Nathan Elder needed to knock on boss Wilkins’ door

WHEN I watched Nathan Elder go on as substitute at Boundary Park, Oldham, on 12 January 2008 and score an injury-time equaliser, I remember wondering whether his Brighton career might finally be getting off the ground.

Previous cameo appearances off the bench had indicated Albion might have unearthed a useful rough diamond after picking him up from non-league Billericay, and he’d scored his first goal in the final game of the 2006-07 season: a 1-1 draw at Cheltenham.

But manager Dean Wilkins was somewhat spoilt for choice, especially when experienced Nicky Forster arrived that summer. Alex Revell and Bas Savage tended to be ahead of Elder in the pecking order too.

By the end of January, Albion splashed £300,000 on Glenn Murray and, Elder, still only 20, was deemed surplus to requirements. After only 13 months at Brighton, he was sold to Brentford for £35,000 (Revell left as well, when Southend parted with £150,000).

The Elder deal represented good business for the Seagulls – a £25,000 profit on a player who only made three first team starts during his time with the club. Disappointed with his brief spell at Brighton, Elder reflected some while later that he should have done more to persuade Wilkins to give him more playing time.

“It was my fault,” he told brentfordfc.com. “I trained really well and in the reserve games I was scoring every time, but I never knocked on the manager’s door and asked him why I wasn’t starting. I always thought to myself that I was lucky to be in this position and coming from where I’d come from, I didn’t want to ruffle any feathers.

“As time has gone on, I’ve realised that if you don’t show some hunger and give the manager a reason to start you, he won’t.”

That instinct was almost certainly right, bearing in mind comments Wilkins made in an Argus interview after that Oldham game.

“I know it has not been easy for Nathan,” he said. “He hasn’t had many opportunities but he has gone on and done exactly what we hoped he would do.

“He will probably be banging on my door now for a starting place and of course he has given me a dilemma.”

Elder, though, sat back and waited patiently. “I was sitting there too comfortably and thinking that if I got the call, I’d come in and do my best,” he said. “We went on a losing streak at Brighton of about four or five games where neither of the strikers scored.

“At that point, Dean Wilkins was watching me in training, but I never actually said to him, ‘Gaffer, put me in, give me a chance’.”

As he departed, Elder told the Argus: “I don’t really feel as though I was given enough of a chance to show what I can do, it was more in fits and spurts coming off the bench.

“I just don’t think he (Wilkins) was confident enough in me to start me on a regular basis.

“Even when some other players weren’t performing I don’t think he had that confidence to throw me in. That’s football, it’s not a walk in the park.”

Of the striker’s departure, Wilkins said: “Nathan has found his opportunities limited, he wants to start games but we couldn’t guarantee that and felt it was right to let him move.”

It was an unfortunate ending to his brief time with the Albion, especially after it had begun so well. He scored just 11 minutes into his debut for the reserves, director of football Martin Hinshelwood observing: “Nathan scored with a good finish.”

The striker told the matchday programme: “Going from the level I was at to this level, without playing any games, is a huge jump, but training has been wicked for me. It has really helped me improve: my movement, my touch, my movement without the ball.

“I felt I showed that in the game and that’s how I got my goal, with my movement. I could have had another two or three as well, but I know that I’ll become sharper as I get fitter.”

Born in Hornchurch, Essex, on 5 April 1985, Elder’s first involvement in football was at the town’s Langtons Infant School. He later played for a local Sunday league team, Barns Sports, before stepping up to play for Hornchurch in the lower reaches of the Isthmian League.

He progressed up that league via moves to Barking & East Ham United, Aveley and then Billericay Town. He came to Brighton’s attention when he was playing for Billericay against Worthing.

If nothing else, Elder’s disappointment at Brighton prepared him to seize the chance to shine with the Bees. It was thought he had scored an own goal on his debut for Brentford against Mansfield Town after just 15 minutes (it was later credited to Stags forward Michael Boulding), but he made amends by scoring the winner five minutes from time as Brentford eventually won 3–2, and he went on to be part of their 2009-10 promotion squad under Andy Scott.

*Nathan Elder scores on his Brentford debut*

Sadly, a shocking facial injury which threatened the sight in one eye put paid to his involvement in the promotion run-in.

It came when he was involved in an aerial collision with Rotherham’s Pablo Mills; the United player’s elbow inflicting a double cheekbone fracture, a fractured eye socket, severe trauma to the eyeball and extensive bleeding in and around the eye.

He described the incident in detail in an interview with Dan Long in 2019. “When the physio came over, I couldn’t see out of my eye, I thought my eyebrow and cheekbone had swollen up. I knew it was serious. The physio held up two fingers with a hand over one eye and asked how many fingers he was holding up. He switched eyes and I couldn’t tell him because it was just black. He could see that my eye was open and he didn’t panic, but his reaction showed that I needed to go to hospital immediately.

“I questioned it but stood up and went into the dressing room. As we got there, I looked in the mirror. Everyone was telling me to sit down but I told them to get off me for five minutes so that I could find out what was going on.

“I could see that both of my eyes were open, but I could only see out of one of them. That was scary and that’s when I started to panic because I immediately thought I’d lost sight in that eye and it was done for.”

Up to that point, Elder had enjoyed a successful partnership with Charlie MacDonald, who he said he learned a lot from. “He was just such a potent goalscorer,” he said. “As a young lad it was brilliant to watch what he was doing and try and emulate it.”

Sadly MacDonald also missed the triumphant end of the season after dislocating a shoulder and the pair didn’t get to feature for the Bees again.

Meanwhile, the incapacitated Elder said: “When they brought in Jordan Rhodes, it was really good to see the success he was bringing, but when you are sitting indoors and you can do literally nothing, that was pretty horrible.”

After Elder’s recovery from the injury, life was never the same at Griffin Park and on 3 August 2009 he signed a three-year contract for League Two Shrewsbury Town.

But only three months later he was transfer listed by manager Paul Simpson who was unhappy with a performance in a 1-0 FA Cup loss at home to non-league Staines Town.

Two months on, he joined Blue Square Premier club AFC Wimbledon on loan until the end of the 2009-10 season. Elder scored on his debut in a 2-0 home win over Mansfield Town and picked up the man of the match award.

He went on to make 18 appearances, and scored three goals, before injury struck again. He suffered a tear of his anterior cruciate ligament in a game against Tamworth. Eventually, on 24 June 2011, he was released by the Shrews.

Next stop was Conference Premier side Hayes and Yeading but he was only there a month before joining League Two Hereford United, initially on loan and then permanently. But he left at the end of the season and joined National League outfit Ebbsfleet United where he scored 16 times in 44 matches.

He spent the 2013-14 season at Conference South Dover Athletic and on 10 May 2014 scored the only goal of the game to win the play-off final against Ebbsfleet securing Dover’s return to the Conference Premier League.

His most prolific scoring came at Isthmian League Premier Division side Tonbridge Angels, who he initially played for on loan before spending three years (2015-18) on a permanent basis. He netted 58 goals in 148 matches for Tonbridge.

Elder moved on to Sittingbourne for the 2018-19 season where he balanced a player-coach role at the Isthmian South East Division side with a career in recruitment in London’s Leadenhall Market. He later became assistant manager at Hythe Town for two years.

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 40^th 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.

A lifetime in football for Mike Trusson the enforcer

MIKE TRUSSON has spent a lifetime in football since Plymouth Argyle spotted his raw teenage talent, took him on as an apprentice and gave him his professional debut at 17.

After playing more than 400 matches over 15 years, he became prominent in football marketing, coaching and scouting, often in association with his good friend Tony Pulis, who he played alongside at Gillingham after leaving the Albion.

As recently as late 2020 he was assistant manager to Pulis for an ill-fated brief spell at Sheffield Wednesday.

Much fonder memories of his time in the steel city were forged when he was twice Player of the Year at Sheffield United.

In an exclusive interview with the In Parallel Lines blog, Trusson told Nick Turrell about his time with the Seagulls, his first coaching job at AFC Bournemouth and the formative years of his career.

*A goalscoring home debut for Mike Trusson*

A MOVE TO SUSSEX in the summer of 1987 ticked all the right boxes for Mike Trusson.

An experienced midfielder with more than 300 games under his belt already, he welcomed the opportunity to be part of the rebuilding job Barry Lloyd was undertaking at the Goldstone following the club’s relegation back to the third tier. He was one of seven new signings.

The move also brought him a whole lot closer to his family in Somerset than south Yorkshire, where he’d lived and played for seven years.

And it gave him the chance to earn more money.

The only problem was he had a dodgy left knee – it was an injury that prevented him making his first team debut for the Seagulls for four months, and it troubled him throughout his first season.

Frequent leaping to head the ball had resulted in a torn patella knee tendon that had needed surgery during the latter days of the player’s time at Rotherham United, where for two years his manager had been the legendary former Leeds and England defender Norman Hunter.

Prior to the injury, Blackburn Rovers had bid £200,000 to sign him, but nothing came of it and a contractual dispute with the Millers (who were not keen to give him what he said he was entitled to because of the injury) led to him being given a free transfer (Hunter subsequently signed former Albion midfielder Tony Grealish).

Trusson fancied a move south to be nearer his folks and had written to several clubs, Albion included, who he thought might be interested in his services (these were the days before agents).

Although Millwall and Gillingham had shown an interest, it was a call from Martin Hinshelwood, Lloyd’s no.2, that saw Trusson head to Sussex for an interview where he met the management pair, chairman Dudley Sizen and director Greg Stanley.

Trusson looks back on the encounter with amusement because not only did they agree to take him on but they offered him more money than he was asking for because they said he’d need it in view of the North-South disparity in property prices.

“Brighton was a big club. Only four years earlier they’d been in the Cup Final and some of those players from that time were still at the club,” he said. “From my point of view, it was a big career move. It ticked all the boxes.”

Initially Trusson shared a club house in East Preston with fellow new signings Kevin Bremner, Garry Nelson and Doug Rougvie before moving his wife and daughter down and settling in Angmering, close to the training ground (Albion trained at Worthing Rugby Club’s ground at the time).

Before he could think about playing, though, he had to get fit. Scar tissue after the operation on his knee had left him in a lot of pain, and although he passed his medical, the pain persisted.

New physio Mark Leather told him straight that he wouldn’t be able to train, let alone play, with the leg in the condition it was. It had shrunk in size due to muscle wastage so his first two months at the Albion were spent building it back up and regaining match fitness in the reserves.

In the meantime, former full-back Chris Hutchings was keeping the no.8 shirt warm until he finally got a move to Huddersfield that autumn.

Trusson recalled: “I was aware there was a rebuilding process going on. It was a very different group to ones I’d experienced at other clubs. A lot of the lads travelled down from London so there was not much socialising.”

There was certainly lots of competition for places during his time at the club. Sometimes Dale Jasper would get the nod over him and he could see Lloyd preferred the ball-playing types like Alan Curbishley and Dean Wilkins, and later Robert Codner and Adrian Owers.

“I thought if I was going to play, I had to change,” Trusson reflected. “I became more of a midfield enforcer and left it to the better players to play.”

As such, he was surprised yet delighted to score on his home debut, albeit, more than 30 years on, he doesn’t remember much about it.

For the record, it was on 12 December 1987, in front of a rather paltry 6,995 Goldstone Ground crowd, that Trusson scored the only goal of the game against Chester City as Albion extended an unbeaten run to 15 matches. (Chester’s side included former Albion Cup Final midfielder Gary Howlett, who was on loan from Bournemouth).

In that injury-affected first season, he played 18 games plus seven as sub. He had been on the subs bench for three games as the season drew to an exciting climax, but he was not involved in the deciding game when Bristol Rovers were beaten 2-1 at the Goldstone.

*Teaming up with Garry Nelson against Arsenal in the FA Cup*

When the 1988-89 season got under way, Trusson was on the bench for the first two league games and he got a start in a 1-0 defeat away to Southend in the League Cup. After the side suffered eight defeats on the trot, Trusson was back in the starting line-up for the home game v Leeds on 1 October and Albion chalked up their first win of the season (1-0).

Unsurprisingly, Trusson kept his place for the next clutch of games, although Curbishley returned and kept the shirt for an extended run.

It wasn’t until the new year that he won back a starting place but then he had his best run of games, keeping the shirt through to the middle of April.

The previous month he was sent off (above) in the extraordinary match at Selhurst Park which saw referee Kelvin Morton award five penalties in the space of 27 minutes, as well as wielding five yellow cards and Trusson’s red. Four of the penalties went to Palace – they missed three – but they went on to win 2-1 against the ten men. Manager Lloyd said: “I don’t think I’ve ever been involved in such a crazy game – we could have lost 6-1 but were unfortunate not to gain a point.”

Looking back, Trusson reckoned: “I was always conscious I wasn’t Barry’s type of player.” With a gentle but respectful sense of understatement, he said: “He was not the most communicative person I have met in my life!”

In essence, perhaps not surprisingly, Trusson would seek an explanation as to why he wasn’t playing when he thought he deserved to, but it wasn’t always forthcoming. He recalled that defender Gary Chivers, who he was reunited with at Bournemouth and who he stays in touch with, used to call Lloyd ‘Harold’ after the silent movie star!

Nevertheless, he said: “Tactically Barry was a good manager. When he did talk, he talked a lot of sense.”

It was during his time at Brighton that Trusson started running end-of-season soccer schools for youngsters. He was honest enough to admit they gave him an opportunity to earn a bit of extra money to put towards a holiday rather than laying the foundations for his future career as a coach.

That was still a little way off when, at 29, he left the Albion in September 1989 having played 37 games. By then, Curbishley, Codner and Wilkins were firmly ensconced as the preferred midfield trio, and he wanted to get some regular football. Cardiff wanted him but his family were settled in West Sussex so he opted for Gillingham, which was driveable, although he stayed in a clubhouse the night before matches.

It was at Priestfield where he began to establish a close friendship with Tony Pulis, who was winding down his playing career and was similarly commuting to north Kent (from Bournemouth).

“We had always kicked each other to bits when we played against each other but often ended up having a drink and a chat afterwards, and got on,” said Trusson. “We were also keen golfers, and both talkers; we had our views (even if we didn’t always agree) and the friendship developed.”

This is a good point to go back to the beginning because it was his early appreciation of the art of coaching that would ultimately become the foundation for what followed later.

Born in Northolt on 26 May 1959, Trusson had trials with Chelsea as a schoolboy but a bout of ‘flu put the kibosh on any progress. It also wasn’t helped by the family relocating to Somerset, not a renowned hotbed for nurturing football talent.

The young Trusson went to Wadham Comprehensive School in Crewkerne and his hopes for another crack at professional football were given a huge boost when a Plymouth Argyle vice-president, who was involved with the local youth football side he played for, organised for him to have a trial at Home Park.

Argyle liked what they saw and offered him an apprenticeship, and the excellent greensonscreen.co.uk website details his career in the West Country.

It was Trusson’s good fortune that former England goalkeeper Tony Waiters – a coach ahead of his time – was Argyle boss and he gave him a first team debut aged just 17 in October 1976.

Waiters was a great believer in giving youngsters their chance to shine at an early age; he’d already worked for the FA as a regional coach, for Liverpool’s youth development programme, and been manager of the England Youth team, before being appointed Argyle manager. He later went on to manage the Canadian national team at the 1986 World Cup.

Waiters and his assistant Keith Blunt, who later took charge of the Spurs youth team in the 1980s (and was technical director at the English National Football School at Lilleshall between 1991 and 1998) together with Bobby Howe, the former West Ham and Bournemouth defender, completely opened Trusson’s eyes to what could be achieved through good coaching.

“They were in the vanguard of English coaching in the mid to late ‘70s,” he said. “I joined Plymouth as a kid having never been coached. Growing up in Somerset, we just used to play games.

“From when I was 15 to 17, they taught me so much, talking me through so many aspects of the game, and coaching me to understand why I was doing certain things on the pitch, giving advice about things like timing and angled runs.”

In an Albion matchday programme interview, Trusson told reporter Dave Beckett: “They kept us in a youth hostel and looked after us really well, even providing us with carefully planned individual weight and fitness programmes.

“Certainly you couldn’t fault them on their ideas. Out of the 20 apprentices I knew brought on by the scheme, 17 made the grade as pros. That’s an astonishingly high return by anybody’s standards.”

Although Argyle were relegated in his first season, Trusson kept his place under Waiters’ successors in the hotseat: Mike Kelly, Lennie Lawrence and Malcolm Allison. Bobby Saxton was in charge by the time he left Plymouth in the summer of 1980 to join then Third Division Sheffield United.

He was signed by Harry Haslam but, halfway through a season which it was hoped would see Blades among the promotion contenders, things went horribly wrong when Haslam moved ‘upstairs’ and former World Cup winner Martin Peters took over the running of the team. United were relegated to the fourth tier for the first time in their history.

Peters and Haslam quit the club and former Sunderland FA Cup Final matchwinner Ian Porterfield, who had just won the Division Three title with Rotherham, took charge.

*Player of the Year at Sheffield United*

Blades bounced straight back as champions, losing only four games all season, and Trusson was their Player of the Year. He earned the accolade the following season as well, when they finished 11th in Division Three.

The side’s prolific goalscorer at that time, Keith Edwards, a former teammate who now works as a co-commentator covering Blades matches for Radio Sheffield recently told the city’s daily paper The Star: “He was such a likeable character in the dressing room.

“I had a great understanding with him. He was a great team man, good for the dressing room and could play in a lot of positions. Every now and then he got himself up front with me and he worked his heart out.

“He looked after you as a player, he could be a tough lad. We played Altrincham one week and he got sent off for whacking someone that had done me a previous week. He was handy.

“And he was such a good character to have in the team.”

After three years at Bramall Lane, and 126 appearances, (not to mention scoring 31 goals), he was then swapped for Paul Stanicliffe and, instead of involvement in a promotion bid, found himself in a relegation fight at Rotherham United.

Trusson enjoyed his time with the Millers under George Kerr and over four years he played 124 games and chipped in with 19 goals. It was a regime change, and the aforementioned injury, that saw life at Millmoor turn sour.

A brief spell playing for Sing Tao in Hong Kong followed the end of his time with Gillingham and on his return to the UK his pal Pulis, who had taken over as Bournemouth manager from Harry Redknapp, invited him to become youth team coach at Dean Court.

*Linking up with former Gillingham teammate Tony Pulis at Bournemouth*

“I loved it and, when David Kemp moved on, I got the opportunity to coach the first team,” he said.

“We were very young and we were struggling to avoid relegation,” he recalled. “We kept them up and it was great experience. We both learned so much and we spent a lot of time together.”

When Pulis was sacked, Trusson was staggered to be offered the job as his replacement but turned it down out of loyalty to his friend.

The pair have since worked together at various clubs. For example, he was a senior scout at Stoke City and head of recruitment at West Brom.

“I’ve worked for him as a scout at pretty much every club he’s been at,” said Trusson, who cites trust, respect and judgement as the attributes Pulis saw in him.

Trusson was also once marketing manager for football-themed restaurant Football, Football in London – he managed to woo Sean Bean, the actor who is a well-known Blades fanatic, to the opening – and he had a marketing job for the PFA.

He runs his own online soccer coaching scheme and was working as a European scout for Celtic when, in an unexpected return to football’s frontline in November 2020, he was appointed assistant manager of Sheffield Wednesday.

Pulis replaced Garry Monk at Hillsborough and turned to Trusson as his no.2. In that interview with The Star, Edwards said: “He’s a great lad. I was slightly surprised to see him get the job at Wednesday, but it was completely understandable.

“He’s a clever bloke, knows his football and has stayed in the game all this time, which is to his credit. His experience of scouting, coaching and having played in several different positions makes him a massive asset to any football club, I’d say.”

Edwards recalled how his former teammate had an eye for coaching from a young age. “He was always keen to get into that, he always wanted to lend a hand to the coaches,” he said.

“Some players would get off as quickly as they could to their families or whatever they were doing with their time. He wasn’t like that, he bought into the club thing. Some players were always around the place and he was like that, very understanding and willing to help out.

“I had massive fall-outs with the odd person, you know how it is, but I never saw Truss like that. He was always so calm and understanding of other people’s opinion. That’s how and why he’s stayed in the game throughout all this time. That either comes naturally to you or it doesn’t.

“I remember he always had a way of talking to people, whether that’s players or fans or board members or coaches. That’s stuck with him today.”

Why Saint Dan riled the Albion

DAN HARDING was promoted twice with Southampton and once with the Seagulls and later cut short his career because of family tragedy.

Personally, I’m not sure he really need to be cast as ‘public enemy no.1’ because of the way he left Brighton.

With the benefit of hindsight, it was really no surprise that he chose to turn his back on playing at Withdean in favour of Elland Road, Leeds.

OK, the stringing-out of the contract negotiations, and public slanging match that accompanied them, didn’t help matters.

But football careers are short and the Amex was a long way off becoming a reality when Harding decided to opt for pastures new.

“I really enjoyed my time at Brighton but you can’t compare the size of the two clubs or the facilities,” he told the Leeds matchday programme at the time. “It has been like going from one world to another.”

Ironically, it seems his success on the pitch with Brighton, which led to him gaining international recognition, might well have been the unsettling influence.

Former Albion boss Peter Taylor selected him for England under-21s as the 2004-05 season got underway. He made his England debut as a substitute for Micah Richards in a 3-1 win over Ukraine at the Riverside Stadium, Middlesbrough, on 17 August 2004. Future full internationals James Milner and Darren Bent were in the same squad.

He started the 8 October 2004 match against Wales at Ewood Park, Blackburn: a 2-0 win courtesy of goals from Milner and Bent. He also started the game four days later when the under 21s drew 0-0 away to Azerbaijan in Baku. His last cap came the following month in a 1-0 defeat away to Spain when he was replaced by Ben Watson. Future Albion loanee Liam Ridgewell was also a substitute in that game.

It was this platform that sowed the seeds of discord, according to former chairman Dick Knight’s take on the circumstances surrounding Harding’s acrimonious departure from the Albion.

In his autobiography Mad Man: From the Gutter to the Stars, Knight reckoned it was while on international duty that Harding was “egged on by his agent about his value after talking to players with bigger clubs, on bigger wages”.

Knight went on: “Early on, I offered him a sizeable contract renewal but he sat on it. He kept saying he wanted to stay, but I don’t think he had any intention of doing so.

“Because he was under 24, we were entitled to compensation. Shaun Harvey, the Leeds chief executive – who became CEO of the Football League in July 2013 – tested me with a couple of paltry sums before finally offering £250,000, which I rejected.”

DH Leeds action 2 Via the Football League tribunal system, Knight managed to get the figure up to £850,000, part achievement-based, and with a 20 per cent sell-on clause.

All in all, not a bad return for a player who came through the Albion’s youth and reserve ranks after being spotted at 15 playing for Hove Park Colts.

Born in Gloucester on 23 December 1983, the young Harding loved kicking a football from the moment he could walk and enjoyed watching his dad, Kevan, turn out for the Army team.

The family was posted to Brighton, and Harding was taken to the Goldstone Ground by his mum, Linda. One of his earliest memories was on 23 September 1992 seeing a 17-year-old David Beckham make his Manchester United debut as a substitute for Andrei Kanchelskis in a League Cup tie that finished 1-1.

Harding joined the Albion initially on schoolboy terms for a year and was then taken on as a YTS trainee, progressing through the juniors and reserves before eventually making his first team debut on 17 August 2002, during Martin Hinshelwood’s brief reign, as a substitute for Shaun Wilkinson in a 2-0 home defeat to Norwich City.

After Hinshelwood was replaced by Steve Coppell, and Harding sustained a back injury, the youngster played no further part in the first team picture that season, but he was awarded a new contract in April 2003.

In the first part of the 2003-04 season, Harding was a regular on the bench, but, on 21 February 2004, Coppell’s successor, Mark McGhee, gave him his full debut in place of the suspended Kerry Mayo in a 3-0 win over Bournemouth.

Harding kept his place through to the end of the season, making a total of 23 appearances, including being part of the side that lifted the divisional play-off trophy at the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff, as the Seagulls beat Bristol City 1-0.

“In hindsight, it was a very lucky time for me. I broke into a team that was winning games and was promoted,” he told the Daily Echo. “Looking back now, I don’t think I appreciated at the time what a big achievement it was.”

Sent off in only the second game of the following season for two bookable offences, it wasn’t long before his contract discussions were aired publicly, with McGhee telling the Argus in October: “It’s starting to really frustrate me.

“Dan keeps telling us and saying publicly he wants to sign but we cannot tie his agent down to have a meeting with us. He has to be honest with us.”

Harding in turn denied he was being difficult, telling the Argus that talks were ongoing.

The off-field issues certainly seemed to be troubling Harding and McGhee publicly blamed the defender for a 2-0 defeat at Millwall in December. He was also outmuscled by Stoke City’s Ade Akinbiyi in a game at Withdean, leading to a late winner for the visitors. Across the season, McGhee dropped him on four occasions because of such inconsistency.

When he won his place back in February, he told the Argus: “I had to prove not only to the gaffer but to the other players and the fans that I want that position back.

“That’s where I prefer to play. I like to call that my position. I don’t mind playing on the left hand side of midfield or centre midfield, but I do love playing at left-back.

“Hopefully I can reproduce the same sort of form and keep my confidence up. Everyone wants to be playing, so when you are left out it’s a bit of a kick in the teeth. It’s not nice, but you have to pick yourself up and try to get back into the team.”

DH leeds action 1 However, the Brighton contract offer was declined and on 7 June that summer, Harding put pen to paper on a deal with Leeds, whose fans were no doubt delighted to read that he used to follow their fortunes when he was a youngster.

“When I lived in Germany, they showed quite a lot of Leeds games on telly and, in a strange way, I kind of ended up supporting them because it was the only football I really got to see out there,” he said.

His dad later took him to a Leeds FA Cup match v Wolves, and he added: “I have to admit I have been a closet Leeds fan. Obviously, I didn’t shout about it when I was playing for Brighton and it’s kind of strange now that this move has happened.”

If Harding doubted the size of the task at Elland Road, he’d only have had to read the comments of manager Kevin Blackwell, often Neil Warnock’s no.2, who was the Leeds manager at the time.

In an article about Harding in the club programme, Blackwell said: “It has been a big transition for him. No disrespect to Brighton, but coming from the scaffolding at Withdean to Elland Road was a big step-up for Dan. He was nervous in the first couple of games, but he has started to settle down.”

He talked about how he needed to cement his place at United, and added: “If he does succeed here, all the doors will be open to him. I have no doubt that once he develops certain aspects of his game and his self-confidence, he will go a long way because he is a real athlete with a great left foot.”

Brighton fans vented their displeasure at how things had turned out every time Harding touched the ball when Leeds entertained the Seagulls on 12 September 2005; a game which finished 3-3. The fact two of Albion’s goals came from crosses on Harding’s flank prompted Blackwell to drop him for the following match.

After only seven games, Harding picked up an injury and, over the course of the season, played just 21 matches for United. In August 2006, the Yorkshire club used the full-back as a makeweight in a deal which took future Albion loanee Ian Westlake from Ipswich to Leeds.

He was a regular at Portman Road for a couple of seasons but, in his third season, manager Jim Magilton deemed him surplus to requirements and sent him out on loan to Southend United. I recall going to a match at Roots Hall and seeing him have an outstanding game against Brighton.

Later the same season, with Ipswich bobbing along in mid-table, Harding seized the chance to join Steve Coppell’s promotion-chasing Reading, and he played in their play-offs defeat to Burnley.

When Roy Keane took over at Ipswich in 2009, Harding was sold to Southampton; manager Alan Pardew’s first signing for the Saints. Harding’s former Albion youth coach, Dean Wilkins, was part of Pardew’s coaching team.

Harding reflected in an interview with the Southern Daily Echo that what followed were the happiest three years of his career, in which he played 121 games and chipped in with five goals.

In 2010-11, he was named in the PFA League One team of the year along with teammates Kelvin Davies, Jose Fonte, Adam Lallana and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.

In the harsh and fickle world of football, Brighton fans relished Brighton’s 3-0 win over Southampton at the Amex on 2 January 2012 when Albion winger Will Buckley gave Harding such a torrid time that, to compound his humiliation, the former Brighton player was subbed off by boss Nigel Adkins with five minutes of the first half still to play.

Although part of the Saints side that won promotion back to the Premier League that May, Harding didn’t get the chance to play at the top level because Adkins moved him on to Nottingham Forest.

Harding talked in detail to the Echo’s Paul McNamara about life at Forest, which he found an unstable place, especially when Sean O’Driscoll, the manager who signed him, was sacked.

Although he played some games under that legendary left-back Stuart Pearce, when he took over, Harding eventually went on loan to Millwall, but wasn’t able to help them stave off relegation from the Championship.

He reveals in his interview with McNamara how disillusioned he became with the amount of dishonesty in football and, coupled with his pregnant wife losing two of the triplets she was expecting, he put family before football and, at the age of only 31, dropped down four divisions to play non-league with Eastleigh.

He talked about the tough decisions he’d had to make in an interview before a FA Cup tie Eastleigh played against Bolton Wanderers.

In 2016, Harding joined Whitehawk as a player, then became part of the coaching set-up, and was briefly caretaker manager before the appointment of Steve King.

FA Youth Cup winner McPherson shored up leaky Seagulls defence

CENTRAL defender Keith McPherson made just one top division appearance for West Ham’s first team but went on to have a lengthy professional career, with a swansong at Brighton & Hove Albion.

Born of Jamaican parents in Greenwich on 11 September 1963, McPherson signed as an apprentice for the Hammers in 1980 and was a member of the FA Youth Cup winning side in 1981 (they beat Spurs 2-1 over two legs).

It was only the second time in the club’s history they had won the trophy and the excellent theyflysohigh.co.uk faithfully records the details on its website; headlined by the fact young Paul Allen had played in the Hammers FA Cup winning side the year before but was still eligible to play for the youth team.

WHU K McP McPherson’s single first team appearance came at home to Liverpool on 20 May 1985, the last game of the season, which finished 3-0 to the visitors.

Unable to break through again, he had an 11-game loan spell with Cambridge United before a fee of £15,000 took him to Northampton Town in January 1986. He went on to play 216 times for the Cobblers over the next four and a half years.

In the summer of 1990, he joined then First Division Reading where he played for nine years.

Royals’ manager Ian Porterfield signed him having been impressed when the defender scored twice against Reading in previous visits to Elm Park.

McPherson Read McPherson was a regular at the heart of the Royals defence at Elm Park and the Madejski Stadium, and was a key part of the Mark McGhee side that won the Division 2 Championship in 1994.

After spending nine years at Reading, many as captain, and making 317 league and cup appearances, he joined the Albion at the age of 35 shortly before the March transfer deadline in 1999 as beleaguered manager Jeff Wood tried to shore up the centre of a defence which had been leaking goals at an alarming rate.

He made his debut in a hard-fought 0-0 draw away to relegation-threatened Hartlepool which registered Albion’s first point for seven games and first clean sheet since the start of November.

*King, McPherson, Doherty and trainee Duncan McArthur all made debuts at Hartlepool*

The game also saw Wood give debuts to another experienced defender in former Swindon full-back Phil King together with young Charlton loanee Lee Doherty.

With Albion up against it in the league, McPherson even played with a broken nose, manager Wood telling the Argus: “He is happy to play. It doesn’t affect his breathing and his nose is not the prettiest anyway.

“He is very important to us. I brought him in for his experience and if he didn’t play it would weaken us considerably.”

Before the season was out, the experienced defender had played 10 games under three managers and ended up as captain!

Caretaker manager Martin Hinshelwood handed him the armband for his one match in charge, at Plymouth, and McPherson carried on as captain when Micky Adams took over as manager for the final five fixtures.

One of Adams’ first moves once the season had ended was to secure McPherson’s signature for the following season. Adams told the Argus: “Keith is an older and experienced professional who has still got a bit of life in him.”

For the veteran defender, it was all something of a whirlwind. He said: “It has been very eventful. Jeff brought me down and when the chairman decided he had to go that made my position precarious. When something like that happens, all you can do is play well.”

He continued: “I’m delighted. Micky Adams must have liked what he has seen.”

Having helped Reading to promotion from the old Fourth Division in 1987, McPherson pointed out: “I know all about the hustle and bustle at this level. It’s a matter of being organised. The gaffer has made it clear he wants promotion, which is good for the club and the fans.

“We are going to be playing back in Brighton next season and he wants winners.”

*McPherson in the 1999-00 squad photo with Gary Hobson and Charlie Oatway*

McPherson went on to play 25 times that season but, having turned 36, it was his last season in a professional career that saw him play more than 500 games.

The emergence of Danny Cullip curtailed his appearances but, when released on a free transfer at the end of the season, together with Warren Aspinall, Adams said: “The door is not closed on them. They have been good lads, model pros.

“They have done well for us this season, but their appearances have been restricted because of other people’s good form.”

When McPherson decided to move to non-league Slough Town to wind down his playing days, Adams told the Argus: “We are sorry to see him go. He is a good pro who always works hard and tries his best.”

After 75 appearances for Slough, McPherson went back to Reading as a coach.

According to getreading.co.uk, he now lives in Surrey and does computing at a private school.

Pictures: various online sources, and Albion matchday programmes.

Illness put paid to John Piercy’s promising career

A FIVE-YEAR professional football career bookended by 3-1 results against Crewe Alexandra almost certainly wouldn’t have been the path John Piercy would have chosen for himself.

One saw him make a promising debut for Tottenham Hotspur on 13 October 1999, subbed off to a terrific ovation from a 25,000 crowd at White Hart Lane on 74 minutes as they progressed in a League Cup game against the lower league opposition.

The other was a League One defeat for Brighton & Hove Albion at humble Withdean Stadium on 6 November 2004, subbed off ignominiously only 12 minutes into the second half with many in the crowd of 6,163 unaware that the hereditary bowel disease afflicting him was putting paid to his hopes of a football career.

Born in Forest Gate, east London, on 18 September 1979, Spurs first spotted Piercy as a stand-out 12-year-old, talented enough to represent England Schoolboys.

He became a trainee with Spurs at the age of 16 and signed as a professional in July 1998.

It was George Graham who gave him his first team debut for Spurs in that game against Crewe, starting him up front alongside Chris Armstrong in a side that featured future Brighton player and assistant manager Mauricio Taricco in defence.

The Spurs goals were scored by Oyvind Leonhardsen, David Ginola and Tim Sherwood, but spursodyssey.com was full of praise for the young Piercy.

“One young man who will remember this night more than most is 20-year-old debutant John Piercy, who won the home fans’ hearts with two terrific efforts on goal, and an eye-catching performance all round,” it said. They even went as far as to suggest he might be ‘the new Ginola’.

The performance was good enough to earn him a place on the bench for the following Saturday’s Premier League game away to Derby County and he was called into action in the second half to replace Armstrong as Spurs won 1-0.

He made two more league appearances that season and an excellent Spurs archive website said of him: “The solidly built East Londoner had the ability to lead the line and to make chances for his team-mates, by going wide and taking people on.

“Some work was needed on his first touch and his pace, but he was strong, direct and knew where the goal was. Preferred to play wide on the left of midfield, but was deployed at full back in the reserves to good effect.”

Chris Hughton was the Spurs reserve team manager at the time and said of Piercy: “John is able to adapt well to different roles which is why we’ve played him at full-back in pre-season when we’ve been stretched in those areas. But I’d say his best position is definitely right or left of midfield.”

On 4 April 1999, he started for England under 20s against the USA in the World Youth Championships in Nigeria, but was subbed off in a game England lost 1-0. His teammates that day included future full international Ashley Cole, and the side was managed by former Albion full-back Chris Ramsey.

john piercy Frustrated by the lack of first team opportunities at Spurs, Piercy, by then based in Eastbourne, opted to join Brighton in September 2002 during Martin Hinshelwood’s brief reign as manager.

Hinshelwood told the BBC: “He’s a player who can play in a variety of positions. That will give us plenty of options.”

A first team breakthrough at Brighton was slow to happen, however, with Hinshelwood’s successor, Steve Coppell, opting for experience in the ultimately unsuccessful battle to avoid relegation from the second tier. Piercy top-scored for the reserves that season, netting 13 goals from midfield.

However, shortly after Mark McGhee’s appointment, he did get some game time and in December 2003 also registered his first league goal in a 1-0 win at home to Wrexham.

Later the same month, he went one better playing up front in place of the suspended Leon Knight and scored twice in a resounding 4-0 home win over Wycombe Wanderers.

More often than not, though, he was brought on as a substitute rather than starting games. He made just eight league starts and in six of them was subbed off.

His other appearances (16) were all from the bench and that was the role he found himself in at the 2004 play-off final at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, although his contribution was certainly effective.

Piercy replaced Nathan Jones in the 77^th minute. “He (McGhee) made a change with just over 10 minutes left and we went on to win the game, so no one is going to complain, are they?” Jones told walesonline.co.uk.

Reports also recorded how Brighton threatened Steve Phillips’ goal moments after Piercy replaced Jones, Iwelumo glancing the substitute’s cross wide of the far post.

Sadly for Piercy, while he showed promise on the football pitch, he began to suffer the horribly debilitating effects of colitis, as he described in an interview with the Argus.

He praised the support he got from McGhee and reserve team boss Dean White but it reached a point where it was evident the illness was simply sapping too much energy from him to continue a full-time professional football career.

That defeat at home to Crewe proved to be his last game for the Albion and he announced his retirement aged 25 shortly afterwards.

“He knows his capabilties and I know his capabilities,” said McGhee in a matchday programme article. “He’s a player that could easily cope with the standard of the Championship but this illness has just affected him in a way that he just can’t get fit enough to do himself justice.”

Chairman Dick Knight added: “It is a great shame that such a skilful player, with such tremendous natural ability, has seen his career curtailed in such a cruel way. All at the club are devastated for him to be hanging up his boots at the relatively young age of 25.”

Piercy subsequently regained sufficient fitness to play a season with non-league Eastbourne Borough and then took up a coaching role with the club.

Nowadays he is a sports coach at Ocklynge Junior School in Eastbourne where he teaches youngsters football and PE, and is also a coach at CACL Sports in the town.

Piercy Ocklynge Sch

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pictures: Albion matchday programme and online sources.

Winger Walker a genuine crowd-pleasing entertainer

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

CW Fort Laud

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

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

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

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

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

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

3-2 N v Sun CWalker

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Promotion-winning full-back Paul Watson delivered for Zamora

DEPENDABLE full-back Paul Watson will best be remembered by Brighton fans for a sweet left foot that invariably created goalscoring chances for Bobby Zamora

.Previously, Watson made 57 appearances in a season-and-a-half with Fulham, and was a mainstay in their famous 1996-97 side that earned promotion from Division Three under Micky Adams.

.Born in Hastings on 4 January 1975, Watson began his playing career with Gillingham, where he spent five years before following Adams to Fulham in July 1996.

He teamed up with Adams once more, at Brentford, where he played for 20 months before signing for the Albion in a joint deal with Bees teammate Charlie Oatway.

Watson was a key member of the side that won back-to-back championships, helping the Seagulls from the fourth to the second tier.

The left-footed right back was particularly accurate from dead ball situations and his pinpoint passing proved ideal for Zamora to thrive on.

In Paul Camillin’s Match of My Life book (knowthescorebooks.com, 2009), Zamora said: “Whenever Watto got the ball I knew precisely where I needed to run to and he knew where to deliver it to.

“It was just such a great connection: Watto has an absolutely wonderful left foot and it made my job as a striker so much easier when you get deliveries like that.”

At the time of the interview, Zamora had moved on to Premiership Fulham and had played several seasons at the highest level. He said: “I don’t think I have come across anybody with a better left foot than Watto’s.

“I was very lucky to have played in the same team as him: he created numerous goals for me; not only with his deliveries but with his intelligent play as well.”

When the Seagulls finished top of the third tier under Adams’ successor Peter Taylor, Watson was one of four former Fulham players in the side: Danny Cullip, Simon Morgan and Paul Brooker the others.

The disastrous run of 12 defeats under Martin Hinshelwood, after such a promising start in the second tier, took the players by surprise, as Watson revealed in an extended interview with Jon Culley for the Wolverhampton Wanderers matchday programme on 11 November 2002.

“Obviously we were aware it was a step up but we thought we would at least do okay,” he said. “Nobody was suggesting we would win promotion for a third season in a row, but, with a couple of new signings and the quality that was already in the side, we didn’t think we would struggle as we have.

“Everything started off all right. We had a good win at Burnley and then a 0-0 draw against Coventry and the way we were playing seemed to be working but after that nothing would go right.

“Every bit of luck, even the referees’ decisions, seemed to go against us and we could not get a point for love nor money.”

Watson conceded that the squad Peter Taylor had led to the Second Division title before his resignation faced a steeper learning curve than anticipated.

“You have to appreciate that 80 per cent of the squad had never played in the First Division before and it is a big jump in terms of the technical quality of some of the people you are up against,” he said.

Watson admitted the loss of Taylor had come as a big blow, and said: “Peter Taylor had been the England coach, even if it was only for one game, and to attract a manager of that quality to a club such as ourselves was very exciting. Lots of players were gutted when he left.”

The arrival of Steve Coppell as manager gave the team renewed hope, although at the time Watson also spoke about the return to fitness and form of Zamora.

“Bobby was out for a while at the beginning of the season and you are always going to miss a player of his quality,” he said. “Now that he is beginning to get his fitness back, hopefully he will be able to make a difference to our fortunes.

“Nobody here is talking about relegation despite the start we have made. The arrival of players like Dean Blackwell and Simon Rodger have given a bit more know-how to the squad. We think we have what it takes to stay up.”

Obviously, it didn’t quite turn out that way, although they came mighty close to avoiding the drop. Watson stayed with the club the following season when Mark McGhee came in and steered the Seagulls to play-off victory in Cardiff against Bristol City, but his regular right-back slot was taken over by Adam Virgo.

After six years with the Seagulls, Watson left in July 2005, once again following ex-boss Adams, this time to Coventry City.

“I’ve got a lot of respect for him,” Watson told fulhamfc.com. “He’s made my career, basically! I’ll always have good things to say about him. Wherever he’s been he’s always been able to get the best out of his players, and he got the best out of me as well.”

However, Watson only played three games in a six-month spell with the Sky Blues, before going non-league with Woking, playing 15 games and, in the 2006-07 season, appearing in 44 games for Rushden & Diamonds.

He then had a season with Crawley and finally finished playing with Bognor. After hanging up his boots, Watson undertook a physiotherapy degree and was subsequently taken on by the Albion.

“It kind of started when I was at Brighton,” Watson told fulhamfc.com. “I had a couple of injuries towards the end of my time there and the physio at the time, Malcolm Stuart, helped me along and pointed me in the right direction.

Watto phys

“I did a couple of courses while I was still playing which helped me get onto my degree when I retired.”

Watson spent just short of nine years with the Albion’s physio team, initially with the development squad and then with the first team, during which time he earned a first class honours degree in physiotherapy at Brunel University, graduating in 2012.

Since June 2017 he has been head physio at Sheffield United and is currently studying for a Master’s degree in Sports Physiotherapy with Bath University.

Fluctuating fortunes for Guy Butters after beginning alongside Spurs stars

Spurs’ programme remembers the early years of his career.

A programme cover shows Butts in action for Pompey v Oxford.

GUY BUTTERS saw plenty of highs and lows in a 20-year playing career that started with great promise at Tottenham Hotspur and included six years at Brighton, where he still works.

Butts coaches for Albion in the Community, he’s scouted players, hosted hospitality lounges and still turns out to play in charity matches, not to mention sharing a constant flow of corny jokes with his 3,700+ followers on Twitter!

Promotion via the play-offs at Cardiff in 2004 and being chosen as player of the season would be up there in terms of highs with Brighton.

My personal favourite came on 13 November 2004, when Butters scored the only goal of the game as Albion committed daylight robbery in front of 29,514 packed into West Ham’s Boleyn Ground.

BZ GB Brighton were up against it going into the game and had taken veteran Steve Claridge on for a month to help them out of a striker crisis. Hammers threw everything at the Albion that afternoon but somehow the Seagulls kept the ball out and, on 68 minutes, Butts, up for a Richard Carpenter free kick, got his head on the end of it to send the ball into the back of the net in front of the Seagull faithful.

Even after versatile Adam Virgo and Hammers’ Haydn Mullins were sent off for a scrap on 74 minutes, and West Ham bought on substitute Bobby Zamora, the scoreline remained 1-0 to the Albion.

A couple of months later, it was obviously a special day for Butters when, on 8 January 2005, he was given the captain’s armband to lead the Albion in their third round FA Cup tie against Spurs at White Hart Lane.

A programme portrait and skipper for the day in the FA Cup at White Hart Lane.

The matchday programme recalled how Butters “was very much the discovery of the 1988-89 season when manager Terry Venables lifted the tough tackling former Spurs trainee from our reserves to the first team to play alongside Gary Mabbutt and Chris Fairclough in a back three.

“Guy was also in there alongside such names as Paul Gascoigne, Chris Hughton, Chris Waddle, Paul Walsh, Terry Fenwick, Paul Stewart, (former Brighton Cup Final hero) Gary Stevens and Paul Allen. And he kept his regular place the following season when Gary Lineker was added to the squad.”

Born on 30 October 1969 in Hillingdon, he made his debut shortly after his 19^th birthday in a League Cup game against Blackburn, and suffered the agony of scoring an own goal. But on his full league debut as a sub against Wimbledon on 12 November 1988, he made amends with a goal in the right end.

“We won that one 3-2 but it’s probably better remembered by Spurs fans as the game in which Gary Stevens was injured following a tackle by Vinnie Jones,” Butters told the Spurs programme.

“I’ve got great memories of my time at Tottenham but, looking back, I recall spending much of my time trying to avoid Gazza who was always up to something! But it was the players around me that I will never forget – I was in there with men who had appeared in World Cups, and that’s my abiding memory.”

The year after his Spurs debut, Butters also earned international honours. In June 1989, he was involved in three England under 21 tournament matches in Espoirs de Toulon matches.

He started in the 3-2 defeat to Bulgaria on 5 June, and was replaced by substitute Neil Ruddock. Two days later, he came on as a sub for Dean Yates in England’s 6-1 thrashing of Senegal in Sainte Mazime. Two days after that, he came on as a sub for Ruddock, as the under 21s drew 0-0 with the Republic of Ireland in Six-Fours-les-Plages.

Of that side, Carlton Palmer, David Batty and David Hirst went on to gain full England caps, but those three games were Butters’ only representative appearances.

After limited game time at Spurs in the 1989-90 season, Butters went out on loan to Fourth Division Southend United, scoring three times in 16 games.

Steve Sedgley, Fenwick and Gudni Bergsson were all ahead of him as potential partners for Mabbutt so, on 28 September 1990, he was transferred to Portsmouth for a fee of £375,000, having made a total of 35 league appearances for Tottenham.

At Pompey, he played at the back alongside Kit Symons and colleagues included Mark Chamberlain on the wing and Warren Aspinall up front, together with his ex-Spurs teammate Paul Walsh, now better known as a Sky Sports pundit.

But there were mixed fortunes for Butters at Pompey, which he spoke about in a November 2016 interview for the Portsmouth website. He was there six years and enjoyed some good times when Jim Smith was manager.

guy butters YouTube

He had a brief spell on loan with Oxford United in 1994 and he eventually realised his time at Fratton Park was up when a regime change saw the arrival of Terry Venables, who was the Spurs boss when he was sold to Portsmouth.

Tony Pulis signed him for Gillingham for £225,000 on 18 October 1996 and, in six years at Priestfield, one game in particular stands out for the unfortunate pivotal moment Butters played in it.

It was 30 May 1999, the Football League Second Division play-off final to determine the third and final team to gain promotion and Gillingham were up against Manchester City, remarkably, at that time, struggling to get out of the third tier of English football.

Goals from Carl Asaba and Bob Taylor on 81 and 87 minutes looked to have given Pulis’ side victory. But Kevin Horlock had pulled one back for Joe Royle’s City and, as normal time expired, former Albion loanee Paul Dickov equalised for City in the fifth minute of added on time to level the scores at 2-2.

With no further scoring in extra time, it went to penalties. City scored three of their first four; Gills had scored only one of their three. So, the pressure was on Butters, the fourth penalty taker, to bury it to keep the Gills in it.

When Butters stepped up and hit it low to ‘keeper Nicky Weaver’s left…. it was within the 20-year-old’s reach, and he pushed it away. Cue wild celebrations as City won the shoot-out 3-1.

“Missing that penalty was one of the worst moments of my life but you have to move on and I am not afraid to have another go,” Butters told interviewer Alex Crook in an article for the 2004 Division Two play-off final match programme. “At the time, I just wanted the ground to swallow me up but nobody blamed me because it was just one of those things.”

Consolation for Butters came the following year when Gillingham returned to Wembley and on that occasion won 3-2 in extra-time against Wigan Athletic. As with Pompey, Butters had six years in total with the Kent club and played 159 league games before being released in the summer of 2002.

The 2002-03 season was already under way by the time Butters joined Albion on a free transfer and, in the September, he was doing his own personal pre-season workout programme in a bid to get fit.

“When I first came here I had to do a lot of extra work with Dean White,” Butters told Brian Owen, of the Argus. “It was a case of trying to cram a lot of stuff into a little space of time. I wasn’t really getting too much time to recover after it.”

The managerial change from Martin Hinshelwood to Steve Coppell didn’t do Butters any favours either. Virgo and Butters were the centre back pairing for Coppell’s first match – a 4-2 home defeat to Bristol City – and both were then discarded into the wilderness. Virgo went on loan to Exeter and, after Coppell brought in Dean Blackwell to play alongside Danny Cullip, Butters was sent out on loan to Barnet.

But when injury meant Blackwell’s career was over, the door opened again for Butters and he seized the opportunity to such an extent that as Albion won promotion back to the second tier via the play-offs, he was voted player of the season.

GB potseas by Bennett Dean • 2004 Player of the Season pictured by Bennett Dean.

In fact, it was the arrival of Mark McGhee to succeed Coppell that was very much a turning point in Butters’ career because he had previously been considering hanging up his boots.

In Match of My Life (www.knowthescorebooks.com), he said: “Mark was a real breath of fresh air as manager. Straight away he helped me with a special diet and fitness programme aimed at improving my general match fitness, but, more importantly, helping me work towards prolonging my professional football career.

“He was the first manager to do that and under his guidance I began to thrive and really enjoy my football again.”

As the Argus previewed the 2004-05 season with a special publication, they declared: “Buoyed by a great run of form in last season’s run-in and looking in good shape in training, Butters is ready for another stab at the second tier of English football.”

And Butters said: “This year I did a bit in the summer when I was on holiday and the gaffer put us through our paces so I’m sure that when the season starts I’ll be pretty match fit.

“It’s a big step up but, if we can get a few results away from home, not too many of those big teams are going to fancy coming to Withdean.”

The Argus spots a lighter refreshing moment!
Butters and Cullip were opponents when the Seagulls won at Sheffield United, another moment captured by the Argus.

Three years later, at the age of 37, Butters was still with the Seagulls and looking forward to what would ultimately turn out to be his last in the stripes.

“I thoroughly enjoyed it last year,” Butters told Andy Naylor. “It is probably one of the most enjoyable seasons I’ve had.

“I missed out on pre-season last year through injury. The gaffer was amazed I played as many games as I did.

“I cannot see why, with a decent pre-season under my belt and, as long as I look after myself, that I cannot do the same again.

“I just want to go on playing as long as I can and along the way enhance my CV with coaching badges.”

Manager Dean Wilkins finally released Butters at the end of the 2007-08 season, during which he had been sent off for the first time in his career.

He’d played a total of 187 games for the Seagulls and carried on playing with Havant & Waterlooville briefly plus a seven-game spell on loan at Lewes before trying his hand at management with Winchester City and Eastleigh.

Guy + Nick

I got the chance to meet Guy when he kindly presented an award at an event I was involved in organising: what a great bloke!

In parallel lines

Memories from more than 55 years following Brighton & Hove Albion

Tag: Martin Hinshelwood