Tag: Liam Brady

John ‘Stonewall’ Jackson a loyal George Petchey disciple

NOT TO BE confused with the founder and first manager of Brighton & Hove Albion, that man’s namesake, John Jackson, was a coach at the Goldstone in the ‘80s and the ‘90s.

Less well known was that he could have been in goal for Albion for the 1983 FA Cup Final. Rather like Steve Foster, back-up ‘keeper Perry Digweed was serving a suspension when the game against Manchester United came round.

Digweed had been sent off in a reserve match in early May 1983 and was banned for the final and the replay. So, if anything had happened to first choice Graham Moseley – and let’s face it, he had been known to have off-field mishaps at other times during his Albion career – the man between the sticks at Wembley could well have been Jackson.

Jackson had signed on emergency Combination forms in February 1983 and played for the Reserves in a 1-1 draw at home to Luton when Moseley and youth team ‘keeper Martin Hyde were both injured. He stayed on and helped coach the youth team alongside John Shepherd and with Moseley fully fit was not needed for first team duty (in those days, there were no substitute goalkeepers on the bench).

Jackson, who died aged 80 four days after Christmas 2022, had spent the earlier part of the 1982-83 season at Hereford United, who had just finished bottom of the Fourth Division. He had appeared in six matches at the end of a 19-year career. bullsnews.blogspot.com reveals that Jackson was the oldest league player to turn out for United. He was six days past his 40th birthday when he played against Darlington on 11 September 1982.

It was all a far cry from the days when he was Crystal Palace’s first choice goalkeeper for eight seasons. He subsequently followed his former Palace coach George Petchey to Orient (where he played in the same side as Albion’s 1983 FA Cup Final captain Tony Grealish) and Millwall.

It seemed wherever Petchey went, Jackson was sure to go too. When Petchey was Chris Cattlin’s assistant manager at Brighton, he brought in Jackson to coach the Albion goalkeepers once a week. It was certainly a job close to home for Jackson, who lived in Hangleton with his wife and three daughters.

In an interview with Football Weekly News in 1979, Jackson said: “Petchey was coach at Palace, and manager of Orient, when I was with them, therefore I felt it was right to join the devil you know than the one you don’t know! I find George a straightforward and honest man to work with.”

When Petchey returned to the Albion in January 1994, as part of Liam Brady’s backroom team, it wasn’t long before Jackson was added to the staff to help his mentor develop young players.

And after Brady’s departure and Petchey’s elevation to become Jimmy Case’s assistant, Jackson took over running the youth team.

Jackson remained in post throughout the managerial upheavals of Case’s departure, the Steve Gritt reign, and the arrival of Brian Horton. But he left at the end of the 1997-98 season when Horton brought in Martin Hinshelwood as director of youth and former captain Dean Wilkins as youth team coach.

Born in Hammersmith on 5 September 1942, Jackson went to St Clement Danes School and spent time with Brentford as a junior. But it was Palace who swooped to sign him up, as Jackson explained in a 2019 cpfc.co.uk interview.

“Arthur Rowe spotted me playing for a London grammar school against an FA youth XI made up of players from other London teams and he got in touch with my teacher, and from that conversation I ended up having a couple of games with the Palace reserve side aged 18. Then, when I joined full-time, I eventually took the opportunity with both hands, literally!”

Jackson was often described as the best goalkeeper England never had. While he was unfortunate not to earn a full international cap, he played seven times for England Youth between February and May 1961, his teammates including the likes of Bert Murray, Ron Harris, Francis Lee and David Pleat.

He signed as a trainee at Palace in March 1962, and in the 1964-65 season initially shared the ‘keeper’s jersey with Welsh international Tony Millington (whose younger brother Grenville was briefly back-up ‘keeper to Brian Powney at Brighton).

Once Jackson established himself as first choice, he kept the shirt for the next eight seasons. At one stage, he played 222 consecutive games for Palace.

On the where-are-they-now.co.uk website, contributor Martin Wiseman said: “He was definitely one of the best goalkeepers I ever saw as Palace were pretty terrible most of the time and often he was the only thing that kept us in the game. When we played one of the bigger teams, the game was often just a succession of John Jackson saves. Brilliant player.”

Indeed, he was nicknamed ‘Stonewall’ Jackson (after the famous American Civil War Confederate general). Of his mentor Petchey, he said: “He used to work me hard but the harder you worked at your game the more you learned and the better you would become. He made me a more confident player.”

Unluckily for Jackson, it was an era when England were blessed with a string of fine goalkeepers. Apart from Gordon Banks, there was Gordon West (Blackpool and Everton), Jim Montgomery (Sunderland), Peter Bonetti (Chelsea) and, at under 23 level, Peter Grummitt was preferred.

The closest Jackson came to senior international recognition came on 17 March 1971 when he kept goal for a Football League XI that beat a Scottish League XI 1-0 at Hampden Park. Ralph Coates scored the only goal of the game and the English line up included World Cup winners Bobby Moore and Geoff Hurst. Playing in defence alongside Moore were Paul Reaney (Leeds), Roy McFarland (Derby) and Derek Parkin (Wolves).

Jackson’s reign between the sticks for Palace came to an end when flamboyant Malcolm Allison took over as manager. Palace fans were not happy. In the book We All Follow The Palace edited by Tony Matthews (Eagle Eye 1993), Keith Brody wrote: “When Jacko left us, it marked the end of an era, culturally as well as football-wise.

“It is oddly fitting that he was swept away with the same disrespect that has come to symbolise the generation that replaced his ilk. Even though we have plenty to thank Big Mal for, his treatment of our hero means it should always be done through clenched teeth.

“It would have been offensive if a loyal, but crap, goalkeeper had been replaced by Paul Hammond and Tony Burns, but to do it to Jacko was unthinkable.

“Watching the ineffective Hammond for three long years after the joys of Jackson was almost unbearable. Every game was spent pondering on the value of what we’d given away.”

It was on 16 October 1973 that Jackson followed his former coach Petchey to Orient for £25,000 (Gerry Queen, Phil Hoadley, Bill Roffey and David Payne were other ex-Palace players who made that switch) and at Bloomfield Road he went on to attract a whole new band of admirers. Indeed, in Tony McDonald’s book Orient in the 70s, Jackson is described as “Orient’s greatest ever goalkeeper”.

Palace did give Jackson a testimonial match, however, and on 11 December 1973, a Selhurst Park crowd of 11,628 turned out for a match opponents Chelsea won 3-1.

Orient were a second tier side throughout Jackson’s time at the club, during which they had some unsuccessful tilts at promotion but enjoyed some exciting FA Cup runs, including making it to the semi-final in 1978 before losing 3-0 to Arsenal.

Their run to the semis included a memorable fifth round replay win over Chelsea, with Jackson pulling off a superb save to deny Clive Walker an equaliser as Orient clung on to a 2-1 lead courtesy of two Peter Kitchen goals.

Jackson had taken over from Ray Goddard as Orient’s no.1 and it must have been a very happy Christmas for him when promotion contenders Orient beat Palace 3-0 at home on Boxing Day 1973 in front of a bumper crowd of 20,611.

Come the end of the season, they missed out on promotion by a single point to Carlisle United after failing to beat Aston Villa (it was 1-1) in front of another huge crowd of 29,766, and the LWT cameras for The Big Match.  Days earlier Villa had lost 2-0 at Carlisle for whom Graham ‘Tot’ Winstanley proved an able deputy for suspended captain Bill Green.

Another memorable game filmed for The Big Match saw Jackson concede three on 7 April 1979 when Albion were on their way to promotion from the Second Division. Orient took the lead at Brisbane Road but Brighton equalised thus: “Paul Clark cracked in a seemingly unstoppable shot, miraculously John Jackson parried the effort but only to Peter Sayer, and (pictured above) the little Welshman slammed the ball joyfully into the home goal,” the matchday programme recorded. The game eventually finished 3-3, Albion’s other goals coming from Martin Chivers (his only one for Brighton) and Clark.

Three years earlier, Orient were finalists in the rather curious Anglo-Scottish Cup tournament of that time: 16 English teams and eight Scottish sides played a mix of group stage games and two-legged knockout matches.

Orient topped their group above Norwich, Chelsea and Fulham; they beat Aberdeen 2-0 on aggregate in the quarter finals and Partick Thistle 4-2 in the semis. They eventually lost out 5-1 on aggregate to Nottingham Forest, but it was Brian Clough’s first piece of silverware as Forest manager, and he said in his biography: “Those who said it was a nothing trophy were absolutely crackers. We’d won something, and it made all the difference.”

In common with many other English players at the time, Jackson tried his luck in the United States and in 1977 played for St Louis Stars, returning in 1978 when they became Californian Surf. His head coach was John Sewell, who’d been a playing colleague at Crystal Palace and Orient. Ironically, his predecessor at St Louis was Bill Glazier, the former Coventry City ‘keeper, who’d also been his predecessor at Palace.

It was the arrival of former West Ham ‘keeper Mervyn Day at Brisbane Road that signalled the end of Jackson’s time in Leyton and, in August 1979, Petchey, who’d taken over from Gordon Jago as boss at Millwall, signed him for £7,500.

“I have been in the game too long to end it in the reserves and decided that if I was to finish playing, it would be in the first team,” Jackson told Football Weekly News.

The then Third Division Lions went on to win the league. Jackson played a total of 53 matches for them that season and he was chosen by his fellow professionals in the 1979-80 PFA team of the year. (Former Brighton winger Tony Towner played 50 games for Millwall that campaign and scored 13 goals)

After two years with Millwall, by a curious turn of events, Bobby Robson signed him for the previous season’s First Division runners up Ipswich Town as a back-up to Paul Cooper.

His one league appearance for Ipswich was in a top-of-the-table clash against Manchester United, with Ipswich needing to win to stay in with a chance of winning the League Championship. And they did, 2-1, with John Wark scoring both and John Gidman replying for United.

The game was played in front of a 25,763 crowd at Portman Road and Jackson was given a standing ovation at the end after he’d pulled off three important saves. Robson was quoted in the Guardian as saying: “We have paid him a year’s salary to make those saves, but it was worth it!”

However, while Ipswich finished the season five points ahead of United, they were once again runners up, finishing four points behind champions Liverpool.

Even a second placed finish was enough to convince the English FA to give Robson the job of replacing Ron Greenwood as England manager after the country’s unbeaten exit from the World Cup in Spain.

While Jackson might have thought his playing days were over, they weren’t quite. Frank Lord signed him for Fourth Division Hereford United. Lord wasn’t long in the job, though, and he was succeeded by the Bulls’ long-serving former ‘keeper Tommy Hughes, who had played on loan for Brighton in 1973.

Jackson’s move into goalkeeper coaching at Brighton under Cattlin was to prove a career-defining moment for another top goalkeeper of that era: former Manchester City custodian Joe Corrigan.

“I got talking to him and it inspired me to look into doing something similar,” Corrigan told the Manchester City matchday programme on 29 September 2018. “So, it was down to Brighton indirectly that I moved into the next phase of my career.”

Corrigan had been signed by Jimmy Melia and was coming to the end of his illustrious playing career. He fell out with Melia’s successor, Cattlin, and went on loan to Stoke City, but eventually was forced to quit after being injured in an Albion reserve match.

He went on to become goalkeeper coach at Liverpool for 10 years, and also worked at Stockport, West Brom and Hull.

Jackson took a variety of different jobs outside of football – fitting blinds, working for a golf magazine, selling golf equipment and as a courier for Lewes Council. During his second spell back at the Albion, amongst the youngsters he took through was goalkeeper Will Packham.

Jackson signed him on as a YTS trainee after he left Blatchington Mill School in Hove, and he spent nine years on the club’s books.

Irish midfield maestro’s arrival created buzz of excitement

AN AIR of excitement swept around the crumbling terraces of the Goldstone Ground when one of the finest midfield players of his generation became Brighton’s manager.

Liam Brady had been the darling of Highbury in the 1970s, won titles in Italy with Juventus and then brought the curtain down on a glorious playing career in three years with West Ham United.

After six years watching Brighton’s fortunes fluctuate under the low profile guidance of Barry Lloyd, fans who craved a return to the glory days of Alan Mullery’s first reign had great expectations when such a well-known footballing figure as Brady arrived at the Goldstone in December 1993.

But how did it come about? Brady’s first foray into management – at Glasgow giants Celtic – had not gone well and he was unemployed having resigned in early October.

With only four wins in 26 games, Lloyd’s near-seven-year reign at the Goldstone was in its final throes as autumn turned to winter, and in early December he was said to have left “by mutual consent”.

The managerial vacancy caught the eye of former Albion favourite – and Brady’s former Irish international teammate – Gerry Ryan, who’d been forced to retire from playing and was running a pub in Haywards Heath, and he got in touch.

“He asked if I’d be interested. I saw it as another part of my learning curve as a manager and was happy to take it,” said Brady.

Ryan was promptly installed as Brady’s assistant and before long he’d persuaded Jimmy Case to return to the Seagulls at the age of 39 (he’d been playing non-league for Sittingbourne) to bring experience to the battle against relegation and lend a hand on the coaching side.

Brady takes charge at the Albion

By a strange quirk of fate, the opponents for Brady’s first game in charge, Bradford City, were managed by his former Arsenal and Eire teammate, Frank Stapleton, who the following season he recruited for a couple of games.

Unlike the effect of Brian Clough’s arrival at the Goldstone 20 years previously, the gate for the Bradford match the Saturday before Christmas was only 6,535. Albion lost 1-0 but in the next four games, played over the course of 13 days, there were two wins and two draws. Steady improvement on the pitch was helped by the introduction on loan of two exciting youngsters from Brady’s old club Arsenal – firstly Mark Flatts and then Paul Dickov.

The threat of relegation lifted and, looking back, Brady said his favourite match in charge came on 6 April 1994.

“We beat Swansea 4-1 in an evening game towards the end of my first season, when we had (Paul) Dickov on loan in a very good partnership with Kurt Nogan,” he said.

“There was a real buzz that we were going to avoid relegation. The players believed the club was going places again, as we all did.”

At the start of the following season, Brady picked up two youngsters from Arsenal’s north London neighbours, Spurs, in lively forward Junior McDougald and midfielder Jeff Minton.

Right-back Peter Smith, who assistant manager Ryan had spotted playing in a non-league charity match, was brought on board and crowned his first season by being named player of the season.

Brady also brought in the former England international Mark Chamberlain, but the balance of the side remained youthful and, with money remaining tight, a mid-table finish was not entirely unexpected.

In a matchday programme article in 2015, Brady reflected on how relegation had been avoided against the ugly backdrop of what the directors were doing to the club (selling the ground with no new home to go to) and realised subsequently that he should have left at the end of that second season.

“I became aware that Bill Archer had no intention of taking the club forward, despite his public announcements to the contrary. I could tell that the club was going nowhere.

“Archer and Bellotti were winding the club down and it wasn’t right. But it wasn’t a case of me walking away. I was living in Hove, I had grown attached to the club, the fans, and feelings were running high.”

After 100 games in charge of the Seagulls, he quit in November 1995, handing the reins to Case, who was reluctant to take on the job.

Brady’s fondness for the club remained undiminished, though, and he was subsequently involved in Dick Knight’s consortium trying to wrestle control of the club out of Archer’s hands.

It had been planned that he would return as manager but as the negotiations dragged on he was offered the opportunity to return to Arsenal as head of youth development and couldn’t turn it down.

“I had a family to think about and it was a dream job for me. Dick understood, particularly as there were no guarantees with what was happening at the time at Brighton.”

The fact he had the Arsenal job for the following 25 years meant he probably made the right decision! Even after leaving that role, Brady retained his links with Arsenal by becoming an ambassador for the Arsenal Foundation.

Brady was born into a footballing family in Dublin on 13 February 1956 – a great uncle (Frank) and older brother, Ray, were internationals, older brother Frank played for Shamrock Rovers and another brother, Pat, played for Millwall and QPR.

Brady went to St Aidan’s Catholic Boys School but left at 15 in 1971 to join Arsenal after their chief scout, Gordon Clark, had spotted him and Stapleton playing for Eire Schoolboys.

A Goal magazine article of 7 October 1972 featured boss Bertie Mee talking about the pair as future first team players – even though they were only aged just 15 and 16.

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 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. “Liam’s got a very mature head on his shoulders. His maturity shows in his play.”

Brady became a professional at 17 in 1973 and made his debut in October that year as a substitute in a league game against Birmingham City. Mee used him sparingly that season and he picked up the nickname Chippy – not for any footballing prowess but for his liking of fish and chips!

Initially dovetailing with former World Cup winner Alan Ball in Arsenal’s midfield, he eventually took over as the key man in the centre of the park. He became a first team regular in 1974-75 and began to thrive when Terry Neill took over as manager with Don Howe returning to Arsenal as coach. In the second part of the decade, Brady was named the club’s player of the year three times and, in 1979, he won the prestigious Players’ Player of the Year title from the PFA.

Brady played in three successive FA Cup finals for Arsenal – in 1978,1979 and 1980 – winning the competition in the 1979 classic against Manchester United, courtesy of his driving run and pass to Graham Rix whose sublime cross from the left wing into the six-yard area allowed Alan Sunderland a simple tap-in for the winner.

Having lost to Ipswich Town the year before, it was Brady’s first trophy with the Gunners and he said: “It was just wonderful to experience being a Wembley winner. It’s something I’ll never forget.”

The opening game of the following season saw Brady line up for Arsenal at the Goldstone in Albion’s very first top level match.

There was nothing more likely to rile Arsenal than a former Spurs captain claiming beforehand what his team were going to do to the Gunners.

Arsenal promptly romped to a 4-0 win and Brady recalled: “Alan Mullery was shooting his mouth off. Brighton had arrived in the big time and were going to turn Arsenal over.

“Mullers was good at motivating players but he motivated us that day.

“We all thought it was going to be a hard game, but once we got the first goal we settled down and Brighton were in awe of us. I scored a penalty and we ran out comfortable winners.”

However, it was the start of Brady’s last season as an Arsenal player. The following May, Arsenal lost to Trevor Brooking’s headed goal for West Ham in the FA Cup Final and Arsenal also lost to Valencia in the Cup Winners’ Cup Final in a penalty shoot-out – Brady and Rix missing their spot kicks in Brussels.

Nevertheless, having played 307 games (295 starts + 12 as sub), arsenal.com recalls one of their favourite sons warmly: “Chippy had everything a midfielder could want – skill, vision, balance, strength, a powerful shot and the ability to glide past opponents at will.

“Like all great players he always had time on the ball and almost always chose the right option. On a football pitch, Brady’s brain and feet worked in perfect harmony.”

Brady moved on to Italy where he spent seven years, initially with Juventus, winning two Italian league titles and then with Sampdoria, Inter Milan and Ascoli. In his second season at Brighton, Brady had the Seagulls wearing the colours of Inter as their change kit – I still consider it to be the best the club has had.

As well as a highly successful club career, Brady won a total of 72 caps for his country. He made his Republic of Ireland debut on 30 October 1974 in a 3-0 home win over the Soviet Union and went on to win 72 caps for his country.

He retired from internationals ahead of qualification for the 1990 World Cup and, although he later made himself available for selection, manager Jack Charlton decided to choose only those who had helped Eire qualify for the finals.

Brady had returned to the UK in March 1987 to enjoy three years at West Ham in which he scored 10 goals in 119 appearances. His first somewhat ironically came against Arsenal while he reckoned his best was a 20-yarder past Peter Shilton that proved to be the winner in a league game against Derby County.

Brady explained the circumstances of his move to the Hammers in an interview with whufc.com. He nearly ended up joining Celtic instead, but he’d given his word to West Ham boss John Lyall and, because he’d retained an apartment in London, it made sense to return there.

Brady in action for West Ham at the Goldstone, faced by ex-Hammer, Alan Curbishley

In only his fourth West Ham game, he found himself up against Arsenal and was mobbed after netting the final goal in a 3-1 win at the Boleyn Ground.

“With ten minutes remaining, I won the ball on half-way before running to the edge of the 18-yard box, where I hit a low curler around David O’Leary and beyond Rhys Wilmott’s dive, into the bottom right-hand corner,” he said. “The place went wild! I certainly wasn’t going to just walk back to the centre-circle without celebrating my first goal for my new team.”

While the Hammers finished 15th that campaign, they were relegated in 1989 which brought about the departure of Lyall. Brady clearly didn’t see eye to eye with his successor, Lou Macari, but was pleased when he was replaced by Hammers legend Billy Bonds.

Brady eventually called time on his playing days in May 1990, Wolves and West Ham players lining up to give him a guard of honour as he took to the pitch for the final game of the season.

He was substitute that day but went on for Kevin Keen and rounded off his remarkable career by scoring in a 4-0 win.

“Having scored at the Boleyn Ground with my last-ever kick in professional football, I couldn’t have written a better script,” he told whufc.com.

After not making the move to Celtic as a player, his first step into management came at Celtic Park as successor to former club legend Billy McNeill in June 1991. He was the first manager not to have played for the Hoops.

It was a big step to take for a novice manager, and hindsight suggested the players he signed didn’t do him any justice. He later admitted: “I didn’t do particularly well as Celtic boss. Second place behind Rangers was seen as a failure and, even if you’ve had a good reputation as a player, it counts for little as a manager.”

Brighton (well, Hove actually) would prove to be as far from the cauldron of Glasgow as he could possibly get, but the club management game clearly didn’t suit Brady, and he didn’t take on any other senior managerial hotseats after the Seagulls.

Alongside his youth team responsibilities at Arsenal, he did assist his country’s national team between 2008 and 2010. He was assistant to Giovanni Trapattoni during his time in charge, also working alongside Brady’s former Juventus teammate Marco Tardelli.

Brady still lives in Sussex and he told whufc.com how he occasionally meets up with Billy Bonds at Plumpton Races and enjoys a round of golf with Trevor Brooking.

How the career of high rise Flatts came tumbling down

MARK FLATTS was destined for a glittering career after breaking into Arsenal’s first team when only eighteen.

It was the season when George Graham’s side finished in a disappointing 10th place in the league but won the League Cup and the FA Cup, beating Sheffield Wednesday in both competitions.

Flatts got seven starts plus four appearances off the bench and the following season, after he’d been troubled with a few injuries, Graham sent him out on loan to get some games under his belt.

His first loan was at Cambridge United, then in January 1994 Flatts joined forces with former Gunners legend Liam Brady at Brighton.

The former midfield maestro who’d graced the game at the highest level as a player had not long arrived at the Goldstone Ground, creating a buzz of anticipation amongst the largely disillusioned Albion faithful.

Brighton were bumping along around the foot of the third tier table when he arrived and it augured well that Brady could use his connections with his former club to secure the services of a prodigious young talent who’d already played a handful of matches in the Premier League.

He made his debut in a cracking 4-1 New Year’s Day home win over Cambridge United when Kurt Nogan scored a hat-trick and he was only on the losing side twice during his two months at the club, helping the Albion move away from the relegation zone.

Brady wrote about it in his autobiography Born To Be A Footballer, describing how “livewire” Flatts had heated up “a freezing Goldstone” on that debut day. “He’s a lovely young kid off the field but on the park there’s a strut about him. That’s exactly what we need. He’s full of tricks.”

Flatts started nine matches, came on as a sub once, and scored one of Albion’s goals in a 3-2 home win over Blackpool, but it was his skill on the ball and pace that fans enjoyed most.

After he had returned to Highbury, Brady thanked him for his contribution and said in his programme notes: “He gave the place a tremendous lift. He’s a very confident lad and he did us a real favour and hopefully he’s got something out of it as well. I think he has and I think he enjoyed his time with us.”

Flatts confirmed as much recently. Although he has kept a low profile for many years, in 2020, online from his home in Norfolk, he appeared in two podcasts talking about his career.

On the Shoot the Defence podcast in April 2020, Flatts talked admiringly of his time under Brady at Brighton – “He still had it in training” – as well as the experience of playing alongside senior pros Jimmy Case and Steve Foster at the Goldstone Ground.

“Loyal fans as well. It was a good time,” he said. “I got on well with the fans and a few of them still text me, so that’s nice. Liam Brady and Jimmy Case had seen me in a few games, said they wanted me on loan, and I went there and enjoyed it.”

Born in Islington on 14 October 1972 and brought up in Wood Green, Flatts played for Haringey Borough and Middlesex County school teams and he was playing for Enfield Rangers when he caught the eye of professional clubs.

He spent time training with Watford and West Ham, but his mum and older brother were Arsenal fans so, when they invited him to join them, it was no contest. The scout responsible for picking him up for the Gunners was the former Brighton wing-half, Steve Burtenshaw.

Flatts was one of the country’s top talented 14-year-olds who went through the FA National School of Excellence at Lilleshall before becoming a trainee at Highbury after graduating.

In the first edition of a new fans’ podcast Over and Over and Over Again on 20 August 2020, Flatts talked about how he, Andy Cole and Paul Dickov up front, Ray Parlour and Ian Selley in midfield, Scott Marshall at the back and Alan Miller in goal were all going through from youth team to reserves at the same time. “It was a good strong youth team,” he said. “Pat Rice was the youth team manager who brought us through. He was a good coach.”

Flatts signed professional in December 1990 and he progressed to the reserve side who were managed by another Arsenal legend, George Armstrong.

One particular reserve match stands out as memorable – but not because Flatts scored a goal in a 2-2 draw. Ordinarily, Flatts was accustomed to playing in front of a few hundred supporters for the second string, but on 16 February 1991 it’s reckoned more than 10,000 turned up.

The Ovenden Papers Football Combination game against Reading was originally scheduled to be an away fixture but freezing conditions meant the game was swapped to Highbury because it had undersoil heating.

The reason for the surge of interest was the match saw the return to playing of Tony Adams after his release from prison, having served half of his four-month sentence for drink driving. The amazing response of the Arsenal faithful was remembered in this football.london article in February 2018.  

Often niggled by injuries, Flatts was sidelined by one he hadn’t even been aware of, other than what felt like a small discomfort. “I got a stress fracture on my ankle and was playing on it for a month without realising,” he said.

Physio Gary Lewin arranged for him to see a Harley Street specialist and it was only after he was put through tests on a running machine that the problem was diagnosed. The injury required surgery that put him out of action for over a year.

Flatts got his first real involvement with the first team on a pre-season tour of Norway ahead of the 1992-93 season, getting on as a substitute against Stabaek and Brann Bergen. He was a non-playing sub in two subsequent pre-season friendlies away to Wolves and Peterborough.

It was back to reserve team football at the start of the season but Graham selected him to travel with the squad for an away game at Sheffield United on 19 September and he made his competitive debut as a 71st minute substitute for Anders Limpar, shortly before Ian Wright netted an equaliser for the Gunners.

His next involvement came in a third round League Cup encounter with Derby County. He was a non-playing sub in the away tie but started in Limpar’s place for the replay on 1 December 1992, when Arsenal edged it 2-1.

Flatts (right) celebrates Arsenal’s League Cup win with some familiar faces

He kept his place for the league game which followed four days later but was subbed off as Arsenal lost 1-0 at Southampton.

At one point, the Islington Gazette declared Flatts, Neil Heaney, Parlour and Dickov as the “next crop of Arsenal starlets who will take the club forward”.

As the year drew to a close, on 19 December, Flatts earned rave reviews for his showing in a 1-1 home draw against Lennie Lawrence’s Middlesbrough.

“It’s very unusual to have a quick player with a brain,” said manager Graham. “Mark has skill but he also has the application to go with it.”

Writing about how brightly Flatts shone in the game, Trevor Haylett, of the Independent, said: “He possesses an easy and deceptive running style which frequently carried him away from markers, and has a confidence that few of his colleagues shared in a desultory first 45 minutes.”

Haylett observed: “The problem for Graham is that his most productive line-up, with Merson in the ‘hole’ to distribute and ghost into scoring areas, leaves no room for Flatts, who amply justified his manager’s contention that he has a ‘very big future in the game’.”

Flatts kept his place for the following match, a goalless Boxing Day home draw against Ipswich Town, and was back on the bench away to Aston Villa three days later but came on for the second half in a game Arsenal lost 1-0.

The game he remembers most fondly came just over a fortnight later away to Manchester City at Maine Road. He sped past two players and crossed it for Paul Merson to score with a near post header that gave Arsenal a 1-0 win.

But competition for places was intense and he didn’t next get a start until 1 March against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, another game that finished goalless.

He had to wait until May for his next involvement, as a sub in a 1-0 defeat away to Sheffield Wednesday, who his teammates would play twice in the space of five days later that month to win the FA Cup on penalties, both games having ended in draws.

With the first of those matches only four days away, Graham put out a young side to face Spurs in the last league game of the season, and Flatts was part of a side who lost the north London derby 3-1, Dickov getting the Arsenal goal.

After his loan spell at Brighton, Flatts got back into the first team picture at Arsenal towards the end of the 1993-94 season, featuring in three successive league games: as a sub in a 1-1 draw with Wimbledon and starting in a 2-1 win at Villa and a 1-1 home draw against QPR.

While he travelled to Copenhagen with the squad for the European Cup Winners’ Cup Final on 4 May 1994, he didn’t play in the Gunners’ 1-0 win.

Flatts wasn’t back in the Arsenal first team set-up until December 1994, when he had a four-game spell, starting in a 2-2 draw away to Nottingham Forest, being a non-playing sub away to Manchester City and then coming on as a sub in a 3-1 defeat at home to Leeds on 17 December and in the goalless Boxing Day home match with Aston Villa.

He came off the bench in a third round FA Cup replay defeat to Millwall on 18 January 1995 but the following month the manager who had supported his development was sacked, and the young wideman went out on loan to Bristol City.

Flatts didn’t reckon much of the man management skills of Graham’s temporary successor, Stewart Houston, but it was the manager who eventually succeeded him who showed the youngster the door.

“Bruce Rioch took over, and said: ‘No, you’re not good enough’ and that was it,” Flatts recalled. He had another short loan spell, this time at Grimsby Town, in the 1995-96 season, but when his contract was up in 1996, he was given a free transfer.

When Flatts left the famous marble halls of Highbury, all that early promise rapidly evaporated and despite a handful of trials at several clubs, his career fizzled out, the player admitting he fell out of love with the game.

Initially, he headed off to Italy to try his luck with Torino in Serie B. He said while he enjoyed his few months there, a limit on the number of foreign players who could play at any one time edged him out of the picture.

According to arseweb.com, back in the UK he had trial periods with Manchester City (September 1996) and Watford (October 1986), although the scathing Hornets fans website, Blind, Stupid and Desperate has a less than flattering summary of his efforts to impress at Vicarage Road. He was briefly at Kettering Town in December 1996, then Barnet (1997-98 pre-season) and Colchester United (1999-00 pre-season) but none of them took him on.

Former Arsenal striker Martin Hayes, manager at Ryman League Division One side Bishop’s Stortford, signed him during the 1999-00 season.

And his last appearance on a team-sheet was as an unused substitute for Queens Park Rangers in a 2000-01 pre-season 4-2 away defeat at Dr Martens League Premier Division side Crawley Town.

Flatts told host Richie Wakelin on Over and Over and Over Again that he kept on picking up niggling injuries too regularly. “With fitness concerns, I just lost interest,” he said. “I ain’t got no regrets. I loved it at Arsenal. I loved playing football. George Graham had faith in me and he gave me a go.”

He said his teenage son and daughter both play football and he has done some coaching at a local level and has considered setting up his own coaching school. He has also done some scouting work for Cambridge United and Norwich City.

Flatts looks back at his football career during a 2020 podcast

Pictures from Albion’s matchday programmes and various online sources.

‘Talent in his boots and balance sheets in his briefcase’

ROBERT CODNER, Brighton’s first black captain in the early ‘90s, was an enigma for plenty of managers throughout his playing days but, by his own admission, the much-maligned Barry Lloyd got the best out of him.

A dynamic midfielder with a terrific shot in his locker, Codner made way more appearances for the Albion than any other club he went to and his attachment to the Seagulls continued into the modern era when he was Solly March’s agent.

Of Lloyd, he told Albion’s matchday programme: “Barry Lloyd was good for me and I don’t think he gets the acknowledgement he deserves as he steered the club through some difficult times. I know I had my moments on and off the pitch, but he always stood by me and backed me all the way.”

Born in Walthamstow on 23 January 1965, nearby Tottenham Hotspur were Codner’s first club and, although he featured in their youth team alongside future first-teamers Ian Crook, Mark Bowen and Tony Parks, he didn’t take the next step with them.

“It is very difficult to come through at White Hart Lane, they always seemed keener to go and buy someone than risk a youngster,” Codner told Shoot! magazine.

And in a matchday programme interview with Dave Beckett, he said: “At 18, Tottenham told me that they wouldn’t put me on a professional contract, so I ended up at Leicester under Gordon Milne for about 18 months.

“I never managed to make a break into the first team which I thought I deserved, and that’s why I left in the end.”

In a slightly different telling of the story, he said: “At the end of my contract he (Milne) didn’t offer me another one which was a bitter disappointment. I felt let down and was disillusioned with the game.”

After a spell working on a building site, he tried to get fixed up with Luton Town but their manager, David Pleat, urged him to get experience playing non-League football while they kept tabs on him.

“That’s why I joined Dagenham for four or five months, but I didn’t particularly like it there, so when Barnet offered me a good deal and Luton said they couldn’t top it, I switched clubs,” he said.

His form for Barnet brought him selection for the England semi-professional side; Wimbledon showed some interest but in a pre-season game in August 1988, as a triallist for Millwall, he played against the Albion.

Brighton boss Lloyd was sufficiently impressed that he was prepared to fork out what at the time seemed like an amazing sum of £115,000 for a non-league player to give him another chance to make it as a professional. (Only a matter of days previously, Lloyd paid the same sum to secure the services of centre back Nicky Bissett from Barnet).

The ebullient Barry Fry, Barnet manager at the time, said: “Codner is a super athlete with two good feet, pace and an ability to score goals.”

The conundrum at the time was that away from football Codner had begun to pursue a successful career in the City, having turned the tables on a would-be finance salesman suggesting he could do a better job.

The salesman’s employers agreed and Codner was suddenly thrust into the world of advising on unit trusts, pensions, mortgages and insurance.

It prompted a description of him in that Shoot! article as the ‘City whizz-kid with talent in his boots and balance sheets in his briefcase’.

In an interview with John Vinicombe in the Argus, Codner denied he was not utterly dedicated to playing.

“That is not so,” he said. “I’m more dedicated because I choose to play. I always believed I would get a second chance after what happened at Leicester, and Brighton have given me that chance.

“Players have to look ahead, and, ten years from now, I want to be comfortably off.

“Of course, I’m ambitious. I want to be a millionaire as a footballer and be a millionaire financial consultant too.

“I’m lucky because I don’t have football as the be all and end all, I play because that’s what I enjoy doing.”

He added: “People may ridicule me sometimes for carrying on in business as well, but a lot of footballers end up on the scrapheap; I’m determined not to be one of them.

“Having been given a second bite of the cherry, I’ll make sure I don’t end up with nothing.”

His time with the Seagulls was certainly not a smooth ride, however, and even the club’s own mouthpiece – ie the matchday programme – said: “His time at the Goldstone has not been without controversy. Earlier this season he failed to report on time for the game at West Bromwich Albion.

“At the beginning of the season the manager said he was hoping that Robert would be one of those players who, having benefited from the experience of more than a season in the league, would play a prominent part in the club’s performances this campaign. However, he is still striving to reach a high level of consistency and his name has now been circulated to other clubs as being available for transfer.”

A retrospective article in a subsequent matchday programme also didn’t spare the midfielder’s feelings. “Codner made an immediate impact and went on to score some brilliant goals, but his relationship with the supporters, like his form, eventually blew hot and cold.

“Several clubs were interested in Codner during his time with the Albion, including West Ham, who were reported to have bid £500,000 for the player in 1991.”

Codner was almost a permanent fixture in the no.10 shirt as Albion reached the 1990-91 end-of-season play-offs with the chance to return to the top tier. He scored in both the home and away semi-final legs against Millwall as the Seagulls guaranteed a place in the Wembley final v Notts County with a 6-2 aggregate win.

After the disappointment of losing 3-1 to Neil Warnock’s County, Codner said: “We’d put in so much to get to the final and unfortunately we didn’t really turn up when it mattered most. We had phenomenal support that day at Wembley but it just didn’t happen for us.”

Albion began to implode financially and were relegated at the end of the next season. Codner was still a mainstay of the midfield, though, making more appearances than any other player, and it was a spot he shared with Mark Beeney and Gary Chivers in the 1992-93 campaign.

Perhaps it was fitting that both Codner and Bissett should be the scorers in the first game after Lloyd parted company with the Albion (Martin Hinshelwood was in temporary charge). Bissett’s 89th-minute goal salvaged a point in a 2-2 draw at Hartlepool on 11 December 1993 but Albion supporter The Groundhog remembered Codner’s 54th-minute goal for the Seagulls thus: “You can’t not love a guy who, at Hartlepool’s Victoria Ground in 1993, while the away fans were shielding themselves from freezing sideways daggers of rain blowing in off the North Sea onto the exposed corner terrace, unleashes a 35-yard thunderbolt thwang-er-wang-er-wanging off the underside of the bar to score. You just can’t.”

While Codner appeared in new manager Liam Brady’s first game in charge, a 1-0 defeat at home to Bradford City, his off-field demons caught up with him when he had to serve three weeks in Lewes Prison for driving offences.

Codner was restored to the side towards the end of January and retained his place through to the end of the season.

A subsequent matchday programme noted: “He emerged from prison a more focused player, but, after an alleged bust-up with (Liam) Brady, was dropped in early 1995 and then released at the end of the season.”

Although Codner had been a regular under Brady in the first half of the 1994-95 season, he didn’t play for the first team again after being part of the side thrashed 4-0 at Crewe Alexandra on 14 January. Brady maintained in his programme notes: “The attitude on the day was not what we were looking for and that’s what contributed largely to losing as badly as we did.”

After finally leaving the Albion with more than 260 appearances for the club under his belt, Codner popped up at a multitude of clubs subsequently (Wikipedia lists 17 he was associated with), playing a handful of games for Reading, Peterborough and Southend United, and having a slightly longer spell back at Barnet in the 1996-97 season.

Codner now operates his own Epsom-based football agency, RC Ballers Ltd.

Transfer makeweight Storer became all-time Seagulls hero

STUART Storer cemented his place in Brighton’s history when he scrambled home a last-gasp winner in the final ever home game at the Goldstone Ground.

When a seemingly goal-bound header from Mark Morris bounced off the south stand end’s crossbar, fortunately it fell into the path of the onrushing Storer who managed to scramble it over the line among a sea of flailing Doncaster Rovers legs.

That moment on 26 April 1997 is often brought up with Storer via media interviews or simply when bumping into Brighton fans while on his travels. The goal is featured in the pre-match video montage shown on the TV screens at the Amex, so it has been seen by various generations of fans.

“I’m proud that people hold me in so much esteem and I’m very fortunate to be part of the club’s history,” Storer told Brighton & Hove Independent in an April 2017 interview. “Younger people that I teach watch the video and take the Mickey but they’ll never kill my pride. I’m very proud of that moment.”

Storer provided the photographers with plenty of action shots

The goal ensured a vital three points were secured in the fight to avoid relegation from the lowest tier in the Football League. In the one remaining game the following week, Albion managed to get the point needed to stay up while simultaneously relegating Hereford United.

Those crucial matches were just two of more than 150 games Storer played for the Albion under six different managers during an extraordinarily turbulent time for the club.

It was, though, a rather curious playing career all round that saw some of the game’s biggest names – Liam Brady, Alan Ball, Howard Kendall and Ron Saunders – sign him for their clubs. And he carried on playing until he was 42.

In 2006 and 2007, he was part of Everton’s Masters’ six-a-side team in the televised tournament featuring veteran players. Storer’s teammates included the likes of Neville Southall, Adrian Heath and Alan Harper.

Storer had been at Goodison Park the last time the Toffees were the English league champions. However, he didn’t make a first team appearance, invariably being the 13th man in the days when there was only one substitute.

He’d arrived on Merseyside as a transfer makeweight in a £300,000 deal Kendall struck with Birmingham City to sign Wolverhampton-born striker Wayne Clarke – the youngest of five brothers who played league football.

Clarke’s former club, Wolves, were convinced Storer had been included in the deal simply to lower the sell-on amount they were due as part of a previous agreement.

Clarke scored five goals in 10 games – including a hat-trick in a 3-0 win over Newcastle United on Easter Monday – to help Everton win the League Championship. Storer had made only 12 appearances for City in three years so his chances of making an impact with the title-chasers were slim.

Although Storer was on Everton’s books for nine months, he never crossed the white line for the first team and went on loan to Wigan Athletic, making his debut on the opening day of the 1987-88 season in a 4-4 draw away to Notts County (Garry Birtles scored two of County’s goals).

Storer was no stranger to a 4-4 draw. He played in two for Albion in 1997 – on 8 March at home to Orient and on Boxing Day later the same year when they drew at Priestfield against Colchester United (Paul Emblen got a hat-trick for the Seagulls).

Storer started nine games for the Latics and came on as a sub three times under Ray Matthias but they didn’t have the funds for a permanent transfer. Instead, the loan was cut short and, on Christmas Eve 1987, Everton sold him to then Fourth Division Bolton Wanderers for £25,000. He scored his first goal for the Trotters four days later in a 2-1 home win over Stockport County.

He enjoyed seven seasons at Burnden Park as they progressed from the basement division to the third tier under former Liverpool and England full-back Phil Neal.

His time with the Trotters included two trips to Wembley. He was a late substitute in the Wanderers side captained by Phil Brown who beat Torquay United 4-1 in to win the Sherpa van Trophy in 1989. And he was a starter in the Wanderers side who lost the 1991 Third Division play-off final to Tranmere Rovers.

Having broken an ankle and seen Neal switch to become Steve Coppell’s assistant manager at Manchester City, Storer was sold to Exeter City in March 1993 by Neal’s successor Bruce Rioch. Storer made 177 appearances for Bolton, but Rioch’s signing of David Lee had signalled the beginning of the end of his time there.

It was former World Cup winner Ball, then boss of Exeter City, who paid £25,000 for Storer’s services. He made 75 appearances (plus two as a sub) for the Grecians, initially under Ball and then his successor, former Leeds and England left-back Terry Cooper in the 1994-95 season.

Financial problems at the Devon club led to his departure. Early negotiations with a view to a transfer to Brighton initially broke down but Brady finally managed to secure his services for £15,000 in March 1995.

Ironically, he then suffered an injury during his first day’s training with the Seagulls, delaying his first appearance until 29 April. But it was memorable as he scored in a 3-3 draw away to his former club, Birmingham.

He recalled in a March 2019 interview with Michael Walker for the Daily Mail: “I was in an untenable situation at Exeter because they were going into administration. I had to get out. It was from the frying pan into the fire.”

However, Storer said, at the time he signed, he was unaware of the tensions going on around the Albion, although he knew he was the first player signed after a transfer embargo had been lifted. Not for the first time in the club’s history, fans dipped into their pockets to help buy the player.

“I think the fans just wanted to buy a player, any player, and they chipped in,” said Storer.

Born in the village of Harborough Magna, just north of Rugby, on 16 January 1967, he was raised in the village of Dunchurch, just south of Rugby, attending its local junior school before moving on to Bilton High School, where his footballing ability was recognised with selection in the Rugby Boys and Warwickshire Boys representative sides.

Wolverhampton Wanderers scout John Jarman spotted him and he went along to Molineux during the Ian Greaves managerial reign. When a takeover at Wolves saw Jarman and Greaves depart for Mansfield Town, they took the young Storer on as a trainee at Field Mill.

He began playing for their youth side but he was given his Mansfield first team debut aged only 16 in a 4-0 win over Hartlepool.

Storer and Julian Dicks at Birmingham City

Released after only a year with the Stags, he was offered another chance to build a league career by Birmingham who he joined in July 1984, initially signing as a trainee and then becoming a professional. But after limited first team opportunities at St Andrews, Saunders’ successor, John Bond, sold him to Everton as part of the Clarke transfer.

After Storer’s crucial part in keeping Albion in the League, he remained at the club until 1999, playing a total of 152 games and being part of the side who had to spend two years playing home games at Gillingham.

He moved back to Warwickshire on the day the Seagulls played their first friendly at Withdean on 24 July 1999,signing for Southern League Premier Division side Atherstone United, but he was only there for two months before moving to Kettering Town, who were playing in the Football Conference, the tier just below the Football League.

In May 2000, Storer signed for Isthmian League Premier Division side Chesham United and spent a season with them, before moving nearer to his Midlands base and signing for Hinckley United in March 2001.

Storer was made club captain, and as he approached his late 30s, he got more involved with coaching. At the age of 40, Storer was a member of the Hinckley team that achieved their highest ever league position of fourth in the Conference North, losing in the play-off final to deny them promotion.

After eight seasons, he had made more than 300 appearances for the part-timers of Hinckley while working as a PE teacher at various colleges in Coventry.

Storer continued to play until he was 42 and since 2013 has managed Bedworth United, where he is still in charge and also runs academies for boys and girls and A Level courses. He said: “I played until I was 42 at Hinckley in the Conference and then my legs gave way and I had to do something else in football.”

There’s a Michael Portillo style to Storer’s attire here and he admitted in a matchday programme article to having a penchant for “having a bizarre choice in clothing” as well as being an avid collector of hats.

‘Film star’ defender Osman’s cameo role for the Seagulls

RUSSELL OSMAN achieved lifelong fame for his appearance in the much-shown 1981 prisoner of war football film Escape to Victory but 17 appearances for Brighton in the latter stages of his career have largely been forgotten.

A cultured central defender who played in the same side as Jimmy Case at Southampton won 11 England caps at the peak of his game when a key part of Bobby Robson’s Ipswich Town side of the early 1980s.

He was 36 by the time he arrived on a monthly contract at third-tier Albion in September 1995 and what was happening on the pitch at that time was largely overshadowed by events off it.

News was emerging that the Goldstone Ground had been sold, leading to manager Liam Brady quitting in disgust in November 1995, passing on the reins to Case, who very reluctantly took on the job.

With Steve Foster and Stuart Munday struggling with injury, Brady brought in the experienced Osman to play alongside Paul McCarthy. His debut came in a 4-1 Auto Windscreens Shields game away to Cambridge United, the first of 12 successive games before Munday returned towards the end of November when Osman picked up a hamstring injury.

Meanwhile, Case pointed out in his first programme notes as manager, for the FA Cup game at home to Fulham on 14 December: “There is no secret he would still like to get back into management and we are happy to leave his position as it is on a month-to-month basis.”

Osman was back in the side for the 1-0 Boxing Day win away to Brentford and kept his place for the next two matches. But with Ross Johnson taking on the no.5 shirt, Osman got only one more start: in a 0-0 draw away to Hull City. He made one appearance as a sub in place of McCarthy and was twice a non-playing sub. As he turned 37, he took the opportunity to switch to Cardiff City, which, as the match day programme noted, was a lot closer to his Bristol home.

Born on 14 February 1959 in Repton, Derbyshire, Osman eventually followed in his dad Rex’s footsteps in becoming a professional footballer (Osman senior played for Derby County in the ‘50s), but it was rugby at which Russell excelled during schooldays at Burton on Trent Grammar. So much so that he played for England at under 15 level and captained his country as an under 16.

However, the sports-mad youngster also played football for his village team and when they reached the final of the Derby & District Cup, he was watched by Bobby Robson’s brother Tom, who lived in the area. “He came down and watched the game, we won the final and the next thing I knew I had a call from Ipswich to go on trial,” Osman said in an interview with the East Anglian Daily Times. “The rest is history. They were very good at getting kids to go on trial and they went that extra mile to make sure we were looked after and treated well.”

Osman recalls many aspects and anecdotes of his career on a blog, Golf, Football and Life, and he said he would be forever grateful for the dedication shown by Ipswich’s youth team coach, Charlie Woods, who became Robson’s right-hand man throughout his career.

“Charlie used to drive from Ipswich to my dad’s pub in Repton on a Friday to pick me up and take me back down to Ipswich, putting me up for the night in his and Pat’s house, just so that I could make the game on a Saturday morning,” he wrote. “I doubt that you would get many coaches who would make an eight-hour round trip just to get a schoolboy to a game.”

Osman became an apprentice at Portman Road in July 1975 and signed on as a professional in March 1976. Eventually, he and Terry Butcher took over the centre back roles previously filled by Northern Ireland international Allan Hunter and England international Kevin Beattie.

Osman in action for Ipswich against Arsenal’s Liam Brady, later to become his boss at Brighton

The 1980-1981 season was certainly momentous in Osman’s life. He played in 66 matches (including four for England) over the course of the season as Ipswich won the UEFA Cup, finished runners-up in the old First Division and reached the semi-finals of the FA Cup.

For a large part of the season, Town looked like they would win the First Division title for the first time since 1962 under Alf Ramsey but only three wins from the last 10 matches meant they had to settle for second place, four points behind Aston Villa.

At the end of the season, Robson asked the squad if any of them fancied spending the summer playing more football to help make a feature film. Osman and teammates John Wark, Kevin O’Callaghan, Robin Turner, Laurie Sivell, Paul Cooper and Beattie jumped at the chance and spent five weeks in Budapest making Escape to Victory, directed by the legendary John Huston.

The Escape to Victory football team which featured Osman (back, left)

Osman played the part of prison camp inmate Doug Clure and he has since talked and written about the experience, in July 2021 remembering the experience in an interview with a BBC reporter. Osman recounts how the Ipswich lads and other professionals such as Bobby Moore, Pelé, Mike Summerbee and Ossie Ardiles played football scenes alongside established actors Michael Caine and Sylvester Stallone.

Beattie was Caine’s ‘double’ in the football scenes and Cooper helped Stallone with goalkeeping skills. Turner and Sivell played for the German team and Osman, Wark and O’Callaghan had speaking roles.

“Michael was brilliant, he made all the lads feel at home on set by telling a few funny stories and taking all the tension out of the situation,” said Osman. “I managed to deliver my lines and we were off and running, literally.”

Osman’s first international football recognition came for England under 21s in February 1979 as a substitute for Billy Gilbert in a 1-0 win over Wales at Swansea. In September the same year, he got his first start at that level alongside his Ipswich teammate Butcher (in a 1-0 win over Denmark at Vicarage Road).

The first of Osman’s 11 full England caps came on 31 May 1980, in a 2-1 win v Australia in Sydney which was the game in which Peter Ward made his one and only appearance for the full England side, appearing as an 82nd minute substitute for Alan Sunderland.

Osman was 21 at the time and he went on to play in five competitive matches and five more friendlies, rather curiously only playing for his country on home soil three times, and only being on the winning side twice, both times against Australia.

Osman did make a couple of appearances for the England B side: on 26 March 1980 he played in a 1-0 win over Spain at Roker Park, Sunderland (Joe Corrigan was in goal) and later the same year, on 14 October, he was in the B team that beat the USA 1-0 at Old Trafford.

He had been in Ron Greenwood’s provisional squad of 40 for the 1982 World Cup but was not included in the final 22, Albion’s Foster getting the nod instead as reserve centre back.

Osman’s last international was on 21 September 1983, when England lost 1-0 to Denmark in a Euro 1984 qualifier, by which time his former club manager Robson had taken over from Greenwood, who’d given Osman his first six caps.

Although Ipswich challenged at the top of the First Division in 1981-82, they once again finished four points behind the champions, this time Liverpool, and after Robson left to take on the England manager’s job, the side was gradually broken up. Osman and Eric Gates both left in 1985.

After making 385 appearances for Town, Osman signed for Leicester City for £240,000 where he played 120 games under three different managers: Gordon Milne, Bryan Hamilton and David Pleat.

When the Foxes dropped down to the second tier, it was Southampton, and manager Chris Nicholl, who gave Osman – at 29 – the chance to play at the top level again.

A tribunal-determined fee of £325,000 took him to The Dell where he made his debut in the opening match of 1988-89, a 4-0 win over West Ham. He initially partnered Kevin Moore at the heart of their defence, then later Neil Ruddock.

“At Southampton I played just behind the great Jimmy Case, and what an experience that was,” Osman recalled. “Every day there would be something that made you smile about playing with Jimmy; well, it did if he was on your side anyway. Hard as a rock, cute and clever as a footballer, better than people gave him credit for, a wonderful passer of the ball. Sometimes his playing ability was overshadowed by his extravagances off the pitch!”

The Southampton FC player archive enthusiastically records Osman’s time with the Saints, which was largely successful at first. With Alan Shearer, Rod Wallace and Matt Le Tissier scoring the goals, the side finished seventh in the table. But they couldn’t sustain that success the following season and Nicholl was sacked. Writer Duncan Holley on sporting-heroes.net recalled: “One of the manager’s last actions had been to sanction the signing of Jon Gittens from Swindon and Russell had been displaced for the final run in.”

Nicholl’s successor, Ian Branfoot, picked Osman at left-back for the opening four games of the 1991-92 season but, as Osman told Ian Carnaby in a 2007 interview: “The day Ian Branfoot walked through the door, my Southampton career was over. All those years I’d been a centre-half, but he thought I’d make a good left-back.”

Osman joined Bristol City on loan initially before making the move permanent for a £60,000 fee, and he put down roots in the city. After about a year as a player, manager Jimmy Lumsden was sacked and Osman, as a senior player, was asked to take temporary charge.

However, Denis Smith, sacked as Sunderland boss in December 1991, took over at City in March 1992, with Osman named player-assistant manager. In a 2020 Facebook interview, Osman somewhat sharply said: “Denis Smith didn’t last too long because he wasn’t a very good manager, so they offered me the job.”

That happened in January 1993 and he remained in the manager’s chair at Ashton Gate just short of two years. He steered City to mid-table finishes in 1993 and 1994.

A look through City fans’ forum One Team In Bristol (otib.co.uk) reveals mixed opinions about Osman’s time in charge although some believed he was dealt a raw hand by the Ashton Gate hierarchy. It was said he was dismissed after the directors called him in and said they wanted European football within 10 years. Under Osman’s successor, Joe Jordan (appointed in November 1994), the Robins were relegated.

One significant highlight from Osman’s City reign was leading them to a shock 1-0 win at Anfield in a FA Cup third round replay in January 1994, a result which brought an end to Graeme Souness’ time as Liverpool manager.

Hailed as “the class of ‘94 etching their names into the club’s roll of honour” the achievement was apparently masterminded in the club’s canteen a few days earlier when Osman and his assistant Tony Fawthrop decided to deploy Brian Tinnion just behind the strikers instead of out wide, and he ended up scoring the only goal of the game.

After Osman’s departure from Ashton Gate, his next stop was Plymouth Argyle, where his old Ipswich teammate Steve McCall was a key player in Peter Shilton’s side.

When Shilton left, McCall took charge of the Pilgrims for two months as temporary player-manager, then Osman took over the running of the side for the last few weeks of the season. However, because of an ongoing legal case with Bristol City, Osman couldn’t be given the title manager or receive payment. He was known as ‘adviser of team affairs’. The arrangement didn’t last, though, because Argyle appointed Neil Warnock as manager that summer.

It was three months later that Osman took up Brady’s offer of a return to playing with Brighton. After moving on from the Goldstone in February 1996, Osman signed for Cardiff City as a player.

Team manager Phil Neal left to become Steve Coppell’s assistant at Manchester City in October 1996, director of football Kenny Hibbitt took charge for a month, then Osman ran the side for a month. He took the managerial reins in time for a first-round FA Cup clash with non-league Hendon. The Bluebirds made hard work of a 2-0 win, but earned a second-round tie against Gillingham, which they lost 2-0.

Osman remained working under Hibbitt until January 1998 when, according to one observer, he “departed due to draw fatigue” (over the season, City drew an astonishing 23 matches out of 46, only winning nine times) and was replaced by the returning Frank Burrows.

Direct involvement in the game has since been sporadic. He and Kevan Broadhurst were appointed as caretaker managers of Bristol Rovers until the end of the season on 22 March 2004 but they were only in charge for just over a month as former Oxford United boss Ian Atkins was appointed manager on 26 April.

Three years later, former Southampton teammate Paul Tisdale recruited Osman as interim assistant manager and, between February 2011 and August 2013 he was assistant academy coach back at Ipswich when ex-Albion striker Sammy Morgan was the academy manager.

Osman had a hand in Ipswich taking on Tyrone Mings. Mings was playing for the same non-league Chippenham team as Osman’s son Toby and Osman senior recommended him to Town boss Mick McCarthy, as he explained to the East Anglian Daily Times.

After he left Ipswich, Osman embarked on a co-commentator / pundit career covering Indian football, initially working alongside the veteran commentator John Helm. It involved travelling extensively in India although he was latterly based in a Mumbai studio – until Covid-19 restrictions intervened.

One brief hiatus to that career came in the summer of 2015 when he was invited by his old Ipswich defensive partner, Butcher, to be his assistant at Newport County. Unfortunately, the partnership was short-lived. They were sacked just a few months into the new season after a string of poor results.

Pundit Osman meets up with ex-Albion boss Steve Coppell, boss of Kerala Blasters

Aside from sharing his views on Indian football, ever the all-round sportsman Osman is a keen golfer, cyclist and runner, and espouses the energy and recovery powers of a juicing diet, having fresh vegetable juice and fruit juice smoothies every day.

Osman uses his blog to cover a variety of topics, he has 5,100 followers on Twitter, and, during lockdown in 2020, took part in an interesting online interview with India-based The View and Reviews Show.

Osman shares thoughts about his career and the wider game in an online interview

“I have worked in the media for 20 years now,” Osman said in an interview for Kings of Anglia magazine. “I worked for Eurosport, starting prior to the Euro 2000 championships and I go a long way back with them and the BBC. I also started working in India through a contact I made at Eurosport about 15 years ago.”

Pictures from a variety of online sources, and matchday programmes.

‘Genuine football man who turned people’s lives around’

George Petchey twice stepped up from backroom man to Albion caretaker manager

THE FORMER Orient and Millwall manager who introduced Laurie Cunningham to the football world was twice caretaker boss of Brighton ten years apart.

George Petchey, once a player then coach at Crystal Palace, was assistant manager to Chris Cattlin in the mid ‘80s and returned to Brighton in the ‘90s as youth development manager under Liam Brady, before becoming no.2 to Jimmy Case.

Working for the Albion was certainly geographically convenient for Petchey because, even when he played, coached or managed in London, he lived in Southwick.

Petchey first arrived at the Albion in 1983 to take charge of youth development and, as described by wearebrighton.com, was the man responsible for introducing Ian Wright on trial, having been impressed when the future Arsenal and England star had tried to begin his career at Millwall, where Petchey was manager between January 1978 and November 1980.

It’s now part of football folklore that Albion rejected Wright and Cattlin opted to take on another triallist, Steve Penney, instead. Meanwhile, in November 1984, Petchey was promoted to assist the relatively inexperienced Cattlin with the first team.

Although he was seen as a figure in the background, a profile article in the matchday programme gave a little insight into his approach.

“I can’t understand people who earn a living from football and still criticise the game,” he told interviewer Tony Norman. “I’ve been involved with it since the age of 14 and I wouldn’t change a thing.

“Molly (his wife) and I have met a lot of good people. We’ve loved the game and it has been good to us. No complaints.”

When Cattlin was sacked in April 1986, Petchey stepped up to manage the side for the final game of the season (a 2-0 defeat away to Hull City) before Alan Mullery returned as boss.

Petchey’s second stint at the Albion began in January 1994, shortly after Brady had been appointed as manager. With finances perilous during that time, bringing through youngsters was seen as an important route and Petchey was appointed to oversee that side of things.

In explaining the appointment, Brady wrote in his programme notes: “I don’t think there are many better in their field than George Petchey.

“He has had a lot of experience at management level and he has always been able to develop young players and this is something we are determined to do here.”

Brady had been to watch the youth team progress in the FA Youth Cup and he added: “There are several outstanding prospects in the side and I am sure George will guide them in the right direction.”

Within a couple of months, Brady had given a first team debut to one of them in Mark Fox.

The Argus later noted how Gareth Barry was among the young players who came through Albion’s centre of excellence under Petchey, Vic Bragg and Steve Avory.

Petchey became no.2 to Jimmy Case, pictured with George Parris in an Albion line-up

When Brady couldn’t stomach the shenanigans of the Bill Archer-David Bellotti regime any longer, Case took charge and promoted Petchey to be his deputy, but with the background interference affecting performances on the field, Case was relieved of his duties in early December 1996.

Petchey stepped forward once again to take temporary charge, although he made it clear he didn’t want the job on a permanent basis. Indeed, he recommended two of his former Orient players be considered for the post.

“I was asked for my suggestions and I recommended Dennis Rofe and Glenn Roeder,” said Petchey, who was 65 at the time. “Hopefully, it will be one of them.”

It was perhaps par for the course that the hierarchy decided to choose someone else, and, within a week, Steve Gritt was appointed.

When Petchey – the first English coach to complete his UEFA coaching qualifications – died aged 88 on 23 December 2019, the tributes paid to him reflected the impact this highly respected football man had on a good many people.

The football writer Neil Harman said: “We often overlook the genuine, honest people, who made football what it is, who went the extra mile, who turned people’s lives around. RIP the great Leyton Orient manager George Petchey who set Laurie Cunningham and many others on the road to stardom.”

David Gipp, a Brighton player in the late ‘80s, tweeted: “took me from London at 14; taught me so much” and John Sitton, who played under Petchey at Millwall, described him as “one of the best managers in the game”.

Born on 24 June 1931 in Whitechapel, London, Petchey’s early footballing experience was in Essex with the Romford and Hornchurch Schools teams. The excellent theyflysohigh.co.uk website details his career, revealing how, on leaving school he played for Upminster Minors and Juniors from 1945 to 1947 before joining West Ham United as an amateur in August 1947.

He signed professional on August 31, 1948, and two days later made his first appearance as a professional against Chelsea ‘A’ at Upton Park in the Eastern Counties League.  

The website explains how National Service interrupted Petchey’s career, although he was still able to play fairly regularly for the Hammers’ ‘A’ team and Football Combination side. It wasn’t until 1 September 1952 that he made his senior debut at the age of 21, playing alongside Ernie Gregory, Malcolm Allison and Frank O’Farrell in a goalless Second Division draw with Hull City at the Boleyn Ground.

Wearing the no.10 shirt, Petchey kept his place for the next game, a 2-1 home defeat by Birmingham City, but he only made one other first-team appearance, on 13 November that year, starting alongside Allison, Noel Cantwell and debuting forward Tommy Dixon in a 3-2 Essex Professional Cup win at Colchester United.

A wing-half, he was described by whufc.com as “a tough-tackling, hard-working defensive midfielder who could also pass the ball with vision and accuracy”.

In July 1953, Petchey moved on to Queens Park Rangers, scoring on his league debut in a 2-1 win at Bristol City on 22 August. Even then, he was commuting to London from Portslade.

QPR supporter Steve Russell spoke fondly of Petchey in an article for indyrs.co.uk, remembering a “tough-tackling, fearless, dynamic” player who took no prisoners.

Petchey scored 24 goals in 278 league and cup appearances for QPR, in the days when they were a Third Division side.

He dropped down to the old Fourth Division to sign for Palace in June 1960 but helped them to promotion in his first season at Selhurst Park.

Petchey’s playing days at Palace came to an early conclusion due to a serious eye injury but the esteem in which he was held was reflected in the quality of players on show at his testimonial match at Selhurst Park on 15 November 1967.

Palace took on an international XI which featured West Ham’s World Cup winning trio of Bobby Moore, Geoff Hurst and Martin Peters, together with the likes of Chelsea’s Peter Osgood and Manchester City’s Colin Bell in front of a crowd of 10,243.

Petchey turned to coaching at Palace, initially under Arthur Rowe and then Bert Head, under whom Palace won promotion to the old First Division in 1969. That side’s goalkeeper, John Jackson – who subsequently followed Petchey to Orient, Millwall, and the Albion as a coach – attributed his achievements to Petchey, telling cpfc.co.uk: “He used to work me hard but the harder you worked at your game the more you learned and the better you would become.

Petchey the Crystal Palace coach

“He made me a more confident player which led to me being more vocal behind the back four, and I always remember Thursday being called shooting practice day so it would become a session where I would put in a massive shift!”

When Jimmy Bloomfield was lured from Brisbane Road to manage Leicester City in 1971, the Os turned to Petchey to continue to build the side the former Arsenal player had developed.

He did just that over six Second Division seasons between 1971 and 1977, Petchey recruiting a number of players who’d previously played under him at Palace; the likes of goalkeeper Jackson, John Sewell, David Payne, Bill Roffey, Alan Whittle and Gerry Queen.

They came agonisingly close to winning promotion to the elite, missing out by a single point in 1973-74, and they took some notable scalps as cup giant-killers.

It was during his reign at Brisbane Road that Petchey discovered Tony Grealish playing on Hackney Marshes and unearthed the raw talent of the mercurial Cunningham, who he would later reluctantly sell for big money to West Bromwich Albion.

Petchey and his assistant Peter Angell carefully nurtured the young Cunningham, hoping his obvious talent would outweigh some of the demons in his life.

“We had one or two problems with him in the early days,” admitted Petchey, as told here. “There was a time when Peter Angell and I wondered if we could win Laurie over. He had to struggle in life and was the sort of youngster who was used to living on his wits.

“He was suspicious of people outside his own circle. He took a long time to trust other people. He often turned up late for training, the eyes flashed when we fined him, but for all that I loved the spark that made him tick.”

Cunningham later admitted: “It was George Petchey and Peter Angell who showed me that the only person who could make my dreams come true was, in fact, myself.”

Petchey gave 18-year-old Cunningham his first-team debut in the short-lived Texaco Cup tournament against West Ham at Upton Park on 3 August 1974. Although Orient lost 1–0, Petchey said afterwards: “It took him a little time to get adjusted to the pace of the game but I was delighted with the way he played from then on. He has a natural talent. He has the speed and agility to take on men. He never gives up. There’s a big future ahead for him.”

Cunningham’s rise to playing for England and Real Madrid was told in the 2013 documentary film First Among Equals and Petchey was a prominent interviewee featured.

Petchey talks about Laurie Cunningham for First Among Equals

When eventually Orient couldn’t resist big money offers for him any longer, the winger went to West Brom for £110,000 plus two players (Joe Mayo and Allan Glover) on 6 March 1977.

“I did not want to sell him, but we were over our limit at the bank and West Brom were ready with a cheque,” said Petchey at the time. “Obviously I’m very disappointed at losing a player who I have seen progress from the age of 15 and I think he was as reluctant to leave as we were to see him go. But it was an offer of First Division football which he could not refuse.”

Petchey enjoyed less success at Millwall. Although he managed to stave off relegation after succeeding Gordon Jago in early 1978, the Lions were relegated from the second tier the following season.

It was during that term he bought Brighton winger Tony Towner for £65,000 after the Sussex lad had lost his place to new signing Gerry Ryan. It wasn’t all doom and gloom though because Millwall’s youngsters won the FA Youth Cup in 1979, beating Manchester City 2-0 (over two legs).

After he’d left the Albion for a second time, Petchey continued to work in football, appointed chief scout at Newcastle United by Sir Bobby Robson, and he later took on a coaching role.

The Albion legend whose face didn’t fit at Aston Villa

Steve Foster challenges Spurs’ Steve Archibald at White Hart Lane

LEGEND is overused far too much in football circles but, in some circumstances, it is justified. That applies to Steve Foster.

He played 800 games in a 21-year career which included nine years with Brighton in two separate spells.

His performances in the top-flight for Brighton led him to play for England at the 1982 World Cup and he lifted the League Cup in 1988 as the captain of Luton Town.

He might have enjoyed a longer spell at Aston Villa if the European Cup-winning manager who signed him hadn’t been unceremoniously dumped by ‘Deadly’ Doug Ellis.

Foster became – and, to older fans, still is – synonymous with Brighton & Hove Albion, and football followers the world over could readily identify the captain with the white headband.

In several interviews over the years, he has explained how the distinctive headpiece was actually a piece of padded white towel designed to protect a forehead split open in collisions with centre forwards Andy Gray and Justin Fashanu.

I wonder if physio Mike Yaxley’s wife Sharon, who made up the dressing before every game, realised at the time the key role she played in helping to make Foster one of the most identifiable characters in football.

Foster’s illustrious career is warmly documented in Spencer Vignes’ excellent 2007 book A Few Good Men (Breedon Books Publishing), featuring an interview with the player himself and those who played with him.

For example, Gerry Ryan told Vignes: “Fozzie was a huge player with a huge personality, a real leader and deceptively quick for a big man.

“When he played against the best, like Ian Rush and Kenny Dalglish, he was the best. People talk about giving 100 per cent, but Fozzie gave 150 per cent in everything he did, and I mean off the field as well.”

Gordon Smith added: “He was a fantastic person, great fun and a terrific centre half.”

Vignes himself observed: “Steve’s willingness to put his neck on the line for the cause earned him hero status among the fans, together with the complete respect of the dressing room.”

Unsurprisingly, Foster pulls no punches in describing the various characters and events surrounding his colourful career, for instance describing Chris Cattlin as “definitely the wrong man. I told him the truth and what I thought of him.” And, of predecessor Jimmy Melia: “When Jimmy took over it was more like a circus than a football club.”

Foster said the two biggest influences on his career were Frank Burrows, the manager of his first club, Portsmouth, who taught him about balance as the key to strength on the pitch, and Brian Horton, the dynamic midfield driving force he succeeded as Albion captain.

“He shouted and screamed for 90 minutes to help us get results, and to keep everyone on their toes,” said Foster. “If he made a mistake, 10 other people would shout and scream at him, and he would take it. When I was captain at Brighton, and my other clubs, that’s how I tried to be.”

Such a recognisable figure as Albion’s centre-half

Fortunately, sufficient archive film footage remains for fans of different generations to see what a dominant force Foster was at the heart of Brighton’s defence, while I retain plenty of now-yellowing cuttings from the numerous columns of newsprint he filled during his pomp.

Born on 24 September 1957 in Portsmouth, Foster went to St Swithin’s Junior School before moving on to St John’s College. A centre-forward in the early days, he played for the Portsmouth Schools under-12s side but it was Southampton who took him on as an associate schoolboy.

He played in the same youth team as Steve Williams and Nick Holmes, who both went on to have long careers.

But Saints boss Lawrie McMenemy let Foster go at 16, urging him to go elsewhere and prove him wrong. After Foster won his first England cap, McMenemy sent him a congratulatory telegram. “That was class, nothing but class,” Foster told Vignes.

Southampton’s loss was Portsmouth’s gain, courtesy of a tip off from local schoolteacher Harry Bourne to Pompey youth team coach Ray Crawford (who’d previously held a similar role under Pat Saward at Brighton). Bourne ran the Portsmouth and Hampshire schools teams.

Crawford describes in his excellent autobiography Curse of the Jungle Boy (PB Publishing 2007) how he called at the family’s house in Gladys Avenue, Portsmouth, but Foster’s mother was at a works disco at the local Allders store. Wasting no time, he immediately went in pursuit and, against a backdrop of deafening music and flashing lights, shouted above the din that they were interested in signing her son.

Foster called the club the following day and he was invited to play in a youth team game for Portsmouth – against Southampton! “I scored twice because I was playing as a centre-forward then, and they ended up offering me an apprenticeship on £5 per week which was my entry into the professional game,” said Foster.

Reg Tyrell, a respected former chief scout from Crawford’s time at Ipswich, watched the young striker in a youth team training game and declared: “That no.9, he’s no centre-forward but he’d make a good number 5.” A few weeks’ later, manager Ron Tindall’s successor, Ian St John (later Saint and Greavsie TV show partner of Jimmy Greaves), gave Foster his debut as a centre half!

Foster played more than 100 games during Pompey’s slide down through the divisions, and, at 21, had developed something of a fiery reputation. But Brighton boss Alan Mullery saw him as “big and brave, strong in the tackle and good in the air” providing “much-needed stability at the back” as the Seagulls began their first adventure into the top-flight of English football in 1979. He was signed for £150,000.

A couple of disciplinary issues in the early days of the new season looked like proving the doubters right to have warned Mullery off signing him, but an injury to first choice centre back Andy Rollings forced the manager to backtrack on a temporary ban he’d handed out. Foster made the most of his reprieve and never looked back.

By the end of a season in which the side grew collectively Foster was named Player of the Year and he earned international recognition, gaining an England under 21 cap as a substitute for Terry Butcher in a 1-0 defeat against East Germany in Jena on 23 April 1980 (Peter Ward was playing up front).

While the 1980-81 season saw Albion struggle and flirt with relegation, Foster’s tussles with some of the top strikers in the game saw his reputation grow, and he even chipped in with a vital goal in the final home game of the season against Leeds.

When Horton and Mullery departed at the end of that season, Foster took over the captaincy under new boss Mike Bailey, and, even though fans didn’t much like the way Bailey set up his side, Foster thrived with the emphasis on defence first.

England boss Ron Greenwood, who lived in Hove, was in the process of shaping his squad for the 1992 World Cup in Spain and, with injuries affecting some of the other centre backs in contention, Foster was given a chance to prove himself.

I can remember travelling to Wembley on 23 February 1982 to watch him make his debut against Northern Ireland, a game England won 4-0 courtesy of goals from Ray Wilkins, Kevin Keegan, Bryan Robson and Glenn Hoddle.

I had been to the stadium 10 years before to watch another Albion player – Willie Irvine – make his international comeback in a 1-0 win for the Irish, but it was something special – and rare – to see a Brighton player line up for England.

To break through to the senior team in a World Cup year was a notable achievement, although, by his own admission, he accepted his good fortune directly correlated to injuries ruling out other players.

Although the record books show Foster earned three caps, in fact he represented the country four times that year.

A month after his debut against Northern Ireland, on 23 March, Foster played for an England XI in Bilbao against Athletic Bilbao. The game finished 1-1 with Keegan scoring for England. It didn’t qualify for a cap because it was a testimonial match for retiring Bilbao player Txetxu Rojo, but Greenwood used the fixture to familiarise the players with what was the venue for England’s opening round matches at the World Cup.

Foster also featured in a 2-0 friendly win over the Netherlands (goals by Tony Woodcock and Graham Rix) on 25 May as Greenwood continued to assess his options.

Foster (circled) in Ron Greenwood’s 1982 World Cup squad

When it was clear neither Alvin Martin nor Dave Watson would be fit for the tournament in Spain, Foster was selected as back-up to first choice centre back pairing Terry Butcher and Phil Thompson. Ahead of the third group match, Greenwood didn’t want to risk a ban for the already-booked Butcher, so Foster played alongside Thompson and England won 1-0 against Kuwait; Trevor Francis getting the England goal.

When England didn’t progress past the second phase, Greenwood’s spell as boss came to an end and he was replaced by Bobby Robson who, for his first game in charge, partnered Russell Osman with Butcher – both having played under him at Ipswich Town.

Foster didn’t play for England again.

Much has been written already about the 1982-83 season and Albion’s path to the FA Cup Final. Foster demonstrated real heroism in the semi-final at Highbury, playing through the pain of a septic elbow, and, memorably, towards the end of the game, launched into an overhead kick to clear a goal-bound shot to safety (pictured above).

History records Foster being suspended for the Cup Final – a well-documented appeal to the High Court against a two-game ban for accumulated bookings couldn’t get the decision reversed – but, as is often the case in football, his misfortune presented a golden opportunity for stand-in Gary Stevens who capped a man-of-the-match performance with the equalising goal. What he did that day persuaded Spurs to sign him.

Foster, of course, eventually got his Wembley chance in the replay but with a rampant Manchester United running out easy 4-0 winners, their fans also rather cruelly derided the Albion skipper with the chant I can still hear ringing around Wembley that evening: “Stevie Foster, Stevie Foster, what a difference you have made!”

In truth the whole defence lacked balance in the replay because manager Melia had elected to fill the right-back berth vacated by injury to Chris Ramsey with the left-footed Steve Gatting. He figured Stevens couldn’t be moved from the centre where he had performed so well on the Saturday, but it was a mistake, especially as Stevens had often played right back previously.

The relegation that went in tandem with Albion’s Wembley loss sparked the beginning of a big clear-out of the best players. First to go was Stevens, closely followed by Michael Robinson.

It wasn’t until the following March that Foster followed them through the exit, although, according to Foster, he might have gone sooner – even though he didn’t want to leave; a point he made clear in an interview with Match Weekly shortly after he signed for Villa for £150,000.

“I never wanted to move,” he said. “I had nearly seven years of my contract to run at Brighton and would have quite happily played out my career there. It’s a great little club.

“But economies dictated otherwise and, although manager Chris Cattlin wanted to keep me, he was under pressure to sell me and help ease the club’s financial problems.

“It was a wrench to leave Brighton because the club has treated me tremendously well and I’ve had some great times there – not least the FA Cup run last season.”

Cattlin had a slightly different take about the transaction in his matchday programme notes. “I feel that Steve Foster has been a fine player during his four-and-a-half years at the Goldstone, but I felt that the time was right and the offer good enough to let him go,” he said.

“I hope the move will benefit both Steve and the club. I hope it rejuvenates his career because he has been unlucky with injuries this season. It gives me breathing space for Eric Young to develop and it will also allow me to strengthen other positions if necessary.”

In a rather oblique reference to the need to get rid of high-earning players, Cattlin added in another matchday programme article: “Certain players have left Brighton in moves which I feel are important for our future. Salaries and bonuses of individual players are confidential and obviously I cannot disclose details, but the moves I have made I am certain are right.”

He added: “I can’t explain all the matters that have been considered but I will once again emphasise that we are building for the future and every move I make in the transfer market is being made with this in mind.”

Foster revealed that Villa boss Tony Barton, a former coach at Foster’s first club, Portsmouth, had tried to sign him twice before, but the clubs hadn’t been able to agree on a fee. Eventually, the transfer saw defender Mark Jones (who’d made seven top-flight appearances for Villa that season) move in the opposite direction, in addition to a £150,000 fee.

Barton wanted Foster to tighten up a leaky defence, to fill the position previously occupied by former European Cup winning centre-half Ken McNaught, who had moved to West Brom.

The relatively inexperienced Brendan Ormsby had been playing alongside McNaught’s former partner, Allan Evans, and the signing of Foster put his nose well and truly out of joint. “It’s obvious that I’m just going to be used as cover for Steve Foster or Allan Evans now and so it’s probably in my best interests to try and find another club,” he told Match Weekly.

As it turned out, it was Barton who was ousted; Ormsby stayed, and new manager Graham Turner decreed it would be Foster who was the odd one out. But I jump ahead too soon.

Foster’s arrival at Villa Park as featured on a matchday programme cover

A picture of Foster being introduced to the Villa faithful appeared on the front cover of the programme for the 17 March home game against Nottingham Forest although he didn’t make his Villa debut until 14 April 1984, away to Leicester City, which ended in a 2-0 defeat.

Foster made seven appearances by the end of the season and he got on the scoresheet in only his third game, netting together with future Albion player Dennis Mortimer, in a 2-1 win over Watford on 21 April.

Villa finished the season in 10th place but it wasn’t good enough for the erratic chairman Ellis. Suddenly Foster found the man who signed him had been sacked, and the side Barton had led to European Cup success was gradually dismantled.

To the astonishment of the Villa faithful, Barton was succeeded by former Shrewsbury Town boss Turner.

Foster played 10 games under the new boss, and scored twice, once in a 4-2 win over Chelsea on 15 September and then again the following Saturday in a 3-3 draw away to Watford.

He’d started the season alongside Evans but Turner then offered a way back to Ormsby. While Foster played a couple of games alongside Ormsby, Turner preferred Evans and Ormsby together, making the new man surplus to requirements.

His last game for Villa was away to Everton on 13 October and the following month he was sold to Luton for £70,000 – less than half the fee Villa had paid for him eight months earlier. Foster simply put it down to his face not fitting with the new man.

It was a completely different story with Luton boss David Pleat and Foster’s time at Kenilworth Road coincided with the club’s most successful period in their history, even though Pleat left to manage Spurs.

Alongside representing his country, Foster said the best moment of his career was captaining the Hatters as they won the League Cup (then sponsored by Littlewoods) at Wembley in 1988 with a 3-2 win over Arsenal, his former Brighton teammate Danny Wilson scoring one of their goals (Brian Stein got the other two).

They reached the final of the same competition the following year too, but on that occasion lost 3-1 to Nottingham Forest. By then Foster was assistant manager to Ray Harford, and it looked like he was on a path to become a boss in his own right.

But that summer, when his old Albion captain, Horton, who had taken over from Mark Lawrenson as the manager of Oxford United, asked him to join him as a player at the Manor Ground, he was unable to resist and a new chapter in his career began.

It meant a drop down a division but Foster accepted the challenge and went on to play more than 100 games for United, many being quite a struggle as the side fought for survival at the foot of the second tier.

In the autumn of 1991, injury sidelined Foster from the U’s team and he believed it could have been the end of his career.

However, when the following summer he was contemplating whether or not to retire, he gave Brighton boss Barry Lloyd a call and asked if he could keep his fitness going by joining in pre-season training with the Seagulls.

Lloyd could see that the former skipper was still able to perform and, although the club was in a downward spiral, Foster seized the opportunity to extend his career and help out his old side.

Another veteran of that side, Clive Walker, told Vignes for A Few Good Men: “Fozzie might not have been so mobile then but his positional sense was absolutely brilliant, as was his ability in the air.”

Foster said: “Funnily enough during that second period I played probably some of my best football. I had to because of the position the club was in. There was no money so you had to pull out all the stops.”

Foster continued to play after Lloyd had departed, and he vented his anger publicly about the off-field shenanigans new boss Liam Brady was having to operate under.

Foster eventually called it a day at the end of the 1995-96 season, saddened at the club’s plight. He was granted a testimonial match against Sheffield Wednesday, played as a pre-season friendly in July 1996. Throughout Foster’s career he had continued to live in Hove and he retains his affection for the Albion to this day.

During his second spell at the club, Foster was the PFA rep and he had to deal with the heartbreak of telling the parents of a young player (Billly Logan) that an ankle injury was going to end his career. The youngster got just £1,500 compensation.

As a result, after his own playing days were over, Foster set up an insurance business (Pro-Secure) which continues to this day, making sure players are properly covered and get suitably recompensed if things don’t turn out as they’d hoped.

Although Foster hasn’t always been popular with the Albion’s hierarchy (courtesy of suggested involvement in potential takeovers), his association with the club hasn’t dimmed and Seagulls fans of two generations took him to their hearts for his on-field performances and leadership spanning a total of 332 games.

• Pictures from my scrapbook, the Albion matchday programme over several seasons, and some online sources.

Spurs’ Junior acted the Dream after scoring for the Seagulls

JUNIOR MCDOUGALD played professional football for 23 years and managed to combine it with acting, featuring in Sky 1’s Dream Team series.

Brighton fans of a certain vintage will remember him as a nippy, diminutive forward who scored 22 goals in 88 matches (+ seven as sub) during a difficult period for the club.

By his own admission (in an interview with the Argus), he left too soon, and a move to Rotherham United didn’t work out.

Born in Big Spring, Texas, on 12 January 1975, McDougald grew up in the UK and his early potential saw him associated with Tottenham Hotspur from the age of nine.

He was subsequently chosen as part of a group of the country’s top 25 14-year-old footballing prospects to be nurtured at the FA’s National School at Lilleshall.

On his graduation from Lilleshall in 1991, he joined Spurs as a trainee. Alongside McDougald both at Lilleshall and Tottenham was Sol Campbell, the defender who went on to star for Spurs and Arsenal, as well as England. Campbell told tottenhamhotspur.com: “I’ve some fond memories of Junior. We used to play against each other when we were 13, then we were at Tottenham and Lilleshall when we were 14.

“He’s a smashing lad and I can’t speak highly enough of him. He’s a good bloke, a good man and a fabulous footballer.”

McDougald joined the full professional ranks at White Hart Lane in the summer of 1993, but when he didn’t make the breakthrough to their first team, he made the switch to Brighton.

He described his time at Spurs as “a dream come true” and, in an article on tottenhamhotspur.com, said: “I know it’s an old cliché but I’d always supported Spurs.

“I think it’s well documented now that I even wrote to Jim’ll Fix It to ask to go training with them!”

He added: “It was a great experience, a positive experience and it was always my dream to play for the club.”

Spurs fanzine My Eyes Have Seen The Glory (mehstg.com), recalled him as “a young striker who scored a large number of goals for the Tottenham junior sides, but progressed no further than the reserves at White Hart Lane. Blessed with good pace, but a little on the short and light side.”

Unfortunately, while his contemporary Campbell went on to superstardom, McDougald was released at the age of 19.

“It was very disappointing to leave,” he said. “But at the same time, I was ambitious and, when Liam Brady at Brighton called me, I saw it as a great opportunity. I wanted first team football.

“Any disappointment was hidden by excitement. It was a new start.”

I can remember seeing McDougald make his debut in the opening game of the 1994-95 season, away to Swansea City at their old Vetch Field ground; Albion resplendent in the turquoise and black striped shirts in the style of the kit once worn by boss Brady at Inter Milan.

McDougald’s subsequent one-in-four scoring ratio with the Seagulls was set against the backdrop of financial turmoil at the club and he was there when the club was relegated to the fourth tier.

“There was no stability off the field and that could transfer itself on to it,” he told the Argus. “I was very young and Liam Brady was a great help. I was pleased to have played with legends like Steve Foster, although he was coming to the end of his career.

“The supporters were fantastic and really good to me as a young player. Overall, I had two enjoyable years there and I’m delighted to see them doing so well now. They’ve always had the potential and the fans deserve the success.”

Towards the end of his second season with the club, he was loaned to Chesterfield, where he scored once in nine games, and he then chose to move to Rotherham United for £50,000 in August 1996.

“It is only when you leave somewhere sometimes that you realise how good a club it was,” he told the Argus. “I have fantastic memories of Brighton. The support was so good and they have such potential.

“I thought I was doing the best thing for my career when I left. I wasn’t to know I would go to Rotherham, score on my debut, get injured in the same game and not play for three months.”

He had a relatively successful six-month spell at Toulon in France but efforts to re-establish himself back in the UK with Cambridge, Millwall and Orient didn’t work out.

“With the gift of hindsight maybe I would have stayed at Brighton for another season or two and established myself,” McDougald said in the Argus interview.

It was only when he signed for Dagenham & Redbridge in 1999 that he got back in the headlines, in particular when, in January 2001, he scored in the FA Cup 3rd round as the non-league Essex side held Alan Curbishley’s then Premier League Charlton Athletic to a 1-1 draw.

The 4th round draw paired the winners of the tie with Spurs, so it looked like it would be a perfect match for the former Spurs youngster, but the Addicks edged the replay 1-0 in extra time to spoil his dream.

Nevertheless, his form for Dagenham saw him selected for the England semi-professional side at a Four Nations Trophy tournament in 2002, where he was up against his clubmate Tony Roberts, the former Spurs goalkeeper.

Alongside the serious business of earning a living from playing football, McDougald also appeared for the fictional Harchester United side in Sky’s Dream Team, together with former Albion players Peter Smith and Andy Ansah.

“It was through Andy who actually recruits the players,” he said. “Pete Smith told me it was fun and it is. We just do what footballers do and are filmed playing, in changing rooms and night clubs. It is a good little avenue.”

By the time Dagenham made it into the Football League, McDougald had moved on to St Albans and, in the 2003-04 season, he was part of a Canvey Island squad that also included former Brighton players Mickey Bennett, the aforementioned Peter Smith, and Jeff Minton.

He later played for Kettering Town, Histon, and Cambridgeshire side St. Ives.

McDougald, a Born-again Christian, has since become the co-founder and director of children’s charity Sports Connections Foundation which uses sport to help and inspire children.

Everton reject Mark Farrington earned rebuke at the Albion

BARRY LLOYD made a number of astute signings during some turbulent years in charge of the Seagulls; Mark Farrington wasn’t one of them!

Although Lloyd struck gold when he picked up Mike Small after seven years playing in Europe, his luck evaporated when he brought former Everton youth player Farrington back to the UK after a five-clubs-in-five-years spell in Holland, Belgium and Germany.

Lloyd agreed a £100,000 fee to sign him from respected Dutch outfit Feyenoord in 1991 – as a replacement for Small, who’d been sold to West Ham for £400,000. But in three years on the Albion’s books, Farrington mustered just four goals in 28 appearances. Subsequently, apart from a single league appearance for Hereford, he ended up at non-league Runcorn.

It’s no secret he’s gone down in Albion folklore as one of the club’s biggest flops, as evidenced by comments on the popular fans forum, North Stand Chat.

In 2004, in one of those discussions about all-time-worst player, ‘Metal Micky’ gave his vote to Farrington, adding: “The only one who came close to his utter shiteness was Ashley Neal.”

On another occasion, noting that Farrington managed to get on the scoresheet in a 3-1 win away to Burnley, ‘Pinkie Brown’ declared: “Mark Farrington scoring a goal rates alongside stepping in rocking horse crap, spotting Lord Lucan and going for a ride on Shergar. The last three are more realistic.”

On the same forum, ‘Withdean and I’ described him as: “The most expensive player ever to make so little impact at the Albion.”

It seems only right and fair, though, to try to balance the picture and I’m grateful to a November 2018 look-back article in the Sussex Express which recalled an occasion on 26 February 1994 when Farrington scored a goal in a 3-1 win at Huddersfield, and earned a plaudit from Lloyd’s replacement as manager, Liam Brady.

The newspaper reported: “For Farrington in particular, it had been a difficult season. He had made only sporadic appearances under Lloyd, but Brady was committed to give everyone a chance. ‘I brought Mark Farrington back into the side,’ said Brady. ‘As far as I am concerned, the slate is clean with everyone at the club and I am prepared to look at each and every player and Mark has done particularly well (in the reserves) and shown a good attitude’.”

It was good of Brady to give him the opportunity but at the start of the following season he brought in Junior McDougald to play alongside Kurt Nogan, and, in October 1994 Farrington left the club.

Born in the Allerton district of Liverpool on 15 June 1965, Farrington’s dad was a long distance lorry driver and his mum a shoe shop manageress. He attended Springwood Primary School and moved on to Hillfoot High School, where his footballing ability began to be recognised.

He also played for the local Allerton side and an Everton scout, Ray Marshall, spotted him. He was taken on as an associate schoolboy and then progressed to an apprenticeship. Unfortunately, his hopes of making it at Everton were dashed within weeks of him ending up on the losing side in the 1983 FA Youth Cup Final.

Farrington scoring features on the front cover of the Everton programme

Ironically, Farrington scored four times against Norwich City (see picture of one of them on front of programme) over two legs but City won a play-off and collected the trophy 6-5 on aggregate.

Everton decided not to offer Farrington a professional contract, but the opposition’s manager, Ken Brown, liked what he saw and took him on at Carrow Road.

A year later, he was blooded in an end-of-season top tier game away to Coventry City which the Canaries lost 2-1.

City history site Flown From The Nest notes he made a total of 18 appearances and scored twice before he was loaned to Cambridge United, where he scored once in 10 matches, and was then transferred to Cardiff City in July 1985.

City were newly relegated from the second tier. Farrington scored in the first game of the new season, a 4-1 win at Notts County, but Cardiff had a disastrous season and finished up relegated to the bottom tier. According to mauveandyellowarmy.net, Farrington scored only three more times in a total of 36 appearances for the Bluebirds before being sacked for a breach of club discipline by manager Alan Durban, who was sacked himself following relegation.

After an unsuccessful trial with Portsmouth, Farrington tried his luck on the continent.

At Dutch side Willem II Tillburg, he got into his goalscoring stride and bagged 26 in 61 appearances – by far his best scoring ratio for any club.

At RC Genk he scored five in 17 matches, and 10 in 30 games for Fortuna Sittard, including a hat-trick against PSV Eindhoven and four against Volendam. Next up on his European travels was Hertha Berlin for eight months, but he struggled to settle in Berlin and didn’t register a goal in nine games.

Dutch giants Feyenoord came to his rescue and, after he’d scored twice in a friendly, they bought out the rest of his Hertha Berlin contract. He scored once in five matches but when Gunther Bensson, the coach who’d bought him left, he failed to see eye to eye with his successor and began to seek a move. Lloyd took him on trial at Brighton and he scored in a reserves match against Ipswich.

“In May 1991 I had the chance to go to Spain to play for Seville but that fell flat and in August Barry called me again and I came to the Goldstone,” he told the matchday programme. “I had missed the pre-season training and all the other players had a head start and I suffered. I injured an ankle early on and one thing led to another. It soon became a nightmare, one injury followed another,” he said.

Farrington saw various specialists to try to get to the bottom of several niggles that were keeping him sidelined and months went by before he finally got the all-clear.