Tag: James Harper

Brighton’s Brown a guiding light for future footballing talent

BRIGHTON-BORN Steve Brown walked out on the Albion as a schoolboy but later returned as an influential coach of the club’s emerging talent, including a young Lewis Dunk.

Previously, as reserve team coach at West Ham, Brown brought through the likes of Jack Collison, James Tomkins and Junior Stanislas.

Indeed, the former Charlton Athletic defender applied his aptitude for teaching budding young footballers to various settings, including Charlton and at Sussex independent schools Ardingly College and Lancing College (2017-19).

In his two-year spell as Albion youth team coach, between 2008 and 2010, 11 youth players signed professional contracts, and five made first-team appearances, including Dunk, Grant Hall and Jake Forster-Caskey.

In an end of season summary, Brown reported: “We have out-passed and out-played teams but not finished them off, and that is something the players need to learn to do, but the foundations are there.

“We have taken things on board from Gus (Poyet) and the first team, and we’ve tried to adapt that to the players in the youth team.”

He added: “The way the first team manager plays here, everyone has got to know what they are doing and be a very good forward-thinking football player – but at youth level you are going to get inconsistency because they are not at that level yet.”

Brown took on the Albion youth team job when Russell Slade was in charge, shortly after obtaining his UEFA A coaching licence, which he had been working towards at Charlton and West Ham, through the different stages of the badge process.

In an interview with the matchday programme, he admitted: “In some respects I’ve come home. In my playing career I had a couple of opportunities to come here and came very close when Steve Coppell was manager.

“I also had talks when Martin (Hinshelwood) was in charge and the two of us have stayed in contact ever since. So, when he phoned up to offer me the job, I grabbed it with both hands.”

Although at the time he dropped down a couple of levels, he said: “Your coaching philosophies don’t change whether you’re with a West Ham international or a Brighton youth team player. The message that you are trying to get across is the same – you want them to improve.

“It’s also my job here to make the players understand it’s not a cakewalk. They see the professionals and think it’s going to be a natural progression for them but it’s not.”

Born in Brighton on 13 May 1972, Brown went to Coldean Primary School and Patcham Fawcett High School.

His dad, Gary, had been a professional footballer in South Africa before returning to play non-league in Sussex, so it was little surprise his son developed a love for the game.

“You can definitely say that football was in the family genes,” Brown told doverathletic.com.

His performances for the Patcham Fawcett school team led him to be selected for East Sussex and Brighton Schoolboys, and the Albion signed him up on schoolboy forms for two years.

However, when 14, he admitted: “I just fell out of love with football for a time. When you’ve got a squad of 25 boys and only 11 can play, you spend a lot of time just training. I missed the competitive edge of matches and as a result I began to enjoy my football less and less.”

So, he walked away from the Albion and returned to playing for East Sussex and Brighton Schoolboys, as well as Whitehawk, where his dad was first team coach.

Fresh-faced Brown became an apprentice at Charlton Athletic

When he was 16, he was spotted by a Charlton scout, and was taken on as an apprentice. Reflecting on how hard he had to work to get a regular spot in the reserve side, before eventually signing as a professional, he said: “It’s really about how resilient you are.

“Lots of players get rejected once, twice, even three times before someone takes a chance on them. You just have to refuse to give up and learn not to take one person’s rejection as final.”

However, Brown’s career nearly ended before it had begun when he suffered a serious knee injury at 18, forcing him to completely reshape his game and the way he played.

“From that point, decision-making had to become his strength because his body would be permanently affected,” wrote Benjy Nurick in a blog about the defender. “I had a cruciate, the operation went wrong,” he said. “I’ve got nothing left in the right knee now.”

He told Benjy: “I don’t think people appreciated how bad the injury was. I’d say from about 26-27 years of age…from that point onwards, I was icing front and back after training and after games. I wasn’t a pill taker on a regular basis, but I did get put on some quite strong anti-inflammatories.

“I’d finish a match and for anybody that ever sort of said ‘where’s Browny?’ I had an ice pack on the front of my knee and I had an ice pack on the back of my knee and I was laying on the floor of the dressing room!”

Having made his first team debut alongside the likes of Garth Crooks and Tommy Caton, Brown established himself in the Addicks defence and played a crucial role in the club’s 1998 promotion via a memorable play-off against Sunderland at Wembley.

Brown put in a crucial tackle in extra time to ensure the score stayed 4-4 and then scored in the decisive penalty shoot-out, although he admitted: “It was an absolutely horrific experience.

“The pressure was unbelievable and once the ball went in, I didn’t care if anyone else in our side missed. I know that sounds selfish, but I was just so overwhelmed with relief at scoring.”

Brown earned a bit of a reputation as a stand-in goalkeeper too, as witnessed in May 1999, in a game against Aston Villa. After Addicks goalkeeper Andy Petterson had been sent off, Brown donned the gloves and made a number of crucial saves as his side ran out 4-3 winners.

Brown told Laura Burkin for whufc.com: “It was not the first time for me in goal, actually. I had gone in a couple of other matches over the years, against Manchester City and Southampton if I remember rightly.

“But the one with Aston Villa was the one that stands out. As soon as Andy had been sent off, the gaffer asked me and I said yes, no problem. I was quite pleased with myself, there was a dangerous cross and I got my hands to that well and a few corners as well, and I enjoyed it!”

Unfortunately, those heroics were unable to prevent Athletic returning to the second tier. But Brown was skipper when they won promotion as champions in 2000. “We broke a host of records on our way to the title. It was my best year in football,” he declared.

It’s widely felt by Addicks fans that Brown played some of the best football of his career alongside Richard Rufus at the heart of the defence under Alan Curbishley’s managership.

But what did Brown make of the former Albion midfielder as a boss? “He didn’t give out a lot of praise, you had to earn it, but he left no stone unturned in terms of our preparation for games.

“He could throw the odd teacup but was generally a level-headed guy who would work out ways for you to improve if he felt you needed it.”

Brown’s 12-year playing career at Charlton came to an end in 2002 and he joined former teammate Alan Pardew at Reading, making 40 appearances before retiring in 2005.

He told the Reading Chronicle: “I went from one very family-orientated, stable club which had seen some very good times straight into another one that was very much in a similar state.

Reading had come out of League One, was in the ascendancy, had a new stadium, the owner made the club financially responsible, they had Alan Pardew as manager who was doing well. You can leave one football club and walk into a bit of a nightmare…and I didn’t. It was a brilliant move for me.

“We got to the play-offs my first year at Reading. When I turned up, they’d just gotten rid of Matthew Upson who had been outstanding for them, so I had extremely big shoes to fill. And I slotted into his shoes and filled them quite nicely and we got to the play-offs.”

Unfortunately, although Reading had James Harper and Steve Sidwell pulling the strings in midfield, they lost Nicky Forster to injury in their semi-final first leg against Wolves, and went down 3-1 on aggregate.

“If it hadn’t been for the injury to Nicky, I think momentum would have carried us through,” said Brown. “But losing Nicky…he was our number one striker by some distance and losing him left us very short up top.”

A recurrence of that anterior cruciate ligament injury eventually forced Brown to stop playing and after a spell coaching in Charlton’s academy, he linked up with Pardew again after he’d taken over as West Ham manager before the management team changed in July 2007.

As well as working as head of football at Ardingly College, Brown also scouted for Charlton Athletic and covered first team matches as a radio co-commentator for BBC London. That radio work gradually expanded into coverage of Premier League and EFL matches.

On leaving Brighton in 2011, Brown joined his former teammate Forster at Conference South Dover Athletic, becoming his assistant manager. In the summer of 2013, he moved on to become manager of Ebbsfleet United, a role he held for 18 months.

Next stop was a brief stint in charge of Lewes before he moved on to become joint manager and director of football at Margate.

While working at Lancing College, Brown was also a regional scout for Stoke City, searching out potential players for the club’s development squad.

Key building blocks for Steve Sidwell’s Premiership future

seagull-sidWHEN a flame-haired midfield player called Steve Sidwell joined the Albion on loan from Arsenal in 2002, it wasn’t the first – or last – time he would link up with manager Steve Coppell.

Coppell had organised a similar arrangement the season before when he was in charge at Second Division Brentford, and Sidwell played 30 times for the Bees.

When Coppell acquired his services for the bottom-of-the-second-tier Seagulls, it was instantly apparent that here was a talent destined to perform on a much bigger stage. In a 12-game spell, he scored five goals. They were the building blocks of a career that saw him go on to play in the Premiership for 11 seasons, and against Huddersfield in early 2017 made his 500th career appearance.

So many things are easy in hindsight but presumably if Albion had already been playing at a new stadium at Falmer, Sidwell may have stuck with the Albion rather than moving on to Reading where the Madejski Stadium was already a reality.

In the Royals matchday programme for the Reading v Albion Championship clash in 2005-06, cover boy Siddy was interviewed at great length and recalled his time with Brighton with fondness.

“It was the first time I had played at this level – before then I had been in Arsenal’s youth team and on loan at Brentford in the Second Division – so I was grateful for that opportunity,” he said. “The best description of my time there would be ‘short but sweet’.

“The fans at Brighton were fantastic, especially away from home,” he continued. “”At the time we were bottom of the league and battling against relegation, but they still turned up every week and always backed us.”

Sidwell recounted how it was during that time that he forged his long term friendship with Bobby Zamora and he also spoke of how he played in the same Colliers Wood Sunday football team as fellow midfielder Alexis Nicolas.

Eleven months after Sidwell went to Reading, Coppell made the same choice and enjoyed the best of Sidwell as his scintillating partnership with James Harper in the centre of midfield helped to take Reading out of the Championship and into the Premiership.

Let’s just go back to the 2002-03 season, though, and recall the impact Sidwell made in Brighton’s valiant effort to defy the relegation odds.

A disastrous run of 12 defeats in the first part of the season had dumped Albion at the foot of the table and manager Martin Hinshelwood had been replaced by Coppell, who rung the changes and started turning round the fortunes on the pitch.

Sidwell came in from Arsenal and scored the first of his five goals in a 2-2 draw away to Preston. He scored the only goal of the game in a Boxing Day win at Norwich and two days later scored both the goals in a 2-2 home draw with Burnley (celebrating in this Argus picture below).

Siddy youthfulOne of my favourite memories came at Highfield Road, Coventry, on January 11 2003 when Albion probably deserved to win but had to settle for a point in a 0-0 draw. Before the kick off, Albion fans were chanting his name during the warm-up, urging him to stay, because there had been speculation linking him with moves to other clubs.

Sidwell’s performance that day was acknowledged by no less an authority than the Scotland midfield maestro Gary McAllister, who was player-manager of Coventry at the time.

McAllister told the press after the game: “I was very impressed with Brighton. They passed it well. The front two were always a threat to us, joined by Steve Sidwell creating in the middle of the park and the two guys wide.

“Brighton were as good a side as we have seen at Highfield Road this season.”

Two days later, the Argus was reporting on the clubs interested in signing the promising youngster, including Stoke and Reading. Coppell told them: “What will be will be. I personally think the level of his performance will almost demand Arsenal not letting him go because he has done so well.

“Alternatively, they are going to move him on and take what money they can now. There will, I’m sure, be a lot of people in for him.

“He just wants to play football. I think the more we take these kind of decisions off his shoulders and just let him turn up and play then we are going to get the best out of him.”

siddy arseSidwell, who was out of contract at Arsenal at the end of the season, said: “Stoke put a bid into Arsenal. I went up there and it’s a great set-up and a fantastic club but we will see what happens.”

Interesting then, that the Potters did eventually get their man several years later.

However, in 2003 Reading was his destination and he spent four and a half years with them, helping them to win  promotion from the Championship and playing in their debut Premier League season.

In July 2007, at the end of his contract, Sidwell moved on a free transfer to Chelsea, the team he’d supported as a boy. “People think that because I was with Arsenal from the age of nine to 20 that I support them, but I’ve always been Chelsea. I was born in Tooting, my mum and dad are from Tooting Bec and Balham, so I was born into a Chelsea-supporting family,” he said in an Albion matchday programme article.

So, he said it was a “no-brainer” to go there. “I was joining a club that had won back-to-back titles under a manager who was a breath of fresh air in the game and I’d be playing and training with some of the best players in the world.”

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The wealth of talent meant competition for places at Stamford Bridge restricted Sidwell’s game time, although he did clock up 25 games for the Blues. With the benefit of hindsight, he said: “It was the right move, it just came at the wrong time. I was only 24 so it came too soon. I’d only had one season of Premier LEague football under my belt and wasn’t quite ready for such a big jump from Reading.

“Maybe if I’d gone to Newcastle or West Ham (they’d both been interested) for a couple of years and played really well there, then I would have been better equipped but, like I said, when Chelsea comes knocking you don’t turn the opportunity down.”

He added that off-field issues, such as Mourinho leaving in the September to be replaced by Avram Grant, caused unrest amongst the players. But he added: “In hindsight, I wished I’d stayed another six months because Luiz Felipe Scolari came in and you never know what might have happened then.”

However, in the summer of 2008, in search of more regular playing time, he moved on to Aston Villa on a three-year deal. His time at Villa Park was often interrupted by injury and he made 64 appearances in two and a half years before Mark Hughes ended up signing him twice – for Fulham and Stoke City.

In 2011, Sidwell returned to London and scored 17 goals in 115 appearances over three and a half years, before leaving Craven Cottage when Fulham were relegated from the Premiership in 2014. “I went there on the back of their Europa League run and they were still riding the crest of a wave,” he said in an Albion matchday programme article.  He reckoned he played the best football of his career there and said: “In my first year we finished eighth in the Premier League.

“When I first went there, our home record was phenomenal. It didn’t matter who came to the Cottage, we always thought we would get the win. In the season we got relegated, it was surprising how quickly that mentality had changed.”

siddystokeHughes took him on a free transfer to Stoke but he managed only 13 appearances so jumped at the chance once again to link up with his old pal Zamora to join Albion on loan in early 2016 to supplement their efforts to get promoted from the Championship.

Although the form of Beram Kayal and Dale Stephens meant he struggled to nail down a regular spot, he was a great option to bring off the bench and memorably got the last-gasp winner in a televised away match at Nottingham Forest. “When I was getting taped up, I said to the bench I was going to score, it was just fate,” he said. “I managed to pop up with the goal, and it was a great feeling to see the ball hit the back of the net and you could see from the celebrations what it meant to us all.”Screen Shot 2021-04-04 at 17.19.48

I was in the away end that evening and despite a persistent Nottingham drizzle making the post-match walk back to my hotel pretty unpleasant, I dried off in the company of some other Albion followers in the hotel bar and reflected on a great skin-of-the-teeth win.

As we know, Siddy signed permanently in the summer of 2016, and has had a lot more game time this season. I was also fortunate to be at Ashton Gate on Bonfire Night that year when he scored that magnificent long range effort from inside the centre circle.

Footnote: I didn’t have to join in the last line of the Stevie Sidwell song….because I’m already in possession of similarly-coloured locks. We gingers have to stick together!

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Pictures show the young Sidwell in Brighton’s away kit in 2002-03, as he appeared in the Coventry programme, and a portrait from Reading’s programme for the 10 December 2005 game v Brighton.