IT’S THE SEASON of giving and with the days coming in twelves this In Parallel Lines ‘special’ gives you a dozen players who’ve played for the Albion and post-Christmas opponents Arsenal.
A bit like an advent calendar, and with the slightest hint of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, you’ll need to click on the link to see if the player has featured in a blog post of the past or is a blog post still to come!
Across several decades, there have been numerous connections between the clubs but with my own Brighton-watching journey beginning in 1969, I’m not looking at the likes of Irish international defender Jimmy Magill or manager Archie Macaulay because they were before my time.
Let’s start with goalkeepers. Over the years, there have been several who’ve worn the gloves at both clubs – Tony Burns, Nicky Rust or Mat Ryan for example. Younger readers will be more familiar with Ryan and, as an Australian international, he gets the nod as no.1.
If international status gives a player the edge, it would be tempting to suggest Ben White at right-back but ahead of him I’d have to pick Martin Keown. More familiar to today’s football watchers as a TV pundit, those of us with a few more miles on the clock will remember him as a youngster spending two spells on loan with the Seagulls before he got his break with the Gunners, Aston Villa and Everton and won 43 caps for England.
Another TV and radio pundit who wore Albion’s stripes with aplomb having once been a £2m signing by Arsenal is Matthew Upson. He was Brighton’s player of the season in 2013-14.
The late Willie Young, one of that rare breed who played for Arsenal and north London rivals Spurs, comes into contention alongside him but he didn’t cover himself in glory at Brighton so I am plumping for Colin Pates. Pates first made a name for himself as Chelsea’s youngest-ever captain before becoming a reliable back-up defender during George Graham’s reign at Arsenal.
Brighton manager Barry Lloyd had been a teammate of Graham’s at Chelsea in the mid-1960s and the connection served Albion well when he agreed for Pates to join the Seagulls on loan to become part of the side that reached the 1991 play-off final at Wembley. He later rejoined the club on a permanent basis before injury forced him to retire.
Mike Everitt might have merited inclusion at left-back but there’s really only one candidate for that position and that’s the seasoned Northern Irish international Sammy Nelson. He took over that spot at Arsenal from Bob McNab and made 339 league and cup appearances for the Gunners before losing his place to Kenny Sansom. He stayed in the top-flight, though, by joining Brighton under Mike Bailey. He had a spell as coach under Chris Cattlin before pursuing a career in the City.
Although he played most of his career in defence, for the purposes of this piece I’m selecting Steve Gatting in midfield – a position he was equally adept at filling. Another Bailey signing from Arsenal, Gatting remained at Brighton for 10 years and after his playing days were over returned to his first club as an academy and under-23s coach.
It is tempting to bend my own rules and select Liam Brady alongside him but, of course, while the mercurial Irishman was such a fine player for Arsenal, it was only from the dugout that Brighton enjoyed his influence.
Instead, I’ll plump for Steve Sidwell who, although never making a senior appearance for Arsenal, grew up in their academy and bookended his career playing for Brighton.
Barrett? Not even close!
It’s out wide and in the middle of attack that the choices overwhelm although, to be honest, it is difficult to make a case for the lesser talents of Chuba Akpom, Graham Barrett or Raphael Meade over two of Mikel Arteta’s current picks – Viktor Gyökeres and Leandro Trossard (although Paul Dickov was in my thoughts).
Centre forward could have been Frank Stapleton who did his old Arsenal teammate Brady a favour by turning out twice for the Seagulls in 1994, but I’d have to settle for Danny Welbeck to lead the line. Let’s give Stapleton the no.12 shirt.
One old school indulgence would be out wide where, although Mark Flatts briefly impressed, and one day we might come to admire the talents of Amario Cozier-Duberry, perhaps there’s room for nippy winger Brian Tawse, who’d have had a field day supplying players of the quality of Gyökeres and Welbeck.
So, there you have it, the In Parallel Lines Arsenal-Brighton line-up is
Mat Ryan
Martin Keown Colin Pates Matt Upson Sammy Nelson
Steve Sidwell Steve Gatting
Brian Tawse Leandro Trossard Viktor Gyökeres
Danny Welbeck
Sub: Frank Stapleton
Thanks for reading. Enjoy the festive season and all the best for the new year. UTA!
BARRIE WRIGHT (not to be confused with the deep-voiced crooner with a similar-sounding name) was a former Leeds United playing colleague of Freddie Goodwin who followed him to Brighton via America.
Despite showing plenty of early promise, including captaining the England Schools side, Bradford-born Wright played more games for Goodwin’s New York Generals than he did in English league football.
Goodwin signed Wright and goalkeeper Geoff Sidebottom together for the Albion on 31 December 1968, a matter of weeks after he’d succeeded Archie Macaulay as Brighton manager.
The Albion programme in those days eschewed full-scale profiles and simply noted of the new arrival that he “can play on either flank in defence”.
His first Brighton appearance was as a substitute for Charlie Livesey in a 1-1 draw away to Plymouth Argyle on 4 January. He took over Mike Everitt’s left-back slot for the following two games, also both 1-1 draws, at home to Stockport County and away to Bristol Rovers.
But he tweaked his groin in the game against Rovers and missed six matches.
He was restored to left-back for a home goalless draw with Plymouth Argyle on 5 March, and played in the following two games.
One was the 4-0 hammering of Southport at the Goldstone, which was only my second Albion game (having watched them beat Walsall 3-0 three weeks earlier).
The plentiful goalscoring – notably two in each match by Alex Dawson – had me hooked!).
Wright kept the shirt for a 2-1 away win at Shrewsbury, but was then dropped to the bench for the next game, a 2-0 defeat at Oldham, when John Templeman took over at left-back and Stewart Henderson won back the no.2 shirt.
The Yorkshireman didn’t play another game that season although the matchday programme finally got round to telling us more about the player in a short profile item for the home game against Barrow, when I saw Albion score another four goals to secure a comfortable 4-1 win (Dawson again scored twice, the others from Kit Napier and Dave Armstrong).
“Barrie rates Albion as the happiest club he has known, and has quickly settled down in Sussex,” the programme told us.
We also learned he had been a keen angler and was a member of the Bradford Anglers Association, “finding this the perfect relaxation from soccer”.
A useful batsman and medium-fast bowler too, he had added golf to his sporting repertoire when in America and was regularly to be found on a course with Sidebottom.
But back to the football, and Goodwin, having steadied the ship with a number of his own signings, saw Albion finish the 1968-69 season in a comfortable mid-table position.
Norman Gall, Wright (top right) and Dave Armstrong enjoy a dressing room laugh with Norman Wisdom.
An alarm Bell would have rung for Wright that summer though – in the shape of experienced Scottish international left-back Willie Bell. Goodwin signed their former Leeds teammate from Leicester City as a player-coach; Wright had understudied Bell at Elland Road.
However, it was Everitt who stepped in for the only two games Bell missed all season, and Wright’s involvement was confined to one substitute appearance in a 2-0 defeat away to Doncaster Rovers, and three games in November and December deputising for Dave Turner in midfield.
The 0-0 draw at home to Orient on 13 December proved to be his last outing for the Albion.
In September 1970, Wright went on loan to Hartlepool United but when he wasn’t able to earn a regular place, decided to quit league football at the age of 25 to become a warehouseman.
He carried on playing in non-league, though, and appeared in the Northern Premier League with Bradford Park Avenue (right) and Gainsborough Trinity and spent some time with Thackley of the Yorkshire League.
Born in Bradford on 6 November 1945, Wright was one of eleven children – nine of them boys (one brother, Ken, played for Bradford City). Barrie earned selection for Yorkshire Boys and went on to captain the England Schools side on seven occasions in 1960-61.
England Schools captain
He was taken on by Leeds as a teenager, turning professional in 1962 at the age of 17.
mightyleeds.co.uk described Wright as “a defender of rich potential” who first caught the eye in a pre-season friendly against Leicester City, alongside the legendary John Charles.
The Yorkshire Post’s Richard Ulyatt spoke of Wright’s “excellent form” and said he “looked to have the necessary technique”, while accepting that conclusions from “half-speed friendlies … must be taken with reservations”.
Wright spent four seasons at Leeds and was captain of United’s Central League side. He did make a total of eight first team appearances, though. mightyleeds.co.ukdiscovered this wonderful description of Wright’s league debut for Leeds at home to Preston on 13 April 1963, when he deputised for veteran Grenville Hair at left-back.
Leeds won 4-1, and the aforementioned Ulyatt reported: “For a time Preston tried to probe for a weakness on the Leeds left, where Barrie Wright, 17, was playing his first game as a senior.
“A better forward line might have found him a bit uncertain and occasionally inclined to commit himself too soon to a sliding tackle, but any judge of a footballer would recognise that here was a great talent.
Wright was part of a star-studded squad at Leeds United
“His first contact with the game came after about ten minutes when he delicately headed a pass to Albert Johanneson with the artistry of a basketball player. Soon afterwards he tried to pass the ball 20 yards along the touchline edge from a foot inside the field and failed by inches: that was football. In recent years I have seen only (Jimmy) Armfield, (Alf) Ramsey, (Tony) Allen and (Johnny) Carey do it better.”
He kept his place for two more games: two days later in a 2-1 away win over Charlton Athletic on 15 April (Easter Monday) and a 4-1 home win against the same side the following day!
In the 1963-64 season, when Leeds went on to become Division Two champions, he replaced Paul Reaney in a 2-0 win away to Leyton Orient on 23 November 1963.
Phil Brown in the Evening Post reported: “It was most encouraging to see another youngster, Wright, in the side for the first time this season, respond so well to the occasion.
“He was sharper and sounder than on any of his previous three outings, and that against the fleet and strong Musgrove, and hard trying inside-left Elwood.”
However, it was another two months before he got another chance. On 1 February 1964, he took over at left-back in a 1-1 home draw against Cardiff City. On that occasion the Post’s Brown was less complimentary.
“I was most disappointed with young Wright at left-back,” he wrote. “He grew progressively worse, probably through increasing nervousness.”
Nevertheless, Wright was selected in the England Youth team squad for the 17th UEFA Youth Tournament in the Netherlands in March and April 1964.
England won it and Wright appeared in two of their five matches, both won 4-0: against Portugal in Den Haag on 3 April and against Spain two days later in Amsterdam.
His teammates in those matches included Everton’s Howard Kendall as captain, John Hollins (Chelsea), Harry Redknapp and John Sissons (West Ham), Peter Knowles (Wolves), David Sadler (Man Utd) and Don Rogers (Swindon).
Rather like in the modern era, fringe players tended to get a run-out in the League Cup and Wright made two appearances in the competition in 1964-65, taking over from Reaney in the second round 3-2 win over Huddersfield Town on 23 September, and the third round tie on 14 October when United lost 3-2 at home to eventual semi-finalists Aston Villa.
Wright’s final Leeds first team appearance came once again in the League Cup, when he took Norman Hunter’s no.6 shirt in a much-changed side who lost 4-2 at home to eventual winners West Brom in the third round on 13 October 1965. (West Brom won the two-legged final 5-3 on aggregate against a West Ham side that included Dennis Burnett).
Wright and Sidebottom line up for New York Generals
With first team opportunities so rare, Wright eventually left Elland Road in 1966 to try his luck with Goodwin’s New York Generals, joining fellow Brits Sidebottom and Barry Mahy, who had followed Goodwin to the States from Scunthorpe.
The Generals’ most famous player was Cesar Luis Menotti, who later coached Argentina to a World Cup triumph in 1978.
nasljerseys.com records that Wright wore the no.12 shirt and played 26 matches in 1967 and 32 games in 1968.
A CAREER-ENDING leg break led one-time international hopeful George Dalton into a new career as a football physio.
Geordie-born Dalton was an emerging left-back at Newcastle United being watched as a possible candidate for a call-up to the England Under-23 side.
But he was never the same player after breaking a leg in a tackle with Leeds United’s Johnny Giles.
Then, only seven months after trying to resurrect his career with third tier Brighton, unlucky Dalton sustained a double fracture of the same leg in a freak collision and never played professionally again.
However, he turned his familiarity with the treatment table to good use and he later became Coventry City’s physio for the best part of 20 years.
Born in Dilston, Northumberland, on 4 September 1941, Dalton went through the junior ranks at Newcastle and turned professional at St James’s Park in 1958.
He made his Toon debut on 10 October 1960 in a 4-1 League Cup defeat away to Colchester United, and made his First Division debut the following February, ending up on the losing side in a 5-3 defeat away to Leicester City.
After Newcastle’s relegation to the old Division Two, Dalton made a lot more appearances (including being in the Toon side who thumped Brighton 5-0 at St James’ on 21 October 1961).
He was in and out of the side over the next two years but became a regular from March 1963 and, in January 1964, eagle-eyed Ken McKenzie, reporter for Newcastle’s The Journal, spotted England Under-23 selector Mr E.Smith in the stands at St James’s.
“This visit can only mean imminence of England Under-23s selection to meet Scotland at St James’s Park on Wednesday evening, February 5, and check up, particularly on George Dalton and Alan Suddick, of United,” he wrote. “On this basis, I feel that Mr Smith’s trip to Tyneside holds out very bright prospect of Forest Hall, Newcastle, product, Dalton, gaining his first representative honour on February 5.
“I know that Dalton has been recommended to the England selectors for some time by United directors and manager, and his consistency and clean, strong play has been commented on by influential observers at several away games.”
Unfortunately, the call-up didn’t happen, and revered reporter Ken Jones wrote in the Daily Mirror: “Despite local claims for left back George Dalton and inside forward idol Alan Suddick; neither has been chosen by the England team manager, and clearly they have no place in his ideas at present.”
Interestingly, the left-back berth went to Keith Newton, who later went with England to the 1970 World Cup in Mexico. Mike Bailey and Graham Cross both played in the Under-23s’ 3-2 win over Scotland, while the reserves that day were Peter Grummitt, Alan Mullery and Martin Chivers.
Within a matter of weeks, Dalton’s football fortunes were turned upside down when, in his 40th game of the season, on 30 March 1964, three days after Newcastle had surrendered an eight-game unbeaten run losing 1-0 at home to promotion-chasing Leeds on Good Friday, the full-back suffered a leg break that virtually finished his Newcastle career.
The Journal saw it thus: “This is the tale of a noble resistance by a Newcastle side who had Alan Suddick crippled in the 17th minute and lost George Dalton with a broken right leg (just above the ankle) with 14 minutes to go.”
mightyleeds.co.uk recorded it like this: “Newcastle finished with one man in hospital and another limping, but Leeds just about deserved to win their third hard match in four days. For once, however, there was no malice attached to the game and left-back Dalton confirmed he had broken his right tibia after himself kicking the sole of Giles’ boot.”
Dalton didn’t play his next Newcastle first team game for nearly two and a half years, and then it was just the one game. After that solitary appearance – his 94th for Toon – on 27 August 1966, when they lost a Division One match 2-1 at home to Spurs, he was cast into the shadows and eventually given a free transfer in May 1967.
Albion’s 1967-68 squad with Dalton circled in the back row
Third Division Brighton gave the player the chance to salvage his career and he arrived on the south coast in June 1967 together with a young centre forward, Bob Fuller, who went on to score regularly for Albion’s reserves but subsequently moved to South Africa and in later life became a senior executive at mobile phone companies Orange and 3.
There were a couple of familiar faces amongst Dalton’s new teammates: Dave Turner, had been a fringe player at Newcastle before joining Brighton in December 1963, while forward Kit Napier had moved to the south coast the previous summer.
Stewart Ogden also joined straight from school in the north east in the summer of 1967 and the matchday programme declared: “Instead of Sussex by the Sea, Albion’s rousing signature tune, they may be playing The Blaydon Races this season, with so many Geordies on the staff.”
Dalton took over the no.3 shirt from Bobby Baxter, who had moved on to Torquay United, and went straight into Albion’s starting XI alongside new £25,000 record signing John Napier from Bolton Wanderers.
The matchday programme acknowledged Dalton’s past injury misfortune and said: “We all hope the change of club will see this fine defender recapturing his old form. He is married and recently moved into a pleasant club house at Portslade.”
Dalton made 28 appearances in the first half of that 1967-68 season under Archie Macaulay before tragically suffering a double fracture of his right leg in a 0-0 draw at home to Oxford United.
It was on 27 January 1968 that Dalton was involved in a heavy collision with United’s Graham Atkinson (big Ron’s brother) and Albion goalkeeper Brian Powney.
The cruel blow came almost four years after the injury he’d sustained at Newcastle and the Albion matchday programme commented how he had “completely shaken off the effects and was playing with great confidence” adding: “Albion’s popular left-back has played some fine games this season and his stylish work has been admired by supporters of other clubs, as well as the Albion fans.”
In its Albion Postbag column, a correspondent from Newhaven, calling himself ‘Veteran Player’, wrote: “George Dalton has had two unlucky accidents and we all hope he comes back fit and well and able to continue to delight us with his polished full-back play.
“Brighton have nearly always been lucky with their left-backs, and we have had a string of really fine players in that position. George Dalton can be included in that impressive list.”
Macaulay was optimistic the player would recover and in October 1968 the programme told supporters: “George is doing light training, jogging round the pitch, up the terracing also carrying out weight training exercises.”
In the meantime, Mike Everitt had been brought in to fill the gap and, by the time Macaulay was succeeded as manager by Freddie Goodwin, as 1968 drew to a close, Dalton still wasn’t in contention.
It looked even less likely he’d get back in when Goodwin signed his former Leeds teammate Willie Bell from Leicester City, but his next career step was closely linked to both of them.
In the summer of 1970, Dalton, who’d combined studying physiotherapy with coaching the Albion junior team in the latter part of his contract, joined Goodwin and Bell as part of the new management team at Birmingham City.
Albion took serious umbrage at the exodus and the matter ended up with City having to pay £4,500 compensation for Goodwin (who still had 18 months of his contract remaining) and a £5,000 fine for illegally approaching Bell.
Dalton’s situation was viewed differently because he’d technically been a player out of contract thus free to make a move.
When Goodwin left City in 1976 and returned to manage in America, Dalton moved on to Midlands neighbours Coventry City, taking over as physio from Norman Pilgrim, and he retained the position for two decades.
Several former players had nothing but good things to say about him when interviewed in Steve Phelps’ book 29 Minutes From Wembley. Striker Garry Thompson spoke highly of the care with which Dalton treated him when he suffered a broken leg that put him out of the game for 11 months.
“George Dalton, our physiotherapist, was magnificent with me,” he said. “He kept saying my leg was going to be like a twig and I’d have to rebuild the muscles and learn to walk again.
“My Mum and Dad thought it was career over, but, the way I think about it now, I was so lucky because there weren’t that many options for me and I had to play football.
“George’s own career was ended by injury. He was a very good footballer when he trained with us so, when I broke my leg, he really took care of me and was superb.
“I couldn’t thank him enough and all George had was the sponge and two machines in the treatment room, the electric currents and the ultrasound, that was it.
“He worked miracles down the years with players and, if it wasn’t for him, I would not have played until I was 37. I owe him a lot.”
Garry’s praise for Dalton was echoed by Paul Dyson, who spent prolonged periods in the treatment room with ankle and back injuries during his teenage years. “George was a real character. We all had a lot of time for him and he tended a lot of us through our respective injuries.
“He used to drive us to the hospital in his Morris 1100 and had a great left foot. He’d played left-back for Newcastle United before his own career was ended by injury. There were the two machines in his room and he used to have ice cubes on sticks in his freezer.”
Dalton alongside boss John Sillett in the front row of this Coventry squad picture
Scottish international winger Tommy Hutchison was another admirer. “He was a smashing lad, George, very old-school. He suffered no fools and could always tell if a player was injured or not.
“In our days broken legs did finish careers, along with knee ligament injuries, and George rehabilitated so many players at Coventry. There was no squad rotation as you wanted to stay in the team and play every week because if you didn’t someone else would step in to take your place and you wouldn’t be able to get back in.”
Midfielder Andy Blair added: “George was a great physiotherapist, a terrific calming influence and a great man to have around.”
Experienced full-back Mick Coop was another who appreciated the physio. “George really was a lovely man who worked injured players very hard in the gym to get them back on to the pitch,” he said. “He was very quiet but did his job well and garnered a lot of respect off the playing squad. I can’t speak highly enough of him.”
Dalton keeps in touch with many of his former colleagues through the Coventry City Former Players’ Association, which has reported how he returned to live in Newcastle in retirement.
* Pictures from matchday programmes and various online sources.
In parallel lines 