Tag: Northampton Town

Albion’s lifeline for the boy from Baghdad who turned down Spurs

BAGHDAD-BORN Yaser Kasim went through the youth ranks at Tottenham Hotspur but rejected a professional contract at White Hart Lane and tried to build a career at Brighton instead.

Although it didn’t work out at the Albion, he subsequently thrived at Swindon Town where his former Seagulls’ development squad coach Luke Williams had become assistant manager.

“He is one of the best coaches I have worked with. This guy is at another level,” he said.

Kasim joined the Spurs academy at the age of 11 in June 2003 and progressed to become a full-time scholar at 16. He was in the club’s youth team in the 2009 FA Youth Cup (they lost 3-1 to north London neighbours Arsenal in the quarter-finals) alongside Andros Townsend, Steven Caulker and Jonathan Obika.

“When the time came to sign pro forms at Tottenham, I decided to go on my own and turned it down,” Kasim told Tom Hopkinson of the Sunday People.

“From that decision it was ­difficult to get another club ­because everyone knows how ­powerful Spurs are and I couldn’t sort the compensation out for all those years I’d trained with them.”

Kasim in action for Albion Reserves v Eastbourne Borough. Pic: Simon Dack

A contractual impasse left Kasim in limbo and he was forced to train on his own until former Spurs teammates Gus Poyet and Mauricio Taricco, having taken over as manager and no.2 at Brighton, stepped in.

The pair managed to resolve the dispute between player and club and in October 2010 offered him a short-term deal with the Seagulls. Kasim later told the Argus: “They sorted something out for me and I love the football here, because they play good football, and the players are great, so everything is good except for playing more games…I’ll work hard for that.”

He was talking after he had been handed his Albion debut in the final game of the 2010-11 season, a 1-1 draw away to Notts County, with the Seagulls already having been crowned League One champions.

Kasim played for 70 minutes in midfield alongside Liam Bridcutt, Matt Sparrow and Elliott Bennett before being substituted, with Poyet saying: “The pitch didn’t help him. He is a technical player. We are trying to work on the other side of his game, the toughness and his defensive work. I think he has got a great future.

“He was very good on the ball, confident and strong. As soon as the game became more 50-50 it wasn’t good for him or us but opponents are going to try to make it a war against us.”

The Uruguayan added: “We are offering him the chance to stay with us. He is thinking about it and we’ll probably have a few more words.

“He knows where he stands. We’ve been honest with him, it’s up to him.

“It’s complicated because I don’t know if it will be easy for him to step up and start playing for the first team in the Championship, but we are offering him the chance to be there or thereabouts.”

As it turned out, he was a regular in Luke Williams’ development squad but only made the first team bench on three occasions, getting on (pictured above) just the once, as a sub for Alan Navarro, in the 66th minute of an inexperienced Albion’s 1-1 FA Cup draw at home to then non-league Wrexham on 7 January 2012.

Kasim managed to collect a booking during his brief time on the pitch in a game that saw young Ben Sampayo given his debut and Grant Hall his first start (he’d previously been a sub five days earlier against Southampton). Anton Rodgers, son of Brendan, was sent on at the same time as Kasim entered the fray. Kasim was an unused sub in the replay when Albion only advanced courtesy of a penalty shoot-out, edging it 5-4 after the game ended 1-1.

Come the summer of 2012 and Kasim went on a six-month loan to then Conference Premier League Luton Town, with Hatters boss Paul Buckle telling the club’s website: “Yaser can do a variety of jobs. He can be a box-to-box man and also play in a defensive midfield role.

“It’s great we have been able to capture someone of his calibre for six months. I have no doubt that he will prosper with us.”

The player made five starts plus six appearances off the bench and scored once, in a 2-1 win at Tamworth (the other scorer was Stuart Fleetwood, who’d been on loan at the Albion in the 2008-09 season).

In the second half of the season, Kasim played five games for Conference National League Macclesfield Town.

Released by Brighton in May 2013, Kasim went on trial to League One Swindon and signed a three-year deal after spending a week at the Robins’ pre-season training camp in Portugal. Manager Mark Cooper paired him in midfield with Massimo Luongo and he played 45 times in his first season.

Reliable Robin

Perhaps it was inevitable that Kasim managed to get on the scoresheet against Brighton in August 2014 when Swindon lost 4-2 (after extra time) at home to Sami Hyypia’s Albion in the second round of the League Cup (future Town midfielder Rohan Ince scored a belter for the Seagulls, Adrian Colunga edged Albion ahead in the 95th minute. Kasim equalised before two late penalties scored by Jake Forster-Caskey put Albion through).

Kasim ended up having four seasons at the County Ground, was part of the side that made it to the League One play-off final in 2015, when they lost 4-0 to Preston, and it was reported at one point that Premier League Swansea City and West Ham were interested in signing him.

Nothing came of that, though, and his final campaign with the Robins saw him dogged by groin and hip injuries as Town were relegated to the bottom tier.

Mentor Williams was Town’s head coach by then and, after being forced to drop Kasim in February 2017 and replace him with the aforementioned Ince, opened up to the Swindon Advertiser.

Reckoning Kasim was not showing enough of a physical side to his game, Williams said: “I have known Yaser a long time and he is an incredibly talented player but, for one reason or another, I don’t think he is performing to anywhere near his best and at the moment, he needs to come out of the team.

“Players fall out of form because of a combination of things, sometimes off the pitch as well.

I wish I could find the reason and try to make everything okay for Yaser because he is a very important player and has given a fantastic service to us.

“He is somebody that I think a lot of personally so I would love for him to be in top form.

“I think Yaser in top form is as good a player as you’ll see at this level for sure, unfortunately he doesn’t seem to be able to quite find it.”

The coach added: “He came here and I think, certainly for the first two seasons, he was absolutely fantastic and last season, there was far more good from Yaser than bad. This year, he hasn’t been able to recapture that.”

Born in the Karrada district of Baghdad on 10 May 1991, three months after the end of the Gulf War, Kasim’s passion for football began at a young age on the streets of Baghdad.

“I lived in Iraq until I was six years old,” he told the-afc.com. “I don’t know how young I was when I started to play, but before I left we used to play a lot of football on the streets.

“It is a very sunny and hot climate so we used to play on the streets and there were a lot of people playing 20 a-side sometimes on the tarmac and there were a few rolled ankles and a few chipped toe nails, but I loved it and we used to be outside all day.”

The family left Iraq because Kasim’s father saw a decline in his business as a used car parts salesman. They spent a year in Jordan before moving to England, and eventually settling in north west London.

“I started playing after school every day and then I started to go to football clubs and a coach at one of my sports centres took me to Fulham,” he said. He had only been at Fulham a few months before switching to Spurs.

Explaining why he turned down the offer of a professional contract at Tottenham, Kasim had concerns about the way players were being cared for. He said: “There was a lot of competition; I don’t mind competition as the more the competition, when growing up especially, the better it is, but they were bringing in players without plans on how to look after them and I felt they weren’t doing things right by the players so I saw that my opportunities would be limited and I thought this was not for me.”

It was during his time at Brighton that he was approached to join up with the Iraq national side, at the time coached by Wolfgang Sidka. He won 21 caps over a number of years, although he had a somewhat chequered relationship with the representative side.

In international action for Iraq

He made his debut in March 2014 featuring in a 3-1 win over China, was hero-worshipped after a series of influential performances in the 2015 Asian Cup (scoring a key winning goal in their opener against Jordan and netting a penalty in the quarter-final shootout against Iran), but went AWOL during the country’s preparations for the 2016 Rio Olympics (he was called up as one of three coverage players for the tournament but he left the training camp in Spain and never returned).

He also turned down national team call ups under coaches Radhi Shanaishel and Basim Qasim then, after saying he’d retired from the national set-up, returned and went on as a sub in a 4-1 win over Saudi Arabia in 2018 – the most high-profile match to be staged in Iraq for years and Kasim’s first international match on Iraqi soil (previously ‘home’ matches were played at empty grounds across the world).

“Just having that real home feeling is very special,” Kasim told Mark Lomas in a post-match interview for Arab News.

“When you compare it to playing in Dubai, or playing in Malaysia, the difference is just ridiculous. Even when it’s an important game, it is just not the same as it being in Iraq. It elevates you to another level – really, it’s amazing being out there on the pitch. I really do hope we get to play our home games here going forward.
“I truly hope that FIFA sees this game and realises that these fans deserve to watch their team play in Iraq.”

Kasim added: “I have always said that the Iraqi fans are the best in the world — they are crazy for football and for the players.

“I appreciate them so much and I’m humbled when they shout my name. When I come back to Iraq, I get to meet a lot of people every day and you just get such a good vibe.”

By the time of that interview, Kasim had moved on to League One Northampton Town but he told Thomas: “It is just really good that someone like me, who left Iraq at a young age, is able to come back and reconnect with my heritage. It brings out something within you as a man, a bit of maturity and cultural understanding. It goes some way to helping you feel more complete as a person.

“This occasion, obviously, will always give me happy memories of Basra. It kind of trumps everything else I’ve experienced in Iraq. Being around the people and these sorts of occasions, it really helps the country move forward. You realise that officials are stepping up and doing things right. I’m hoping this is just the beginning.”

After Kasim left the Cobblers in January 2019, he had brief spells with Örebro SK in Sweden, and Erbil and Zakho in Iraq (when Dick Advocaat was briefly Iraq manager, Kasim was recalled for the 2021 FIFA Arab Cup after he’d impressed playing for Zakho).

Ahead of the 2022-23 season, Kasim was a trialist for Notts County in a pre-season 1-1 draw with   Boston United (National League County were managed by the aforementioned Luke Williams) but his next club was National League South Welling United, where he played 11 matches.

On signing him, manager Warren Feeney said: “He’s a fantastic player. We’re very lucky to get him and we’re absolutely delighted. He’s a player who can open teams up, he’s a great player who’s played at a great level and is an international so he has great pedigree. He’s hungry and we’re delighted to have him.”

After only three months, he moved on to National League North Gloucester City but after only one game headed back to the south east and linked up with Football’s Next Star winner (and one-time Brighton teammate) Ben Greenhalgh, who was assistant manager at Margate, of the Isthmian Premier League. Kasim played 13 matches for Margate and the following season linked up with another former Brighton colleague, coach Mark Beard, who was in charge of National League South Eastbourne Borough.

He played 17 matches for Boro before returning to Margate where after 12 more games he decided to retire from playing at the age of 33.

In May 2024, Kasim wrote a lengthy piece on the medium.com platform entitled The Illusion of Time and Space: A Footballer’s Perspective in which he explained: “The most beautiful part of playing the game has been the ability to create the illusion of time and space on the pitch. This involves making complex decisions and movements appear effortless, allowing a player to control the game seamlessly.”

As to what he’s doing now, his LinkedIn profile says he’s aiming to develop a career in investment management. Also, as the holder of a UEFA B licence, he’s a part-time coach for Crystal Palace’s academy, working with different age groups.

Calderwood’s switch to promotion rivals backfired

Hughton’s not so loyal assistant

SCOTTISH international Colin Calderwood played for and managed Nottingham Forest in a lengthy playing and managerial career that has spanned a host of clubs across the country.

His 21 months as assistant manager to Chris Hughton at Brighton came to an abrupt end that drew harsh criticism at the time but thankfully didn’t hinder Albion’s upward trajectory.

Calderwood worked under Hughton at three other clubs: Newcastle United, Birmingham City and Norwich City.

The pair first met on the same A licence coaching badge course and Hughton was later a coach at Tottenham when Calderwood was a player. He then played a part in Calderwood becoming reserve team coach at White Hart Lane after his playing days were over.

Calderwood went on to become a manager in his own right at League Two Northampton Town, where he got them promotion at the end of his second season (in 2006).

Two and a half years as boss at Forest followed, during which he got them promoted from League One to the Championship. In 2007-08, his Foest side took four points off the Albion, winning 2-0 at Withdean but being held to a goalless draw at home.

Forest were promoted in second place behind champions Swansea City (Albion finished seventh) but Calderwood was sacked just before Christmas in 2008 with the side struggling in the Championship relegation zone.

When Hughton succeeded Sami Hyypiä at the start of 2015, it wasn’t long before he turned to trusted ‘lieutenant’ Calderwood to help Albion’s cause.

The no.2 had first worked with him at Newcastle in 2009 when, after relegation from the Premier League, the pair led the Magpies back to the elite as Championship champions in 2010.

Hibernian in Edinburgh lured him to try a third spell as a no.1 but, after just 13 months in charge, and only securing 12 wins from 49 matches, he was sacked. He was not out of work for long, moving later the same month to Birmingham to become Hughton’s assistant at the Championship side, where another of Hughton’s backroom team, Paul Trollope, was first team coach.

When Hughton left for Premier League Norwich in June 2012, Calderwood, Trollope and chief scout Ewan Chester (who also later joined him at Brighton) all decamped to Carrow Road. City dispensed with their services in April 2014.

Having helped steer Albion to the Championship promotion near-miss of 2015-16 (when they suffered the agonising play-off semi-finals defeat to Sheffield Wednesday), the Seagulls were well geared up to go one better the following season.

So it came as something of a shock when Calderwood quit in November 2016 to become assistant manager to Steve Bruce at promotion rivals Aston Villa.

Hughton was said to be “very disappointed” and “very surprised” by his assistant’s departure, “particularly at this stage of the season”. Albion watcher Andy Naylor reckoned that amounted to a “withering condemnation” from the normally placid manager.

In an excoriating article for the Argus, Naylor wrote: “He clearly feels let down – and he is entitled to feel that way. Is there any justification for treating Hughton the way he has?”

It emerged that the move gave Calderwood a much shorter daily commuting distance from his home in Northampton, but, even so, Naylor reckoned Hughton deserved better.

Thankfully, there was a ready-made replacement in the wings because Trollope had just lost his job at Cardiff City.

Naylor wrote: “Trollope is in the right place at the right moment to bring his promotion-winning mentality as both a player and manager into the camp. Let’s hope he demonstrates more loyalty than Calderwood.”

Perhaps it was the supreme irony that as Albion marched to promotion from the Championship the following spring, the side Calderwood had moved to only finished in 13th place – although the last-game draw at Villa stymied Albion’s chances of going up as champions.

Nevertheless, there were no bitter recriminations on Calderwood’s part. “Chris did a terrific job turning around the shape and the balance of the team,” he recalled in an interview with the Argus in January 2021.

Ahead of his subsequent club Blackpool’s visit to the Amex for a fourth round FA Cup tie (Albion won 2-1), the former assistant boss said: “We found, as I’ve found at most clubs I’ve been at, there’s a core group of players that have an appetite and an ability level that can give you a chance of success.

“When it falls into place, it is really nice to watch and it is very heart-warming and you feel justified in what you preach and practice.

“A lot of the time you are determined by the quality of the person and the player within the club. We found some really good people down there.”

Born on 20 January 1965 in Stranraer, Calderwood didn’t play professionally in Scotland, instead joining Mansfield Town as a 17-year-old in 1982.

He realised in hindsight that he learned a lot from Town’s manager at the time, the experienced Ian Greaves, and he went on to play over 100 matches for the Stags before Swindon Town boss Lou Macari signed him for £27,500 in 1985.

“Ian and Lou were the ones that built the foundations of my career,” he told the Albion matchday programme.

The centre back spent eight seasons at the County Ground and is recognised as a Swindon legend having featured in 412 matches (plus two as a sub).

At only 21, he was made club captain and, despite a difficult start, led Town to back-to-back promotions as they won the Division Four title in 1986 and overcame Gillingham in a Division Three play-off final replay in 1987.

Promotion winner with Swindon Town

Calderwood was said to be “a rock at the heart of the defence” and eventually led Town to their first promotion to the top-flight, after beating Sunderland in the play-off final at Wembley in 1990. But Swindon were demoted due an irregular payments scandal in which Calderwood was implicated: he was arrested just four weeks before the Wembley match but released the same day without charge.
Calderwood missed five months of the 1990-91 season following a horror tackle by Wolves legend Steve Bull but he returned stronger than ever and was ever present when, under Glenn Hoddle, Swindon were promoted at the end of the 1992-1993 season, beating Leicester 4-3 in the play-off final.

But instead of featuring for Swindon in the Premiership, Town’s former manager Ossie Ardiles took him to Tottenham for a fee of £1.25 million.

Playing in the top division for Spurs earned him international recognition. He made his Scotland debut aged 30 in a Euro 1996 qualifier against Russia and was a regular under Craig Brown, winning 36 caps in four years, including playing at the 1998 World Cup.

According to Spurs fan website mehstg.com (My Eyes Have Seen The Glory), Calderwood was “a solid defender, who could tackle and was good in the air, but lacked the pace and distribution skills to be a top class centre half.

“Calderwood gave Spurs a tough presence in the middle of the back four they had been missing for some time and showed that Ardiles’ judgement had been sound.”

After 198 appearances for Spurs (more than 150 in the Premier League), he left White Hart Lane in March 1999 when a £230,000 move saw him join Aston Villa under John Gregory. A year later, he switched to David Platt’s second tier Forest for £70,000.

He had only been at Forest a month when, ironically at Birmingham’s St Andrews ground, Calderwood, by then 35, suffered an injury that would ultimately force him to retire.

Forest goalkeeper Dave Beasant had already been injured in a clash with City’s Jon McCarthy earlier in the game but recovered. Calderwood wasn’t so fortunate. He ended up being stretchered off after a collision with the same player. He had fractured his leg and dislocated his ankle, causing ligament damage.

The injury overshadowed Forest’s 1-0 win and it meant he played only a handful of games at the City Ground. He later had a brief spell on loan at neighbours Notts County before calling it a day.

Calderwood initially returned to Spurs as reserve team manager before leaving for Northampton in October 2003. Spurs director of football and caretaker manager, David Pleat, said: “Colin leaves us with our very best wishes. He’s had two-and-a-half years here as a coach which I’m sure has been valuable experience.

“Colin is young, he has energy, ideas and, most importantly, ambition. This could be a terrific apprenticeship for him and everyone at the club wishes him well in his new role.”

Fast forward 15 years, and after he left Villa along with Steve Bruce in October 2018, two months later he was back in the game at League Two strugglers Cambridge United. He was given an initial 18-month contract and a year later he was given a two-year extension on his deal.

However, after a 4-0 home defeat to Salford City in January 2020 which meant Cambridge had taken only one point from their previous six games, he was sacked.

In October that year he was taken on at Blackpool as part of Neil Critchley’s managerial team and was part of the set-up that saw the Tangerines win a place in the Championship in 2021.

In June 2021 Calderwood returned to his old club Northampton as assistant manager to Jon Brady, and he told the League Two club’s website: “I have learned a lot in the years since I was last at the club and hopefully I can put all of that experience to good use.

“The situation here is similar to the situation I arrived in at Blackpool in working with a talented young manager.
“I have spoken with Jon Brady a number of times, that relationship will build quickly and I am really looking forward to working with him and the rest of the coaching staff.”

The Cobblers finished fourth in League Two and made it through to the division’s play-off semi-finals where they lost 3-1 on aggregate to Calderwood’s first club, Mansfield.

They made up for it in 2022-23 when they earned automatic promotion in third place behind Leyton Orient and Stevenage.

Nevertheless, in October 2023, Calderwood returned to Championship level as part of Russell Martin’s backroom team at Southampton.

Teaming up with Russell Martin

“First and foremost, he’s a brilliant human being. I really trust him and know him very well,” Martin told the Daily Echo. 

“We worked together at Norwich many moons ago when he was the assistant manager. I used to moan all the time to him and he had a brilliant way of being able to deal with that.

“He just has a great relationship with the players, and he’s a coach throughout my career who I’ve stayed in real constant contact with and discussed football.

“We’ve spoken a lot even when he’s not worked with me. I tried to get him at my two previous clubs and it couldn’t quite happen for various reasons.

“He’s been a manager, an assistant manager, he’s helped some young managers recently get promoted in Neil Critchley and Jon Brady, and added huge experience and value to them.”

Arron Davies and pal Gareth Bale’s careers diverged!

ARRON DAVIES moved to Nottingham Forest two months after scoring twice against them to shatter their chances of promotion via the League One play-offs.

Davies was in the Yeovil side, managed by Russell Slade, that beat Forest 5-2 in the first leg of their play-off semi-final in 2007 and edged the tie 5-4 on aggregate before losing to Blackpool in the final.

Liking what he saw in the opponents’ line-up, Forest boss Colin Calderwood, later Albion assistant manager to Chris Hughton, promptly signed Davies and his Glovers teammate Chris Cohen for £1.2m.

But a freak leg-break in a pre-season game in Scotland dealt Davies a massive blow and he was mainly on the fringes as Forest made up for the previous season’s disappointment by winning promotion in second place.

While he made ten starts, plus 12 appearances off the bench, Cohen, was a regular in the Forest midfield and became a fans’ favourite.

When Davies only featured in two Carling Cup games for Forest at the start of the 2009-10 season, his old boss, Slade, took him on a half-season loan to League One Brighton.

It wasn’t a completely strange dressing room for him to join; Forest teammate Matt Thornhill was already on loan, having joined as part of the deal that saw Albion defender Joel Lynch move to the City Ground.

He also knew Craig Davies and Andrew Crofts from involvement in the Wales under 21 team for who he won 14 caps and was made captain by Brian Flynn. In 2006, manager John Toshack gave him his solitary full cap for his country, aged just 17, going on as a sub (as did Davies and Crofts) in a 2-1 friendly win over Trinidad and Tobago. It was the match that marked his close friend (and fellow Southampton teenager) Gareth Bale’s debut as Wales’ youngest ever full international at the age of 16 years and 315 days.

On clinching his former player’s signing for the Albion, Slade told the Albion website: “Arron can play on either wing or as an attacking midfielder. He is a player I know very well from my time at Yeovil and I expect him to be a very good acquisition for the club.”

Davies was effectively a straight replacement for winger Mark Wright, who’d joined as a free agent that summer but failed to settle and was sold to Bristol Rovers after only two games.

He told the matchday programme: “Russell is a very good manager. I played under him for one season at Yeovil and we had a very good year that year as he led us to the play-off final.

“That was my most enjoyable year in football. It was a great season for me, getting to Wembley, and eventually getting a move to Nottingham Forest. He did a lot for me and hopefully I can repay him this time round.

“I have played the majority of my career at this level, in this league, and I know what it is all about. I have won promotion with Nottingham Forest and came very close with Yeovil, so I know what it takes.”

In the absence of Dean Cox through injury, Davies made eight starts for the Seagulls, but he was subbed off in seven of the games (Albion only won three of them).

When the 3-3 draw at home to Hartlepool signalled the end of Slade’s reign, it also marked the last game Davies played in the stripes. Unfortunately for him, new boss Gus Poyet preferred alternative options.

Born in Cardiff on 22 June 1984, Davies was brought up in the delightfully named Llantwit Major. He spent four years in Cardiff City’s youth set up but moved to Southampton in 1997 and eventually broke through to become a regular in their reserves during the 2002-03 season.

He had a sniff of involvement in the 2003 FA Cup final when Saints played Arsenal in Cardiff but manager Gordon Strachan didn’t select him in the matchday squad. He subsequently travelled to Bucharest where Saints played in a UEFA Cup tie but again didn’t play.

“I was fairly close to Gordon,” Davies told walesonline.co.uk in December 2018. “He made me travel with the first team and got me involved with training daily. He put me on the bench and spoke to me quite a bit.

“He liked the way I played football and he believed in me.”

He had a brief loan spell with Barnsley in February 2004, where he played four matches, but, on the day Harry Redknapp replaced Strachan as Saints manager, the youngster was released.

“They were a Premier League club at the time and I got close,” he said. “Obviously, though, it wasn’t close enough. I just decided to leave and then that year they got relegated.

“If I’d stayed, perhaps with hindsight I would have played a bit more in the Championship the year after.

“But it was the best decision I made as I had to go out and get first team football. From there, at Yeovil, that’s where my career really started.”

Davies joined Yeovil on a free transfer and went on to score 27 goals in 115 matches over the next three years.

If the move to Forest looked promising, a freak injury during a pre-season game at Motherwell changed everything.

A nudge knocked him off balance and he stumbled on his leg, causing a spiral fracture and a chip on the bone – rather than a clean break – which made it more difficult to fix.

“That was a massive setback,” he told BBC Radio Nottingham. Although he recovered to make his debut in October 2007, his three years in the East Midlands were blighted by injury. He played just 40 games for the Reds. “I couldn’t really get fit,” he said. “I couldn’t get a run of games, I couldn’t get a run of form going. I still have ongoing issues, it is mainly in my calf.

“Obviously if I could turn back time, I would have to miss the game away at Motherwell and not get injured. It’s pretty sad that it didn’t work out. I was pretty gutted about that. If I hadn’t have got injured it would have been a different story.”

When managerial change meant things didn’t work out for him at Brighton, he returned to Yeovil on loan, making a further 10 appearances.

In the summer of 2010, another former Yeovil boss, Gary Johnson, signed him for Peterborough United but after playing 28 games for Posh, Johnson’s successor, Darren Ferguson dispensed with his services.

Next stop was Northampton Town, signed for a third time by Johnson, who had become manager of the Cobblers. He played 19 times and scored four goals for Town, his best return for five years. But, in what was becoming a familiar pattern, when Johnson left, Davies found opportunities limited under successor Aidy Boothroyd.

He joined League Two Exeter City in the summer of 2012, with their manager Paul Tisdale telling BBC Sport: “It’s a good opportunity for him and I think he’s the right type of player to fit in with us. He’s an attack-minded player and I had to find some attack-minded players to fit into the squad.”

Tisdale saw it as a chance for Davies to resurrect his career, and over the course of four seasons he played more matches (148) than he’d played for any of his previous clubs, adding a further 10 goals to his career tally.

By 2016, Exeter couldn’t afford to give him a new contract and, ironically, he scored against them for new club Accrington Stanley in a 2-1 defeat at home to the Grecians in August 2016. However, it was his only goal in 10 appearances for Accrington before he retired.

After his playing days were over, he became an agent. “Throughout my time as a player people sort of gauged my advice on things and came to me, so I leaned towards that and did my badges as well,” he told walesonline.

“Even when I was playing League Two football I had friends in the Premier League that were ringing me and asking for advice.

“It was something I always liked doing, so I’m doing it full-time. It’s enjoyable, it’s demanding and it keeps me in football and I can’t ever picture not being involved in football.”

Davies told devonlive.com: “I did look into coaching, I’ve done a few of my badges, but the agent side of it really hooked me in.

“There’s no limits on it, you can be as good as you want, so I’m out, trying to work as hard as I possibly can.”

Top Hatter Moore a temporary plug in Albion’s leaky defence

LUTON TOWN legend John Moore had a 32-year association with the Hatters as a player, coach and manager. He had a less remarkable one month’s loan in the stripes of Brighton.

As manager Pat Saward rather too rapidly dismantled Albion’s 1972 promotion-winning side, the experienced Moore was one of several old hands brought in to try to help Albion adapt to the old Second Division.

Saward was light on numbers in a defence which had conceded 23 goals in 12 games, and he had just parted company with former skipper John Napier, while injury-prone Ian Goodwin was in hospital having a knee cartilage operation. The side had only won once in the league in 12 starts.

But the arrival of Moore, together with Lewes-based Stan Brown from Fulham, gave the side an unexpected fillip and the Albion earned a surprise 2-0 victory away to Huddersfield Town (Eddie Spearritt and Barry Bridges the scorers) on 14 October 1972.

Saward was certainly impressed by the impact of his two new acquisitions. “The new men played a major part in our success,” he said. “It was quite remarkable really the way they slotted into the side as if they had been playing for Albion all season. John did exceptionally well in his role as sweeper.

“They are, of course, experienced professionals who have been around the game a long time. But even the best professionals sometimes take time to settle into new environments and this is why the performances of these two was so outstanding.”

Unfortunately, it was the only win of Moore’s brief stay. Albion drew the next three games and his final outing came in a 3-0 defeat at Millwall. That loss at The Den was the first of 12 consecutive league defeats.

Ironically, Albion only returned to winning ways when Moore was in opposition, lining up in the Luton side that lost 2-1 at the Goldstone on 10 February 1973. Ken Beamish scored both Albion goals, while future Albion signings Don Shanks and Barry Butlin were playing for the opponents that day.

Moore subsequently moved on to Northampton Town, where future Albion player John Gregory was beginning to make his way in the game, but the Scot ended his playing days after only 14 appearances.

Born on 21 December 1943 in the village of Harthill (halfway between Glasgow and Edinburgh), Moore played initially for local side North Motherwell Athletic. In 1962, he joined Scottish League side Motherwell on a part-time basis, while also working in a factory.

He was a centre-forward when he initially went to Fir Park but in the only three games he played he started twice in midfield and once in defence. Given a free transfer in May 1965, a Luton scout in Scotland pointed him in the direction of then manager George Martin.

In a 2011 interview with Matthew Parsfield, for the Talk of the Town blog, he recalled: “George Martin flew up to Scotland to sign me. I remember sitting down with him in my living room with my family, and, it sounds far-fetched nowadays, but there were no contract negotiations and no haggling at all.

“He said ‘What do you want?’ He was actually talking about a signing-on fee, but I just said ‘I want an opportunity.’ He certainly gave me that.”

One particular long-standing fan, Mick Ogden, remembered Moore’s arrival with affection. Writing on the Hatters Heritage website, he recalled him turning up at a supporters’ club gathering in the company of manager Martin in May 1965.

“Despite the fact that he had travelled down from Glasgow that day, John spent the whole evening with us, firstly playing billiards against our members and then later we sat around listening to John talking about his life and obvious love of football,” wrote Mick.

“He told us he had signed from Motherwell and how he sat for many hours during the week talking football with his father, who was a Rangers fan. Apparently, these chats would often carry on until the early hours of the next day. John clearly had a great love and affection for his father.”

Another fan who remembered the player from his early Luton-watching days, ‘Mad Hatter’, said: “Moore wasn’t like other defenders; slender in physique compared to those he played alongside, he was more than a match for most of the opponents he came up against.

“Whilst on the books of the Hatters, Moore made 274 league appearances and more than played his part in helping Luton Town climb from Division 4 to Division 2.”

John Moore in action for Luton against West Ham’s Geoff Hurst

Indeed as well as under Martin, Moore also featured under Alan Brown, Alec Stock and Harry Haslam.

After his playing days were over, he spent time as manager of non-league Dunstable Town but when David Pleat took over as Luton manager, he took Moore back to the club as a coach.

After Pleat had moved on to take the hot seat at Spurs, Moore stepped up to become manager.

It was the 1986-87 season in the top-flight and Moore led the Hatters to a club-best seventh-place finish. But it appears he didn’t enjoy the limelight of such a position and he stepped down, handing over the reins to Ray Harford, assisted by Steve Foster. Luton went on to win the League Cup (then known as the Littlewoods Cup) beating Arsenal 3-2, with another ex-Albion skipper, Danny Wilson, one of the goalscorers.

When former player Jim Ryan took over as manager, Moore returned to the club as a coach for a third stint and stayed in that role under Pleat again, Terry Westley, Lennie Lawrence, Ricky Hill, Mick Harford, Joe Kinnear and Mike Newell until he reached the age of 60 in 2003 and chose to retire.

In the interview with Parsfield, he gave an insight into his approach. “When I became youth coach I always treated the boys like adults.

“I wasn’t interested in making them successful youth players, the only way to make a living is to become a first team player.

“I told them they had to work harder than the first team, because those older guys down the corridor aren’t going to just give you their first team place and their luxury lifestyle, you’ve got to work for it.”

He added: “Nobody’s career flows in a straight line, careers bob and weave, and players need the attitude of ‘When it gets hard, I don’t give in’. It’s when someone has the talent but not the attitude, that’s what frustrates you the most.”

On leaving Luton, Moore got involved in schools coaching in Bedford. But at Kenilworth Road, there is a permanent reminder of the player courtesy of The John Moore Lounge.

Mixed fortunes at Brighton for Liverpudlian Lee Steele

ONE-TIME Liverpool triallist Lee Steele was part of the Albion squad which won back-to-back promotions from the fourth and third tiers.

Unfortunately for him, a certain Bobby Zamora was almost always ahead of him in the pecking order, along with Gary Hart, so the diminutive striker often had to be content with involvement off the subs bench.

Nonetheless, he contributed important goals as the Seagulls under Micky Adams went up from League Two in 2001 and from League One in 2002 under Peter Taylor.

His first season at Brighton was marred by a drink-driving incident which, in hindsight, he believed tainted the rest of his time at the club. Indeed, as the season drew to a close, he was put on the transfer list and was at loggerheads with Adams.

“I told him I’d prove him wrong, and he said that only one player had said that to him before and gone ahead and done it,” Steele told Spencer Vignes in a matchday programme article. After shedding a few pounds and improving his fitness, he said: “I scored loads of goals in pre-season and worked my way into the side.

“I got a few more as the season began, and then he left and I was back to square one with Peter Taylor.” Steele said Taylor was easier to get on with than the “totally demanding and driven Adams” although he reckoned: “The intensity went from our game a fair bit.”

Nevertheless, in the 2001-02 season, he made 25 starts plus 19 appearances off the bench and the most important of his 10 goals was the 91st-minute winner in an Easter Monday 2-1 win over Bristol City at the Withdean after he’d gone on as a 30th-minute sub for Paul Brooker, who’d turned an ankle.

Argus reporter Andy Naylor pointed out how Steele had gone from villain to hero after getting himself sent off in a reserve game just as Zamora was ruled out for three games with a shoulder injury. As it turned out, that goal against City was his last in an Albion shirt.

In its end of season play-by-player analysis, the Argus said of Steele: “An enigma. More to offer than he has showed, although he would argue a regular run in the side would help. Still managed to finish with ten goals and has the pace and power to trouble defenders.”

However, there was no more to offer Brighton because Taylor’s departure that summer coincided with Steele’s Albion exit too.

Reflecting on his time at the Albion in another Vignes interview for the matchday programme, Steele said: “I wasn’t used to playing substitute all the time, which I found hard to adjust to. Then when I did come on, I used to put myself under so much pressure that I wouldn’t deliver the goods. It still haunts me actually. OK I was in Bobby’s shadow, but I was at a massive club and should have done better.”

He moved to Oxford United on a two-year deal, but didn’t enjoy a happy time under Ian Atkins, and then joined Leyton Orient where some vital goals – including one that earned the Os promotion while simultaneously relegating his old club out of the league – helped earn him a ‘fans favourite’ tag.

After the Os, he had a season with Chester City, then dropped out of the league to return to Northwich Victoria.

He moved on to semi-pro side Oxford City but was sacked for a homophobic tweet about Gareth Thomas, which he said was tongue-in-cheek. Northern Premier League side Nantwich took him on, although he only played one game for them.

Born in the Garston district of Liverpool on 2 December 1973, Steele was a ‘Red’ from an early age, first being taken to watch them aged six and idolising Ian Rush. He was educated at St Austin’s Catholic Primary School, Liverpool, Holmwood School and then St Mary’s College.

The young Steele harboured ambitions of becoming a professional golfer rather than a footballer but, when that didn’t work out, he started playing football with non-league Bootle while working for his uncle as a bricklayer.

“I managed to get a trial for Liverpool,” he told Andy Heryet in the Albion matchday programme. “I hoped they would ask me back, but I didn’t hear anything from them, which was disappointing as they promised me that I’d hear either way, but they never got back to me.”

It was Northwich Victoria who propelled him towards a career as a professional, signing him as cover ahead of a FA Trophy final against Macclesfield.

Steele scored five goals in three end of season games, earned a place on the bench at Wembley and got on for the last 20 minutes, although Victoria lost.

In his second season at Northwich, his reputation was growing as a prolific striker and Third Division Shrewsbury Town snapped him up for £40,000 – a decent-sized fee for a non-league player.

“I wanted to go. I’d always wanted to be a professional footballer, ever since it became clear I wasn’t going to make it as a golfer,” Steele told Heryet.

He spent the next three seasons with the Shrews although the club’s struggles at the wrong end of the league prompted him to look for a move.

While he was keen to go to Tranmere Rovers, who’d shown an interest, no deal was forthcoming, but Brighton went in for him and, having played against them the season before, he liked what he saw.

Steele has had several strings to his bow since finishing his playing career: he’s a qualified licensed UEFA B coach, a personal trainer and a nutrition advisor. Clients have included pro footballers, elite junior tennis players, 16-times PDC World Darts Champion Phil ‘The Power’ Taylor and Team GB age group triathletes.

He also spent a year as a fitness coach with Oldham Athletic during Lee Johnson’s reign as manager and two years as a scout for his old club, Leyton Orient.

Since 2008 he has been operations manager for Kickback Tax (a tax advisor agency for footballers) and, since December 2021, has been senior scout for Northampton Town.

Bradley Johnson always liked a pop from long range

Bradley Johnson scores on his debut v Leicester (photo Simon Dack)

THE COCA-COLA Kid’s cousin was an instant hit when he joined seventh-from-bottom Brighton on loan from second-placed League One rivals Leeds United in October 2008.

Bradley Johnson, who’d heard about the Seagulls from his relative Colin Kazim-Richards, scored twice on his debut as the Seagulls turned round a 2-0 half-time deficit to beat Leicester City 3-2.

“I hadn’t played for two months and Micky (Adams) asked if I was fit and I admitted I wasn’t match fit, but he said he would throw me in anyway,” Johnson recounted.

“The two goals I scored gave me great confidence as a player, but the win helped everyone,” he said. “On the night, the fans were immense and the result gave us all a good boost.”

In an Argus interview in March 2021, Johnson recalled: “I was a young boy from Leeds coming into a struggling team against a team who were flying so it was a bit daunting for me.

“I didn’t know what to expect but, as debuts go, I don’t think it could have gone any better.

“Anyone who knows me knows I like a shot and I’ve always had that since a young age. Some don’t go where planned but thankfully on that night they did.”

Albion had failed to score in their three previous games, against Hereford, Peterborough and Hartlepool, and soon found themselves 2-0 down to City courtesy of two Matty Fryatt goals.

Adams hauled off a somewhat better known loanee – the ineffective Robbie Savage – at half-time, along with wideman Kevin McLeod, and the changes galvanised the Albion in the second half.

Right-back Andrew Whing reckoned the withdrawal of Savage might have helped Johnson to shine. “Maybe he’d felt a bit in Robbie’s shadow up until that point,” he told Spencer Vignes. “But he really stepped up in the second half and scored twice, one of them an unbelievable strike. We needed a spark and that was it.

“Bradley deserved a lot of credit that night. He’d come to us from Leeds and he just took responsibility, scored twice and got us back into it. He really made an impression.”

After Johnson’s pair of long range strikes past David Martin in the Leicester goal, City defender Jack Hobbs sealed a memorable comeback for the Seagulls when he diverted Joe Anyinsah’s cross past his own ‘keeper.

It was a tad ironic that Johnson should have scored against Leicester too because at the start of that year he came very close to signing for them but couldn’t agree terms and ended up at Leeds instead.

Five days after his impressive Albion debut, Johnson was on the scoresheet again as Adams’ side beat Millwall 4-1 at the Withdean Stadium (Glenn Murray, two, and Dean Cox, the other scorers).

Kazim-Richards, whose £250,000 transfer from Bury to Brighton had been paid for via fan Aaron Berry winning a competition organised by the soft drink giant, had already moved on to Fenerbahçe in Turkey via Sheffield United by the time Johnson arrived in Sussex.

But he said: “My cousin Colin had played there so I knew Brighton and I knew a few lads, and that it was a good place to be. But it was Micky that really sold the place to me and I just wanted to play. That is all I wanted to do; I didn’t look at the side’s league position. I just wanted to be a part of what Micky spoke about and help the club beat relegation.”

Unfortunately, the mini revival in the autumn of 2008 didn’t continue although Johnson was on the winning side again when, in his 10th and last game for the Albion, two Nicky Forster goals earned a 2-0 win at Swindon Town, spoiling Danny Wilson’s first game in charge of the Robins (Peter Brezovan was in goal for Town).

By then, Johnson, who’d lost his place at Leeds following an injury, had scored four times for the Albion (some records show he scored twice in a 4-2 home defeat to MK Dons, others that the second Brighton goal was netted by Stuart Fleetwood).

Somewhat gallingly, Johnson was next seen at Withdean less than three weeks into the new year – back in the fold with Leeds as they took all three points in a 2-0 win on 17 January 2009.

“When I was out on loan, Leeds were struggling and when I went back Gary McAllister got the sack. Simon Grayson came in and I didn’t know where my future lay, but Grayson told me I had a part to play and it was down to me to train hard and prove myself,” he said.

“He was true to his word, and I kept my head down, then I ended up coming back to Brighton and played against them for Leeds. It was a bit surreal to be in the away dressing room, but that is football.”

Johnson became a regular at Elland Road for the next two years and was part of the Leeds side who won promotion to the Championship in 2010, as well as earning headlines in memorable FA Cup ties against Premier League opposition.

In particular, in a third round replay against Arsenal at Elland Road in January 2011, Johnson scored a spectacular goal for the home side although they lost the tie 3-1.

Having spent five years on Arsenal’s books as a promising youngster, it was a bittersweet moment for Johnson who said afterwards: “It was a goal I’m not going to forget. I’m an Arsenal fan myself and so are all my family.”

On the transfer list at the time because he couldn’t agree a new deal with Leeds, he eventually got the chance he craved to play in the Premier League that summer when he moved to newly promoted Norwich City, where his teammates included Elliott Bennett and Andrew Crofts.

It was Canaries boss Paul Lambert who sold the club to him at the time but he also sang the praises of his successor, Chris Hughton.

Johnson joined the Canaries

“Hughton did come in with a different style of play,” he told pinkun.com. “He was very tactical. He was mindful that we were playing in the Premier League against good players whereas Paul Lambert wouldn’t care, if we were playing Manchester United, he’d say ‘if they score two, we’ll score three’.

“Different approaches, different ideas and different philosophies. People weren’t happy with the way he played but we finished 11th. I can only speak for myself, but I really enjoyed my time there and Chris is a great manager.”

He added: “Credit to him when he got the sack because he stuck by his morals and got Brighton promoted.”

After three seasons in the Premier League, the 2014–15 Championship season was one of Johnson’s most successful seasons with the Canaries: he became vice-captain to Russell Martin, appeared in 44 of the 46 league matches (including one appearance as a sub) and scored 15 goals.

He was voted fans’ Player of the Year and was part of the side that won the play-off final 2-0 against Middlesbrough to ensure City won back their Premier League place.

However, unable to get a place in Alex Neil’s side back among the elite, he switched to Derby County for £6m in September 2015.

That was the start of seven more seasons in the Championship: after 140 appearances over four years with the Rams, he moved on a free transfer to Blackburn Rovers, where he made 86 appearances over three seasons.

He eventually left Ewood Park at the end of the 2021-22 season and in the summer of 2022 joined MK Dons on a free transfer.

Johnson scored both goals as MK Dons turned round a disappointing start to the season by beating Port Vale 2-1 in their fourth match.

Johnson interviewed after scoring twice for MK Dons

Born in Hackney on 28 April 1987, Johnson was on Arsenal’s books from 1997 to 2002 but was released aged 15.

“Like any kid, being released from a club was horrible and I didn’t really feel like going back on a round of trials with other professional clubs, so instead I just played locally in Leyton.

He went to Ryman Premier side Waltham Forest but when he was 17 was invited for a trial at Cambridge United. He signed on a non-contract basis for eight months and was then offered a professional contract.

Johnson attracted suitors when playing for Northampton Town

But Northampton Town had been tracking him. “They made me a counter-offer which I accepted and that is where my career began,” he said.

That was in May 2005, and after he had been out on loan to gain experience at Gravesend & Northfleet and Stevenage Borough, he became a regular starter under Stuart Gray and his performances attracted scouts from clubs further up the league.

When that aforementioned move to Leicester fell through in January 2008, a few days later Leeds stepped in and paid a £250,000 fee for him.

He played in the same Leeds side as Casper Ankergren that lost the 2008 League One play-off final 1-0 to Doncaster, but picked up a back injury in pre season that led to him being sidelined. Although he returned to fitness, the side was doing well in his absence which meant he was unable to force his way back in. And then the chance to play competitive football was presented by the Albion.

Chances were few and far between for Greg Campbell

ONE OF West Ham’s less well-known ‘Boys of ‘86’ tried to boost his stuttering career on a month’s loan with the Seagulls.

Hammers fans still laud the achievements of John Lyall’s title-chasing side of the 1985-86 season because they finished third, the club’s highest-ever position in the top division.

The form of twin strikers Frank McAvennie (26 goals) and Tony Cottee (20) meant chances were few and far between for Greg Campbell, a youngster trying to get a break into the first team.

However, by virtue of one start and two substitute appearances early on in that famous season, Campbell can claim a place amongst the ‘Boys of 86’ whose achievements have since been captured in a book and in a video.

The group of ex-players, that included George Parris who later played for Brighton, regularly get back together for social occasions to raise funds for various charities.

It was in the season following West Ham’s close finish behind champions Liverpool and runners up Everton that Campbell sought to get some first team football at Brighton.

In his matchday programme notes, manager Barry Lloyd said: “He is a young player who has learned the game at West Ham and I believe he has something to offer as a conventional target man.”

Unfortunately for him he joined a club that was sliding inexorably towards relegation from the second tier, Lloyd having taken over as boss the previous month after the controversial sacking of Alan Mullery only six months into his return to the scene of past glories.

When Campbell joined, Lloyd had presided over five straight defeats in which 10 goals were conceded and Albion had dropped to second from bottom in the table.

The manager shook things up for the visit to West Brom on 28 February, dropping goalkeeper John Keeley, Darren Hughes and Terry Connor and putting Campbell, who had made his debut in the Reserves against Norwich, on the substitute’s bench (in the days of only one sub).

A dour 0-0 draw was ground out to earn a much-needed point but Campbell didn’t get on. He led the line for the reserves in a midweek 2-0 defeat at home to Fulham and had to wait until the following Saturday to make his first team debut.

Then, he was sent on as a substitute for Steve Penney in the home game against Derby County but to no avail as Albion succumbed to a 1-0 defeat. It was Dean Saunders’ last game for Brighton; shortly afterwards he was sold to Oxford United for just £60,000 (four years later, Liverpool bought him for nearly £3m).

Four days later, Campbell scored for the reserves in a 4-1 defeat at Swindon Town, but it still wasn’t enough to gain a starting spot. Away to Barnsley the following Saturday, once again Campbell found himself on the bench, the restored Connor and ex-Worthing striker Richard Tiltman preferred up top. Tiltman scored but once again Albion were on the losing side, going down 3-1.

When Ipswich Town visited the Goldstone on 21 March, only 8,393 turned up (700 down on the previous home game) and the increasingly frustrated faithful saw the Albion lose again, 2-1.

Campbell once more only got on as a substitute, replacing right-back Kevan Brown, and that was his last involvement in a Seagulls shirt.

Born in Portsmouth on 13 July 1965, Campbell had footballing footsteps to follow into: his dad Bobby Campbell (a great friend of Jimmy Melia’s) played for Liverpool and Portsmouth, coached Arsenal and QPR, and was manager of Fulham, Pompey and Chelsea.

Campbell and George Parris line up for West Ham’s youth team

After progressing through West Ham’s youth and apprentice ranks, the young Campbell was given his first team debut by Lyall, up front alongside Cottee and Bobby Barnes in a 3-1 home win over Coventry on 4 September 1984.

He made his second start just four days later, in a 2-0 home victory over Watford, but a broken jaw put paid to his involvement in that game.

The injury meant he had a long wait before he was next on first team duty, making a return as a substitute in a 1-0 home defeat to Luton Town on 24 August 1985.

He appeared from the bench again two days later in a 2-0 defeat at Manchester United before making his only start of the aforementioned 1985-86 campaign in a 1-1 draw at Southampton.

He started alongside McAvennie but was replaced by Cottee and that appearance at The Dell on 3 September 1985 was Campbell’s last in the Hammers first team.

After he was released by West Ham, he tried his luck in Holland, playing 15 games for Sparta Rotterdam in the 1987-88 season, during Hans van der Zee’s reign as manager.

On his return from Holland in November 1988, Campbell joined Plymouth Argyle where the former West Ham defender and Norwich City manager, Ken Brown (see picture below), was in charge.

As the excellent greensonscreen.co.uk website records, Campbell’s first match was against his dad’s Chelsea side in the Simod Cup at Stamford Bridge.

It wasn’t a happy return to English football, though, because Chelsea ran out 6-2 winners.

Nevertheless, he celebrated his Argyle league debut two weeks later with a goal in a 3-0 home win over Oldham Athletic.

Campbell spent 18 months with the Devon side and scored six times in 24 starts plus 15 games as a sub.

He moved on to Division Four Northampton Town, where former Cobblers stalwart Theo Foley had returned as manager.

Campbell (circled) lines up for Northampton Town

Campbell teamed up with former West Ham teammate Barnes, who went on to become a respected administrator for the PFA for more than 20 years.

Campbell scored seven goals in 47 appearances for the Cobblers before retiring from the game at the age of 27 in 1992.

Why John Gregory was a hero and a Villain

ANY Brighton player who scores twice in a win over Crystal Palace is generally revered forever. The sheen John Gregory acquired for that feat was somewhat tarnished when he was manager of Aston Villa.

Gregory’s brace in a vital 3-0 win over Palace on Easter Saturday 1981 helped ensure the Seagulls survived in the top-flight (while the Eagles were already heading for relegation).

In 1998, though, he was caught up in a wrangle over Brighton’s efforts to secure a sizeable fee for their input to the early career of Gareth Barry, who’d joined Villa while still a teenage prodigy.

Albion’s chairman Dick Knight pursued the matter through the correct football channels and eventually secured a potential seven-figure sum of compensation for the St Leonards-born player, who spent six years in Brighton’s youth ranks but refused to sign a YTS deal after Villa’s approach.

The Football League appeals tribunal met in London and ruled the Premiership side should pay Brighton £150,000 immediately, rising to a maximum £1,025,000 if he made 60 first-team appearances and was capped by England. Brighton were also to receive 15 per cent of any sell-on fee.

“It was what I had hoped for, although I hadn’t necessarily expected the tribunal to deliver it,” Knight said in his autobiography, Mad Man – From the Gutter to the Stars. “Villa certainly hadn’t; Gregory was furious and stormed out of the building.”

Gregory mockingly asserted that Knight wouldn’t have recognised the player if he’d stood on Brighton beach wearing an Albion shirt, a football under his arm and a seagull on his head.

“For a former Albion player, Gregory surprisingly seemed to take it as a personal affront,” said Knight. “His position was patronising and the behaviour of Aston Villa scandalous.”

Although Villa paid the initial instalment, they didn’t lie down and go with the ruling and ultimately Knight ended up doing a deal with Villa chairman, ‘Deadly’ Doug Ellis, for £850,000 that gave Brighton a huge cash injection in an hour of need.

Barry, of course, ended up having a stellar career, earning 53 England caps, making 653 Premier League appearances and captaining Villa during 11 years at the club.

Knight’s settlement with Ellis meant Brighton missed out on £1.8 million which they would have been entitled to when Barry was sold on to Manchester City in 2009.

But back to Gregory. He had a habit of returning to manage clubs he had previously played for. Villa was one (between February 1998 and January 2002). He also bossed QPR, who he played for after two years with the Albion, and Derby County, who he’d played for in the Third, Second and First Divisions.

His first foray into management had been at Portsmouth. He then worked as a coach under his former Villa teammate Brian Little at Leicester City (1991-1994) and Villa (1994-1996) before becoming a manager in his own right again during two years at Wycombe Wanderers.

The lure of Villa drew him back to take charge as manager at Villa Park in February 1998 when he was in charge of players such as Gareth Southgate, Paul Merson and David Ginola.

During his near four-year reign, Villa reached the 2000 FA Cup Final – they were beaten 2-0 by Chelsea – but won the UEFA Intertoto Cup in November 2001, beating Switzerland’s Basel 4-1.

Although his win percentage (43 per cent) was better at Villa than at any other club he managed, fan pressure had been building when league form slumped as the 2001-02 season went past the halfway mark and a ‘Gregory out’ banner was displayed in the crowd.

Gregory eventually bowed to the pressure and tendered his resignation, although chairman Ellis said: “John’s resignation is sad. It was most unexpected but has been amicable.”

He stepped out of the frying pan into the fire when he took charge of an ailing Derby County, who were bottom of the Premier League, and, after a winning start, he wasn’t able to keep them up.

County sacked him in March 2003 for alleged misconduct but in a protracted legal wrangle he eventually won £1m for unfair dismissal. However, the ongoing dispute meant he couldn’t take up another job and he spent much of the time as a TV pundit instead.

It was in September 2006 that he finally stepped back into a managerial role, taking over from Gary Waddock as QPR manager, and while he managed to save them from relegation from the Championship, ongoing poor form the following season led to him being sacked in October 2007.

It only emerged in 2013 that five years earlier Gregory had discovered he was suffering from prostate cancer. Nevertheless, he continued working, managing two clubs in Israel and one in Kazakhstan.

He had one other English managerial job, taking charge of Crawley Town in December 2013, although ill health brought his reign to an end after a year and former Albion striker Dean Saunders replaced him.

Two and a half years after leaving Crawley, Gregory emerged as head coach of Chennaiyin in the Indian Super League. With former Albion favourite Inigo Calderon part of his side, he led them in 2018 to a second league title win, and he was named the league’s coach of the year.

Born in Scunthorpe on 11 May 1954, Gregory was one of five sons and two daughters of a professional footballer also called John who had started his career at West Ham.

The Gregory family moved to Aldershot when young John was only two (his dad had been transferred to the Shots) but then moved to St Neots, near Huntingdon, when his father took up a job as a security guard after retiring from the game.

Young Gregory went to St Neots Junior School and his first football memories date from the age of nine, and he was selected as a striker for the Huntingdonshire County under 12 side.

He moved on to Longsands Comprehensive School and played at all age levels for Huntingdon before being selected for the Eastern Counties under 15 side in the English Schools Trophy.

Northampton Town signed him on apprentice terms at the age of 15 and he progressed to the first team having been converted to a defender and remained with the Cobblers for seven years.

It was in 1977 that Ron Saunders signed him for Villa for £65,000, which was considered quite a sum for a Fourth Division player.

Gregory famously played in every outfield position during his two years at Villa Park and he welcomed the move to newly promoted Albion because it finally gave him the chance to pin down a specific position.

Chris Cattlin had been right-back as Albion won promotion from the second tier for the first time in their history but he was coming to the end of his career and, in July 1979, the Albion paid what was at the time a record fee of £250,000 to sign Gregory to take over that position. Steve Foster joined at the same time, from Portsmouth.

“I wore every shirt at Villa,” Gregory told Shoot! magazine. “I never had an established position. I was always in the side, but there was a lot of switching around. When Alan Mullery came in for me, he made it clear he wanted me to play at right-back.”

The defender added: “I respect Alan Mullery as a manager and I like the way he thinks about the game.

“Brighton are a very attacking side. There’s nothing the boss loves more than skill. That comes first in his mind. He wants all ten outfield players to attack when they can. That attitude, more than anything else, played a big part in me coming here.”

Gregory started the first 12 games of the season but was then sidelined when he had to undergo an appendix operation.

He returned as first choice right-back in the second half of the season and had a good start to the 1980-81 campaign when he scored in the opening 2-0 home win over Wolves.

His second of the season came against his old club, a header from a pinpoint Gordon Smith cross giving Albion the lead at Villa Park against the run of play. But it was to be an unhappy return for Gregory because the home side fought back to win 4-1.

In November 1980, it looked like Gregory might leave the Goldstone in a proposed cash-plus-player swap for QPR’s Northern Ireland international David McCreery, but the player, settled with his family in Ovingdean, said he wanted to stay at the Goldstone.

“The offer Gregory received was fantastic, but he prefers to stay with us,” chairman Mike Bamber told the Evening Argus. “I regard this as a great compliment.”

The following month, he got the only goal of the game in a 1-0 Boxing Day win at Leicester but in March, with Albion desperate to collect points to avoid the drop, Mullery put Gregory into midfield. He responded with four goals in seven matches, netting in a 1-1 draw away to Man City, grabbing the aforementioned pair at Selhurst Park on Easter Saturday and the opener two days later when Leicester were beaten 2-1 at the Goldstone.

Little did he know it would be his last as a Brighton player because within weeks Mullery quit as manager and Bamber finally couldn’t resist QPR’s overtures.

“I know Alan Mullery turned down a bid but a couple of days after he resigned chairman Mike Bamber accepted QPR’s offer,” Gregory recalled in an interview with Match Weekly. “I hadn’t asked for a move so the news that I was to be allowed to go was quite a surprise.”

He added: “It was a wrench. I found it difficult to turn my back on the lads at Brighton.

“I enjoyed two years at the Goldstone Ground and made many friends, but the prospect of a new challenge at Rangers appealed to me.”

Gregory admitted he used to watch Spurs as a youngster and ironically his two favourite players were Venables and Mullery – and he ended up playing for them both.

Although he dropped down a division to play for QPR, he said: “Rangers are a First Division set up and I’m sure we’ll be back soon.”

Not only did he win promotion with Rangers in the 1983-84 season but, at the age of 29, he earned a call up to the England set-up under Bobby Robson.

He won six caps, the first three of which (right) came against Australia when they played three games (two draws and an England win) in a week in June 1983, in a side also featuring Russell Osman and Mark Barham.

Gregory retained his midfield place for the European Championship preliminary match in September when England lost 1-0 to Denmark at Wembley but he was switched to right-back for the 3-0 away win over Hungary the following month.  

His sixth and final cap came in the Home International Championship match in Wrexham in May 1984 when he was back in midfield as England succumbed to a 1-0 defeat to Wales, a game in which his QPR teammate Terry Fenwick went on as a substitute to earn the first of 20 caps for England.

Gregory continues to demonstrate his love for the game, and particularly Villa, via his Twitter account and earlier in the 2021-22 season, his 32,000 followers saw a heartfelt reaction to the sacking of Dean Smith.

“Dean Smith gave Aston Villa Football Club the kiss of life when the club was an embarrassment to Villa fans and he rekindled the love and passion and success on the field where so many others had failed hopelessly,” said Gregory.

• Pictures from the Albion matchday programme, Shoot! magazine and various online sources.

Cobblers hero Mike Everitt started out with the Gunners

CONTACTS made as a youngster at Arsenal stood versatile Mike Everitt in good stead for the rest of his career.

He went on to play under his former Gunners teammate Dave Bowen at Northampton Town as part of one of football’s most remarkable stories and earned a place in the Cobblers’ ‘team of the century’.

Later, he joined a small enclave of former Arsenal players at Brighton. Everitt swapped Devon for Sussex in March 1968 when he moved from Plymouth Argyle for a £2,500 fee.

The man who signed him, Archie Macaulay, was a former Arsenal man himself who’d already brought three other ex-Gunners to Hove in goalkeeper Tony Burns, Irish international full-back Jimmy Magill and winger Brian Tawse.

Everitt started the new season as first choice left-back in Macaulay’s side and an uninterrupted 14-game run in the team as autumn turned to winter straddled Macaulay’s departure and the arrival of new boss Freddie Goodwin.

Everitt slotted home a penalty as Albion drew 1-1 away to Bristol Rovers on 18 January 1969 but the 3-1 home win over Crewe Alexandra the following Saturday was his last outing of the season.

Everitt, Howard Wilkinson and Dave Turner from this Albion line-up all went on to become coaches

He picked up an injury and, with Goodwin having signed his former Leeds teammate Barrie Wright from New York Generals, local lad John Templeman able to fill either full-back slot, not to mention the addition of Eddie Spearritt from Ipswich Town, Everitt couldn’t win back his place in the starting line-up.

Competition for a starting place only intensified in the summer of 1969 when Goodwin’s former Leeds teammate, Willie Bell, arrived from Leicester and was installed as the regular choice at left-back, while Stewart Henderson cemented the right-back slot to the extent he was named Player of the Season.

While Everitt deputised for Bell on a couple of occasions and filled Bobby Smith’s midfield spot for four matches, his only other involvement was as sub on a handful of occasions. He was a non-playing sub in the final game of the season (a 2-1 home defeat to Mansfield Town) and then left the club during the close season.

Born in Clacton on 16 January 1941, Everitt represented Essex Schoolboys and London Schoolboys before being taken on as an apprentice by Arsenal in 1956. He turned professional in February 1958 and, thanks to the excellent records of thearsenalhistory.com, we know that he first played in the first team in the Harry Bamford Memorial match at Eastville against a Bristol XI on 8 May 1959.

He then went on Arsenal’s end-of-season tour to Italy and Switzerland. He was an unused sub for friendlies against Juventus and Fiorentina but came on as a substitute in a 4-1 win over Lugano of Switzerland on 24 May 1959.

Everitt (circled back row) lines up for Arsenal – with (left to right trio in centre of front row), David Herd, Tommy Docherty and Jimmy Bloomfield

It wasn’t until Easter 1960 that he made his competitive first team breakthrough, but when he did it was a baptism of fire in George Swindin’s side.

He made his first team debut in front of 37,873 fans packed into Highbury on Good Friday (15 April 1960) as the Gunners beat a Johnny Haynes-led Fulham side 2-0.

Modern day players might not be able to comprehend it but Everitt also played the following day when Arsenal travelled to Birmingham City, and lost 3-0. Two days later, away to Fulham this time, Everitt was again in the starting line-up as Arsenal lost 3-0.

He kept his place for the following Saturday’s match – at home to Manchester United – and in front of 41,057 he was part of the side that beat United 5-2. Future Albion teammate Alex Dawson led the line for a United team that included Bobby Charlton and Johnny Giles.

That was the penultimate game of the season and Everitt retained his place for the final game, which ended in a 1-0 defeat to West Brom at The Hawthorns.

The 1960-61 season got off to a good start for him too as he played in the opening four matches and, into the bargain, scored Arsenal’s only goal as they beat Preston North End at home on 23 August. Unfortunately for him, a tigerish Scot called Tommy Docherty edged him out of the first team picture and in February 1961 he moved to Fourth Division Northampton Town (for a fee of £4,000) who were managed by the aforementioned Bowen.

His stay with the Cobblers spanned one of the most remarkable stories in football history as they were promoted season on season from the Fourth to the First….and then relegated all the way back down again (although Everitt had left for pastures new before they reached the basement again).

What he was part of, though, was achieving three promotions in five years. Glenn Billingham recalled that heady era in a 2017 article for thesefootballtimes.co.

In 1961-62, Everitt was a regular at wing-half and scored five goals in 41 appearances. He switched to left-back the following season and played 30 matches as Town went up as champions.

A season of consolidation in 1963-64 saw Town finish 11th in Division Two, when Everitt played 45 matches. He played in 43 games in the 1964-65 season which culminated in the historic promotion to the top-flight courtesy of finishing in runners up spot, a point behind champions Newcastle United.

Necessary investment in improving the squad was slow to materialise and Bowen initially had to rely on the same squad of players who’d got them up. Everitt was one of only five Town players who had previously played at that level.

A 5-2 defeat away to Everton in the opening fixture was perhaps a portent of what was to follow for the rest of the season. They didn’t record a win until their 14th game, at home to West Ham (when they won 2-1), but the underdogs performed heroics in their first two home matches. It must have been quite an occasion when in only the second game of the season Everitt lined up in the Northampton side to face Arsenal.

The game finished 1-1, although Everitt had to be replaced at half-time. However, he also played in the return fixture at Highbury which also finished in a 1-1 draw.

Town also drew 1-1 at home to Manchester United, stifling the attacking threat of Best, Law and Charlton, although United exacted revenge at Old Trafford where they dished out a 6-2 thrashing. Charlton got a hat-trick, Law scored a couple and John Connelly was also on the scoresheet.

Everitt made 34 appearances (plus one as sub) that season and scored two goals, one in a rare win, in the penultimate game, when the Cobblers beat Sunderland 2-1 (the Wearsiders scorer was Neil Martin, who later played for the Albion). Graham Carr (father of comedian Alan Carr) played 30 times for the Cobblers that season.

Back in the second tier, Everitt featured in 17 games but as Town plummeted straight through the division, he moved on to Plymouth Argyle in March 1967, where his former Arsenal teammate Jimmy Bloomfield had moved to from West Ham. Everitt was still only 26 when he made his debut in a 1-0 home defeat to Wolverhampton Wanderers. After 31 games for Argyle, he made the move to Brighton.

Everitt had already gained his preliminary coaching badge when still a player and after leaving Brighton in 1970 he initially moved to Plymouth City as player-manager. Within months, he seized the opportunity to move up a level when he landed the player-manager role at then Southern League Wimbledon.

In a January 2010 interview in The Guardian, it was revealed the two candidates he beat to land the position were David Pleat, who went on to manage Luton, Leicester and Spurs, and his former Albion teammate Howard Wilkinson, who won the league title with Leeds United.

Pleat recalled: “The director, Stanley Reed, went for Mike and Howard ended up at Boston United while I was eventually appointed by Nuneaton Borough in the Southern League.”

A few eyebrows were raised in 1973 when Everitt was appointed manager of newly-relegated Brentford just seven days before the start of the 1973-74 season, taking over from Frank Blunstone, who’d left to become youth team manager at Manchester United.

Greville Waterman, on a Bees fan blog, said Everitt polarised opinion, declaring: “He was undoubtedly a cheap option and received little support from the directors (now where have we heard that before) and did his best with a wafer thin squad.”

A classic example saw defender Stewart Houston sold to Manchester United for a club record £55,000 in December 1973, but the money wasn’t immediately reinvested in the squad.

Nevertheless, Waterman pointed out: “His approach did not go down well with some of his players and he brought in a number of tough bruisers. Under his management, Brentford declined rapidly, fell to the bottom of the Football League and barely escaped the need to apply for re-election.”

Legendary Brentford defender Alan Nelmes was particularly disparaging about Everitt. “He didn’t have the technical expertise that Frank had and you felt as if the club wasn’t going anywhere with him. Frank was very advanced in his thinking, ahead of his time, really, and it was a step backwards to have Mike.”

Everitt finally got some backing from the boardroom on transfer deadline day. Experienced forward Dave Simmons was brought in from Cambridge United and former Everton and Southampton defender Jimmy Gabriel from Bournemouth and a 10-match unbeaten run from mid-February to early April did enough to assure the Bees avoided bottom spot even though their finishing position of 19th was their lowest position for nearly 50 years. Crowds were hovering around only 5,000 too.

It didn’t get much better the following season and in spite of getting a vote of confidence in November 1974 from new chairman Dan Tana, Everitt only lasted a few more weeks in the hotseat.

Ironically, after a poor start to the campaign, he’d begun to turn results round and lifted the side to a mid-table position on the back of four wins and a draw in a seven-game spell between late November to mid-January, but he was sacked on 16 January and replaced with John Docherty, who’d only packed up playing for the Bees the previous summer.

Everitt’s next role came as a coach (pictured above) under his old Arsenal pal Bloomfield at Leicester City, and former winger Len Glover came up with an amusing reminiscence on lcfc.com.

Glover recalled when he was 17 playing against Everitt for Charlton Athletic against Northampton.

“He had massive thighs, and had his sleeves rolled up. In the first five minutes he had kicked me when the ball was nowhere near, and now he was our coach!

“He was just the same when he was our coach. When he started, he gathered us round at the training ground. His opening gambit was, ‘You don’t know me, and I don’t know you, but we will soon change that!’

“Then he noticed Frank Worthington who was not with the group but was with the apprentices who were crossing the ball for him to volley like they did every morning. He went, ‘Oi, get over here!’ Frank went, ‘Yeah, in a minute’. Instead of saying, ‘Over here, now!’ Everitt just went, ‘Well, hurry up then’.

“Before Everitt left we went to Leeds and we got stuffed 3-0. After the game Birch (Alan Birchenall) was doing his hair with his hair dryer. Win or lose he would always do his hair. Mike Everitt came in and said, ‘It’s a pity you’re not as good with the ball as you are with that hair dryer!’ Birch replied, ‘If I was as good with the ball as I am with the hair dryer, I wouldn’t be playing for Leicester!’”

After leaving Leicester, Everitt managed Kuwaiti side Al-Shabab when another former Arsenal teammate, George Armstrong, was manager of the Kuwaiti national side (Armstrong’s daughter, Jill, posted a picture of them in Kuwait on Twitter in 2019).

Jill Armstrong posted this picture on Twitter of her with dad George and Everitt in Kuwait

After Kuwait, Everitt managed Cairo-based Egyptian teams Al Mokawloon and Al Ahly, the club Percy Tau joined in the summer of 2021.

According to Wikipedia, Everitt had particular success at Al Mokawloon, winning the 1982-83 Egyptian Premier League title and two African Cup Winners Cups.

• Pictures from matchday programmes and online sources.

Admirable Crichton on standby for the Seagulls at 39

JOURNEYMAN goalkeeper Paul Crichton played 540 games in a 22-year career and, even at the age of 39, found himself on the Brighton subs bench ready to be called on in an emergency.

As things turned out, the former Burnley custodian’s time with the Seagulls remained in a coaching capacity, helping to develop youngster John Sullivan and improve no.1 Michel Kuipers.

However, he was registered as a player and when either Kuipers or Sullivan were unavailable, Crichton answered the call as stand-by ‘keeper, as well as making an appearance as a sub in a pre-season friendly.

Much of Crichton’s career was as a back-up no.1 but he stepped up as a coach, working with the likes of Rob Green and Fraser Forster, and obtained a UEFA A licence in outfield and goalkeeper coaching.

Crichton arrived at Withdean in July 2007 after previous goalkeeping coach John Keeley moved along the coast to take up a similar role with Portsmouth.

Manager Dean Wilkins told the club website: “Paul has impressive coaching qualifications and we have already seen him in action on the training ground.

“He also has a huge amount of experience from over 20 years playing professional football.”

No. 1 Kuipers certainly appreciated the influence the coach had on his game. He told an Albion matchday programme: “Paul approaches things from a different angle. He has given me extra information and a different opinion on how I can get the best out of myself.

“His input has improved me as a goalkeeper and my performances on the pitch have improved. We’ve worked on me playing more as a kind of sweeper, letting the defence sit a little higher up the pitch. It helps the defenders out as they don’t have to worry as much about the space behind them and allows them to go tighter on the strikers and gives them a better opportunity to win the ball or defend against strikers.”

Kuipers said he also felt more confident leaving his goal to claim crosses, and with his kicking. “It’s an aspect I feel has improved,” he said. “Paul and I have practised it on an almost daily basis in training, and the more I am doing it, the better I am getting at it.”

Sullivan was also grateful for Crichton’s input, telling the matchday programme: “Paul’s brought some great new ideas into the club – he’sa very, very good coach. Paul is not long retired so he’s well aware of how the modern game has changed so much for ‘keepers.”

Crichton remained in post until February 2009 when the lure of returning to Norwich City, one of his former clubs, four and a half years after leaving the club as a player, was too great and he went back to East Anglia, even though he had started to put down roots in Sussex.

“We’d just started to get settled in Eastbourne,” he told pinkun.com. “The manager, Micky Adams, and the backroom staff have been fantastic and I’m sad to leave. But I had three great years here, ending in the Championship winning season.

“I didn’t play many games, but I just wanted to return – it’s a great place.”

Adams told the Argus: “I am very disappointed to lose Paul. He was a hard-working and highly-valued member of the backroom staff and he has done a fantastic job with all the goalkeepers at the club.

“I have no doubt he is going to be one of the top goalkeeping coaches in years to come but, after he expressed a desire to go back to Norwich for both footballing and family reasons, it was not right for us to stand in his way.”

Crichton had been understudy to the aforementioned Green during his time as a player at Carrow Road, and boss Bryan Gunn (a former City goalkeeper himself) told the pinkun.com: “We want someone to continue to develop not only the first team goalkeepers but those in the academy and I know he’s looking forward to putting a development programme in place, which is important as we’ve had a good record in this position in recent years.”

Crichton had first moved to City on a two-year contract in June 2001, signed for £150,000 by former Burnley coach Nigel Worthington, who’d taken charge of the Canaries.

At Turf Moor, Crichton had been one of Stan Ternent’s first signings after he took over as manager from Chris Waddle in 1998. He made his debut on 8 August 1998 in a 2-1 win at home to Bristol Rovers and was a regular in their third-tier side, helping them to promotion in 2000.

Clarets fans have mixed opinions of his attributes, if a 2019 discussion on uptheclarets.com is anything to go by. For example, ‘jdrobbo’ said: “Used to be a big fan of his. Thought his kicking was excellent for a keeper at that level. Occasionally left stranded off his line. A key player in our 2000 promotion side, but not good enough for the next level up.”

‘ClaretTony’ reckoned: “A master of a goalkeeper at not being where he should be. Never known a goalkeeper out of position so much.”

Although ‘Lord Beamish’ said: “A key part of the last Burnley team to play in the third tier. He’ll always be fondly remembered by this Claret fan.”

Born in Pontefract, Yorkshire, on 3 October 1968, Crichton began his career with Nottingham Forest, turning professional in 1986. But with Hans Segers and Steve Sutton ahead of him, he didn’t break into the first team at the City Ground and went out on loan to six different league clubs to get games, making his debut across the Trent at Notts County.

Eventually he moved on permanently, in 1988, initially spending two years with Peterborough United, then three years with Doncaster Rovers.

Alan Buckley signed him on a free transfer for Grimsby Town, where he played the most games (133) for any of the clubs he represented. Mariners Memories on Facebook, noted: “Crichton was a good shot stopper…..he was made the Supporters Player of the Season in 1994”.

In September 1996, he followed Buckley to West Bromwich Albion for £250,000.

It was during his time at West Brom that he had two loan spells with Burnley in 1998 before joining them permanently for £100,000 in November that year.

His playing career following his departure from Carrow Road took him to eight different clubs, Gillingham and Cambridge United among them, together with some non-league outfits. During a brief and controversial spell at York City, when he was alleged to have clashed with supporters, he coached a young David Stockdale. He moved to the Albion from King’s Lynn.

His subsequent return to Carrow Road was briefer than expected when Paul Lambert took over from Gunn and brought in his own goalkeeping coach.

In March 2010, Crichton became goalkeeping coach at Northampton Town but, in the summer of 2010, he linked up with Danny Wilson at Sheffield United, where he was also registered as a player to provide emergency cover. He spent two seasons at Bramall Lane before becoming part of Simon Grayson’s management team at Huddersfield Town.

After two years with the Terriers, he switched to Blackpool and spent just over a year working as goalkeeper coach and interim assistant manager alongside Jose Riga.

Next up was a brief spell in London, at QPR, where he was appointed by former Albion full-back Chris Ramsey to succeed Kevin Hitchcock.

After leaving the Hoops in early 2016, his next port of call was Swindon Town, to work under Luke Williams, Brighton’s former under-21s manager, but he left after only a couple of months to move to America.

He had several short spells coaching with different clubs in Florida before becoming assistant head coach at The Miami FC in January 2020, when head coach was Kenny Dalglish’s son, Paul.

He became goalkeeper and interim assistant coach for North American professional women’s team the Washington Spirit during the 2021 and 2022 seasons, helping lead goalkeeper Aubrey Kingsbury to the 2021 NWSL Goalkeeper of the Year award and guiding the club to the 2021 NWSL Championship.

Then in April 2023 he switched in a similar role to Florida based women’s team Orlando Pride.