Tag: Grantham Town

Melton took Micky at his word – and saw red 

MIDFIELDER Steve Melton took manager Micky Adams at his word in a notorious pre-season friendly – and ended up being sent off after putting in a waist-high tackle on an opponent.

Adams subbed off a riled Richard Carpenter against Longford Town in July 2001 with instructions to former Nottingham Forest trainee Melton “to give the lad who was booting our players up in the air a taste of his own medicine. Make sure he knows you are around.”

Melton duly put in a flying lunge on Longford midfielder Alan Reynolds that saw him receive an automatic red card and the fall-out from the challenge sparked an almighty punch-up which ended up with Albion’s Charlie Oatway and opponent Alan Murphy also being sent off after an altercation.

That particular battle then led to an even bigger scrap involving coaches and even the Longford chairman who took a punch in the face from one of his own players!

The so-called pre-season “friendly” – later dubbed the Battle of Longford – was abandoned with only 44 minutes on the clock by inexperienced ref Dermot Tone, who had only stepped in to officiate because senior Irish referees were at a seminar.

For Melton, it was all a far cry from making your Premier League debut two years earlier in front of 25,353 fans at the City Ground, Nottingham, in Ron Atkinson’s last-ever game as a manager. Melton was pitched in for already-relegated Forest for an East Midlands derby against Leicester and they went down in style (Blackburn and Charlton also went down), scraping a 1-0 win against the Foxes.

Born in Lincoln on 3 October 1978, Melton first linked up with Forest when he was just 11, playing at the centre of excellence. He signed full time at 16, a matter of days after finishing his GCSEs. He progressed through the youth team and reserves and it was during that time that he first worked with Adams, who’d been assistant manager to Dave Bassett before Atkinson’s arrival. 

Before he got close to the Forest first team, 18-year-old Melton and another trainee had experienced competitive football in Finland where Bassett had sent them to play for Sami Hyypiä’s old club MyPa on a three-month loan.

“He sent us out there to toughen us up. It also got us used to playing in a proper men’s league so that we learnt to value the prize of the three points and the standing within the first team,” he explained in a matchday programme interview.

That experience followed by his Forest first team debut didn’t have the outcome he wanted and after only three games under Atkinson’s successor, David Platt, he picked up an injury and couldn’t force his way back into the first team picture.

In February 2000, he switched 50 miles west to third tier Stoke City and admitted: “It seemed a good move as I didn’t have to travel too far. 

“It was a chance for me to play for a decent-sized club that were going strong in the cup and in the league. It was either that or play reserve team games for the rest of the year at Forest and wait for a break that I didn’t think was going to come.”

As it turned out, it was mainly a watching role, making only seven appearances as a substitute. He was a non-playing bench warmer alongside Chris Iwelumo (who did get on) when City won the Football League (Auto Windscreens Shield) Trophy at Wembley, beating Bristol City 2-1.

Stoke’s new Icelandic consortium hinted that they wanted to keep him on but in the absence of a contract offer, rather than risk uncertainty, he took up Adams’ offer to join fourth-tier Albion. 

A complimentary caption in the club match day programme

On a trial in the Emerald Isle the year before the Longford incident, Melton did enough across the week of the tour to earn a one-year contract. He had a long wait before getting a start but after 11 introductions as a substitute he finally made his full debut in February 2001, stepping in for Carpenter at Torquay after the regular midfield starter pulled out with an injured ankle. 

After playing his part in Albion’s first win (1-0 courtesy of Bobby Zamora) at Torquay for 36 years, Melton told The Argus: “I’m enjoying it here. I’ve settled in with the lads and I share a house with some of them.” 

On playing for Adams, he said: “I think Micky is going to be a really good manager. I enjoy working with him. A lot of the lads do. 

“Hopefully he will take Brighton up. He’s had a taste of managing at a higher level at Forest and I think he has the potential to do it again.” 

Melton’s outlook brightened the following month and he got starts in nine of the season’s remaining 15 matches as Adams led the Seagulls to promotion as champions. 

At home to his future employer Hull City, Melton made his home debut and scored his first goal for the club in a 3-0 win (Paul Watson and substitute Phil Stant also scored).

Reflecting on his involvement, he said: “It’s difficult to break in when the team keep winning every week, and they go unbeaten for 12 or 13 games, maybe drop a point but then go off on another run.

“It’s frustrating because you’re not playing, but you can’t really have too much of a case when the team is sat at the top of the league.”

Come the end of the season, he had done enough to be offered a two-year extension to his contract. As it turned out, the 2001-02 season followed much the same pattern as his first in terms of more appearances off the bench than starts.

He was on the scoresheet twice in the LDV Vans Trophy, scoring an extra time golden goal in a 2-1 home win over Wycombe Wanderers but was then inadvertently the fall guy in a 2-1 quarter-final defeat at Cambridge United.

Having given Albion a 36th-minute lead, latching on to Dirk Lehmann’s lay-off to fire a low right-footer past Lionel Perez from just outside the penalty area, he lost possession to Dave Kitson, who ran away to equalise, and then, four minutes into extra time, a shot by Armand One that was going wide took a wicked deflection off Melton’s shoulder to send United through to the next round.

A happier outing came when he made a rare start and scored as promotion-chasing Albion beat table-toppers Reading at the Withdean in February 2002. Peter Taylor’s Seagulls triumphed 3-1 on a rain-lashed night under the lights (Zamora and Junior Lewis also scored).

Goalscorers Melton and Zamora after a memorable win over Reading

“It was pleasing to start,” Melton told The Argus. “You have got to be patient and I have waited a good few months. 

“I have been on the outside for the last few weeks. Hopefully I can stay on the inside now. 

“Playing against the League leaders is a different matter completely from the LDV appearances that I made earlier in the season. 

“You can only do as well as you can when you are chosen to play and hopefully I did that. Once you have been given the shirt you have to try and keep it.” 

Melton’s goal was only the second league goal of his career and his first for 11 months. 

Taylor reckoned it was the best home performance since he took over from Adams the previous autumn and Albion won eight (and drew five) of the following 14 games to go on and clinch the third-tier title with the also-promoted Royals six points behind.

Melton scored Albion’s first goal of the 2002-03 season when he started in the 3-1 win at Burnley under his third Brighton manager, Martin Hinshelwood (Zamora and Paul Brooker also scored; Hinshelwood’s 18-year-old nephew Adam made his debut). 

Unfortunately, Melton tweaked a hamstring in the process and had to be subbed off. He only made nine more appearances (six starts plus three off the bench) as Hinshelwood’s short reign in charge ended with 10 league defeats in a row.

Incoming boss Steve Coppell brought in the likes of free agent Simon Rodger and Arsenal loanee Steve Sidwell and Melton found himself surplus to requirements.

It was in October 2002 that he moved to Hull on loan shortly after Peter Taylor had replaced Jan Molby as manager with the club about to move out of Boothferry Park and into the Kingston Communications Stadium.

Tiger Melton

Melton made 19 starts plus six appearances off the bench as the Tigers finished 13th in the old Third Division.

According to the website oncloudseven.com: “Despite his promise and Taylor’s persistence, Melton’s career at City was not a success and he showed only brief flashes of good form. Melton is, however, forever enshrined in the City record books because in December 2002 he scored the first ever goal at the KC Stadium against Sunderland, for the honour of lifting the Raich Carter Trophy.”

He found himself only on the fringes the following season and he had moved on to Boston United under Steve Evans by the time Taylor steered Hull to promotion as divisional runners up.

A recurring back injury restricted his playing time at Boston and during 2005-06 he was sent out on loan to Conference National side Tamworth. On his release from Boston in the summer of 2006, he switched to Southern League Premier King’s Lynn FC for two seasons.

Melton at Boston

In September 2008, he rejoined Boston with manager Tommy Taylor telling the club’s website: “Steve has great quality on the ball and that’s what we have been missing in the midfield area. 

Hopefully he will add another dimension to our team.”

But he was released at the end of the season and joined Lincoln United of the Northern Premier League Division One East, alongside his former Boston and King’s Lynn teammate Matt O’Halloran. After spells with Lincoln Moorlands Railway, Grantham Town and Worksop Town, he wound up his playing days back at Lincoln United.

In the meantime, his first job outside of football was in sales for mobile comms company Vodacom. He spent nearly seven years with the now defunct energy advice and installation company the Mark Group and since 2019 has worked for building services certification business The National Association of Professional Inspectors and Testers, where he is now commercial and compliance director.

High-flying Canary Culverhouse flew with lowly Seagulls too

ONE-TIME Norwich City hero Ian Culverhouse flew high in the Premier League and Europe with the Canaries and ended his playing days at basement Brighton where he began a lengthy coaching and managing career.

It was only at the end of November 2024 that Culverhouse began a new managerial post, taking charge of sixth tier (National League South) side St Albans City.

A few weeks previously he had parted company from Boston United because they were struggling to come to terms with life in the tier above.

Culverhouse was brought to Brighton by Brian Horton in 1998, shortly after he’d been picked up by non-league Kingstonian having been given a free transfer earlier in the year by Swindon Town. He’d spent three and a half years at the County Ground, including being a key player in their Second Division Championship-winning squad of 1995-96, but left the Robins after falling-out with manager Steve McMahon.

He’d only played twice for Kingstonian before he joined Brighton, who were playing in exile at Gillingham at the time.

Signed on a monthly contract initially, his presence as a sweeper helped plug holes at the back and saw Torquay United, Scarborough and Swansea City all beaten. But after two months, Horton decided to dispense with a sweeper and play a flat back four, so Culverhouse was let go.

But when Albion promptly lost 3-1 to Mansfield Town without him, Horton had a change of heart. He re-signed Culverhouse before a week was up, gave him a contract until the end of the season and even made him captain (in the absence of injured Gary Hobson). Quite some turnaround.

“He was one of the best readers of the game the Albion have had,” reckoned wearebrighton.com. “Culverhouse would always be in the right place at the right time, on the scene to stop danger before anybody realised that there was danger coming.”

The musically-minded wags amongst the Albion die-hards also found the perfect terrace song for him – sung to the tune of Our House by Madness, ‘Culverhouse, in the middle of defence’ became a popular ditty.

He completed 38 appearances for the Seagulls that season and took his first steps towards a coaching and managing career under Horton’s successor, Jeff Wood, when he began coaching the reserve side. Wood said: “Ian has shown on the field that he is a player of immense ability. In his new coaching role, he will now have the opportunity to pass his knowledge on to the younger players at the club.”

A grateful Culverhouse added: “This is a good opportunity for me and I am looking forward to it.

“It’s the first chance I’ve had to coach and it’s something I wanted to do anyway when my career finished. It has just come at a nice time.”

Albion’s then chairman, Dick Knight, told the Argus: “Ian has impressed me greatly with not only his experience but his attitude.

“He has been a real leader in the dressing room as well as on the field and we are giving him a chance to bring that know-how to bear on the coaching side.”

Culverhouse was retained as reserve team coach after Micky Adams took over from Wood towards the end of the season, and the new boss told the Argus: “Ian reminds me a bit of myself. You have got to get on the ladder somewhere. He is enthusiastic, has had a good career and sets himself high standards.

“He has a lot to learn in terms of coaching, but I hope he will become fully qualified along with the rest of my staff.

“He will still be registered as a player as well in case we need him in emergencies, but I don’t envisage him playing too many games.”

In fact, there was just the one final first team appearance for him, when Adams tried to bring a halt to a six-game winless run at the start of 2000. But it didn’t go well and he was subbed off in a 2-0 defeat at Hull.

“It is fair to say we have possibly seen the last of Culvs in a first team shirt,” Adams admitted later. “He is still registered as a player, but his career is probably over. It was me that persuaded him to play at Hull. He wasn’t sure he would be up to it in terms of fitness.”

Born in Bishops Stortford, Hertfordshire, on 22 September 1964, Culverhouse was in the England Youth squad for an international junior tournament in Norway in the summer of 1982, starting in a 4-1 defeat to the home nation and gaining a second cap as a sub in a 3-2 win over Poland.

In the same year, he began as an apprentice at Tottenham. He impressed in Spurs’ youth and reserve sides and spent three years at the Lane. “I was playing alongside players like Ricky Villa, Ossie Ardiles and Glenn Hoddle, which was tremendous experience,” he said.

He even collected a UEFA Cup winners’ medal in 1984 as an unused substitute in the first leg of Spurs’ win (on penalties) over Anderlecht; future Albion boss Chris Hughton was left-back and recent signing from Albion, Gary Stevens, was in midfield, and scored one of the decisive penalties.

But Culverhouse only made one full appearance for the first team, plus one as a substitute, and in October 1985 moved to Norwich under Ken Brown for a £50,000 fee. He was part of the Norfolk club’s Second Division title-winning side of 1985-86 in his first season and became an established defender, usually as a right-back but also as a sweeper.

Culverhouse for the Canaries

He was part of the successful Canaries side that finished third in the inaugural Premier League season of 1992-93 after enjoying three top five finishes in the old First Division, reaching two FA Cup semi-finals (1989 and 1992) and playing in Europe (1993-94). He won the club’s player-of the-year award in 1990-91.

The excellent Norwich fans website Flown From The Nest blamed the Robert Chase regime for Culverhouse’s eventual departure from Carrow Road after nine years.

“From being an integral part of the City team that finished third in the Premiership and enjoyed UEFA Cup success, Ian Culverhouse found himself at the start of the 1994-95 season out of contract and out of favour with Robert Chase and manager John Deehan,” it said. “Similar problems had occurred the previous season with Dave Phillips.”

Culverhouse with the Robins

Together with the contract issues, Culverhouse went public to criticise Deehan’s decision to drop him, which ended any chance he had of regaining his place. Eventually, he was transferred to Swindon for the bargain sum of £150,000 in December 1994, the fee being fixed by a tribunal.

After he left Brighton in 2000, Culverhouse became youth coach at Barnet and two years later joined Leyton Orient in a similar role before being elevated to assistant manager. He left the Os in August 2005 – replaced by future Villa boss Dean Smith – but was then appointed coach at Wycombe Wanderers by former Swindon boss John Gorman.

When Paul Lambert succeeded Gorman, he and Culverhouse developed a strong bond. He followed Lambert to Colchester United to become assistant manager, then returned to Norwich in the same role, where he didn’t forget Wood’s role in setting him on the coaching ladder, being instrumental in the former Albion manager’s appointment as Norwich’s goalkeeping coach.

At the end of their first season, Lambert and Culverhouse steered Norwich to the League One title. The following season, they won promotion to the Premier League and finished 12th in their inaugural season back at the elite level. When Lambert quit Norwich to take charge at Aston Villa in July 2012, Culverhouse and fellow ‘lieutenant’ Gary Karsa followed him.

Coach at Villa under Paul Lambert

In June 2013, Lambert told the Birmingham Mail how much trust he placed in his right-hand man. “My assistant boss Ian Culverhouse has a real eye for a player,” he said. “If he reckons we should go for someone I will back his judgement 100 per cent.”

But in April 2014 Culverhouse and Karsa were suspended by the club after being accused of bullying and aggressiveness by players and other staff members, and they were sacked the following month.

Between January 2016 and February 2017, Culverhouse was assistant manager to veteran boss John Still at Dagenham & Redbridge. He left the Daggers to become manager of Southern League Premier Division side King’s Lynn Town. In May 2018, he moved on to Grantham Town but left after only five months and returned to King’s Lynn.

He led them to a second place finish in the Southern League, and. in the subsequent play-offs against Northern Premier League Warrington, saw the Linnets win 3-2 in extra time to earn a place in the National League (North) for 2019-20.

This was the Covid-affected season in which the fixtures weren’t completed. Lynn finished the games played two points behind York City with two games in hand. The National League board ultimately decided, using an “unweighted points per game” formula that Lynn would have won the title and they therefore gained promotion to the National League.

However, on 29 November 2021 he was sacked by Lynn on the back of a run of eight league defeats in a row which left the club second from bottom of the National League and struggling for survival. 

Two months later, he was back in management at National League North Kettering Town, together with assistant Paul Bastock, although that tenure only lasted four months.

Next stop was Boston United in September of the same year, a club all too familiar to Bastock, who played 679 games for the Pilgrims (and broke Peter Shilton’s record in competitive club football when he made his 1,250th appearance in the game in 2017).

The pair helped to preserve Boston’s league status in their first season and then guided them to promotion via the play-offs in May 2024. United’s struggle in higher company – only two wins in 16 matches – led to Culverhouse and Bastock leaving the Jakemans Community Stadium in October 2024.

‘Goal machine’ Bully’s place in Premier League history

GARY BULL had good family connections to offer hope to Liam Brady’s Brighton at the start of the 1995-96 season.

Unfortunately, the Nottingham Forest loanee was often in the shadow of his cousin Steve, a Wolves goalscoring legend who went on to play for England.

Gary arrived at the Goldstone in August 1995 against the backdrop of off-the-pitch disquiet caused by the underhand machinations of the despised directors of the club at that time.

Bull scored three times in 11 appearances for the Seagulls but the cash-strapped club couldn’t afford to keep him on.

Although Bull had made a name for himself as a goalscorer lower down the football pyramid, he had made only four starts plus eight appearances as a sub for Forest over the previous two seasons, scoring just the once.

However, that goal did put him amongst an elite group of players: he was the second of only four players to score on their single Premier League appearance.

Perhaps it was all the sweeter because it secured Forest a 1-0 home win over Crystal Palace that took them up to fourth place in the table.

Interviewed by premierleague.com, Bull said: “It was fate, I would imagine. I was in the right place at the right time.

“It was an inswinging corner. A couple of people missed it and I was about three yards out. It was unmissable really, although I tell my kids it was a screamer.”

Bull had his brief moment in the limelight because first choice striker Stan Collymore pulled out of the match on 2 January 1995 due to illness.

The striker had spent three months on loan at Birmingham City the previous autumn, scoring an impressive six goals in 10 matches (he was in the City side who won 1-0 at the Goldstone in October 1994).

Bull only had one more sniff of first team action for Forest that season, once again against Palace, when he went on as a substitute for Scot Gemmill in a 2-1 fourth round FA Cup defeat on 28 January.

With Collymore in fine scoring form (24 in 43 matches that season), and Dutchman Bryan Roy also a regular up front, manager Frank Clark didn’t turn to Bull again, and Forest finished in an impressive third place in the Premier League.

Bull had to be content with a cameo role in an end-of-season fixture, netting Forest’s third goal in a 3-1 win over Singapore’s national team in an exhibition match in Singapore in May 1995.

Even though Collymore was sold to Liverpool for £8.5m that summer, Bull had to look elsewhere for first team chances and Brady was happy to bring him in to boost Albion’s attacking options.

He got off the mark in his third game, although Albion lost 2-1 at home to Wycombe Wanderers in front of just 5,360 fans.

Bull later scored twice away at Cambridge United in a 4-1 win in the Auto-Windscreens Shield trophy (it was the game in which former Ipswich and England centre back Russell Osman made his debut for the Albion).

But a 1-0 defeat at Rotherham on 7 October was his last game in the stripes and, not long after his return to the City Ground, he was given a free transfer and joined Birmingham on a permanent basis.

Born in West Bromwich on 12 June 1966, his first club was Paget Rangers in the Midlands League but in 1986 he joined Southampton as a trainee under youth team boss Dave Merrington. Jimmy Case and Craig Maskell were in the Saints first team at the time; Kevan Brown in the reserves.

It wasn’t until Bull moved on to Chris Turner’s Cambridge United in March 1988 that he made his professional breakthrough, scoring four in 19 games.

His prowess in front of goal really began to flourish when he dropped out of the league to help Barnet FC win the Conference. Tony Hammond – a Barnet FC devotee known as ‘Reckless’ – reckoned the £2,200 fee manager Barry Fry paid for him was “one of the bargains of the century”.

In four seasons at Barnet, Bull netted an impressive 121 goals in 219 appearances, becoming an Underhill icon. In his blog, Hammond quoted Fry as saying: “He was bloody good that Bully, I never had to worry about him being in the right place at the right time in front of goal it was always just pure instinct.”

Bull was buzzing for Bees

When Bees finally won promotion to the Football League in 1990-91, Bull scored 35 goals – including two four-goal hauls and a hat-trick – and was voted Player of the Year.

Bull’s scoring form continued during Barnet’s first season in the Fourth Division. He bagged 33 as the Bees reached the play-offs where they only narrowly lost a two-legged tie against Blackpool.

In 1992-93, Bull and strike partner Mark Carter were prominent again, as Barnet finished third in the table, clinching promotion to what was then a reorganised Division Two.

Sadly, Barnet were in deep financial trouble and were forced to shed players. Bull was signed by Premier League Forest’s newly appointed manager Frank Clark in July 1993.

“I would have stayed at Barnet but I had a family to look after and had no choice but to move on,” Bull told Hammond. “It was a memorable four years and certainly a period that I look back on with pride,” he added.

The subsequent move to Birmingham reunited Bull with his old boss Barry Fry, although a somewhat cynical view of the move was espoused by writer John Tandy in When Saturday Comes.

“It took Fry 18 months of sustained and public pressure to talk the board into signing Gary Bull. Eventually, in November 1995, we landed the Tipton Tyke. Six games and some time on the bench later he was on his way to York,” he wrote.

Bull spent two seasons at York. The highlight of his stay came in a second round League Cup tie at home to Everton. Bull put the Minstermen 2-1 ahead in the 57th minute, tapping in a rebound off the post and York went on to win it 3-2.

It was one of 11 goals Bull scored in 84 games for City before spending time in Lincolnshire. While he only scored once in 31 games for Scunthorpe, his scoring boots were well and truly back on at Grantham Town: 68 goals in 125 games.

He then moved on to Lincoln United for two years before finishing his career with a flourish at United Counties League Boston Town. During the 2006–07 season, he scored a club record 57 goals! He later went on to become their all-time top scorer with over 200 goals,

Bull only retired from playing aged 45 in 2012.

He then became a postman and told premierleague.com: “I’m one of those people who gets up and actually enjoys going to work and getting the physical aspect of it.

“We probably do between 10 and 12 miles a day. Some would say I do more now than I did on the pitch.”

Canaries hero Culverhouse was Seagulls skipper, then coach

Culvs BHA

A DEFENDER who enjoyed Norwich City’s European journey in the early 90s ended his playing days as captain of the Seagulls before embarking on a coaching career running the reserves.

Ian Culverhouse was part of some of the Canaries’ best years flying high in the football pyramid – later being named by fans as their best ever right-back.

In February 1999, Albion’s then chairman, Dick Knight, told the Argus: “Ian has impressed me greatly with not only his experience but his attitude. He has been a real leader in the dressing room as well as on the field and we are giving him a chance to bring that know-how to bear on the coaching side.”

Manager Jeff Wood added: “Ian has shown on the field that he is a player of immense ability. In his new coaching role, he will now have the opportunity to pass his knowledge on to the younger players at the club.”

Culverhouse added: “This is a good opportunity for me and I am looking forward to it.

“It’s the first chance I’ve had to coach and it’s something I wanted to do anyway when my career finished. It has just come at a nice time.”

It was former boss Brian Horton who first brought Culverhouse to the Albion, from non-league Kingstonian, signing him on a month-to-month contract in August 1998.

In October, it looked like he was being released, but when captain and sweeper Gary Hobson picked up an injury, Horton reinstated Culverhouse on a contract to the end of the season, and appointed him captain.

culvsbw

Culverhouse, by then 34, could look back on the experience of 369 games for Norwich, and 115 for Swindon Town. He said: “The future of Brighton is looking very exciting and it’s great to be considered a part of the plans.”

When Wood was sacked with six games of the season still to be played, Culverhouse told the Argus: “I am shocked and absolutely gutted for the bloke.

“It’s down to the players he puts out there. We have let him down.”

Culverhouse survived the managerial upheaval and when new manager Micky Adams took charge, he told the Argus: “Ian reminds me a bit of myself. You have got to get on the ladder somewhere. He is enthusiastic, has had a good career and sets himself high standards.

“He has a lot to learn in terms of coaching, but I hope he will become fully qualified along with the rest of my staff.

“He will still be registered as a player as well in case we need him in emergencies, but I don’t envisage him playing too many games.”

In 2000, Culverhouse became youth coach at Barnet and two years later joined Leyton Orient in a similar role before being elevated to assistant manager. He left the Os in August 2005 – replaced by future Villa boss Dean Smith – but was then appointed coach at Wycombe Wanderers by Glenn Hoddle’s former no.2, John Gorman.

When Paul Lambert succeeded Gorman, he and Culverhouse developed a strong bond. He followed Lambert to Colchester United to become assistant manager, then returned to Norwich in the same role, where he didn’t forget Wood’s role in setting him on the coaching ladder, being instrumental in the former Albion manager’s appointment as Norwich’s goalkeeping coach.

When Lambert upped sticks from Norwich to join Aston Villa, Culverhouse went with him, and, in June 2013, the Birmingham Mail carried a lengthy article talking about the trust Lambert placed in his right-hand man, and how much he rated his judgement.

But in April  2014 Culverhouse was suspended by the club and, following an internal investigation into “off the field matters”, was dismissed.

Between January 2016 and February 2017, Culverhouse was assistant manager to veteran boss John Still at Dagenham & Redbridge. He left Dagenham to become manager of Southern League Premier Division side King’s Lynn Town. In May 2018, he moved on to Grantham Town but left after only five months and returned to King’s Lynn where he recently signed a new two-and-a-half-year contract.

Born on 22 September 1964 in Bishop’s Stortford, Culverhouse spent his early football career at Tottenham Hotspur and was capped at England Youth level. He impressed in Spurs’ youth and reserve sides and spent three years at the Lane.”I was playing alongside players like Ricky Villa, Ossie Ardiles and Glenn Hoddle, which was tremendous experience,” he said.

He even collected a UEFA Cup winners’ medal in 1984 as an unused substitute in the first leg of Spurs’ win (on penalties) over Anderlecht; future Albion boss Chris Hughton was left-back and recent signing from Albion, Gary Stevens, was in midfield, and scored one of the decisive penalties.

But Culverhouse only made one full appearance for the first team, plus one as a substitute, and in October 1985 moved to Norwich City under Ken Brown for a £50,000 fee.

He was part of the Norfolk club’s old Second Division title-winning side of 1985-86 and became an established defender, usually as a right-back but also as a sweeper, as the Canaries flew high in the Premier League, finishing third in 1992-93 after enjoying three top five finishes in the old First Division.

After nine years as a player at Carrow Road, he was somewhat controversially sold for £150,000 to Swindon where he was a key part of their League One Championship winning squad in 1995-96 but left in May 1998 after falling out with boss Steve McMahon.

He began the 1998-99 season with Kingstonian before Horton revived his league career with the Seagulls.