ONCE A PROMISING Newcastle United youth team footballer, Ken Craggs didn’t make it as a player but went on to serve Albion as a ‘backroom boy’.
Indeed, he had three separate spells with the club, the first being the most prominent. Having joined the Albion in 1978, Craggs was at Alan Mullery’s side as assistant manager when Brighton first climbed to the top of English football.
In partnership with Alan Mullery
He later worked as a scout for Jimmy Melia, who himself had been a scout for the Albion under Mullery.
And Brian Horton, the captain who led the Seagulls all the way from the Third Division to the First, appointed Craggs as a scout when he managed the Albion between 1998 and 1999.
Craggs had also worked for Horton when he was the manager at Manchester City, Huddersfield Town and Hull City.
Horton viewed Craggs as a mentor and kept in touch with him long after their footballing days were over.
When Craggs died aged 85 in July 2021, Horton told Brian Owen of The Argus: “Ken knew an awful lot of people in the game. We got on great. He was just fun to be around.”
In a team line-up
Referring to how Mullery and Craggs worked together, he said: “Mullers was a hard task master, which I enjoyed. I like people who demand more. Ken was his back stop.
“He would be the buffer between manager and players. They would work in tandem and they were good for each other.”
It was chairman Mike Bamber’s instruction for Mullery to sack Craggs, Melia and coach George Aitken as a cost-cutting measure that prompted the ebullient ex-Spurs and Fulham captain to quit the club in 1981.
“He even wanted to get rid of the kit-man Glen Wilson, who had been at Brighton for years,” Mullery wrote in his autobiography. “The club meant the world to him. I couldn’t have lived with myself if I’d fired these people.”
Mullery swapped managerial chairs with Mike Bailey and moved to newly-promoted Charlton Athletic and Craggs went with him. When Mullery left the club after a year, his assistant took over the Second Division side.
Craggs was in the job for six months and the club history books record how he was the manager when the Addicks pulled off something of a coup in October 1982 by signing former European footballer of the year and Danish international Allan Simonsen from Barcelona for £324,000 after he had been forced out by the signing of Diego Maradona. It had been thought Simonsen would either go to Tottenham or Real Madrid but he revealed publicly that he wanted to play for a club at a less stressful level.
With only five wins in 16 league matches, Craggs’ last game in charge at The Valley saw Rotherham United wallop the home side 5-1 with ex-Brighton winger Tony Towner proving a handful on the right and scoring one of the goals and Ronnie Moore hitting a hat-trick.
Craggs was born on 10 April 1936 in Quarrington Hill, a small mining community in County Durham, close to Cassop Colliery, where his father worked and he expected to follow him.
But he was noticed playing for the local village school football team and he was selected to play inside forward for the Durham Schools representative side. That got him noticed by Newcastle United.
He joined them as an amateur and played in the club’s youth team, although it wasn’t uncommon for him to play two games in a day, turning out for United and then his local youth club side as well.
Young Craggs was invited to have a trial for the England Youth team and it was during one of these sessions that he was spotted by Fulham scout Bill Rochford.
At the tender age of 17, he seized the chance to leave home and head for the bright lights of London and a career as a professional at Fulham.
Craggs shared digs with Bobby Robson, another miner’s son from Durham who had joined Fulham.
“Ken never won a first team place, but he was a powerful centre-half for the reserves,” Mullery remembered.
Craggs spent seven years on the playing staff without breaking into the first team.
He dropped into non-league football, initially with King’s Lynn in the summer of 1960 and later played for Folkestone, Tunbridge Wells United, Dartford and Hounslow, where he was the player-coach.
He then returned to Fulham in September 1968 as a part-time youth team coach and scout under Robson. He found and developed the likes of Brian Greenaway, Les Strong, Tony Mahoney, Terry Bullivant and goalkeeper Perry Digweed, who later moved to Brighton for £150,000.
He eventually joined Fulham in a full-time coaching capacity and Robert Wilson, who went on to make 256 appearances for the Cottagers, recalled: “I joined Fulham as a 16-year-old in 1977, when Ken Craggs was in charge of the youth side and from there the likes of Tony Gale, Dean Coney, Paul Parker, Jeff Hopkins, Jim Stannard, Peter Scott, John Marshall and many others all progressed to the league team.”
Team line-ups of that time show Craggs pictured alongside Barry Lloyd and Teddy Maybank, who later followed Craggs to the Goldstone for a fee of £238,000.
Another striker who caught Craggs’ eye when he was a coach at Fulham was Malcolm Poskett. After Craggs moved to Brighton, the player’s goalscoring form at Hartlepool eventually led to a transfer to the Goldstone, the £60,000 fee representing a tidy profit for the struggling north east minnows.
Clothes modelling with Gary Stevens and Mark Lawrenson
Others who benefited from his acumen included Gary Stevens, who was released by the aforementioned Robson when he was manager at Ipswich Town, but picked up by Brighton.
Stevens said: “Ken played a huge part in many of our careers. He was the main reason I came to Brighton as a 16-year-old and I will always be grateful for his contribution.”
Giles Stille was a part-time player at Kingstonian when Craggs spotted him and after turning pro he made his top flight debut against Manchester City in December 1979 when going on as a sub for Horton in Albion’s 4-1 win. Unfortunately, his time at Brighton was beset by injuries and illness and he was forced to retire prematurely when only 26.
The Albion was quite a different club when Craggs returned for a third spell in 1998, not least because the side was playing home games in exile at Gillingham. His role was to help Horton and his no.2 Jeff Wood to look for bargain signings.
For instance, Craggs and Wood unearthed Gary Hart, who signed from Stansted for £1,000 and a set of playing kit and he went on to become something of a club legend.
“Ken and Jeff knew more players from down south than me ,” said Horton. “He would have definitely gone to watch him on Jeff’s recommendation.
“We put him into a reserve game at Worthing and he only needed one game for me and that was it, we were doing the deal.”
RAY CRAWFORD, one of the foremost goalscorers of the 1960s, came close to a swansong with the Albion and ended up coaching the club’s youngsters.
Crawford had been a key player in Alf Ramsey’s First Division title-winning Ipswich Town side having begun at hometown club Portsmouth and later netted 41 goals in 61 appearances for Wolverhampton Wanderers.
He joined Brighton in the autumn of 1971 after he had read they were struggling to score goals. Earlier the same year, he’d hit the headlines at the age of 35 when he scored twice for Fourth Division Colchester United as they sensationally beat Don Revie’s First Division Leeds United 3-2 in the FA Cup.
After a subsequent short stint playing in South Africa, homesickness brought him and his family back to the UK and the search began for a way to continue his celebrated career in the game.
He got in touch with his former Ipswich teammate, Eddie Spearritt, a key member of Albion’s squad, and the utility player persuaded manager Pat Saward to offer Crawford a trial.
“I did well enough in my trial week for Pat to ask me to stay for another month and to see how things went,” Crawford recalled in his eminently readable autobiography Curse of the Jungle Boy (PB Publishing, 2007).
Crawford found the net for the reserves, but a contractual issue with his last club, Durban City (who wanted a fee the Albion weren’t prepared to pay) prevented him joining as a player.
Meanwhile, the previous goalscoring slump that had first drawn him to the club was remedied by a decent run of goals from Peter O’Sullivan to supplement a revival in the form of strikers Kit Napier and Willie Irvine.
It meant Crawford, at 36, hung up his boots (although he still managed a cameo 15 minutes for the reserves in October 1973) to concentrate on coaching.
In the days before large teams of scouts and analysis tools, he would also run an eye over Albion’s future first team opponents to highlight their strengths and weaknesses.
“His dossiers on opposing styles and individual players have proved of great value in the team talks,” reported John Vinicombe in an Evening Argus supplement celebrating Albion’s promotion from the Third Division.
“When I returned to England after a spell with Durban City my only thoughts were of playing,” Crawford recalled. “Before I went to South Africa, I had a good season with Colchester United scoring 32 goals, and, of course, there were the two goals that I scored against the great Leeds United, knocking them out of the FA Cup, which still made me believe that my career was in playing.
Crawford scores v Leeds in the FA Cup
“But when my month’s loan from Durban City expired, and Pat Saward asked me if I would like to join the staff, I jumped at the chance.”
It didn’t stop Saward continuing to search for someone to supplement the strikeforce as the Albion went neck and neck with Aston Villa and Bournemouth for promotion.
Saward even brought in on trial another former England striker, the ex- Everton, Birmingham and Blackpool striker Fred Pickering from Blackburn Rovers. Like Crawford, he scored for the reserves but he wasn’t deemed fit enough for the first team.
Eventually, in March 1972, Saward found the missing piece of his jigsaw in Ken Beamish, a record transfer deadline day signing from Tranmere Rovers.
Beamish chipped in with some vital late goals to help Albion edge out the Cherries to secure Albion’s promotion as runners up to Villa.
The new man’s contribution earned Crawford’s approval in Brighton & Hove Albion Supporters’ Club’s official souvenir handbook, produced to celebrate the promotion.
Crawford as coach
He said: “I don’t like to single out players because football is a team game, but I must on this occasion. Ken Beamish added the final bite up front, and those vital goals that he scored helped us into Division II. What a player this boy is – he never gives up!”
It emerged in Crawford’s autobiography that he also had a friend in Albion chairman Mike Bamber, having got to know him when the Colchester team stayed at Bamber’s Ringmer hotel before a FA Cup tie.
Ever one for rubbing shoulders with stars, Bamber had subsequently invited Crawford back to Sussex to open a local fete in exchange for a weekend stay at the hotel with his family.
“Since that time, I had regarded Mike as a friend and a man I could trust,” said Crawford.
The former striker’s work with the club’s youngsters was evidently appreciated; for instance by Steve Barrett (below left) who said in 2011: “Ray was my coach when I was an apprentice and a young pro. Always had a great enthusiasm for the game and, even in training at the age of about 40, had a good touch and great eye for goal.
“Was great fun on our annual youth trips to tournaments to Holland or Germany. Was very modest in general but loved to remind everyone of his two goals for Colchester against the then mighty Leeds in the FA Cup. A really nice man.”
When Saward was sacked in the autumn of 1973, Crawford assisted caretaker manager Glen Wilson for the home fixture against Southport, which Albion won 4-0.
As for his relationship with Bamber, it counted for nothing as soon as the chairman astonished the football world by appointing Brian Clough and Peter Taylor to succeed Saward.
Crawford was angered by Clough’s “abrasive and stubborn” shenanigans, for instance being bought a pint in a Lewes hotel bar and then left waiting with Wilson as the former Derby duo disappeared for two hours.
“I wasn’t prepared to be treated like that and I soon found out that the way he spoke to people was as I’d expected,” Crawford recalled. “One day he left the players sitting in the dressing room for two hours before training. I don’t know why. It left a sort of threatening pressure on the players that I didn’t agree with.”
It probably didn’t help matters that Crawford’s outspoken wife Eileen also took issue with Clough when he tried to stop the players’ wives having a smoke while socialising before a match. “I don’t smoke, but if I did, it wouldn’t be anything to do with you!” she told him.
Crawford had heard that his first club, Portsmouth, were looking to revive a youth set-up that had been abandoned under a previous manager, so he applied to take on the role of setting it up and running it and headed back to Fratton Park in December 1973.
Born just a mile away from Portsmouth’s famous home ground, the eldest of four children, on 13 July 1936, Crawford initially looked unlikely to follow the sporting prowess of his dad, who had been a professional boxer, because of asthma.
Nevertheless, his enthusiasm for football was sparked by a display of skill from Pompey player Bert Barlow when he did a coaching session at his school, and he joined a local football club called Sultan Boys.
Then he was taken to see Portsmouth play at Fratton Park and he set his heart on stepping out onto that turf himself.
At 14 he started to fill out in height and weight. “I changed quickly from a skinny, shy, asthmatic youth into a strong, young athlete, representing Hilsea Modern School and Portsmouth Schools in cross country running and in the 440 yards,” he said.
He also excelled at cricket and was offered the chance to have a trial with Hampshire County Cricket Club. But his heart was set on football.
Eventually a break came courtesy of a friend who was already in Portsmouth’s youth team. Crawford was invited to twice-weekly training and, after impressing, was taken on as a junior.
In the meantime, he worked by day for the Portsmouth Trading Company making concrete and breeze blocks, which involved spending around eight hours every day lifting 500 heavy blocks onto pallets to dry. It certainly got him fit.
The football club eventually offered him a contract after two years of training with them, but then (as was the case with all young men at the time) he had to do two years’ National Service in the army.
That’s where the title of his book comes in because he was posted to Malaya where word of his footballing ability had already spread. He was invited to play for Selangor Rangers, the biggest club in Kuala Lumpur, and the army also gave him permission to play for the Malayan Federation on a tour of Cambodia and Vietnam.
“Whilst I took part in many more football matches in Malaya than military exercises, I did go out into the jungle on a few occasions with the battalion,” he recalled.
Back at Portsmouth in the autumn of 1956, Crawford resumed his football career, initially in Pompey’s reserve team. After scoring 33 goals in 39 reserve team games, he finally got a first team call-up, making his debut in a 0-0 draw against Burnley at Fratton Park on 24 August 1957.
In the following game, he scored two in two minutes as Spurs were beaten 5-1 at home, but the following month he suffered a broken ankle that sidelined him for two months.
The beginning of the end of his fledgling Pompey playing career came in December that year when he lost it with the club chairman, Jack Sparshatt, who puzzlingly decided to enter the dressing room at half-time during a game, voicing his disapproval at the performance. Crawford told him to f*** off!
Perhaps not surprisingly he was left out of the side for a month.
He did get selected again in the new year, playing up front with Irishman Derek Dougan, but, that summer, Eddie Lever, the manager who’d given him his debut, was sacked and it wasn’t long before his replacement, Freddie Cox, sold Crawford to Ipswich.
Although he hadn’t wanted to move, future England boss Ramsey was persuasive and Crawford admitted: “I had no idea at the time that this would eventually turn out as one of the best decisions I ever made in life.”
The Hampshire lad adapted well to Suffolk and by the end of his first season at Town had scored 25 goals in 30 league games. Not a bad return but even better was to come and with Crawford and strike partner Ted Phillips rattling in the goals, Ipswich won back-to-back titles, winning the second tier championship in 1960-61 and the elite title in 1961-62.
Crawford scored 40 and Phillips 30 as Ipswich won promotion in 1961 and, at the higher level the following season, Crawford bagged another 37 goals.
Such prolific scoring inevitably brought him to the attention of the international selectors and, at the age of 25, he won two England caps. The mystery was why he didn’t win more.
Crawford made his England debut in a Home International against Northern Ireland at Wembley on 22 November 1961. He was credited with setting up England’s goal, scored by Bobby Charlton in the 20th minute, and the game ended in a disappointing 1-1 draw.
The 30,000 crowd for the Wednesday afternoon match was a record low for Wembley at that time. The prolific Ipswich striker only won one more cap, and then only because of a fractured cheekbone injury to first choice Alan Peacock of Middlesbrough.
Nonetheless, Crawford seized his chance and got on the scoresheet after only seven minutes against Austria in a friendly at Wembley on 4 April 1962.
He turned and buried a shot to give England an early lead which Ron Flowers increased with a penalty before half-time. Roger Hunt scored a third for England in the second half. Hans Buzek pulled one back for the visitors in the 76th minute.
As well as Hunt, future World Cup winners Ray Wilson and Bobby Charlton were also in the England line-up, together with 1966 squad members Jimmy Armfield and John Connelly. The team was captained by Fulham’s Johnny Haynes. Jimmy Melia was part of the squad but didn’t play.
Jimmy Magill, who later joined Brighton from Arsenal, was in the Irish side whose equaliser was scored by Burnley’s Jimmy McIlroy. Spurs’ Danny Blanchflower won his 50th cap for his country that day.
Having scored 33 goals in the First Division, Crawford was gutted not to be selected in the England squad for the 1962 World Cup in Chile and future England boss Ramsey was mystified too. “I just don’t understand it and I will go as far as saying it is downright unfair,” he said.
Crawford reckoned it was because England coach Harold Shepherdson, who also held a similar role at Middlesbrough, always advanced the claims of Boro’s aforementioned Peacock, who was chosen ahead of him despite scoring fewer goals, and in the Second Division.
Although Crawford was selected three times for the Football League representative side, he didn’t win any more full international caps.
Probably more surprising was that his old club boss Ramsey, who had seen him at close quarters for Town, didn’t turn to him after he’d taken charge of England in October 1962. But Ramsey had an embarrassment of riches at his disposal, not least in the shape of Jimmy Greaves and Bobby Smith along with Liverpool’s Hunt and later Geoff Hurst.
Crawford’s first meeting with Jackie Milburn, who took over from Ramsey as Ipswich boss, simply involved the former Newcastle and England centre-forward saying: “Nice to meet you Ray, you won’t be here long.”
Sure enough, he wasn’t. Despite his past successes, Ipswich cashed in and sold him to Wolves for £55,000 in September 1963.
His debut was somewhat ignominious as Wolves succumbed 6-0 at Liverpool (their ‘keeper Malcolm Finlayson was forced off injured) but Crawford scored twice in his second game as Wanderers won 2-1 at Blackpool (for whom Alan Ball scored).
Crawford went on to finish that first season with 26 League goals to his name in 34 games and was named Player of the Year, although Wolves finished in a disappointing 16th place.
Crawford, who is remembered fondly on the website wolvesheroes.com, had been joined at Molineux by Liverpool’s Melia (“a fine passer of the ball”) but when Stan Cullis, the manager who signed them both, was sacked, neither of them saw eye to eye with his successor, Andy Beattie.
Melia was sold to Southampton and the rift with the new boss saw Crawford switch to Black Country rivals West Brom in February 1965 for a £35,000 fee. He later reflected it was a case of jumping out of the frying pan into the fire because he didn’t enjoy a good relationship with Baggies boss Jimmy Hagan.
The striker played only 16 matches for Albion, scoring eight goals, before asking for a transfer in March 1966 and being granted his wish. “I did my best but never had a decent run of games in the first team,” he said. “It never quite worked out but I enjoyed most of my time there and the fans could not have been better.”
It was former club Ipswich, battling at the wrong end of the Second Division, who rescued him and, even though it meant dropping down a division, he was happy to return to Portman Road under Bill McGarry.
Crawford struck up a useful striking partnership with prolific American-born Gerry Baker. By the end of the season, he’d scored eight goals in 13 appearances and Town managed to avoid relegation.
He was part of the Ipswich side that won the Second Division championship the following season, netting 25 goals in 48 appearances, and by then was approaching his 32nd birthday.
The goals continued to flow with Ipswich back amongst the elite, Crawford scoring 21 in 42 games in the 1967-68 season. But more managerial upheaval was around the corner, when McGarry left to become manager of Wolves.
“When McGarry left for Wolves, I had lost my master and mentor, leaving a psychological gap for me that wasn’t going to be filled by anyone else however qualified or good they were as a manager,” said Crawford.
Even before Bobby Robson succeeded McGarry, Crawford started to weigh up his options and he decided he fancied a move to South Africa, where his old Ipswich teammate Roy Bailey had settled.
Although Town chairman John Cobbold initially agreed to give him a free transfer, the Board later changed their mind and decided they wanted some compensation for his services. Instead of going to South Africa, he ended up moving to Charlton Athletic for £12,000.
The move to The Valley turned sour after he refused to join a training camp organised by manager Eddie Firmani because his family were ill and he needed to be at home to look after them. He was sacked after playing just 22 games for the Valiants, during which time he scored seven goals.
Southern League Kettering provided a short-term means of getting back into playing but it was Fourth Division Colchester United who took him on and he repaid their faith by scoring 31 goals in 55 matches under Dick Graham, the most memorable being that pair against Leeds.
Crawford eventually got his move to South Africa in August 1971, joining Durban City, but his family couldn’t settle and they returned to the UK three months’ later.
During his time as youth coach at Portsmouth, he was responsible for signing Steve Foster and, in his autobiography, recalls how a tip-off from Harry Bourne, a local schoolteacher set him on the path of the future Albion and England centre-back.
Foster had been released by Southampton and Crawford went to the family home in Gladys Avenue, Portsmouth, to invite him to train with Pompey. Foster’s mother was at a works disco at Allders and Crawford went to find her there and had to shout above the sound of the music that Portsmouth were interested in signing her son.
The youngster, 18 at the time, got in touch the next day and, before long, was switched from a centre-forward to a centre-back, after Crawford’s former Ipswich teammate Reg Tyrrell told him: “That no.9, he’s no centre-forward, but he’d be a good number 5.”
After he left Portsmouth in 1978, Crawford took over as manager at Hampshire league side Fareham Town and later managed Winchester City before finally retiring from the game in 1984 to become a merchandising rep.
A WIN ON his debut was as good as it got in Sussex-born tenacious midfielder Stan Brown’s two months as a Brighton player.
Brown, who spent 15 years with Fulham, was one of too many loan signings manager Pat Saward turned to as he dismantled his 1972 promotion-winning side and tried in vain to get Albion to adapt to the old Second Division.
Brown had six seasons as a Fulham regular in the old First Division, two in the Second and two in the Third before his two-month loan with the Albion.
He was following in the footsteps of two of his five brothers, Irvin and Alan, who had both played briefly for Brighton several years earlier.
Stan certainly couldn’t have wished for a better start, in a side with another loanee debutant, Luton’s John Moore (in as a replacement for sold ex-skipper John Napier), for an away match at Huddersfield Town on 14 October 1972.
With only one win (ironically against Fulham) in the opening 12 league games, there was cause for optimism that a corner had been turned when the Albion earned a surprise 2-0 victory in south Yorkshire (Eddie Spearritt and Barry Bridges the scorers).
A Goal magazine picture shows Brown in action for Fulham against Albion’s Eddie Spearritt in 1969-70
“It was as if I had been playing for Albion all my life,” Brown told the matchday programme. “You see, I live at Lewes, the training ground is only four miles from my house and I have known Bert Murray and Barry Bridges for a long time.
“As for the rest of the lads, I felt I knew them too from reading about them in the Evening Argus every night. So, when it actually came to turn out for Albion at Huddersfield I knew all the players by their first names.”
Manager Saward was certainly impressed by the impact of his two new acquisitions. “The new men played a major part in our success,” he said. “It was quite remarkable really the way they slotted into the side as if they had been playing for Albion all season.
“They are, of course, experienced professionals who have been around the game a long time. But even the best professionals sometimes take time to settle into new environments and this is why the performances of these two was so outstanding.”
Injuries to regular midfielders John Templeman and Brian Bromley had provided an opening for Brown and his subsequent involvement helped the side to three successive draws. But the wheels fell off big time in his last five games as Albion lost the lot without scoring a goal.
Brown returned briefly to Craven Cottage before moving on to Colchester United while Albion’s losing streak continued through to the following February!
Although fortunes eventually improved in the final third of the season, the damage had been done and Albion dropped straight back down to the old Third Division.
Born in Lewes on 15 September 1941, Brown played for East Sussex schoolboys and captained Sussex Schools. It was in that representative side that he was spotted by Fulham, who took him on as a 16-year-old apprentice in 1957.
Older brother Irvin, a centre-half, had joined Albion’s staff in 1951 but only played three games in the 1957-58 season before moving on to greater success with Bournemouth; signed by Don Welsh, the manager who’d taken him to Brighton.
The day after Irvin left the Albion in 1958, 6’4” brother Alan signed for the club as a centre-half but was converted into a centre-forward and scored twice in eight first team games before moving on to Exeter City; signed by former Brighton teammate Glen Wilson.
Stan was undoubtedly the most successful of the three although, when he made his Fulham first team debut on 21 January 1961, it was memorable for all the wrong reasons: he was in for the injured Johnny Haynes and Fulham lost 6-1 at home to Sheffield Wednesday.
Johnny Haynes & Stan Brown
Initially a centre-forward, at 5ft 7ins he was on the small side to lead the attack, so switched to midfield – his preferred position – but he also featured in the back four.
It was in the 1962-63 season that he earned a regular place in the side and was known as a “player’s player” for his selflessness and desire to put the team before his own ambitions. He enjoyed playing in midfield alongside Haynes and Alan Mullery but was prepared to slot in anywhere if necessary.
Fulham fan Pete Grinham summed him up as “a high octane team player of the highest calibre without the individual skills of his more illustrious teammates but with the heart of a lion”.
The supporter added: “He was a very effective, tenacious tackler, and his distribution was extremely good. He did the lion’s share of the hard graft allowing others to shine.
“This selfless work for the team was not always appreciated in some fan quarters but if you could ask any player who played with him, they would commend his importance to the team.”
His loyalty to Fulham was rewarded with a testimonial game in late 1970, Fulham losing 2-0 to Chelsea at Craven Cottage watched by a crowd of 11,024.
His total of 393 appearances for Fulham, plus five as a substitute, put him in the Cottagers’ top 20 appearances’ chart. It was only when Mullery returned to the Cottage from Spurs in the summer of 1972 that Brown lost his place.
Grinham was staggered to see Brown appear at the age of 59 in a testimonial for Simon Morgan, another Fulham stalwart, who won promotion with the Albion in 2002.
The game, on 2 August 2000, saw Brown play for a Fulham veterans side against Chelsea veterans, still displaying a remarkable level of fitness.
It was that fitness that had seen his post-Fulham career continue at Colchester for five months (he played 23 matches through to the end of the 1972-73 season), then Wimbledon (1973-74) and Margate.
He continued to play at Sussex County League level for a number of years, turning out for Haywards Heath, Ringmer, Southwick and Burgess Hill, and also playing for the county representative side.
When he died aged 76 on 16 March 2017, the Argus remembered how Brown helped to nurture young talent by coaching junior football teams Lewes Bridge View and Ringmer Rovers, as well as setting up and organising the Lewes Saturday Soccer School.
FIFTY years ago, Brighton spent the summer preparing for life in the old Second Division having won promotion in front of 30,000+ crowds at the Goldstone Ground.For one player, though, his five years at the heart of the Albion’s defence – many as the club captain – were drawing to a close.
Seven years later, John Napier moved permanently to the United States to embark on a new life. Today, at the age of 75, he is still coaching. NICK TURRELL’s In Parallel Lines blog caught up with him for a trip back down memory lane.
Here, in the first of five articles, John reflects on the highlight of his career, how he came to join the Albion, and his appointment as club captain.
A BRIGHTON captain in the making faced Uwe Seeler, Franz Beckenbauer and Co in a warm-up game for the 1966 World Cup tournament in England.
It was the one and only time John Napier appeared as a full international for Northern Ireland, but that day on 7 May 1966 has lived with him into his old age.
Napier at 75 still treasures his Irish international shirt
“Walking out at Windsor Park, Belfast, against West Germany was probably the biggest highlight of my soccer career,” he said. “All my family were there watching and afterwards we had a large dinner and I was sat directly across from Uwe Seeler and Franz Beckenbauer. It was some night I will never forget.”
A crowd of 22,000 at Windsor Park saw the country who’d two months later take England into extra time at the World Cup final secure a 2-0 win courtesy of goals by Seeler and Fredy Heiß.
The call-up was reward for Napier’s form with second tier Bolton Wanderers, where he had just been named Player of the Season.
Against the Germans, Napier, aged just 19, played alongside Terry Neill and in front of the great Pat Jennings. One of the full-backs that day, Jimmy Magill, who was coming to the end of his international career, had already moved from Arsenal to Brighton by then. Magill came from the same town, Lurgan, as Napier.
Napier did get selected to play for his country again, after he’d joined the Albion. He was due to play in a friendly against Israel in Tel Aviv in 1968.
But as Napier recalled: “Before we were due to fly out from Heathrow, we were told that there had been an uprising in the Middle East, and it would not be safe to play the game under those circumstances.
“I was looking forward to that game as Terry Neill had an injury and it was a chance for me to get back in the national side again, so it was disappointing.”
By the time the fixture was rearranged (in September the same year), Napier was out of the picture. For the record, Northern Ireland won 3-2; Napier’s future Albion teammate Willie Irvine scored twice with Derek Dougan netting the other.
“Although I loved my time at Brighton, I felt the international chances did not come back as I would have liked,” Napier reflected. “I did get selected a few times but I also got injured and missed a chance to play against England. There was also a Scotland game at Hampden which clashed with a Brighton League Cup game where I was not released. Being behind Terry Neill (the Arsenal skipper) did not help either because he never missed many games.”
At £25,000, 20-year-old Napier was a record signing by the Albion when Archie Macaulay persuaded him to leave Burnden Park and head for the south coast at the start of the 1967-68 season.
“£25,000 was a lot back then,” Napier recalled. “Brighton had come in with a £20,000 first offer which Bolton refused. I don’t think at the time that Bolton wanted to let me go, so I was told, so they kept refusing offers from Brighton. There were a couple of other clubs in at the time, so that is why the fee went to £25,000.”
The Irishman continued: “It was a difficult decision because I was still young and ambitious. But, at the same time, I felt I needed to break from Bolton for a fresh start and Brighton came in with a very good offer that Bolton accepted.
“I had gone through a sticky patch the last few months at Bolton, being in and out of the first team. I had made my debut at Bolton before my 19th birthday and was an ever present in the first team for a long time. I was voted Bolton Player of the Year in 1966 so I was well liked in the town and never felt like I would be anywhere else.”
Nevertheless, he admitted that he asked for a transfer because he was not getting on with the Bolton management. “I was strong willed and I went to talk to Nat Lofthouse (the club’s legendary former centre forward who was part of the second team training staff).
“I always admired him as a person and a player,” said Napier. “He did not say go but he did say I was still very young and had my whole career in front of me. So, it was a big decision, but it was also a large financial decision, because I did make a good amount through signing-on fees, wages and also a bonus from Bolton because I had been there since I was 15. So, financially, I was so much better off at Brighton.”
He continued: “When you are young like I was, things change fast, and they sure did for me. I left many of the players I had grown up with in the Bolton youth teams and many great players I was playing with: Francis Lee, big Wyn Davies, Freddie Hill, Eddie Hopkinson – all internationals.”
At Brighton, Napier quickly established a formidable partnership with Norman Gall at the back, so what was the secret of their success?
Napier and Gall at the heart of the team picture – as well as defence
“I loved playing at the back alongside Norman,” Napier explained. “We had a good understanding of what was needed in the middle at the back.
“We hit it off straight away and played many times together, and so consistently. We were tough and could read and feed of each other.
“I was good in the air and was able to master tall number 9s, as we had a lot back then. Norman was quicker than me and could handle speedy players alongside the big guys, so it was a good combination.
“I was more sit back in the pocket, and Norman would venture forward more, but we were defenders in the old tradition.”
It turns out one of Napier’s biggest fans was the renowned comedian, actor and musician Norman Wisdom, who was an Albion director in the ‘60s. “He was always at our games and brought a laugh into the dressing room even if we lost,” said Napier. “A great character. I was thrilled in later years when I read that I had been his favourite player at Brighton. I hope he wasn’t joking!”
How the matchday programme reported a first Albion goal for the Irish defender
The Irishman received Albion’s first-ever Player of the Season award (below centre, as featured in Seagulls! The Story of Brighton & Hove Albion FC by Tim Carder and Roger Harris) for his consistent performances at the heart of Albion’s defence in the 1968-69 season. He played in all 52 Albion matches that season.
“I was very proud of getting that award especially as it came from the fans at the Goldstone Ground,” he said. “It was a surprise to me at the time, I loved playing there and I think the crowd did appreciate the work we put in.
“I had a good rapport with the fans; I felt that they respected the way I played, always giving my best output. I also did a lot of work in the community at the time, as did most of the players. We were always out somewhere. I remember coaching a local team in the evenings.”
He added: “Brighton was a good club; it was a club that players wanted to come to, and the club took care of us well. We travelled like a First Division outfit and we stayed at the best hotels at the time. Sometimes on trains travelling north we would be in close quarters with Arsenal or Tottenham players, and I would be meeting up with old teammates like Pat Jennings, Pat Rice, Terry Neill, on the same trains. Brighton had a reputation for bringing in big name players through the years.”
Typical of Napier’s contribution to the Albion at that time was this high praise from John Vinicombe, the reporter who covered the club for the Evening Argus. After a 3-0 win at Reading on 21 April 1971, he wrote: “This was a magnificent display by John Napier. He was absolutely commanding and this rated as his best performance of the campaign. Nothing beat him and this mastery inspired confidence in all around.”
Remarkably the Napier-Gall partnership straddled the reigns of three managers: Macaulay, Freddie Goodwin and Pat Saward.
“Macaulay was a no-nonsense type of manager,” said Napier. “I enjoyed playing for him. He had success with most of his clubs, he knew how he wanted his line up and would go after players for specific positions. Most of the daily training work was done by coaches; I think Joe and Glen Wilson were involved at the time.”
And Goodwin? “For me he was the best man manager I had the pleasure to play for. He brought different ideas to the club, he had been a good player and also had coached in the USA. He was a coach that would be able to lift you as an individual, both as a person and as a player.
“I remember my individual conversations with him. He was so positive in those areas that I felt I wanted to take that onto the field and strive. I think he was the same with most of the players. We had a good group that felt very comfortable with his playing style. As professionals, we are all different in how we respond to management, sometimes good and sometimes bad.
“It is a tough role and obviously not easy to get players on the same page. He managed to do it most of the time before he left to go to Birmingham City.
“I remember him introducing us to a new powder he brought from America called Gatorade we used to dilute in water and drink for energy. That was the first time Gatorade was seen in the UK; now look at it today!”
Napier continued: “Also, he would bring in fancy-coloured boots from companies for us to try out instead of the old black and white ones. That was so funny: we would wear bright blue boots in training but I don’t think anyone wanted to wear them in a game in case the crowd got on to them. How times have changed!
“I loved them; they were softer and very comfortable, but I’m not sure who the manufacturer was.”
Goodwin appointed Napier club captain and the former defender pointed out: “I wanted to be that person, to be a leader and to continue to try to bring success to the club. I always felt that Brighton was a sleeping giant back then.”
He continued: “I personally as a player had some of my best spells under Freddie. We had a good group. It is never easy getting results in the lower divisions. I really can’t remember any of the big games, but we were close, and I think everyone knew it was only a matter of time before Brighton went forward.
“When Freddie left to take the Birmingham job it was disappointing for the players. We knew it was because he was doing such a great job with us, but it was still hard to swallow.”
Napier and the 1969-70 Albion squad
• In the next instalment, Napier reveals how his amazing Albion appearance record came to a shuddering halt.
MIDFIELD enforcer John Boyle was born on Christmas Day 1946 and went on to play more than 250 games for Chelsea.
Towards the end of his career, he spent two months on loan at Brighton trying to bolster the Albion’s ailing midfield in the dying days of Pat Saward’s spell as manager.
Indeed, Boyle was in that unenviable position of being at the club when the manager who brought him in was turfed out, and the man who replaced him (in this case none other than Brian Clough) swiftly dispensed with his services and sent him back to Chelsea.
By then, Boyle’s time at Chelsea was at an end and, after his 10-game Goldstone spell was also over, he went the shorter distance across London to play for Orient, before ending his playing days in America with Tampa Bay Rowdies.
Born in Motherwell, Boyle went to the same Our Lady’s High Secondary school that spawned Celtic greats Billy McNeill and Bobby Murdoch and, just around the time he turned 15, his stepbrother, who lived in Battersea, organised through a contact they had with then boss Tommy Docherty for him to go down to London for a trial.
He did enough to impress and 10 days later Chelsea sent him a letter inviting him to join their youth team, together with the train ticket from Motherwell to London.
“When I got off the train, Tommy Doc was waiting for me to take me to my digs,” Boyle told chelseafc.com in a recent interview. “I stayed in the digs that Bobby Tambling and Barry Bridges had stayed in before.”
Boyle – known to all as ‘Boylers’ – made his debut in the 1965 League Cup semi-final against Aston Villa and, at 18, it couldn’t have been much more memorable.
“I played on Monday in a Scottish youth trial and Wednesday I was playing against Aston Villa in the semi-final of the League Cup,” Boyle recounted. “After 20 odd minutes, I tackled this guy and he got injured and carried off. The crowd then booed me, he limped back on and then the crowd booed me more!
“It went to 2-0, to 2-2 and then with about 10 minutes to go I got the ball 30 yards out, rolled it forward and went crack and it went into the top corner of the net. I remember Terry Venables ran up to me and said ‘John, I am so pleased for you,’ and that was my first game. To score the winning goal in your first game was Roy of the Rovers stuff.”
He went on to become Chelsea’s youngest ever cup finalist when he was in the team that won the trophy. In those days, it was played over two legs, and, after beating Leicester City 3-2 in the home game, they drew the away leg 0-0. His teammates in the second leg were Bert Murray and the aforementioned Bridges, who he would go on to play alongside at Brighton in 1973.
The Goldstone Ground was familiar territory to him. On 18 February 1967, he was famously sent off for the visitors in a FA Cup 4th round tie when Albion held their more illustrious opponents to a 1-1 draw in front of a packed house. Chelsea went on to win the replay 4-0 and that year went all the way to the final where Boyle was part of the side who lost 2-1 to Spurs. In another fiery FA Cup tie between Brighton and Chelsea, in January 1972, Boyle was Chelsea’s substitute as they won 2-0 in a game which ended 10 a side, George Ley and Ron Harris being sent off.
When Docherty moved on from Stamford Bridge, and Dave Sexton took over as manager, Boyle’s involvement in the side was more sporadic, as he told fan Ian Morris on his Rowdies blog.
“Dave appreciated my energy and willingness, but I don’t think he really fancied me as a player. Basically, I became an odd-job man, filling in here and there, and in football it doesn’t help to get that reputation,” he said.
Although he wasn’t in the squad that beat Leeds in the 1970 FA Cup Final, he was back in the side when Chelsea beat Real Madrid over two legs in May 1971 to win the European Cup Winners’ Cup.
After Brighton’s disastrous 1972-73 season in the second tier – the general consensus is that they’d not properly been prepared for promotion and didn’t invest sufficiently in the team to have a fighting chance of staying up – the side continued to be in the doldrums as they adjusted to life back in the old Third Division.
Manager Saward was struggling to come up with the right formula and, having transferred former captain Brian Bromley to Reading, sought to boost his midfield with the experienced Boyle, who was surplus to requirements at Stamford Bridge.
With the paperwork signed on 20 September, Boyle was handed the no.8 shirt and made his debut alongside Ronnie Howell in a 0-0 draw away to Grimsby Town.
He made his home debut the following Saturday, but the Albion went down 1-0. Three days later, this time partnering Eddie Spearritt in the middle, Boyle helped Albion to a 1-0 win at Oldham Athletic.
After a 3-1 defeat away to Blackburn Rovers, at home to Halifax Town Boyle had a new midfield partner in John Templeman. But again they lost by a single goal.
With Howell back alongside him for the home game v Shrewsbury Town, Albion prevailed 2-0 in what turned out to be Saward’s last game in charge. Perhaps by way of another interesting historical note, Boyle was subbed off to be replaced by Dave Busby, who became the first black player to play for the Albion.
Caretaker boss Glen Wilson retained Boyle in midfield for the midweek 4-0 hammering of Southport and he was also in the line-up for Clough’s first game in charge, a 0-0 home draw against York City on 3 November. But the 2-2 draw away to Huddersfield Town on 10 November was his last game for the Albion.
As someone who’d gained something of a reputation as enjoying the social side of things at Chelsea, particularly with the likes of Peter Osgood, Charlie Cooke and Alan Birchenall, it maybe doesn’t come as too big a surprise to learn that Clough advised him “always buy two halves instead of a pint, or people will think you’re a drinker”.
Boyle was still only 28 when he tried his hand in Florida in February 1975, being appointed Tampa Bay Rowdies captain, and leading them to victory in the Super Bowl against Portland Timbers in August that year.
His former Chelsea teammate Derek Smethurst scored 18 goals in that inaugural season, playing up front alongside ex-West Ham striker Clyde Best, while former Crystal Palace ‘keeper Paul Hammond was in goal.
A newspaper article about Boyle’s contribution resides on tampapix.com, a hugely entertaining site featuring loads of players of yesteryear who turned out for the Rowdies.
It somewhat flamboyantly says: “‘Captain Rowdie’ John Boyle was a barrel-chested midfielder with legs as white as snow and hair as thin as a wheat crop during a summer drought. He became the role model for the club, as much because of his leadership as well as the fact that he knocked opponents ‘grass-over-tea kettle’ when they came his way.”
He retired from playing in November the same year but, two years later, he stepped in as Rowdies coach when Eddie Firmani quit. However, he had also gone into the pub business in the UK and ultimately the need to be behind the bar at Simon the Tanner in Bermondsey, with his wife Madeline, meant he had to turn his back on the sunshine state and return to London.
Unable to resist the lure of the States once more, Boyle played five matches for indoor league side Phoenix Inferno in the 1980-81 season.
In that wide-ranging interview Boyle gave to chelseafc.com earlier this year, he said: “I wouldn’t change a thing in my life, I am just grateful for what I have done. I have been blessed and one of the great things about it is 50 years later you can still talk about it! I was a lucky young man to have played when I did and meet the people I did.”
When Docherty moved on from Stamford Bridge, and Dave Sexton took over as manager, Boyle’s involvement in the side was more sporadic, as he told fan Ian Morris on his Rowdies 
In parallel lines 