Bees and Seagulls milestones on Michael Bennett’s wellbeing journey

IT ALMOST certainly wouldn’t have occurred to the loyal few Albion fans who followed the basement division Seagulls in exile in 1998-99 that one of the men in stripes would go on to make a difference to the lives of hundreds of footballers.

Brighton was the eighth and last league club Michael Bennett played for over the course of 12 years in which he discovered all the highs and lows that footballers can experience.

Since packing up playing, those personal insights helped him to begin a journey that led him to help huge numbers to cope with the game’s often-unseen stresses and strains.

Bennett became a psychotherapist, gained a degree and led the setting up of a counselling and mental health and wellbeing support network for the Professional Footballers’ Association, where he worked for 15 years, latterly as director of player wellbeing. In that role, he was frequently a media spokesman for the PFA.

Now running his own counselling business it’s all a far cry from the days when his league playing career ended filling a variety of positions in Brian Horton’s fourth-tier Brighton team, playing home games in exile at Gillingham. In one game, he was racially abused by a Swansea City fan who ran onto the pitch to confront him (more of which, later).

It was quite a fall from career highlights that saw him play for England at under-20 level alongside the likes of Matt Le Tissier, David Batty, Neil Ruddock and Tim Sherwood, make his debut at 17 in the top division for Charlton Athletic alongside John Humphrey, Colin Pates and Steve Gritt, and feature for Brentford (with Chris Hughton and Neil Smillie) when the Bees played second-tier football for the first time in 38 years.

While Addicks fans remember Bennett fondly, Bees supporters are a lot less generous and mainly recall a training ground incident in which the player broke a teammate’s jaw with a single punch.

The internet can be – and is – many things and unfortunately for people like Dr Bennett, such past incidents are still recorded for all to read about.

Thankfully, all the excellent work he has achieved in the health and wellbeing field is also documented and, in October 2021, Andy Naylor of The Athletic did an in-depth piece which examined his journey in detail.

“The story of his rise to prominence as a leader in his field is inspirational, a demonstration that with application, determination and drive you can build a career in the game that extends well beyond playing football,” wrote Naylor.

Bennett eschewed a coaching career (even though he passed his UEFA B licence) and at college, while studying Maths and English, was urged to take up counselling. As Naylor reported: “By 2004, Bennett had his degree in it and the following year he set up his own company, Unique Sports Counselling.”

Three years later, he joined the PFA as southern region education adviser aiming to get players to prepare for life after football. He also invited attendees to his workshops to speak to him privately about emotional issues – and he discovered there were plenty who took up the offer.

Eventually he persuaded then PFA chairman Gordon Taylor of the need for a designated wellbeing department dealing with the welfare of players.

In 2015, Sam Wallace of The Independent interviewed Bennett for an article about troubles ex-Arsenal and England full-back Kenny Sansom was facing. He discovered the year before the PFA had requests for support from 197 of its members.

“That is some caseload for Bennett, a man who talks in the careful, measured tones of someone used to dealing with problems that must seem intractable,” wrote Wallace. “Last year, the PFA established a 24-hour telephone helpline for members. Safe to say, it is not underused.”

The problem, Bennett told Wallace, is that the elite-level game prepares footballers physically but not emotionally. “What we realise is players often don’t get asked how they are. They get asked about football. When they get asked about their emotions, they tend to open up.”

After a 2017 presentation by Bennett to first and second-year scholars at Norwich City, Canaries’ assistant head of education and welfare Mike Macias told Press Association Sport: “When they see it and hear it coming from someone like Mickey, who has been there, done it and bought the T-shirt, they will think: ‘This impacts me and there is someone there to help me’.”

When Bennett left the PFA earlier in 2025, he said: “I am proud of the work we have done within the department which has grown into a vital and impactful part of the PFA’s mission, ensuring that wellbeing remains at the heart of everything we do.”

Among dozens of messages of thanks for his contribution left on his LinkedIn account was one from former Albion and West Ham midfielder George Parris, who wrote: “A great stint Dr Bennett, thanks for all your help, support and encouragement not just to myself, but loads of other people along the way during your time at the PFA.”

Born to Jamaican parents in Camberwell on 27 July 1969, Bennett was raised in a block of flats near Millwall’s old ground, The Den, and it was only when he was spotted by Charlton playing Sunday League football that thoughts of a professional career in the game arose.

He went straight into the Addicks academy at 16 and made his debut in Charlton’s first team a year later. In his interview for The Athletic, he said: “You move from a youth team changing room to a first-team changing room. People don’t talk about that transition but that, for me, was pressure. I’ve gone from having jokes and banter with the boys in the youth team to the first team.

“The pressure intensifies. You put it on yourself more than anything else, because you don’t want to let anyone down.”

He continued: “The first well-being issues came when I signed for Charlton. I went from parks football, having fun, to going into a pressurised environment where results are key and you know if you have one or two bad games there’s somebody behind you waiting to take your spot.

“So, the pressure for me was constant. I wasn’t able to deal with that, I didn’t know who to talk to about it. I’d already formed my personality going into the game. I’m a very talkative person and I like to talk about stuff. There wasn’t anyone to do that with.”

On top of the various issues he was facing as a young player, he then ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament and crushed the cartilage in his knee against QPR in December 1988 which sidelined him for nine months. By his own admission, when he eventually returned to action he was not the same player, concerned over whether the injury would happen again.

On the fans forum Charlton Life: ‘Amos on the wing’ wrote: “One of the good guys Mickey Bennett. Good player, but was never quite the same player after his bad injury against OPR in 1988.”

Another poster, Leroy Ambrose, said: “One of my favourite players from the ‘Sellout’ era (ed: Charlton played ‘home’ games at Selhurst Park at the time). Good bloke – my mate was a mascot back when he was playing and he and his parents were thrilled at how nice he was, and how much time he took with them during the pre-match kickabout and after the game.”

And Ormiston_Addick added: “Started brilliantly for us, great pace and drive but never the same player after doing his knee. Great little period in 88-89 with our ‘Black Magic’ front line of Bennett – Leaburn – Williams – Mortimer.”

‘Home’ continued to be Selhurst Park between 1990 and 1992 after Bennett switched to then top division Wimbledon, who rented Palace’s stadium because their own Plough Lane wasn’t up to scratch for the top division. But Bennett was never a regular for the Dons and he and Detzi Kruszynski were used as makeweights in the transfer of Dean Holdsworth from Brentford to Wimbledon.

He joined just as Brentford began playing second tier football for the first time since 1954 but the elevation didn’t last long. They were relegated in bottom place come May 1993 although Bennett was a fixture in the side, playing a total of 43 league and cup matches plus six as a sub, and scoring four goals.

The Brentford fans forum bfctalk declared: “Despite losing Chris Hughton in December to a career ending injury, no real replacement was signed until March by which time the rot had well and truly set in. Mickey Bennett flattered to deceive and was a one game in four merchant, Detzi Kruszynski had an aversion to training and hard work.”

In another post, the forum said Bennett had “started out like a house on fire as a direct and goal hungry right winger and we thought we had discovered a new star, but he too flattered to deceive”.

It was what happened in November 1993 that many Bees fans of a certain vintage remember. Bennett had his contract terminated by manager David Webb after breaking transfer-listed teammate Joe Allon’s jaw in three places with one punch in a training ground incident.

But the PFA backed Bennett’s version of the incident and took Brentford to a Football League commission of appeal which decided the player should be reinstated. However, Bennett knew his position in the Griffin Park dressing room was untenable, and he was released by mutual consent.

The incident was back in the spotlight five years later when the media was pondering what fate awaited John Hartson for his infamous West Ham training ground kick in the head of teammate Eyal Berkovich.

Bennett, by then playing for Brighton, told a reporter: “Obviously you can’t do that sort of thing to a teammate and I would prefer to leave that memory where it belongs – in the past.”
He added: “You have to get on with life, and I have no complaints. What happened between me and Joe Allon was little more than handbags at six paces – that’s why the PFA got involved and stood my corner.”

Bennett also said: “What happened to me at Brentford was way back. Right now, I’ve got other things on my mind, like trying to score my first goal of the season for Brighton.”

However, when an enterprising journalist caught up with Allon, he said: “Mickey broke my jaw in three places with a single punch in an unprovoked attack. There had been no history of ill-feeling between us and something inside him must have snapped.

“He just flipped, I collected a punch on the chops and got carted off to hospital, where they operated on me and wired up my jaw. I was in hospital for about 10 days and out of football for three months.

“The funny thing is that Mickey was supposed to be a born-again Christian, and I couldn’t work out how such a religious bloke could just clock one of his teammates.”

For all Bennett’s desire to steer clear of headlines for the wrong reason, it was while playing for Brighton away at Swansea City on 5 February 1999 that he was in the spotlight again when he was racially abused by a home supporter who ran onto the pitch.

“I was shocked by it,” he told Naylor of The Athletic in 2021. “I knew it was bad because I couldn’t function in the game after that, my head had gone.

“The police came to me and asked what I wanted to do. For a split second I remember thinking, ‘I just want to get on the bus and go home’. The other side of me thought, ‘If I don’t do something, that person could do something to another player’.”

The case went to court and the 29-year-old assailant, who admitted racially abusing Bennett and invading the pitch, was sent to prison for a year and banned from watching in a football league ground for three years.

The player told The Argus: “All of a sudden, I turned around and saw this fan running towards me. He was coming closer and closer.

“I remember thinking to myself should I just take a punch or what do I do? Then a steward and one of their players jumped in front of him when he was about a foot away from me and hauled him off.

“For five minutes I was a bit shaky. He could have done anything to me.

“After that I just got on with the game and tried to cancel it out, but when the police came to me after the game to take a statement it brought it all back again.”

By the time of that match, Jeff Wood had succeeded Horton, the manager who’d taken on Bennett after he’d impressed enough on trial in pre-season games against Lewes and Crawley to be awarded a one-year contract.

The matchday programme introduced him as “a versatile right sided player who can operate at anywhere down the right side or in the centre of midfield”.

He started off in central midfield alongside Jeff Minton and later was used as a central defender. That autumn, he clocked up his 150th League appearance in a 2-0 defeat to Cardiff City, where he’d spent the opening three months of the 1996-97 season. Having left Brentford, he’d gone back to Charlton briefly before barely featuring in the 1995-96 season at Millwall. On leaving south Wales, he spent a year at non-league Cambridge City, and at Christmas 1997 returned to the league at Orient under Tommy Taylor.

Before facing the Os in a first round FA Cup tie in 1998, Bennett told The Argus: “I knew Tommy Taylor from my time at Charlton and I figured in one game away to Exeter, then four or five more as a sub before I was eased out.

“I’ve got another chance to face them now because I missed the league game away with a groin injury. It’s a nice tie, but I’ve got nothing to prove to Tommy or anyone else.” (Albion lost 4-2).

*Bennett in Albion’s change kit in the 1998-99 season*

Bennett found himself playing for a third Albion manager when Wood’s brief and unsuccessful reign at the Albion helm was brought to an end and, although he featured under Micky Adams, he was one of eight players released at the end of the season.

His league career at an end, he continued to play at non-league level for Canvey Island and in the 2003-04 season was part of a Canvey Island squad that also included former Brighton players Junior McDougald, Peter Smith, and the aforementioned Minton.

Meanwhile, he transitioned into a mental health and wellbeing counsellor, saying: “I identified the value of offering to the side of the game that rarely grabs the headlines but is just as affecting to the people it helps.”

On his LinkedIn profile, he points out: “Playing at all levels of the football league has provided me with an invaluable knowledge of the inner workings and operational structure of football in this country, experience that I have endeavoured to apply for the benefit of my fellow pros since my retirement.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Goalscorer Craig Maskell among Town’s top 100 crowd favourites

Screenshot

CRAIG MASKELL had a decent near 1 in 3 goalscoring record for Brighton & Hove Albion but he’s possibly best remembered for a shot that didn’t go in.

When Maskell’s curling effort in the relegation decider at Hereford United on 3 May 1997 struck the post rather than going in, fortunately Robbie Reinelt was on hand to slot home the rebound to earn Albion the draw that ensured they stayed in the league.

Born Craig Dell Maskell on 10 April 1968 in Aldershot, perhaps it was his destiny to play for Southampton! (for younger readers, The Dell used to be Southampton’s home ground).

Indeed, Maskell started his professional career at Southampton, signing pro forms just after his 18^th birthday. But he appeared in only six league games for the Saints before joining Huddersfield Town in May 1988 for a £20,000 fee.

His new teammates included former Seagulls Chris Hutchings and Kieran O’Regan and the goals really flowed for him in the 1988-89 season when he scored 28 times in 46 games.

Arguably his most memorable match came in the 1989-90 season when he scored four in a 5-1 win at Cardiff City, thus becoming only the third player in Huddersfield’s history to score four in an away match.

By the end of that season, he’d scored an impressive 43 goals in 87 games for Town and, at the time of Huddersfield’s centennial in 2006, Maskell’s prolific goalscoring for them led to his inclusion in The Fans’ Favourites, a book listing their top 100 Town players.

That prolific scoring record earned him a £250,000 move to Third Division Reading. He scored in a season-opening 3-1 win at Exeter City and had 10 goals by the season’s end as the Royals completed a mid-table finish under player-manager Mark McGhee, who later became Brighton boss.

With John Madejski settling in as the new owner, and McGhee finding his feet in the managerial chair, the 1991-92 season saw Reading finish 12^th. Maskell ended up top scorer with 16 goals in 35 appearances (plus five as sub), three of them coming in a 4-2 win away to Darlington.

In the summer of 1992, player-manager Glenn Hoddle paid £250,000 to take Maskell to second tier Swindon Town (where he had previously spent a month on loan in 1987).

It was to prove a memorable season for the Robins as they won promotion to the top tier for the first time in their history, via a 4-3 play-off victory over Leicester City. Maskell was leading scorer with 23 goals in a side captained by central defender Colin Calderwood, later Chris Hughton’s assistant manager at Brighton.

Maskell made his Robins debut on the opening day of the 1992-93 season, in a 1-0 win over Sunderland, and scored his first goal in a 2-2 draw at Wolves in late August. He went on to net eight times in the opening ten games of the season before suffering a mini goal drought between December and April.

Nevertheless, Maskell bagged two in a 6-4 win at Birmingham before scoring in both legs of the play-off semi-final against Tranmere Rovers. He then scored Town’s second at Wembley, thumping a left-footed drive off the post and into the net.

Although he started the first two matches amongst the elite, he then struggled to get game time in the Premier League, often warming the bench as Jan Age Fjortoft, Andy Mutch and Keith Scott started ahead of him.

He scored twice in a 3-3 draw at Sheffield Wednesday on 29 December 1993, but he left the club in February 1994, returning to former club Southampton for a £250,000 fee.

However, Saints already had a fair bit of striking talent in their ranks and once again he found his opportunities limited, this time by the likes of Matt Le Tissier, Neil Shipperley and Gordon Watson. As a result, he only managed 17 Premier League starts.

He had a five-game loan spell at Bristol City but then joined Brighton on 1 March 1996, making his debut the following day against Brentford. He didn’t have to wait long for his first Albion goal, scoring against Oxford United on 12 March and then hit two four days later at home to Hull City.

The off-field shenanigans at Brighton were a big distraction at the time but on the pitch Maskell managed to score a total of 20 goals in 69 games, crucially netting 14 of them in 37 games during that make-or-break 1996-97 season.

After 17 games the following season, he was one of five senior players whose contracts were terminated early, in December 1997, as the cash-strapped Seagulls in exile at Gillingham were forced to make drastic cuts to survive. Maskell had a brief spell playing for Happy Valley in Hong Kong before linking up with Leyton Orient for 18 months.

It is recorded in a number of places that Maskell decided to quit the professional game while walking off the turf at Wembley having played as a substitute in the Orient team beaten by Scunthorpe United in the Nationwide League third division play-off final.

“I turned to one of my team-mates and said: ‘That’s enough’,” Maskell said. “I’d spent too much time away from my family and too little time on the pitch at Orient.”

He had scored just twice in 23 games for the O’s, however, he continued playing at non-league level for several years, turning out for Hampton & Richmond Borough, Aylesbury United and Staines Town, as well as being coach and assistant manager to Steve Cordery.

In an article in The Times on 16 November 2000, just prior to a FA Cup first round tie between Hampton & Richmond Borough and Barnet, Maskell talked about what he had learned from the various managers he’d played under.

“I look to Glenn Hoddle for his ability to create flair in attack and Lawrie McMenemy because he was so good at man-management.

“Most of my ideas on defensive organisation I learnt from Dave Merrington, who was youth-team coach at Southampton. He was fantastic. You just have to look at the players he found for the club, not just myself but Matt Le Tissier, Alan Shearer, the Wallaces and another dozen or so less well-known players who had good careers.”

Liverpool legend Jimmy Case became a Seagulls favourite too

Case 4 images JIMMY Case remains one of my all-time favourite Albion players.

Several of the best moments I can recall as an Albion supporter involve Case: the 1983 FA Cup semi-final belter against Sheffield Wednesday at sunny Highbury perhaps the most memorable.

The biggest disappointment was that Albion let him go so easily.

Younger readers may only remember his unhappy stint as manager when the misdirected club was in turmoil, and he ended up holding the reins when Liam Brady just couldn’t take any more.

But rather than remember him as the man who took Brighton down to Division 3 in 1996, I remember the class act who arrived at the Goldstone in 1981 with a trophy cabinet the envy of many a footballer.

Although Brighton lost the sublime Mark Lawrenson to Liverpool as part of the deal that saw Case move to Brighton, they gained a player who had already got three European Cup winners’ medals, four Division 1 (Premiership equivalent) winners’ medals plus one each for winning the UEFA Cup, European Super Cup and the League Cup.

Case, born in Liverpool on 18 May 1954, was one of four children David and Dorothy Case raised in a council house in the city’s Allerton district.

He learned how to handle himself on a football field playing in a tough dockers’ team but Liverpool picked him up from the local non-league club, South Liverpool. By then, Case had left school and was training to be an electrician.

He carried on those studies but after two years on Liverpool’s staff he made his first team debut in April 1975 in a 3-1 win over QPR.

He scored his first goal in a 3-2 home win over Spurs at the beginning of the following season and, in what must have seemed a dream start, completed his first full season as part of a championship winning team, as well as scoring in the two-legged UEFA Cup Final win over FC Bruges.

Case Europe The triumphs and trophies kept coming with Case enjoying the ride but by 1980-81 he was beginning to be edged out by Sammy Lee, and manager Bob Paisley didn’t look kindly on some of the off-field escapades Case was involved in with fellow midfielder Ray Kennedy.

Paisley said: “He had lost his appetite for the game in his last year at Anfield. It’s a hard stint working the right flank in our team and Jimmy had stopped getting forward and was looking to play early passes from deep positions. I think his legs had become tired.”

The move to Brighton might never have happened if Alan Mullery had got his way because he had already done a deal with Ron Atkinson to sell Lawrenson to Manchester United in exchange for two of their players.

But when chairman Mike Bamber pulled rank and forced through the Liverpool deal he had negotiated, Mullery quit and Case arrived on a five-year contract to find a new manager in charge in Mike Bailey.

It felt to me that Brighton were stepping up to a whole new level bringing in someone of Case’s stature, and so it proved.

In his first season at the Goldstone, Albion recorded their highest-ever finish among the elite – 13^th.

I recollect heading to Upton Park for the opening game of the season to see Case make his debut against West Ham and Albion earned a 1-1 draw despite having Gerry Ryan sent off.

Case found himself in trouble with referees on way too many occasions that season. Although he came to the club with a hard man image, amazingly he had never previously been suspended for accumulating bookings.

But by December he had to sit out a two game ban, and when his bookings total reached eight by March, he missed another three games.

Case told John Vinicombe of the Evening Argus: “I am a face, and there is nothing I can do about that. I am known, and that might explain some of the things that have happened to me on the pitch.

“The last thing I wanted on coming to Brighton was to get suspended. Brighton didn’t give me a contract to miss games.”

For anyone who has not yet read it, Case’s autobiography, Hard Case (John Blake Publishing) is well worth a read, detailing through writer Andrew Smart a fascinating career.

Disappointingly, it has a few factual errors that doubtless the distance of time brought about. Nevertheless, Case says: “I enjoyed every minute of my time with Brighton.”

Particularly pleasing for him was to score with a thumping header past Bruce Grobelaar in a 3-3 draw with Liverpool at the Goldstone, and to be on the right end of Albion’s 1-0 win at Anfield that season.

Case enjoyed life off the field as well and admits in his book: “The inhabitants of Brighton and Hove were just a little more sophisticated than the Allerton of the 1970s and I was introduced to the many and varied attractions of decent food and fine wine. It was an education I really appreciated.”

His second season was to end in relegation, but, more famously, with Brighton’s one and only appearance in an FA Cup final. Case scored goals in the fourth, fifth and sixth rounds, as well as the semi-final.

The newspapers had a field day when Case’s winner for Brighton in the fifth round of the Cup at Anfield denied his old boss Bob Paisley the chance to wipe the board with trophies that season.

It seemed every national and local newspaper headline revolved around the likeable Scouser: ‘It’s Case for Champagne’, ‘Jimmy sets out his case’, ‘Old boy Case kills off Liverpool hopes’, ‘Amazing Case’, ‘Killer Case’, ‘Case packs a super Cup punch’, ‘Case for Cup win’.

The Daily Mirror made him their footballer of the month for February on the back of that goal with reporter Harry Miller declaring: “No single act did more to capture the imagination of the public than midfielder Case’s dramatic 71^st minute winner on Sunday, February 20.”

Case himself had mixed emotions about it all, saying: “I had ten fantastic years at a remarkable club. That’s something that goes deep down.”

He also revealed how a good friend of his had been out of the country at the time of the game and sent him a postcard with only two words as its message: ‘You bastard’.

When he scored the only goal of the game in the quarter final win over Norwich, the headlines continued: ‘Case of bubbly’, ‘The odd Case of hero and villain’, ‘Seagulls have landed with champagne Jim’.

That belting free kick in the Highbury sunshine set Albion on their way to the 2-1 win over Sheffield Wednesday, earning a first ever – and only – place in the FA Cup final.

He was no stranger to Wembley, of course, having previously scored Liverpool’s goal in the 1978 2-1 defeat to Manchester United, but unfortunately he didn’t repeat his earlier goalscoring feats in the 1983 final.

He played a key part in Albion’s brave effort to earn a draw against Man U and then had the agony of returning home that Saturday evening to discover his mother, who had been a visitor, had died in her sleep at the age of just 63.

It was to Case’s immense credit that he took his place in the side for the replay just five days later.

While relegation brought the inevitable break-up of the team, with Gary Stevens and Michael Robinson departing before the new season began, Case publicly declared his intention to stay and try to get the team back up to the elite.

However, once fellow Scouser Jimmy Melia had been replaced by Chris Cattlin, there was probably only going to be one outcome and eventually Case was sold to Southampton for £30,000 in March 1985.

For him, it was a great move because he was returning to the top division again. It turned out that he was Lawrie McMenemy’s last signing for Saints, but, on this occasion, the change of manager was to cement his place in the side. Chris Nicholl made him the club captain the following season.

In 1985-86, Saints reached the semi-final of the FA Cup (beating Brighton 2-0 in the quarter-final!) losing 2-0 to Liverpool after extra time. If Saints had won, Case would have been the first player to appear in three FA Cup finals with different clubs.

Over his six years at The Dell, Case played alongside Glenn Cockerill and Barry Horne and helped to bring on the careers of youngsters such as Matt Le Tissier, Alan Shearer and Jason Dodd.

But when Ian Branfoot took over as manager in June 1991, he dispensed with Case’s services within a matter of days and transferred him to Bournemouth, who were managed by Harry Redknapp.

After 40 league games for Bournemouth in 1991-92, he moved to Halifax Town managed by former Saint and, one-time Albion loanee, John McGrath, who was being assisted by another ex-Albion man, Frank Worthington.

But Case only played there for six months, moving on to Wrexham, where he helped them gain promotion from the 3rd Division at the end of the 1992-93 season.

He then turned out for non-league side Sittingbourne until, at the ripe old age of 39, Liam Brady brought him back to Brighton in December 1993, as a player/coach. It was during that spell that he played in his 600th league game, the club chief executive David Bellotti presenting him with a silver salver on reaching that milestone

As a mark of the esteem in which Case was held, a testimonial game for him at the Goldstone Ground on 17 October 1994 had to be delayed 10 minutes because so many people wanted to get in to pay tribute. The capacity of the grand old ground was much reduced by then but still 15,645 packed in to see Case’s old club Liverpool do him the honour of providing the opposition.

Albion featured Matt Le Tissier in their line-up and even Ryan and Brady made substitute appearances as Liverpool emerged 2-1. The result, of course, was immaterial, and an emotional Case said afterwards: “I can’t thank the supporters enough. This was the only game I’ve ever been nervous about. I’ve never really asked for anything from the game, I just wanted everyone to enjoy it.

“It’s all been quite embarrassing really. I like to go to parties, I just don’t like them being my own.”

After his unhappy time as Albion manager, Case later managed non-league Bashley but is more often seen and heard these days on the after dinner speaking circuit or on regional football programmes. He also contributes to Southampton’s in-house radio station “The Saint”.

In July 2007, he once again donned a Brighton shirt, playing a cameo role alongside other past heroes in a brief curtain-raiser to Kerry Mayo’s testimonial game against Reading.