his part, Vinicombe opined: “The strength of Clark’s game is a daunting physical presence. His tackling is second to none in the club and Mullery believes he will respond to the challenge.”
Clark kept the shirt for another nine matches (plus one as a sub), deputising for Horton towards the end of his run, but his last first team game was in a 3-1 defeat at Norwich at the end of February.
Clark remained on the books throughout Mike Bailey’s first season in charge (1981-82) but, with Jimmy Case, Tony Grealish and McNab ahead of him, didn’t make a first team appearance and left on a free transfer at the end of it.
Back to Southend
He returned to Southend where he stayed for nine years and was player-manager on two occasions. Fans website shrimperzone.com moderator ‘Yorkshire Blue’ summed up his contribution to their cause thus: “In the top five all-time list for appearances, an inspiration in four promotions, one of the toughest tacklers of all-time and a man whose commitment for his home-town club could never be doubted.”
Clark was still only 27 when he had his first spell as manager, in caretaker charge after Dave Webb had quit following a bust-up with the club chairman, and he managed to steer United to promotion back to the third tier.
When Webb’s successor Dick Bate lasted only eight games of the new season, Clark was back at the helm, in turn becoming the youngest manager in the league.
His first hurdle ended in a League Cup giant killing over top flight Derby County (who included his old teammate John Gregory) when the Us had another former Albion teammate, Eric Steele, in goal.
A Roy McDonough penalty past England goalkeeper Peter Shilton at Roots Hall settled the two-legged tie (the second leg was goalless at the Baseball Ground) which the writer described as “arguably their biggest ever cup shock”.
In the league, player-manager Clark guided Southend to a safe 17th place but it went pear-shaped the following season. Clark only played 16 games, Southend were relegated, and Webb returning midway through the season as general manager.
Back-to-back promotions in 1989-90 and 1990-91 proved to be a more than satisfactory swansong to his Southend career, and in the first of those he found himself forming an effective defensive partnership with on-loan Guy Butters in the second half of the season.
In 1990-91, he missed only six games all season as the Shrimpers earned promotion to the second tier for the first time in their history, and he had a testimonial game against Arsenal.
But, after a total of 358 games for Southend, he left Roots Hall to join Gillingham on a free transfer.
Over three seasons, he played 90 league games, and was caretaker manager in 1992, before retiring at the end of the 1993-94 season. Gillingham’s top goalscorer with 18 that season was a young Nicky Forster and other Albion connections in that squad included Mike Trusson, Paul Watson, Neil Smillie, Andy Arnott and Richard Carpenter.
After Gillingham, Clark played non-league for Chelmsford City but left to become assistant manager to Tommy Taylor at Cambridge United. In 1996 he followed Taylor in a similar role to Leyton Orient.
Southend fans hadn’t heard the last of him, though – quite literally. He became a co-commentator on Southend games for BBC Radio Essex.
In the 2009-10 season, Clark was temporarily assistant manager to Joe Dunne at Colchester United.
STEVE CLARIDGE became a Leicester City hero long before briefly coming to Brighton’s rescue.
He scored the winner in a play-off final at Wembley to take the Foxes up to the Premier League at the expense of Crystal Palace, who’d discarded him at an early age.
Both sides had been relegated from the top flight the year before and Claridge’s right-foot strike past Nigel Martyn in the 120th minute meant it was an immediate return for Martin O’Neill’s side.
“The high is not equal to anything,” Claridge told Leicestershire Live.
Scoringplay-off winner v Palace
It came in 1996 and a year later he scored the only goal of the game (past Ben Roberts) in the 100th minute of a replay against Middlesbrough to win Leicester the League Cup, leading to him being named FourFourTwo’s ‘Cult Hero of 1997’.
Claridge had only completed a £1.2m move from Birmingham City two months before that play-off and he labelled it the most important goal of his life coming after a worrying period in which he wasn’t sure he’d ever be able to play again.
A mystery illness had ravaged his form and in only his fifth Leicester game he was taken off after 15 minutes. “Pins and needles from my knees down were so extreme, I could not even feel the ball,” he recalled.
It turned out a drug prescribed for a thyroid problem he’d had since the age of 12 was destroying his thyroid gland. “The main energy provider of my body was no longer functioning,” said Claridge.
However, once on the right medication, he made an almost unbelievable recovery, was restored to the side and helped to secure a play-off place.
After beating Stoke City in the semi-finals, they went a goal down to Palace in the final but pulled it back through a Garry Parker penalty before Claridge seized his chance in the dying moments of extra time.
Wembley winners for Leicester: Garry Parker and Steve Claridge
He collected a quick free kick from Parker and took aim, his shot from distance kissing the stanchion with goalkeeper Martyn motionless.
“The crowd is just really stunned in disbelief, I don’t know if that was because I’d hit it,” laughed Claridge. “It was so far out, and everybody was used to me scoring goals inside the six-yard box.”
He reflected: “To finish off after the lows I went through, the absolute lows where you’re thinking, ‘my career is over I can’t see a way out of this,’ to doing that and taking you to the ultimate high – winning that game of football. It’s unparalleled.”
Albion cover ‘boy’
Such experience was exactly what Championship strugglers Albion required when, on the back of three defeats, they faced the daunting prospect of promotion-seeking West Ham away on 13 November 2004.
Manager Mark McGhee, who’d previously signed Claridge when he was at Wolves and Millwall, was desperate to stem a tide which had seen eight goals conceded and no points on the board.
“He is one of the fittest players I’ve worked with and I had no doubt that after 18 months away from this level he would be able to perform,” said McGhee.
Claridge’s professional career looked to have run its course after he left Millwall in 2003 and became player-manager of Southern League side Weymouth.
But the disappointment of missing out on promotion had seen him and chairman Ian Ridley leave the club and Claridge, at the age of 38, was keen to give league football another go.
In what turned out to be a real backs-to-the-wall smash and grab raid, Albion earned the unlikeliest of 1-0 wins courtesy of a Guy Butters header from Richard Carpenter’s free kick.
Albion held firm despite a relentless wave of attacks by the home side and afterwards McGhee said: “We approached the game differently. Whereas before we thought we could win, today we did not, and played to make sure we didn’t get beaten.
“We kept the ball up front more which is important. Steve Claridge was key to that.”
Unfortunately, Brighton were not able to build on the win at the Boleyn Ground and there was only one more win (1-0 at home to Rotherham) during Claridge’s month with the club.
His fifth and final game for the Seagulls came away to his old club Millwall on 11 December 2004, when Albion lost 2-0.
In a programme feature about him that day, Claridge likened the circumstances of both clubs. “The club has no money and it is tough just to survive, but everyone is in it together,” he said. “At Millwall we had a great team spirit and togetherness, and that is very much the case here.”
McGhee’s tight budget prevented Claridge’s stay at Albion being extended and, after his deal was over, rather than it being one last hurrah, he went on to continue his league playing days at Brentford, Wycombe Wanderers, Gillingham, Bradford City and Walsall.
And, at the age of 40, and with him needing just one more game to fulfil the landmark of 1,000 professional games, his old club Bournemouth – where he’d started out as a professional in 1984 – gave him a match against Port Vale on 9 December 2006. No fairy tale, though, as they lost 4-0.
Born in Portsmouth on 10 April 1966, Claridge was brought up in Titchfield and began his football career at nearby Fareham Town in 1983. His initial foray into the pro game at Bournemouth only amounted to seven games before he moved to Weymouth for three years.
Crystal Palace offered him a route back to the full professional game in 1988 but he didn’t make their league side and after three months moved on to fourth tier Aldershot Town.
Two spells with Cambridge United followed between 1990 and 1994 for whom he scored 46 goals in 132 games. A falling out with manager John Beck saw him sold to Luton Town in 1992, but he was then bought back after Beck’s departure.
Birmingham City paid £350,000 to take Claridge to St Andrews and he became one of the club’s most prolific goalscorers, netting 35 in 88 games, and was top scorer with 25 goals when part of Barry Fry’s Blues side that won the Second Division title and the Auto Windscreens Shield (Football League Trophy) in the 1994-95 season.
After spending two years at Leicester, he went on a two-month loan to his hometown club, Portsmouth, but, in March 1998, McGhee signed him for the first time – and it didn’t go well.
The Scot, who had controversially left Leicester to take over at Wolves, took Claridge to Molineux for a £350,000 fee. But Wolves fans were not impressed, as Levelle revealed in this 2012 piece, and after just six games and no goals in the famous old gold shirt, he was sold to Portsmouth for £250,000 at the end of the season.
Even more galling for Wolves followers was that no sooner had Claridge made the switch to Portsmouth, he scored all three in a 3-1 win at Fratton Park!
David Miller in The Telegraph wrote: “The 34-year-old Steve Claridge, who had failed to score in five months when previously with Wolves, now gave sun-blessed Portsmouth a bank holiday funfair with a first- half hat-trick that was as easy as licking an ice-lolly.”
On the ball for Pompey
The goals and games came thick and fast for Claridge back on home turf – 34 in 104 – but his reign as player-manager at Fratton Park in 2000 was curtailed after just 25 games by the quirky chairman Milan Mandarić.
Remembering the player he’d seen only briefly a couple of years earlier, McGhee, by now in charge at Millwall, offered the striker a lifeline with the Lions, initially on loan and then as a permanent signing.
Going through the pain barrier at Millwall
Over two seasons in south east London, he became something of a fans’ favourite, scoring 26 in 85 matches, his efforts summed up by writer Mark Litchfield. “His style was unconventional, to say the least: shirt untucked, one sock down and no shin pads, any naïve defender probably thought they could eat him for breakfast. But hard work was a pre-requisite for Claridge – he wouldn’t give any opposition player a moment’s rest and would more often than not always get the better of them, too.”
Claridge had a less happy association with Millwall too when in July 2005 he was sacked after just 36 days as manager when the chairman who appointed him, Jeff Burnidge, was replaced by Theo Paphitis, who wanted Colin Lee instead.
Even after achieving the 1,000-game landmark courtesy of Bournemouth, Claridge couldn’t resist the lure of another game, turning out for Worthing, Harrow Borough, Weymouth and Gosport Borough.
He was one of a group of five that formed Salisbury FC at the end of 2014, and as team manager was involved in gaining two promotions in the Southern League before leaving in October 2022.
Although he had officially hung up his boots in 2012 after helping Gosport to promotion to the Southern League Premier Division, in 2017 he played in a friendly defeat to Portsmouth in July and then put himself on against Paulton Rovers in the league a few weeks later.
His final ever game as a player came in a 3-2 victory over Fareham Town, when he was a remarkable 51, but he had to go off in the 71st-minute after picking up an injury.
Pundit Claridge contributed his thoughts on radio and TV
Claridge also became a familiar face and voice working as a pundit for the BBC on TV at Football Focus and Final Score and on BBC Radio 5 Live. He also wrote scouting reports on promising players for The Guardian, numbering future Brighton signing Matt Sparrow among them.
“He is easy on the eye, links well with his forwards but also protects and helps his defenders by tackling from the wrong side and makes sure he tracks his runner whenever he threatens to get goal-side,” wrote Claridge of the then Scunthorpe United player in 2007.
Claridge later set up his own coaching scheme for youngsters in Salisbury and Warsash.
In 2023, he took over as manager of Gosport-based Wessex League Division One side Fleetlands FC for the 2023-24 season. In August 2024 they announced he was stepping down from the role “due to personal reasons”. On its website, a statement added: “The club would like to place on record our huge thanks to Steve for taking up the role in our hour of need and taking us to a fantastic 5th place finish last season.”
FULL-BACK John Humphrey signed for Crystal Palace in lieu of rent his previous club, newly-relegated Charlton Athletic, owed for playing home matches at Selhurst Park!
Humphrey was 29 and with more than 350 senior appearances behind him when Steve Coppell added him to an experienced defence to play alongside Eric Young and Andy Thorn in the old First Division.
It was a level Humphrey was well used to having started out there with Wolves (where he played in the same side as Tony Towner) and at Charlton in a defence that included Colin Pates.
All that came before Humphrey came to Albion’s rescue in the dark days of the 1996-97 season, as I recounted in my 2020 blog post about him.
This time I’m highlighting his time at Selhurst Park, which he spoke about at length in a January 2023 interview with cpfc.co.uk.
“I saw myself as one of the senior players,” Humphrey remembered. “We had the likes of Richard Shaw coming through and Gareth [Southgate] coming through and we signed people like Chris Coleman and Chris Armstrong. Alongside that we had some experience with Eric Young and [Andy] Thorny, so I hoped I fitted in to part of the jigsaw.
“[The challenge] for me was getting used to the style of play, because at that time I know Stevie was not so much direct but he wanted to get the ball forward as early as possible because of the threat of [Ian] Wright and [Mark] Bright. So, it took me a while to get used to that.
“I do remember after a few games Stevie dropped me for a game to say: ‘This is what I want you to do.’ Then he put me back in… I was part of his restructuring and in that first year it worked out very well.”
So much so that at the end of his first year at the club Palace reached third – their highest league finish in history – and won the Zenith Data Systems trophy (otherwise known as the Full Members’ Cup) at Wembley, beating Everton 4-1.
Humphrey was still playing in the Premier League at the age of 34 and clocked up 203 appearances for the Eagles before briefly returning to Charlton for the 1995-96 season, moving on to Gillingham and then helping out his old Charlton teammate Steve Gritt in Brighton’s hour of need.
Revered at Charlton, chicagoaddick.com wrote of him: “In the five seasons he patrolled our right side of defence he missed only one league game and faced the best wingers and strikers playing in the country at that time: Barnes, Waddle, Le Tissier, Lineker, Rush, Aldridge, Beardsley, Fashanu.
“Maybe it was because we stood in the decrepit Arthur Wait Stand but Humphrey was fantastic to watch up close. Graceful, but strong in the tackle. He was a quick-thinker and a quick mover. He would glide down the right wing and put in some peaches of a cross.”
Humphrey won three consecutive player of the year awards (1988, 1989, 1990) – an honour no other Charlton player has received.
Humphrey in action for the Albion at Gillingham
By the time he arrived at Brighton, he was 36 and had played close on 650 professional matches.
“Steve wanted me because I was experienced, could get the players organised and was able to talk them through matches,” Humphrey told the Argus in a January 2002 interview. “He knew I was steady, reliable and dependable, that nine games out of ten I’d play pretty well and that I would give 100 per cent.
“It was a lot of pressure but I’d been through a few promotions (three) and relegations (six) with Wolves, Charlton and Crystal Palace.” He continued: “The stressful situations I had gone through with those other clubs had given me experience of how to try and keep a season alive.
“I could do a job for Brighton and I felt I did that and the team turned out to be good enough to hang on. It was one of the biggest achievements of my career.”
He added: “It might have been going out of the frying pan of Gillingham into the fire at Albion but I’m glad I made the jump.”
Humphrey looked back fondly on those difficult times and told the newspaper: “They have great fans and the Goldstone was always packed for the home games.
“You couldn’t help but be lifted by the crowd. The team couldn’t win away, but managed to win at home. So, one win every two games was decent and led to that eventful day at Hereford.”
When he left the Albion as part of a cost-saving measure the following season, he turned semi-pro and played initially for Chesham in the Ryman League premier division, then Carshalton, Dulwich Hamlet and Walton and Hersham.
“Having come from the professional ranks to semi-pro it was difficult to adjust to the different standards like some of the attitudes of players to training for instance,” Humphrey said. “Also, I found the training itself wasn’t that enjoyable.
“I remember at Walton and Hersham turning up for a session, but we weren’t allowed on the pitch and had to do a road run. That was frustrating and I begun to think that maybe there were other things in life than just playing football.”
Former teammate Pates was his conduit to a new career as a teacher at Whitgift School in Croydon, where ex-Palace and Chelsea midfielder Steve Kember also joined them.
“I knew Colin from Charlton when we roomed together,” he explained. “I was aware he was at the school and he said he needed help for after-school sessions and asked me to come along.
“So I did and the football took off at the school and I got involved in other sports like rugby and basketball and got a full-time job there.”
He also retained his links with Charlton, coaching their under-15 team, and told the Argus in that 2002 piece: “I deal with privileged kids at Whitgift who may go on to be doctors, lawyers or solicitors while at Charlton the kids usually aren’t so privileged.
“To a lot of them, football is a way of making something of themselves. It gives me a great buzz when one of the Charlton youngsters makes positive progress.”
Humphrey later moved on to become head of football at Highgate School in north London.
FICTIONAL football gained an unlikely champion in Andy Ansah.
The journeyman striker eventually mixed it with the game’s elite players as he built a new career in the world of football make-believe for TV and film.
His own exploits on the field were in less esteemed company, including stints playing in the lower leagues for Brighton, Brentford and Southend United.
Not too many Brighton fans will remember him, though, because his 25 appearances in the blue and white stripes coincided with the two seasons when home matches were played 90 miles from home in Gillingham.
With crowd numbers low and finances tight as a consequence, Albion were in no position to splash the cash in the autumn of 1997; indeed John Humphrey, Craig Maskell, Paul McDonald, Denny Mundee and Ian Baird, five of the squad who had kept the Seagulls in the league by the skin of their teeth only six months earlier, were let go in an effort to trim the wage bill.
It was in that climate that Ansah, who had dropped out of league football at the time, was picked up by Steve Gritt.
It only transpired in an interview Ansah gave to the Express in December 2011 that he came clean to the Albion about a kidney condition (nephrotic syndrome) he had suffered from since teenage years but had kept hidden at previous clubs.
It could at times make his body swell so much he could hardly walk and he would need hospital treatment to bring it under control.
He told the newspaper he had gone to extraordinary lengths to hide the illness from managers, coaches and fellow players for fear that it would mean the end of his career. When he felt poorly, he would wear tracksuit bottoms on the training ground to hide the swelling, and then feign illness.
At Brighton, however, the condition did not stop him being involved, although the majority of his appearances were as a substitute.
Apart from a start in a 5-0 mauling at the hands of Walsall in the Auto Windscreens Shield on 6 January 1998, he had made three Third Division appearances going on as a sub and was unused on seven occasions before his fortunes changed.
Although he missed a decent chance after going on as a sub in a 2-0 defeat at Rochdale, he made amends when Gritt gave him his first League start away to Exeter City, curving the ball beyond Ashley Bayes from Stuart Storer’s flick-on.
Sadly, a rogue refereeing decision helped the home side to a 2-1 win, and, with Albion floundering in second-to-bottom spot in the division, Gritt was sacked the following day.
Andy Ansah on the ball for the Albion
Ansah retained his place for new manager Brian Horton’s first match – and he was on the scoresheet again. This time, his goal and a brace from Kerry Mayo gave the Seagulls a 3-2 win over Chester – the side’s first taste of victory in 10 matches!
“The emergency partnership of Stuart Storer and Andy Ansah has provided fresh movement and impetus up front, while wingers John Westcott and Steve Barnes saw far more of the ball on Saturday than they have been accustomed to,” reported The Argus.
Albion finished the season 23rd of 24 teams but thankfully 15 points ahead of Doncaster Rovers in last place.
Ansah scored again in the last ‘home’ game of the season – a 2-2 draw with Horton’s old side Hull City (who finished 22nd) – but, like a lot of players, he was out of contract at the end of the season.
Horton wanted to bring in his own players but, as it turned out, Ansah was offered a new one-year deal, with The Argus saying “Horton hasn’t been able to find a better replacement at the right price, so Ansah has been given a second chance”.
The manager explained: “He did well, but I was bringing new faces in. I’ve had a good look around and Andy is as good as what we could get. He can score goals and he can play in different positions.”
Ansah lines up for the Seagulls in exile
For his part, Ansah told the newspaper:“Technically I was given a free, but I knew I would be speaking to the gaffer again before pre-season.
“There was still a chance that I was going to get a contract and I’m very pleased that I have. I think Brighton are going to do things this season.”
Although Albion avoided flirting with relegation for the first time in three seasons, their 17th finishing spot was hardly cause to put the flags out, and Ansah made only two starts. He went on as a sub on nine occasions and was an unused sub on nine others.
Horton left mid-season to return to the north, assistant Jeff Wood struggled in a brief spell as no.1, and Micky Adams only arrived to take charge towards the very end. Ansah was one of nine players out of contract and released at the end of the season (the others were Derek Allan, Michael Bennett, Tony Browne, Lee Doherty, Danny Mills, Darragh Ryan, Peter Smith, Storer, Terry Streeter and Paul Sturgess).
While the Albion prepared to return to Brighton to play at the Withdean athletics stadium, Ansah embarked on a career that attracted a hell of a lot more viewers than had seen him perform at the Priestfield Stadium.
Brentford fan Nick Bruzon has told Andy’s remarkable story on a few occasions and his ‘last word’ blog goes into plenty of detail about it.
In summary, though, after leaving Brighton, Ansah worked as an actor for six seasons on the Sky TV football soap Dream Team, appearing for fictional Harchester United.
He recruited two other former Albion players for Harchester: Peter Smith and Junior McDougald. As one of the older players, early on he was asked the best way to shoot certain scenes and within a year he was the producer.
His ability to choreograph football scenes then led him to Hollywood as a consultant on Goal!, a US film trilogy about a Mexican immigrant who gets to play in the English Premiership.
He even got to spend a day working with his all-time hero Pele in Brazil. “He was an unbelievable guy, a real gentleman,” Ansah told the Southend Echo in a 2008 interview with John Geoghegan.
“Because of my footballing background, I can talk to the players and the crew and translate between the two.
“It’s my job to make sure the footballers feel relaxed and do what they do normally in front of a camera.
“Film has always been a big love of mine, ever since school. And with football, to a degree, you are on stage entertaining. So, there are a lot of similarities between the two.”
He choreographed the whole of the Mike Bassett: England Manager film (starring Ricky Tomlinson) and worked on three series of Wayne Rooney’s Street Striker.
As co-presenter of the Sky 1 programme, Ansah scouted the UK for talent, and took to Rooney 100 talented young footballers who he had to whittle down to win the Street Striker crown.
It was with encouragement from contacts in Hollywood that he put his work on a more commercial footing. He set up his own consultancy, Soccer on Screen, and among many football-based advertisements helped Guy Ritchie direct a Nike commercial for the 2010 World Cup. He has also advised EA Sports, makers of the Fifa video games.
Born in Lewisham, south east London, on 19 March 1969, Ansah was a promising winger during his school days and was playing at county level when he started to attract the attention of clubs.
Way before the days of organised academies, he was picked up by Charlton Athletic aged 11 and stayed with them until he was 16. When he turned 17, he signed as a professional at Crystal Palace.
Ansah told Bruzon: “Because I had been in the system from such a young age, I kind of got a bit complacent and a little bit fed up of football.
“When I left Palace, Steve Coppell said to me: ‘I’m not sure if you really want to play football so I’m going to release you.’
After a six-month break from the game, he joined non-league Dorking stayed out of the game for about six months and then joined Dorking, where Dave Goodwin, who had originally scouted him for Charlton, was working.
When he scored 14 goals in three months for Dorking, Brentford, Fulham and Reading all offered him a contract but he chose the Bees because assistant manager Phil Holder promised to pick him up and take him to play for the reserve team, which he was managing.
Ansah scored twice on his first start for Brentford in a 3-2 defeat at Bolton but only made eight appearances after falling out with manager Steve Perryman.
In a reserves match between Brentford and Southend, Ansah scored and caught the attention of Shrimpers boss David Webb, who eventually took him to Roots Hall.
Over the course of six years, he scored 38 goals in 180 appearances for Southend and, as well as Holder, reckoned Webb had been the biggest influence on his career.
“David gave me a licence to express myself,” Ansah told Bruzon. “He would say, ‘I don’t care what the outcome is, just go out there and express yourself.’ It really did work!”
Ansah was part of the United side that earned promotion to Division One (now the Championship) and was later named Southend’s 13th most popular player of all time.
“That in itself is a massive achievement,” he said. “It’s good to know that the fans enjoyed what I was doing when I was there. It’s always nice, to get that sort of feedback.”
Perhaps unsurprisingly, when Webb took charge at Brentford, Ansah ended up following him, albeit on loan, scoring just the once (ironically against Brighton in a 2-1 Bees win on 26 November 1994) in four games and again the following season, when he scored once in six appearances.
But Ansah told Bruzon that he didn’t do himself justice because he wasn’t properly fit at that time and, if he had taken medical advice, he probably should have retired because of a knee injury.
“I was fighting to get myself back fit again,” he said. “My first game back I got a cut on my head within 15 minutes and then got it stitched up. I got man of the match but never could regain full fitness. At that stage, the surgeon told me I’d never be fully fit again with my knee.”
He played a couple of games at each of Peterborough, Gillingham and Leyton Orient before dropping out of the league with Hayes, Bromley and Heybridge Swifts.
Ansah’s son Zac spent 10 years with Arsenal’s academy. He moved on to Charlton Athletic when they were in the Championship but didn’t break through and had loan spells with League Two sides Plymouth Argyle and Newport County (playing a total of 26 matches) before moving into non-league football.
ONE TIME Albion captain and utility player Eddie Spearritt played in the top flight for Ipswich Town and Carlisle United.
He made five starts and five appearances off the bench for second tier champions Ipswich at the beginning of the 1968-69 season before joining third tier Brighton for £20,000 in January 1969.
Play anywhere Spearritt was then a permanent fixture in the Albion line-up for almost five years, making 225 appearances, before Brian Clough turfed him out at the end of the 1973-74 season.
But he found himself back amongst the elite when newly promoted Carlisle United snapped him up for their one and only season (1974-75) amongst the big boys.
Spearritt made 17 starts and six appearances as a sub for the Cumbrians but, in spite of a superb winning start when they briefly topped the division, United finished the season in bottom spot.
Spearritt shapes to challenge Aston Villa’s Ray Graydon
Equally comfortable playing in midfield, at full back or sweeper, Spearritt had on-off spells as Albion’s chosen penalty-taker as well as chipping in with goals from open play. He even turned his hand to goalkeeping when necessary.
Another key attribute to his game was an ability to send in long throw-ins which could sometimes be as effective as a free kick or corner. It was a skill which earned him a place in a Longest Throw competition staged by BBC’s sport show Grandstand in 1970-71, although he didn’t win it.
Born in Lowestoft on 31 January 1947, Spearritt went to Lowestoft Grammar School and on leaving school was picked up by Arsenal. But when the Gunners didn’t keep him on, he returned to East Anglia and joined Ipswich as an apprentice in August 1963.
He signed a professional contract with Town in February 1965 and, as Tim Hodge details on prideofanglia.com, he made his league debut in the 1965-66 season in a 1-0 win away to Preston in the old Division Two.
That was the season when substitutes were first introduced into the English game and the record books show that Spearritt was the first Ipswich sub to score a goal.
He went on for Irish international Danny Hegan in a match away to Derby County on 15 January 1966 and scored Ipswich’s second goal. The game finished 2-2; Gerry Baker having scored Town’s first.
Over the next three years, Spearritt made a total of 69 appearances (plus 10 as sub) for Bill McGarry’s side, scoring 14 goals along the way. Twenty of those games came in the 1967-68 season when Ipswich won the old Second Division.
A 1-0 home defeat to Spurs in October 1968 was his last for the Suffolk club and he parted company with Town shortly after McGarry left Portman Road to take over at Wolverhampton Wanderers.
A debut v Crewe (left) and slaloming through the Plymouth Argyle defence (right)
Spearritt was one of Freddie Goodwin’s first signings for Brighton – just a few weeks before my first ever Albion game. He made his debut in a 3-1 home win over Crewe Alexandra and kept the number 10 shirt to the end of the season, by which time he had scored five times, including both Albion’s goals in a 2-2 draw at home to Tranmere Rovers.
In the 1969-70 season, not only was he part of the Third Division Albion side who pushed his old manager McGarry’s First Division Wolves side all the way in a memorable third round League Cup tie, it was his header from Kit Napier’s free kick that put the Albion 2-1 ahead just before half-time.
Scottish international Hugh Curran scored twice in eight second half minutes to clinch the win for Wolves but a bumper Goldstone Ground crowd of 32,539 witnessed a terrific effort by their side.
A few weeks’ later, in a marathon FA Cup second round tie with Walsall that required three replays before the Saddlers finally prevailed 2-1, Spearritt took over in goal during the second replay when a concussed Geoff Sidebottom was stretchered off on 65 minutes. Albion hung on for a 1-1 draw.
Spearritt was a midfield regular in his first two seasons but Goodwin’s successor, Pat Saward, switched him to left back halfway through the 1970-71 season and that’s where he stayed throughout 1971-72 when Albion won promotion from the old Third Division as runners up behind Saward’s old club, Aston Villa.
It was in the first half of that season that Spearritt took a call from ex-Ipswich teammate Ray Crawford, the former England international centre forward, who had returned homesick from a short stint playing in South Africa.
He persuaded Saward to offer Crawford a trial and although he didn’t make the league side he scouted upcoming opponents, played for the reserves and subsequently ran the youth team.
Meanwhile, Spearritt was a key part of the promotion side and player-of-the-season Bert Murray generously declared the award could have gone to Eddie for his consistency that season. As it happened, Spearritt did get the award the following season, although somewhat more ignominiously considering Albion were relegated.
All smiles as Pat Saward’s side toast promotion in 1972
In the close season after promotion, Spearritt tied the knot with Penelope Biddulph, “an accomplished professional dancer,” the matchday programme told us, and they moved into a new home in Kingston-by-Sea.
Spearritt started out at left back in Division Two but after ten games was ousted by the arrival of George Ley from Portsmouth. He then switched back into midfield, but by the end of that relegation season was playing sweeper alongside Norman Gall (for nine games) and Steve Piper (for two).
He scored (pictured above), along with Barry Bridges, in a 2-0 win at Huddersfield on 14 October but the team went on a disastrous run of 16 games without a win, although Spearritt did get on the scoresheet three times, including notching two penalties.
When Albion went to that footballing outpost Carlisle on 16 December, they had lost five in a row without managing a single goal. Carlisle were 5-0 up, goalkeeper Brian Powney was carried off with a broken nose, replaced between the sticks by Murray, then Albion won a penalty.
Spearritt took up the story in a subsequent matchday programme. “I used to be the club’s penalty taker but, after I had missed an important one at Mansfield in 1970, I lost the job. Penalty-taking is really all about confidence,” he said. “After I had missed that one at Mansfield, which cost us a point, the players lost confidence in me and the job went first to John Napier and was then taken over by Murray.
“Bert would have taken the penalty at Carlisle. He has already scored two this season. But he had gone in goal and it was decided it was too risky to fetch Bert out of goal to take the penalty.
“Nobody else seemed to want to take it so I just picked the ball up and put it on the spot. We were 5-0 down by then but I thought from a morale point of view that it was extremely important that I scored. You can understand my relief when I saw the ball hit the back of the net.
“Everybody was beginning to wonder when we would score again. I suppose with the run of bad luck we have been having it was almost inevitable that we should break our goal famine from the penalty spot.”
Towards the end of the dismal run, Albion drew First Division Chelsea at home in the third round of the FA Cup. The game was won 2-0 by Chelsea but it was an ugly, violent affair – The Argus labelled it ‘Goldstone day of shame’ – in which five players were booked and each side had a player sent off.
Spearritt, the first to be booked, found himself caught up in a huge controversy which resulted in Chelsea hard man Ron Harris being sent off by Leicester referee Peter Reeves; remarkably the only time in his career he was dismissed.
The Brighton man insisted he’d been hit by the defender and Saward said in diplomatic terms after the game: “Spearritt said he was struck on the mouth and that it was not an involuntary action but a blow. From what I saw, I couldn’t understand it.”
Esteemed football writer Norman Giller subsequently recorded it like this: “Harris got involved in a tussle with Spearritt, and, as he pushed him, Spearritt went down holding his face as if he had been punched. The referee directed Ron to an early bath. All the bones he had kicked, and here was Harris being sent off for a playground push.
“A Brighton-supporting vicar, with a pitchside view, wrote to the Football Association telling them what he had witnessed, and ‘Chopper’ was vindicated.”
Whatever the truth of the matter, Spearritt told Argus Albion reporter John Vinicombe that he’d been threatened by a Chelsea player after the incident. “He spoke to me several times and made it quite clear what he had in mind.”
Albion’s Ley was sent off for bringing down Tommy Baldwin and then getting involved in an altercation with Peter Osgood, who scored both Chelsea goals. Two minutes later David Webb went into the book for a ‘blatant foul’ on Spearritt.
Albion finally returned to winning ways the following month with a 2-0 win over Luton (on 10 February), and then beat Huddersfield, Carlisle and Swindon, prompting Saward to refer to “some outstanding individual performances” and adding: “I have been particularly pleased with the way Eddie Spearritt has been playing in recent weeks.
“He has maintained a high level of consistency this season and his work in defence and in midfield has been invaluable as the side has plugged away trying to turn the tide of results.”
Saward made Spearritt Albion’s captain at the start of the 1973-74 season back in Division Three and with the return of central defender Ian Goodwin and then the emergence of Piper in the sweeping role, he was soon back in midfield.
But when Saward was sacked in October and sensationally replaced by former Derby County League title winning management duo Brian Clough and Peter Taylor, Spearritt was one of the first to have his nose put out of joint by the new arrivals.
Journalist Spencer Vignes described what happened in Bloody Southerners (Biteback Publishing, 2018), his excellent book about that era.
Clough sought out long-serving centre back Norman Gall and, because he hailed from the same part of the country (ie the north east), told him he was making him the captain. Gall told Vignes: “Suddenly I’m captain, which I was really happy about. Eddie Spearritt didn’t like it though. He’d been captain up until then. In fact, he didn’t talk to me after that. That was the beginning of the end for Eddie.”
Spearritt was part of the side who capitulated 4-0, 8-2 and 4-1 in successive games against Walton & Hersham, Bristol Rovers and Tranmere Rovers, and he was dropped for six games, along with Ley (who never played for Albion again). Clough went into the transfer market and brought in midfielder Ronnie Welch and left back Harry Wilson from Burnley.
Although Spearritt was restored to the team in mid January, and had a run of seven games — including his 200th league game for Albion — when he was subbed off in a home win over Hereford United on 10 March 1974, it was to be his last appearance in an Albion shirt.
In five years he’d played 225 games (plus seven as sub) and scored 25 goals.
Come the end of the season, Spearritt was one of 12 players released by the club in what became known as the great Clough clear-out.
Perhaps surprisingly, though, his next step was UP two divisions to play in the First Division with then newly promoted Carlisle United.
One of his teammates there was defender Graham Winstanley, who later joined the Albion. The side was captained by Chris Balderstone, who was also a top cricketer. Journeyman striker Hugh McIlmoyle played up front while John Gorman, who later played for Spurs and became Glenn Hoddle’s managerial sidekick, was also in the team.
They memorably topped the division after three games…but predictably finished bottom of the pile by the end. In his two-year stay with the Cumbrians, Spearritt played 29 times, was sub twice and scored a single goal.
He moved back south in August 1976, signed by Gerry Summers at Gillingham, and made his debut in a League Cup first round second leg tie against Aldershot, then made his league debut against Reading.
In total, he made 22 appearances in his one season at the club — one of them at the Goldstone Ground on December 29 1976, when the Albion won 2-0 on a slippery, snow-covered pitch. Spearritt scored just the once for the Gills, from the penalty spot against Rotherham United at Priestfield.
He emigrated to Australia the following summer and settled in Brisbane where he played 56 games for the Brisbane Lions between 1977 and 1980 and was their head coach in 1979. He subsequently coached Rochedale Rovers in the Brisbane Intermediate League, steering them to promotion to the Premier League in 1983.
Outside of football, he became estates manager for L’Oréal and in later years was better known as the uncle of Hannah Spearritt, once of the pop group S Club 7, who became an actress in the ITV drama Primevil.
PETER TAYLOR steered Albion to promotion from the third tier in 2002 – a feat his namesake as Brighton boss fell short of achieving back in 1976.
The younger Taylor, who played for and managed arch rivals Crystal Palace, had quite an extraordinary managerial career – from taking charge of the England international side, when he appointed David Beckham as captain, to taking the reins at Isthmian League side Maldon & Tiptree at the age of 69.
He took the helm at third-placed third-tier Brighton in October 2001 after being sacked by Premier League Leicester City – who had created the Albion vacancy by recruiting manager Micky Adams to work as no.2 to newly-appointed Dave Bassett.
Starting at the Albion
Taylor revealed that it was on Adams’ advice that he accepted Albion’s offer. “Micky said they were a close bunch, a confident group and happy with each other,” Taylor told The Guardian. “My job now is to carry on the good work he has started.”
In dropping down two divisions Taylor returned to the level of a previous success, when he guided Gillingham to the First Division via (via a play-off final win over Wigan Athletic). In less than two years he went from the Second Division to the Premiership – managed England for one game along the way – and back again.
“I’ve not lost any self-belief after what happened at Leicester,” said Taylor. “I don’t feel I have anything to prove. Leicester is in the past now as far as I am concerned. I am not worried about the level I am managing at. Brighton has fantastic potential, particularly in size of support, and it is my job now to fulfil it.”
Albion press officer Paul Camillin wrote in the matchday programme: “Micky’s replacement is a man whose coaching ability is unquestionable. Here is a man who not so long ago was taking England training sessions under the gaze of Sven Goran Eriksson,”
Taylor’s knowledge of the game spanned all four divisions and beyond and Camillin pointed out: “He was the overwhelming choice of the board of directors.”
Indeed, chairman Dick Knight said: “Peter Taylor’s management experience at both Nationwide and higher levels of football make him ideal for the Albion.
“He quickly identified with the ambition and potential here and I’m very pleased he has chosen to join us.”
Top scorer Bobby Zamora was also delighted, telling The Guardian: “When I heard the list of who was being put forward, Peter Taylor was the name that stood out. He has proven his ability and has got an obvious wealth of experience.”
In young Zamora, Taylor inherited a magnificent key to unlock defences. One player he did bring in who also made a difference was a lanky goalscoring midfielder called Junior Lewis (remarkably Taylor also signed him for four of his other clubs – Dover, Hull, Gillingham and Leicester) and his contribution certainly helped to cement the title.
Working alongside Bob Booker
“Junior did exactly what he had done for me at Gillingham, which is make the team play more football,” Taylor told Nick Szczepanik. “He wasn’t easy on the eye, but he was always available to get the ball from defenders and got it to the strikers and was very useful.”
While Taylor’s eight months as manager of Brighton culminated in promotion, he was never really credited with the success because many said he achieved it with Adams’ team.
“Micky had done the hard work because he signed all the squad before I got there, and they had done well so the last thing I was going to do was to change too much,” Taylor told Szczepanik, in an interview for the club website. “He had built a team with a great spirit.
“You could see why we went on to win the division because the squad was full of incredible characters – not just experienced professionals but good professionals who were desperate to do well for the club.”
Citing the experience and ability of Danny Cullip, he made special reference to “the greatest asset” Zamora, saying: “He was an incredible player and miles too good for that level.
“Simon Morgan was another one. What a great defender – and yet he could hardly train because he had two bad knees. Whenever he played, he was such a good organiser at the back that we were always solid.”
Unfortunately, Taylor didn’t help to endear himself to Albion’s public when he quit within days of the victory parade along the seafront, but deep down not too many people could blame him considering the limitations prevailing at the time.
“People will think I was stupid to leave the club after we won the league but I think everyone understands the reasons, which were because of the budget I thought I’d need to keep them up and the new stadium not being as close as Dick promised in my interview,” Taylor explained.
“Some people assumed I must have a new job lined up, maybe at Palace, but no, I didn’t. My plans had been to win promotion at Brighton, move into the new stadium with a big budget and then try eventually to get them to the Premier League.”
Nevertheless, Knight said: “It’s a great shame that Peter has chosen to resign. He has done a terrific job for the club in leading the Albion to the Second Division title, and it’s sad that he doesn’t wish to continue.”
The captain at the time, Paul Rogers told The Argus: “It’s a big shock to me and I’m sure it will be a big shock to the other lads as well. He’s done really well here. Since he came in the lads took to him straight away.
“He is a good coach. His sessions were a lot more technical than we were used to and he’s improved some of the players during his time at the club.”
Six months after he left Brighton, Taylor took over at Hull City, who were about to move into the 25,000 all-seater KC Stadium and in four years he guided them from the bottom tier of football through to the Championship.
I recall a visit to the KC when Albion’s travelling supporters taunted him with a ‘Should have stayed with a big club’ chant, to which he responded by opening wide his arms to point out the plush new surroundings he was working in.
Born in Rochford, Essex, on 3 January 1953, Taylor was a Spurs supporter from an early age and had an unsuccessful trial with them – including playing in a South East Counties league match.
Looking back in an interview with superhotspur.com, he recalled that he didn’t perform well in his trial match at Cheshunt because he was up against Steve Perryman (who later became a close friend) and Graeme Souness in the Tottenham midfield.
Taylor also had an unsuccessful trial with Crystal Palace, so it was somewhat ironic that both clubs who rejected him as a youngster ended up paying handsome fees to sign him.
Taylor had first drawn attention while playing for South-East Essex Schools and Canvey Island but it was nearby Southend United who took him on as an apprentice in 1969.
The winger turned professional with the Shrimpers in January 1971 and scored 12 goals in 75 league matches for the Essex side.
It was the flamboyant Malcolm Allison who signed him for Palace in October 1973, paying a £110,000 fee. Allison told the player he had been trying to sign him for some time, including when he was in charge at Manchester City.
“He made me feel like a million dollars and I couldn’t thank anyone more than I would thank Malcolm for the career that I have had,” said Taylor. “He knew his stuff and he was an exciting coach, far ahead of his time, but the most important thing for me was that he made me feel that I was the best player in the world.”
Taylor went on to be Palace’s player of the season, although they were relegated to the third tier.
His time at Selhurst Park was his most successful as a player, he reckoned, and he scored 33 goals in 122 league games for the Eagles. But his notable performances when Palace made it through to the semi-finals of the FA Cup in 1976 led to Keith Burkinshaw signing him for Spurs for £400,000.
“I was desperate to play for Tottenham, because they were the team that I supported, so it was a wonderful move for me,” said Taylor.
Earlier that year, he had made his debut for England while playing in the third tier of English football, going on as a substitute in the second half of a Welsh FA centenary celebration match at the Racecourse Ground, Wrexham, and scoring the winner in a 2-1 victory.
He was the first Third Division player to be capped since Johnny Byrne in 1961, and also the first player to score while making his debut as a substitute. He went on to win four caps.
Two months later, against the same opponent, but at Ninian Park, Cardiff, in the Home International Championship, he scored again – this time the only goal of the game as Don Revie’s England won 1-0.
Taylor’s third cap came in the 2-1 defeat to Scotland at Hampden Park on 15 May 1976. And he went on as an 83rd minute sub for Kevin Keegan as England beat Team America 3-1 in America’s Bicentennial Tournament. Bobby Moore was Team America’s captain and the great Pelé was playing up front.
Although he scored 31 times in 123 league matches for Spurs, he was hampered by a pelvic injury during his time at White Hart Lane but superhotspur.com writer Lennon Branagan said: “A player with a real eye for goal, Peter Taylor was a really fine all-round winger, who also had good defensive qualities to his game.
“He was a very important player during his second season at Spurs, as he helped them to win promotion from the old Second Division, following their relegation to that division during the previous season.”
Taylor moved on from Spurs after four years when Burkinshaw couldn’t guarantee him a starting spot, leaving for £150,000 to join second tier Leyton Orient, where Jimmy Bloomfield was manager.
He scored 11 goals in 56 league games for the Os and had four games on loan for Joe Royle’s Oldham Athletic in January 1983. He then went non-league with Maidstone, apart from a brief spell back in the league, that he didn’t enjoy, playing under Gerry Francis at Exeter City.
Having returned to Maidstone to carry on playing, he eventually got his first managerial job at Dartford in 1986 as a player-manager.
He moved on to Enfield in a similar role, telling superhotspur.com: “I thoroughly enjoyed it, and I was learning all the time about coaching players, and then Steve Perryman asked me to be his assistant at Watford in 1991, and I had two fantastic years there of coaching and learning. So that was the start of my managerial career.”
His first league manager’s job then followed at his old club Southend, between 1993 and 1995, but he quit having not been able to raise them above mid-table in League One. Curiously, his next outpost was non-league Dover Athletic but he left when his former Spurs teammate Glenn Hoddle invited him to coach the England under 21 team.
A successful spell in which he presided over 11 wins, three draws and only one defeat came to an abrupt end when Taylor was controversially relieved of his duties by the FA and replaced by former Albion winger Howard Wilkinson.
Gillingham offered him a return to club management and, with Guy Butters at the back and the aforementioned Junior Lewis in midfield, he steered the Kent club to that play-off win, taking them into the top half of English league football for the first time in their history.
That achievement prompted Leicester to poach him and he got off to a great start with the Foxes, even earning a Premier League manager of the month award in September 2000.
It was during his time at Leicester that he rode to England’s rescue two months later by taking caretaker charge of the England national side for a friendly against Italy in Turin. England lost 1-0 but the game is remembered for Taylor handing the captain’s armband to Beckham for the first time. He also included six players still young enough for the under 21s: Gareth Barry, Jamie Carragher, Kieron Dyer, Rio Ferdinand, Emile Heskey and Derby’s Seth Johnson (it was his only full cap).
Describing it as the proudest moment of his long career, Taylor told Branagan: “I never dreamt that opportunity would happen to me. I knew that it was only going to be for one game, but it’s on my memory bank, and no one will ever change that.”
Back at Leicester, it all went pear-shaped towards the end of the season and when City were beaten 5-0 at home by newly promoted Bolton Wanderers in the new season opener, and then recorded a further four defeats, two draws with a solitary victory, Taylor was sacked.
He combined his job at Hull with once again coaching the England under 21 side between 2004 and 2006, and early into his reign called up Albion’s Dan Harding and Adam Hinshelwood (Jack Hinshelwood’s dad) for a home game v Wales and an away fixture in Azerbaijan. Harding started both matches and Hinshelwood was an unused sub.
Taylor oversaw nine wins, two draws and five defeats, selecting players such as James Milner, Darren Bent and Liam Ridgewell.
After promotion success with Albion and Hull, where he spent three and a half years, in the summer of 2006 Palace, in the Championship, stumped up £300,000 in compensation to take the Tigers boss back to Selhurst Park to succeed Iain Dowie.
Telling the BBC it had to be “something special” for him to leave Hull, Taylor added: “When I got the call from Simon (Jordan) there was no doubt in my mind that I wanted to be at Selhurst Park.”
Talking to cpfc.co.uk some years later, he said: “I was very confident as a manager. Very confident. I felt as though I would succeed.
“I didn’t look at my reputation too much. I looked at: ‘How can I get these into the top division?’ Even if I was worried about the reputation I had, I still would have taken the job.”
On the Palace bench with Kit Symons
After a promising start, results went awry and Palace finished the season in mid-table. When the Eagles managed only two wins in their first 10 games of the 2007-08 season, Taylor was sacked and replaced with Neil Warnock.
Undeterred, he stepped outside of the league for his next position, taking charge of then Conference team Stevenage Borough – recruiting Junior Lewis as his first signing!
Lewis followed him into his next job as well, this time as first team coach at Wycombe Wanderers, where Taylor succeeded Paul Lambert in May 2008. Taylor’s promotion-winning knack once more came to the fore when the Chairboys won promotion from League Two.
However, a poor start to life in League One cost him his job and Wycombe owner Steve Hayes told BBC Three Counties Radio: “We started the season reasonably well, but truthfully, six points from 33 is very worrying.
“We need a change. [Peter’s] body language in the last few weeks has not been great and he doesn’t seem to be as happy as he was last year.”
Taylor was approaching his fifth month out of the game when, in mid-February 2010, League Two Bradford City gave him a short-term deal to replace Stuart McCall. Once again, loyal Lewis joined him.
Hoping his stay at Valley Parade would ultimately be longer, he told the Yorkshire Post: “I remember what happened at Hull when I went in there (in 2002) with the club sitting 18th in the bottom division.
“We went on to enjoy a lot of success and I see similar potential here at Bradford. Certainly if we can go on a run then there is a potential of putting bums on seats.
“I still believe we can do something this year. But if that does not prove to be the case, then definitely next year.”
Taylor signed a contract extension and stuck at it even when he was offered the chance to become no.2 to Alan Pardew at Premier League Newcastle United at the beginning of January 2011.
“It’s flattering to be offered the position to work alongside Alan Pardew,” Taylor told BBC Radio Leeds. “I wasn’t comfortable leaving Bradford earlier than I need to, I know what the game is about, I can easily get the sack in a month’s time, I understand that, but I don’t really feel I want to leave at this particular time.”
Saying Bradford had “really switched me on”, he added: “I’ve always had a special feeling about the club, and I’ve still got that feeling.” Six weeks later he left City by mutual consent.
In the summer that year, Taylor headed to the Middle East and spent 15 months in charge of the Bahrain national side, leading them to success in the 2011 Arab Games in Doha when they beat Jordan 1-0. He was sacked in October 2012 after Bahrain lost 6-2 to the United Arab Emirates in a friendly.
The following summer, he was given a short-term contract to take charge of England’s under 20s at the Under 20 World Cup in Turkey. Hopes may have been high after a 3-0 win over Uruguay in a warm-up match but England were eliminated at the group stage after only managing to draw against Iraq and Chile and then losing to Egypt. The England side included the likes of Sam Johnstone, Jamal Lascelles, John Stones, Eric Dier, Conor Coady, James Ward-Prowse, Ross Barkley and Harry Kane.
Taylor found himself back in club football that autumn when Gillingham welcomed him back on an interim basis after they’d sacked Martin Allen. Handed a longer term deal a month later, he stayed with the League One Gills until halfway through the next season when, after only six wins in 23 matches, he was sacked on New Year’s Eve.
Another posting abroad was to follow in May 2015 when he was appointed head coach of Indian Super League side Kerala Blasters, taking over from former England goalkeeper David James.
But his time in India was brief. Despite winning five of six pre-season friendlies and the opening league fixture, the Blasters lost four and drew two of the next six matches and Taylor became the league’s first managerial sacking in October that year.
The New Zealand national side recruited Taylor to work with the country’s UK-based players in 2016-17 and a third spell at Gillingham followed in May 2017. He was named director of football at Priestfield where Adrian Pennock was head coach and he was briefly interim head coach when Pennock lost his job in September 2017.
That turned out to be his last job in league football. He joined National League Dagenham & Redbridge in June 2018 and spent 18 months in charge, leaving the club after a spell of nine defeats in 11 games.
Welling United, in the sixth tier of English football, appointed Taylor manager in September 2021 but with only six wins in 25 matches he left in March the following year. His final job was at Isthmian League Maldon & Tiptree, from December 2022 to August 2023.
MUCH-MALIGNED Mark McCammon was not afraid to stand his ground, answer his critics directly and to challenge injustice when he felt aggrieved.
Fans of Brentford, Brighton and Millwall voiced some strident – nay, downright offensive – opinions of his ability as a footballer.
Remarkably, the Barnet-born striker played in a FA Cup final and Europe for the Lions before Mark McGhee signed him a second time – for Brighton – having previously taken him to Millwall from the Bees on transfer deadline day in 2003.
McCammon and Neil Harris at the 2004 FA Cup Final in Cardiff
When his suitability to contribute to the Seagulls’ flagging cause in the Championship was called into question in a post-match radio phone-in, McCammon took umbrage and called the show himself to argue the toss with presenter Ian Hart.
Also, in what was something of a landmark case, McCammon took a subsequent employer, Gillingham FC, to courtand won a claim that he had been racially victimised.
It certainly wasn’t uncommon for McCammon to be at odds with the people running whichever club he was playing for.
He first joined the Seagulls on loan when he was out of favour and on the transfer list at Millwall.
He made his debut in a 1-0 home defeat to Stoke City in December 2004 and said: “I just want to get back playing and enjoying my football again.
“I have been in and out at Millwall and my fitness has dipped a little bit because I haven’t played. I’m happy to be playing under Mark again and I want to show what I can do.”
Although he didn’t get on the scoresheet in five matches, when McGhee made it a permanent move in February 2005 he told BBC Southern Counties Radio: “Not everyone understands the contribution Mark makes. We have become a much more effective team with him in the squad.”
McGhee was a great believer in the ‘one big one, one little one’ striking line-up, and was sure McCammon’s presence would help pint-sized Leon Knight to score goals.
Because of what followed, it is easy to forget McCammon scored three goals in his first two home games after signing on a permanent basis.
He scored a brace and won the man of the match award in a 3-2 defeat to Derby County and he got 10-man Albion’s second in a surprise 2-1 win over promotion-chasing Sunderland (Richard Carpenter scored the other, and Rami Shabaan made his debut in goal).
The Argus enjoyed building up the visit of McCammon’s old side Millwall to the Withdean, interviewing the player and the manager, who we learned called his new signing ‘The Fridge’.
McGhee urged McCammon to stay cool if he managed to score against his old club, but it was fellow striker Gary Hart who got the only goal of the game, in the 89th minute.
Ahead of the game, McCammon told the newspaper: “It would mean a lot to me to score the winning goal against them. I wasn’t given a chance there, but I’ve got a fresh start here. I’ve got a lot to prove.”
In the following game, he was subbed off at half-time in a 2-0 defeat at Stoke when he gave away a penalty. He underwent blood tests and McGhee said: “Mark is seeing a specialist to find out why he was feeling lethargic. It wasn’t the back injury he suffered against Millwall, he was just feeling ill and weak.”
That game was the first of a run of six defeats and Albion only won once in 11 matches – form which saw them avoid relegation by a single point.
One of several infamous McCammon incidents occurred following the Seagulls’ 1-1 draw at Turf Moor on 16 April.
After a lucklustre first half display when Albion went in 1-0 down, McGhee ripped into the team at half-time and McCammon and fellow striker Chris McPhee were told they weren’t holding the ball up well enough.
According to an account in the Daily Telegraph, McCammon argued back in a fiery exchange with the boss, claiming a lack of service from midfield was the issue. He didn’t reappear for the second half, being replaced by fired-up teenager Jake Robinson and Albion managed to salvage a point courtesy of an equaliser from Dean Hammond.
A delighted McGhee said of Robinson: “We say when people get their chance they have to take it and I thought he took it absolutely brilliantly. He was different class.”
But McGhee’s ire with McCammon hadn’t cooled at the final whistle – he ordered him off the team bus and told him to return south in the kit-carrying vehicle instead.
Not fancying a tight squeeze alongside sweaty shirts, shorts and socks, McCammon chose to return by train.
“After the match I told him I didn’t want him travelling back on the team bus with the rest of us and that he was to return home with two other members of staff in another club vehicle,” McGhee told Sky Sports News.
McCammon apologised to McGhee afterwards but any subsequent first team opportunities were few and far between after that.
At the start of the 2005-06 season, he managed a recall for a Carling Cup match away to Shrewsbury Town and pleased his manager by scoring a goal and laying one on for Robinson, even though the Albion went down 3-2.
“I thought Mark was much better. That type of performance is what we expect of him and it’s what he can do,” said McGhee. “Now he’s got to reproduce that in the Championship.
“He set his standard tonight in terms of his effort and the simple way he played the game. He didn’t complicate things; he laid it off, held it up, laid it off, then got in the box; he won a lot of headers; took a lot of stick and kept going. He got a goal, made a goal and I thought he was terrific.”
But McGhee, with other forward options in the shape of Colin Kazim-Richards, Robinson, Knight and Gary Hart only called on McCammon for three starts and five sub appearances.
“He (McGhee) asked me to go out on loan to a lower league team and I think I’m better than that,” said McCammon when, incensed by criticism of him on the BBC Southern Counties Radio post-match phone-in after a game in February, called in and took issue with show host Hart.
“I went on trial at Watford and I got called back to train for no apparent reason. I think I was hard done by there, a bit unlucky. I’m back but I’m not in the squad but I don’t think I’ve been given a long enough chance.”
Once again suggesting the team’s issue was service through to the front players, he responded to Hart’s personal criticism of him saying: “When you kick a ball in professional football you can tell me whether I’m good enough for this standard.
“You don’t know anything about me. What you said is very disrespectful.
“I’ve been out since the beginning of the season with ankle and knee injuries. I had surgery on both. I came back and made three first-team starts but it takes about seven or eight games to get your rhythm back. I think it’s a bad comment you have made.”
The striker also took aim at the Withdean faithful, claiming: “All we hear is supporters whingeing.
“If they get behind the team it will give the players an extra boost. All the first team players at Brighton listen to the radio and they hear the supporters being 100 per cent negative.
“It’s a team game, it’s not about individuals. The supporters need to get behind the team a bit more.”
If the player didn’t think much of the fans, it would be an understatement to say they were none too impressed by the player.
Amongst a veritable litany of abuse from Albion supporters, this from ‘The Full Harris’ on North Stand Chat encapsulated the opinions of many.
“Mark McCammon is the worst player to have played for us in this division … he just simply doesn’t have a clue. He is unfit, he doesn’t know where he is meant to be running, he can’t shoot. For a man of his size, he is pathetic in the air.
“He is clumsy, he has the touch and control of a Sunday league centre half, he is about as prolific as an impotent monk, he is an embarrassment, he is a disgrace, he is lazy and, personally, I object in the extreme to my paying his wages when I believe many of the crowd around me could do a better job and they would do it for free.”
Long before Dominic Cummings referred to his erstwhile boss, Boris Johnson as “a shopping trolley smashing from one side of the aisle to the other”, supporters voiced something similar of McCammon. The song went like this:
Super, super Mark Super, super Mark Super, super Mark Supermarket Trolley.
Perhaps it was no surprise that McCammon was allowed to leave Albion on loan, linking up with League One Bristol City, where he scored four goals in 11 appearances.
He didn’t play another game for the Albion and, in the summer of 2006, joined Doncaster Rovers after impressing boss Dave Penney on trial.
Although born in Barnet on 7 August 1978, McCammon qualified to play for Barbados through his mother and he won five caps for the Caribbean country. He scored on his debut against Antigua and Barbuda in a 3-1 win in September 2006 and two days later hit a hat-trick when Barbados beat Anguilla 7-1.
Two years later he returned to international action for two World Cup qualifiers against the United States. Barbados lost 8-0 in California and 1-0 in Bridgetown.
McCammon was with QPR as a teenager but it was Cambridge United who took him on as a YTS and he joined Cambridge City on loan at 19 to gain experience.
He played just six games for United between 1997 and March 1999 but was signed by Premier League Charlton, managed by Alan Curbishley.
After relegation to the old First Division, McCammon played five times for the Addicks as they won the title with a squad that included John Robinson, Steve Brown and Paul Kitson on loan from West Ham. McCammon also spent time on loan at Swindon Town in January 2000.
That summer, McCammon left The Valley to sign for Second Division Brentford for a fee said to be £100,000. He scored six times in 33 appearances in his first season at Griffin Park. He scored 10 in a total of 75 appearances for the Bees but it seems their supporters were also unconvinced about his merits.
Stan Webb, on the excellent BFCTalk website, said: “Mark McCammon was yet another misfit who cost a significant fee. Despite looking every inch a footballer, he signally failed to deliver.
“He is best remembered for his cataclysmic miss from a free header at Loftus Road which might have changed our recent history had he scored, as he surely should have done.
“And yet for all the criticism he faced, he eventually became a sort of anti-hero as fans recognised that he was always giving everything he had and appreciated his efforts even though he was just not up to scratch.”
By contrast, McCammon’s time in south Yorkshire was relatively successful, although if he felt he was dogged by bad luck, in November 2006 he had a headed goal away to Brentford chalked off after the ref didn’t notice the ball went through a hole in the back of the net. Thankfully Donny still won 1‑0.
Across two seasons, he scored 13 goals in 70 matches for the south Yorkshire side and went on as a 71st minute sub for Richie Wellens in the 2008 League One play-off final at Wembley when Donny beat Leeds United 1-0. Leeds had Casper Ankergren in goal and Bradley Johnson in their line-up.
However, McCammon chose to head south that summer and signed a three-year contract with recently relegated League Two Gillingham.
He scored five goals in 35 matches in his first season at Priestfield but 2009-10, when the Gills were back in League One, was a different story.
By February 2010, a lack of starts saw him seek a loan to get some match fitness. Gills boss Mark Stimson told BBC Radio Kent: “Going out on loan will be good for him and the club. He needs games and if he comes back fit in four weeks that would be great.”
He added: “We want him sharp and scoring goals then he could come back because we might need someone like him. Last season he stepped in and put in a good shift.
“At the moment he’s frustrated, like all the other boys who are not playing. He didn’t want to drop down to League Two. Now he’s seriously thinking about it because it might get his career back on track.”
McCammon joined Bradford City for a month, playing four games, before returning to the Gills. But the following season, when Andy Hessenthaler had returned as manager, saw the final dismantling of McCammon’s league playing career.
The club dismissed him in 2011 for alleged misconduct but he didn’t go quietly and took them to an employment tribunal claiming he had been unfairly sacked and ‘racially victimised’. He won £68,000 in compensation and Gillingham and chairman Paul Scally were subsequently each fined £75,000 by the FA “for failing to act in the best interests of the game and bringing the game into disrepute”.
Furious Scally appealed the fines, which were set by an independent regulatory commission, saying they were “manifestly excessive, totally disproportionate and completely unjust” and, although the board reduced the club’s fine to £50,000, the sanction against Scally was upheld.
McCammon told the original hearing in Ashford, Kent, that he and other black players at the club were treated differently from white players. For example, he said, he was ordered to attend the ground amid ‘treacherous’ snowy driving conditions or be fined, while some white players were told they were not required.
The club tried to “frustrate him out” by refusing to pay private medical bills for injury treatment, while a white teammate had been flown to Dubai for treatment at the club’s expense, he claimed.
McCammon, who, on £2,500 a week, was the club’s highest-paid player, was also told not to blog while others were permitted to, he said. During an injury spell, he had to stay behind at the club for four hours longer than other injured and non-injured players, he claimed.
The tribunal heard he was dismissed after a disciplinary hearing following a confrontation in which he accused club officials of being “racially intolerant” regarding the decision to order him in during the heavy snow.
The tribunal found in McCammon’s favour and his solicitor, Sim Owalabi, said it was believed to be the first time a footballer had successfully brought before an employment tribunal a case of race victimisation against a professional football club.
After all the legal to-ing and fro-ing, the player himself, by then aged 35, said: “It was traumatising and it sort of sabotaged my career in the football world, my progress.
“I had football clubs after me and that just deteriorated. It’s very, very unfortunate.”
He dropped down to Conference level with Braintree Town in October 2011 and later played for Lincoln City, on loan and then on a permanent basis, when they were in the same division.
A PLAYER who was on the brink of signing for Man Utd for £100,000 ended up playing for the Albion in exile.
But for an untimely hernia injury, Andy Arnott would have been an Alex Ferguson signing at Old Trafford.
As it turned out, the moment passed and the opportunity didn’t arise again. He later made 28 appearances for the Seagulls during the 1998-99 season when home games were played at Gillingham’s Priestfield Stadium.
It was a ground Arnott was familiar with. Born in nearby Chatham on 18 October 1973, he joined Gillingham as a trainee and had only served one year of his apprenticeship when he was taken on as a professional.
Manager Damien Richardson gave him his debut for the Fourth Division club only four games into the 1991-92 season when he was just 17.
It couldn’t have gone better because he scored the Gills’ opening goal in a 2-0 home win over Scarborough.
This was a Gillingham side that included summer signing Paul Clark, who had been part of Alan Mullery’s successful Brighton side in the late 1970s, and Mike Trusson, who’d won promotion from the Third Division with the Seagulls under Barry Lloyd. A young Richard Carpenter was also breaking through.
Arnott scored three goals in 23 appearances by the season’s end although one goal and two appearances against Aldershot were later expunged from the records because the Shots were expelled from the league.
Nonetheless, the youngster’s emergence hadn’t gone unnoticed higher up the football pyramid and the offer of the chance to join United came along, ostensibly so that he could feature in their youth team’s involvement in the end-of-season Blue Star youth tournament in Zurich.
This was the era of the famous ‘Class of 92’ and Arnott found himself playing alongside David Beckham, Paul Scholes and Nicky Butt.
“After impressing during his spell with United, Ferguson made a £100,000 offer to Gillingham which was turned down by the then manager Damien Richardson,” Albion’s matchday programme noted.
In action for Gillingham against Albion’s Nicky Bissett
The player then suffered a hernia injury that put him out of the game for a year, putting paid to any further interest from United.
“I was gutted at the time, but it was a case of just getting on with returning to fitness and playing football,” Arnott said.
Back at Gillingham, he played 50 matches and scored 12 goals but then, in January 1996, got a £15,000 move to Leyton Orient. He spent a season and a half with the Os under manager Pat Holland and played in every position to help out the team, including goalkeeper in one emergency.
Arnott played under Micky Adams at Fulham
In the summer of 1997, after Fulham’s promotion from Division Three under Micky Adams, Arnott moved to Craven Cottage for an undisclosed fee (thought to be £25,000).
Within a few months, Mohammed Al Fayed took over the club and sacked Adams.
“All of a sudden Fulham went from being an ordinary Second Division outfit to a multi-million pound club,” he said. “I felt sorry for Micky as he had done a fantastic job, but he did foresee what was coming and sorted out long term contracts for most of the players.”
The new management duo of Ray Wilkins and Kevin Keegan brought in their own players and Arnott found himself confined to the reserves with the likes of Mark Walton, winger Paul Brooker, and forward Darren Freeman.
He scored twice for Fulham Reserves in a 3-0 win over Albion’s reserve side on 21 October 1998, and that persuaded Brian Horton to take him on.
“A few clubs had shown an interest around that time, but Brighton were the first that I spoke to and I liked what I was hearing so I signed straight away,” he said.
Horton signed him by the end of the same month for £10,000, plus another appearance-related £10,000, and said in the matchday programme he was “absolutely tremendous” on his debut. It came in a 1-0 win in pouring rain at Barnet when Charlton loanee defender Emeka Ifejagwa scored the only goal of the game on his debut. “He (Arnott) and Jeff Minton forged a good partnership and I am looking for that to flourish,” said Horton.
In his player-by-player commentary of performances, programme columnist Paul Camillin said: “Brilliant debut. He showed a good array of passing skills and he might have the bite we’ve been lacking.”
It was the wrong kind of bite he displayed in only his fourth game, though, when he was shown a red card in the 55th minute of Albion’s 2-0 win at Horton’s old club Hull City.
Defender Ross Johnson also went for an early bath for a second bookable offence but Albion’s nine men hung on for 35 minutes to complete their fourth successive away League win: the best such run for 62 years!
There’s little doubt Arnott’s arrival coincided with an upturn in the side’s form and in the matchday programme he took time to praise Albion’s loyal followers. “It is a fantastic advantage to have the number of away supporters we do,” he said. “It makes you want to play that little bit more to give them something back. They are absolutely magnificent.”
Arnott and Jamie Moralee
In the absence of Gary Hobson and Ian Culverhouse, Arnott was given the captain’s armband although that discipline was a bit questionable at times. He saw red for a second time, after Jeff Wood had taken over from Horton, for a second bookable offence at home to his old club Orient – Os captain Dean Smith (manager of relegation-threatened Leicester) also went for a second yellow – although Wood and Orient boss Tommy Taylor both slammed referee Rob Styles for his officiating.
Man of the Match
Wood declared: “Too many officials want to stamp their authority on the game early and flash cards like they are going out of fashion.”
Although Arnott saw out the season in the starting line-up, when his old boss Adams took over from Wood, by the time the new season got under way back in Brighton, Adams had signed Paul Rogers and Charlie Oatway as his preferred midfield pair.
By the end of September, Arnott had been snapped up by Second Division Colchester United; initially on loan and then permanently when their new boss Steve Whitton completed a direct swap that saw Warren Aspinall join the Seagulls.
However, Arnott made only four starts plus eight appearances off the bench in that first season and his time with United was blighted by a long-standing groin injury.
“The whole thing has been an absolute nightmare. I have been struggling with the injury for 14 months and despite loads of rest, two operations and four cortisone injections, the problem is as bad as ever,” he told Colchester’s Daily Gazette in January 2001.
“I was really struggling just before Christmas and I visited the specialist who told me I’m pretty near to exhausting my options.
“When it’s at its worst the injury is unbearable, especially when I turn or attempt to hit a long ball.
“I’m still only 27 with what should be many years left in the game.”
Unfortunately, though, he was forced to call time on his professional playing career and dropped into non-league initially with then-Conference side Stevenage, then Dover Athletic, where he was captain, Welling United and Ashford Town.
After his playing days were over, he settled in Rochester and became a project manager for Dryspace Structures while retaining his football links as a coach for Ebbsfleet United’s under 16 team.
In parallel lines 