When Steve Gritt took on the ‘worst job in football’

BOURNEMOUTH-BORN Steve Gritt is synonymous with Brighton & Hove Albion’s darkest hour because he was in the almost scalding managerial hotseat at the time the club nearly went out of the league.

The mastermind behind Albion’s ‘Great Escape’ in 1997 grew up in the Dorset coastal resort and began his footballing career with his local club in the 1970s. He later worked as the Cherries chief scout, although, apart from etching his part in Brighton’s footballing folklore, most of his more memorable days in the game came at Charlton Athletic.

Somehow, against all the odds, he managed to keep the Seagulls up when most doomsters could only see the club losing its status – and possibly going out of business as a result.

Gritt, who had been out of work for 18 months having been cast adrift by a new chairman at Charlton, took over from the beleaguered Jimmy Case in December 1996 with Albion 12 points adrift at the bottom of the fourth tier.

“I was delighted when Brighton offered me the chance to return,” he wrote in his matchday programme notes. “I know a lot of people were calling it the ‘worst job in football’ but when you love football as I do then you don’t always see things that way.”

Gritt was certainly an old hand when it came to football’s vicissitudes: rejected by AFC Bournemouth as a teenager, he went on to enjoy the elation of promotion as well as enduring the despair of relegation during his time with the Addicks.

Quite what would have become of Albion if they’d lost their place in the league is now only speculation – thankfully it wasn’t a bridge Gritt had to cross.

“I’d spent 18 years at Charlton as player and joint-manager, with just six months away from it, at Walsall. Then a new chairman, Richard Murray, came in and he didn’t like the joint-manager situation, so he put Alan Curbishley in sole charge, and I left,” Gritt explained.

Without a full-time job in the game, he stayed in touch by doing some scouting work for Tony Pulis at Gillingham, Brian Flynn at Wrexham and a couple of stints for West Brom. He even pulled his boots back on to play for Welling and Tooting & Mitcham.

Eager not to continue to have to queue at the benefit office for dole money, he applied for the vacant Albion manager’s job and got it after an interview in Crewe with the despised chairman Bill Archer and his ‘henchman’ chief executive David Bellotti.

“I knew very little about what was going on at the club,” Gritt told Roy Chuter in a retrospective programme piece. “I’d read bits in the papers, but my only interest was in the football. I wasn’t going to get involved.

“The place was very low. Some of the senior players filled me in on what was happening. In my first few days, there was graffiti on the walls saying I was a stooge, a whistle protest, a fan chained himself to the goal at half-time at my first match – that bothered me as we were winning at the time and went on to beat Hull 3-0.

“Then the next week I had to go onto the pitch with a megaphone at Leyton Orient to get the supporters to leave after the match – and they already hated me! I thought ‘What is going on?’ but my job was to get some sunshine back into the fans’ Saturday afternoons.”

After familiarising himself with the issues at a fans’ forum – “It helped me understand that the fans had to do what they had to do” – he devoted himself to improving the football and although the budget was tight, brought in the experienced defender John Humphrey and Robbie Reinelt, who would go on to score one of the most crucial goals in Albion’s history.

Puzzled by the plight of a side that contained good players in the likes of Craig Maskell, Ian Baird and Paul McDonald, Gritt maintained: “I never thought we’d go down.”

He recalled: “There was such a lot of experience. If I could organise them, we’d have a chance.”

Ultimately, the club’s fate was decided in the final two games of the season – at home to Doncaster Rovers and away to Hereford United.

“We knew we could beat Doncaster,” he said. “There was a big crowd and a tremendous atmosphere – very tense. Maybe that got to the players – we didn’t play as well as we had done, but once we were 1-0 up, we weren’t going to get beat. We had a great defence.”

Gritt recalled: “I was beginning to think that there wasn’t going to be any goals in the game as there hadn’t been too many chances during the game that I can remember.

“Suddenly we had a corner from which Mark Morris eventually hit the bar, confirming my thoughts. But suddenly the ball fell to Stuart (Storer) who struck it into the net to spark off unbelievable celebrations on the pitch, off the pitch and in the dugout.

“Could we now keep our composure and see the game out to a memorable 1 nil win? We did! What a day and what a memory.”

And so to Hereford, who needed to win to avoid dropping out of the league. Albion only needed a draw to stay up. Everyone knows the story. A goal down at half-time when Kerry Mayo put through his own net, Gritt reminded the players at half-time that their jobs were on the line.

He sent on Reinelt as a sub and in the 62^nd minute he slotted a second half equaliser to send the Albion faithful into ecstasy and condemn the Bulls to their fate.

“I think if it had been Brighton, we could have faded into obscurity,” he said. “Most of the players would have left, and I don’t think we could have coped.”

As things subsequently transpired, it was Gritt who would soon be on his way.

It’s perhaps a bit of a cliché to say there is no sentiment in football but when Gritt’s side had managed only four league wins up to February in the 1997-98 season, and were second bottom of the table, chairman Dick Knight wielded the axe.

“No one who cares about the Albion will forget Steve’s tremendous contribution to our survival last season,” said Knight. “This season, given our difficult circumstances, feasibly we were only seeking to preserve our league status by a safe margin, but to date that comfort zone has eluded us.”

Thankfully you can’t keep a good man down for long, though, and within two weeks of getting the Brighton bullet, Gritt was back in the saddle as assistant manager to Billy Bonds at Millwall.

Although Bonds was sacked by the Lions only six weeks after Gritt’s arrival, successors Keith Stevens and Alan McLeary kept him on, working with the reserve team. Then Mark McGhee took charge and got Gritt back involved with the first team to take on organisational work such as set plays.

After McGhee took charge at Brighton, Gritt switched across south London back to Charlton, where he ran their academy for the next six years.

He returned to his hometown club in 2011 to become chief scout, initially under Lee Bradbury and then his successor, Paul Groves.

But he was disappointed to be let go in September 2012, telling theEcho: “They have changed the way they are doing their recruitment so there wasn’t really any need for me to be there.”

Bournemouth chairman Eddie Mitchell explained: “We have got analysts on board now and all games are available on DVD. We are trying to build a database from these clips.

“We felt it was impractical to send somebody all over the country to watch games every day when we can get DVDs of games and players.

“It was a role which diminished for us. Whether it is the right way to go remains to be seen but we have got to look at effectiveness and costs.”

Gritt said: “It was a big thing last year for me to come back to the club where I grew up. I am disappointed it has come to an end like this, but life goes on.

“I have lost jobs in the past and, hopefully, I will bounce back. I am looking forward to the next chapter in my career and will just have to wait and see what comes up.”

Born in Bournemouth on 31 October 1957, Gritt’s early footballing ability was first seen in the Kings Park First School football team of 1969, as the Echo discovered when readers were asked to send in their old sports photos.

Gritt, a forward, was taken on as an apprentice by the Cherries and played a handful of games for the first team under John Benson before being released at the age of 18.

Colin Masters remembered on the Where Are They Now? website (in an October 2020 post) how Gritt linked up with non-league Dorchester who paired him up front with Ron Davies, the former Welsh international centre-forward who’d played for Southampton, Man Utd and Portsmouth.

“They were an exciting pair to watch at that level,” said Masters. “After three matches I was so impressed with Steve that I went and found the Dorchester club secretary and asked if he had signed Steve Gritt on a contract.

“The reply was ‘No’. Within two weeks, Charlton Athletic came in and took him (presumably for nothing) and he went on to have a very successful career for many years. Dorchester’s loss was Charlton’s gain!”

Between 1977 and 1993, Gritt played a total of 435 matches for the Addicks, including a relegation to the old Third Division in 1980 and two promotions – to the Second Division in 1981 under Mike Bailey and the First Division under Lennie Lawrence in 1986. He had a six-month spell with Walsall in 1989 before returning and experiencing another relegation in 1990.

Gritt became joint player-manager with Curbishley in 1991 and, under their stewardship for the next four years, the likes of Lee Bowyer, John Robinson, Richard Rufus and Shaun Newton established themselves as mainstays of the side.

When Charlton decided in 2021 to re-name their East Stand in Curbishley’s honour, a generous Gritt told londonnewsonline.co.uk it was a fitting tribute to his former colleague.

“We had our trials and tribulations but I’ve always judged that we did what was required to keep the club going. We had to steady the ship.

*Joint Charlton manager with Alan Curbishley*

“We would have loved to have kept Rob Lee, for example, but we had to do things for the well-being of the club so we could keep it going and give the fans something to shout about.

“It was a great time when we got back to The Valley (they’d spent several years sharing Selhurst Park with Crystal Palace).

“Then the club made a decision which I was never going to agree with. But when I look back to see what Alan did – he went on to do a significant job – I cannot complain. Ultimately what he achieved he thoroughly deserved.”

Gritt said: “When I was there we had to make sure we weren’t seen to be having disagreements although I cannot recall us having too many anyway.

“When we were on the training ground, we each knew what the other one would be doing during the sessions. We both had jobs to do on the day.

“I was more of a player than he was at that time – so the management side was more in his hands. It was fairly straightforward, until the club decided that they wanted one man in charge. That was obviously disappointing for me at the time but I have thoroughly enjoyed my career.

“Alan gave the club a massive block to build on – but no one could have envisaged how the club went after he left. It was a massive disappointment.”

After he left Bournemouth in 2012, Gritt dropped out of league football and spent five years as assistant manager at Ebbsfleet United, working with his former Charlton teammate (and ex-Albion youth team manager) Steve Brown and then Daryl McMahon, who he subsequently followed to League Two Macclesfield Town, Conference side Dagenham & Redbridge and Isthmian League Hornchurch.

‘Super’ Mark – ‘The Fridge’– didn’t always stay cool

MUCH-MALIGNED Mark McCammon was not afraid to stand his ground, answer his critics directly and to challenge injustice when he felt aggrieved.

Fans of Brentford, Brighton and Millwall voiced some strident – nay, downright offensive – opinions of his ability as a footballer.

Remarkably, the Barnet-born striker played in a FA Cup final and Europe for the Lions before Mark McGhee signed him a second time – for Brighton – having previously taken him to Millwall from the Bees on transfer deadline day in 2003.

*McCammon and Neil Harris at the 2004 FA Cup Final in Cardiff*

When his suitability to contribute to the Seagulls’ flagging cause in the Championship was called into question in a post-match radio phone-in, McCammon took umbrage and called the show himself to argue the toss with presenter Ian Hart.

Also, in what was something of a landmark case, McCammon took a subsequent employer, Gillingham FC, to courtand won a claim that he had been racially victimised.

It certainly wasn’t uncommon for McCammon to be at odds with the people running whichever club he was playing for.

He first joined the Seagulls on loan when he was out of favour and on the transfer list at Millwall.

He made his debut in a 1-0 home defeat to Stoke City in December 2004 and said: “I just want to get back playing and enjoying my football again.

“I have been in and out at Millwall and my fitness has dipped a little bit because I haven’t played. I’m happy to be playing under Mark again and I want to show what I can do.”

Although he didn’t get on the scoresheet in five matches, when McGhee made it a permanent move in February 2005 he told BBC Southern Counties Radio: “Not everyone understands the contribution Mark makes. We have become a much more effective team with him in the squad.”

McGhee was a great believer in the ‘one big one, one little one’ striking line-up, and was sure McCammon’s presence would help pint-sized Leon Knight to score goals.

Because of what followed, it is easy to forget McCammon scored three goals in his first two home games after signing on a permanent basis.

He scored a brace and won the man of the match award in a 3-2 defeat to Derby County and he got 10-man Albion’s second in a surprise 2-1 win over promotion-chasing Sunderland (Richard Carpenter scored the other, and Rami Shabaan made his debut in goal).

The Argus enjoyed building up the visit of McCammon’s old side Millwall to the Withdean, interviewing the player and the manager, who we learned called his new signing ‘The Fridge’.

McGhee urged McCammon to stay cool if he managed to score against his old club, but it was fellow striker Gary Hart who got the only goal of the game, in the 89^th minute.

Ahead of the game, McCammon told the newspaper: “It would mean a lot to me to score the winning goal against them. I wasn’t given a chance there, but I’ve got a fresh start here. I’ve got a lot to prove.”

In the following game, he was subbed off at half-time in a 2-0 defeat at Stoke when he gave away a penalty. He underwent blood tests and McGhee said: “Mark is seeing a specialist to find out why he was feeling lethargic. It wasn’t the back injury he suffered against Millwall, he was just feeling ill and weak.”

That game was the first of a run of six defeats and Albion only won once in 11 matches – form which saw them avoid relegation by a single point.

One of several infamous McCammon incidents occurred following the Seagulls’ 1-1 draw at Turf Moor on 16 April.

After a lucklustre first half display when Albion went in 1-0 down, McGhee ripped into the team at half-time and McCammon and fellow striker Chris McPhee were told they weren’t holding the ball up well enough.

According to an account in the Daily Telegraph, McCammon argued back in a fiery exchange with the boss, claiming a lack of service from midfield was the issue. He didn’t reappear for the second half, being replaced by fired-up teenager Jake Robinson and Albion managed to salvage a point courtesy of an equaliser from Dean Hammond.

A delighted McGhee said of Robinson: “We say when people get their chance they have to take it and I thought he took it absolutely brilliantly. He was different class.”

But McGhee’s ire with McCammon hadn’t cooled at the final whistle – he ordered him off the team bus and told him to return south in the kit-carrying vehicle instead.

Not fancying a tight squeeze alongside sweaty shirts, shorts and socks, McCammon chose to return by train.

“After the match I told him I didn’t want him travelling back on the team bus with the rest of us and that he was to return home with two other members of staff in another club vehicle,” McGhee told Sky Sports News.

McCammon apologised to McGhee afterwards but any subsequent first team opportunities were few and far between after that.

At the start of the 2005-06 season, he managed a recall for a Carling Cup match away to Shrewsbury Town and pleased his manager by scoring a goal and laying one on for Robinson, even though the Albion went down 3-2.

“I thought Mark was much better. That type of performance is what we expect of him and it’s what he can do,” said McGhee. “Now he’s got to reproduce that in the Championship.

“He set his standard tonight in terms of his effort and the simple way he played the game. He didn’t complicate things; he laid it off, held it up, laid it off, then got in the box; he won a lot of headers; took a lot of stick and kept going. He got a goal, made a goal and I thought he was terrific.”

But McGhee, with other forward options in the shape of Colin Kazim-Richards, Robinson, Knight and Gary Hart only called on McCammon for three starts and five sub appearances.

“He (McGhee) asked me to go out on loan to a lower league team and I think I’m better than that,” said McCammon when, incensed by criticism of him on the BBC Southern Counties Radio post-match phone-in after a game in February, called in and took issue with show host Hart.

“I went on trial at Watford and I got called back to train for no apparent reason. I think I was hard done by there, a bit unlucky. I’m back but I’m not in the squad but I don’t think I’ve been given a long enough chance.”

Once again suggesting the team’s issue was service through to the front players, he responded to Hart’s personal criticism of him saying: “When you kick a ball in professional football you can tell me whether I’m good enough for this standard.

“You don’t know anything about me. What you said is very disrespectful.

“I’ve been out since the beginning of the season with ankle and knee injuries. I had surgery on both. I came back and made three first-team starts but it takes about seven or eight games to get your rhythm back. I think it’s a bad comment you have made.”

The striker also took aim at the Withdean faithful, claiming: “All we hear is supporters whingeing.

“If they get behind the team it will give the players an extra boost. All the first team players at Brighton listen to the radio and they hear the supporters being 100 per cent negative.

“It’s a team game, it’s not about individuals. The supporters need to get behind the team a bit more.”

If the player didn’t think much of the fans, it would be an understatement to say they were none too impressed by the player.

Amongst a veritable litany of abuse from Albion supporters, this from ‘The Full Harris’ on North Stand Chat encapsulated the opinions of many.

“Mark McCammon is the worst player to have played for us in this division … he just simply doesn’t have a clue. He is unfit, he doesn’t know where he is meant to be running, he can’t shoot. For a man of his size, he is pathetic in the air.

“He is clumsy, he has the touch and control of a Sunday league centre half, he is about as prolific as an impotent monk, he is an embarrassment, he is a disgrace, he is lazy and, personally, I object in the extreme to my paying his wages when I believe many of the crowd around me could do a better job and they would do it for free.”

Long before Dominic Cummings referred to his erstwhile boss, Boris Johnson as “a shopping trolley smashing from one side of the aisle to the other”, supporters voiced something similar of McCammon. The song went like this:

Super, super Mark
Super, super Mark
Super, super Mark
Supermarket Trolley.

Perhaps it was no surprise that McCammon was allowed to leave Albion on loan, linking up with League One Bristol City, where he scored four goals in 11 appearances.

He didn’t play another game for the Albion and, in the summer of 2006, joined Doncaster Rovers after impressing boss Dave Penney on trial.

Although born in Barnet on 7 August 1978, McCammon qualified to play for Barbados through his mother and he won five caps for the Caribbean country. He scored on his debut against Antigua and Barbuda in a 3-1 win in September 2006 and two days later hit a hat-trick when Barbados beat Anguilla 7-1.

Two years later he returned to international action for two World Cup qualifiers against the United States. Barbados lost 8-0 in California and 1-0 in Bridgetown.

McCammon was with QPR as a teenager but it was Cambridge United who took him on as a YTS and he joined Cambridge City on loan at 19 to gain experience.

He played just six games for United between 1997 and March 1999 but was signed by Premier League Charlton, managed by Alan Curbishley.

After relegation to the old First Division, McCammon played five times for the Addicks as they won the title with a squad that included John Robinson, Steve Brown and Paul Kitson on loan from West Ham. McCammon also spent time on loan at Swindon Town in January 2000.

That summer, McCammon left The Valley to sign for Second Division Brentford for a fee said to be £100,000. He scored six times in 33 appearances in his first season at Griffin Park. He scored 10 in a total of 75 appearances for the Bees but it seems their supporters were also unconvinced about his merits.

Stan Webb, on the excellent BFCTalk website, said: “Mark McCammon was yet another misfit who cost a significant fee. Despite looking every inch a footballer, he signally failed to deliver.

“He is best remembered for his cataclysmic miss from a free header at Loftus Road which might have changed our recent history had he scored, as he surely should have done.

“And yet for all the criticism he faced, he eventually became a sort of anti-hero as fans recognised that he was always giving everything he had and appreciated his efforts even though he was just not up to scratch.”

By contrast, McCammon’s time in south Yorkshire was relatively successful, although if he felt he was dogged by bad luck, in November 2006 he had a headed goal away to Brentford chalked off after the ref didn’t notice the ball went through a hole in the back of the net. Thankfully Donny still won 1‑0.

Across two seasons, he scored 13 goals in 70 matches for the south Yorkshire side and went on as a 71^st minute sub for Richie Wellens in the 2008 League One play-off final at Wembley when Donny beat Leeds United 1-0. Leeds had Casper Ankergren in goal and Bradley Johnson in their line-up.

However, McCammon chose to head south that summer and signed a three-year contract with recently relegated League Two Gillingham.

He scored five goals in 35 matches in his first season at Priestfield but 2009-10, when the Gills were back in League One, was a different story.

By February 2010, a lack of starts saw him seek a loan to get some match fitness. Gills boss Mark Stimson told BBC Radio Kent: “Going out on loan will be good for him and the club. He needs games and if he comes back fit in four weeks that would be great.”

He added: “We want him sharp and scoring goals then he could come back because we might need someone like him. Last season he stepped in and put in a good shift.

“At the moment he’s frustrated, like all the other boys who are not playing. He didn’t want to drop down to League Two. Now he’s seriously thinking about it because it might get his career back on track.”

McCammon joined Bradford City for a month, playing four games, before returning to the Gills. But the following season, when Andy Hessenthaler had returned as manager, saw the final dismantling of McCammon’s league playing career.

The club dismissed him in 2011 for alleged misconduct but he didn’t go quietly and took them to an employment tribunal claiming he had been unfairly sacked and ‘racially victimised’. He won £68,000 in compensation and Gillingham and chairman Paul Scally were subsequently each fined £75,000 by the FA “for failing to act in the best interests of the game and bringing the game into disrepute”.

Furious Scally appealed the fines, which were set by an independent regulatory commission, saying they were “manifestly excessive, totally disproportionate and completely unjust” and, although the board reduced the club’s fine to £50,000, the sanction against Scally was upheld.

McCammon told the original hearing in Ashford, Kent, that he and other black players at the club were treated differently from white players. For example, he said, he was ordered to attend the ground amid ‘treacherous’ snowy driving conditions or be fined, while some white players were told they were not required.

The club tried to “frustrate him out” by refusing to pay private medical bills for injury treatment, while a white teammate had been flown to Dubai for treatment at the club’s expense, he claimed.

McCammon, who, on £2,500 a week, was the club’s highest-paid player, was also told not to blog while others were permitted to, he said. During an injury spell, he had to stay behind at the club for four hours longer than other injured and non-injured players, he claimed.

The tribunal heard he was dismissed after a disciplinary hearing following a confrontation in which he accused club officials of being “racially intolerant” regarding the decision to order him in during the heavy snow.

The tribunal found in McCammon’s favour and his solicitor, Sim Owalabi, said it was believed to be the first time a footballer had successfully brought before an employment tribunal a case of race victimisation against a professional football club.

After all the legal to-ing and fro-ing, the player himself, by then aged 35, said: “It was traumatising and it sort of sabotaged my career in the football world, my progress.

“I had football clubs after me and that just deteriorated. It’s very, very unfortunate.”

He dropped down to Conference level with Braintree Town in October 2011 and later played for Lincoln City, on loan and then on a permanent basis, when they were in the same division.

Paul Moulden chipped in with goals for Bournemouth and Brighton before batter days

Mouldy WORLD RECORD youth level goalscorer Paul Moulden now runs a successful chippy in Bolton but he was once in the firing – rather than frying – line for AFC Bournemouth and Brighton & Hove Albion.

The career of the prodigious goalscoring wonderkid tailed off early although it may have taken a new direction in Sussex if the cash-strapped Seagulls had been able to afford to buy him.

Born in Farnworth, near Bolton, on 6 September 1967, Moulden went to the town’s Thornleigh Salesian College where, having excelled for the school football team, he went on to play for England Schools. He also played for Bolton Lads Club under-15s: his staggering personal goal tally of 289 goals in 40 games in a single season earned him a place in the Guinness Book of Records.

He was snapped up by Manchester City as an associate schoolboy during John Bond’s reign as manager and signed on as an apprentice before turning professional on his 17th birthday. He was part of City’s FA Youth Cup winning side in 1986, although manager Billy McNeill had already blooded him in the first team on New Year’s Day that year in a 1-0 home win over Aston Villa.

Moulden City He made two further substitute appearances for the first team that season and finished top scorer for City’s reserves. By late 1986, he had earned a regular place but a broken leg sustained in training restricted him to just three appearances in 1987-88.

In the 1988-89 season, Moulden was City’s top scorer with 13 goals as they won promotion from the old First Division back to the elite. But the young striker elected not to take up the offer of a new contract in the summer of 1989 and ended up joining Bournemouth, where Harry Redknapp was beginning his managerial career. Moulden was valued at £160,000 as the makeweight in a deal which saw Bournemouth’s Ian Bishop move to Maine Road.

City boss Mel Machin, himself something of a legend at Bournemouth (a Cherries player, manager and director of football) spelled the end of Moulden’s career at City.

Moulden told FourFourTwo magazine: “Machin just didn’t fancy me. I was offered a contract but it was a contract you’d have been a fool to sign, so I didn’t sign it and I became for sale. All the backroom staff and everyone else concerned was upset that I was going but to have tied yourself down for three years on the contract they were offering, you would have been a fool. That was the lever to get me out.” The Lancashire lad’s move to Dorset proved to be a success on the pitch – but was brief.

He scored six goals in his first three home league matches, including a hat-trick in a 5-4 win over Hull and both goals in a 2-1 win over Newcastle. “I remember the two goals against Newcastle,” Moulden told the Bournemouth Echo in 2016. “One was a three-inch tap-in and the other was a run from the halfway line.”

While he said in the Echo interview how much he enjoyed his time with the Cherries, he told efl.com: “Moving to Bournemouth was a huge move for me. At the time, I was single and it was exciting, but the novelty soon wore off and I found it hard to settle.

“It was a lovely club but I was delighted to return home and back to Oldham.”

Moulden told FourFourTwo: “Bournemouth had some good players, like Luther Blissett, Paul Miller and goalkeeper Gerry Peyton. The thing that struck me was how many old players they had – I was 22 at the time – but Harry was just starting out and I suppose for his first job he wanted security around himself.

“It was a small club and I’d imagine he had to get success quickly. Harry was a nice guy, a decent manager.”

After just seven months at Bournemouth, and with 13 goals in 37 starts to his name, he was snapped up by Oldham Athletic on transfer deadline day in March 1990.

A £225,000 fee meant a decent profit for Bournemouth but, with Oldham flying high at the time, and Moulden struggling with injuries, he only managed 19 games for the Latics in two and a half seasons. He spent two months at Molde in Norway restoring his match fitness and when Oldham manager Joe Royle suggested he look for a new club, the move to Brighton looked like the ideal opportunity to resurrect his career.

Newly-relegated back to the third tier, Albion desperately needed some inspiration up front and manager Barry Lloyd thought he’d hit the jackpot in securing on loan the services of strike pairing Moulden and Steve Cotterill, from Wimbledon.

Each got themselves a goal in an opening 3-2 defeat to Orient so the signs were promising and the new men duly delivered the goods on the pitch.

The two goals Moulden scored as Albion beat Preston North End 2-0 in September 1992 were especially sweet, as he explained to Brian Owen of the Argus in 2016.

In total, Moulden scored five goals in 11 league appearances and Cotterill four, but the Albion couldn’t afford to sign either of them permanently.

The void was ultimately filled by the arrival of free transfer Kurt Nogan, who subsequently became a prolific goalscorer for the Seagulls. Moulden, meanwhile, ended up being sold to Birmingham later the same season for £150,000 and Cotterill, also deemed too expensive for Albion, was sold to Bournemouth for £80,000 the following summer.

In an interview with Howard Griggs of the Argus, in January 2011, Moulden explained how he would dearly have liked to have made the move to Brighton permanent.

“I played at Bournemouth two seasons before,” he said. “I liked the south coast and I had the chance to go to either Brighton or Plymouth. I jumped at the chance to go to Brighton and I thoroughly enjoyed my time there. I struck up a good understanding with Steve Cotterill.”

Moulden spoke particularly highly of assistant manager Martin Hinshelwood – “he was different class, absolutely brilliant” – and said: “It felt just right from the start. I did well with Steve Cotterill. We both scored goals for the team.”

As an ex-City player, Moulden was particularly miffed that Oldham boss Joe Royle would not let the outcast striker play for Albion against Manchester United in the League Cup that autumn, and he added: “If Brighton had had the money I certainly would have signed.”

He told Griggs: “Manchester City was certainly good, and I enjoyed my time at Birmingham under Terry Cooper, but there were plenty of good times and I can honestly say my two months at Brighton was up there.”

One of Moulden’s best games came in a 2-1 home win over Huddersfield as Albion won 2-1. Steve Foster, back at the club for a second spell, put Albion ahead on 17 minutes with a header from a John Robinson corner. Although Huddersfield equalised through a Iwan Roberts penalty, livewire Moulden popped up with the winner six minutes from time.

The Terriers would ultimately be Moulden’s next destination after leaving Birmingham in 1995 but he made only two appearances before switching to nearby Rochdale where he played 16 times in the 1995-96 season.

In total, Moulden suffered four broken legs and his league career came to a premature end at 28, although he played non-league with Accrington Stanley and Bacup Borough.

He later coached at his old boys’ club and also spent three years with the Manchester City academy but sensibly he had an eye for a career outside of football too and followed in his mum and dad’s footsteps by opening up Paul’s Chippy in Bolton.

Pictures: Albion matchday programme and online sources.

Winger Walker a genuine crowd-pleasing entertainer

CW Nobo 91 prog IN MY OPINION, one of the best wingers ever to pull on the famous blue and white stripes was Clive Walker, an evergreen player who remarkably played more than 1,000 games for eight clubs.

Although well into his 30s when he arrived at the Goldstone Ground, the balding former Chelsea and Fulham wideman was an effervescent talent with the ball at his feet.

Asked by the Argus to preview the squad ahead of the 1991 Division Two play-off final at Wembley, Brighton coach Martin Hinshelwood said of him: “Alias Phil Collins. A great character. The dressing room buzzes when he is around. He is good on the ball, a great crosser and has scored some great goals this season.”

Both Albion’s wingers for that game had Wembley experience behind them having been on opposing sides in in the 1985 League Cup Final.

Walker had missed a penalty for Sunderland as Mark Barham’s Norwich City won 1-0 and six years later, against Neil Warnock’s Notts County, Walker’s bad luck continued when a Wembley post denied him as Brighton’s dream of promotion ended in a 3-1 defeat.

Both had played big parts in Albion reaching Wembley, though: Barham levelled for the Seagulls in the first leg of the semi-final at home to Millwall and Walker got the third when the Seagulls upturned the form book and beat Bruce Rioch’s side 4-1.

Born on 26 May 1957 in Oxford, Walker joined Chelsea in 1973, made his league debut in a 1-0 defeat away to Burnley on 23 April 1977 and was a first team squad regular between December 1977 and the summer of 1984, although, in 1979, Chelsea loaned Walker to Fort Lauderdale Strikers (as pictured below) where he scored nine goals in 22 appearances.

CW Fort Laud

“Those were exciting, lively times and we loved our football. We were a bunch of young lads growing up together and, in my last couple of years there, I played with the likes of Kerry Dixon for the side who brought good times back on the pitch,” Walker told Mike Walters of the Mirror. “We were a close-knit bunch with a great sense of camaraderie, and a lot of teams these days would probably envy us in that regard.”

A fast winger with the knack of scoring stunning goals, Walker netted 17 in 1981-1982 and the next season, with Chelsea looking set to be relegated to Division Three, fans still remember how he scored the winner at Bolton Wanderers to maintain their status.

Details of many of his memorable moments at Chelsea are highlighted by the Sporting Heroes website.

And a Chelsea fans’ blog, Game of the People emphasised the impact he had at Stamford Bridge, pointing out: “He was left-footed, as quick as a sprinter and awkward to knock off the ball. And he could shoot! Those that liked wingers were excited by his willingness to run between players and take a pot shot at goal. Put simply, he was exciting to watch.”

In what is an otherwise interesting and informative piece about Walker in 2014, they unfortunately failed to mention his successful stint with the Seagulls.

Although he began the 1983-84 season well, he sustained a broken jaw which put him out for several weeks and, during his absence, another nippy winger – Pat Nevin – seized the opportunity to claim a first-team spot and Walker’s Stamford Bridge days were numbered.

3-2 N v Sun CWalker

Come the end of the season, he was allowed to join Sunderland (above in action v Newcastle) for a fee of £70,000. “He returned to torment Chelsea in the Football League Cup semi-final second leg, scoring twice in what was a dreadful night for the club,” Game of the People observed. “Walker was abused from the stands, too, which was especially heartbreaking for those that appreciated his efforts at the Bridge.”

After two years in the north-east, Walker returned to London in September 1985, initially via a £75,000 move to Jim Smith’s First Division (Premier League equivalent) QPR, where he played 28 games in the 1986-87 season, alongside the likes of David Seaman, Michael Robinson and John Byrne. Just 20 months later, he left on a free transfer to Third Division Fulham for whom he made 127 appearances in three years, scoring 32 goals.

His debut was certainly memorable as he scored twice in a 3-1 home win over York City. Writer Ian McCulloch remembered the occasion in an article on fulhamfc.com.

“Fulham were in the doldrums, on the brink of extinction, owned by property developers, and going nowhere fast. And then, in the midst of all the doom and gloom, appeared one of football’s all-time, genuine crowd-pleasing entertainers. Walker ran the show that night, scored twice, and generally lifted both the fans and the team.”

Walker recalled: “That game really does stand out. And in the pouring rain as well! To score two goals on your debut is very special, and I just look back at it as a fabulous memory. Very, very enjoyable.”

Walker explained that it was Ray Lewington who took him to Craven Cottage, adding: “I had a great rapport with him – of course we were both apprentices at Chelsea – and we’re still good friends today. But then other managers came in, and you couldn’t escape the feeling that the club was going backwards and that was very, very sad because I had a lovely time at Fulham and I’ve got some very fond memories of those years. I loved playing at the Cottage and on the Cottage pitch.”

Walker picked up Fulham’s 1989-90 Player of the Year award before former Fulham captain Barry Lloyd went back to his old club to secure Walker’s services for the Seagulls in the summer of 1990. Even though he was the wrong side of 30, he pulled on the no.11 shirt on his debut away to Barnsley (in a side containing his old Chelsea teammate Gary Chivers in defence) and missed only one game all season as Albion nearly made it back to the elite level.

After that Wembley disappointment and only three games into the new season, Walker suffered another blow when he sustained a serious knee ligament injury away to Barnsley which sidelined him for several weeks.

With the previous season’s goalscoring duo Mike Small and John Byrne having been sold for big money, the side struggled, and eventually ended up being relegated.

Emerging young winger John Robinson had slotted into Walker’s place in the side during his absence although it was Barham who was the odd man out when Walker was fit to return to the line-up.

Back in the third tier the following season, although the return of Steve Foster in defence was a plus point, off the field the rumblings of financial meltdown grew louder and louder. Young Robinson was sold to Charlton Athletic and only the proceeds of the sale of goalkeeper Mark Beeney to Leeds United kept the taxman at bay when there was a winding-up order threat hanging over the club.

Three cup games against Manchester United were rare highlights in that precarious season and one of my favourite Walker moments came at Old Trafford in a League Cup replay on 7 October 1992.

Having managed a 1-1 draw against United in the first game, Albion gave United quite a scare in the replay, largely through Walker giving England full-back Paul Parker a torrid time. I watched the game sat amongst United supporters and they were full of praise for the veteran winger, albeit that United edged it 1-0.

Walker’s final appearance in an Albion shirt came on 24 April 1993 when he came on as a substitute for Matthew Edwards in a 2-1 home defeat to Rotherham United. Alas, as he recounted in an interview with Spencer Vignes for the matchday programme, his time with the Albion came to a sour end.

Together with Chivers and Perry Digweed he was let go by Lloyd apparently because he said as the highest earners the club could no longer afford them. He was unceremoniously ushered out of the door with his boots in a bin bag. “That was the thank-you we got from Brighton,” he said.

When most players would be considering hanging up their boots, at the age of 36, Walker left Brighton and moved into non-league with Woking where he scored 91 goals in 210 games.

A poster called NewAdventuresinWiFi, on Sunderland’s readytogo.net fans website, recalled watching Walker play for Woking, and said: “Walker was an absolute class act when he fancied it. He was instrumental in the cup run of 96-97 when Millwall and Cambridge were dispatched and Premiership Coventry given an almighty fright.

“Also remember a Conference game against Altrincham when we put seven past them and Walker was unplayable that day…to the point the opposition full back ended up getting a straight red for a frustrated desperate two footed ‘challenge’ he attempted on Clive after yet another glorious attacking run.”

Another poster, JumpingAnaconda, remembered: “I saw him playing for Woking in a minor cup final at Vicarage Road, in the season where he won a few big games for them in their FA Cup run. He was 40 years old and he was absolutely quality, up and down the line all night. That season there was some talk of Premiership sides looking at him to come in to do a job for them. His level of fitness was incredible. He ran around like a 20-year-old. He was probably the closest we would get to another Stanley Matthews in the Premiership era in terms of a winger that kept his pace, creativity, ability to beat a man and make crosses into his 40s.”

From Woking, he had a spell as the assistant manager at Brentford under Eddie May but then went back to playing, at Cheltenham Town. Finally, after winning the FA Trophy and the League, he retired at the grand old age of 43, although he continued to turn out for Chelsea Veterans teams.
He had a brief excursion into management with Molesey but a career in the media took off and he became a regular and well-known voice with BBC London, and for Sky TV’s coverage of Conference football.

CW on Chels TV Walker has also worked for Talksport and appears regularly with former Chelsea and Spurs player Jason Cundy on Chelsea TV and radio (as above).

Pictures from a variety of sources but mainly the Albion matchday programme.

Midfielder Alan Curbishley helped Seagulls to promotion

Screenshot

ALAN Curbishley completed a hat-trick of promotions with new clubs when he was part of Brighton’s successful third tier side in 1988.

He’d previously been promoted after switching from West Ham to Birmingham City and also when moving from Aston Villa to Charlton Athletic.

Curbishley was what you might call West Ham through and through.

Born at Forest Gate on 8 November 1957, within a mile of West Ham station, he was one of five children (elder brother Bill famously promoted and managed The Who and Led Zeppelin and was producer of the films Tommy and Quadrophenia).

Curbishley first played in Brighton at under 11 level, in a Newham Boys side against Brighton Boys at Longhill School, in May 1967. He was later capped for England Boys aged 15 and after joining the Hammers straight from school played for England Youth.

Curbishley won nine England Youth caps under Ken Burton, scoring on his debut in a 1-1 draw against Poland in Las Palmas on 21 January 1975 when England went on to win the Atlantic Cup. Among his teammates were future England captain Bryan Robson, Peter Barnes and Keith Bertschin.

He vied for a starting berth with Mark Nightingale (Palace, Bournemouth, Norwich, Peterborough), making six starts and three appearances off the bench. His last appearance was in a 1-0 win over Wales in Cardiff on 11 February 1976, playing alongside Glenn Hoddle and Gary Owen.

Almost a year earlier, on 29 March 1975, he had made his first team Hammers debut at the tender age of 17, lining up in midfield alongside Trevor Brooking and Graham Paddon in a 1-0 home defeat against Chelsea. Mervyn Day was in goal for West Ham and guarding the opposition net was John Phillips.

At the time, Curbishley was the youngest to play in the senior team although that record was subsequently eclipsed by Paul Allen.

A contemporary of Geoff Pike, Paul Brush and Alvin Martin, they were all in the West Ham youth team defeated 5-1 on aggregate by Ipswich in the 1975 FA Youth Cup Final.

In a midfield dominated by Brooking, Paddon and Pat Holland, and later Alan Devonshire and Pike, Curbishley found first team chances limited, although in 1977-78 he made 36 appearances.

After 85 matches for the Hammers, in 1979 he moved to Birmingham for £275,000. Manager Jim Smith used the proceeds of the £1m transfer of Trevor Francis to Nottingham Forest to buy Curbishley, Frank Worthington, Colin Todd and Archie Gemmill. Curbishley was still only 21 when he made his debut for the Blues on 18 August 1979 in a 4-3 defeat at home to Fulham and he went on to be ever present for Birmingham in that 1979-80 season.

Curbishley earned his one and only England Under 21 cap in a 5-0 thrashing of Switzerland at Portman Road when Justin Fashanu was among the scorers. He had hopes of going to the 1982 World Cup with England, having broken into the England B squad but fractured a kneecap sliding into a tackle with Albion’s Brian Horton. “I missed the rest of the season and the start of the next, and the World Cup squad which I might have broken into otherwise,” he said. “It was the worst disappointment I’ve ever faced.”

He was on the front cover of the matchday programme for a game I went to watch at St Andrew’s on 27 March 1982 when he played for Ron Saunders’ Blues in a 1-0 win over Brighton. But financial issues meant the side was broken up and, the following year, after a total of 155 games, he committed what today seems to be viewed as a cardinal sin by signing for Villa for £100,000, ironically making his debut against Birmingham in a 1-0 win on 4 April 1983.

“I had high hopes of success there with them just having won the European Cup,” he told Dave Beckett in an Albion matchday programme article. “It was soon obvious though that Tony Barton was under pressure from the moment he took over and all the players thought it was just a matter of time before he was sacked.

“He got a raw deal. That season we finished ninth in the league, got to the semis of the League Cup and were knocked out of the UEFA Cup in the last minute on the away goals rule. Villa have never been near that form since, but Tony Barton’s face didn’t fit and he was soon on his way along with all the men he signed.”

After only 36 appearances, scoring once, Curbishley returned to London, dropping back down to the 2^nd division, to begin what would be a long association with Charlton Athletic, punctuated only by his spell at Brighton.

Amazingly, although homeless at the time and playing at Selhurst Park, Charlton won promotion back to the 1^st Division. Unfortunately Curbishley sustained an achilles tendon injury and only played 10 games in the 1986-87 season.

“I knew I had an achilles injury but the operation was delayed until a week before the start of the new season and consequently I wasn’t fit again until December,” he said. “The manager bought two new midfield players, which I understood, but when I was fit again I couldn’t get back into the side.

“It became apparent that I wouldn’t get much of a chance unless something drastic happened so I’m pleased to have a fresh start.”

After 13 seasons playing in the top two divisions, he left Charlton having scored six times in 63 games and dropped down to the Third to join the Albion for £32,500.

He made his debut in a goalless draw at Chesterfield on 22 August 1987 in front of a crowd of just 2,286.

After the departure of Jimmy Case in 1985, the centre of Albion’s midfield had been crying out for someone who could put their foot on the ball and pass it, and Curbishley stepped neatly into that role, scoring six goals – mostly penalties – in 34 appearances as Brighton won promotion.

“Alan was a very level-headed guy, an excellent passer and really disciplined,” Albion boss Barry Lloyd told Spencer Vignes in a matchday programme article.

In total, over three years on the south coast, Curbishley played 127 games (plus five as sub) – making his 400th league appearance during the 1988-89 season – and scored 15 goals.

curbs pen The Albion matchday programme featured Curbishley when the Seagulls hosted the Hammers for a Barclays League Division 2 game on 16 September 1989. Describing his time with the East London club, he said: “It was a brilliant set up although I was definitely a bit headstrong in my early days.

“I didn’t really grow up until I moved to St Andrew’s and that’s where I had my best playing days.”

Lou Macari’s side in 1989 included Curbishley’s old pal Alvin Martin and future Albion manager Liam Brady but the Seagulls ran out 3-0 winners (goals from Kevin Bremner, Robert Codner and Garry Nelson).

In 1990, Curbishley began his coaching career, returning to Charlton initially as player-coach under Lennie Lawrence. When Lawrence left in 1991, Charlton made the somewhat unusual decision to appoint joint managers: Curbishley and Steve Gritt (who would later be at the helm when Albion narrowly escaped dropping out of the league).

Curbishley’s first signings for Charlton were former Albion teammates Nelson and Steve Gatting and he later plundered young winger John Robinson from the Seagulls. After four years, Curbishley took sole charge at The Valley and led Charlton to some of the most successful times in their history.

Considering their resources, Curbishley turned Charlton into a steady top flight club and model of stability, consistently securing a mid-table finish.

Sean Cole in The Bleacher Report described him as “one of the most promising managerial talents of the new millennium” and in 2006, in the wake of Sven-Goran Eriksson’s departure as England manager, Curbs had ‘tea and biscuits’ with then chief executive Brian Barwick – but Steve McLaren got the job instead.

In December 2006, Curbishley landed what surely would have been considered his dream job – manager of West Ham.

It was quite a reunion of old pals when Brighton visited Upton Park for one of his first games in charge, in the third round of the FA Cup in January 2007. Albion boss Dean Wilkins and coach Ian Chapman had both been teammates while physiotherapist Malcolm Stuart was still wielding the magic spray.

In front of 32,874, Hammers ran out fairly comfortable 3-0 winners with Mark Noble scoring his first senior West Ham goal and Carlos Tevez a real handful up front. These were the respective line-ups:

West Ham: Carroll, Dailly, Ferdinand (Spector 45), Gabbidon, McCartney, Benayoun, Mullins, Noble, Boa Morte (Newton 73), Cole (Bobby Zamora 68), Tevez.
Subs not used: Green, Sheringham. Goals: Noble 49, Cole 58, Mullins 90.

Brighton: Wayne Henderson, Joe O’Cearuill, Joel Lynch, Guy Butters, Kerry Mayo, Tommy Fraser (Gary Hart 51), Adam El-Abd, Dean Hammond, Alexandre Frutos (Sam Rents 67), Alex Revell (Joe Gatting 84), Jake Robinson. Subs not used: Michel Kuipers, Richard Carpenter.

Fans’ website westhamtillidie recalled: “Perhaps Curbs’ greatest legacy at the club was the £7m signing of his former Charlton protégé Scott Parker, who went on to win the Hammer of the Year prize three times and pick up a Football Writers’ Player of the Year Award during his time at the club.”

Sadly, though it was to all end in tears and Curbishley quit in protest at the then Icelandic owners’ failure to consult him over the sale of defenders Anton Ferdinand and George McCartney.

In what must have been a tough heart-v-head decision, he resorted to a legal resolution of the situation and eventually won a case for constructive dismissal, eventually receiving £2.2m in compensation. But it was the last manager’s job he had.

“It took me a year to sort out my problem at West Ham,” he told The Independent. “And then, after that, I was perhaps a little too picky. I was told by other senior managers ‘don’t be out too long’ but I was waiting for a job that I thought was the job for me.”

Job vacancies came and went, Curbishley’s name was generally on all the shortlists, but he never again made it through to the manager’s chair. There was a brief moment at Fulham when he was technical director assisting Rene Meulensteen but when Meulensteen was swiftly axed, new manager Felix Magath brought in his own people.

He rejoined the Fulham coaching staff in March 2015 and took charge of training in November 2015 when Kit Symons was relieved of his managerial duties but Stuart Gray took charge of the team before Slavisa Jokanovic was appointed.

In 2016, Curbishley brought out a book, Game Changers: Inside English Football: From the Boardroom to the Bootroom (published by HarperSport) and was a regular pundit on the Football on 5 programme covering Football League games.

Winger Mark Barham was no stranger to Wembley

1 Barham prog BRIGHTON’S wingers in the 1991 Division Two play-off final had previously been on opposing sides in a Wembley final.

Mark Barham was a winner with Norwich City as they beat Sunderland 1-0 in the 1985 League Cup Final and Clive Walker missed a penalty for the Wearsiders.

Six years on, Barham had levelled for Albion in the first leg of the semi-final at home to Millwall (more of which later) and Walker got the third when the Seagulls upturned the form book and beat Bruce Rioch’s side 4-1.

The 6-2 aggregate victory pitched the Albion against Neil Warnock’s Notts County under the shadow of the famous Twin Towers of Wembley.

Walker saw a Wembley post prevent him from scoring as Brighton’s dream of promotion was ended in a 3-1 defeat.

Folkestone-born Barham joined the Seagulls on a two-year contract after an initial trial and made his debut as a substitute for Kevin Bremner in a 1-0 home defeat to Oxford United on 30 December 1989.

He got his first start two days later in a 3-0 defeat at West Brom, who he’d played for briefly under ex-Ipswich and Arsenal midfielder Brian Talbot earlier that season.

On the second Saturday of the new decade he scored his first Albion goal in a 1-1 draw at home to Barnsley and had played 18 games by the end of the season.

Young John Robinson was beginning to get first team opportunities but Barham managed 42 appearances in 1990-91, culminating in that Wembley appearance against Notts County, although he was subbed off on 10 occasions.

That play-off first leg game against Millwall was Lloyd’s selection in Paul Camillin’s 2009 Match of My Life book (www.knowthescorebooks.com). He said: “Perry Digweed put in one of his incredibly long punts and the ball was about to bounce on the edge of the Millwall box when the centre half (David) Thompson ducked under it, I think intending to allow it to bounce through to Brian Horne in the visitors’ goal.

“But as he took his eye off the ball he also turned his back and the ball actually landed on the back of his head and squirted off right into Mark’s path. The little winger raced in and cracked the ball into the bottom corner. It really was a vital goal so close to the interval and the fans knew it.”

The goal also gave Barham much personal pleasure because he’d not seen eye-to-eye with Millwall boss Rioch when he’d been his manager at Middlesbrough.

With Robinson winning the shirt more frequently in the disastrous relegation season of 1991-92, Barham managed 25 appearances plus two as a sub but he was released at the end of the season and moved on to Shrewsbury Town.

Born on 12 July 1962, Barham’s football career began when he joined Norwich as an apprentice in 1978.

He was part of the City youth team that won the South East Counties League in 1979-80 and in the same season, at the tender age of just 17, manager John Bond gave him his first team debut. No fairytale start, though, as City lost 5-0 to Manchester United at Old Trafford.

However, he went on to make himself a regular in the City first team, making 213 appearances and scoring 25 goals for the Canaries.

Screenshot — *Barham in action for England v Australia*

He also won two full England caps on the 1983 tour of Australia in a side captained by Peter Shilton and also featuring Trevor Francis and Terry Butcher. Barham spoke warmly of Bond when he died in 2012 telling the local pinkun:

“When I first came up from Folkestone I had what you might call long hair. The first time he played me in a five-a-side in training he told me ‘I’m letting you play this one but if you don’t go out and get your hair cut you won’t be playing another one’.”

Barham continued: “He was my first manager, he gave me my debut at 17 and I went on to play for England so he must have done something right.

“He loved wingers but you had to adhere to certain rules. You had to play wide with your foot on the line, it was your responsibility to score goals, get crosses in and defend at the same time.”

A knee injury suffered in a match against Spurs was a major blow to Barham’s career. He ruptured cruciate ligaments in his left knee and he ended up in plaster for 14 months.

Although he remained at Carrow Road for four more seasons, Dale Gordon and Ruel Fox emerged as challengers for his place and eventually, in July 1987, Barham moved on to Huddersfield Town.

It was there that he teamed up with former Albion full back Chris Hutchings who spoke favourably about his time on the south coast with the Seagulls. Barham only played 27 games for the Terriers and, with former England striker Malcolm MacDonald replacing Steve Smith as manager, found himself released on a free transfer in 1988.

He joined Middlesbrough on an 18-month contract but as Rioch’s Middlesbrough were relegated he only played four games in eight months and was on the move again, ending up at non-league Hythe Town.

Determined he still had what it took to hold down a league career, Barham wrote to all 92 clubs. He joined Division Two West Brom and played four times for them but they didn’t keep him on.

Barham tight crop “I knew I hadn’t suddenly become a bad player and that I could succeed again,” Barham told the Albion matchday programme in March 1990. “So I wrote to all the clubs again and that’s when Barry (Lloyd) contacted me. His was only one of six replies.

“Since being here I’ve found that all Hutch said about the club and the area was right and now I want to prove myself, show that managers were wrong to ignore me and enjoy my time in Brighton in the hope that my two-year contract will be extended.”

After the disappointments elsewhere, Barham certainly got his career going again at Brighton.

He scored once in eight matches for the Shrews but his career was on the wane in 1992-93 and he had short spells in Hong Kong and played non-league with the likes of Sittingbourne, Southwick and Fakenham Town, who he managed for 20 months from April 1996.

According to Mike Davage’s excellent article Canaries Flown From The Nest in the 1998-99 club handbook, Barham joined Mulbarton in February 1998.

At a Norwich centenary dinner in 2002, Barham told Davage he’d had more than 20 operations on his knee. By the time he was interviewed by Spencer Vignes for Albion’s matchday programme in 2015, he’d had 38 operations on it!

After retiring from the game he ran a toolhire business in Norwich and according to his LinkedIn profile he’s now a business development manager with facilities management company, Mitie.

2 Barham stripes Barham 1

Pictures show Barham in Albion’s NOBO kit, from the Wembley play-offs programme, a portrait from a matchday programme and in a team line-up wearing the dreadful pyjama kit.

In parallel lines

Memories from 55 years following Brighton & Hove Albion

Tag: John Robinson