Well-loved Grealish went down with the Albions and City

TENACIOUS Tony Grealish earned plenty of plaudits in a 20-year professional career spanning almost 600 matches and etched his name in the record books along the way.

Thought to be the only person to play in two different sports at Wembley Stadium, Grealish was also the first Brighton & Hove Albion player to captain his country.

One statistic less favourably remembered is that he was relegated from the top level of English football with three different clubs: Brighton, West Bromwich Albion and Manchester City.

The London-born Republic of Ireland international was first relegated in the same year that he led the Seagulls out at Wembley for the 1983 FA Cup Final.

He was also part of the Throstles squad who went down in last place in 1986. And it was two relegations in a row after switching to an ailing Sky Blues side that went on to relinquish their top flight status in 1987.

When Grealish signed for Brighton from Luton Town for £100,000 in July 1981, it was a time of significant change. After only just avoiding relegation the season before, manager Alan Mullery had quit over a disagreement with chairman Mike Bamber and four key players left the club: John Gregory, Mark Lawrenson, Peter O’Sullivan and captain Brian Horton.

Grealish had quite a tall order taking over in midfield from ex-skipper Horton, who replaced him at Kenilworth Road, but Gordon Smith, another Albion teammate who later played for City, said:

“He did it with style – he was excellent. He was a very hard working player, he could tackle, but he was also classy with it – he could always pick out a pass.”

Part of the deal that saw Liverpool acquire Lawrenson saw the experienced Jimmy Case move to Brighton and he also appreciated what Grealish brought to the side. “Tony was so, so reliable. Playing with him in midfield, you knew that if the going got tough, he would be shoulder to shoulder alongside you.

“He would go in where it hurt, a tough lad, but he was not just a worker, he could play a bit as well and his enthusiasm for the game rubbed off on everyone in that changing room.”

Grealish and Case together with Mullery signing Neil McNab proved to be quite a formidable midfield trio and together they helped Mike Bailey’s side to jostle for top half of the table positions during the 1981-82 season before falling away to finish in 13^th place – a record that remained in place until 2022!

Reaching the FA Cup final in 1983 under Jimmy Melia and George Aitken provided a personal highlight for Grealish when he captained the Seagulls in the absence of suspended regular skipper Steve Foster, memorably wearing the defender’s trademark white headband as a mini-protest at his exclusion.

Grealish’s departure to West Brom in March 1984 was part of the ongoing break-up of the former top level squad, Melia’s successor Chris Cattlin being tasked with trimming the wage bill to bring it into line with second tier football.

Three and a half years later, Grealish had just turned 30 when Jimmy Frizzell signed him for City in October 1986 for a modest £20,000 fee, re-uniting him with McNab.

It was only a short-term deal, though, and he continued to live in Sutton Coldfield, a commute of 90 miles each way! “We haven’t bought a place because I only signed until the end of the season,” he explained. “We’ll see what happens first.”

Frizzell had previously been assistant manager to Billy McNeill but took over the reins when the former Celtic captain, frustrated by City’s parlous financial circumstances, left for Aston Villa in September 1986.

City of the mid-1980s were a very different proposition to the modern day version: they were more than £4m in the red and struggling with crippling debt repayments after an ill-advised spending spree in the late 70s and early 80s.

“The first thing I was told when I joined and went to discuss money was that they were so skint they would sell their goalposts if they could,” a Grealish contemporary, centre-back Mick McCarthy, told Chris Bevan for BBC Sport in a 2013 article looking back at that period.

Frizzell felt the relatively youthful City needed some experienced old heads to steady the ship and Grealish joined from West Brom in the same week John Gidman joined on a free transfer from city rivals Manchester United. Both made their Maine Road debuts for bottom-of-the-league City against United in a 1-1 draw on 26 October 1986.

It was the 118th meeting between the two sides, but the first to be broadcast live on TV.

Injury-hit United took the lead through a Frank Stapleton header that crept past the diving Perry Suckling and inside the post, but McCarthy equalised with a header from a cross by McNab.

Under fire United boss Ron Atkinson only had one more game in charge of the Reds; after a 4-1 League Cup defeat by Southampton, he was sacked.

United’s plight was nothing compared to City, though. They didn’t win away throughout the whole season and, in spite of the additions of forwards Paul Stewart and Imre Varadi, scored a meagre 36 goals in 42 games.

Youngster Paul Moulden, having been a prolific goalscorer in City’s FA Youth Cup-winning side of 1986, briefly offered hope when scoring four goals in four games in November but then picked up an injury.

Frizzell blooded several other members of that youth side including Paul Lake, David White and Ian Brightwell but City were relegated. Grealish’s last game for them was in a 0-0 home draw against Newcastle in March, City’s first point in a month. They only won twice in the remaining 10 games and were relegated…along with McNeill’s Villa!

Grealish only made 15 appearances in that 1986-87 season and was an unused sub on two other occasions. He made 11 league starts, one in the FA Cup (a 1-0 defeat v Man U) and three in the Full Members Cup. He also played in City’s reserve side on 14 occasions (stats courtesy of the Gary James archive).

Born in Paddington, west London on 21 September 1956, Grealish played underage for St Agnes Gaelic football club in Cricklewood – alongside brother Brian – and represented London at various underage levels.

That special 1983 Wembley moment meant Grealish achieved the unusual claim to fame as reportedly the only person to play soccer and Gaelic football at the iconic stadium. He’d previously played there in the early ’70s for London’s Minors against New York in what at the time was an annual Whit weekend tournament.

“For a group of London lads, playing at Wembley Stadium was magnificent,” said Éamonn Whelan, a teammate of Grealish’s for St Agnes and London.

Ireland was certainly in his blood even if he wasn’t born there: his father, Packie, was from Athenry in Galway, and although his mother, Nora, was born in London, both her parents came from Limerick.

No surprise then, that Grealish represented Eire with some distinction, winning 45 caps between 1976 and 1985, and It was during Alan Kelly’s brief reign in charge, in 1980, that Grealish was first made Eire skipper – in a 2-0 win over Switzerland at Lansdowne Road, Dublin.

Brighton’s Lawrenson and Gerry Ryan were teammates that day, as was Chris Hughton.

One of the goalscorers that day, Don Givens, said of Grealish: “He gave so much effort that he wasn’t going to accept anything less from his teammates.

“Tony was a 100 per cent tough little midfield player, and a great character off the pitch.”

Former Ireland manager Eoin Hand chose Grealish as Eire captain for the 1984 European qualifying campaign, when Ireland ended in third place behind Spain and Holland.

In his book, First Hand My Life and Irish Football, Hand said Grealish was “more Irish than the Irish themselves”.

“With his dynamic, combative style in the midfield engine room, Tony, with his tousled hair and Viking beard, was the kind of guy you were happy to go into battle alongside,” he said.

*Grealish on the international stage with the Republic of Ireland*

“He was a natural leader, and although known for his ceaseless industry, he was no mere artisan. Grealish could play as well and conjure up the odd goal from deep positions.”

Previous manager Johnny Giles had given Grealish his Ireland debut at the age of 19, in a friendly against Norway at Dalymount Park, Dublin on 24 March 1976.

Grealish, unusually, started at full back as Ireland won 3-0 thanks to goals from Liam Brady, Jimmy Holmes and a penalty from Mickey Walsh.

“Tony was very good for me when we played together in midfield because he was a ball winning all action player, and we had a good understanding,” said Brady, who later became Brighton’s manager.

“Around the Ireland dressing room, he was very enthusiastic, determined and very motivating – he liked to motivate everyone around him,” he told the Irish World in 2013. “He’d be up for every match.”

Brady added: “We had a strong friendship, and I haven’t met anyone who played with him who wasn’t a friend of Tony Grealish’s.

“He was a super man, and a super bloke. He made the atmosphere better wherever he was.”

Grealish took his first steps to becoming a professional footballer aged 15 in 1972 when he joined Leyton Orient as an apprentice. Manager George Petchey took him on as a professional in 1974 and he was the club’s player of the year at the end of the 1975-76 season.

In 1977-78, Orient reached an FA Cup semi-final at Stamford Bridge, where they lost 3-0 to Arsenal, although the aforementioned Liam Brady mentioned: “He man-to-man marked me that day and put me out of the game. Luckily some of our other players performed despite the fact that I didn’t.”

One of the last of his 171 appearances for Orient was in the April 1979 3-3 draw with promotion-chasing Brighton in front of The Big Match cameras (John Jackson was in goal for the Os and Martin Chivers scored his only goal for Brighton).

Grealish transferred to David Pleat’s Luton Town in the summer of 1979 for a fee of £150,000, racking up 78 Division Two appearances over two seasons before joining Brighton.

In total, Grealish played 116 games plus five as a sub for Brighton, and his last game for the Seagulls ironically saw him score in a 1-1 home draw with Manchester City.

Having known what he could bring to a side, it was Giles, when manager of West Bromwich Albion, who took Grealish to the Hawthorns in March 1984 for £75,000.

*Reunited with Johnny Giles at West Brom*

In one and a half seasons with the Baggies, Grealish made 65 appearances before that move to City.

He spent a brief period with Salgueiros in Portugal before former Leeds hard man Norman Hunter signed him for Rotherham United in August 1987. He made 110 appearances over three seasons, going down with them in 1987-88 and helping them to bounce straight back by winning the Fourth Division title the next year under another former Albion midfield player, Billy McEwan.

His last league club was Walsall during Kenny Hibbitt’s managerial reign before he continued playing at various non-league clubs in the Midlands: Bromsgove Rovers, Moor Green, Halesowen Harriers, Sutton Coldfield and Evesham United.

He returned to Bromsgrove Rovers as player-manager before calling it a day, and then worked in the scrap metal business. He died of cancer aged 56 in April 2013.

An obituary in Albion’s matchday programme saw tributes paid by several former teammates. Gary Stevens, who memorably scored Albion’s equaliser in the 2-2 Cup Final draw against Man Utd, said: “Off the field, Tony was the life and soul of the party.

“When he was with us, he was always laughing, joking and just enjoying life. Yet on the pitch he always gave 100 per cent, was tenacious in the tackle and he had a tremendous will to win.”

Ex-skipper Foster added: “Tony was a lovely man off the pitch and a passionate footballer on it. He was a fantastic midfielder.”

‘Great talent’ England Schools’ captain Barrie Wright quit at 25

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.

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.uk discovered 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 17^th 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.

Wright died aged 78 in November 2023.

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.”

Big Chiv’s Brighton cameo at the end of an illustrious career

FORMER England international Martin Chivers rose majestically to head home a goal in a 3-3 draw between Leyton Orient and Brighton & Hove Albion.

It was textbook Chivers – a replica of so many similar goals he’d scored for Spurs and England during his glory days – and it put Albion 2-1 up. It turned out to be his one and only goal for the Albion.

It came in one of just five games he played for the Seagulls as his illustrious playing career drew to a close. In Teddy Maybank’s absence through suspension just as Brighton inched closer to promotion to the elite for the first time ever, Chivers – once one of this country’s top centre forwards – was an ideal stand-in.

The game at Brisbane Road on 7 April 1979 saw former Spurs League Cup winning teammates Chivers and Ralph Coates on opposing sides and, a 3-3 thriller was a cracking match for ITV’s The Big Match to have chosen for showing the following Sunday afternoon.

A month later Albion would travel to St James’s Park, Newcastle and clinch that dream promotion.

John Vinicombe, faithful chronicler of Albion’s fortunes for the Evening Argus, declared: “Make no mistake, Albion are First Division bound after that tremendous match at Orient.”

Mike Calvin in the Sunday Mirror, said: “Chivers’ bullet like header became an instant candidate for ITV’s goal of the season.”

While Ian Jarrett in The Sun said: “Martin Chivers’ 32^nd minute goal came straight out of the former England striker’s scrapbook. ‘It was a dream goal. I’d like to have it on tape so that I could watch it being played back again and again,’ Chivers told him.

In the days when strikers invariably hunted in pairs, Chivers had previously starred for Tottenham Hotspur alongside the late Scot, Alan Gilzean, as Spurs put silverware in the White Hart Lane trophy cabinet in three successive seasons.

The team captain during that successful period was Alan Mullery and after the midfielder had hung up his boots and taken charge of the Seagulls, he turned to his old teammate in his hour of need.

With regular striker Maybank facing a two-match suspension, Mullery bought the 34-year-old Chivers for £15,000 from Norwich City just before transfer deadline day in March 1979 and he made his debut in a home 0-0 draw against Notts County on 31 March.

Chiv v Charlton Even a crocked Chivers (by his own admission, a troublesome Achilles tendon restricted his fitness) could do a job for the Albion in an emergency, the young manager believed.

“I took a bit of a chance on him, but he was terrific for us,” Mullery recalled in a retrospective matchday programme article. “He was a proven goalscorer and helped us both on and off the pitch.”

Chivers explained exactly how it came about in his autobiography, Big Chiv – My Goals in Life, which he discussed in an interview with the Argus in 2009.

Maybank returned to the side for the successful promotion run-in and, during the summer, Chivers had an operation on his Achilles. The new season, amongst the elite for the first time, was 13 games old before Chivers saw action for the Seagulls.

He appeared as a substitute in a 2-1 defeat away to Coventry City on 20 October, and the national media singled him out for mention.

“When Chivers came on for Ward 11 minutes after the break, the game at last came to life. From then on, Brighton were more decisive in attack and played with more confidence,” said the Daily Telegraph.

Sunday Express reporter William Pierce added: “Martin Chivers went on as a substitute for the out-of-touch Peter Ward and the ex-England striker twice might have scored.”

That contribution earned Chivers a starting place at Maybank’s expense in the next game, a 4-2 home defeat to his old club Norwich, and he stayed up top, this time partnering Maybank, in a 0-0 home draw with Arsenal in the fourth round of the League Cup.

But that was the last time he appeared in the first team. Mullery turned instead to another former Spur, Ray Clarke, and he and Ward were the preferred front pairing for the rest of the season.

Chivers remained with the club, appearing regularly in the Reserves through to the end of the season, and doing some scouting work, but his top-flight career was finally over.

But let’s take a look back at what had gone before. It was an impressive rise to fame.

Born in Southampton on 27 April 1945, Chivers was a pupil at the city’s Taunton’s Grammar School and wrote to his local club asking for a trial. His prowess as a goalscorer grew rapidly.

chiv Saint After playing regularly for Southampton’s youth side, his breakthrough came in September 1962 when just 17. He made his first-team debut against Charlton Athletic and signed as a full-time professional in the same week. He became a first-team regular the following season.

In February 1964, Chivers and future teammate Mullery were called up (along with future Albion goalkeeper Peter Grummitt) by Alf Ramsey as Reserves for the England under 23 side for a 3-2 win over Scotland, played in front of 34,932 fans at St James’s Park, Newcastle.

Two months later, at Stade Robert Diochon in Rouen, shortly before his 19^th birthday, Chivers made a goalscoring debut for the Under 23s when coming on as a substitute for Geoff Hurst as England drew 2-2 with France.

It was the start of a record-breaking Under 23 career; in four years he appeared 17 times.

Southampton skipper Terry Paine, who was part of England’s 1966 World Cup winning squad, played alongside Chivers as he developed. “The potential was always there, especially when he made the Southampton first team. But the one thing he may have lacked was determination,” he told Goal magazine.

On Saints’ promotion to the top division in 1966, Bates supplemented his attacking options with the addition of established international Ron Davies from Norwich.

Davies and Chivers proved a twin threat to opponents but Chivers was somewhat overshadowed by the Welshman, and Paine said: “They just weren’t compatible. It didn’t work having two big blokes up there together. Chivers was playing second fiddle. He was no match for Ron in the air, there was never any doubt about that.”

It eventually led to Chivers putting in a transfer request in December 1967 and, a month later, having scored 106 goals in 190 appearances for Southampton, he was transferred to Tottenham for £80,000 with winger Frank Saul, an FA Cup winner with Spurs in 1967, a £45,000 makeweight going in the opposite direction.

Saints fans had a new hero in the emerging Mike Channon and inevitably comparisons were drawn between the two. “Martin had more finesse on the ball when he was Mike’s age, without punching his weight,” said Southampton boss Ted Bates. “Mike, however, has more drive and desire, a ruthless approach which Martin never had.”

Indeed, even in the early days at Spurs, fans failed to see why Spurs had shelled out what at the time was the biggest ever transfer fee in the country for the striker, with the legendary Jimmy Greaves and Scot Alan Gilzean the preferred front pairing.

It didn’t help matters when he was sidelined for months by a serious knee injury, although Bates felt the spell out actually proved to be a turning point in his career.

“During that long spell out of action I think he must have taken a good, long look at the game and examined himself thoroughly,” said Bates. “The result is that he now uses the full range of his talents.”

Bates believed he lacked belief in his own power and seemed reluctant to use his size to his advantage. “We were always trying to get Martin to use his physique properly,” said Bates. “He knew he had to be more aggressive, but in those days a big, strong centre-half could swallow him.”

It looked as though Chivers was going to be an expensive flop and, in an interview with Ray Bradley for Goal magazine, he admitted he’d been through a crisis at Spurs and his career had been at a crossroads.

“It was a hell of a frustrating time for me,” he said. “No matter how hard I tried I just couldn’t strike form. I suppose I was really battling to regain confidence again after injury.

“The fans, disgruntled with the form we had been showing, were gunning for me and finally they got their way when I was dropped.

“Things looked black for me but I was determined to fight my way back into the side. The turning point for me, I think, came in a reserve game against Northampton at the end of the season.”

Reserve team manager, Eddie Baily, took him aside and had a private chat, telling him the only way he’d get back his confidence was to fight for it on the pitch.

“He instilled in me that I must be more aggressive, that I must put myself about more if I was to win back my first team place,” said Chivers. “That little pep talk seemed to do the trick. It was a wet pitch and I really gave it all I had and ended up by scoring five goals.

“His words of encouragement after the match made me realise that it was up to myself if I wanted to succeed.”

With Greaves having departed the club for West Ham, once Chivers was back in the first team he did well up against Jack Charlton and Norman Hunter of Leeds, and he began to recapture his form. A good start to the 1970-71 season saw everything start to slot into place.

“I’ve always liked scoring goals,” he said. “Ever since I was a boy I liked to see the ball hit the back of the net.”

After scoring twice to help Spurs beat Aston Villa in the 1971 League Cup Final, Chivers said: “I feel fabulous. That’s the only way to describe how I feel after scoring two goals in my first-ever appearance at Wembley.

“Spurs are back on the glory trail and those two goals have really sealed my comeback this season.”

In a series of Goal articles about Chivers in November 1971, writer Warwick Jordan declared: “There have been few more exciting centre forwards to grace the game and there is little reason to dispute the claim that the Tottenham striker could become one of the best ever,”

A whole raft of top division players and managers were happy to put on record their admiration for the centre-forward. Everton boss Harry Catterick described him as “the new John Charles” and claimed: “Chivers has emerged this year as the most talented centre-forward in Britain.”

Leeds manager Don Revie was a big admirer, saying: “Chivers is a better player than Geoff Hurst. The comparison is appropriate as both men possess a high degree of skill not normally found in strikers of their heavy build.

“It’s hard to choose between them, but I consider Chivers has the slight edge as he does not rely so much on the men around him. He has the ability to take the ball through on his own and create chances out of nothing.”

Manchester City team boss Malcolm Allison said: “This boy is the best all-round centre-forward in Britain. He’s big, strong, skilful and exciting. A tremendous player who will always get goals.”

Stoke midfielder Mike Bernard told the magazine: “Chivers has got guts, skill, aggression, ball control and tremendous determination. You can’t fault the guy.”

Teak-tough centre back John McGrath, who once had a brief spell on loan to the Albion from Southampton, added: “That bad injury has helped to make him a much more determined player. When your career is in the balance it gives you a greater determination to succeed. Chivers has come back to the game a different player.

“He’s a much more physical player now. A more confident player than he was before. He’s developed more character.

“People don’t realise how fast he is. He’s got a sort of loping run, a bit ungainly. But it’s deceptive because he is gathering speed all the time.”

Despite gaining that record number of England under 23 caps, it wasn’t until early 1971 that he got his chance on the full international stage. His reinvigorated Spurs form led to him making his full England debut away to Malta on 3 February 1971, when England gained a 1-0 win under the captaincy of his Spurs teammate Mullery.

He scored his first goal for England two months later in a 3-0 win against Greece at Wembley.

It was said Chivers really arrived as an international star after a powerful two-goal performance in a 3-1 win over Scotland at Wembley on 22 May 1971.

“This has been the greatest day of my life,” said Chivers, after that win. “I didn’t know I was playing until lunchtime on the same day. I was determined to show I was worth my place.

“I know a lot depended on my display in that game. I know I could have jeopardised my international future if I had not grabbed the opportunity.”

Afterwards, though, he declared: “Now I feel I have established myself as an England player.”

Fellow England striker Francis Lee told Goal’s Jordan: “He’s a football manager’s dream. At his present rate of progress, he could become the greatest centre-forward this country has seen.

“His tremendous potential blossomed during that game in Switzerland (scored in a 3-2 win in Basle, 13 October 1971) where his performance made the difference between victory and possible defeat.

“But his finest game for England so far was the one against Scotland. Today he is the hottest soccer property in the game. He’s going to be a big winner for England.”

In total, he scored 13 times in 22 starts plus two appearances from the subs bench, but, in less than three years, Chivers’ England career was over.

He never played for his country again after being subbed off in the crucial game that meant England wouldn’t qualify for the 1974 World Cup – a 1-1 draw with Poland at Wembley in 1973.

In eight years at Spurs, Chivers scored 174 goals in 367 games, his greatest success coming between 1970 and 1973, when he scored more than 20 goals in successive seasons, and was a key part of the side that won the 1971 and 1973 League Cups, finished third in the league in 1971, and picked up the 1972 UEFA Cup.

He had two seasons in Switzerland, playing for Servette, before returning to the English game with Norwich in 1979-80, before the move to Brighton.

On leaving Brighton, he went initially to Southern League Dorchester Town as player-manager, then Norwegian side Vard and finished playing 10 games for Barnet in 1982-83.

It was a phenomenal scoring record to notch 255 goals in 546 appearances.

After he’d finished playing, Chivers became a hotelier in Hertfordshire (during which time I got to speak to him in a professional capacity, helping to promote my client’s involvement in his business) and for several years he was a matchday host at White Hart Lane.

Chivers died at the age of 80 on 7 January 2025.

Pictures from a variety of sources, especially Goal and Shoot magazines and matchday programmes.

Gary Lineker cleaned defender Larry May’s boots

larry may wednes INJURY cut short Larry May’s playing career at Brighton but, during a purple patch of his four-year spell at Barnsley, he impressed his peers to the extent he was in the 1986-87 PFA team of the year.

Alongside him in that selection were Lee Dixon, the ITV football pundit who in those days played for Stoke City prior to his move to Arsenal, and former Albion full back John Gregory, who was playing in midfield for Derby County at the time.

Centre back Larry began his career with Leicester City and played over 200 games for them between 1977 and 1983. When given a run in the first team by former Rangers manager Jock Wallace, Larry’s boots were looked after by none other than Gary Lineker: the Match of the Day host being a Filbert Street apprentice at the time.

Leicester’s club historian John Hutchinson – who said of May: “He was very strong in the air, a powerful tackler and had pace” – drove down to Brighton in 2015 to interview Larry about his time with the Foxes and published the story on foxestalk.co.uk.

Leicester had spotted him playing for a local youth team in Birmingham and invited him for a trial. Aged 17, he made his debut in the top division against Bristol City when one of his teammates was Frank Worthington, another who later played for the Albion.

In the following season, Jimmy Bloomfield, the manager who gave him his debut, departed and was replaced by Frank McLintock, who didn’t give May much of a look-in.

Screenshot — *May played in front of ex-Norwich goalkeeper Kevin Keelan for the Tea Men*

He went to play for New England Tea Men (a franchise owned by the Lipton tea company) in America under ex-Coventry manager Noel Cantwell to get some games but ruptured a cruciate ligament which some thought might end his career before it had even got off the ground.

Back at Leicester, McLintock was succeeded by Wallace and he paired May at the back with John O’Neill – a partnership that endured for the best part of five years.

In those early times, though, May admitted he had to play through pain and regularly ice his knee.

Not only was May ever-present in the 1979-80 side that won promotion from Division 2, he headed the only goal of the game at Leyton Orient on the last day of the season to clinch the title. Striker Alan Young, who played for Albion in the 1983-84 season, was another ever-present.

Leicester only survived a season in the top flight and following relegation Gordon Milne replaced Wallace as manager, guiding them to promotion in his first season. May, though, didn’t see eye to eye with the former Liverpool midfielder and ended up handing in a transfer request.

In an Albion matchday programme, May said: “”We fell out over something and nothing really but at 24 you think you know it all and there was no future for me once I’d asked for a transfer. “Thinking back, I realise that I should have got on with it.”

As it was, in August 1983 he dropped a division and joined Barnsley for a fee of £110,000, signed by the legendary former Leeds hard man, Norman Hunter.

larry may bw “For a man with a reputation of being one of the fiercest characters in football it was unbelievable – I’d say he was definitely the nicest fellow I’ve ever played for,” said May.

While on the books at Oakwell, with a nod towards a longer future in the game, May took his full FA coaching badge.

He told foxestalk.co.uk: “I was happy at Barnsley but, in retrospect, I should have bided my time and stayed at Leicester really. But I was a bit young and naïve. I loved it at Leicester. Leicester were the best club I ever played at. It was my best time in football and I loved it there.”

After three years with Barnsley, former Albion winger Howard Wilkinson took May to Sheffield Wednesday. He had just turned 28 and the move represented a step back up in standard.

“It was an important move at that stage in my career but looking back it was never brilliant for me at Hillsborough,” he said.

Amongst the competitors for his place was Nigel Pearson, later to be better known for some eccentricities in management with various clubs.

At the start of the 1988-89 season, a move south to Brighton was mooted but Wilkinson held onto him because of some early season injury problems. However, Barry Lloyd got his man towards the end of September 1988 and May joined Brighton for £200,000.

His debut in a 2-1 Goldstone win over Leeds brought to an end a run of eight defeats at the beginning of the season but it was back to losing ways – both 1-0 – in the following two games which, ironically, were against his former clubs, Barnsley, at home, and Leicester, away.

monoMay

The return fixture with Leicester was a happier outcome for May, though, because he was the sponsors’ man of the match in a 1-1 draw.

In his programme notes for the Barnsley game, manager Lloyd said: “I know he’ll have a big impact on the way we play….at 29, we know he has a lot of football left in him.”

Captain Steve Gatting had a programme column that season and he also welcomed the central defender, adding: “His experience in the top two divisions is bound to rub off onto some of younger players. When we’ve played against Larry in the past he’s tended to be the man of the match and I’m sure everyone at the Goldstone wishes him and his family every success.”

Understandable sentiments, of course, and such a shame that before the season’s end, after only 25 games, the cruciate ligament in his right knee was shattered in an accidental collision with teammate Paul Wood during a magnificent 2-1 home win over Man City.

“I knew straight away, having had knee trouble before, how serious it was,” he said. “It wasn’t Paul’s fault. It was just one of those things.” He was carried off on a stretcher and it was his last game for the club.

It was in the matchday programme for Albion’s game v Ipswich Town on 27 September 1989 that news of his forced retirement was announced.

“The sudden decision has stunned 30-year-old Larry and his family who were beginning to settle in the Brighton area after moving from Wakefield last year,” the announcement read. “In a 12-year career in the game, Larry has made more than 400 senior appearances, 364 in the league.”

A dejected May told the programme: “It hasn’t sunk in yet because I just don’t believe that I’m finished. I honestly thought that I could carry on playing at league level until I was 35. I’ve always been fit generally and never had a weight problem and this has really hit me.

“When the specialist told me that I shouldn’t play again my first reaction was that it had to be wrong. Now I’ve got to rethink and I’m not really sure about my future.”

Manager Lloyd added: “The announcement that Larry May had been forced to retire from playing was a particularly sad one. He performed very well for us last season and put heart and soul into everything around the club.”

Thankfully Larry was able to put that coaching badge to good use when Lloyd made him reserve team coach and, after a time working for the Surrey FA, he later returned to the club as Head of Sports Participation for Albion in the Community.

His links to the club also extended to his sons: Chris was a young goalkeeper who once had to replace the injured Michel Kuipers during a game and Steve was a centre-back who was in the youth set-up.

1-larrymaystripes 2-argusmayintheface 3-may-quits 4-coach-may

*Larry and his sons Steve (left) and Chris*

• Pictures include Larry May in matchday programmes; captured by an Evening Argus cameraman getting a hand in the face; the programme announcement of his retirement; in an Albion team line-up as a coach, and with his sons.

Cross the colossus majestic in promotion-winning season

1-cross-clincher GRAHAM Cross won promotion from the third tier in successive seasons – one with Brighton & Hove Albion, the next with Preston North End.

They came after a record-breaking 15-year spell with his hometown club Leicester City.

Cross was a tower of strength and ever-present in Alan Mullery’s 1976-77 promotion-winning team. He was so consistent that his fellow professionals named him and fellow Seagulls Brian Horton and Peter Ward in the division’s PFA team of the year.

One standout performance I recall was in a cracking League Cup replay at the Goldstone against Division 1 side Ipswich Town on 7 September 1976 (see picture above).

Despite the Albion being down to 10 men, having had Phil Beal carried off injured after sub Ian Mellor had already come on, Cross scored the winning goal two minutes from time to give Albion their first competitive victory against a first division team for 43 years!

“Graham had an absolutely tremendous 1976-77 season for us and I can’t speak too highly of him,” Mullery told Shoot! “When I first started planning for the new term I reckoned on having him in the side for our step up into the Second Division.”

G Cross BW HS However, when he realised he could land the highly promising 20-year-old Mark Lawrenson from Preston for £112,000, those plans changed.

Lawrenson had played brilliantly against the Albion during the promotion season and was eager to take the step up so he headed south together with full back Gary Williams and Cross and left back Harry Wilson went in the opposite direction.

“I wish him well at Preston and can assure their supporters they are getting one of the most honest lads in the game in Graham,” said Mullery.

Cross certainly played his part as Preston earned promotion from the third tier – one of his teammates was centre forward Michael Robinson, who joined Albion in 1980 – but in the following season the magic touch eluded him when he played 19 times for Lincoln City but didn’t manage to stop them being relegated to the Fourth Division.

3-gc-leicester Cross had been part of the furniture at Leicester and the meashamfox blog recalls how he scored on his debut on 29 April 1961 against Birmingham City in a 3-2 win at Filbert Street.

He was a real ‘Mr Versatility’ who played in eight different positions, although mostly in midfield – the history books describe him as an inside forward or wing half – and at centre back.

During all the hullabaloo surrounding Leicester’s remarkable Premiership title win in 2016, there were flashbacks to the last time a Leicester side went that close to clinching the league title – in 1962-63 – with Cross a member of that side.

In an interview with the Leicester Mercury, his former Scottish international teammate Frank McLintock spoke about a so-called signature move called ‘the switch’ Leicester employed whereby Cross dropped back and McLintock bombed past him.

“It was a load of rubbish, really,” McLintock told the paper. “It was just that I was really fit and Graham, who was a great player, would be a bit puffed out when he got back. We just swapped positions for a bit.

“The opposition would get confused with who was picking up who. Even Bill Shankly copied it later on at Liverpool.”

Unlike the 2016 vintage, the 1963 side blew their title chances by losing their last four league games. However, they did reach the FA Cup Final that year. Cross was in the side that lost 3-1 to Manchester United. He was also in the Leicester side that lost the 1969 final 1-0 to Manchester City.

His performances in 1963 were good enough to earn him a call up to the England under 23 team, making his debut in a 0-0 draw with Yugoslavia at Old Trafford. In the return fixture two months later, he scored a penalty to supplement an Alan Hinton hat-trick as England won 4-2.

He was a permanent fixture in the side for 10 matches (including a 4-1 win over West Germany, when future Albion colleague Peter Grummitt was in goal). But in November 1964, Leeds’ Norman Hunter took over the no.6 shirt.

Cross was recalled for one more game, in April 1966, when the under 23s beat Turkey 2-0 at Ewood Park. Two of the side that day – Martin Peters and Roger Hunt – would go on to be part of the England World Cup winning team three months later, but Cross never progressed to the senior England team.

Nevertheless he did pick up a League Cup winner’s medal when Leicester beat Stoke City in 1964 but was a loser the following year when they were beaten narrowly by a Chelsea side containing Barry Bridges and Bert Murray.

Three years before joining Brighton, Cross received a long service clock to mark 500 first class appearances.

Throughout this period, he was also one of that rare breed who played county cricket too.

A right-arm medium-fast bowler, he played 83 first class matches for Leicestershire between 1962 and 1976 and took 92 wickets at an average of 29.95. His top batting performance was a knock of 78.

I am indebted once more to the meashamfox blog to learn that it was Cross’ dual sporting prowess that eventually brought his Leicester career to an end.

In the summer of 1975, he was part of the Leicestershire side captained by Ray Illingworth that won the county championship and the Benson and Hedges Cup, making him the only man to have played in cup finals at Wembley and Lord’s.

But the Leicester board took a dim view of him carrying on playing cricket instead of reporting back for pre-season training and he was suspended.

He was sent out on loan to Chesterfield and played 12 times for them in the 1975-76 season, before being released.

He arrived at the Goldstone on May 25 1976 at the same time as full back (and future manager) Chris Cattlin.

Manager Peter Taylor had impeccable contacts in the Midlands and in Cattlin, from Coventry, and Cross, from Leicester, he acquired two experienced campaigners who had played at the top level in the game for many years.

Taylor’s intention was that Cross would have the sort of impact at Brighton that the ageing Dave Mackay had on Derby when Taylor and Brian Clough signed him from Spurs. G Cross LEic

Taylor had tried to sign Cross before, in the pair’s early days at Derby. Leicester even accepted an £80,000 bid but Cross prevaricated over the move and they turned their attentions elsewhere. He admitted his regret at missing out on the £4,000 cut of the deal but told Goal magazine: “I’m happy in Leicester and I’m pleased that I decided to stay.”

That decision would ultimately lead him to become the all-time appearance record holder for Leicester, having played 599 games; a feat still not surpassed.

Clough and Taylor were renowned for building their sides on solid defences and, having already captured Grummitt, Graham Winstanley, Andy Rollings and Wilson, Taylor added Ken Tiler, Dennis Burnett, Cattlin and Cross.

Taylor, of course, didn’t hang around to see how Cattlin and Cross would contribute. With only four weeks to go to the start of the season, he decided to quit and renew his partnership with Clough, this time at Nottingham Forest.

One of the first images fans saw of his replacement, Alan Mullery, showed him embracing Cross and Cattlin at the pre-season press photocall.

Cross mostly played alongside Rollings, with Burnett and Winstanley filling in when Rollings was sidelined.

Interestingly, Cross never actually moved to Brighton during his spell with the Seagulls: the deal he agreed allowed him to continue to train with Leicester because he and his wife had business interests in the Leicester area.

The meashamfox blog declared “Graham Cross was Leicester City’s finest ever player” although the author was also sad to report how in February 1993 “he had been jailed for using post office funds to pay off his gambling debts”.

The blog concluded: “Despite this blip in his life, for me ‘The Tank’ Graham Cross is a true Leicester legend.”

Pictures from my scrapbook show:

A cracking Argus picture and headline record the winner Graham Cross scored against Ipswich in the League Cup.
A full page colour photo in Goal magazine when at Leicester.
Celebrating his inclusion in the PFA division 3 team of the year with Brian Horton and Peter Ward at the annual awards dinner.
Another Goal article, from 1973, marking a clock presentation to Cross in recognition of 500 senior appearances for Leicester.
Cross in the Preston team line-up alongside Michael Robinson, who would eventually join the Seagulls via Manchester City.

*Cross aged 77 was interviewed and photographed by* The Times ahead of Leicester’s 2021 FA Cup Final win over Chelsea

Cup winner Bert Murray: Brighton’s People’s Player

5-bert-v-villa ON HOLIDAY in Jersey in 2016 my eyes were drawn to a picture on a display in St Helier’s Fort Regent entertainment complex.

“That’s Bert Murray,” I declared to my bemused wife, and, let’s face it, who would have thought Brighton & Hove Albion’s combative former Chelsea and Birmingham City winger would still be on a public display 45 years after the picture was taken?

The display featured sports stars from Jersey who had gone on to make a name for themselves – and, ironically, the picture in which Bert appeared (below) was about Geoff Vowden (born in Barnsley but raised in Jersey), then with Aston Villa, but a player who had been a teammate during Murray’s five years at St Andrew’s.

1-jersey-poster Versatile Murray – mainly a winger but equally adept at right back – wrote himself into the Albion’s history books when he was bought from Birmingham with funds raised by fans.

But let’s go back to the beginning. Born in Hoxton, London, on 22 September 1942 Murray started his football career with Chelsea in 1958 and scored in the first leg of their 1960 FA Youth Cup Final win against Preston as part of a team which spawned many future star players, such as Peter Bonetti, Terry Venables and Bobby Tambling.

Bert made his Chelsea first team debut in 1961 and in 1963 was part of the squad that won promotion from Division 2. His form for Chelsea attracted the England selectors and in the 1964-65 season he played in six of England under 23s’ seven games, scoring on his debut.

That was on 25 November 1964 in a 5-0 romp over Romania at Coventry’s old Highfield Road ground when Alan Ball, Mick Jones, Alan Hinton and Martin Chivers also scored.

Sadly for Bert, that was the only win he experienced as an England player: in the remaining games there were four 0-0 draws and a 1-0 defeat to West Germany. Other big name players who were part of the same team included Nobby Stiles, Norman Hunter and George Armstrong

Murray’s final international was in front of 70,000 fans in Austria on 2 June 1965 when his Chelsea colleague Bonetti had taken over in goal from Gordon West and Ball, who, like Stiles would become part of the following year’s England World Cup winning team, was sent off.

2-1965-lge-cup-winners At least at club level in 1965 Murray won some silverware (above image discovered on The Shed End Chelsea fans website), playing alongside Bonetti, Venables, Eddie McCreadie, Barry Bridges and John Boyle as Tommy Docherty’s Chelsea won the League Cup in April via a narrow 3-2 aggregate win over Leicester.

Murray + Bridges Chelsea Murray and Bridges alongside each other in a 1963-64 Chelsea team picture.

In the same season, Chelsea were top of Division One for nearly the whole season, and were looking good for the domestic treble but lost 2-0 to Liverpool in the FA Cup semi-final.

The young team started to show signs of strain and slipped to third in the league. Murray and Bridges were amongst a group of eight players who defied a curfew when the team were staying in Blackpool prior to a game against Burnley and the manager sent them home. The team Docherty put out capitulated 6-2.

According to ‘Bluebeard’ on theshedend.com the following nearly-but-not-quite season – fifth in the league, beaten FA Cup semi-finalists again and Fairs Cup semi-finalists – led to Docherty breaking up the team and selling Murray, Venables, Bridges and George Graham.

So, in 1966, having scored 44 goals in 183 games, Murray was transferred to Birmingham for £25,000 and Bridges went too, as Birmingham’s new wealthy owner, Clifford Coombs, splashed the cash for manager Stan Cullis.

3-brumbert The pair were part of the side which in successive seasons got to the semi-final of the League Cup (in 1967) and FA Cup (in 1968) only to lose on both occasions. Because these things are important in the Midlands, joysandsorrows.co.uk remembers Murray as part of the 1968 Blues side who beat rivals Villa home and away. In five years, he played 132 games scoring 22 goals.

murray brum

It was the Blues former Brighton manager Freddie Goodwin who loaned him to his old club in early 1971. The loan became a permanent move thanks to £10,000 raised through innovative manager Pat Saward’s famous Buy-a-Player scheme which saw fans respond to the club’s lack of cash to bring in new players by coming up with sponsored walks and suchlike to raise the necessary money to enable Saward to bring in new faces. Thus Murray was swiftly dubbed the People’s Player.

4-bertwillie1971 Saward brought in Willie Irvine on loan from Preston at the same time and the pair combined well on 10 March 1971 (pictured above by the Evening Argus before the game) as high-flying Fulham were beaten 3-2. In Irvine’s 2005 book with Dave Thomas, Together Again, he recalls how the pair hit it off and began a friendship that endures.

Murray was an influential right winger who made and scored goals and he became a reliable penalty taker too, notably keeping a cool head from 12 yards in the 12-game unbeaten run in 1972 which culminated in promotion as runners up behind Aston Villa.

In the famous game televised by BBC’s Match of the Day at home to Villa in April 1972, Saward moved Murray to right back to replace previously ever-present Stewart Henderson. It wasn’t completely alien to him, though, because he’d slotted into that role on occasion at Birmingham.

The photographers were busy during that tightly-fought 2-1 win against Villa and several different shots of Bert’s tussle with Villa’s talented winger Willie Anderson appeared in the newspapers and magazines following the game (see pic at top of article).

While others might have been grabbing the bulk of the goals and the headlines, Murray’s consistent performances earned him the player of the season award (below, receiving the award from chairman Tom Whiting).

murray poy

The newly-promoted side struggled badly and Saward chopped and changed the line-up, bringing in a host of new faces – including Bert’s old Chelsea colleague Bridges – as he tried in vain to find the right formula to keep the Albion up. But Murray was one of the few who kept his place at the higher level, mainly back in midfield. He took over the captaincy from Ian Goodwin and contributed nine goals in 39 appearances.

Although eventually the side clicked in the final third of the season, the damage had been done early on and the recovery wasn’t enough to avoid an immediate return to Division 3.

Murray wrote in the matchday programme: “The last two months have been amazing and although I say it myself I beleive that we have played some really good football recently. I also believe we deserve a better fate.”

He added: “We must hope we have learned our lessons well for next season.” Murray appeared in the front row of the 1973-74 team line-up but his time on the south coast was drawing to a close – along with manager Saward. Murray was involved in only two games as a substitute in October and after a total of 102 games and 25 goals he moved on to Peterborough United, initially on loan and then signing permanently.

It was Noel Cantwell, the man Saward had served as assistant manager at Coventry City, who signed Murray for Posh. “He needed a right midfielder,” Murray said in a 2012 interview with the Argus. “I went up there and had four wonderful years. I still see some of the lads now.”

Saward, with his own days at the Goldstone numbered and, without naming any names, wrote some cryptic programme notes for the 13 October home game against Halifax. “In deciding that a player can leave a club, the manager must consider the player’s contribution to the club and decide whether he fits into his plans for the future,” he wrote.

“When a manager decides it is time for the player and club to part he is not necessarily governed solely by the ability of the player but he has to look at his squad as a whole and assess whether there are younger players with longer futures waiting their chance to come through.

“A governing factor must be that the strongest possible team should be fielded at all times and the manager must decide when other players should take over from established favourites.”

In the programme for the 24 October game with Southport – by which time Saward himself had been sacked – there was a brief paragraph under the headline ‘Bert Murray Leaves’.

At 31, Bert still had plenty of football left in him and he went on to make 123 appearances for Posh, scoring another 10 goals, before retiring and going into the pub trade, in Market Deeping, nine miles north of Peterborough.

Many have been the occasions Albion fans following the team at London Road have taken a detour to pop in to see Bert and chat over old times over a pint.

In 2013, when he had his 70^th birthday, The Society of Independent Brewers did an article about his 20 years running Everards pub The Bull in Market Deeping with his wife Eileen. They had also spent 17 years at two other pubs in the town, The Winning Post and The White Horse.

“Everards have been good and seem happy with what we are doing here. So if they are happy, Eileen and I plan to keep on going for a few more years yet as we really enjoy running the pub,” he said.

In September 2013, Bert returned to Stamford Bridge for a 50^th anniversary reunion with the Chelsea ‘class of ‘63’ – chatting over old times over dinner with Terry Venables, John Hollins, Peter Bonetti, Barry Bridges, Ken Shellito and Bobby Tambling.

Pictures from my scrapbook , the internet and the Albion matchday programme.

Below, the Goal magazine feature ‘The Girl Behind The Man’

Willie Bell rang last orders on his playing career at Brighton

*High-flying Willie Bell in night game action versus Rotherham at the Goldstone Ground*

LEFT-BACK Willie Bell was a key part of the first successful Leeds United side built by Don Revie. A Scottish international, his illustrious playing career ended with the then Division Three Brighton.

Bell missed only two games during Albion’s 1969-70 season having been signed as a player-coach by his former Leeds United teammate, Freddie Goodwin, from the 1969 FA Cup Finalists Leicester City.

Screen Shot 2019-03-03 at 08.51.01 Goodwin (pictured below alongside Bell in a Leeds line-up) obviously knew the pedigree of the player and mightyleeds.co.uk covers in depth how Bell was an unsung hero of that famous Don Revie side as it rose to prominence between 1962 and 1967.

Legendary Leeds hardman Norman Hunter is quoted as saying: “Willie Bell was one of the bravest men I have seen in my life. He never blinked, he never flinched, he just went for it.”

And Scottish international winger Eddie Gray remembered something similar. “Willie was a natural defender; a big, strong player who epitomised the old school of British full-backs in his discipline in sticking rigidly to the basic defensive requirements of his job.”

Good+Willie

However, he stands accused of contributing to what Welsh Evertonian Roy Vernon labelled one of the most “savage confrontations” on a football pitch: an Everton v Leeds match in November 1964.

Everton full-back Sandy Brown had been sent off in only the fourth minute when he decked Johnny Giles for a tackle that left stud marks in the defender’s chest.

“Things came to a head in the 35^th minute when full-back Willie Bell launched a two-footed tackle at Derek Temple near the touchline,” it was said in Blue Dragon: The Roy Vernon Story. “It was around neck high and one of the worst seen outside a wrestling ring.” The Everton winger had to be stretchered off by St John Ambulance attendants.

Born in Johnstone, Renfrewshire, on 3 September 1937, Bell began his career as a wing-half and in 1957 transferred from Neilston Juniors to Scottish amateur side Queens Park. While he was there, he won two Scottish amateur caps which attracted the attention of Leeds manager Jack Taylor.

Bell, aged 22, joined Leeds in the summer of 1960 after they had been relegated to the old Second Division. The Scot struggled to adapt to the English game initially and only featured sporadically in the Leeds first team. It was Taylor’s successor Revie who switched him to left-back to replace the long estanlished Grenville Hair and he only became a regular in the 1963-64 season.

He developed a great understanding with left winger Albert Johanesson as Leeds won the Second Division title and, by the end of the following season, he was part of the Leeds side that reached the 1965 FA Cup Final, only to lose to Liverpool after extra time.

England international Terry Cooper eventually replaced him at Leeds, but his performances for the Elland Road outfit earned him two full caps for Scotland in 1966, against Portugal and Brazil.

Leeds transferred Bell to Leicester in 1967 for £40,000 and he was their captain for a while but the emerging, future England international David Nish became their first choice left back and, in the summer of 1969, Bell linked up with Goodwin at Brighton.

It was halfway through the season when Bell was put in charge of Albion’s reserve side and they couldn’t have made a better start for him because they hammered Southend United 6-1 with goals from Andy Marchant, Brian Tawse, Paul Flood, Ken Blackburn, Barrie Wright and Dave Armstrong.

Bell headshot The matchday programme noted: “Willie is continuing his career as a player, but devotes a good deal of his time to the reserve side. He’s thoroughly enjoying this new phase to a fine career in the game.”

When Goodwin left Brighton for Birmingham, he took Bell and youth coach George Dalton with him, but Goodwin was so eager to hire his old pal that he made an illegal approach to him while he was still under contract at Brighton and Birmingham were later fined £5,000 for the offence.

Goodwin and Bell launched the career of Trevor Francis, the first £1m footballer, as a teenage starlet at Birmingham. In 1972, Francis, Bob Latchford and Bob Hatton spearheaded promotion for the Blues and a place in the FA Cup semi finals.

When Goodwin was sacked at the end of the 1974-75 season, Bell became caretaker manager and, after a successful spell in temporary charge, got the position on a permanent basis.

Bell brought in Syd Owen, the former Leeds United trainer, as a coach, but the team struggled, finishing one place above the relegation zone at the end of their 1975-76 centenary season.

He led them to an improved 13^th in the following season but after losing the opening five matches of the 1977-78 season, Bell’s managerial career at St Andrews came to an end. His successor was none other than former England boss Sir Alf Ramsey, who was by then a Birmingham director.

Bell meanwhile went on to manage Third Division Lincoln City, following the unsuccessful George Kerr in trying to emulate the heights enjoyed by the Imps under Graham Taylor, who had gone on to manage Watford. It wasn’t to be, though, and on leaving Lincoln in October 1978, Bell emigrated to the USA and coached at Liberty University in Virginia.

After suffering a heart attack in 1993, he turned to religion and became active in the church. In 2001 he and his wife Mary retired to Yorkshire and in 2014 published an autobiography called The Light At The End of the Tunnel.

Bell died aged 85 on 21 March 2023 after suffering a stroke.

In parallel lines

Memories from more than 55 years following Brighton & Hove Albion

Tag: Norman Hunter