Goal machine Frank Stapleton ended his playing days in a Brighton shirt

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FRANK STAPLETON hit the heights as a goalscorer for Arsenal and Manchester United but his prize-winning playing days came to an end in a Brighton & Hove Albion shirt.

Stapleton was the scorer of the first top flight goal at the Goldstone Ground – unfortunately, it was the opener in Arsenal’s 4-0 win in 1979! He was also one of the Manchester United scorers in the 1983 FA Cup Final against Brighton, having moved to Old Trafford two years earlier (above, however, he just fails to connect for Arsenal against Brighton with Steve Foster and Gary Williams looking on).

His two appearances for Brighton came in 1995 when his old pal Liam Brady brought him in to try to improve the front line of an ailing side.

Born in Dublin on 10 July 1956, the promising young Stapleton was rejected by United as a teenager but the Gunners reaped the benefit of that decision by snapping him up at the tender age of 15 on chief scout Gordon Clark’s recommendation.

Arsenal’s confidence in the prospects for the promising young Irish duo were reflected in a Goal magazine article of 7 October 1972 in which boss Bertie Mee talked about them as future first team players. At the time, they were still part of the club’s junior ranks, aged just 15 and 16.

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Mee said: “Brady is almost established as a regular in the reserve side. He needs building up but has the potential to become a first-team player. Stapleton has made quite an impact in his first season and, providing he maintains a steady improvement, he could also follow the path of Brady.”

It was only Brady’s second season and Clark, the Arsenal chief scout who unearthed him, said, at first, he thought he would be better suited to becoming a jockey because he was so small and frail!

He quickly changed his mind when he saw his ability with a football. “He was like a little midget but he had so much confidence. He’s really shot up now and although he’s still not very tall, he’s strong enough to hold his own,” said Clark.

Stapleton, at 15, joined Arsenal in the summer of 1972 and quickly developed a reputation as a goalscorer, netting 11 goals in seven games.

“Frank is tall and very good in the air,” said Clark. “He seems to get up and hang for the ball. He is also very good on the floor and reads the game intelligently for a youngster.”

As expected, Stapleton progressed to the first team and made his debut in 1975 against Stoke City. He initially formed an impressive partnership with England striker Malcolm Macdonald and in three successive seasons was Arsenal’s leading goalscorer.

Such prowess brought him to the attention of the Republic of Ireland international selectors and player-manager Johnny Giles gave him his full debut aged just 20 in 1976 against Turkey in Ankara.

It was the first of a total of 71 caps for his country, during which time he became their captain and scorer of 20 goals. He led Eire when they famously beat England 1-0 at the Euro 1988 finals in Germany. Although he was part of the 1990 World Cup squad – alongside former Albion boss, Chris Hughton – he was by then behind Niall Quinn, John Aldridge and Tony Cascarino in the pecking order.

Stapleton was part of Arsenal’s three successive FA Cup final teams (1978, 1979, 1980), scoring against United in Arsenal’s 3-2 win in 1979.

When the Gunners sold Brady to Juventus in 1980, Stapleton started to question the club’s ambition and, the following year, on expiry of his contract, decided he would move on himself.

He had scored 108 goals in 300 appearances for Arsenal – some strike rate! – and it wasn’t a popular move to join a major rival in the same division, but he wasn’t the first or last player to have done so.

In the Sixties, United had taken David Herd from the marble halls of Highbury to lead their line and, of course, in more recent times, United signed Alexis Sanchez.

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When Robin van Persie made the same transfer switch from Arsenal to Manchester United in 2012, the Daily Mail took Stapleton back 30 years to talk about the circumstances of his own move.

Stapleton was Ron Atkinson’s first major signing for United and in his first season was partnered up front with Garry Birtles. Stapleton was the leading scorer for United in that first season, with 13 goals in 41 league games.

Subsequently, his main strike partner was the Northern Ireland international, Norman Whiteside.

Stapleton scored United’s first goal, a 55th minute equaliser, in the 2-2 Cup Final draw against Brighton: one of 19 he notched during the 1982-83 season in which he played in 59 of United’s 60 games.

By the end of the following season, Stapleton’s regular strike partner was Mark Hughes and he scored in the 1985 FA Cup semi-final against Liverpool to set up yet another Wembley appearance, this time collecting his third winners’ medal when Whiteside’s winner beat Everton.

Despite a good start to the following season, with Stapleton once again amongst the goals, poor league form eventually cost Atkinson his job and his successor, Alex Ferguson, began rebuilding the side.

After six years at United, Stapleton, by then 30, was amongst those to be let go, and he was sold to Ajax of Amsterdam, lured by the fact they were managed by Johan Cruyff. But the move failed to live up to expectations, as detailed by the42.ie, and he ended up having a spell on loan at Anderlecht.

It was the first of a series of moves which didn’t really work out for him, although in the 1988-89 season he found himself playing in France alongside fellow Irish international – and future Brighton striker – John Byrne for Le Havre.

stapleton 4 derby

Derby County offered him a platform back in the UK game and he featured 10 times for them in 1987-88 and, after his stint in France came to an end, he spent two seasons with Blackburn Rovers.

He played once for lowly Aldershot and five times for Huddersfield Town before landing a player-manager’s post with Bradford City. In three years at Valley Parade, he made 68 appearances before the axe fell, and he answered Brady’s call for help at the Goldstone Ground.

The brilliant The Goldstone Wrap detailed his brief involvement in a March 2015 post, explaining how he featured as a substitute in a 0-0 draw at home to Bournemouth and started in a 3-0 defeat away to Cardiff City.

It was a final swansong for his playing career, as he looked to get back into coaching or management. He had two stints working under his former United teammate Ray Wilkins: at QPR and, in 2014, with the Jordan national side.

Stapleton spent eight months in 1996 as the first head coach of American Major Soccer League side New England Revolution, of Massachusetts.

His last appointment in the English game was briefly as a specialist striker coach at Bolton Wanderers, appointed during Sam Allardyce’s reign, in 2003-04.

Nowadays, Stapleton is more likely to be found talking about his illustrious career, his availability for bookings listed by football-speakers.com.

Cattle auctioneer Kevin Bremner gave clubs a promotion prod

bremner-portrait AS GOALSCORING partnerships go, the pairing of Kevin Bremner and Garry Nelson was something of a masterstroke by Albion manager Barry Lloyd.

Having to readjust to life back in Division 3 after relegation in 1987 meant cashing in on some of the better players – the sale of Terry Connor, Danny Wilson and Eric Young raised over £400,000 – and replacing them with bargain buys.

At £65,000 for Bremner and £72,500 for Nelson, Lloyd showed how shrewd an operator he could be in the transfer market. When Nelson was injured and sidelined for a while, £80,000 was paid to bring in Paul Wood to play alongside Bremner.

Bremner was born on 7 October 1957 in Banff in the Scottish Highlands and worked as an auctioneer in the cattle market in his home town as well as playing Highland League football.

He didn’t make his start in the English league until the relatively late age of 23. That was with Colchester United and he made his debut in a 2-2 home draw with Barnsley in Division 3 on 11 October 1980.

He went on to make 93 consecutive appearances for Colchester in the third and fourth divisions and scored 35 goals while Bobby Roberts was in charge. All was going well until Bremner got in a dispute with the club and found himself out of the side.

Division 1 Birmingham took him on a month’s loan and, after he’d scored a goal in his four games there, Roberts’ repplacement at Colchester, former Ipswich and Northern Ireland centre half Allan Hunter, recalled him to Layer Road. However, former boss Roberts had moved on to Division 3 Wrexham, and he took Bremner on loan at the Racecourse, where he also got on the scoresheet.

“He wanted to take me on permanently but they couldn’t afford it so my next stop was Home Park, and a spell at Plymouth Argyle,” he told the Albion matchday programme. “It was touch and go whether or not I’d stay there in the long term, but once Lincoln and Millwall showed an interest I knew that I’d soon be on my way.”

He chose Millwall – “it was closer” – and joined the Lions in December 1982 for a £25,000 fee. He was one of eight new signings made by manager George Graham as Millwall were floundering at the bottom of Division 3 at the time. In a remarkable turn-round, they picked up 27 points in 12 games to escape relegation.

He was then part of the Millwall side who won promotion from Division 3 in 1984-85. In total, Bremner scored 33 goals in 87 games for the Lions. “It was a fabulous couple of years even though the side was struggling when I joined,” he said. “Playing at The Den is great – it’s wicked for away teams because the atmosphere is so strong.”

Next stop was Reading for a £35,000 fee. He spent two seasons with the Royals and enjoyed a successful partnership with lofty Trevor Senior which helped the Royals to promotion as champions from Division 3 in 1986.

I can remember going to watch Albion play Reading in November 1986 and Bremner scored twice in a 2-1 win for the Royals at Elm Park. He finished the season with 15. Albion signed him from Reading for £65,000 in July 1987.

Brem flow After a flying start with Brighton, in which he scored 11 goals, the league goals dried up for Bremner but strike partner Nelson couldn’t stop scoring as Albion powered their way to automatic promotion.

Second spot behind Sunderland was clinched via a 2-1 Goldstone win over Bristol Rovers on 7 May, Bremner finally ending his goal drought with a diving header, and Nelson, inevitably, getting the winner – his 32^nd goal of the season.

What was all the more remarkable about the pairing was that it was the first season Nelson had played as an out-and-out striker.

Back in the second tier in 1988-89, Albion struggled to make an impression against better quality opponents although Bremner did score 15 goals, including a hattrick in a New Year’s Eve 4-0 mauling of Birmingham City. In September 1988, he took over the goalkeeper gloves (below) at home against West Brom when Perry Digweed was forced off with a serious groin injury.

In a matchday programme interview, Bremner said: ”I’m probably enjoying the game more than at any time before. I regret not coming into the professional game earlier but I’m delighted at the way things have turned out.

“We always thought we could do well at the Goldstone and after two years of hard work I’d like to think that we can put the club back on the map and, besides, I’d like another try in the First Division.”

The programme notes declared: “It’s his consistent scoring record that has opposing defenders on tenterhooks. His total commitment invariably creates an opportunist goal and he is a popular player with the fans.”

Brem run Bremner scored 12 in the 1989-90 season, five of them coming in the space of a week at the start of the season! He was virtually ever-present but Albion struggled in the lower half of the table for most of the season. His goal in a 1-1 draw away to Blackburn in the final game of that campaign was his last for the club. In 134 games (plus three as sub), he’d scored 36 goals.

He moved on to Peterborough United in the close season as manager Lloyd had a new strike partnership up his sleeve in the shape of John Byrne and Mike Small.

After a year at Peterborough, Bremner moved back to Scotland to play for Dundee but in the spring of 1992 had a month’s loan spell at Shrewsbury Town.

Back in the far north of Scotland he had spells as player-manager with Brora Rangers and his old club Deveronvale then in 1995 he became youth team manager at Gillingham and stayed for eight years, and was then academy coach at Millwall for three years. He subsequently coached youngsters in Kent, at an academy and at an independent school.

Pictures show the front page of the Evening Argus following Albion’s promotion from Division 3 in 1988 with Bremner diving to score; a shot of Bremner in action against West Ham that appeared on the front of a matchday programme, a portrait from a matchday programme at the beginning of the 1989-90 season, and other action pictures from matchday programmes.

Barry Lloyd’s turbulent time as Brighton boss

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HISTORY may have judged Barry Lloyd’s reign as Brighton manager unfairly: while bleak times cloud the memory, the former Fulham captain did chalk up some successes.

For instance, it’s worth remembering he put together two of the most entertaining strike partnerships in Albion’s history.

However, when managers start getting involved in the boardroom, it’s probably not going to end well and that certainly proved to be the case after Lloyd was handed the role of managing director.

Frankly, there is probably not enough space in one blog post to cover the various off-the-field shenanigans that were an ugly backdrop to the Lloyd era.

From an outsider’s perspective, it appeared he was the unfortunate public figure put up to deal with a huge amount of flak generated by others wielding power in the background.

Inheriting the hotseat at a time of financial turmoil, from a distance it could be said he did well to win promotion as well as coming mighty close to restoring the elite status lost in 1983.

But fans who had seen huge success under high profile bosses were not best pleased to see their club’s fortunes put in the hands of someone who had previously only managed outside of the league.

Let’s look first at Lloyd’s playing career because, from early on, he was obviously a shrewd observer who made contacts he would be able to call on in later years.

Born in Hillingdon on 19 February 1949, Barry’s early footballing ability was rewarded with selection for the Middlesex and South of England schoolboy sides. He was signed up by Chelsea and was in their 1964-65 youth team alongside former Albion right-back Stewart Henderson in defence and future England international and Chelsea legend Peter Osgood up front.

In an extended interview with Fulham’s club historian, Dennis Turner, Lloyd recalled: “I chose Chelsea because under Tommy Docherty’s management they were an exciting team, with the likes of Osgood, Charlie Cooke and Bobby Tambling.”

Former Albion player Dave Sexton was the reserve-team manager – “a really nice man and terrific coach” – and Lloyd says in his four years at Stamford Bridge he learned a lot.

He made his debut in the top flight in April 1967 aged just 18, but competition for places was tough and, after only 10 first team appearances, in January 1969 he moved to neighbours Fulham with their centre half John Dempsey moving in the opposite direction.

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Fulham were struggling for survival in the old Second Division having been relegated from the top flight and the man who signed him, Bill Dodgin, was their fourth manager in a year.

They dropped down into the old Third Division but as part of his rebuilding, Dodgin made Lloyd captain in succession to the legendary Johnny Haynes, who was coming to the end of his career.

Lloyd is pictured below getting in a header against the Albion at the Goldstone, watched by John Napier (left) and Stewart Henderson. The packed East Terrace never looked like that by the time Lloyd was sitting in the Albion manager’s chair.

Lloyd at Goldstone

Fulham regained their tier two status in 1971 when they went up from Division III as champions. Manager Dodgin was sent packing in the summer of 1972, though, and Alec Stock took over, famously bringing in a number of top name players nearing the end of their careers – notably one Alan Mullery, along with Bobby Moore.

Lloyd remained part of the set-up but when Fulham surprised everyone by reaching the FA Cup Final against West Ham in 1975, he had to be content with what in those days was the single substitute’s berth on the bench, and didn’t get on.

Nonetheless, he chalked up 290 games for Fulham, before having brief spells at Hereford and Brentford (where Dodgin was the manager) and ending his playing days with Houston Hurricanes in the United States.

“I lived in Texas for a year. The league was never going to last but I learnt a lot about how the game can be promoted. They were very good at that over there,” he said in a matchday programme article. “Everyone was made to feel part of the club. It was an interesting experience; I’ve never regretted going.”

During his brief time at Hereford, Lloyd had an eye to the future and took his full coaching badge at Lilleshall, which wasn’t far away.

After his time in America came to an end, he got his first managerial experience with Yeovil Town (then a non-league club) and then headed to Sussex where he took Worthing from the Second Division of the old Isthmian League to runners-up in the Premier Division.

It was in 1986 when he got the call from Mullery to become reserve and youth team manager at the Albion. Dodgin was also on the staff.

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In January 1987, Mullery was unceremoniously dumped and Lloyd came out of the shadows to take charge. Perhaps what fans didn’t know at the time was that the day after Mullery left, Lloyd was summoned to a meeting with chairman Bryan Bedson and told to “get rid of everyone” because the club was going bust.

Against that backdrop, it was 15 games before the side managed to register a win under Lloyd and, unsurprisingly, Albion were relegated. Some of the mainstays of the side, like Danny Wilson, Eric Young and Terry Connor were sold. Fortunately, Lloyd was able to re-invest part of the proceeds from those sales in some buys who gelled together to form a promotion-winning team.

Screen Shot 2021-05-03 at 20.37.12 He returned to former club Chelsea to secure the signing of centre back Doug Rougvie who was made captain and he paired left winger Garry Nelson, a £72,500 signing from Plymouth, with tenacious Scot Kevin Bremner, from Reading, to lead the line. Nelson in particular was a revelation, scoring 32 goals and voted player of the season.

Lloyd reckoned the backbone of the side were two other shrewd signings: Alan Curbishley and Gary Chivers. “Alan was a very level-headed guy, an excellent passer and really disciplined,” he told Spencer Vignes in a matchday programme article. “Chivers was exactly the same, and a real joker at the same time. But there were a lot of great individuals in that side.”

The following two seasons saw Albion maintain their status with lower half finishes but, with the Goldstone Ground crumbling and debts mounting, there was little investment in the team and Lloyd had to use all his contacts to try to find some gems.

One was former England international winger Mark Barham, another was a former Soviet international, Sergei Gotsmanov, a real crowd-pleaser obviously capable of playing at a higher level (as was proved when he opted to join Southampton the following season).

Then, in 1990-91, he rescued two forwards languishing with also-ran clubs in Europe and together John Byrne and Mike Small were superb in attack as Brighton made it to the play-off final at Wembley only to lose 3-1 to Neil Warnock’s Notts County.

No-one had been expecting Brighton to get a tilt at promotion, particularly as the season had once again begun with big money departures of players like Keith Dublin and John Keeley.

But with Byrne and Small on fire and former Fulham and Chelsea winger Clive Walker added to the squad they clawed their way into contention and famously clinched the play-off spot on the last game of the season, courtesy of Dean Wilkins’ curling free kick past Ipswich Town’s Phil Parkes.

Another crucial signing that season was thanks to one of Lloyd’s old Chelsea teammates, George Graham. The Arsenal boss loaned cultured central defender Colin Pates to the Seagulls and he proved a mainstay in the final third of the season. Pates would later sign permanently.

Even though they were clearly beaten by the better side on the day, looking back now, I don’t think anyone could have realised what bad news it was for Albion not to win the final against County.

Starved of the funds promotion would have delivered, Lloyd was forced to sell star performers Small and Byrne and, 11 months after appearing at Wembley, Albion were relegated back to the third tier.

Lloyd had tried to repeat his previous successful European scouting mission with two former league players, but the hapless Mark Farrington turned out to be one of the worst buys ever, managing to score one solitary goal while former Arsenal youngster Raphael Meade fared slightly better but only just got into double figures.

Mark Gall, a £45,000 signing from Maidstone, arrived towards the end of October and ended up top goalscorer and was player of the season, but his 14 goals were still not enough to spare the team from the drop.

In the following season, the very survival of the club was under serious threat with the taxman chasing an unpaid bill. Lloyd rescued the club at the 11^th hour by managing to secure a £350,000 fee for goalkeeper Mark Beeney (bought two years earlier from Maidstone for £25,000), former Albion winger Howard Wilkinson buying him for League Champions Leeds United.

With the financial issues continuing in the background, a run of only two wins in 18 league games in the first half of the 1993-94 season eventually brought the Lloyd era to an end – the axe wielded by chief executive David Bellotti, who had arrived only a month earlier.

Fans who were euphoric to see Lloyd go might well have felt differently if they’d known what would eventually transpire, but that’s a story for another day.

The record books show Lloyd made a total profit of £1.2m in his seven years at the helm and he certainly knew his way around the transfer market, particularly in Europe, when it was a lot less fashionable than it is today.

Another of his discoveries was Dean Wilkins, playing for FC Zwolle in Holland, and in 2007 – 14 years after he had left the Albion – Lloyd returned as chief scout during Wilkins’ reign as first team manager.

Also part of the set-up then was director of football Martin Hinshelwood, who had been Lloyd’s assistant during his time in the dugout. Lloyd later returned to the club to assist in the recruitment department but retired in 2021.

He died aged 75 on 28 September 2024 and players in the Chelsea v Brighton game that afternoon wore black armbands in tribute to him.

Eire striker John Byrne’s three spells at the Albion

FOOTBALL things came in threes for striker John Byrne. He had three different spells playing up front for the Albion and he featured for three different clubs under manager Denis Smith.

Add to that, on three occasions, he was signed by clubs who he’d played well against. And, for QPR fans, he was also the third no.10 who got the crowd off their feet at Loftus Road, following in the footsteps of Rodney Marsh and Stan Bowles.

Ironically, it was former Albion boss Alan Mullery who took Byrne to Rangers, in 1984, during his six turbulent months as manager. Mullery took over from his former Spurs teammate Terry Venables, who’d left to manage Barcelona.

While Mullers’ reign at Loftus Road was brief, the skilful forward he brought in stayed four years and won plenty of admirers amongst the Hoops supporters.

Alongside former Albion striker Michael Robinson, he was part of the QPR team that lost to Oxford (a club he would play for later in his career) in the 1986 League Cup Final (QPR’s sub that day was Liam Rosenior’s dad, Leroy).

Wembley wasn’t to be a happy hunting ground for Byrne, though. That 1986 defeat was the first of three occasions he made it onto the iconic turf, each time ending up on the losing side.

Byrne’s career had begun with basement side York City at 16 after Mike Walker, a taxi driver pal of York’s boss, the former Manchester United manager Wilf McGuinness, spotted him playing local football in Manchester (he was born on 1 February 1961 and raised in Wythenshawe).

Charlie Wright, the former Bolton and Charlton goalkeeper took over as manager and gave Byrne his first pro contract but it was his successor, Denis Smith, the ex Stoke City stopper, who arrived in 1982, together with his coach, former striker Viv Busby, who set Byrne on the road to success.

He scored an impressive 55 goals in 175 appearances for York between 1979 and 1984 and his signing by Mullery for QPR came after he did well in a two-legged Milk Cup tie against the Hoops.

In an odd symmetry, his later move from QPR to Le Havre came after the sides had met in a friendly, and the pattern continued when his eventual move to Brighton came after they too had played Le Havre pre-season.

But back to London where, in his four years at Loftus Road, he scored 30 times in 126 appearances.

QPR fans recall fondly a game when Byrne scored twice in a 6-0 thrashing of Chelsea and, some years later, in an interview with QPRnet, he explained how the drubbing riled the Chelsea, and later Brighton, defender Doug Rougvie to the extent that Byrne and fellow striker Gary Bannister finished the game playing out wide to avoid getting a kicking!

He also scored a winner against Manchester United, the team he’d followed as a boy, and in an interview with Sussex Life in 2010, he said: “I felt a bit like a traitor!”

It was in the year following his move to QPR that he made his international debut for the Republic of Ireland – he qualified to play for them because his dad, Jim, was from County Carlow.

He was an international teammate of Chris Hughton and Mark Lawrenson and between 1985 and 1993 collected a total of 23 caps, scoring four goals, two of which came in a 3-1 win over Turkey.

JB Eire

Although part of Eire’s Euro 88 and 1990 World Cup squads, he didn’t play a game.

Byrne had three spells with Brighton but undoubtedly the most memorable was in the season that ended in heartbreak in the Wembley play-off final against Neil Warnock’s Notts County.

Manager Barry Lloyd had brought him back to the UK from Le Havre for £125,000, shortly after he had been to the World Cup in Italy with the Republic, and successfully partnered him up front with the prolific Mike Small.

Byrne admitted in a 2010 matchday programme interview how he thought he was joining Sunderland that summer but his agent Paul Stretford’s demands put off the Wearsiders and the striker ended up writing to all the English First and Second Division clubs looking for an alternative club.

Surprisingly, he didn’t get many replies, but Brighton did. “Barry Lloyd got in touch and the rest is history,” said Byrne.

It turned out Lloyd had long been an admirer. He wrote in the matchday programme: “I first tried to sign him two years ago, before he went to Le Havre. He was at QPR then and I was vying with Sunderland for his signature when he finally decided to broaden his footballing experience by moving to France.”

Lloyd revealed how he had consulted with Republic of Ireland boss Jack Charlton to check Byrne had lost none of his old skills and ambition. “He is an intelligent player who moves well across the line and I am sure he is looking on his move to us as an ideal opportunity to regain his place in the Republic’s squad for the European Championships in two years’ time,” said Lloyd.

Albion have had some decent striking partnerships over the years but not since Ward and Mellor in the Seventies had a pair captured the imagination in quite the same way as Byrne and Small. Between them they spearheaded Albion’s push for promotion to the elite.

J Byrne The climax to the season was a classic case of ‘if onlys’ where ‘Budgie’ was concerned: if only he hadn’t been injured in that final game against Ipswich, he would have been fit to play from the start in the final.

There again, if he hadn’t been fouled on the edge of the box, Albion wouldn’t have won the free kick from which Dean Wilkins scored to earn Albion the play-off spot!

With his right leg heavily strapped, Byrne appeared as a substitute in the final. When the Albion story came to an unhappy ending, and the expected financial boost of playing in the top division didn’t materialise, Lloyd had to cash in his prize assets: Small went to West Ham for £400,000 and Byrne was sold to Sunderland for twice what Brighton had paid for him.

Reflecting on Byrne’s impact, Lloyd told Albion’s matchday programme: “He was outstanding for us, he really was. His workrate was excellent.

“He could pass a ball, cross a ball and he knew where the back of the net was. We didn’t have a lot of money to spend but we got something special with him which very nearly got us into what is now the Premier League.”

Byrne famously scored in every round of the FA Cup as Sunderland marched to the final in 1992, and, almost as famously, missed a great chance from six yards as the Wearsiders lost to Liverpool.

After a season at Sunderland, Byrne moved to Millwall, where things didn’t work out for him, and in 1993 he returned to Brighton on loan for a brief seven-game spell in which he scored twice.

He then had two seasons at Oxford, when he scored 18 times in 55 appearances, before returning once more to the Albion to play 39 games in the 1995-96 season. He scored six times, but, it would be fair to say, he was a shadow of the player who graced that 1990-91 season.

Byrne didn’t let the grass grow under his feet when he packed up playing – he learned how to take care of other people’s by becoming a podiatrist.

Followers of the Albion also got to hear his dulcet Mancunian tones on the radio as a summariser on the local radio station’s coverage of Brighton games.