‘Spider’ Mellor’s first Albion goal was painful for his old boss

IAN MELLOR became a hero strike partner to the mercurial Peter Ward at Brighton after beginning his professional career at Manchester City.

Mellor, who I first featured in this blog in 2016, died in 2024 aged 74 from amyloidosis, a rare disease which also afflicted City legend Colin Bell.

Affectionately known as Spider because of his thin, long legs, it was a nickname given to him by City goalkeeper Ken Mulhearn who playfully likened him to the Spiderman character players would watch on TV if away in a hotel on a Saturday morning before a game.

Signed for Brighton by Brian Clough for what at the time was a record £40,000 fee for the club (fellow Norwich youngsters Andy Rollings and Steve Govier joined at the same time), the opinionated manager had quit for Leeds before Mellor had kicked a ball in anger for the Albion.

Clough’s sidekick Peter Taylor stuck around for two seasons and Mellor made a goalscoring start for him, netting against his old boss Malcolm Allison’s newly-relegated Crystal Palace side in the season’s opening game.

Mellor’s left-foot volley (above) in the 69^th minute proved to be the only goal of the game in front of a 26,123 Goldstone Ground crowd. It was the first time in ten seasons that Albion had started with a win.

Mellor later admitted: “Palace were running all over us. It was remarkable that they weren’t about three goals up. Then in the second-half I got the ball some 35 yards out, went on a run, beat a couple of players and scored probably the most memorable goal of my life.”

A frustrated Allison said: “I remember Spider when I was at Manchester City.

“I didn’t want to see him leave for Norwich. Directors force you to do that sort of thing, then they sack you. Spider was a late developer, but his timing is so good now.”

Allison had played a big part in Mellor’s early development and when City chairman Peter Swales’ sold the youngster for £65,000 to Norwich City to bring in some money, he did it behind the manager’s back (he was ill in hospital at the time) and Allison quit Maine Road in protest.

Interviewed in Goal! magazine in June 1973, Mellor said: “It was a wrench leaving the Manchester area. After all, I’d lived all my life within a few miles of City’s ground, and I would never have left Maine Road if things had been left to me, even though I hadn’t nailed down a regular first team place.

“But when I was asked if I would have a chat with Ron Saunders about moving to Norwich, I was ready to go anywhere. After all, if someone tells you that they are prepared to let you go, you know that you are expendable.”

Thirty years later, in an interview with football writer Gary James, Mellor admitted: “I should never have gone to Norwich. I went from a top five side to a bottom five side overnight and it was such an alien environment.

“Norwich is a nice place, and a good club, but at that time the move was totally the wrong move to make. Because they were struggling there was no confidence. The contrast with City was unbelievable.”

And he said of Allison: “He was the best as a coach and motivator and I learnt so much from him. He could be tough, but you listened because he had already delivered so much by the time I got into the first team.”

Before Allison, Mellor had come under the wing of a trio of notable coaches in City’s backroom: Johnny Hart, Ken Barnes and Dave Ewing. “They were very knowledgeable and men of real quality,” he told James. “They knew what they were talking about and they also cared passionately about the game and the club. They’d all had great careers and as a young player you listened and learned.”

Mellor was certainly dedicated to the cause having been given a second chance by City after being shown the door following a trial when he was 15. City’s chief scout Harry Godwin told Goal! magazine: “You could see something there, a useful left peg for instance, and other things, but there wasn’t much of him and, frankly we felt it best to leave it a while.

“We suggested he went away, found himself a local club but kept in touch with us. He did, with a letter asking for another trial. We open all letters we receive, of course, but you could say this is one we are particularly glad about looking into.”

Mellor explained to the magazine: “After that first City trial I had about four games with the Blackpool B side and about a season with Bury as an amateur. Nothing came of it, though I was playing in a local Manchester Sunday league.

“Then I had a particularly good game and got a few good write-ups in a local paper near Manchester. So, I cut them out and sent them to City asking ‘What about another trial?’ They gave me one.”

He first signed as an amateur (in July 1968) and shortly before signing on as a professional at the relatively late age of 19 in December 1969, City loaned him (and goalkeeper Ron Healey) to Altrincham and he played in a 2-1 win at Buxton in the North West Floodlit League on 15 October 1969.

Back at City, he made his reserve team debut in October 1970 away at Aston Villa and six months later stepped up to the first team. It was 20 March 1971 when a nervous Mellor made his City first team debut in a 1-1 draw at home to Coventry City. Ironically, Wilf Smith, the full-back he was up against in the first half of that match, was temporarily a teammate during his first season at Brighton – he had five games on loan to the Albion.

Three years earlier, though, Mellor admitted: “I became a nervous wreck, and in the first half I think that was obvious. I just wasn’t right. Malcolm Allison had a real go at me at half time and warned: ‘If you don’t pull your finger out, you’ll be off!’ So that got me playing! The second half I really worked hard and played my normal game.”

Incidentally, that Coventry side also had Mellor’s future Albion teammate Ernie Machin in midfield alongside Dennis Mortimer, who spent the 1985-86 season with the Seagulls.

Four days after Mellor’s debut, he scored in a European Cup Winners’ Cup quarter-final against Gornik Zabrze, as City won 2-0 (Mike Doyle the other scorer). He was also on target in an end-of-season Manchester derby match when City lost 4-3 to United. “As a City fan, the derby meant an awful lot and scoring your first league goal in a derby is something special, especially for a local lad,” Mellor told Gary James.

It was in the 1971-72 season that Mellor got more of a look-in at first team level, the majority of his 23 starts (plus one as a sub) coming in the first part of the season, before Tony Towers got the nod ahead of him.

In a departure from the pre-season Charity Shield (now Community Shield) norm of League champions playing FA Cup winners at Wembley – Derby and Leeds chose not to be involved – fourth-placed City played Third Division champions Aston Villa 1-0 at Villa Park in August 1972. Mellor might have missed out on a chance to play at Wembley but he was part of history as two subs were allowed for the first time and he went on for Wyn Davies (other sub Derek Jeffries replaced Willie Donachie).

In the season that followed, cut short by his March 1973 sale to the Canaries, he started 13 games and went on as a sub six times. In both seasons he scored four goals.

In all competitions, Mellor made 42 starts for City, plus eight appearances as a sub and scored a total of 10 goals.

In spite of his goalscoring start at Brighton, Mellor was one of several players who didn’t hit it off with Taylor and he was suspended for a fortnight after missing training and returning to Manchester without the manager’s permission.

*Photo call ahead of his debut for the Albion*

Perhaps the almost wholesale change in the make-up of the squad was the cause of an indifferent season which saw the side finish uncomfortably close to the relegation places.

Mellor scored six more goals but between the second week of January and the end of the season he only made one start and two sub appearances.

In his end of season summary, John Vinicombe, the Albion reporter for the Evening Argus, said: “Most puzzling aspect of the season was Ian Mellor’s decline.”

The scribe maintained: “There is no satisfactory explanation for what went wrong with Mellor, and his role passed to Gerry Fell, who turned out quite a find considering that he cost only £250 from Long Eaton and had not kicked a ball in the League until the age of 23.”

It wasn’t until the end of November of the 1975-76 season that Mellor resumed a regular starting spot in the side but from then on he was almost ever present and notched nine goals in 33 games playing wide on the left as Albion just missed out on promotion.

The story of what happened next has been told many times: Alan Mullery saw Mellor as a central striker to play in tandem with the nippy newcomer, Peter Ward, and they swiftly developed a partnership which saw Albion win promotion from the Third Division as runners up behind Mansfield Town.

*Prolific goalscoing partnership with Peter Ward*

The aforementioned Vinicombe gave Mellor man-of-the-match as Albion beat Mellor’s future employer Sheffield Wednesday 3-2 to clinch promotion on 3 May 1977 in front of 30,756 fans at the Goldstone.

“The Goldstone fans were so good to us,’ Mellor remembered, “and that year was the happiest in my playing career.”

In a similar vein to his retrospective view of regretting leaving City, Mellor also said in hindsight he should have stayed longer with the Seagulls, where he had lost his place to big money signing Teddy Maybank.

“I knew I was better than him, but they had to justify his price and that’s why I got dropped,” Mellor told Spencer Vignes in an Albion matchday programme. “In hindsight, of course, I should have stayed. I was still good enough. I was 29, with two good seasons left in me.”

He moved back to his native north west in February 1978 to play for Chester for two years. Their player-manager was former City legend Alan Oakes and his teammates included the aforementioned fellow Charity Shield sub Derek Jeffries and former Albion teammate Jim Walker. Chester FC Memories said of him on Facebook: “His time at the club included scoring in the memorable derby win at Wrexham (2-1) and in the League Cup victory over First Division side Coventry (2-1) early the following season.”

His last Chester goal came in a 2-2 home draw with Sheffield Wednesday who he went on to join under Jack Charlton the following season. Mellor spent three years and scored 11 goals in 79 matches for Wednesday. One of the most memorable was recalled by The Yorkshire Post who reported in 2021: “Mellor made himself a lifelong hero with Wednesdayites midway through his debut season at Hillsborough, when he opened the scoring in the 1979 ‘Boxing Day massacre’ 4-0 home win over neighbours United with a goal from 25 yards. He also hit the woodwork in that game.

“Despite being played in Division Three, the match was watched by over 49,000 fans – a record for third-tier football. The goal is still occasionally sung about to this day.”

Mellor himself told The Sheffield Star: “It’s stange to me, considering it’s 40-plus years ago but it remains such a strong feeling among Wednesday supporters. It’s flattering but crazy!

“You’re only remembered so many years on if you’re a good player and luckily for me I scored a good goal in such an important game.”

Mellor’s final two seasons in league football were spent at Bradford City, managed by former Leeds and England defender Trevor Cherry, and he ended his playing days with Hong Kong club Tsun Wan, Worksop Town, Matlock Town and Gainsborough.

After he had stopped playing, he worked for Puma and Gola, encouraging players to wear their brands of football boots, and he was also a commercial executive for the Professional Footballers Association.

Following his death at St Anne’s Hospice in May 2024, it was announced that his family were to donate proceeds from his autobiography Spider to get a bedroom named in his honour at the charity’s new hospice in Heald Green, Stockport.

His widow Sue said: “It was Ian’s wish that we raise funds for St Ann’s Hospice as a thank you for the wonderful care he received. Ian was proud of his football career and all proceeds from his book will go to charity.”

Tigana ‘disciple’ Paul Nevin the respected analytical coach

PAUL NEVIN didn’t rise to great heights as a player but he became “one of the most respected and most widely experienced coaches in the country”.

He was a Premier League coach at Brighton and West Ham, not to mention being part of Gareth Southgate’s coaching team for England.

They were just three of a broad variety of coaching jobs he has filled in different corners of the world – and, interestingly, Jean Tigana, one of the top French footballers of his generation, influenced Nevin the most (more of which, later).

All a far cry for a lad born in Lewisham, south east London, on 23 June 1969 who had a humble playing career that began at Division Two Shrewsbury Town and later involved short spells at Carlisle United and Yeovil Town.

He was a former teammate of Albion’s head of football David Weir for three years when both played for the University of Evansville’s Purple Aces team in Missouri, America.

Having taken his A-levels while playing for Shrewsbury reserves, Nevin wanted a back-up career in case football didn’t work out and he took a scholarship to gain a bachelor’s degree in communications while playing for the American college team.

After gaining his degree, he returned to the UK and spent the 1991-92 season with Fourth Division Carlisle before moving south to join then Conference side Yeovil. He was there for two years but suffered a bad back injury that forced him to retire from playing when still only 24.

Nevin picked up the story in an interview with the Albion matchday programme. “While I was playing at Yeovil, I also volunteered at a children’s home and as a result I was soon offered a job as a social worker in Wandsworth, south London.”

He later explained: “That gave me the opportunity to develop a lot of skills that transcend into coaching – counselling skills, working with young people, trying to build self-esteem and motivation – which I can take into a sporting arena.”

He kept in touch with football, though, by working part-time for Fulham’s Centre of Excellence.

It was during the period when since-disgraced Mohamed Al Fayed took over Fulham, sacked Micky Adams and appointed Ray Wilkins and Kevin Keegan.

In the shake-up, Nevin worked his way up the academy system, eventually becoming youth team coach and then reserve team manager working alongside Chris Coleman. Within a year he had become full-time and by 2000 was working under Fulham boss Tigana.

“He had a major influence on my coaching career and my philosophy towards football,” said Nevin.

“The methodology of training, his highly technical approach, working with sports scientist and nutritionists, it was all new in this country and made a big impression on me.”

Together with Christian Damiano, the pair’s methods had been nurtured at the French national academy in Clairefontaine and had a profound effect on Nevin.

“We had a core of good young players coming through the club, the likes of Liam Rosenior, Zat Knight, Sean Davies, Zesh Rehman and Mark Hudson, who all went on the have successful careers in the game.”

In 2006, by which time he already held the Uefa Pro Licence as a coach, he moved with his wife and two children to Auckland to become manager of the New Zealand Knights, who played in the Australian A League.

That lasted a year before he moved to the Middle East and spent five years as football performance manager at the Aspire Academy in Qatar working with young players and coaches.

Chris Hughton brought him back to the UK to become first team coach at Norwich City when they were in the Premier League in the 2013-14 season.

*Nevin was reunited with Chris Hughton at Brighton h*aving worked with him at Norwich.

From Carrow Road, he then worked as head of coaching for the Premier League, a role that saw him run a diploma course to develop coaches with great potential as well as acting as a sounding board for coaches working in Premier League academies.

Nevin was reunited with Hughton at Brighton just ahead of the club’s debut season in the Premier League, replacing Simon Rusk who had stepped up temporarily from being under 21 coach when Nathan Jones left to become manager of Luton Town.

Hughton said: “Paul is an excellent coach and a good appointment for the club. I’m delighted he is on board and looking forward to working with him again.”

Asked whether his lack of high level playing experience was a hindrance to working as a Premier League coach, Nevin replied: “Coaching and playing are very different things. While I might not have played Premier League football, I am a real student of the game and have worked alongside some great coaches and managers. I have developed a healthy understanding of top-level football from a coaching perspective.”

When Lewis Dunk made his England debut in a 3-0 friendly win over USA at Wembley in October, 2018, Nevin was part of the coaching team supporting Gareth Southgate as part of an initiative to place black, Asian and minority ethnic coaches in all England squads. Formally known as the Elite Coach Placement programme, it was a key strand of the FA’s Pursuit of Progress strategy, designed to increase diversity in coaching roles.

However, Nevin and Southgate were already known to each other. At Fulham, he was assistant academy manager to former Crystal Palace boss Alan Smith, who had managed Southgate at Selhurst. Nevin got to know Southgate through Smith.

“I was a little unsure as to what the setup would be like, but to get the opportunity to work with Gareth Southgate, Steve Holland (the assistant manager) and the rest of the senior men’s setup was something I couldn’t turn down,” Nevin told the FA’s in-house media.

“The biggest challenge I found was that, if working inside a club, you get to work with the players and other coaches on ideas each day. You start preparing for a match at the weekend at the beginning of the week, with days to get the clarity of message through.

“But on the international stage, there’s a finite amount of time to get critical information across and to develop strong harmony across the squad. It’s a challenge that makes you acutely aware that every moment during an international camp counts.”

It wasn’t the first time that Nevin had worked for the FA, though. When he was head of coaching at the Premier League, between August 2014 and April 2016, he coached England’s under-16s who at the time included Phil Foden and Jadon Sancho.

Nevin, by then 49, said: “When I got the call, I was absolutely delighted and feel it’s a very privileged position. First and foremost, I’m very thankful to Gareth and The FA for the opportunity.”

*Albion happy to see Nevin develop with England*

He appreciated Brighton giving him the time to do something which was a development opportunity and added: “This is a chance to work with the best players in the country. Obviously, I see them week-to-week in the Premier League but working with them en-masse in a squad setting is going to be immense.

“Having had a brief experience of working at international youth development levels, it’s a chance to see the final product that’s coming through the system while working alongside the top coaches in the country.

“Being a part of that environment at the highest level of international football and looking at how they work and function will have the biggest impact on me. I previously had a spell working in coach development at the Premier League so I’m aware of the need to give opportunities to the quality BAME coaches out there.”

Nevin parted company with the Seagulls when Hughton was relieved of his duties at the end of the 2018-19 season but he wasn’t away from football’s top table for long because in February 2020 he joined West Ham along with former Hammers captain Kevin Nolan to work with David Moyes and his assistant Alan Irvine.

In October 2022, Malik Ouzia in The Standard wrote: “Nevin is one of the most respected and most widely experienced coaches in the country, a key lieutenant under David Moyes, as well as Gareth Southgate at England.”

According to Roshane Thomas, writing for The Athletic in December 2022, Nevin’s role at West Ham was to focus on creation and delivery in attacking set-plays and analysing opponents’ set-plays.

“I’m fluent in analysis tools so I can do my own analysis, I have done that for 20-odd years,” Nevin explained in an interview with premierleague.com.

The Hammers achieved European qualification in each of Nevin’s three seasons with them and he left shortly after they won the UEFA Europa Conference League trophy. Manager Moyes said: “Paul has played an important role for us during his time here and I would like to thank him for all his support and hard work during his time at West Ham United.
“He is highly ambitious as a coach and is keen to test himself in a new environment and we wish him well in doing so.”

Nevin said: “I’ll always look back on my time and the opportunity I had to work at West Ham with great fondness.

“In the three and a half years, we enjoyed a period of great success in West Ham’s history, culminating in the Europa Conference League win last season, which gives the club a fantastic opportunity and platform to go on to even greater levels in the future.”

From West Ham, he moved to French Ligue 1 side Strasbourg, where he worked as first-team coach under Patrick Vieira, who was appointed head coach by the club’s new owners, BlueCo, who also own Chelsea. Nevin didn’t stay on when Vieira left after one season to be replaced by former Albion player Liam Rosenior.

*Last minute instructions for Cole Palmer at the 2024 Euros*

Nevin had rejoined the senior England men’s team coaching staff in August 2021 and was part of Southgate’s support team through to the 2024 Euros in Germany. In August 2024, he took charge of England’s Elite League Squad on an interim basis when Ben Futcher stepped up to Under-21s manager following Lee Carsley’s temporary rise to take the full England team.

When asked whether he held ambitions to become a manager in his own right, Nevin told The Standard: “I owe it to myself and the people I’ve worked with.

“If the right opportunity came at the right time, then I need to give it a go because maybe with that nudge at the door, if I’m successful, it can allow me to bring others in and give others opportunities.”

Expanding on his experience in that premierleague.com interview, he said:“I’ve worked with young people outside of football, within social work, trying to study languages as well. When I’ve worked with French players and Spanish players – and I’m not saying I’m fluent by any means – but just a little bit of connection there, those little things help.

“I’ve worked in this game around the globe as well, so it’s not like I’ve just been at domestic level. I was a manager in the Australian League, I’ve worked in Qatar with the junior national teams. It’s just getting that variety and taking opportunities when they come.

“It may not necessarily be the thing you want at that particular moment, but if it opens an opportunity to show what you can do and to learn, then I think it’s always worth grasping that.”

And on a philosophical note about the art of coaching, he said: “A coach, first and foremost, has to have the knowledge and credibility to deliver, but you’re dealing with human beings.

“A lot of people can have the knowledge, but it’s about transmitting that, making the players feel valued and being able to develop relationships which help them reach their fullest potential.

“It’s probably that aspect, really getting into the human being that drives the performance, which is my strongest.”

Nevin returned to club football in January 2025 when he was appointed as one of two assistant managers to Mark Robins at Stoke City. He stood down from his role as interim England under-20s manager, where he was undefeated in six matches, to take the job.

Hero and Villain Sammy Morgan got off Albion mark v Palace

FEARLESS NORTHERN Ireland international centre forward Sammy Morgan and his former Port Vale teammate Brian Horton were bought to win promotion for the Albion.

The gamble by manager Peter Taylor didn’t quite pay off and although midfield dynamo and captain Horton went on to fulfil that promise under Alan Mullery, Morgan’s part in the club’s future success was eclipsed by the emergence of Peter Ward.

Morgan, who was in the same Northern Irish primary school year as George Best, was the first to arrive, a £35,000 signing from Aston Villa in December 1975, replacing the out-of-favour Neil Martin alongside Fred Binney. He wasn’t able to find the net in his first seven matches but when he did it was memorable and went down in the annals of Albion history.

*Morgan opens his Albion account in style against Crystal Palace*

He scored both goals in a 2-0 win over Crystal Palace in front of a 33,000 Goldstone Ground crowd that took Albion into second place in the table, manager Taylor saying afterwards: “I am delighted for Morgan. It must have given him a great boost to get a couple of goals like this.”

That breakthrough looked like opening the floodgates for the aggressive, angular forward who went on to score in five consecutive home games in a month.

And when Horton arrived in March 1976, with Albion still in second place and only 11 games to go, promotion looked a strong possibility.

But an Easter hiccup, losing 3-1 to rivals Millwall, followed by three 1-1 draws to end the season, saw Albion drop to fourth, three points behind the south London club, who went up behind Hereford United and Cardiff City.

Short-sighted Morgan – he wore contact lenses to play – might not have seen it coming, but it was something of a watershed moment for him too.

The man who signed him decided to quit, saying: “I signed two players gambling on them to win us promotion. We didn’t get it, and the only consolation I have in leaving is I feel I have helped build a good team which is capable of going up next time.”

Before he managed to kick a ball in anger under new boss Mullery, Morgan suffered a fractured cheekbone in a collision with Paul Futcher in a pre-season friendly with Luton in August 1976. The injury sidelined him for months.

*Morgan shares a training ground joke with Peter Ward*

By the time he was fit to resume towards the end of November, young Ward and midfielder-turned-striker Ian Mellor had formed such an effective goalscoring partnership that Morgan could only look on from the substitute’s bench where he sat on no fewer than 29 occasions.

He got on in 18 matches but only scored once, in a 2-1 home win over Chesterfield. Of his two starts that season, one was a New Year’s Day game at Swindon in which Albion were trailing 4-0 when it got abandoned on 67 minutes because of a waterlogged pitch (and he was back to the bench for the rescheduled game at the end of the season).

Nonetheless, Taylor’s promotion premonition was duly achieved at the completion of Mullery’s first season, and Ward had scored a record-setting 36 goals.

Morgan wasn’t involved in Albion’s first two games of the new season – consecutive 0-0 draws against Third Division Cambridge United, in home and away legs of the League Cup – and, by the time of the replay, he had signed for the opponents, who were managed by Ron Atkinson.

So, in a strange quirk of fate, £15,000 signing Morgan’s first match for the Us saw him relishing a bruising encounter up against former teammate Andy Rollings, although Albion prevailed 3-1.

Morgan spoke about the encounter and his long career in the game in a fascinating 2015 televised interview for 100 Years of Coconuts, a Cambridge United fans website.

Morgan’s easing out at Brighton followed a similar pattern to his experience at Aston Villa who replaced him with 19-year-old Andy Gray, a £110,000 signing from Dundee United. Morgan only made three top flight performances for Villa after a pelvic injury had restricted his involvement in Villa’s second tier promotion in 1975 to just 12 games (although he did score four goals – three in the same match, a 6-0 win over Hull City early in the season). He was injured during a 1-1 draw at Fulham in November and subsequently lost his place in the team to Keith Leonard.

Morgan had been 26 when Vic Crowe signed him from Port Vale as a replacement for the legendary Andy Lochhead. The fee was an initial £22,222 in August 1973 with the promise of further instalments of £10,000 for every 10 goals up to 20. Vale’s chairman panicked when the goals tally dried up with the total on nine but Morgan eventually came good and Villa ended up paying the extra.

He made his Villa debut on 8 September 1973 as a sub for Trevor Hockey on the hour in a 2-0 home win over Oxford United, the first of five sub appearances and 25 starts that season, when he scored nine goals.

Villa writer Eric Woodward said of him: “Sammy was never a purist but he was a brave, lively, enterprising sort who put fear into opposing defences.”

He carved his name into Villa legend during a fourth round FA Cup tie against Arsenal at Highbury in January 1974 when he was both hero and villain.

Morgan put the Second Division visitors ahead with a diving header in the 11^th minute but in the second half was booked and sent off for challenges on goalkeeper Bob Wilson. After his dismissal, Arsenal equalised through Ray Kennedy.

Esteemed football writer Brian Glanville reckoned: “Morgan had scored Villa’s goal and had played with fiery initiative but, alas, he crossed the line dividing virility from violence.

“He should have taken heed earlier, when booked for fouling Wilson. But a few minutes later, going in unreasonably hard and fractionally late as Wilson dived, he knocked the goalkeeper out and off he went.”

An incensed Morgan saw it differently, though, telling Ian Willars of the Birmingham Post: “Neither my booking nor the sending-off were justified. I never touched Wilson the first time and the second time I was going for the ball, not the man. It was a 50-50.

“I actually connected with the ball not Wilson. I went over to check if he was hurt and, in my opinion, he was play-acting.”

Morgan had sweet revenge four days later. No automatic ban meant he was able to play and score in the replay at Villa Park which Villa won 2-0 in front of a bumper crowd of 47,821.

Randall Northam of the Birmingham Mail wrote: “Providing the sort of material from which story books are written, the Northern Ireland international Sammy Morgan, who was sent off on Saturday, scored in the 12th minute.

“He had scored in the opening game in the 11th minute and to increase the feeling of déjà vu it was another diving header.” Fellow striker Alun Evans scored Villa’s second.

Northam added: “It was never a great match but the crowd’s enthusiasm lifted it to a level which often made it exciting and they had their reward for ignoring the torrential rain in a driving Villa performance which outclassed their First Division opponents.”

For his part, an unrepentant Morgan said: “It was obvious that we had to put Wilson under pressure as anyone would have done in the circumstances. My goal could not have happened at a better time.”

How heartening to hear in that 100 Years of Coconuts interview that when Morgan was struck down with cancer 40 years later, one of several well-wishing calls he received came from Bob Wilson.

*Best and Morgan (back row, left) in the same Belfast school photo*

Born in East Belfast on 3 December 1946, Morgan went to the same Nettlefield Primary School as George Best and the first year at Grosvenor High. But Morgan left Belfast as an 11-year-old with his family, settling in Gorleston, near Great Yarmouth (his mother’s birthplace).

His Irish father, a professional musician, took over the running of the Suspension Bridge tavern in Yarmouth and Morgan’s footballing ability continued to develop under the watchful eye of his teacher, the Rev Arthur Bowles, and he went on to represent Gorleston and Norfolk Schools.

Morgan went to the same technical high school in Gorleston that also spawned his great friend Dave Stringer (a former Norwich player and manager), former Arsenal centre back Peter Simpson and ex-Wolves skipper Mike Bailey, who managed Brighton in the top flight in 1981 and 1982.

Morgan’s early hopes of a professional career were dented when he had an unsuccessful trial at Ipswich Town. Alf Ramsey was manager at the time and the future England World Cup winning boss considered him too small. He also had an unsuccessful trial with Arsenal.

Morgan continued to play as an amateur with Gorleston FC and although on leaving school he initially began working as an accountant he decided to study to become a maths and PE teacher at Nottingham University. It was Gorleston manager Roger Carter who recommended him to the then Port Vale manager Gordon Lee, who was a former Aston Villa colleague.

“I loved my time under Roger and my playing days under him were the most enjoyable years of my footballing career even though I went on to play at a higher level,” said Morgan.

He was the relatively late age of 23 when, in January 1970, he had a successful trial with Vale and signed amateur forms. But by July that year he was forced to make a decision between full-time professional football or teaching. He chose football and made a scoring Football League debut against Swansea in August 1970.

However, that summer he was spotted as a future talent by Brian Clough and Peter Taylor when he played against their Derby County side in a pre-season friendly. Clough inquired about taking him on loan but he cemented his place in the Vale side and it didn’t go any further.

nifootball.blogspot.com wrote of him: “The burly centre-forward, he weighed in at up to thirteen and a half stone during his career, proved highly effective in an unadventurous Vale side.”

His strength and aggression in Third Division football caught the attention of Northern Ireland boss Terry Neill and he scored on his debut for his country in a February 1972 1-1 draw with Spain, played at Hull because of the troubles in the province, when he teamed up with old school chum Best.

Morgan remembered turning up at the team hotel, the Grand in Scarborough, and encountering a press camera posse awaiting Best’s arrival – and he didn’t show! The mercurial talent did make it in time for the game though, when another debutant was Best’s 17-year-old Manchester United teammate Sammy McIlroy, who earned the first of 88 caps.

In the home international tournament that followed, Morgan was overlooked in favour of Derek Dougan and Albion’s Willie Irvine who, having helped Brighton win promotion from Division Three (and scored what was selected as Match of the Day’s third best goal of the season against Aston Villa) earned a recall three years after his previous appearance.

In October of 1972, though, Morgan was selected again and took his cap total to seven while at Vale Park, for many years a club record.

While at Brighton, he earned two caps during the 1976 home international tournament, starting in the 3-0 defeat to Scotland and going on as a sub in a 1-0 defeat to Wales.

He earned his 18^th and final cap two years later during his time at Sparta Rotterdam in a 2-1 win over Denmark in Belfast. The legendary Danny Blanchflower was briefly the Irish manager and he selected Morgan up front alongside Gerry Armstrong but he reflected that he didn’t play well, was struggling with a hamstring injury at the time, and was deservedly subbed off on the hour mark.

Morgan’s knack for helping sides win promotion had worked at Cambridge too, where he partnered Alan Biley and Tom Finney (no, not that one!) in attack, but after Atkinson left to manage West Brom, he fell out with his successor, John Docherty, and in August 1978 made the switch to Rotterdam.

After one season there, he moved on to Groningen in the Eeste Divisie (level two) and although he helped them win the title, he suffered a knee injury and called time on his professional playing days.

He returned to Norfolk to teach maths and PE in Gorleston, at Cliff Park High School and then Lynn Grove High School, and carried on playing with his first club, Gorleston, where, in 1981, he was appointed manager.

As well as coaching Great Yarmouth schoolboys, he also got involved in coaching Norwich City’s schoolboys in 1990 and in January 1998 he left teaching to work full-time as the club’s youth development manager. As the holder of a UEFA Class A licence, he went on to become the club’s first football academy director, a position he held until May 2004.

In October that year, Morgan was unveiled as Ipswich Town’s education officer, a role that involved ensuring Town’s young players received tuition on more than just football as they went through the academy system. In 2009, he became academy manager and during his three years notable youngsters who made it as professionals included strikers Connor Wickham and Jordan Rhodes.

He admitted in an interview with independent fan website TWTD: “If I’ve contributed to anybody in particular it probably would be the big number nine [Wickham] and Jordan because I was a number nine, and I kick the ball through them – I play the game through the number nines.”

He went on: “I’m very proud to have played a part in the development of a lot of young players. I’m equally proud of those lads who haven’t quite got there in the professional ranks but have maybe gone on to university and have forged other careers and are still playing football at non-league level, still enjoying their football. That means a lot to me as well.”

Morgan continued: “I finished playing in 1980 and I’ve been in youth development since then. I did the Norfolk schools, Great Yarmouth schools, representative sides and the Bobby Robson Soccer Schools. That’s 32 years, I’ve given it a fair crack and I love my football as much now as I ever did.

“I’ve been privileged to work with young people, very privileged. It’s kept me young, kept my passion and kept my enthusiasm going. One thing you could never accuse me of is not having any enthusiasm or passion for the game, and that will remain.”

In 2014, Morgan was diagnosed with stomach cancer and underwent chemo to tackle it. Through that association, in September 2017 he gave his backing to Norfolk and Suffolk Youth Football League’s choice of the oesophago-gastric cancer department at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital (NNUH) as its charity of the year.

Even when he could have had his feet up, he was helping to coach youngsters at independent Langley School in Norwich.

*Morgan was on good form in this interview for 100 Years of Coconuts TV*

Last eight in the FA Cup becoming familiar territory

REACHING the FA Cup quarter-finals for the fourth time in seven years is music to the ears of Brighton fans of a certain vintage.

Time was when an exit far earlier in the competition was the more likely expectation and falling victim to non-league giant killers (remember Walton & Hersham, Leatherhead, Kingstonian, Canvey Island, Sudbury Town) was nothing short of humiliating.

But as each season in the exalted company of the Premier League has gone by, the last eight stage of the FA Cup has been well within reach.

As one who goes back a good many years, it was a delightful surprise to reach the quarters twice in the mid-1980s (going all the way to the final in 1983, of course, if you hadn’t heard!).

It still pains me to say that I was one of the many locked out of the 28,800 Goldstone Crowd on 12 March 1983 when Albion played in their first ever FA Cup quarter-final.

Norwich City, under former West Ham FA Cup winner Ken Brown, were the opposition with future England goalkeeper Chris Woods in goal and Mark Barham, who joined Albion towards the end of his career, on the wing.

Jimmy Melia’s Seagulls had already beaten the Canaries 3-0 a few months earlier but the cup match proved a much tighter affair described as “bruising” by several football reporters who noted the physios were called on seven times to treat injuries – Albion’s Norwich-born Mike Yaxley twice attending to Steve Foster.

*Andy Ritchie in what turned out to be his last home game for the Albion*

Nonetheless, it was “marvellous entertainment for all its imperfections” reckoned the Sunday Telegraph’s Lionel Masters, who said: “Brighton full-back Chris Ramsey did more than most to inject a steely resolve. He conducted a feud with (Dave) Bennett, whom he flattened more times than a target a fairground rifle range.”

Alan Hoby of the Sunday Express wrote: “It was a tough, turbulent, physical affair with an orgy of high balls,” while the only goal of the game, from Albion’s Jimmy Case was “one of the few moments of quality in a frantic game,” according to Brian Scovell of the Daily Mail.

The less well-known quarter-final appearance of that decade came on 8 March 1986 when a Goldstone Ground crowd of 25,069 (at a time when the average often dipped below 10,000) saw Chris Cattlin’s Second Division Albion entertain First Division south coast rivals Southampton.

Albion were pleased finally to have got a home game in the competition having had to overcome away ties at Newcastle, Hull and Peterborough (who were eventually beaten 1-0 in a home replay five days before the Saints match).

Saints were managed by Chris Nicholl, Cattlin’s fellow former Burnley youth team colleague, and in the opposition line-up was Case, the talisman of Albion’s run to the final three years previously when he rifled in the winner at Anfield in the fifth round, scored that only goal v Norwich and buried a long-range rocket in the semi against Sheffield Wednesday at Highbury.

England’s Peter Shilton was in goal for Southampton and, most curiously, after a five-week absence from first team action, misfiring Mick Ferguson was selected by Cattlin to lead Albion’s attack. Not one of the 1983 Albion side started for the Seagulls.

Sadly, Brighton, in the upper reaches of the second tier at the time, didn’t do themselves justice. Saints won it 2-0 with first half goals from Steve Moran and Glenn Cockerill – and it turned out to be Ferguson’s last game for the Seagulls. Three weeks later he moved to Colchester United.

Fast forward to 2018 and another strange striker selection by a Brighton manager – this time Chris Hughton leaving top scorer Glenn Murray on the subs bench – proved costly in a quarter-final against Manchester United at Old Trafford.

New £14m signing Jurgen Locadia missed four good chances among 12 second-half Brighton efforts on goal to United’s one and Pascal Gross went close on three occasions. But BBC Sport’s Mike Whalley suggested: “He (Hughton) might have been left wondering if resting Murray caused Brighton to miss their chance of a first FA Cup semi-final since 1983.”

United topped and tailed the tie with Romelu Lukaku opening the scoring early on and Nemanja Matic sealing victory late on when he nodded in Ashley Young’s free-kick.

A year later, it looked like Albion wouldn’t be going beyond the last eight once again when Championship side Millwall led the Seagulls 2-0 at The New Den with only two minutes to go. Cue Locadia, on as a sub, to make amends for the previous season’s misses by making space for himself in the box and firing home an unstoppable shot to pull a goal back for the visitors.

Then, with 95 minutes on the clock, Solly March from way outside the box floated in a free-kick that Lions’ ‘keeper David Martin inexplicably let slip through his grasp to bring the Albion level.

*Goalkeeper Mat Ryan a penalty shoot-out hero at Millwall* *in 2019*

The momentum was in Brighton’s favour in extra time but it took a penalty shoot-out to decide the tie and when Murray missed Millwall might have thought it had turned back their way. But after three successes each, Mat Ryan kept out Mahlon Romeo’s effort, and Lions centre back Jake Cooper needed to bury his spot kick to keep the tie alive for the home side. He blazed his shot over the bar and Albion were through.

There was to be no such drama in 2023 when 18-year-old Evan Ferguson did a whole lot better than his 1986 namesake and stole the headlines by scoring twice against League Two Grimsby, who were playing in their first FA Cup quarter-final for 84 years.

The Mariners had knocked out five teams from divisions above them to reach that stage but they were well and truly put to the sword by Roberto De Zerbi’s impressive Seagulls who ran out 5-0 winners at the Amex.

As well as Ferguson’s brace, Deniz Undav, March and Karou Mitoma were also on the scoresheet and it could have been more; Mitoma missing a sitter and Adam Webster’s effort hitting the bar.

Perhaps by way of highlighting how quickly fortunes can change for young players, it’s interesting to recall that of Ferguson BBC pundit Danny Murphy said at the time: “This kid is a superstar. Honestly.

“He’s got great feet, technical ability. He’s calm, powerful and plays the role really well. You don’t see him out wide, he stays central and is always a target.

“I can’t see a weakness in his game at the moment. For 18 years old, the maturity he shows in his game is phenomenal.”

Murray, having moved into the punditry game himself by then, added: “It was the manner in which he scored those goals, he was so composed. As a young lad just coming into the first team, you can snatch at those chances but he just relaxes in that moment – and that is something that you can’t teach.

“He’s got a good stature and I think there’s big things in the future for him.”

High hopes have followed Billy Gilmour on his football journey

NAPOLI might well be riding high in Serie A but it’s mainly a watching brief for midfielder Billy Gilmour who moved to the Italian club from Brighton in August 2024.

The former Chelsea midfielder has found game-time harder to come by than fellow countryman Scott McTominay, who has shone in midfield as Antonio Conte’s side have been involved in an intriguing Italian title race with Atalanta and Inter Milan.

Most of Gilmour’s involvement has been from the bench apart from during October and November 2024 when he started five consecutive league matches. Stanislas Lobotka has more often been Conte’s pick for the no 6 role.

Nonetheless Conte said: “I’m happy that we have him here, he is a great player. He is an important option for us.”

While some Brighton supporters lamented Gilmour’s departure, it could be seen as a shrewd piece of business considering the Seagulls received a reported fee of £12m plus £4m in add-ons, turning a profit on the £9m paid to Chelsea two years earlier.

Veteran Albion watcher Andy Naylor reckoned Gilmour was a key player, citing Opta stats highlighting Gilmour’s 92.15 per cent passing accuracy in 2023-24 to back up his view. “He helps to control games and dictate the tempo with slick and reliable passing,” he wrote for The Athletic.

Indeed, after Gilmour had once again earned plaudits playing for his country at the 2024 Euros tournament, Naylor declared that the player “is going to become increasingly important to Brighton” even going so far as to say: “The midfielder is the future for his club under new head coach Fabian Hurzeler.” As it happened, that couldn’t have been more wrong.

The arrival of two £25m signings in Dutch international Mats Wieffer from Feyenoord and Danish international Matt O’Riley from Celtic, together with the emerging influence of young Carlos Baleba must have sounded a warning signal to the Scot. And a central midfield starting berth for veteran James Milner meant Hurzeler had something quite different in mind. Not to mention other midfield options of Jack Hinshelwood and Yasin Ayari.

Although Gilmour went on as a sub in the opening day 3-0 win at Everton and started alongside Milner in the 2-1 home win over Manchester United, the growing rumours of his imminent departure to Italy proved true as former Chelsea manager Conte signed him along with McTominay from Manchester United.

Gilmour admitted in an interview with AreaNapoli: “Scott arrived here before me, and we were texting each other, in the days when I was also hoping to move to Naples.

“When Scott told me he was on the plane to come here, all that was left to do was close my transfer. The day I arrived in Naples was something incredible. I got off the plane, ran to do the medical and then went to the stadium.”

*Gilmour and McTominay together at Napoli*

Gilmour added: “My dream as a footballer is to reach the highest levels and win trophies here in Naples. That’s what I will try to do.”

Apart from starting one cup match, and the autumn run referred to earlier, Gilmour’s had to reprise the situation he found himself in at Brighton when he first arrived – he only made six starts plus seven appearances off the bench as Moises Caicedo, Alexis Mac Allister and Pascal Gross lorded it in midfield.

Gilmour heard only good things about Brighton from former Chelsea teammate Tariq Lamptey before making the move south, and on arrival there was also a familiar face behind the scenes in David Weir, who he’d known from his days at Glasgow Rangers.

After that low key start to life with the Seagulls, in April 2023 Roberto De Zerbi decided to rest key players for the home game with Wolves and give Gilmour and striker Deniz Undav starts. Albion won 6-0 and the manager confessed afterwards: “Gilmour, I think, was the best player on the pitch and I must admit possibly in the past I made some mistakes with him and with Undav because I didn’t give them many possibilities to play.

“But for me it’s difficult. To play without Mac Allister, Mitoma, Solly March, Moises Caicedo, it’s difficult.”

Once Mac Allister and Caicedo had flown the Seagulls nest, De Zerbi showed his faith in Gilmour, giving him 32 starts and nine appearances off the bench as Albion competed in the Europa League for the first time.

“Billy is a unique player,” reckoned De Zerbi. “We have only one playmaker in our squad and he is Billy Gilmour.”

*Gilmour in action for the Albion v Arsenal*

In early December 2023, he was full of praise for the young Scot, telling the media: “The improvement of Gilmour is incredible. I completely love him, because now he is playing very much like a leader on the pitch.

“Big quality, big attitude, big player. He is improving in the quality of the pass, in the personality, how he can drive and control the game, drive the team. To understand the play before he receives the ball.

“He understood when he has to play a long ball and a short pass because the defensive space starts from how long is the pass. In his reaction, when we lose the ball. I am very pleased for his performances.”

Born on 11 June 2001 in Irvine, Ayrshire, Gilmour grew up in the county’s coastal town of Ardrossan where he went to Stanley Primary School. He moved on to Grange Academy in Kilmarnock which was part of the Scottish FA performance school programme.

When he and fellow graduate Nathan Patterson made it into the full international squad, programme director Malky Mackay told The Scotsman: “Billy is someone I’ve been impatient about for a number of years now. We took him to the Toulon tournament with Scotland under-21s when he was 17 because I had a firm belief this kid is something special.

“He ended up playing, becoming the breakthrough player at a tournament of that esteem, scoring a goal and captaining the team. It was only a matter of time but it’s terrific he and Nathan have been picked for the squad. That makes me more happy than you could ever know.”

At a young age, Gilmour spent three months at Celtic (his dad supported the Hoops) but switched to Rangers (who his mum supported) because it was easier to get to training.

He progressed through the youth ranks and was still only 15 when he was called up to train with the first team squad during Mark Warburton’s reign as manager.

“I came on the scene at a young age and there was a lot of talk, a lot of people putting my name out there, but you have to learn to live with that – and the best way is by playing well and keeping your consistency,” Gilmour told the Albion matchday programme.

It was a disappointing snub by Rangers caretaker manager Graeme Murty that led to his £500,000 departure from Glasgow to London, as recounted by sports writer Ewan Paton in rangersreview.co.uk.

Gilmour was due to become Rangers’ youngest-ever player at 15 years old in a Scottish Cup tie against Hamilton in March 2017; Murty indicating the teenager would be on the bench and would get the chance to fulfil his lifelong dream of playing for Rangers.

But, just hours before kick-off, Murty changed his mind, with Gilmour being left out of the matchday squad.

“I felt like I was going to be on the bench and maybe even come on that game. It works in its weird ways, so it does, football,” said Gilmour.

Two months later, when he was eligible to turn professional aged 16, the incident was in the back of his mind and he opted to move to Chelsea.

“Of course, I would’ve loved to have played for Rangers,” he said. “But I ended up moving on and maybe it’s a wee part of my journey that made the decision a bit easier.”

Remarkably, Gilmour scored in each of his first three games for Chelsea’s under 18 side and he signed a professional contract aged 17 in July 2018.

A year later, it was newly-appointed manager Frank Lampard who gave him his senior debut in a pre-season friendly. His league debut was as a late substitute for Tammy Abraham against Sheffield United and his first start was shortly afterwards in a 7-1 EFL Cup thrashing of Grimsby Town, a game in which Reece James made his debut.

Lampard said afterwards: “I thought Billy Gilmour ran the game from midfield, and Marc Guehi was solid. They’ve been outstanding this year.”

After making 11 league and cup appearances for Chelsea in each of 2019-20 and 2020-21, Gilmour went on a season-long loan to Norwich City where, although he got more games (23 starts, five off the bench), he didn’t enjoy the experience and wasn’t a permanent fixture in the struggling Canaries side that eventually ended up being relegated.

*Gilmour didn’t enjoy his time at Norwich*

“Things had been going so well and then I went on loan to Norwich which I thought would be good for me,” Gilmour told Men’s Health. “It turned out to be a fight, a battle. I learned a lot.”

He continued: “I was just a young kid and it was a low time for me.

“I learned how strong I was. I put a smile on my face, even though I was hurting, especially when I was living on my own in Norwich. Some nights, I’d be sitting there thinking, ‘This is c**p’, but that’s where my family helped me. You can only learn from that.”

Gilmour, when aged just 20, was named man of the match in his first full start for Scotland as they held England to a 0-0 draw at Wembley in a Euro 2020 match (played in June 2021 because of Covid).

“The ease with which he has transitioned into international football implies that he possesses some very special skills,” reckoned Ewan Murray, writing in The Guardian.

“It was his big moment and he didn’t let us down,” said Scotland manager Steve Clarke. “Nobody is surprised by that. Not in our camp.”

But a word that has hung heavy around Gilmour’s neck is expectation. When the permanent move to Brighton came about, Tuchel admitted that Chelsea hadn’t wanted to let him go and would rather he had only left on loan.

He told reporters: “We had high hopes [for him] and he played for us in the first half a year when I was at Chelsea. He played some important matches for us and looked for a new challenge that did not go so well for him with Norwich.

“We expected more, he expected more so it was like, without pointing a finger, but it is difficult also for him and for us to not succeed, to not play at Norwich, to be relegated and then suddenly be a central midfielder for Chelsea and competing for top four and for every title.

“There’s a huge step in between so we were looking. The ideal solution would have been maybe that he goes again on loan as the concurrence is huge for us in central midfield and we felt like he is not the age where he can live again with five or six or seven matches during a whole season to fulfill his own potential so, ideally, it would have been another loan.

“Billy did not want to go on loan, it was a no-go for him so in the end, we agreed to a sale.”

Gilmour’s version of events differed a little, as he revealed in an interview with talkSPORT in September 2023, saying that after his season-long loan at Norwich, he was told he wasn’t part of the first-team plans at Chelsea and would have to be content with playing in the reserves.

That was despite Chelsea exercising an option to extend his contract to the end of the 2023-24 season earlier that summer.

“When I came back from my loan from Norwich, I came back and had pre-season and I just wasn’t in the plans,” Gilmour told talkSPORT host Jim White. “At that point I was thinking, well, I want to be at a club that really appreciates me and I want to be part of the team.

“I want to play first-team football. I’ve had a taste for it. I’ve played for my country, so I want to try and push on now. For me, it was the right time to leave. I spoke with the manager at the time, and he thought the same.

“I want to play football, I want to really settle down and try and find a house and home and be here and give my all.”

It remains to be seen where the young Scot’s career goes next but even though his playing time in Italy hasn’t quite lived up to expectations, the midfielder told broadcaster DAZN: “I am fit and well, I’m enjoying it. Of course, we are doing well as a team, so we want to keep building on that.”

High-flying Canary Culverhouse flew with lowly Seagulls too

ONE-TIME Norwich City hero Ian Culverhouse flew high in the Premier League and Europe with the Canaries and ended his playing days at basement Brighton where he began a lengthy coaching and managing career.

It was only at the end of November 2024 that Culverhouse began a new managerial post, taking charge of sixth tier (National League South) side St Albans City.

A few weeks previously he had parted company from Boston United because they were struggling to come to terms with life in the tier above.

Culverhouse was brought to Brighton by Brian Horton in 1998, shortly after he’d been picked up by non-league Kingstonian having been given a free transfer earlier in the year by Swindon Town. He’d spent three and a half years at the County Ground, including being a key player in their Second Division Championship-winning squad of 1995-96, but left the Robins after falling-out with manager Steve McMahon.

He’d only played twice for Kingstonian before he joined Brighton, who were playing in exile at Gillingham at the time.

Signed on a monthly contract initially, his presence as a sweeper helped plug holes at the back and saw Torquay United, Scarborough and Swansea City all beaten. But after two months, Horton decided to dispense with a sweeper and play a flat back four, so Culverhouse was let go.

But when Albion promptly lost 3-1 to Mansfield Town without him, Horton had a change of heart. He re-signed Culverhouse before a week was up, gave him a contract until the end of the season and even made him captain (in the absence of injured Gary Hobson). Quite some turnaround.

“He was one of the best readers of the game the Albion have had,” reckoned wearebrighton.com. “Culverhouse would always be in the right place at the right time, on the scene to stop danger before anybody realised that there was danger coming.”

The musically-minded wags amongst the Albion die-hards also found the perfect terrace song for him – sung to the tune of Our House by Madness, ‘Culverhouse, in the middle of defence’ became a popular ditty.

He completed 38 appearances for the Seagulls that season and took his first steps towards a coaching and managing career under Horton’s successor, Jeff Wood, when he began coaching the reserve side. Wood said: “Ian has shown on the field that he is a player of immense ability. In his new coaching role, he will now have the opportunity to pass his knowledge on to the younger players at the club.”

A grateful Culverhouse added: “This is a good opportunity for me and I am looking forward to it.

“It’s the first chance I’ve had to coach and it’s something I wanted to do anyway when my career finished. It has just come at a nice time.”

Albion’s then chairman, Dick Knight, told the Argus: “Ian has impressed me greatly with not only his experience but his attitude.

“He has been a real leader in the dressing room as well as on the field and we are giving him a chance to bring that know-how to bear on the coaching side.”

Culverhouse was retained as reserve team coach after Micky Adams took over from Wood towards the end of the season, and the new boss told the Argus: “Ian reminds me a bit of myself. You have got to get on the ladder somewhere. He is enthusiastic, has had a good career and sets himself high standards.

“He has a lot to learn in terms of coaching, but I hope he will become fully qualified along with the rest of my staff.

“He will still be registered as a player as well in case we need him in emergencies, but I don’t envisage him playing too many games.”

In fact, there was just the one final first team appearance for him, when Adams tried to bring a halt to a six-game winless run at the start of 2000. But it didn’t go well and he was subbed off in a 2-0 defeat at Hull.

“It is fair to say we have possibly seen the last of Culvs in a first team shirt,” Adams admitted later. “He is still registered as a player, but his career is probably over. It was me that persuaded him to play at Hull. He wasn’t sure he would be up to it in terms of fitness.”

Born in Bishops Stortford, Hertfordshire, on 22 September 1964, Culverhouse was in the England Youth squad for an international junior tournament in Norway in the summer of 1982, starting in a 4-1 defeat to the home nation and gaining a second cap as a sub in a 3-2 win over Poland.

In the same year, he began as an apprentice at Tottenham. He impressed in Spurs’ youth and reserve sides and spent three years at the Lane. “I was playing alongside players like Ricky Villa, Ossie Ardiles and Glenn Hoddle, which was tremendous experience,” he said.

He even collected a UEFA Cup winners’ medal in 1984 as an unused substitute in the first leg of Spurs’ win (on penalties) over Anderlecht; future Albion boss Chris Hughton was left-back and recent signing from Albion, Gary Stevens, was in midfield, and scored one of the decisive penalties.

But Culverhouse only made one full appearance for the first team, plus one as a substitute, and in October 1985 moved to Norwich under Ken Brown for a £50,000 fee. He was part of the Norfolk club’s Second Division title-winning side of 1985-86 in his first season and became an established defender, usually as a right-back but also as a sweeper.

He was part of the successful Canaries side that finished third in the inaugural Premier League season of 1992-93 after enjoying three top five finishes in the old First Division, reaching two FA Cup semi-finals (1989 and 1992) and playing in Europe (1993-94). He won the club’s player-of the-year award in 1990-91.

The excellent Norwich fans website Flown From The Nest blamed the Robert Chase regime for Culverhouse’s eventual departure from Carrow Road after nine years.

“From being an integral part of the City team that finished third in the Premiership and enjoyed UEFA Cup success, Ian Culverhouse found himself at the start of the 1994-95 season out of contract and out of favour with Robert Chase and manager John Deehan,” it said. “Similar problems had occurred the previous season with Dave Phillips.”

Together with the contract issues, Culverhouse went public to criticise Deehan’s decision to drop him, which ended any chance he had of regaining his place. Eventually, he was transferred to Swindon for the bargain sum of £150,000 in December 1994, the fee being fixed by a tribunal.

After he left Brighton in 2000, Culverhouse became youth coach at Barnet and two years later joined Leyton Orient in a similar role before being elevated to assistant manager. He left the Os in August 2005 – replaced by future Villa boss Dean Smith – but was then appointed coach at Wycombe Wanderers by former Swindon boss John Gorman.

When Paul Lambert succeeded Gorman, he and Culverhouse developed a strong bond. He followed Lambert to Colchester United to become assistant manager, then returned to Norwich in the same role, where he didn’t forget Wood’s role in setting him on the coaching ladder, being instrumental in the former Albion manager’s appointment as Norwich’s goalkeeping coach.

At the end of their first season, Lambert and Culverhouse steered Norwich to the League One title. The following season, they won promotion to the Premier League and finished 12th in their inaugural season back at the elite level. When Lambert quit Norwich to take charge at Aston Villa in July 2012, Culverhouse and fellow ‘lieutenant’ Gary Karsa followed him.

In June 2013, Lambert told the Birmingham Mail how much trust he placed in his right-hand man. “My assistant boss Ian Culverhouse has a real eye for a player,” he said. “If he reckons we should go for someone I will back his judgement 100 per cent.”

But in April 2014 Culverhouse and Karsa were suspended by the club after being accused of bullying and aggressiveness by players and other staff members, and they were sacked the following month.

Between January 2016 and February 2017, Culverhouse was assistant manager to veteran boss John Still at Dagenham & Redbridge. He left the Daggers to become manager of Southern League Premier Division side King’s Lynn Town. In May 2018, he moved on to Grantham Town but left after only five months and returned to King’s Lynn.

He led them to a second place finish in the Southern League, and. in the subsequent play-offs against Northern Premier League Warrington, saw the Linnets win 3-2 in extra time to earn a place in the National League (North) for 2019-20.

This was the Covid-affected season in which the fixtures weren’t completed. Lynn finished the games played two points behind York City with two games in hand. The National League board ultimately decided, using an “unweighted points per game” formula that Lynn would have won the title and they therefore gained promotion to the National League.

However, on 29 November 2021 he was sacked by Lynn on the back of a run of eight league defeats in a row which left the club second from bottom of the National League and struggling for survival.

Two months later, he was back in management at National League North Kettering Town, together with assistant Paul Bastock, although that tenure only lasted four months.

Next stop was Boston United in September of the same year, a club all too familiar to Bastock, who played 679 games for the Pilgrims (and broke Peter Shilton’s record in competitive club football when he made his 1,250^th appearance in the game in 2017).

The pair helped to preserve Boston’s league status in their first season and then guided them to promotion via the play-offs in May 2024. United’s struggle in higher company – only two wins in 16 matches – led to Culverhouse and Bastock leaving the Jakemans Community Stadium in October 2024.

200th Andy Ritchie goal at crumbling Goldstone Ground

WHEN ANDY RITCHIE scored at the Goldstone Ground on 7 September 1996, it was a very different place to the stadium he’d graced as Player of the Year 14 years previously.

Ritchie was in his 20^th season as a professional when he scored his 200^th career goal for Scarborough against his former Albion teammate Jimmy Case’s Seagulls in a Nationwide Division 3 match.

Just 4,008 hardy souls dotted around the crumbling old stadium supported the Albion that afternoon compared to the sell-out 28,800 crowd who packed in to see Ritchie’s last home match in Albion’s attack when they beat Norwich City 1-0, courtesy of a Case goal, in a quarter-final of the 1983 FA Cup.

Ritchie’s last endeavours in Albion’s colours came a week later and, ironically, were in front of 36,700 at Old Trafford on 19 March 1983 when he had a goal disallowed against the club who sold him to the Seagulls for what at the time was a record £500,000.

The curiosity of that deal was covered in my 2017 blog post about Ritchie and I’ve since discovered how a number of observers were dumbfounded by Dave Sexton’s decision to let him leave United.

That Sexton more often preferred the strike pairing of Joe Jordan and Jimmy Greenhoff baffled football writer Mike Anderson who, after Ritchie’s switch to the Albion, detailed how the departed forward’s numbers were more favourable.

“Since making his debut for United against Everton three seasons ago he has proved himself to be a more consistent marksman than the Scottish international,” wrote Anderson.

“By the end of the 1978-9 season Ritchie had scored 10 goals in only 20 full League appearances, compared with Jordan’s nine goals in 44 games. And when last season finished he had hit 13 goals in 23 full games (plus six substitute appearances), whereas Jordan had taken his tally to only 22 goals in 76 games.”

Anderson’s opinion was shared by Tony Kinsella, writing in When Saturday Comes in November 1997, he described Ritchie as “a muscular whippet of a striker with two scorching feet, a delicious first touch, and a bonce of solid granite”.

Kinsella wrote: “In four frustrating campaigns, Ritchie notched an admirable average of a goal every two games, a somewhat superior rate to his cohorts. In retrospect, I guess Ritchie was in the right place at the wrong time. He possessed more skill than Jordan and cut a more daunting physical presence than Greenhoff, but fell short of both when it came to vice versa.

“Sexton, notorious for fielding sides greyer than a Mancunian sky, had the courage to blood a teenage goalkeeper, Gary Bailey, but got cold feet when dealing with the loose cannon that was Andy Ritchie.”

In a lengthy chat for the Fore Four 2 podcast, Ritchie revealed how it was Steve Coppell who took him under his wing as a newcomer to the United first team and ensured he got fixed up with a pension; something Ritchie hadn’t even considered.

And his roommate at United was wandering winger Mickey Thomas, who ended up following him to Brighton and also to Leeds!

While Sexton may have had reservations about Ritchie, plenty of other managers were keen to take him from United. Tommy Docherty, who had first signed Ritchie for the Red Devils, had wanted to take him to Queen’s Park Rangers but he was sacked as Rangers’ manager before a bid was in the offing. Chelsea and Newcastle made inquiries too.

Aston Villa offered United £350,000 for him but, after attending with his dad a face-to-face meeting with the glum-faced manager Ron Saunders, they turned down the move feeling he hadn’t conveyed that he really wanted him.

Ritchie also declared: “United were my home town team and I loved it at Old Trafford.

“It had been my aim since joining the United staff to be a success in their first team. I would have got a large amount of money had I gone to Villa, but I put self-satisfaction before money. I had received a lot of encouragement from the training staff at Old Trafford and I wanted to justify their faith in me by doing well at United.

“I knew that a transfer would mean adjusting to a side playing a different style of football. I felt that I might just as well spend that time proving I was worthy of a place at United where I was part of possibly the best club in the country. Unfortunately, I found myself playing reserve team football again until Brighton came in for me.”

In a 2019 interview with the Albion website, Ritchie remembered: “We always had a good team spirit and we all used to go out together. Everyone played golf and we’d be out in the nightclubs, Bonsoir and others where you had to wipe your feet on the way out.

“Great times, absolutely fantastic. And the spirit transferred itself onto the pitch. I used to joke at Q&As that we had so many great individuals but put us together and we were crap because the social life got in the way of our football. But no, it was a fantastic club to be involved in.”

Ritchie attended a rugby-playing grammar school and played cricket and hockey for Cheshire, only turning to football at 13 or 14. He played for Manchester and Stockport Boys and scored six goals in nine games for England schoolboys under skipper Brendan Ormsby, who went on to play for Aston Villa.

In the 1983 Shoot! album, Ritchie explained: “It was while I was playing for Stockport Boys that I first realised I had a chance of a career as a professional footballer.

“I was selected for the England Under-15 side and played at Wembley Stadium. The first was against Wales. We won 4-2 and I scored a couple of goals. I then scored another when England beat France 6-1. They were great moments for me and my family.

“Appearing for England was definitely the highlight of my young career but I also enjoyed playing for Stockport and in local Sunday football.

“I played for a team called Whitehill, who were sponsored by Manchester City. It was then that I realised I could play for the Maine Road club.

“I had trials with Leeds United, Burnley and Aston Villa, but I only wanted to play for City.”

It was while playing for Stockport Boys v Manchester Boys that former United captain Johnny Carey, scouting for his old club, spotted Ritchie and made an approach.

“I went down to The Cliff (United’s training ground) and never looked back,” he said. “It didn’t take me very long to soak in the atmosphere and appreciate the tradition and name of Manchester United and, in the end, I was quite happy to sign for the Old Trafford club.”

Ritchie was 15 when he put pen to paper, and he turned professional on 5th December 1977.

Handed his first start in United’s first team shortly after his 17^th birthday, he played four matches without scoring but had caught the eye of the England Youth selectors. He made four appearances under joint managers Brian Clough and Ken Burton, making his debut in a 3-1 win over France on 8 February 1978. England drew the return leg of that UEFA Youth tournament preliminary match 0-0.

He went with the England squad to Poland for the 31^st UEFA Youth tournament in May 1978, played in a 1-1 draw v Turkey and a 1-0 defeat v Spain but a trapped nerve in his hip meant he sat out the 2-0 defeat to Poland that meant England didn’t qualify from their group. That squad included Terry Fenwick and Vince Hilaire, Tony Gale and Ray Ranson.

“The following year I was selected for England Youth again for the Mini World Cup in Austria. Unfortunately, I went over on my ankle in training and could not make the trip,” Ritchie recalled.

Ritchie hoped his move to Brighton might boost his chances of gaining a full England cap, but he ended up winning a solitary England under-21 cap when he was called up by the same Dave Sexton who’d sold him from United! “That really was a bit bizarre,” Ritchie later recalled.

He featured in a 2-2 draw with Poland at West Ham’s Boleyn Ground on 7 April 1982. Fellow striker Mark Hateley scored both England’s goals.

*Ritchie in action for Leeds against Brighton*

Ritchie’s time with Leeds was something of a mixed bag. The record books show he scored 44 times in 159 matches after he was signed by player-manager Eddie Gray. Playing in the second tier at the time, Leeds still had Gray, Peter Lorimer and David Harvey from the Revie era but Ritchie joined a mainly young side where the likes of John Sheridan, Tommy Wright and Scott Sellars were developing.

As Tony Hill observed on motforum.com: “Much of his time at Leeds was spent in dispute over his contract and for over a year he was on a weekly contract before moving to Oldham Athletic for £50,000 in August 1987.”

It was at Oldham where Ritchie really made his mark, scoring 82 goals in 217 league games (including 30 as a substitute) and helping them reach the League Cup Final and the FA Cup semi-final in 1990 and to win the old Second Division in 1991.

In 2020 the club’s official website declared: “Andy Ritchie is regarded as a club legend at Oldham Athletic and one of the greatest players to play for the club, having served Latics as a player as well as having a spell as manager.”

That goalscoring return to the Goldstone with Scarborough in early September 1996 came a year after he had joined the Seadogs as player coach on a free transfer. It was one of 17 he netted in the league from 59 starts and nine appearances from the bench.

By then a couple of months short of his 36^th birthday, thankfully the Seagulls prevailed 3-2 courtesy of goals from Stuart Storer and two from Craig Maskell (the 99^th and 100^th of his career).

It certainly wasn’t the first time Ritchie had netted against the Seagulls. Twenty months after departing the Goldstone he scored the only goal of the game, tapping in from eight yards out, when Leeds beat the Seagulls at Elland Road.

He also scored for Oldham to knock Albion out of the FA Cup when the Latics won 2-1 in the fourth round on 27 January 1990. In a 1-1 draw at the Goldstone two months later, Ritchie missed a penalty but he made amends the following season scoring home and away against the Albion, netting twice in their 1 December 1990 6-1 thumping of the Seagulls on Oldham’s plastic pitch and scoring both when the Latics left the Goldstone 2-1 winners on 2 March.

He returned to Oldham on 21 February 1997 after Neil Warnock took him to Boundary Park as his player-assistant manager. He scored three times in 32 appearances, many of which were as a sub.

But when Warnock left to join Bury at the end of the following season, Ritchie was appointed as his successor. He managed 179 games, winning 59, drawing 45 and losing 75 with a win percentage of 32.96%.

After being sacked in 2001, he was out of work for three months before being appointed academy director at Leeds at a time when fellow ex-Man Utd player and coach Brian Kidd was head coach under Terry Venables and David O’Leary.

He found himself out of work again in 2003 when Peter Reid took charge but six months later he joined Barnsley, initially as academy manager before becoming first team coach under Paul Hart.

When Hart left Barnsley in March 2005, Ritchie was appointed caretaker manager and then landed the position permanently in two months later.

At the end of the following season, he led the club to a penalty shoot-out win over Swansea City in the League One play-off final at the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff.

But the Championship season was only four months old when Ritchie was relieved of his duties with the Tykes struggling in the relegation zone.

Four months later, he was appointed manager of League One Huddersfield Town and told the club’s website: “There’s such massive potential here.

“There is no doubt that the club is geared up for promotion to the Championship and that has to be the aim now. It’s now a case of getting the players re-motivated and once we get into the Championship, we can reassess the situation.

“I tasted promotion last season and it was a great feeling – now I want to do it again as soon as possible.”

Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to steer the Terriers to that goal and, after a 4-1 defeat against his former employers Oldham, he parted company in April 2008.

They won only 22 of his 51 games in charge although they did enjoy their best FA Cup run for 10 years which only came to an end in the fifth round when they were beaten 3-1 by a Chelsea side under Avram Grant that included Wayne Bridge and Steve Sidwell.

After all that, Ritchie returned in a watching brief to where it all began: at Old Trafford.

On matchdays, he worked as an ambassador in a hospitality lounge, and contributed to MUTV and Radio Manchester.

Calderwood’s switch to promotion rivals backfired

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 13^th 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.

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.

“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.”

The Barking boy who became a Hammers play-off final hero

IT WAS A DREAM come true for Bobby Zamora to play for West Ham, the team he supported as a boy.

Born in Barking on 16 January 1981, he explained: “They were my local team and having been spotted by the club playing for my Sunday side, Senrab, I signed schoolboy forms and we’d be given tickets to watch the team on a Saturday afternoon at the Boleyn.”

Zamora’s favourite player was Tony Cottee and the side at that time included the likes of George Parris and Julian Dicks. “It was always a great atmosphere down there, singing ‘Bubbles’, and I count myself honoured and privileged to have played for the club that I grew up supporting,” he said.

Fellow Senrab players John Terry, Paul Konchesky, Ledley King and JLloyd Samuel were all snapped up by the Hammers at the same time but when the club decided to merge two centres of excellence they found themselves playing fewer games which prompted them all to leave.

Zamora joined Terry at Chelsea but suffered Osgood-Schlatter disease (which causes pain and swelling below the knee joint)and had to stop playing for six months. He described in the Undr The Cosh podcast how Norwich kept in touch with him to see how the injury was progressing so, when he was fit again he joined them and spent a season in Norfolk.

“They had a lot of London lads in their side but it was like playing in the Land of the Giants,” he explained in a matchday programme article. “They were all 15 going on 18, much bigger physically and taller than me, and I was released for being too small.”

His friend Luke Williams was also released but the pair of them were offered a trial by Bristol Rovers and, after only playing half a match, both were offered apprenticeships.

As described in my previous post, it was from Rovers that Zamora joined Brighton, while Williams played non-league before moving into coaching, which included a spell as development coach at Brighton.

When Spurs decided to swap Zamora for Jermain Defoe, a move to the Boleyn was a bit of a no-brainer for the former fan, although Premier League Leeds United were also keen to take him.

“The pull of West Ham was too great and although it was a drop into the Championship, the squad they had under Alan Pardew was more than good enough to go up,” he said.

Zamora got off to a good start with the Hammers, scoring on his debut and again on his home debut. That first goal came after he had gone on as a sub in a 2-1 win at Bradford City on 7 February 2004. He followed it up with the only goal of the game in a home win over Cardiff on 28 February.

Three more goals followed before the end of the 2003-04 campaign, but the season ended in disappointment when the Hammers lost in the Championship play-off final at the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff, against Crystal Palace the day before Brighton’s famous League One play-off win against Bristol City in the same stadium.

Zamora had a first half effort saved at point blank range by Palace keeper Nico Vaesen and a second half ‘goal’ ruled out for offside before being subbed off on 68 minutes as Palace won promotion courtesy of a Neil Shipperley goal.

All was put right a year later, though, when at the same ground Zamora was the Hammers hero. It was his turn to score the only goal of the game, against Preston North End, getting on the end of a Matthew Etherington cross to slot home from six yards in the 57^th minute.

Across the season, Zamora made 20 starts and 19 sub appearances, scoring 13 goals. His first double for the club came in a 3-2 League Cup second round win over Notts County at Upton Park on 21 September 2004.

Competition for forward places was fierce with Marlon Harewood, Teddy Sheringham and Sergei Rebrov also pushing for a place up front.

As well as scoring in that play-off final, Zamora had emphasised his claim to a starting berth by scoring in the 2-2 semi-final first leg home draw with Ipswich then twice in a 2-0 win at Portman Road in the second leg.

Pete Ellis on claretandhugh.info reckoned Zamora “played a key role for the Hammers at a pivotal point in our recent history” and he added: “The promotion season in 2005, where he and Etherington played like men possessed in the play-offs, still fills me with great pride.”

Back in the Premiership, Zamora scored 10 goals in 20 starts and 22 appearances off the bench and Ellis remembered “some great displays showing his ability to hold the ball up and have the craft and guile to bag a few tasty goals in the process.

*Zamora marked by former Brighton teammate Guy Butters who scored Albion’s goal in a 1-0 win for the Seagulls at the Boleyn Ground*

“A proper character around the club, I enjoyed watching Bobby play and thought he never really got the plaudits that his talents and performances deserved.”

Amongst memorable goals in 2005-06 were a stunning solo effort in a 2-1 win at Birmingham and a goal in a 3-2 win at Highbury. Unfortunately, he’s also remembered for having his penalty saved by Pepe Reina in the FA Cup Final shoot-out with Liverpool.

The 2006-07 season saw Zamora make 30 starts and seven sub appearances, scoring 11 goals and named runner-up to Carlos Tevez in the Hammer of the Year contest.

A terrific start to the season saw him score five goals in his first four matches, including two against Charlton in a 3-1 opening day win.

A four-month barren spell came as the Irons struggled but he scored crucial goals against Blackburn, Everton, Middlesbrough and Arsenal (the last time West Ham played at Highbury).

Fans remember too his goal the following season – a chip over Jens Lehmann – that sealed a vital win for the Hammers at Arsenal’s new Emirates Stadium, with a heroic performance from ‘keeper Rob Green keeping out the Gunners at the other end.

The arrival of Craig Bellamy and return from injury of Dean Ashton added competition for Zamora, who missed seven months of the 2007-08 season with tendinitis.

His last Hammers goal was in a 2-1 win at the Boleyn against Derby on 19 April 2008, and his last game for the club was in a 2-2 draw at home to Aston Villa the following month. He had scored a total of 40 goals in 152 appearances for West Ham.

Even though he had missed a lot of games, and only scored once in 12 starts plus two off the bench across the whole season, he had no inkling he wouldn’t be offered a new contract.

“I went in at the start of the next season expecting to be talking about a new contract and they told me they’d agreed a deal to sell me to Fulham,” he told the Fulham website in a 2019 interview.

“It was obvious I wasn’t wanted and I made my way down to Motspur Park,” he said.

Zamora and team-mate John Paintsil moved to Fulham for a joint fee of £6.3m (Zamora was valued at £4.8m).

• I’ll explore how Zamora got on at Fulham ahead of Brighton’s game with them in March. His form with the Cottagers hit sufficient heights as to earn him two England caps.

Managerial change had habit of foxing Jason Jarrett’s progress

JASON JARRETT was one of multiple additions to Micky Adams’ struggling League One Brighton side in January 2009, advised to head to the Withdean by former Preston playing colleague Joe Anyinsah.

Anyinsah, who had been on loan at the Albion and declined the opportunity to stay in favour of moving to Carlisle United, nonetheless recommended the Seagulls to Jarrett.

The alliteratively named midfielder was 29 when he arrived on a free transfer hoping to reignite his career after a frustrating two-and-a-half years at Deepdale during which time he made just nine appearances.

“I was told by Alan Irvine I had a future at Preston North End, but there is only so long that you can sit on the bench,” he said. “I wanted to leave so that I can play some games and I have heard good things about Brighton so in the end it was a straightforward decision.”

He pointed out: “This is a chance to resurrect my career and I’m grateful to Micky Adams for bringing me down here.”

Jarrett was one of six new arrivals that month: Jim McNulty, Craig Davies, Calvin Andrew, Seb Carole and Chris Birchall were the others.

“We needed a bit more physical strength in midfield, which is why Jason is there,” Adams explained.

His debut for the Seagulls saw him in opposition to a club he’d very nearly signed for – Leicester City – after playing 13 games for them on loan in 2007.

And, in an even more bizarre twist, he ended up wearing the Foxes’ second kit of all yellow in the game on 27 January 2009 because the match referee deemed Albion’s would have clashed.

“Rob Kelly took me to Leicester and I was close to signing for them but it fell through when he was sacked,” Jarrett told the Argus ahead of the game.

“They are a big club and obviously the best team in the League. Everyone can see that, so it is going to be very difficult. They are a club that should definitely be in the Championship at the very least.”

Nevertheless, the Albion caused something of an upset by holding the high-flyers to a goalless draw, and the new man came close to netting the Albion a win.

Brighton were the 13^th club of Jarrett’s career, most of which had been spent at Championship level. Anyone of a superstitious nature would say luck was not on his side.

Although he made 12 starts + two as a sub for the Albion, it was only a matter of weeks after he signed that Adams parted company with the Seagulls.

New boss Russell Slade stuck with Jarrett initially but then brought in his own man in Gary Dicker from Stockport County.

Having been given a contract only until the end of the season, Jarrett was not kept on, and it wasn’t long before he was reunited with Adams, this time at Port Vale.

Born in Bury on 14 September 1979, Jarrett started his career as a 16-year-old apprentice with Blackpool, and made his first team debut in November 1998. He moved on to Wrexham for the 1999-2000 season but only made one appearance for the Welsh side. Next up was hometown club Bury in the Second Division where he got a foothold in the team and featured in 69 matches. However, when they went into administration in 2002, they were forced to sell Jarrett to Wigan Athletic for £75,000.

Jarrett was a key part of the Latics midfield as they rose from the fourth tier through to the Championship, making 107 appearances under Paul Jewell.

A broken leg suffered in pre-season ahead of the 2004-05 season sidelined him and after he’d recovered he spent a month on loan at Stoke City under Tony Pulis.

Jarrett moved on before getting the chance to play in the Premier League for Wigan, instead joining Norwich City in the summer of 2005. He had previously played for Canaries boss Nigel Worthington at his first club, Blackpool, but, in common with a few other signings, his chances at Carrow Road were few and far between. He went on loan to Plymouth Argyle in the first part of the season, returning in January 2006, and two months later joined Preston on a temporary basis before making the switch to Deepdale permanent in May that year.

Once again, though, he found a manager in Paul Simpson reluctant to give him a regular starting berth so he went on loans to Hull City (where he played alongside Nicky Forster and David Livermore), Leicester (as mentioned above), QPR (for three months) and Oldham (where Craig Davies was a teammate).

He was picked out in the Albion matchday programme as Oldham’s star man ahead of their visit to the Withdean in February 2008, described as “a mobile, pacy central operator who can get forward but is also prepared to do the grimy tracking back and box-to-box work that are a good midfielder’s staple diet”.

He later returned to Oldham after his short term contract with Port Vale had expired. He’d been without a club in the latter half of the 2009-10 season but, in the summer of 2010, Oldham boss Paul Dickov took him on after a successful trial period. He told the club website: “We have a very young team and Jason’s experience helps us.”

However, he only made eight appearances and in January 2011 he dropped out of the league, initially playing for Conference North FC Halifax Town, then Airbus UK in Wales, before, in May 2013, signing for Conference side Chester. When they were relegated from the Conference in April 2014, Jarrett moved to Salford City.

After his playing days were over, Jarrett set up his own business: ProBall Sport. On his LinkedIn profile, he describes its aims thus: “At ProBall Sport we provide fun, educational sport activities for primary and secondary schools plus nutrition and well-being workshops.

“The power of school sports changed my life,” Jarrett writes. “I know first-hand how much of a positive impact it can have on young children, whether that be in pushing them on towards becoming a professional sports person or keeping them fit, active and healthy.

“I believe that first class sports coaching from a young age had a profound effect on my life and achievements so I developed Proball Sport to directly support and inspire today’s pupils to give them the chance to experience something similar, hopefully, even more special.”

In parallel lines

Memories from 55 years following Brighton & Hove Albion

Tag: Norwich City