MIDFIELDER Steve Melton took manager Micky Adams at his word in a notorious pre-season friendly – and ended up being sent off after putting in a waist-high tackle on an opponent.
Adams subbed off a riled Richard Carpenter against Longford Town in July 2001 with instructions to former Nottingham Forest trainee Melton “to give the lad who was booting our players up in the air a taste of his own medicine. Make sure he knows you are around.”
Melton duly put in a flying lunge on Longford midfielder Alan Reynolds that saw him receive an automatic red card and the fall-out from the challenge sparked an almighty punch-up which ended up with Albion’s Charlie Oatway and opponent Alan Murphy also being sent off after an altercation.
That particular battle then led to an even bigger scrap involving coaches and even the Longford chairman who took a punch in the face from one of his own players!
The so-called pre-season “friendly” – later dubbed the Battle of Longford – was abandoned with only 44 minutes on the clock by inexperienced ref Dermot Tone, who had only stepped in to officiate because senior Irish referees were at a seminar.
For Melton, it was all a far cry from making your Premier League debut two years earlier in front of 25,353 fans at the City Ground, Nottingham, in Ron Atkinson’s last-ever game as a manager. Melton was pitched in for already-relegated Forest for an East Midlands derby against Leicester and they went down in style (Blackburn and Charlton also went down), scraping a 1-0 win against the Foxes.
Born in Lincoln on 3 October 1978, Melton first linked up with Forest when he was just 11, playing at the centre of excellence. He signed full time at 16, a matter of days after finishing his GCSEs. He progressed through the youth team and reserves and it was during that time that he first worked with Adams, who’d been assistant manager to Dave Bassett before Atkinson’s arrival.
Before he got close to the Forest first team, 18-year-old Melton and another trainee had experienced competitive football in Finland where Bassett had sent them to play for Sami Hyypiä’s old club MyPa on a three-month loan.
“He sent us out there to toughen us up. It also got us used to playing in a proper men’s league so that we learnt to value the prize of the three points and the standing within the first team,” he explained in a matchday programme interview.
That experience followed by his Forest first team debut didn’t have the outcome he wanted and after only three games under Atkinson’s successor, David Platt, he picked up an injury and couldn’t force his way back into the first team picture.
In February 2000, he switched 50 miles west to third tier Stoke City and admitted: “It seemed a good move as I didn’t have to travel too far.
“It was a chance for me to play for a decent-sized club that were going strong in the cup and in the league. It was either that or play reserve team games for the rest of the year at Forest and wait for a break that I didn’t think was going to come.”
As it turned out, it was mainly a watching role, making only seven appearances as a substitute. He was a non-playing bench warmer alongside Chris Iwelumo (who did get on) when City won the Football League (Auto Windscreens Shield) Trophy at Wembley, beating Bristol City 2-1.
Stoke’s new Icelandic consortium hinted that they wanted to keep him on but in the absence of a contract offer, rather than risk uncertainty, he took up Adams’ offer to join fourth-tier Albion.
A complimentary caption in the club match day programme
On a trial in the Emerald Isle the year before the Longford incident, Melton did enough across the week of the tour to earn a one-year contract. He had a long wait before getting a start but after 11 introductions as a substitute he finally made his full debut in February 2001, stepping in for Carpenter at Torquay after the regular midfield starter pulled out with an injured ankle.
After playing his part in Albion’s first win (1-0 courtesy of Bobby Zamora) at Torquay for 36 years, Melton told The Argus: “I’m enjoying it here. I’ve settled in with the lads and I share a house with some of them.”
On playing for Adams, he said: “I think Micky is going to be a really good manager. I enjoy working with him. A lot of the lads do.
“Hopefully he will take Brighton up. He’s had a taste of managing at a higher level at Forest and I think he has the potential to do it again.”
Melton’s outlook brightened the following month and he got starts in nine of the season’s remaining 15 matches as Adams led the Seagulls to promotion as champions.
At home to his future employer Hull City, Melton made his home debut and scored his first goal for the club in a 3-0 win (Paul Watson and substitute Phil Stant also scored).
Reflecting on his involvement, he said: “It’s difficult to break in when the team keep winning every week, and they go unbeaten for 12 or 13 games, maybe drop a point but then go off on another run.
“It’s frustrating because you’re not playing, but you can’t really have too much of a case when the team is sat at the top of the league.”
Come the end of the season, he had done enough to be offered a two-year extension to his contract. As it turned out, the 2001-02 season followed much the same pattern as his first in terms of more appearances off the bench than starts.
He was on the scoresheet twice in the LDV Vans Trophy, scoring an extra time golden goal in a 2-1 home win over Wycombe Wanderers but was then inadvertently the fall guy in a 2-1 quarter-final defeat at Cambridge United.
Having given Albion a 36th-minute lead, latching on to Dirk Lehmann’s lay-off to fire a low right-footer past Lionel Perez from just outside the penalty area, he lost possession to Dave Kitson, who ran away to equalise, and then, four minutes into extra time, a shot by Armand One that was going wide took a wicked deflection off Melton’s shoulder to send United through to the next round.
A happier outing came when he made a rare start and scored as promotion-chasing Albion beat table-toppers Reading at the Withdean in February 2002. Peter Taylor’s Seagulls triumphed 3-1 on a rain-lashed night under the lights (Zamora and Junior Lewis also scored).
Goalscorers Melton and Zamora after a memorable win over Reading
“It was pleasing to start,” Melton told The Argus. “You have got to be patient and I have waited a good few months.
“I have been on the outside for the last few weeks. Hopefully I can stay on the inside now.
“Playing against the League leaders is a different matter completely from the LDV appearances that I made earlier in the season.
“You can only do as well as you can when you are chosen to play and hopefully I did that. Once you have been given the shirt you have to try and keep it.”
Melton’s goal was only the second league goal of his career and his first for 11 months.
Taylor reckoned it was the best home performance since he took over from Adams the previous autumn and Albion won eight (and drew five) of the following 14 games to go on and clinch the third-tier title with the also-promoted Royals six points behind.
Melton scored Albion’s first goal of the 2002-03 season when he started in the 3-1 win at Burnley under his third Brighton manager, Martin Hinshelwood (Zamora and Paul Brooker also scored; Hinshelwood’s 18-year-old nephew Adam made his debut).
Unfortunately, Melton tweaked a hamstring in the process and had to be subbed off. He only made nine more appearances (six starts plus three off the bench) as Hinshelwood’s short reign in charge ended with 10 league defeats in a row.
Incoming boss Steve Coppell brought in the likes of free agent Simon Rodger and Arsenal loanee Steve Sidwell and Melton found himself surplus to requirements.
It was in October 2002 that he moved to Hull on loan shortly after Peter Taylor had replaced Jan Molby as manager with the club about to move out of Boothferry Park and into the Kingston Communications Stadium.
Tiger Melton
Melton made 19 starts plus six appearances off the bench as the Tigers finished 13th in the old Third Division.
According to the website oncloudseven.com: “Despite his promise and Taylor’s persistence, Melton’s career at City was not a success and he showed only brief flashes of good form. Melton is, however, forever enshrined in the City record books because in December 2002 he scored the first ever goal at the KC Stadium against Sunderland, for the honour of lifting the Raich Carter Trophy.”
He found himself only on the fringes the following season and he had moved on to Boston United under Steve Evans by the time Taylor steered Hull to promotion as divisional runners up.
A recurring back injury restricted his playing time at Boston and during 2005-06 he was sent out on loan to Conference National side Tamworth. On his release from Boston in the summer of 2006, he switched to Southern League Premier King’s Lynn FC for two seasons.
Melton at Boston
In September 2008, he rejoined Boston with manager Tommy Taylor telling the club’s website: “Steve has great quality on the ball and that’s what we have been missing in the midfield area.
Hopefully he will add another dimension to our team.”
But he was released at the end of the season and joined Lincoln United of the Northern Premier League Division One East, alongside his former Boston and King’s Lynn teammate Matt O’Halloran. After spells with Lincoln Moorlands Railway, Grantham Town and Worksop Town, he wound up his playing days back at Lincoln United.
In the meantime, his first job outside of football was in sales for mobile comms company Vodacom. He spent nearly seven years with the now defunct energy advice and installation company the Mark Group and since 2019 has worked for building services certification business The National Association of Professional Inspectors and Testers, where he is now commercial and compliance director.
TRANSFER makeweight Matt Thornhill fell foul of managerial changes and debilitating injury which together brought a promising professional playing career to an early end.
Brighton’s former assistant manager Colin Calderwood believed in the midfielder but his successor as Nottingham Forest manager, Billy Davies, didn’t.
Surplus to requirements at the City Ground, Thornhill was Russell Slade’s seventh signing of the summer in 2009, heading to Sussex as part of the deal that saw Albion academy graduate Joel Lynch move to Forest for £200,000 (having spent the previous season on loan there).
Thornhill initially joined on a six-month loan and he was full of optimism, telling the Argus: “They (Brighton) are looking to go for it this season and hopefully I can be a part of that team and help them strive for the top five of the table and the play-offs.
“My target is to play as many games as I can for Brighton and see what happens. If everything goes well then I could extend it to a year, but we’ll just see.”
Although he started the first game of the season at home to Walsall, he was subbed off at half-time as the Seagulls lost 1-0. Three days later, he was in the side beaten 3-0 by Swansea City in the League Cup (Andrea Orlandi was playing for the Swans and Stephen Dobbie scored his first two goals for City in the Liberty Stadium clash).
But it was another two months before he started another game. Other new arrivals at Withdean (like big money signing Elliott Bennett) at the start of that 2009-10 season and niggling injuries limited Thornhill’s involvement, and, at the end of October, Slade was sacked and replaced by Gus Poyet.
Thornhill, who turned 21 during his time with the Seagulls, only started five games, made four appearances off the bench, and was an unused sub for eight matches.
Poyet had his own ideas about the squad he wanted and swiftly Thornhill and fellow Forest loanee midfielder Arron Davies, who’d played under Slade at Yeovil, were sent back to the City Ground.
Born in Nottingham on 11 October 1988, Thornhill was only eight when he was first offered the chance to sign for Forest, but his father said he was too young.
They went back in for him when he was 14, and, despite other interest from Derby County and Notts County, as a Forest fan it was an easy decision to make.
He was initially coached by former Forest defender Chris Fairclough. When he left school at 16, he became a scholar under John Pemberton, and signed a pro contract a year later.
Calderwood gave him his first team debut at Chester City in the Carling Cup in August 2007, a game Forest won on penalties.
Thornhill made five starts and 11 sub appearances across that 2007-08 season as Forest went up from League One and he scored his first goal for the club in a 4-0 win over Leyton Orient. He featured in 28 league and cup games (16 starts, 12 from the bench) on their return to the Championship.
“Calderwood was really good,” said Thornhill in an extended interview with the Nottingham Evening Post in 2018. “He came and watched the young lads and gave us confidence,” he told reporter Matt Davies.
“He said that if you were good enough, he’d give you a chance with the first team. Some managers don’t go with the academy players.
“They bring players they know in. I saw Lewis McGugan get his chance though and that spurred me on.
“When I got in the team I never thought far ahead. I took every week as it came. I knew the manager believed in me.
“I tried to make the most of it. Playing for Forest meant a lot to me and my family.
“It was massive. I knew growing up how big the club was.”
Thornhill was still only 19 when he played in the biggest game of his career, a 3-0 FA Cup third round win at Manchester City in January 2009.
Forest were floundering at the wrong end of the Championship and had just sacked Calderwood. Pemberton took caretaker charge and it was the biggest cup upset of the round when Forest beat the newly-enriched City so convincingly.
“City were spending loads of money,” said Thornhill. “We had nothing to lose, but wanted to impress the new manager (Billy Davies was watching from the stands).
“I should have scored. I shanked it to Robert Earnshaw and he scored in the end.”
Two days later, Davies took over as manager and Thornhill said he made it quite clear he was going to send out on loan all the young lads who did well under Calderwood.
After his foreshortened Albion loan spell came to an end, he then joined League Two Cheltenham Town on a similar basis, helping them to narrowly avoid dropping out of the league.
Back at Forest for the new season, Thornhill thought he had changed Davies’ opinion, telling the Nottingham Evening Post: “I had a really good pre-season. He told me I’d done well and that I’d be in his plans for the season.
“I was buzzing. The first league game he named me on the bench.”
In the second game of the season, he was a starter in a 2-1 Carling Cup defeat at Bradford City
“I scored and felt I did really well,” said Thornhill. It turned out to be his last game for the club.
“I’d have loved to have got the opportunities Billy said he would give me but there was nothing I could do about it,” he said.
“It annoyed me that he told me I was in his plans and never got the chance when I was at my fittest.”
By Christmas 2010, he was told he had no future at Forest. And he never played in the Football League again.
Former boss Calderwood took him to Scottish Premier League Hibernian in January 2011, but after only nine matches for the Edinburgh side he damaged medial knee ligaments and missed the rest of the season.
Thornhill told Davies of the Post: “I believed in myself still when Forest let me go and Colin Calderwood gave me another chance at Hibs.”
As well as the knee issue, Thornhill contracted a stomach condition which kept him out for eight months. By the time he was fit again, Calderwood had been sacked.
New boss Pat Fenlon did not see a role for him; he was sent to train with the youth team, and was eventually released after making only 15 appearances for Hibs.
Still only 23, he joined Northern Premier League side Buxton (‘The Bucks’) while hoping he would get the chance to resurrect his league career. It never came and instead, after two years at Buxton, he moved on (left) to Barnsley-based Shaw Lane Aquaforce ‘The Ducks’), whose head coach Craig Elliott said: “It is a massive coup for the club.”
Elliott told Non League Yorkshire: “He’s one I didn’t think we would get as a couple of other clubs were after him, but I convinced him to be part of our project. “He has a fantastic CV and he did well at Buxton last season. Everyone at the club is pleased to have him.”
He helped the club to win promotion to the Northern Premier League Division One South in 2014-15 and was club captain the following season when they reached the divisional play-off final, only to lose 3-1 to Coalville Town.
He then moved up two levels in the football pyramid and spent a season with National League North side Gainsborough Trinity, where he was appointed captain.
The player told Non League Yorkshire: “I am really pleased to be a part of what (Gainsborough manager) Dominic (Roma) is building at Trinity this season and am glad to be signed early, so I can get a good pre-season under my belt. I really feel I can help the team and channel my experience in a positive way.”
In 2017, Thornhill switched to his local club Basford United and he is still playing for the Northern Premier League Premier Division outfit.
A key figure for Basford United
When he signed a new two-year deal with Basford in 2021, then manager Steve Chettle (himself a former Forest player) told the Hucknall Dispatch: “It is vitally important that we set out to continue where we have been for the last two [incomplete] seasons and Matt has been a massive part of that, and he has a been a key figure in the success of this club in the last five years.
“His attitude to all parts of the games and training is an example to all and his contribution in assists and goals over the years has been fantastic. He is a fans favourite and for the captain to re-sign really shows our intentions.”
Chairman Chris Munroe added: “Matt has shown the club, Steve and myself a great deal of loyalty over the years and my dream is that he finishes his playing career with us at Basford, which is now a real possibility.
“There is nothing better for our fans than to see Matt scoring goals or contributing numerous assists and we hope that continues in good supply moving forward as we enter an exciting phase for the football club.”
In that 2018 interview with the Nottingham Evening Post, Thornhill said: “I never really got back where I wanted. I started so well and since Billy let me go I’ve been hampered by injuries.
“I do think I’d have kicked on but for injuries. I might still have been a pro now. It’s football though. It’s what can happen.”
The article said Thornhill was working for a company supplying paint to the car repairs industry and he said philosophically: “My job now is different to football obviously. You’ve got to do what you’ve got to do to get by in life.
“Anyone that knows me knows I get on with things. I see it that I was lucky to play for Forest.
“I was lucky to play for a club that big. There’s no point having regrets and always looking back.”
IT WAS a team effort that saw Brighton promoted to the Premier League in 2017 but one of the key components of that achievement was winger Anthony Knockaert.
Centre-forward Glenn Murray netted 23 times but the tricky, nimble-footed Frenchman wasn’t far behind with an impressive 15 goals and was rightly rewarded with both the Championship Player of the Year award and the Albion Player of the Season accolade.
When he announced his retirement from the game at the age of 32 in July 2024, he described his time with the Seagulls as the best years of his career.
He had previously been part of Leicester City’s rise from the Championship in 2014 and, although he was a less regular starter in his first season at Fulham, he was also part of Scott Parker’s play-off winning squad that won promotion back to the Premier League in August 2020.
Knockaert’s mazy dribbles along the right wing often had Albion fans on the edge of their seats and, invariably, in an around the penalty area, he would cut back onto his left foot and let fly with a goalbound shot.
When he left the club for Fulham, Albion chairman Tony Bloom said: “Anthony will always have a very special place in the history books of our club.
“He’s provided some wonderful moments, and on behalf of all Albion fans, I would like to thank him for the memories.”
Perhaps it was fitting that his last goal for the Seagulls was one of the most spectacular – and was delivered in a 2-1 win against arch rivals Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park in March 2019.
Some observers felt Knockaert was lucky still to be on the pitch after he escaped with just a booking only 28 seconds into the match for cleaning out Palace captain Luka Milivojevic.
With the game level at 1-1, and 16 minutes of the match remaining, Sky Sports reporter Richard Morgan noted: “Brighton boss Chris Hughton was preparing to bring Knockaert off, but before the substitution could be made, the Frenchman put his team back ahead with a goal-of-the-season contender.
“The winger picked up possession down the right, before cutting inside and curling a sublime left-footed shot into the top corner of the net as Brighton scored from outside the area for the first time in the league this season.”
It certainly wasn’t the first time Knockaert had made the headlines for the Seagulls; his two goals at Molineux in a 2-0 win over Wolves in April 2017 virtually guaranteed Albion’s promotion from the Championship just ahead of the decisive win at home to Wigan and was accompanied by BBC Radio Sussex reporter Johnny Cantor’s memorable “simply box office” commentary on the Frenchman’s performance.
Born in Roubaix in north east France on 20 November 1991, Knockaert’s early football development happened at several clubs close to or over the Belgian border: Wasquehal (1997-99), Leers (1999-2001), Lens (2001-04), Mouscron (2004-07) and Lesquin (2007-09).
It took a move to Brittany, and Guingamp, to begin his professional career in 2009 and he helped the club win promotion from the third to the second tier of French football in 2011. Leicester paid a reported £750,000 for his services in the summer of 2012.
He revealed a flavour of his passion for the game in a City November 2013 matchday programme: “When I play for a team, I want to be able to give everything and that’s important if you want to forge a connection with the fans and everybody at a club. That’s my philosophy.
“Since I have come to Leicester, the staff, players and fans have been brilliant. Everyone in Leicester has been great with me and as a result I have been very happy.
“That’s why I give everything I have on the pitch, because simply, I love Leicester.”
Although Knockaert’s late goal against Nottingham Forest on the last day of the 2012-13 season had lifted City from eighth in the table into the last play-off spot, agony was to follow in the semi-finals.
While Brighton fans were enduring their own Championship play-off semi-final heartbreak at the hands of Crystal Palace, so the Foxes saw their hoped-for return to the Premier League cruelly taken away – and Knockaert was the fall guy.
With City’s play-off semi-final against Watford finely poised at 2-2, Leicester were awarded an injury time penalty. Knockaert stepped up to take it but the kick was saved by Manuel Almunia, the rebound shot then hit him in the chest, and the ball went straight down the other end where Troy Deeney buried a winner for the Hornets. But Foxes follower Jake Lawson of fosseposse.sbnation.com was keen to point out in 2017: “There’s so much more to the Frenchman’s time with Leicester than that.
“We signed him as a relatively unknown 21-year-old from Ligue 2 side Guingamp and he went straight into the side, featuring in 42 league matches during the 2012-13 campaign.
“He scored eight goals in the Championship and they weren’t exactly tap-ins, either. His brace against Huddersfield was, to my untrained eye, the most impressive pair of goals scored by any City player over the last 20 years.”
Regardless of that agonising play-off outcome, he observed: “Without the French under 21 international’s impressive range of passing, magical dribbling, and ability to score from (literally) any angle, we wouldn’t have even been in the hunt.”
Knockaert played in 42 league matches and scored five times in 2013-14, when Leicester romped to the Championship title, finishing with 102 points.
“Every time he was on the ball, you had the sense that something special could happen,” said Lawson. “It wasn’t always good, but it was always special.”
Unfortunately for Knockaert, Leicester discovered another winger from France’s Ligue 2. His name was Riyad Mahrez and boss Nigel Pearson picked the Algerian ahead of Knockaert, who only made five first team starts plus six appearances off the bench in the 2014-15 Premier League season.
When he left Leicester in June 2015, he’d made 82 starts and 24 substitute appearances for the Foxes and scored 13 goals.
He joined Belgian Pro League side Standard Liege on a free transfer, signing a four-year contract. But he ended up playing only 20 matches for Liege in the first half of the 2015-16 season before the Albion took him back to the UK.
Albion boss Hughton said at the time: “Once I knew that there was a possibility that Anthony was available, he was somebody I was interested in bringing to the club for a number of reasons.
“He is a different type of player to the wide players we have here. He can play in three positions – on the left, off the front man, but predominantly in his previous time here in England he played on the right side.
“He is a very good technical, offensive player and has experience of playing in the Championship in a team who played a 4-4-2 system and he is used to having a responsibility in the wide areas. But mostly it is what he can bring us offensively in terms of goals and assists.”
Knockaert obviously bought in to the manager’s way of playing, saying in a matchday programme interview: “When you are a creative player everyone expects the best from you in every game. You are always trying a lot of things: to dribble, to score goals, to give assists and to work hard defensively for the team.
“I try to give all of these things to the team – as do all the wingers at the club – and it’s a big responsibility on the pitch for us. However, it’s not always easy to do everything right.”
Explaining his occasional shows of frustration, he said: “It’s because I love football so much. I’ve always been like this and every game I play is a fight, and I give everything I’ve got.”
Promotion in 2017 was extra special for Knockaert because it was a promise he’d made to his dad, Patrick, who died of cancer aged 63 in the autumn of 2016. The player was grateful for the way in which he was supported in his bereavement by the management and his teammates.
Brighton players held aloft absent Knockaert’s shirt in tribute as they celebrated Steve Sidwell’s halfway line wonder goal at Bristol City. Hughton and several players attended his father’s funeral in France.
Thankfully it was a far happier Knockaert at the forefront of the celebrations when Albion achieved the promotion dream against Wigan at the Amex the following April.
Hopes of hitting the ground running in Albion’s debut season in the Premier League were dealt something of a blow when he sustained ankle ligament damage in a pre-season friendly against Fortuna Dusseldorf.
It was eight games before there was a glimpse of his return to fitness when Everton were the visitors. Man-of-the-match Knockaert put Albion ahead on 82 minutes but Everton took home a somewhat fortuitous point when Wayne Rooney equalised from the penalty spot.
“His trademark runs from deep and balls into the box led the Toffees’ defence a merry dance,” the matchday programme reported. As to the goal, Knockaert said: “It was a special moment for me. Obviously I thought about my dad because I know he would have loved to have seen that. It was really emotional.”
Sadly, apart from his father’s early death, Knockaert’s brother Steve had died of a heart attack aged 28 in 2010 and in 2018 the player revealed he’d had counselling for depression which had been compounded by the break-up of his marriage, that had led to limited contact with his four-year-old son Ilyan.
In an excellent piece of analysis after Albion’s new regime under Graham Potter allowed Knockaert to join Fulham on loan at the start of the 2019-20 season, The Athletic’s Andy Naylor spelled out the conundrum the club faced with a player who perhaps wore his heart on his sleeve a little too much.
Naylor noted that apart from Knockaert’s capacity to thrill supporters on the pitch, his series of personal misfortunes also tugged at their hearts.
Nonetheless, although he scored 20 goals in 64 Championship games for Brighton, he only registered five in 63 at the higher level.
In the harsh world of football, as Knockaert had previously experienced with the arrival of Mahrez at Leicester, it was Brighton’s signing of Leandro Trossard from Genk that finally signalled the Frenchman’s farewell to Sussex.
Believing Knockaert “too good for the Championship and good enough for the Premier League” Naylor said that winner at Palace and a man-of-the-match performance in the 2019 FA Cup semi-final defeat to Manchester City were certainly highlights. But…
“On the flip side, such good days are not frequent enough for Knockaert to be regarded as dependable, both in terms of his contribution to the team and the Gallic temperament which has let the side down.
“Displays of dissent were familiar if he got substituted or games were not going according to plan,” he said.
Naylor also referred to two sendings off – away to Everton for a jump tackle on Leighton Baines from a throw-in and “an outrageous lunging tackle” on Bournemouth’s Adam Smith when Albion were 2-0 down at home and ended up losing 5-0. Match of the Day pundit Danny Murphy slammed the player, saying: “It’s dangerous and irresponsible and more importantly he’s let everyone down.”
Naylor concluded that the switch to London for a fee of up to £15 million – about four times what they paid for him – would be best for both club and player.
Fulham exercised their option to buy Knockaertpermanently in July 2020 and he agreed a three-year contract, although most of that time ended up being spent away from Craven Cottage on loan.
The signing certainly baffled Fulham fans, such as Marco De Novellis who wrote on fulhamish.co.uk: “The Knockaert signing strikes me as the decision of an out-of-touch director of football operations attuned more to the past reputation of players than the reality on the pitch.”
Another correspondent, Hugo Lloyd, on the same site, reckoned Knockaert had “hugely divided opinion” and said: “Aged 27 he should be coming into his prime, but he looks a shell of his former self.”
Lloyd reckoned the sort of flair Knockaert had expressed playing for Brighton was stifled by Scott Parker’s emphasis on possession. “Parker needs to show faith in Knockaert and let him play in the manner that has allowed him such success in previous seasons as it could be the perfect injection of risk needed in our style of play, rather than taking this out and keeping the ball for the sake of it,” he wrote. “He clearly has ability but has had to completely change his style of play which cannot be easy.
“Given time, Knockaert’s magic could be exactly what we need to rise up the table, whereas at the moment it seems a case of trying to fit a square peg in a round hole.”
By the season’s end, Knockaert had made 35 starts and 11 sub appearances in all competitions, scoring just four goals, as Fulham gained promotion back to the Premier League via a play-off final win over Brentford.
Although the club was back amongst the elite, Knockaert was frozen out and in October 2020 was instead reunited with former Albion boss Hughton at Championship side Nottingham Forest. He made 33 appearances and scored three times for Forest where he also teamed up with two former Seagulls teammates in Gaetan Bong and Murray.
The following season began with Knockaert joining Greek Super League side Volos but he was back in the UK the following January, signing on loan at Huddersfield Town.
Amid a fair degree of hype, Town’s head of football operations Leigh Bromby told the club website: “Anthony possesses the type of individual talent that is a rare find, so we’re absolutely delighted to have him with us for the remainder of the season.
“He has a proven track record at this level and a real hunger to contribute in England again, so that ticks a lot of boxes for us.
“This is the type of signing we hope can give the club a real lift both on and off the field, with his high profile earned through countless memorable goals and performances that we hope will continue with our shirt on his back.
“He gives us something completely different in the final third whilst complimenting who we are and what we want to be as a team, so there is a real excitement to see how he can contribute between now and the end of the season.”
Sadly, against a backdrop of managerial upheaval, he only managed two starts and three appearances off the bench as Town narrowly avoided dropping out of the Championship.
In September 2023, Knockaert agreed to terminate his Fulham contract and he moved back close to his birthplace, signing for Ligue 2 side Valenciennes FC. He featured in 21 matches but couldn’t prevent the side from being relegated to France’s third tier.
Although he announced his decision to retire from professional football in July 2024, he didn’t plan to hang up his boots altogether and getfootballnewsbene.com reported that he would turn out in the lower reaches of Belgian football with Mouscron, where he’d once played as a boy.
SCOTTISH international Colin Calderwood played for and managed Nottingham Forest in a lengthy playing and managerial career that has spanned a host of clubs across the country.
His 21 months as assistant manager to Chris Hughton at Brighton came to an abrupt end that drew harsh criticism at the time but thankfully didn’t hinder Albion’s upward trajectory.
Calderwood worked under Hughton at three other clubs: Newcastle United, Birmingham City and Norwich City.
The pair first met on the same A licence coaching badge course and Hughton was later a coach at Tottenham when Calderwood was a player. He then played a part in Calderwood becoming reserve team coach at White Hart Lane after his playing days were over.
Calderwood went on to become a manager in his own right at League Two Northampton Town, where he got them promotion at the end of his second season (in 2006).
Two and a half years as boss at Forest followed, during which he got them promoted from League One to the Championship. In 2007-08, his Foest side took four points off the Albion, winning 2-0 at Withdean but being held to a goalless draw at home.
Forest were promoted in second place behind champions Swansea City (Albion finished seventh) but Calderwood was sacked just before Christmas in 2008 with the side struggling in the Championship relegation zone.
When Hughton succeeded Sami Hyypiä at the start of 2015, it wasn’t long before he turned to trusted ‘lieutenant’ Calderwood to help Albion’s cause.
The no.2 had first worked with him at Newcastle in 2009 when, after relegation from the Premier League, the pair led the Magpies back to the elite as Championship champions in 2010.
Hibernian in Edinburgh lured him to try a third spell as a no.1 but, after just 13 months in charge, and only securing 12 wins from 49 matches, he was sacked. He was not out of work for long, moving later the same month to Birmingham to become Hughton’s assistant at the Championship side, where another of Hughton’s backroom team, Paul Trollope, was first team coach.
When Hughton left for Premier League Norwich in June 2012, Calderwood, Trollope and chief scout Ewan Chester (who also later joined him at Brighton) all decamped to Carrow Road. City dispensed with their services in April 2014.
Having helped steer Albion to the Championship promotion near-miss of 2015-16 (when they suffered the agonising play-off semi-finals defeat to Sheffield Wednesday), the Seagulls were well geared up to go one better the following season.
So it came as something of a shock when Calderwood quit in November 2016 to become assistant manager to Steve Bruce at promotion rivals Aston Villa.
Hughton was said to be “very disappointed” and “very surprised” by his assistant’s departure, “particularly at this stage of the season”. Albion watcher Andy Naylor reckoned that amounted to a “withering condemnation” from the normally placid manager.
In an excoriating article for the Argus, Naylor wrote: “He clearly feels let down – and he is entitled to feel that way. Is there any justification for treating Hughton the way he has?”
It emerged that the move gave Calderwood a much shorter daily commuting distance from his home in Northampton, but, even so, Naylor reckoned Hughton deserved better.
Thankfully, there was a ready-made replacement in the wings because Trollope had just lost his job at Cardiff City.
Naylor wrote: “Trollope is in the right place at the right moment to bring his promotion-winning mentality as both a player and manager into the camp. Let’s hope he demonstrates more loyalty than Calderwood.”
Perhaps it was the supreme irony that as Albion marched to promotion from the Championship the following spring, the side Calderwood had moved to only finished in 13th place – although the last-game draw at Villa stymied Albion’s chances of going up as champions.
Nevertheless, there were no bitter recriminations on Calderwood’s part. “Chris did a terrific job turning around the shape and the balance of the team,” he recalled in an interview with the Argus in January 2021.
Ahead of his subsequent club Blackpool’s visit to the Amex for a fourth round FA Cup tie (Albion won 2-1), the former assistant boss said: “We found, as I’ve found at most clubs I’ve been at, there’s a core group of players that have an appetite and an ability level that can give you a chance of success.
“When it falls into place, it is really nice to watch and it is very heart-warming and you feel justified in what you preach and practice.
“A lot of the time you are determined by the quality of the person and the player within the club. We found some really good people down there.”
Born on 20 January 1965 in Stranraer, Calderwood didn’t play professionally in Scotland, instead joining Mansfield Town as a 17-year-old in 1982.
He realised in hindsight that he learned a lot from Town’s manager at the time, the experienced Ian Greaves, and he went on to play over 100 matches for the Stags before Swindon Town boss Lou Macari signed him for £27,500 in 1985.
“Ian and Lou were the ones that built the foundations of my career,” he told the Albion matchday programme.
The centre back spent eight seasons at the County Ground and is recognised as a Swindon legend having featured in 412 matches (plus two as a sub).
At only 21, he was made club captain and, despite a difficult start, led Town to back-to-back promotions as they won the Division Four title in 1986 and overcame Gillingham in a Division Three play-off final replay in 1987.
Promotion winner with Swindon Town
Calderwood was said to be “a rock at the heart of the defence” and eventually led Town to their first promotion to the top-flight, after beating Sunderland in the play-off final at Wembley in 1990. But Swindon were demoted due an irregular payments scandal in which Calderwood was implicated: he was arrested just four weeks before the Wembley match but released the same day without charge. Calderwood missed five months of the 1990-91 season following a horror tackle by Wolves legend Steve Bull but he returned stronger than ever and was ever present when, under Glenn Hoddle, Swindon were promoted at the end of the 1992-1993 season, beating Leicester 4-3 in the play-off final.
But instead of featuring for Swindon in the Premiership, Town’s former manager Ossie Ardiles took him to Tottenham for a fee of £1.25 million.
Playing in the top division for Spurs earned him international recognition. He made his Scotland debut aged 30 in a Euro 1996 qualifier against Russia and was a regular under Craig Brown, winning 36 caps in four years, including playing at the 1998 World Cup.
According to Spurs fan website mehstg.com (My Eyes Have Seen The Glory), Calderwood was “a solid defender, who could tackle and was good in the air, but lacked the pace and distribution skills to be a top class centre half.
“Calderwood gave Spurs a tough presence in the middle of the back four they had been missing for some time and showed that Ardiles’ judgement had been sound.”
After 198 appearances for Spurs (more than 150 in the Premier League), he left White Hart Lane in March 1999 when a £230,000 move saw him join Aston Villa under John Gregory. A year later, he switched to David Platt’s second tier Forest for £70,000.
He had only been at Forest a month when, ironically at Birmingham’s St Andrews ground, Calderwood, by then 35, suffered an injury that would ultimately force him to retire.
Forest goalkeeper Dave Beasant had already been injured in a clash with City’s Jon McCarthy earlier in the game but recovered. Calderwood wasn’t so fortunate. He ended up being stretchered off after a collision with the same player. He had fractured his leg and dislocated his ankle, causing ligament damage.
The injury overshadowed Forest’s 1-0 win and it meant he played only a handful of games at the City Ground. He later had a brief spell on loan at neighbours Notts County before calling it a day.
Calderwood initially returned to Spurs as reserve team manager before leaving for Northampton in October 2003. Spurs director of football and caretaker manager, David Pleat, said: “Colin leaves us with our very best wishes. He’s had two-and-a-half years here as a coach which I’m sure has been valuable experience.
“Colin is young, he has energy, ideas and, most importantly, ambition. This could be a terrific apprenticeship for him and everyone at the club wishes him well in his new role.”
Fast forward 15 years, and after he left Villa along with Steve Bruce in October 2018, two months later he was back in the game at League Two strugglers Cambridge United. He was given an initial 18-month contract and a year later he was given a two-year extension on his deal.
However, after a 4-0 home defeat to Salford City in January 2020 which meant Cambridge had taken only one point from their previous six games, he was sacked.
In October that year he was taken on at Blackpool as part of Neil Critchley’s managerial team and was part of the set-up that saw the Tangerines win a place in the Championship in 2021.
In June 2021 Calderwood returned to his old club Northampton as assistant manager to Jon Brady, and he told the League Two club’s website: “I have learned a lot in the years since I was last at the club and hopefully I can put all of that experience to good use.
“The situation here is similar to the situation I arrived in at Blackpool in working with a talented young manager. “I have spoken with Jon Brady a number of times, that relationship will build quickly and I am really looking forward to working with him and the rest of the coaching staff.”
The Cobblers finished fourth in League Two and made it through to the division’s play-off semi-finals where they lost 3-1 on aggregate to Calderwood’s first club, Mansfield.
They made up for it in 2022-23 when they earned automatic promotion in third place behind Leyton Orient and Stevenage.
Nevertheless, in October 2023, Calderwood returned to Championship level as part of Russell Martin’s backroom team at Southampton.
Teaming up with Russell Martin
“First and foremost, he’s a brilliant human being. I really trust him and know him very well,” Martin told the Daily Echo.
“We worked together at Norwich many moons ago when he was the assistant manager. I used to moan all the time to him and he had a brilliant way of being able to deal with that.
“He just has a great relationship with the players, and he’s a coach throughout my career who I’ve stayed in real constant contact with and discussed football.
“We’ve spoken a lot even when he’s not worked with me. I tried to get him at my two previous clubs and it couldn’t quite happen for various reasons.
“He’s been a manager, an assistant manager, he’s helped some young managers recently get promoted in Neil Critchley and Jon Brady, and added huge experience and value to them.”
ARRON DAVIES moved to Nottingham Forest two months after scoring twice against them to shatter their chances of promotion via the League One play-offs.
Davies was in the Yeovil side, managed by Russell Slade, that beat Forest 5-2 in the first leg of their play-off semi-final in 2007 and edged the tie 5-4 on aggregate before losing to Blackpool in the final.
Liking what he saw in the opponents’ line-up, Forest boss Colin Calderwood, later Albion assistant manager to Chris Hughton, promptly signed Davies and his Glovers teammate Chris Cohen for £1.2m.
But a freak leg-break in a pre-season game in Scotland dealt Davies a massive blow and he was mainly on the fringes as Forest made up for the previous season’s disappointment by winning promotion in second place.
While he made ten starts, plus 12 appearances off the bench, Cohen, was a regular in the Forest midfield and became a fans’ favourite.
When Davies only featured in two Carling Cup games for Forest at the start of the 2009-10 season, his old boss, Slade, took him on a half-season loan to League One Brighton.
It wasn’t a completely strange dressing room for him to join; Forest teammate Matt Thornhill was already on loan, having joined as part of the deal that saw Albion defender Joel Lynch move to the City Ground.
He also knew Craig Davies and Andrew Crofts from involvement in the Wales under 21 team for who he won 14 caps and was made captain by Brian Flynn. In 2006, manager John Toshack gave him his solitary full cap for his country, aged just 17, going on as a sub (as did Davies and Crofts) in a 2-1 friendly win over Trinidad and Tobago. It was the match that marked his close friend (and fellow Southampton teenager) Gareth Bale’s debut as Wales’ youngest ever full international at the age of 16 years and 315 days.
On clinching his former player’s signing for the Albion, Slade told the Albion website: “Arron can play on either wing or as an attacking midfielder. He is a player I know very well from my time at Yeovil and I expect him to be a very good acquisition for the club.”
Davies was effectively a straight replacement for winger Mark Wright, who’d joined as a free agent that summer but failed to settle and was sold to Bristol Rovers after only two games.
He told the matchday programme: “Russell is a very good manager. I played under him for one season at Yeovil and we had a very good year that year as he led us to the play-off final.
“That was my most enjoyable year in football. It was a great season for me, getting to Wembley, and eventually getting a move to Nottingham Forest. He did a lot for me and hopefully I can repay him this time round.
“I have played the majority of my career at this level, in this league, and I know what it is all about. I have won promotion with Nottingham Forest and came very close with Yeovil, so I know what it takes.”
In the absence of Dean Cox through injury, Davies made eight starts for the Seagulls, but he was subbed off in seven of the games (Albion only won three of them).
When the 3-3 draw at home to Hartlepool signalled the end of Slade’s reign, it also marked the last game Davies played in the stripes. Unfortunately for him, new boss Gus Poyet preferred alternative options.
Born in Cardiff on 22 June 1984, Davies was brought up in the delightfully named Llantwit Major. He spent four years in Cardiff City’s youth set up but moved to Southampton in 1997 and eventually broke through to become a regular in their reserves during the 2002-03 season.
He had a sniff of involvement in the 2003 FA Cup final when Saints played Arsenal in Cardiff but manager Gordon Strachan didn’t select him in the matchday squad. He subsequently travelled to Bucharest where Saints played in a UEFA Cup tie but again didn’t play.
“I was fairly close to Gordon,” Davies told walesonline.co.uk in December 2018. “He made me travel with the first team and got me involved with training daily. He put me on the bench and spoke to me quite a bit.
“He liked the way I played football and he believed in me.”
He had a brief loan spell with Barnsley in February 2004, where he played four matches, but, on the day Harry Redknapp replaced Strachan as Saints manager, the youngster was released.
“They were a Premier League club at the time and I got close,” he said. “Obviously, though, it wasn’t close enough. I just decided to leave and then that year they got relegated.
“If I’d stayed, perhaps with hindsight I would have played a bit more in the Championship the year after.
“But it was the best decision I made as I had to go out and get first team football. From there, at Yeovil, that’s where my career really started.”
Davies joined Yeovil on a free transfer and went on to score 27 goals in 115 matches over the next three years.
If the move to Forest looked promising, a freak injury during a pre-season game at Motherwell changed everything.
A nudge knocked him off balance and he stumbled on his leg, causing a spiral fracture and a chip on the bone – rather than a clean break – which made it more difficult to fix.
“That was a massive setback,” he told BBC Radio Nottingham. Although he recovered to make his debut in October 2007, his three years in the East Midlands were blighted by injury. He played just 40 games for the Reds. “I couldn’t really get fit,” he said. “I couldn’t get a run of games, I couldn’t get a run of form going. I still have ongoing issues, it is mainly in my calf.
“Obviously if I could turn back time, I would have to miss the game away at Motherwell and not get injured. It’s pretty sad that it didn’t work out. I was pretty gutted about that. If I hadn’t have got injured it would have been a different story.”
When managerial change meant things didn’t work out for him at Brighton, he returned to Yeovil on loan, making a further 10 appearances.
In the summer of 2010, another former Yeovil boss, Gary Johnson, signed him for Peterborough United but after playing 28 games for Posh, Johnson’s successor, Darren Ferguson dispensed with his services.
Next stop was Northampton Town, signed for a third time by Johnson, who had become manager of the Cobblers. He played 19 times and scored four goals for Town, his best return for five years. But, in what was becoming a familiar pattern, when Johnson left, Davies found opportunities limited under successor Aidy Boothroyd.
He joined League Two Exeter City in the summer of 2012, with their manager Paul Tisdale telling BBC Sport: “It’s a good opportunity for him and I think he’s the right type of player to fit in with us. He’s an attack-minded player and I had to find some attack-minded players to fit into the squad.”
Tisdale saw it as a chance for Davies to resurrect his career, and over the course of four seasons he played more matches (148) than he’d played for any of his previous clubs, adding a further 10 goals to his career tally.
By 2016, Exeter couldn’t afford to give him a new contract and, ironically, he scored against them for new club Accrington Stanley in a 2-1 defeat at home to the Grecians in August 2016. However, it was his only goal in 10 appearances for Accrington before he retired.
After his playing days were over, he became an agent. “Throughout my time as a player people sort of gauged my advice on things and came to me, so I leaned towards that and did my badges as well,” he told walesonline.
“Even when I was playing League Two football I had friends in the Premier League that were ringing me and asking for advice.
“It was something I always liked doing, so I’m doing it full-time. It’s enjoyable, it’s demanding and it keeps me in football and I can’t ever picture not being involved in football.”
Davies told devonlive.com: “I did look into coaching, I’ve done a few of my badges, but the agent side of it really hooked me in.
“There’s no limits on it, you can be as good as you want, so I’m out, trying to work as hard as I possibly can.”
WHEN IT comes to home-grown talent, Brighton have had particular success with central defenders.
Lewis Dunk is the prime example, staying with the club from humble beginnings through to Europe. Others had to move on to make the most of their careers.
For example, Steve Cook joined the club aged nine and made it through the different age levels into Albion’s first team. But to get regular football, he moved along the coast to Bournemouth.
If moving from Championship Brighton to League One Bournemouth seemed like a backward step in 2012, two promotions later saw him laughing on the other side of his face when the Cherries made it to the Premier League (in 2015) a season before the Seagulls.
Cook spent 10 years with the Cherries, making more than 350 appearances (168 of them in the Premier League), and after the departure of fellow ex-Albion defender Tommy Elphick, he took over as their captain.
Cook first got a taste of the big time in 2008, when he was a second year scholar on £60 a week, aged just 17. He was sent on by Micky Adams as an 85th-minute substitute in the famous League Cup game against Manchester City that League One Albion won on penalties.
Two months later, he once again replaced right-back Andrew Whing, this time in a FA Cup first round replay defeat to Hartlepool United, and picked up a booking into the bargain.
Boot cleaning duties for young Steve Cook
To gain more experience, in December that year, Cook went west to spend six weeks with Conference South Havant & Waterlooville. On his return, he once again had a first team look-in, going on as a 77th-minute sub for Calvin Andrew in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy southern final defeat at Luton Town that marked the end of the second coming of Adams.
Before the appointment of Russell Slade, Cook went on for the second half as a sub for injury-plagued sub Adam Hinshelwood (who’d been an 18th-minute sub for Elphick) in a 4-0 home defeat against Crewe Alexandra.
Slade marked his arrival by bringing in plenty of old hands in what eventually proved to be a successful skin-of-the-teeth survival battle against relegation. Cook didn’t get another chance in the first team until some time after Gus Poyet had taken charge.
His development continued on loan with the likes of Eastleigh and Eastbourne Borough and in November 2010 he moved away from home to join former league club Mansfield Town on a three-month loan.
“Mansfield play very different to Eastbourne but it’s more like playing for Brighton where they like to keep the ball and play out from the back, which you don’t get in the Conference very often,” he told the matchday programme. “I see it as a great opportunity to prove myself and try to earn another contract at Brighton.”
He added: “Playing Conference football helped me grow up, physically and mentally, so by the time I returned I felt I was ready to challenge for a first team place.”
Cook up against Suarez
After a handful of non-playing appearances on the first team subs bench, when he did get his first ever start, it could not have been a bigger match: Liverpool at home in the third round of the Carling Cup with Luis Suarez, Dirk Kuyt and Craig Bellamy in the opposition forward line.
“It was a real confidence boost knowing the manager had faith putting me into the side for such a big game, but I really enjoyed the experience and got a great deal out of it,” he said.
“While I had a good pre-season, I’ve not played a lot of games since then. It was one in two months before the Liverpool game, but I’d been working hard in training and got my reward.”
Cook only found out 90 minutes before kick-off that he would be taking the place of fellow academy graduate Dunk, with both Elphick and Adam El-Abd out injured.
“It was a real baptism of fire though because for the first 20 minutes Liverpool were brilliant. Suarez, Bellamy, they were all excellent going forward, the pace of them as a team was unbelievable and in that opening spell I think we were in awe of them.”
Cook thought his involvement that night would lead to more chances, but he said: “Later that month we had Ipswich away, Dunky was suspended but instead of playing me, Gus put Romain Vincelot – a midfielder – in alongside Gordon Greer. From that point on, my mind was made up; I knew I had to look elsewhere if I wanted to kick on in my career.”
That autumn, Cook initially joined Bournemouth on loan, featuring in eight games, but he was recalled by the Seagulls when a shortage of defenders meant he was needed for a crucial New Year game at home to table-topping Southampton.
Having lost four games on the bounce, the odds were stacked against a positive result, but Albion remarkably won the game 3-0 (two cracking goals from Matt Sparrow and another from Jake Forster-Caskey).
Nevertheless, within 24 hours of the game ending, Cook finally took the tough decision to leave the Albion permanently. The fee was a reported £150,000.
He told the matchday programme: “I have loved my time at Brighton but this is a chance to play regular football and I can’t turn that down. It was nice to go out on such a high – not many players get that chance.”
Cook reckoned he might have got the odd game or two if he’d stayed at Brighton but he didn’t rate his chances of becoming a regular when everyone was fit. “I could play close to 30 games for Bournemouth and that is massive for a young footballer,” he said.
In a later interview, he said: “It was always going to be a tough decision to leave the Albion as I had been at the club since the age of nine.
“I had a decision to make: do I stay and fight for my place, despite being a fair way down the pecking order, or do I leave and try to continue my career elsewhere?
“It wasn’t easy because I was leaving a club on the rise; the Amex is one of the best stadiums in the country, the team was establishing itself in the Championship and there was a new training ground on the way.
“But having been at Bournemouth on loan, I could also see a hugely ambitious club and a talented squad which I believed was going places.
“So, I decided to leave and it’s been the best decision I could ever have made. I’ve moved away from my parents, so have grown up off the pitch, while on it I’ve been playing regularly and have really enjoyed my football.”
Much of that time he partnered Elphick in the middle of the Cherries defence and it wasn’t long before the pair were emulating the Albion’s achievement of promotion from League One.
“Tommy arrived a year after me but of course I told him about the club, the town and knew it would be a good move for him as it was for me,” he said. “We’d obviously played alongside each other before, had known each other a long time, and so we soon built up a good partnership.
“He had those leadership qualities he displayed at Brighton and was soon made captain. We had a terrific three years together and remain good friends off the pitch.”
In a subsequent Albion matchday programme, when he was once again visiting with the Cherries, he said: “Lovely stadiums and training facilities are great, but only if you’re playing in them and I can now look back on nearly 300 appearances for Bournemouth, where I’ve had some fantastic moments, played regularly in the Premier League and really developed my game. It’s a move that couldn’t have gone better.”
Although Cook held his own in the Premier League, he admitted the transition from the Championship was hard. “The gulf with the Championship is huge,” he said. “The intensity and pressure, in particular, are massive and the first six months were a real learning curve.
“Once I’d adapted and dealt with the expectations placed on me, I could relax and start to enjoy myself.”
Born in Hastings on 19 April 1991, Cook joined the Albion as a schoolboy following a six-week trial under the auspices of Martin Hinshelwood, the head of the youth set-up at the time.
“Initially, I was only training Tuesday evenings in the Eastbourne centre of excellence but, when I reached 13, we were training twice a week with a game on the Sunday,” he recalled.
“I remember I had a choice to make: Hastings Town, my local team, or Brighton and obviously I was swayed by the facilities, the coaching and being associated with a professional club.”
After Bournemouth lost their top tier status in 2020, Cook captained the side through to the Championship play-off semi-finals in 2021 where they were beaten by eventual winners Brentford.
There was plenty of emotion when Cook finally left the club in January 2022 with manager Scott Parker saying: “I know too well what someone like Steve Cook has done for this football club and the journey he has been on with the club. He has been paramount and done everything, really. I wish him all the best.”
And in an open letter to the club’s fans, Cook wrote: “I’ve been lucky enough to captain the team in League One, the Championship and Premier League and writing this just fills me with immense pride.
“The time has come for me take the next step in my career but I will never forget the staff that helped me improve as a player and person.
“The players that I shared a dressing room with and, and most importantly, the fans that supported and cheered for all those games.
“The journey that we have had is one that will never be beaten, and the relationship we had was undeniably strong. Thanks for everything.”
Upon signing for Nottingham Forest, Cook declared: “You can see the progress the club is making and I’m excited for the new challenge.
“I thought it was the perfect time in my career to make this move to hopefully come and contribute and help get this club back to where it wants to be.
“The history of the club speaks for itself and I know how passionate the fans are. I’ve played at the City Ground in the past and it’s always been electric.”
Manager Steve Cooper said: “Steve is a fantastic player and brings a good level of experience, both in the Championship and the level above.
“He’s played in a team that has won a lot of games and I think that that’s important. We want our group to be young and hungry along with players of experience that can drive the team forward and that’s what we’re building.”
Having been part of the Forest side promoted to the Premier League in May 2022, his involvement back in the elite division was restricted to 12 games and he was omitted from Forest’s 25-man Premier League squad for the second half of the 2022-23 season.
In the summer of 2023, he switched to Queens Park Rangers in the Championship, telling the club’s website: “Playing football is the most important thing for me but I also pride myself on being a good character around the group.”
He went on: “My time in the Championship has been quite successful, and that success is something I want to bring here.
“I don’t want my career to peter out, I still really want to be successful and to contest. I still have aims and targets I want to achieve and I’m hoping that the success I’ve had in my career so far continues so that I can help push QPR forward.”
A GARY GARDNER goal ended a winless Albion run of 12 league matches under Sami Hyypia in the autumn of 2014.
Just 54 seconds of the game against Wigan Athletic on 4 November had passed when the Aston Villa loanee netted for the Albion.
He got on the end of a Sam Baldock cross to give the Albion an early lead which they managed to hold onto for the entire match, in spite of several close shaves as the former Premier League opponents tried to salvage a point.
Gardner in action for Forest with Albion’s Jiri Skalak
The game also saw the return of Elliott Bennett, on loan from Norwich City, a first match (as sub for Bennett) for Greg Halford, on loan from Nottingham Forest, and a home debut in goal for teenage stopper Christian Walton.
It wasn’t the first time Gardner had scored at the Amex, though. That had come three years earlier, on his professional debut, when on loan at Coventry City a game which saw Albion beat the Sky Blues 2-1.
Gardner was no stranger to loans away from parent club Villa: he’d already been to Coventry and Sheffield Wednesday, and after Brighton he had temporary moves to Nottingham Forest, Barnsley and Birmingham City.
Indeed by the time Albion took on Forest at the Amex on 7 February 2015, Gardner was on the opposing side as the visitors gave new boss Dougie Freeman a winning start, edging it 3-2.
Gardner’s early development had encountered major setbacks caused by two cruciate knee ligament injuries.
Although he had made his Premier League debut for Villa in the 2011-12 season, the 15 starts and five sub appearances he made for Brighton was the first real regular run of football he’d enjoyed – and he was still only 22 at the time.
He scored again for Albion only four days after that Wigan winner, when the Seagulls were held 1-1 by Blackburn Rovers at the Amex. But with the brief Hyypia reign having come to an end, his appearance in the home Boxing Day 2-2 draw against Reading was his last in a Brighton shirt.
Inigo Calderon salvaged a point with a last-minute equaliser against a Royals side who had gone 2-0 up in 26 minutes courtesy of goals from on loan striker Glenn Murray!
Gardner had been Albion’s tenth new signing of the summer back in August, following in the footsteps of Villa teammate Joe Bennett, who’d joined on a season-long loan a week earlier.
“Gary is a quality midfielder who we have been aware of for some time,” said Hyypia, who explained the club was keen to have more options in that area of the side, especially with Dale Stephens out with a long-term injury.
“More importantly, given the considerable demands of the Championship, I want to be able to rotate the squad,” he said.
“Gary has had a tough couple of seasons due to injury, but he showed during a spell with Sheffield Wednesday last season that he is over those problems. We hope this loan spell will benefit everyone: Gary, us and Aston Villa.
“He is the type of midfielder who is active and mobile, but very importantly he has real quality on the ball – and is also capable of producing things from set pieces.”
Another midfield slot opened up during his time with the Albion when fellow midfielder Andrew Crofts suffered a cruciate injury against Watford.
“I am absolutely gutted for him. Having gone through exactly the same injury as him, with the two cruciate operations, I know exactly how he is feeling,” he said. “I know he will come through this.
“He is a strong guy, a model pro and he’ll be extra determined to get back playing for the club.”
Born in Solihull on 29 June 1992, Gardner was one of six brothers, and in a programme article he said the football-daft family had divided loyalties between Villa and Birmingham.
Just as well, because both Gary and eldest brother Craig ended up with the Blues having started off at Villa. Craig made 80 league and cup appearances for Villa, but later played for Sunderland, West Brom and Birmingham, where he became technical director after his playing days ended.
Gary was on Villa’s books from the age of seven and progressed all through the ranks until Alex McLeish gave him his first team debut as a substitute in a 3-1 win away to Chelsea. He made a total of five starts and 11 appearances off the bench in that 2011-12 season.
But it wasn’t until Villa were back in the Championship in the 2016-17 season that he had his longest run of games for his parent club, making 19 starts and eight appearances off the bench.
That squad, led by former Albion centre-back Tommy Elphick, thwarted already-promoted Albion’s hopes of winning the title in the final games of the season at Villa Park when a late, speculative long-range Jack Grealish shot squirmed through David Stockdale’s grasp to gain Villa a draw.
Gardner was a non-playing sub that day and when he fell down the pecking order in 2017-18, he spent the season at Barnsley.
Gardner followed his brother to Birmingham City
After spending the entire 2018-19 season on loan at Birmingham, he then made the switch permanently (in a swap with Spaniard Jota) and has been there since.
In July 2021 he signed a new deal to extend his stay at St Andrews until June 2024.
Gardner earned international recognition at various levels and made his England under 21 debut as a substitute in a 4-1 win over Israel at Barnsley on 5 September 2011 and the following month replaced Ross Barkley as England won 2-1 in Norway.
A month later he scored twice in a 5-0 win over Iceland after going on as a sub for Jason Lowe at Colchester. Four days on, his involvement was once again off the bench when young England were beaten 2-1 by Belgium in Mons.
His last appearance was against the same opponents the following February when England exacted revenge at the Riverside Stadium, Middlesbrough. In a 4-0 win, Henri Lansbury scored twice before Gardner replaced him.
His contemporaries in the side at that time included the likes of Jack Butland, Jordan Henderson and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.
GARY BULL had good family connections to offer hope to Liam Brady’s Brighton at the start of the 1995-96 season.
Unfortunately, the Nottingham Forest loanee was often in the shadow of his cousin Steve, a Wolves goalscoring legend who went on to play for England.
Gary arrived at the Goldstone in August 1995 against the backdrop of off-the-pitch disquiet caused by the underhand machinations of the despised directors of the club at that time.
Bull scored three times in 11 appearances for the Seagulls but the cash-strapped club couldn’t afford to keep him on.
Although Bull had made a name for himself as a goalscorer lower down the football pyramid, he had made only four starts plus eight appearances as a sub for Forest over the previous two seasons, scoring just the once.
However, that goal did put him amongst an elite group of players: he was the second of only four players to score on their single Premier League appearance.
Perhaps it was all the sweeter because it secured Forest a 1-0 home win over Crystal Palace that took them up to fourth place in the table.
“It was an inswinging corner. A couple of people missed it and I was about three yards out. It was unmissable really, although I tell my kids it was a screamer.”
Bull had his brief moment in the limelight because first choice striker Stan Collymore pulled out of the match on 2 January 1995 due to illness.
The striker had spent three months on loan at Birmingham City the previous autumn, scoring an impressive six goals in 10 matches (he was in the City side who won 1-0 at the Goldstone in October 1994).
Bull only had one more sniff of first team action for Forest that season, once again against Palace, when he went on as a substitute for Scot Gemmill in a 2-1 fourth round FA Cup defeat on 28 January.
With Collymore in fine scoring form (24 in 43 matches that season), and Dutchman Bryan Roy also a regular up front, manager Frank Clark didn’t turn to Bull again, and Forest finished in an impressive third place in the Premier League.
Bull had to be content with a cameo role in an end-of-season fixture, netting Forest’s third goal in a 3-1 win over Singapore’s national team in an exhibition match in Singapore in May 1995.
Even though Collymore was sold to Liverpool for £8.5m that summer, Bull had to look elsewhere for first team chances and Brady was happy to bring him in to boost Albion’s attacking options.
He got off the mark in his third game, although Albion lost 2-1 at home to Wycombe Wanderers in front of just 5,360 fans.
Bull later scored twice away at Cambridge United in a 4-1 win in the Auto-Windscreens Shield trophy (it was the game in which former Ipswich and England centre back Russell Osman made his debut for the Albion).
But a 1-0 defeat at Rotherham on 7 October was his last game in the stripes and, not long after his return to the City Ground, he was given a free transfer and joined Birmingham on a permanent basis.
Born in West Bromwich on 12 June 1966, his first club was Paget Rangers in the Midlands League but in 1986 he joined Southampton as a trainee under youth team boss Dave Merrington. Jimmy Case and Craig Maskell were in the Saints first team at the time; Kevan Brown in the reserves.
It wasn’t until Bull moved on to Chris Turner’s Cambridge United in March 1988 that he made his professional breakthrough, scoring four in 19 games.
His prowess in front of goal really began to flourish when he dropped out of the league to help Barnet FC win the Conference. Tony Hammond – a Barnet FC devotee known as ‘Reckless’ – reckoned the £2,200 fee manager Barry Fry paid for him was “one of the bargains of the century”.
In four seasons at Barnet, Bull netted an impressive 121 goals in 219 appearances, becoming an Underhill icon. In his blog, Hammond quoted Fry as saying: “He was bloody good that Bully, I never had to worry about him being in the right place at the right time in front of goal it was always just pure instinct.”
Bull was buzzing for Bees
When Bees finally won promotion to the Football League in 1990-91, Bull scored 35 goals – including two four-goal hauls and a hat-trick – and was voted Player of the Year.
Bull’s scoring form continued during Barnet’s first season in the Fourth Division. He bagged 33 as the Bees reached the play-offs where they only narrowly lost a two-legged tie against Blackpool.
In 1992-93, Bull and strike partner Mark Carter were prominent again, as Barnet finished third in the table, clinching promotion to what was then a reorganised Division Two.
Sadly, Barnet were in deep financial trouble and were forced to shed players. Bull was signed by Premier League Forest’s newly appointed manager Frank Clark in July 1993.
“I would have stayed at Barnet but I had a family to look after and had no choice but to move on,” Bull told Hammond. “It was a memorable four years and certainly a period that I look back on with pride,” he added.
The subsequent move to Birmingham reunited Bull with his old boss Barry Fry, although a somewhat cynical view of the move was espoused by writer John Tandy in When Saturday Comes.
“It took Fry 18 months of sustained and public pressure to talk the board into signing Gary Bull. Eventually, in November 1995, we landed the Tipton Tyke. Six games and some time on the bench later he was on his way to York,” he wrote.
Bull spent two seasons at York. The highlight of his stay came in a second round League Cup tie at home to Everton. Bull put the Minstermen 2-1 ahead in the 57th minute, tapping in a rebound off the post and York went on to win it 3-2.
It was one of 11 goals Bull scored in 84 games for City before spending time in Lincolnshire. While he only scored once in 31 games for Scunthorpe, his scoring boots were well and truly back on at Grantham Town: 68 goals in 125 games.
He then moved on to Lincoln United for two years before finishing his career with a flourish at United Counties League Boston Town. During the 2006–07 season, he scored a club record 57 goals! He later went on to become their all-time top scorer with over 200 goals,
Bull only retired from playing aged 45 in 2012.
He then became a postman and told premierleague.com: “I’m one of those people who gets up and actually enjoys going to work and getting the physical aspect of it.
“We probably do between 10 and 12 miles a day. Some would say I do more now than I did on the pitch.”
BARRY BUTLIN is one of that pantheon of players who’ve scored winning goals for the Albion against Crystal Palace.
He may sound like the alliterative title of a south Wales holiday camp, but this was a moustachioed striker who’d joined Third Division Brighton on loan from Second Division Nottingham Forest.
When former Albion boss Brian Clough couldn’t find a place for him in his Forest line-up in September 1975, previous managerial partner, Peter Taylor, going it alone at the Albion, was more than happy to add Butlin to his forward line options.
Butlin had started his career at Derby County on the periphery of Clough and Taylor’s squad at the Baseball Ground.
During his five years as a Rams player, he’d twice been out on loan to Notts County, scoring eight in 20 games in 1968-69 and another five in 10 appearances in the 1969-70 season.
While Derby won the First Division title in 1972, Butlin was sold for £50,000 to Luton Town, where he made his mark with an impressive 24 goals in 57 matches.
One of them came in a 1-1 draw at Elland Road during Clough’s ill-fated 44-day spell as Leeds manager, and, in a typically odd Clough way, in the post-match press conference he put his arm around Butlin and told the journalists: “This is who you want to write about after that wonderful goal. He deserves it.”
The following month, Butlin’s goalscoring exploits for the Hatters saw Forest boss Allan Brown take him to the City Ground for a fee of £120,000.
Imagine how he must have felt when his old Derby boss Clough arrived to take over at Forest in January 1975!
Nevertheless, the striker said all the right things publicly ahead of the manager’s first game, a third round FA Cup replay against Spurs, as recorded in Jonathan Wilson’s excellent book Brian Clough: Nobody Ever Says Thank YouThe Biography (Orion Books 2011).
“The lads all know that everybody is starting from scratch with everything to prove,” said Butlin. “Brian Clough has the ability to make an average player good and a good player great.”
Such a show of loyalty might have been understandable in the circumstances but Wilson also recalls Clough’s eccentric attitude towards players when they were injured. Butlin fractured his cheek in a training ground incident when at Derby.
“As he lay on the ground, Clough screamed at him to get up, insisting there was nothing wrong with him,” wrote Wilson. “Even after he’d been taken to hospital, Clough refused to believe anything was the matter.
“When Butlin’s wife turned up looking for her husband and mentioned an ‘accident’ to Clough, he snapped: ‘I’ll tell you when there’s been an accident’.”
Although Butlin feared the worst when Clough arrived at Forest, he wasn’t instantly discarded, finishing that season with seven goals in 33 games (plus one as a sub), while fellow forward Neil Martin netted 12 in 30 matches (plus two as a sub).
Butlin had a front row seat in this Forest line-up
But Clough clearly had other ideas about who he wanted in attack and brought in John O’Hare, who had done well for him at Derby, but less well during the ill-fated spell at Leeds, and introduced a young Tony Woodcock.
Intriguingly, that summer Martin was reunited with Taylor at Brighton and, within a matter of weeks, Butlin was also heading to the Albion, although his move was only temporary.
As it happened, Martin got off to a decent start alongside Fred Binney up front, scoring three times in the opening matches. But Taylor obviously considered Butlin offered a more potent threat; and it wasn’t long before fans saw why.
Butlin lets fly and scores the winner at Selhurst Park in 1975
In only his second game, in the third minute of Albion’s clash with Palace at Selhurst Park on 23 September 1975, Butlin got on the end of a Gerry Fell cross and hit an unstoppable shot that turned out to be the only goal of a pulsating game played in front of a crowd of 25,606 – a quite remarkable number for a third tier fixture.
“It still sticks with me, that one,” Butlin told Spencer Vignes, in his book Bloody Southerners (Biteback Publishing), which details the Clough-Taylor period at the Goldstone.
“It was the start of a cracking time down at Brighton,” said Butlin. “I only wish I could have gone on a little longer.”
Butlin soars to connect with this header
Butlin followed up that midweek winner at Palace with another goal on his home debut four days later when Chesterfield were beaten 3-0 (Peter O’Sullivan and Binney the other scorers).
Although not on the scoresheet, he also featured in two more wins (2-1 at Shrewsbury Town and 1-0 at home to Preston). However, in his absence Forest had gone through a mini slump, losing four out of five matches.
Butlin had taken his wife and children to Sussex with him, staying in the Courtlands Hotel in Hove. They all really liked the area, and the player had hopes of making the move a permanent one. Clough had other ideas.
“Brighton made me so welcome, but Forest weren’t doing very well at all,” Butlin told Vignes. “When I came to the end of my loan period, Brian got me straight back up to Forest and I had a real purple patch during which I played really well.”
In fact, he finished the season with eight goals from 38 games played as Forest finished eighth in the old Second Division.
Collector’s item
“We had this team meeting before one game and Brian said: ‘If sending you down to Brighton gives you that impetus, then I’d better start sending some more players down there!’
“I’d seen the seafront and the wonderful countryside and thought it was the prelude to us staying there as a family, but it wasn’t to be. I was disappointed to say the least.”
Born in the south Derbyshire village of Rosliston, on 9 November 1949, Butlin attended Granville County Secondary School in Woodville from 1961 to 1966, and proudly records on his LinkedIn profile that he obtained six GCEs. He was also the school football captain.
He signed on for Derby in July 1967 but the likes of Richie Barker and Frank Wignall initially, then O’Hare and Kevin Hector, were ahead of him as the Rams progressed from the old Second Division into the First, before winning the title in 1972.
Chances for Butlin were few and far between. He made just four first team appearances in five years but those loan spells at Notts County at least demonstrated there was a player in the making, able to find the back of the net.
A knee injury prevented him making an immediate impact at Luton, after Harry Haslam had signed him, but he was the top scorer as Town gained promotion to the elite in second place in 1973-74.
The Hatters assured promotion by securing a 1-1 draw at West Brom in the penultimate game of the season, and midfield player Alan West relived the moment in an interview with theleaguepaper.com.
“I remember Barry Butlin, who was magnificent in the old centre forward’s role that season, got the vital goal,” he said. “I played in midfield with Peter Anderson and Jimmy Ryan. Peter was a great player and finished that season as our second highest scorer behind Barry.”
Just before Christmas in 2014, Butlin and West were among several former players who got together for a 40th anniversary celebration dinner. Also there were John Faulkner, Gordon Hindson, Alan Garner, Jimmy Husband, John Ryan, Jimmy Ryan, Don Shanks and Ken Goodeve.
Luton history website hattersheritage.co.uk remembers Butlin as “brilliant in the air and no slouch on the ground” and mentions the shock fans felt when he was sold to Forest, particularly as Town were desperate for goals at the time.
In the 1976-77 season, Butlin once more went out on loan, this time to Reading, and the heave-ho from Forest he had long expected finally came when Peter Withe was brought in.
Butlin was sold to Peterborough United and in two seasons with the Posh he scored 14 goals in 77 matches. His teammates at London Road included former Forest colleagues Jim Barron and Peter Hindley as well as former Albion midfielder Billy McEwan.
United just missed out on promotion from the Third Division, finishing fourth in 1977-78. It was a disastrously different second season, by which time another former Albion player, Lammie Robertson had joined them – when Posh were relegated to Division Four.
Butlin’s final club was Sheffield United, as they faced their first season outside the top two divisions. Signed by his former Luton boss Harry Haslam, Butlin scored 12 times in 53 matches for the Blades, but by the end of 1980-81 season, after Martin Peters had taken over, United were relegated to the fourth tier for the first time in their history.
Butlin retired and spent three decades working as a financial adviser and mortgage manager in Sherwood, Nottingham.
He lived in Derby and between July 2000 and October 2010 was secretary and treasurer of the Derby County Former Players’ Association.
JUSTIN FASHANU, renowned for an iconic televised Goal of the Season for Norwich City against Liverpool in 1979, played 20 games for Brighton in the 1985-86 season.
Those bald facts tell only a fraction of the story of the short and complex life of a bustling centre forward who burst onto the football scene as a teenager, scoring 40 goals in 103 games for the Canaries.
Several books have been written about him, acres of newspaper column inches filled covering colourful tales of what happened to the first £1m black footballer, and there is no shortage of articles across the internet. There’s even been a theatre play about his life: Justin Fashanu in Extra Time.
Here I will focus mainly on the football, and, in particular, that time at Brighton, although some context is needed to explain how a player who only three years earlier had helped England win the UEFA Under 21 Championship ended up with the then second tier Seagulls.
Fashanu’s signing for Brighton in June 1985 seemed like a major coup for manager Chris Cattlin as the Seagulls sought to return to the elite level they’d been relegated from two years previously.
Why was he so convinced Fashanu would be a hit at Brighton? In an interview with Spencer Vignes for the matchday programme, he said: “We’d put a good side together with a tight defence, an exciting midfield and a forward line that included Dean Saunders and Terry Connor.
“I knew all about Justin and I went to see him play for Notts County against Manchester City and he was simply amazing. He battered the best defender in the league at that time – Mick McCarthy – and I mean he really battered him. I thought: ‘That’s our fella!’ With those three up front, we were going to have one hell of a chance of winning promotion.”
In his programme notes for the opening game of the season, Cattlin wrote: “With the right service I expect Justin to be the best centre-forward this club has had in a very long time.”
At the end of a season when Albion missed out on promotion by finishing sixth, Frank Worthington at 36 had demanded a signing-on fee to stay a second season with the Albion – money Cattlin said wasn’t available. There was no such demand from Fashanu, who at only 24 was trying to rebuild a career that had gone off the rails.
To make his own personal assessment of a player who had already attracted plenty of negative attention, Cattlin even had the player to stay at his house for four days before signing him.
Only the previous season, Fashanu’s aggression on the pitch for Notts County had put both Albion centre backs Eric Young and Jeff Clarke in hospital. He’d previously had an altercation with Albion’s former Canaries defender Andy Rollings while playing for Norwich at the Goldstone, resulting in Rollings’ dismissal for throwing a punch at the striker.
Nottingham Forest boss Brian Clough, who’d persuaded the board of the two-times European Cup winners to part with £1m to sign the 20-year-old from Norwich in 1981, had numerous clashes with the player when he was unable to replicate his previous goalscoring form (more of which later), and, after just 15 months, he cut the club’s losses and sold him to neighbours County for only £150,000.
More crucially, though, Fashanu had sustained an injury to his left knee on New Year’s Eve 1983 inflicted courtesy of the studs of Ipswich, and later Brighton, defender Russell Osman. The wound had become infected and the medics at the time were clearly concerned. It meant insurers inserted an exclusion clause into their cover. Any claim for subsequent injury would only be covered if he’d previously played 12 consecutive League games.
After his stay chez Cattlin, a fee of £115,000 was paid to Notts County, who’d just been relegated to the old Third Division, and the manager said: “Justin had a reputation of being a bit of a problem player with his other clubs but that is all in the past.
“In my dealings with him I’ve found him to be a smashing person and the sort of player our supporters will take to.”
He told the Evening Argus that Justin was “a dedicated player who has been asleep for a couple of years”, adding “I’m sure, with us, he will bring his talents to fruition”.
Meanwhile, Fashanu told The Times: “I only took this step after a good deal of thought and prayer. I am convinced Chris Cattlin can get the very best out of me.”
He got off to a great start when scoring twice as Albion thrashed Aldershot 5-0 in a pre-season friendly at the Recreation Ground on 29 July 1985.
Stiffer competition was promised in the shape of three Goldstone friendlies in a week against First Division sides Arsenal, Liverpool and Nottingham Forest. Arsenal won 2-1 on 2 August and Liverpool 4-1 on 5 August. Two days later, Fashanu netted one of Brighton’s successful spot kicks in a 5-4 penalty shoot-out against Oxford United at the Manor Ground which saw them win the Oxfordshire Benevolent Cup.
Fashanu (front row, third from left) all smiles after Albion won a trophy in Oxfordshire
The pre-season fixtures were rounded off on 9 August when second tier Albion walloped Forest 5-2, and the matchday programme captured the mood with some delight.
“The match was a real thriller for the fans, and no-one except perhaps for Brian Clough and his team, went home unhappy,” the programme crowed. “Justin Fashanu had an outstanding game against his former teammates.”
Fashanu was involved in setting up three of Albion’s goals and of the fifth the programme recorded: “The final goal came after just about the most powerful shot seen at the Goldstone for years. Fashanu connected from 15 yards out. Segers could only parry the ball, and (Gary) O’Reilly tapped it over the line.” Tellingly, Clough declined to be interviewed after the game.
Fashanu started in the no.9 shirt and was sent off in only his third game, a 2-1 home win over Bradford City. Cattlin was quick to leap to his defence, using his programme notes to tell supporters: “I understand that the referee sent him off for dissent after committing a cautionable offence. All Justin said was ‘Surely you’re not booking me for that ref’…and if that either brings the game into disrepute or deserves any punishment at all, surely there’s something wrong in the game.
“Justin has joined us this season and is a great professional. One hundred per cent effort is appreciated by the fans and our supporters know they are getting just that. There was nothing malicious in anything he did on Saturday.
“Justin is a ‘gentle giant’. He never swears and he tries all the time…that is just the sort of player we need in the game. I would like to go firmly on record as saying his sending off was a complete injustice.”
Disciplinary action took a little longer to come into effect back then and Fashanu didn’t have to serve his suspension until the sixth game of the season.
However, it turned out he would have missed the game anyway because he’d undergone surgery.
It emerged that during pre-season training, Fashanu had taken a whack on his knee and it was six weeks and several matches later before he underwent a procedure at the Royal Sussex County Hospital. Cattlin admitted: “Mr Fearn, the club surgeon, had to work on the bone.”
In hindsight, Cattlin’s programme notes about the injury could be viewed, at best, as insensitive. “I would like to explain the problem of Justin Fashanu,” he wrote. “He jarred his knee pre-season, there is apparently a floating body there somewhere….probably a piece of black pudding or something!”
Cattlin already had Gerry Ryan out long term injured and he also lost Fashanu’s strike partner Connor to injury in those opening weeks. That absence presented an opportunity for Mick Ferguson to stake a claim and he responded with three goals in three games – until he too got injured, as did Alan Biley. In the emergency, loanee Arsenal defender Martin Keown was put up front to play alongside Saunders.
Gerry Ryan, Chris Hutchings, Fashanu and Terry Connor were all out injured
In the programme for the 19 October home game against Charlton, Cattlin was pleased to report Fashanu had resumed training and was busy building up his thigh muscles after his period of inactivity.
He finally made his comeback in an away League Cup match at Liverpool and, as Albion were sent packing 4-0, Fashanu was booked after clashing with Craig Johnston.
However, at least he was back in the no.9 shirt and, after leading the line in a home 1-1 draw against his old club Norwich, he scored his first goal for the Seagulls the following week when Brighton lost 2-1 at Shrewsbury Town.
Defending Fashanu after yet another booking in a 2-1 defeat away to Sunderland, Cattlin said: “Justin is anything but a dirty player. He is certainly strong, but if he was dirty I can assure everyone he would not be wearing the blue shirt of Brighton. I can see all sorts of trouble in the game if referees cannot differentiate between dirty play and wholehearted endeavour.”
Later the same month, Fashanu scored his second and only other league goal for Brighton, at home to Hull City on 30 November, when the Albion won 3-1 (Danny Wilson and Connor also on the scoresheet).
That match came during an 11-game unbroken run at centre forward, including an influential display in a 2-1 Boxing Day win over Portsmouth (below) which gave Albion their first league victory at Fratton Park in 62 years.
Fashanu set up Saunders for Albion’s first and, 18 minutes from time, Fashanu’s close-range shot was parried by Alan Knight only to Connor, who buried the winner.
Although the shortage of goals was bad news for him personally, it was good news for Shoreham butcher Roy Parsons who promised the striker 2lb of steak for every goal he scored for the Albion!
After missing two matches at the start of February, Fashanu returned to the side for the memorable FA Cup fifth round tie against Peterborough on a snow-covered pitch at London Road. Substitute Steve Jacobs went on for him for the second half and scored Albion’s second equaliser to take the tie to a replay, Saunders having got Albion back in the game to cancel out the home side’s lead. But it proved to be Fashanu’s last game in an Albion shirt.
The striker had to undergo further surgery on his knee although, at the time, it wasn’t made to sound career-ending. The matchday programme for the game against his brother John’s Millwall side on 22 March 1986 said merely: “Our popular striker had a minor operation this week and we hope this will finally clear up his knee problem.”
Subsequent reports had it that Fashanu’s right knee had been nearly shattered and the prognosis from the medical people was that he would have to give up the game. The player got an insurance payout but he was reluctant to give up the game and spent money in the UK and America trying to get the knee fixed.
“I had been told by doctors and surgeons in England that I’d never walk again properly – let alone play,” Fashanu told the Los Angeles Times in July 1988. “They were proposing an operation to remove the lining from the inside of my knee.”
Fashanu was born in Hackney, London, on 19 February 1961, the son of a Nigerian barrister and a Guyanese nurse. The parents split up when Fashanu and brother John were five and four. Unable to support them, their mother, Pearl, sent them to a Barnardo’s children’s home.
The boys were eventually fostered and raised by Alf and Betty Jackson in the small rural Norfolk village of Shropham, near Attleborough.
Norwich City’s youth scout Ronnie Brooks identified 14-year-old Fashanu as a prospect while visiting Norfolk schools looking for talent. He was invited to train with the club during his holidays and then signed as an apprentice.
In a 2011 article, writer Juliet Jacques recounted: “Having persuaded Fashanu to play football rather than box (he was twice an ABA junior heavyweight finalist, aged 14 and 15), Brooks spent time with him in the gym at Norwich’s training ground at Trowse, wanting him to become less one-footed and learn how to strike the ball in the air.
“Endlessly, Brooks would throw a ball over Fashanu’s shoulder, demanding that he turn, volley it against the wall with one foot and then hit it back with the other.”
That practice would pay off big time, Jacques capturing in words the moment the 18-year-old Fashanu connected so sweetly from distance to draw Norwich level, 3-3, with Liverpool at Carrow Road on 9 February 1980, and, in the days of limited football coverage on TV, featured on BBC’s Match of the Day.
“With the impudence of youth, he flicked the ball up with his right foot, turned, and volleyed it into the tiny space between Ray Clemence’s head and the post. The strike was perfect – and so was the celebration. There was a split second while the crowd, and the commentator, processed its brilliance: as the fans roared, Fashanu stood alone, one finger raised to the skies as if to announce his genius,” she wrote.
“Norwich eventually lost 5-3, but the goal overshadowed the result: it made the perfect televisual image, coming as a generation of black footballers were breaking through at England’s top level, leaving Fashanu poised to become their leading light.”
One of his teammates back then, Greg Downs, recently told The Athletic: “We took the mickey out of Justin at the time because we maintained he miscontrolled it. We swore it bounced up and hit him on the ankle, which is why he then hit it.
“With all due respect to Justin, his greatest attribute wasn’t his feet. His strength was in the air. He was a magnificent header of the ball. I think that was why it surprised everybody.
“It was a magnificent strike. You couldn’t have hit a better shot. Ray Clemence had no chance. I don’t think any other keeper anywhere would have had any chance with it. Justin just caught it sweet.
“I got on great with Justin. I remember going to his 18th birthday in Attleborough with his family. He was a nice fella.
“He was so popular at Norwich. He was also probably the first local black footballer we had. He was famous, this lad from Norfolk, he had a personality, he was eloquent. I knew his parents and they raised him with very high morals, and he was a lovely lad.”
England under 21 cap
Two months after that Liverpool game, Fashanu scored England’s only goal in a 2-1 defeat to East Germany in a 1980 UEFA under 21 championship semi-final at Bramall Lane, playing alongside future full internationals Gary Bailey, Kenny Sansom, Bryan Robson, Russell Osman, Terry Butcher, Glenn Hoddle, Garry Birtles and Gordon Cowans.
In September the same year, he went on as a substitute for Paul Goddard as England beat Norway in a friendly at The Dell, Southampton. The following month he was a starter as England were thrashed 4-0 away to Romania in a 1982 UEFA under 21 championship preliminary match but on 18 November at Portman Road he was on the scoresheet as England swept aside Switzerland 5-0 in the same competition.
He featured as a sub in a 1-0 friendly win over the Republic of Ireland at Anfield in February 1981, then was on the scoresheet as England beat Hungary 2-1 in a friendly in Keszthely.
His seventh cap came as a starter in the 0-0 draw away to Norway in September and two months later he opened the scoring for England in another 1982 UEFA under 21 championship preliminary match when England beat Hungary 2-0.
The following March he started again as England won a quarter final away leg in Poland 2-1 and was in the semi-final second leg line-up that drew 1-1 with Scotland at Maine Road, Manchester.
In the first leg of the final of that competition, played at Bramall Lane, Sheffield, on 21 September,1982, Fashanu went on for David Hodgson and scored as England beat West Germany 3-1, although he didn’t feature in the second leg away when England lost 3-2 but ran out 5-4 aggregate winners.
At that time, Fashanu was on loan at Southampton having endured a nightmare time at the City Ground under Clough. The stories of what happened are legendary and varied.
Unfortunately for Fashanu, he joined Forest as the European Cup-winning side was being broken up and there were rumours of disagreements between Clough and his sidekick Peter Taylor, who eventually quit the City Ground. Clough had some health issues at the time too.
Peter Ward, who had moved to Forest from Brighton for £500,000, sometimes played alongside Fashanu and witnessed first hand the difficulties the manager had with him. He described various incidents in some detail in Matthew Horner’s He Shot, He Scored biography.
“It must have been very hard for Fashanu; he had signed for a lot of money and he really struggled to score goals,” said Ward. “In a way, it was similar to my situation but he had the added complication of his social life and constant rumours about his sexuality.
“Cloughie found it difficult to live with Fashanu’s lifestyle and he later admitted he wished that he had treated him differently.”
Forest were £1m in debt; three directors quit because they didn’t like the terms of a guarantee for the bank overdraft, and the Nottingham public weren’t turning up in sufficient numbers to help the club break even.
“At the heart of it was Fashanu, who was effectively the physical embodiment of that £1m overdraft,” wrote Jonathan Wilson in his Brian Clough biography, Nobody Ever Says Thank You.
“Goal statistics often don’t tell the full story, but in this case his record of three league goals in 31 appearances did. He was offering little to the team and, had he not been signed, Forest’s bank balance would have been a comforting nil. By the end of his unhappy 15 months at the club his confidence was so shot he almost scored an own goal from the halfway line in a reserve team game.”
Clough blamed Fashanu’s arrival for the breakdown in his relationship with Taylor. According to Wilson: “Clough said: ‘He used to burst into tears if I said hello to him’ and ‘He had so many personal problems a platoon of agony aunts couldn’t have sorted him out.’
Wilson details incidents such as Fashanu insisting on using his own towels rather than ones provided by the club amongst a number of issues that irritated the manager.
Clough maintained that the player’s homosexuality didn’t bother him (although the manager’s use of the word ‘poof’ might suggest otherwise), instead he said: “It was just that his shiftiness, combined with an articulate image that impressed the impressionable, made it difficult for me to accept Fashanu as genuine and one of us.”
Accusations of ill discipline prompted Clough to ban the player from training. When he turned up anyway there was more trouble and the manager called in the police to remove him from the training ground.
Those circumstances led to Fashanu being loaned to Southampton where he scored three goals in nine games under Lawrie McMenemy, but they couldn’t afford to make it a permanent deal.
Eventually in December 1982, Forest cut their losses and Fashanu was transferred across the Trent to Notts County for £150,000, being signed by former Brighton winger Howard Wilkinson, who had taken over as manager at Meadow Lane that August.
At least Fashanu got his goal touch back, netting 20 in 64 matches, but they weren’t enough to prevent back-to-back relegations. It probably didn’t help his reputation that he was sent off in a derby game against Forest for retaliating to a Paul Hart tackle just 11 minutes into the second half.
After heading to America in his battle to overcome his knee problem, Fashanu failed to recapture the spark that had made him such a huge talent in his teens and early 20s.
The record books show he played for 22 clubs in seven different countries. A brief attempt to recover past glory under Lou Macari at West Ham is remembered by Dan Coker on West Ham Till I Die.
He was playing at Leyton Orient when he went public about his sexuality and he later scored 15 goals in 41 games for Torquay United. He also played in Scotland for Airdrieonians and Hearts (below).
What led to him taking his own life in a deserted lock-up garage in Shoreditch in May 1998 is well documented, such as in this footballpink.net piece written by Paul Breen.
Fashanu’s memory certainly lives on in many ways. In February 2020, a tribute to his outstanding goal against Liverpool was unveiled in the form of a 20-metre long banner produced by supporters groups Along Come Norwich and Barclay End Norwich, led by Proud Canaries: the first club-affiliated LGBT+ fan group in the country.
“Two years ago I drew a massive artwork for Norwich Pride of LGBT+ icons nominated by the community,” said banner designer David Shenton. “The most voted-for person was Justin: a man so treasured in this city, especially by the football club for his artistry as a player, and by the LGBT+ community for his courage in not hiding who he was.”
• Pictures from Albion’s matchday programmes, the Argus, and various online sources.
In parallel lines 