Why Saint Dan riled the Albion

DAN HARDING was promoted twice with Southampton and once with the Seagulls and later cut short his career because of family tragedy.

Personally, I’m not sure he really need to be cast as ‘public enemy no.1’ because of the way he left Brighton.

With the benefit of hindsight, it was really no surprise that he chose to turn his back on playing at Withdean in favour of Elland Road, Leeds.

OK, the stringing-out of the contract negotiations, and public slanging match that accompanied them, didn’t help matters.

But football careers are short and the Amex was a long way off becoming a reality when Harding decided to opt for pastures new.

“I really enjoyed my time at Brighton but you can’t compare the size of the two clubs or the facilities,” he told the Leeds matchday programme at the time. “It has been like going from one world to another.”

Ironically, it seems his success on the pitch with Brighton, which led to him gaining international recognition, might well have been the unsettling influence.

Former Albion boss Peter Taylor selected him for England under-21s as the 2004-05 season got underway. He made his England debut as a substitute for Micah Richards in a 3-1 win over Ukraine at the Riverside Stadium, Middlesbrough, on 17 August 2004. Future full internationals James Milner and Darren Bent were in the same squad.

He started the 8 October 2004 match against Wales at Ewood Park, Blackburn: a 2-0 win courtesy of goals from Milner and Bent. He also started the game four days later when the under 21s drew 0-0 away to Azerbaijan in Baku. His last cap came the following month in a 1-0 defeat away to Spain when he was replaced by Ben Watson. Future Albion loanee Liam Ridgewell was also a substitute in that game.

It was this platform that sowed the seeds of discord, according to former chairman Dick Knight’s take on the circumstances surrounding Harding’s acrimonious departure from the Albion.

In his autobiography Mad Man: From the Gutter to the Stars, Knight reckoned it was while on international duty that Harding was “egged on by his agent about his value after talking to players with bigger clubs, on bigger wages”.

Knight went on: “Early on, I offered him a sizeable contract renewal but he sat on it. He kept saying he wanted to stay, but I don’t think he had any intention of doing so.

“Because he was under 24, we were entitled to compensation. Shaun Harvey, the Leeds chief executive – who became CEO of the Football League in July 2013 – tested me with a couple of paltry sums before finally offering £250,000, which I rejected.”

DH Leeds action 2 Via the Football League tribunal system, Knight managed to get the figure up to £850,000, part achievement-based, and with a 20 per cent sell-on clause.

All in all, not a bad return for a player who came through the Albion’s youth and reserve ranks after being spotted at 15 playing for Hove Park Colts.

Born in Gloucester on 23 December 1983, the young Harding loved kicking a football from the moment he could walk and enjoyed watching his dad, Kevan, turn out for the Army team.

The family was posted to Brighton, and Harding was taken to the Goldstone Ground by his mum, Linda. One of his earliest memories was on 23 September 1992 seeing a 17-year-old David Beckham make his Manchester United debut as a substitute for Andrei Kanchelskis in a League Cup tie that finished 1-1.

Harding joined the Albion initially on schoolboy terms for a year and was then taken on as a YTS trainee, progressing through the juniors and reserves before eventually making his first team debut on 17 August 2002, during Martin Hinshelwood’s brief reign, as a substitute for Shaun Wilkinson in a 2-0 home defeat to Norwich City.

After Hinshelwood was replaced by Steve Coppell, and Harding sustained a back injury, the youngster played no further part in the first team picture that season, but he was awarded a new contract in April 2003.

In the first part of the 2003-04 season, Harding was a regular on the bench, but, on 21 February 2004, Coppell’s successor, Mark McGhee, gave him his full debut in place of the suspended Kerry Mayo in a 3-0 win over Bournemouth.

Harding kept his place through to the end of the season, making a total of 23 appearances, including being part of the side that lifted the divisional play-off trophy at the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff, as the Seagulls beat Bristol City 1-0.

“In hindsight, it was a very lucky time for me. I broke into a team that was winning games and was promoted,” he told the Daily Echo. “Looking back now, I don’t think I appreciated at the time what a big achievement it was.”

Sent off in only the second game of the following season for two bookable offences, it wasn’t long before his contract discussions were aired publicly, with McGhee telling the Argus in October: “It’s starting to really frustrate me.

“Dan keeps telling us and saying publicly he wants to sign but we cannot tie his agent down to have a meeting with us. He has to be honest with us.”

Harding in turn denied he was being difficult, telling the Argus that talks were ongoing.

The off-field issues certainly seemed to be troubling Harding and McGhee publicly blamed the defender for a 2-0 defeat at Millwall in December. He was also outmuscled by Stoke City’s Ade Akinbiyi in a game at Withdean, leading to a late winner for the visitors. Across the season, McGhee dropped him on four occasions because of such inconsistency.

When he won his place back in February, he told the Argus: “I had to prove not only to the gaffer but to the other players and the fans that I want that position back.

“That’s where I prefer to play. I like to call that my position. I don’t mind playing on the left hand side of midfield or centre midfield, but I do love playing at left-back.

“Hopefully I can reproduce the same sort of form and keep my confidence up. Everyone wants to be playing, so when you are left out it’s a bit of a kick in the teeth. It’s not nice, but you have to pick yourself up and try to get back into the team.”

DH leeds action 1 However, the Brighton contract offer was declined and on 7 June that summer, Harding put pen to paper on a deal with Leeds, whose fans were no doubt delighted to read that he used to follow their fortunes when he was a youngster.

“When I lived in Germany, they showed quite a lot of Leeds games on telly and, in a strange way, I kind of ended up supporting them because it was the only football I really got to see out there,” he said.

His dad later took him to a Leeds FA Cup match v Wolves, and he added: “I have to admit I have been a closet Leeds fan. Obviously, I didn’t shout about it when I was playing for Brighton and it’s kind of strange now that this move has happened.”

If Harding doubted the size of the task at Elland Road, he’d only have had to read the comments of manager Kevin Blackwell, often Neil Warnock’s no.2, who was the Leeds manager at the time.

In an article about Harding in the club programme, Blackwell said: “It has been a big transition for him. No disrespect to Brighton, but coming from the scaffolding at Withdean to Elland Road was a big step-up for Dan. He was nervous in the first couple of games, but he has started to settle down.”

He talked about how he needed to cement his place at United, and added: “If he does succeed here, all the doors will be open to him. I have no doubt that once he develops certain aspects of his game and his self-confidence, he will go a long way because he is a real athlete with a great left foot.”

Brighton fans vented their displeasure at how things had turned out every time Harding touched the ball when Leeds entertained the Seagulls on 12 September 2005; a game which finished 3-3. The fact two of Albion’s goals came from crosses on Harding’s flank prompted Blackwell to drop him for the following match.

After only seven games, Harding picked up an injury and, over the course of the season, played just 21 matches for United. In August 2006, the Yorkshire club used the full-back as a makeweight in a deal which took future Albion loanee Ian Westlake from Ipswich to Leeds.

He was a regular at Portman Road for a couple of seasons but, in his third season, manager Jim Magilton deemed him surplus to requirements and sent him out on loan to Southend United. I recall going to a match at Roots Hall and seeing him have an outstanding game against Brighton.

Later the same season, with Ipswich bobbing along in mid-table, Harding seized the chance to join Steve Coppell’s promotion-chasing Reading, and he played in their play-offs defeat to Burnley.

When Roy Keane took over at Ipswich in 2009, Harding was sold to Southampton; manager Alan Pardew’s first signing for the Saints. Harding’s former Albion youth coach, Dean Wilkins, was part of Pardew’s coaching team.

Harding reflected in an interview with the Southern Daily Echo that what followed were the happiest three years of his career, in which he played 121 games and chipped in with five goals.

In 2010-11, he was named in the PFA League One team of the year along with teammates Kelvin Davies, Jose Fonte, Adam Lallana and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.

In the harsh and fickle world of football, Brighton fans relished Brighton’s 3-0 win over Southampton at the Amex on 2 January 2012 when Albion winger Will Buckley gave Harding such a torrid time that, to compound his humiliation, the former Brighton player was subbed off by boss Nigel Adkins with five minutes of the first half still to play.

Although part of the Saints side that won promotion back to the Premier League that May, Harding didn’t get the chance to play at the top level because Adkins moved him on to Nottingham Forest.

Harding talked in detail to the Echo’s Paul McNamara about life at Forest, which he found an unstable place, especially when Sean O’Driscoll, the manager who signed him, was sacked.

Although he played some games under that legendary left-back Stuart Pearce, when he took over, Harding eventually went on loan to Millwall, but wasn’t able to help them stave off relegation from the Championship.

He reveals in his interview with McNamara how disillusioned he became with the amount of dishonesty in football and, coupled with his pregnant wife losing two of the triplets she was expecting, he put family before football and, at the age of only 31, dropped down four divisions to play non-league with Eastleigh.

He talked about the tough decisions he’d had to make in an interview before a FA Cup tie Eastleigh played against Bolton Wanderers.

In 2016, Harding joined Whitehawk as a player, then became part of the coaching set-up, and was briefly caretaker manager before the appointment of Steve King.

Irish defender Stephen Ward surprised Albion supporters

SWARD WHEN Wolverhampton Wanderers slipped into the third tier, they urgently needed to loan out some of their higher-paid players – hence, in August 2013, the arrival at Brighton of left-back Stephen Ward.

Most Seagulls supporters were not sure of his attributes having had the pleasure the previous season of watching the imperious Wayne Bridge shine in that position while on loan from Manchester City.

However, Albion fans were delighted to be proved wrong after Ward helped to shore up a defence that had leaked seven goals in the first eight days of the season. The Irish international defender went on to make a total of 47 appearances and was runner-up to Matt Upson as Albion’s 2013-14 player of the year.

Ward also chipped in with four goals, including the tide-turning equaliser at Nottingham Forest on the final day of the season.

Forest equaliser

Although injury-hit Albion failed to get past Derby County in the play-off semi-finals, it was thought Ward would sign permanently for the Seagulls that summer. But Burnley stepped in, offering Wolves and the defender more money, not to mention the more immediate chance of Premier League football.

Ward’s agent, Scott Fisher, later told the Argus that dithering or perhaps a bit of brinkmanship by then head of recruitment David Burke had scuppered the deal.

“We really tried our best to make Stephen Ward a permanent Brighton player. Had they done their business earlier this wouldn’t have happened,” he said.

Ward spoke more about the circumstances in an interview with the Argus in April 2016.

Previously, as the season drew to a close, Ward told the Argus: “If I’m going to move on, I don’t see why this wouldn’t be one of the better options for me. I’ve been here for a year; I’ve really enjoyed it.

SW Argus

“I couldn’t say one bad thing about the club. The crowd we get, the stadium we have is phenomenal, probably the best in the Championship, and with the new training ground the club is on a real up and a real high.

“If I was to move on from Wolves, Brighton would definitely be high on the list. It’s not in my hands, it’s going to be in other people’s hands to discuss the future, but it has been a great move for me. I’ve really enjoyed it. It’s a really good club and one people should be privileged to play for.”

Ward went on to spend five years at Turf Moor, making 110 appearances, but only featured 11 times in the 2018-19 season, and manager Sean Dyche told punditarena.com: “He (Ward) has been brilliant for us, absolutely brilliant, he’s done a fantastic job.”

SW Burn Perhaps it was no surprise that former Albion coach Nathan Jones stepped in to sign the experienced defender for Stoke City, where he’d taken on an often-perilous managerial hotseat.

Jones said: “He’s had a fantastic career, the only downside for him is his age, because he isn’t what we normally go for.

“But I feel we need to add certain things to the changing room and the environment and Stephen brings those.

“He’s a wonderful player, a great character, very experienced. He’s been promoted – won the Championship twice. He’s an Irish international, I worked with him, he’s technically very, very good so he ticks every box. It’s just the aging process is the only drawback.

“With Stephen, he’s a specialist in what we need and he will provide vital competition and good strength in that area.”

Unfortunately Ward couldn’t claim a regular starting place and in December 2019 picked up a calf injury which sidelined him for four months. Having made only 17 appearances for City, in August 2020 he switched to League One Ipswich Town on a free transfer.

After playing 29 games for them in the 2020-21 season, the club announced on 5 May 2021 he would be released at the end of the season (one more appearance would have triggered a 12-month extension to his contract).

Born in Dublin on 20 August 1985, Ward grew up in Portmarnock and, as a schoolboy, played football for Home Farm and Portmarnock before joining League of Ireland side Bohemians.

He attributed his eventual success in making it as a player to staying in Ireland when he was younger and continuing to live at home rather than going to play at a UK club’s academy.

In an excellent lengthy interview with the Irish Independent, he said: “I had a few trials – Leicester a couple of times, I went to Aston Villa a lot and Hibs for some reason – nothing worked out and I signed for Bohs. And the most important thing for me then was living at home and having my family around me.

“It does depend on the academy, but you are in a bubble from a young age. You train in a certain way, everything is done for you; I know you get your jobs, but not that many now, and sometimes there is a mentality that once you are in an academy, you’ve made it. I was 17 and played in a league where players were playing for their mortgages and to put food on the table.”

Originally a forward, he scored 26 goals in 93 appearances, and, having been looked at by Sunderland boss Mick McCarthy and deemed not quite ready, McCarthy kept tabs on him when he took over at Wolves.

“I signed for Wolves as a striker,” Ward told the Irish Independent. “I was not a typical number nine, scoring 20 or 30 a season, but an old-fashioned centre-forward running round, closing down.

“We signed a couple of strikers – Sylvan Ebanks-Blake and Chris Iwelumo – and I knew if I was going to play consistently it was probably not as a centre-forward. So, I went to left-wing for a bit.

“I played at left-back at Norwich for 30 minutes or so when we went down to nine men. We scraped a draw and afterwards Mick said, ‘You could make a career playing there.’ I thought, ‘Yeah, whatever’. Next season, three games in, and new left-back George Elokobi suffers an awful injury, the window was shut and Mick had no one else . . .”

On the international stage, Ward played through the age levels for the Republic of Ireland and had a dream full international debut in May 2011 as he scored in a 5-0 win over Northern Ireland.

He went on to play 50 times for his country before announcing his retirement from international football in March 2019.

Halford’s timely role in helping Albion avoid the drop

TIME was of the essence when utility player Greg Halford agreed to make a temporary move to Brighton.

He penned a deal to join the Seagulls temporarily at Nottingham Forest’s training ground at 12.30pm and then got in his car to drive to Brighton for 6pm in time to be involved in the squad for that evening’s game at the Amex against Wigan Athletic.

It was 4 November 2014 and he was Sami Hyypia’s sixth loan signing – even though only five were eligible to play in any matchday squad (emergency loan goalkeeper Ali Al-Habsi only played one game).

Regular centre backs Gordon Greer and Lewis Dunk were perilously close to suspension and deputy Aaron Hughes was sidelined with an ankle injury, so Hyypia moved to bring in an experienced back-up.

Albion hadn’t registered a win in the previous 11 league matches but the 29-year-old Halford proved to be a lucky charm as the side finally reacquainted themselves with the taste of victory. Fellow loanee Gary Gardner got the only goal of the game and Halford made an appearance off the bench towards the end of the game.

“I wasn’t really expecting to get any game time. I thought I’d just be in and around the lads, to get a feel for how everything works,” he told the club programme. “But I’m glad I got a few minutes at the end.”

Halford explained how he’d agreed to join the Seagulls because he’d been frozen out at Forest after Stuart Pearce took over as manager.

The player said he was familiar with the south coast having previously played for Portsmouth.

Asked what he could bring to the side, he added: “I can add a bit of height, I can score goals and obviously I can defend, which is my main attribute. I’m here to help the team and manager in any way I can.”

It wasn’t long before he was helping out a different manager as the side’s run of poor form brought a premature end to Hyypia’s brief time in charge.

Halford, though, hung around at the Amex, his loan extended by Hyypia’s successor, Chris Hughton, and he had made 14 starts and five substitute appearances by the season’s end, when the Seagulls narrowly escaped the drop back to the third tier.

Born on 8 December 1984 in Chelmsford, Essex, Halford began his professional career at nearby Colchester United. I well remember a Chelmsford-based work colleague telling me about this talented young footballer who’d been head and shoulders the best player in a local schoolboy football team his son had played for.

That player was Halford, who progressed from Colchester’s youth team and made his first team debut in April 2003. Loan spells at non-league Aylesbury Town and Braintree Town were part of his development, but he eventually made his mark at Colchester and was named in the PFA League One team of the year in 2005-06.

Played mainly at right-back, Halford’s speciality was his ability to deliver searching long throws which led to a good proportion of goals for Colchester.

After playing more than 150 games in five years for the Us, Halford wanted to prove himself at the highest level. He got a move to Premier League Reading in January 2007 but he couldn’t make the breakthrough there and ended up switching to Sunderland, signed by Roy Keane.

Just six months later, Sunderland made him available on loan and he joined Championship side Charlton until the end of the season. Then he spent the whole of the 2008-09 season on loan to Sheffield United, featuring in 49 of their 56 games that season.

His personal highlight was scoring the only goal of the game as United beat Preston to reach the 2008-09 play-off final.

Unfortunately, United lost the final 1-0 to Burnley, and that summer Halford was on the move again, this time to newly-promoted Wolverhampton Wanderers. Although he featured in 20 games, a regular starting berth eluded him and, in October 2010, he joined Championship side Portsmouth. Initially on loan, he eventually joined Pompey on a permanent basis but relegation to the third tier brought with it the need to trim budgets and in July 2012, they offloaded Halford to Nottingham Forest.

GH Forest Under Billy Davies, Halford was generally deployed as a striker but when Pearce took over at the City Ground, he didn’t get close to the first team. On his return from Brighton at the end of the 2014-15 season, he was released by Forest and joined Rotherham United on a free transfer.

Manager Steve Evans appointed him captain but, after a winless run of five games, he was deposed and only played one more game for the Millers before joining Birmingham City on loan.

GH Card That spell was also brief and although he returned to Rotherham and played 15 games for them in the 2016-17 season, he then joined Cardiff City and made 33 appearances in two seasons for Neil Warnock’s side.

Without a club for six months, in February 2019, he joined Scottish Premiership side Aberdeen as defensive cover but only made two appearances.

Brighton’s heroic captain Cullip clashed with Warnock

AFTER three promotions and one relegation in five years, Danny Cullip left Brighton for Sheffield United in December 2004.

Hard-up Albion needed the cash at the time and Cullip was keen to join a side who were pushing for promotion to the Premier League.

“They were a massive side and I felt that it was too good an opportunity to miss,” Cullip said in Match of My Life (knowthescorebooks.com), edited by Paul Camillin. “I felt if I didn’t take the opportunity, I would end up regretting it, and although things didn’t work out, I don’t regret it, as I would have lived the rest of my life wondering what might have happened.”

Cullip was virtually ever-present during his three months with the Blades but a clash of personalities with fiery manager Neil Warnock saw him offloaded on loan to Watford before the end of the season.

DC focus The player who had been an inspirational captain for the Seagulls has chosen not to go into detail about what happened although Warnock had plenty to say in his autobiography, ghostwritten by journalist Oliver Holt.

“At Sheffield United I bought a centre-half, Danny Cullip, with a view to him being my leader on the pitch, my captain,” he said. “I thought he was a good talker. I realised within a week he talked a better game than he played. The only answer was to get shot of him quickly.”

Cullip swerved the controversy in an Albion matchday programme interview in 2019-20, saying instead: “We won my first three games in succession and ended up taking maximum points from five of the first six games.

“It was a great start and I was really enjoying my football but then, out of the blue, Neil said he wanted to bring in another striker, Danny Webber from Watford.

“Ray Lewington, who was coach at Watford at the time and knew me from out time together at Brentford, said they would only sanction it if they could get me in return. It was going to be a permanent move but ended up being a loan as Ray was sacked the following week, which wasn’t ideal.

“My Sheffield United career was over though before it had even begun, which was so disappointing because I’d been playing well and we’d been getting results.”

butts + DC Sheffield United’s Cullip gets to grips with ex- Albion teammate Guy Butters

Lee Connor on footballleagueworld.co.uk reckoned Cullip was one of the top 5 most pointless signings in Sheffield United’s history which seems a harsh assessment of a player who made 216 appearances for Brighton.

The £250,000 fee Brighton received for their captain was certainly much needed at the time and was a good return on the £50,000 they invested in signing him from Brentford for £50,000 on 13 October 1999.

Born on 17 September 1976 in Bracknell, Berkshire, Cullip was scouted by Oxford United while playing Sunday football and shone during a set of trial games. After getting into their under-16s, he then earned a two-year YTS apprenticeship where he was coached by future England manager Steve McLaren.

Oxford were managed by that redoubtable former centre half Denis Smith at the time and Cullip was given a one-year professional contract but faced stiff competition to make the breakthrough to the first team, where future Leicester City stalwart Matt Elliott was excelling.

“I went out on loan to Kettering Town in the Conference,” Cullip told fulhamfocus.com. “Gary Johnson was their manager and I learned a lot from him and played well there.”

Cullip had a trial at Shrewsbury and could have joined them or Kettering. But he chose to join then Fourth Division Fulham because his dad was a Fulham fan, he told fulhamfc.com in an April 2016 interview. Micky Adams had been newly appointed in his first managerial job and handed Cullip his league debut in the first game of the 1996-97 season.

It was a season fondly remembered by Fulham fans because they won promotion but the regime change the following year, when Mohammed Al Fayed took over, saw Adams dumped in favour of Kevin Keegan and Ray Wilkins and eventually Cullip rejoined Adams at Brentford in exchange for a £75,000 fee in February 1998.

Cullip found himself back in the basement division when the Bees were relegated and then on the treatment table for much of the season after suffering a cruciate knee ligament injury.

Having not played a first team game for 13 months because of the injury, Cullip was thrown a lifeline when Adams, by now in charge at Brighton, took him on a month’s loan in September 1999.

Cullip He impressed sufficiently for Adams to persuade chairman Dick Knight to make the transfer permanent, beginning an association with the club which continues to this day.

Cullip became a mainstay of the defence during the back-to-back promotions of 2001-02 and 2002-03 and famously scored the headed winner in a 1-0 win over Chesterfield at Withdean that clinched the third-tier championship.

Cullip took over the captaincy from Paul Rogers and recalls the “unbelievable day” he lifted the play-off final trophy at the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff, in 2004.

After his Blades spell was cut short, and his brief Watford loan came to an end, Cullip joined Nottingham Forest where his manager was Gary Megson. “I really liked him,” said Cullip. “He was an honest guy; what you see is what you get with him.

“Unfortunately, I missed my first pre-season with Forest due to what was ongoing at United, so I was playing catch-up with the rest of the lads and ended up suffering a hamstring injury. It was a problem that would dog me for the rest of my career.”

He was restricted to a handful of appearances in his first season with Forest but he eventually became a regular in a three-man defence alongside Wes Morgan and Ian Breckin.

DC Forest Cullip in action for Forest, marking Albion’s Alex Revell

In January 2007, he was on the move again, to Queens Park Rangers, where former Albion player John Gregory was in charge. But his 18-month deal was terminated early after one of their many managerial changes saw him surplus to requirements.

With his family based in Sussex, Cullip looked for an opening in the south and spent six weeks training with Millwall before linking up with Gillingham, where he played from February 2008 to the end of the 2007-08 season.

He then played non-league with Lewes but, after a season, the hamstring injury forced him to retire.

Alongside his former Albion centre half partner Guy Butters, Cullip is now a coach with the Albion in the Community scheme.

Brighton briefly on the trail of the ‘loansome’ Sam Vokes

‘LOANSOME’ Sam Vokes joined Brighton temporarily on the eve of transfer deadline day in January 2012.

He was 22 at the time and had already had five loan spells away from Molineux since joining Wolverhampton Wanderers in the summer of 2008. Vokes told BBC Sussex: “I need to settle down in my career and it’s a fantastic chance for me to come here and play some football.

“It’s a matter of playing games and, as a striker, scoring goals.”

Vokes had been troubled by injury and had found it difficult to establish himself in the Wolves side. The season before, he had been out on loan at Bristol City, Sheffield United and Norwich, and earlier in the 2011-12 season had scored two goals in nine appearances on loan at Burnley.

Eddie Howe, who’d managed Vokes during his first spell at Bournemouth, had taken him to Turf Moor to partner Jay Rodriguez. But when his deal with Burnley expired in mid-January, Albion boss Gus Poyet stepped in and persuaded him to join the Seagulls.

Vokes was invited to the Amex to watch the side’s FA Cup fourth round tie against Newcastle and, two days after the 1-0 win, put pen to the loan deal.

7188430 “I don’t want to sit around – I love playing,” said Vokes. “Brighton have a great way of playing football that is different to a lot of teams in the Championship.”

The young striker told the Albion matchday programme: “I’m a southern boy. I know the area well, and I know what football means to people down here.

“It’s been difficult for me to settle anywhere, moving from place to place on loan, but now I just want to play football. I love the game. I need to play, it’s all I want to do.

“I would like to stay and if all goes well we will see what happens in the summer, but my main aim at the moment is to start playing football again and scoring goals.”

Poyet told the media: “Sam was one of the players we’ve been following for a long time but it’s been difficult to get him.

“The idea was to bring someone who will give us that presence and strength in the air that we don’t have.

“We’ve got the time to explain how we play, and what he needs to do for us. The quicker he adapts, the easier for us. I’m delighted to have him and I hope it works for him.

“He’s been trying to find that place that he can stay for a few years.”

As it turned out, Vokes struggled to dislodge incumbent strikers Ashley Barnes and Craig Mackail-Smith, and he made just seven starts plus five substitute appearances.

SV- BHA stripes

Although he scored on his full home debut in a 2-2 draw v Millwall, he only got two more goals, a last-minute equaliser in another 2-2 draw, at home to Cardiff City, and Albion’s lone strike in a 1-1 draw away to Nottingham Forest.

In July 2012, it was reported Wolves were demanding £500,000 for the player’s signature on a permanent basis, and that Brighton and Burnley were both keen to sign him.

Vokes burnley

Howe had always been keen to get the player back to Burnley and, although officially undisclosed, it’s believed a £350,000 fee took him to Turf Moor where he finally settled down and, over the next seven years, scored 62 goals in 258 appearances.

Born in Southampton on 21 October 1989, Vokes was brought up in Lymington and was a Southampton fan at an early age. He even had a trial with them when he was just 10 but wasn’t taken on.

It was when he was playing football for local sides in the New Forest that he was spotted by Bournemouth and joined them in 2005. He was only 17 when he made his first team debut in December 2006 (in a 2-0 win over Nottingham Forest) and although he scored 12 goals in the 2007-08 season, the Cherries were relegated from League One.

Vokes Wolves Wolves stepped in to sign him that May and he came off the bench in the opening game of the following season to score an equaliser in a 2-2 draw at Plymouth Argyle. However, Chris Iwelumo and Sylvan Ebanks-Blake were the main men scoring goals as Wolves won the Championship that year, and Vokes’ involvement was mainly off the bench.

With his parent club in the Premier League, Vokes was loaned out to League One Leeds United on a three-month deal, although he only scored once in eight games. One of those matches was against the Albion at Withdean and Vokes recalled picking up his first footballing scar when an Adam El-Abd elbow caught him in the face.

Once Vokes finally settled down at Burnley after his various loan moves, it can’t have helped his cause when the man who signed him quit Turf Moor to return to Bournemouth.

Indeed, when Sean Dyche replaced Howe, his go-to centre forward at first was Charlie Austin, but when Austin was sold Vokes got more of a chance to show his worth alongside Danny Ings.

The partnership that began to evolve surprised Burnley fans who’d wondered whether Vokes was only ever destined to be a bit-part player.

“Everyone was concerned to be honest,” said Tony Scholes on uptheclarets.com. “We’d seen some potential in Ings but there wasn’t much confidence that Vokes could become a regular, goalscoring striker at Championship level.

Burnley Football Club_1st Team head Shots_30/7/15 He went on: “Our shortage of strikers was highlighted by the fact that he played the full 90 minutes in all of the first 26 league games that season, but he wasn’t just filling in. He was turning in some outstanding performances, linking up really well with Ings and both were scoring goals aplenty.”

Unfortunately, a cruciate knee injury sidelined him for a lengthy spell and Burnley bought Ashley Barnes from Brighton as they sought to bolster their forward options.

A fit Vokes eventually reclaimed his place and formed a useful partnership with big money signing Andre Gray when Barnes himself was also hit by a cruciate injury.

In the early part of last season, Vokes often found himself on the bench, with Barnes and Chris Wood starting ahead of him, and, in January, he decided to drop back down to the Championship, joining Nathan Jones’ new regime at Stoke City, with former England international Peter Crouch going in the opposite direction.

As is often the way these days, the fee was ‘undisclosed’ but was rumoured to be in the order of £7m, and Stoke offered Vokes a three-and-a-half-year contract.

His popularity at Burnley was reflected in a thoughtful parting message thanking the club and the Clarets fans, in which he said: “You made the club a ‘home’ for myself and all my family and for that I’m eternally grateful.”

He added: “It’s been an incredible journey that we’ve been on over the past seven years, with promotions, relegation, survival and even European football through the Europa League.

“There have been so many highlights and every step along the way has been a joy, but now I am looking forward to a new challenge.”

Dyche, meanwhile, told the Stoke Sentinel: “Sam has been an absolutely fantastic servant, not just as a player but as a person.

“There was a bit of frustration that he hasn’t played as much as he’d like and this presents a fresh challenge, so, with all that factored in, it became a win-win deal.

“We feel we’ve got a good deal financially for the business and Sam has got a fresh chance somewhere different.”

Since July 2021, Vokes has been leading the line for League One Wycombe Wanderers.

Vokes Wales

Vokes may have been born and brought up in England but, thanks to having a grandfather born in Colwyn Bay, he became eligible to play for Wales and has earned more than 60 caps since making his debut in 2008, including their most recent game against Belarus.

A stand-out moment for his adopted country came during the Euro 2016 tournament when he came on as a substitute and (pictured above) sealed Wales’ 3-1 win over Belgium with an 85^th-minute goal to reach the semi-finals.

Pictures from various online sources.

History-maker Joel Lynch went to Town after Brighton breakthrough

SUSSEX lad Joel Lynch made Brighton & Hove Albion history when he was made first team captain aged just 19 and 186 days.

The ‘youngest-ever Albion captain’ honour was a measure of the maturity the defender had displayed in Dean Wilkins’ young line-up in April 2007, even if it was a temporary appointment in the absence of the rested Guy Butters and the injured Dean Hammond.

“I wasn’t even captain of my school team,” Lynch told Argus reporter Andy Naylor. “I am 19 years old and it is a great honour. I am grateful to the gaffer for having so much faith in me and it will be good for my confidence.”

Unfortunately, the experience against Doncaster Rovers at Withdean was marred when Lynch missed a clearance, the player he was supposed to be marking, Graeme Lee, scored and Rovers went on to win 2-0.

It was a minor blip at the beginning of a career which saw Lynch become a consistent Championship defender for more than a decade after emerging from Brighton’s youth ranks in the ‘noughties’.

Born on 3 October 1987 in Eastbourne, Lynch made his way through the age group sides with the Albion, often alongside another local youngster who went on to have a good career, Tommy Elphick.

“We played all the way through the youth teams together since the age of about ten,” Lynch told Naylor of the Argus. “Both of our games really changed and we really grew up when we went to Bognor on loan. We did really well there for Bognor and ourselves.”

Lynch pictured in the Argus alongside Tommy Elphick when they were together as under 14s in 2001, and still together a couple of years later.

As well as being part of the Brighton team which reached the quarter finals of the FA Youth Cup in 2006, the year couldn’t have begun better for Lynch when Wilkins’ predecessor, Mark McGhee, handed him his first team debut in a narrow 2-1 defeat away to Southampton on 2 January 2006.

He went on to play 16 times that season, and also registered his first goal for the club, which is a fond memory for me and my son, Rhys. It came on Easter Saturday 2006, and we made a last-minute decision on the day to travel up to Ipswich to watch the game.

Although Albion were destined to relinquish their Championship status, they had a new-found confidence in their play thanks to the belated arrival of much-needed hold-up centre forward, Gifton Noel-Williams (on loan from Burnley).

He’d scored on his debut in a home draw against Luton and got an assist by laying on a goal for Paul Reid in a 2-0 win at Millwall two weeks before.

At Portman Road, always a favourite away ground, Albion, wearing the stylish all-burgundy away strip, opened the scoring when Noel-Williams buried a cross from Colin Kazim-Richards.

To add to the unexpected delight, teenage defender Lynch made sure our trip was a memorable one. Ipswich failed to clear a corner properly and when Reid returned the ball to the penalty area, Kazim-Richards jumped simultaneously with ‘keeper Shane Supple and the ball broke for Lynch (above left) to prod it in.

Albion, never wanting to make life too easy for themselves or their fans, allowed Ipswich to pull a goal back when Alan Lee flicked on from former Seagull Darren Currie’s cross for substitute Nicky Forster – a future £75,000 signing for Albion – to score. But thankfully it was too late for Ipswich to salvage anything from the game.

It was all to turn pear-shaped on the Easter Monday at home to Sheffield Wednesday, but for a couple of days at least the Great Escape still seemed a possibility.

In December 2006, the matchday programme devoted a two-page article to Lynch’s progress in the first team, pointing out how he had begun at left-back, stepped in as a left-sided centre-back – his more natural position – and even played right-back in the 8-0 thrashing of Northwich Victoria in the FA Cup.

Lynch spoke of the experience he had gained playing alongside the veteran defender Guy Butters, telling the programme: “I learned a lot from him, Guy’s had a great career and he is still playing great football. Hopefully I will just slot in there when the time comes and, in the meantime, I will play wherever the manager wants me to play and hopefully stay in the team. I’ve still got a lot of years ahead of me to make the centre-half slot my own.”

Lynch confessed being handed the no.5 shirt at the start of the season had given him a massive boost. “So far, I have really enjoyed this season. I have had my ups and downs and missed a few games due to my performances,” he said. “There have been things that I have had to sort out within my game, but I think I have resolved them now and I am slowly regaining my confidence and my performances have been improving week by week since I regained my place in the team.

“I feel more confident and my self-belief has improved a lot. I want to keep improving and I think that I can help the team in a big way.”

Lynch said a lot of the younger players had been inspired by Bobby Zamora’s elevation to Premiership football and added: “Hopefully a few years down the line we all will be playing at a higher level with Brighton in a new stadium.”

Interviewed by the Argus on the eve of the 2006-07 season, Lynch said: “Last season was a season to just keep on progressing and doing well.

“This season is one where I really want to push on. I want to play a major part in getting the club promoted and express myself more so maybe more clubs are interested in me or I get called up for England.”

Pretty bold stuff from a 19-year-old player still aiming to establish himself, but, having been awarded a three-year contract, he certainly wasn’t short of confidence. “I’ve got to do something really big or something big should happen,” he continued.

“We’ll take it one game at a time but you’ve got to aim for promotion. You can’t aim for anything else.”

Lynch certainly made his mark across the League One season, playing in a total of 44 league and cup games.

The following season was only a matter of a few weeks old when Lynch was sidelined by a hairline fracture in his left leg and ligament damage when twisting to clear in a game against Millwall. Then when he returned sooner than expected, he suffered a hamstring problem.

Perhaps if Albion’s move to the Amex had come sooner, Lynch might have stuck around, but he clearly felt he needed to be playing at a higher level than the Seagulls could attain at the time and, in September 2008, having made 88 first-team appearances, forced through a loan move to Nottingham Forest, with various extensions taking the loan through to the end of the season.

In July 2009, the deal eventually became permanent, with Forest paying a £200,000 fee and offering Lynch a three-year contract. Albion obtained midfielder Matt Thornhill on a six-month loan from Forest as part of the arrangement.

The young defender initially found it difficult to break through as a regular at Forest, with most of his appearances coming as a stand-in left-back.

It was in the 2011-12 season that he began to get games in his preferred position, at first playing alongside Wes Morgan and then, after Morgan’s transfer to Leicester, pairing with Luke Chambers.

In November 2011, writer Peter Blackburn waxed lyrical about Lynch’s form at Forest via the seatpitch.co.uk platform, describing him as “a tough-tackling, committed, classy and agile defender”.

Blackburn added: “Capable of reading the game, nipping in front of the attacker to steal the ball and hold his own in the air, Lynch also seems to possess the sort of driven cross-field ball out of defence not seen on the fair shores of the Trent since prodigal son, Michael Dawson so entertained the crowd.”

No doubt it would have delighted Lynch that he scored a last-gasp equaliser for Forest at the Amex in March 2012.

Four months later, he rejected a new deal at Forest to become a fifth new signing made by Simon Grayson at Huddersfield Town, and in August the same year he got onto the international stage – not for England, though, but Wales. He qualified for Wales because his father came from Barry in South Wales, and he made his debut as a substitute in a friendly against Bosnia and Herzogovina.

HuddExam Lynch Lynch made 22 appearances in his first season with the Terriers; nine more the following season, and 35 in 2014-15. In January 2015, Lynch was winner of the Examiner Huddersfield Town Player of the Month award, with writer Doug Thomson saying: “He scored a stunning goal to help clinch a welcome 3-1 win over Watford. But Lynch, who stung the Hornets with an overhead kick, also excelled in the centre of defence.

“And the former Brighton and Hove Albion and Nottingham Forest man played a key role when Town finally ended their long wait for an away win, and kept a clean sheet to boot, at Wigan Athletic.

“Calm and composed both on the ground and in the air, the 27-year-old brings plenty of experience to the backline. Lynch also works well alongside skipper Mark Hudson.”

lynch qpr After making 40 appearances for Town in 2015-16, he departed Yorkshire for London and signed a three-year deal with Championship side Queens Park Rangers.

The fee was undisclosed but was believed to be something of the order of £1.2 million and the QPR manager at the time, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink told bbc.co.uk: “He offers us something a little bit different. He’s left-sided, which will give us better balance, and has that ability to bring the ball out from the back.”

Hamstring and foot injuries hampered opportunities to show his worth to the Loftus Road faithful, a frustrating situation he talked about in January 2018, but he has since become a regular at the heart of the Rs’ defence.

Perhaps with an eye to the future, Lynch has a profile on the professional networking site LinkedIn.

Pictures sourced from The Argus (Simon Dack / Liz Finlayson), matchday programmes, Huddersfield Examiner and QPR websites.

Gerry Ryan – ‘a special player and one of football’s nice people’

THERE WAS no shortage of tributes paid to Gerry Ryan when the former Albion winger died at the age of 68 on 15 October 2023.

Fellow Irish international Liam Brady, who appointed Ryan as his assistant when he took charge of the Seagulls in 1996, said: “Gerry was a wonderful team-mate. He was a very quick winger, very brave, and he took people on.

“We had some great games together and then we ended up on opposite sides, for Brighton and Arsenal, in the old First Division.”

Although Ryan and Brady’s time in charge happened during a turbulent time off the pitch, Brady pointed out: “We did a pretty good job in what were, of course, difficult circumstances, and I could see then just what Brighton meant to him – he was in love with the club so much.

“Off the pitch, Gerry was just a really nice guy. He was affable, unassuming and got on with everyone he came in contact with.”

That sentiment was echoed by teammate Gordon Smith who told the Albion website: “Gerry was always fired up to play.

“He was not always first choice, but he was still a very good player. He had this ability to be able to turn games around because he was quick and he could score goals.

“He was so reliable – he could fit into any position with his levels of fitness, ability and positional play.

“We were a very close group; we socialised a lot, we played golf, went to the races and Gerry was a key part of that – he was a really good laugh.”

Turlough O’Connor, another former team-mate, from his early days playing for Bohemians in Dublin, told the Irish Independent: “He was the most easygoing guy you’d ever meet, very laidback and always in a happy mood, and a very good footballer as well.

“He was comfortable both left and right, very good on the ball, and very quick, which helped. A very good crosser, he went by people, and was always a threat. He helped so many times laying on goals for me.”

Ryan was one of the most likeable Albion players for a huge number of fans, and I was one of them.

A versatile trier who was good enough to represent the Republic of Ireland on 18 occasions, the wholehearted Ryan might not make it into the all-time best Brighton XI but, if it was judged on affability, his name would be first on the team sheet.

A cruel twist of fate saw his career ended in a tackle made by his Irish teammate (and former Albion boss) Chris Hughton’s brother, Henry. Typically, Ryan bore no grudges, as stressed by former Argus Albion reporter John Vinicombe in an article published in May 1986 when the genial Irishman finally accepted that his career was over.

Describing “the immense dignity and true manliness that Ryan displayed in refusing to condemn or indeed utter any harsh word against the player responsible,” he added: “Where others have sued and raged, slandered, cursed and threatened, Ryan said nothing.”

GR leg break

It was 2 April 1985 when his career was ended by that Hughton tackle in a 1-1 draw with Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park.

“Never in his life has he shirked a tackle and the one that ended his career so unfortunately at Crystal Palace was typical of many he faced in his career,” said Alan Mullery, the manager who signed him for the Seagulls.

“As a person, he is a lovely and typical Irish personality,” Mullery said in the programme for the player’s testimonial game against Spurs at the Goldstone on 8 August 1986. “I can honestly say that I have never met a player who dislikes him or has a bad word to say about him. I will remember Gerry Ryan as being a special player and one of football’s nice people.”

Mullery also referred to a Sunday lunch he and his family had with Ryan and his wife at the time he signed. “When Gerry ordered roast beef and chips I must have known then that I had a very special sort of player. At the time, I was a little dubious but afterwards I had no regrets.”

Mullery had been over in Dublin watching Albion’s Mark Lawrenson playing for the Republic of Ireland and Derby’s Ryan was playing in the same side. He had been having talks about moving to Stoke City but Mullers persuaded him to join Brighton instead, and, in a strange quirk of fate, he made his debut in a 2-2 draw away to Stoke.

After they’d become teammates, Lawrenson was among those players appreciative of Ryan’s “mercurial” qualities. He said in a matchday programme: “He wasn’t the most confident of players but he had loads of ability. For a wide player, he would come in and get goals for you.”

GR caps A week after joining the Seagulls, Ryan became an instant hit with Albion fans when he scored on his home debut in a 5-1 win over Preston. He notched a total of nine goals in 34 appearances in that first season and went on to score 39 in a total of 199 games.

Born in Dublin on 4 October 1955, Ryan was one of eight children. His early education was at the local convent in Walkinstown, a suburb to the south of Dublin where the family lived. At the age of eight he moved on to Drimnagh Castle School (it covered primary and secondary age groups).

At that stage, he was playing Gaelic football and hurling, at which he was capped at under-15 level by Dublin Schools. He didn’t play competitive football until he was 16 when he was introduced to a Dublin football club called Rangers AFC. He played alongside Kevin Moran, who later played for Manchester United, and Pat Byrne, who later played for Leicester City. Byrne and Ryan also played together for Bohemians, the oldest football club in Dublin.

Ryan joined the Dublin Corporation as a clerical officer on leaving school and played for Bohs as an amateur initially before becoming a part-timer on professional terms. By 18, Ryan was a first-team regular and, after collecting a League of Ireland Championship medal, was watched by Manchester United boss Tommy Docherty.

Docherty didn’t pounce then but, after Ryan had stayed four years with Bohemians, the ebullient Scot eventually returned to take him to England as his first signing for Derby County for a fee of £55,000.

The newly-appointed Docherty was determined to shake-up the club and while long-serving goalkeeper Colin Boulton was discarded along with striker Kevin Hector, Ryan, Scottish internationals Bruce Rioch and Don Masson, and Terry Curran and Steve Buckley were all introduced.

Ryan spoke about the way Docherty’s attitude towards him changed in an interview with Brian Owen of The Argus in 2016.

“One minute you were the blue-eyed boy, the next he wouldn’t even talk to you,” he said. Ryan made a hamstring injury worse by playing when Docherty insisted he was fit enough, and ended up sidelined for three months. “He didn’t like me then! That’s the way he was, he would turn on you, and he turned on me.”

Within a year, Docherty accepted Brighton’s £80,000 offer for Ryan and, as he was weighing up whether to choose the Seagulls or Stoke City, Ryan consulted the legendary Republic of Ireland and ex-Leeds midfielder Johnny Giles to ask his opinion.

“Gilesy said ‘Stoke have been in and out of the First Division forever but there is something going on down at Brighton. They get great crowds and it’s a beautiful place.’ I went to Brighton that weekend and absolutely loved it,” Ryan told Owen.

It was on 25 September 1978 winger Ryan arrived, prompting the departure of popular local lad Tony Towner after eight years at the Albion.

Five months before Ryan arrived at the Goldstone, he made his international debut, featuring for the first time in April 1978 in a 4-2 win over Turkey at Lansdowne Road. He only scored once for the Republic, but it was a cracking overhead kick in a 3-1 defeat against West Germany.

Ryan Eire

He was one of four regular Eire internationals playing for Albion at the time: Lawrenson, Tony Grealish and Michael Robinson the others.

His final appearance for his country came in a 0-0 draw against Mexico at Dalymount Park in 1984.

Ryan was part of some all-time history-making moments during his time with the Albion – scoring at St James’s Park in the 3-1 win over Newcastle on 5 May 1979 to clinch promotion to the top division for the first time, and burying the only goal of the game as unfancied Albion beat Brian Clough’s European champions Nottingham Forest, who’d previously not lost at home for two and a half years.

Ryan scores My personal favourite came on 29 December 1979 at the Goldstone when he ran virtually the entire length of a boggy, bobbly pitch to score past Joe Corrigan in the goal at the South Stand end to top off a 4-1 win over Manchester City. Ryan himself reckoned it was “the best goal I ever scored” as he recounted in a May 2020 BBC Sussex Sport interview with Johnny Cantor.

It was one of the most superb individual goals I saw scored and, when he was trying to recuperate from the horrific leg break which ultimately ended his career, I wrote to him in hospital to say what a special memory it held for me.

I was delighted to receive a grateful reply from him, and he has held a special place in my Albion memory bank ever since.

There were other stand-out occasions, two of which came against Liverpool:

in February 1983 at Anfield when he opened the scoring in Albion’s memorable 2-1 FA Cup triumph en route to the final, and, in the following season, at the Goldstone when he and Terry Connor were on target in Second Division Albion’s 2-0 win over the Reds in the same competition, the first-ever live FA Cup match (other than finals) to be shown (previously any television coverage of FA Cup ties was only ever recorded highlights).

If the modern-day reader can’t quite put the feat in perspective, it is worth pointing out that Liverpool, managed by Joe Fagan, went on to win the League Cup, the League title and the European Cup that season.

Danny Wilson hadn’t long since joined the Albion and, in an interview with the Seagull matchday programme in 2003, he recalled: “That has to be my favourite memory from all my time at the Goldstone. Back then, Liverpool were just awesome, and to beat them like we did was virtually unheard of.”

Ryan’s involvement in the 1983 Cup run was hampered by a hamstring injury which meant he missed out on the semi-final. But, in the days of only one substitute, he was on the bench for the final and, when the injured Chris Ramsey couldn’t continue, Ryan went on at Wembley and did a typically thorough job at right-back.

GR prog snow

Following Albion’s relegation, as the big-name players departed the Goldstone, Ryan’s versatility and play-anywhere attitude came to the fore and, in his last two seasons with the club he was often selected as a centre-forward, although he was not a prolific goalscorer from that position.

After he was forced to quit playing, Ryan took what was then quite a familiar route for ex-players and became a pub licensee, running the Witch Inn at Lindfield, near Haywards Heath. Ryan and goalkeeper Graham Moseley, who he’d known from his days at Derby, were neighbours in Haywards Heath.

GR pots

However, when another of his former Republic of Ireland teammates, Liam Brady, was appointed Albion manager in 1994, it was an inspired choice for him to appoint Ryan as his assistant.

When that all-too-brief managerial spell came to a messy close, Ryan returned to his pub, and then moved back to the family home in Walkinstown. Ryan’s son Darragh played 11 games for the Albion in the late 1990s.

Sadly, in August 2007, Ryan suffered a stroke, and three years later he was diagnosed with kidney cancer. On his death, his family paid tribute to the care he was given by the staff of Our Lady’s Hospice, Harold’s Cross and to the staff of Lisheen Nursing Home, Dr Brenda Griffin, the Beacon Renal Unit, Tallaght, and Tallaght Hospital Renal Unit “for the excellent care given to Gerry over the past number of years”.

Pictures from a variety of sources but mainly from my scrapbook, the matchday programme and The Argus.

Matthew Upson was a class act in Albion’s defence

ARTICULATE pundit Matthew Upson was deservedly player of the season after starring in Brighton & Hove Albion’s back line during the 2013-14 season.

Earlier, in a career spanning eleven clubs, he played more times (144 plus once as sub) for West Ham United than any of his other clubs. He also won 21 England caps.

Upson initially joined the Seagulls during the second half of the 2012-13 season, signing on loan from Premier League Stoke City, where, in two years, he’d only managed 21 games (plus four as sub) following four years with the Hammers.

On signing him for Brighton at the age of 33, manager Gus Poyet told seagulls.co.uk, “When we had the chance to bring a player with the quality of Matt until the end of the season we went for him.

“He’s experienced, he’s been a regular Premier League player and there were no doubts about it. He has presence, he’s a leader as well and it’s a good opportunity for us to use him the right way and for him to play football.”

Upson joined a side already blessed with the on-loan presence of another former England international in the shape of left-back Wayne Bridge, but unfortunately the side couldn’t get past arch rivals Crystal Palace in the play-offs to gain promotion from the Championship.

Although Poyet departed, Upson decided to make his move to Brighton permanent and played 41 games, mainly alongside skipper Gordon Greer. Unfortunately, Oscar Garcia’s squad also stumbled in the play-offs.

Hampered by an ankle injury towards the end of the season, although Upson played in the first leg 2-1 home defeat to Derby County – when he conceded a penalty with a clumsy foul – he was one of several players to miss out through injury in the away leg, when the Rams prevailed 4-1.

At the season’s end, Upson declined a new contract offer with the Albion and decided to seize the opportunity to return to Premier League football with newly-promoted Leicester City.

As it turned out, injury delayed his debut by seven months and he made just six appearances for the Foxes before ending his playing days with MK Dons, where he was limited to four full appearances plus three as a sub.

Upson is now a regular pundit on our TV screens, displaying verbally the sort of calm assuredness he demonstrated out on the pitch.

So where did it all begin? Born on 18 April 1979 in Eye, a small Suffolk market town, Upson went to Diss High School, over the border in Norfolk, and his football ability first shone at Diss Town FC. He went on to the Ipswich Town Centre of Excellence but it was Luton Town who took him on as a trainee after his Ipswich coach, Terry Westley, had switched to the Hatters.

It was to be a lucrative decision by Luton because, after signing him as a professional in April 1996, a year later they sold him to Arsenal for £2million. He only ever made one first team appearance for Luton and that was as an 88^th minute substitute against Rotherham United in August 1996.

Unfortunately, his time with the Gunners was dogged by injury and lack of opportunity because of the solid form of the likes of Tony Adams, Steve Bould and Martin Keown.

Just as he was beginning to make a breakthrough in the 2001-02 season, taking the ageing Keown’s place, he broke his leg and missed out on the Gunners’ end-of-season League and FA Cup double, although he earned a league winners’ medal. At the season’s end, he’d made 16 appearances plus six as a sub.

While waiting for his chance at Arsenal, he had gone out on loan, to Nottingham Forest and Crystal Palace, then Reading after his return from the leg break. But after a total of 39 appearances, plus eight as a sub, for Arsenal spanning five and a half years, he made a £1m move to Birmingham City in January 2003.

City were halfway through their first season in the Premier League, under Steve Bruce, and Upson made 14 appearances as the side finished in 13^th place.

Upson told the dailystar.co.uk: “I had a good four and a half years under him at Birmingham. We had quite a successful period there.”

It was during his time with the Blues, during which he made 127 appearances plus one as sub, that his form was recognised with a call up to the England squad.

He had played at youth level and 12 times for the under 21 side but his first call-up for the senior squad came in February 2003, when he was an unused sub for England’s 3-1 win over Australia.

Three months later, coach Sven-Göran Eriksson gave him his debut when he came on for the second half In England’s 2-1 win over South Africa in Durban on 22 May 2003.

His final international appearance also came in South Africa – when he scored in England’s 4-1 defeat to Germany which brought about their exit from the 2010 World Cup. His involvement in the tournament was keenly followed by relatives and the whole community back in Diss.

He was involved in the squad for two subsequent games in September that year, but didn’t get to play. In total, he won seven caps while with Birmingham and 14 under Fabio Capello, after he had moved to West Ham. Of his 21 England appearances, 16 were as a starter, five as a sub.

Birmingham boss Bruce was reluctant to lose him but, on the final day of the transfer window in January 2007, the recently appointed Hammers boss, Alan Curbishley, paid £6million to take him to Upton Park, where enjoyed the longest spell of his playing career.

As he’d experienced at previous clubs, injury hampered him early on but eventually he got a regular spot in the side and subsequently took on the captaincy after the departure of Lucas Neill in August 2009.

It was after relegation from the Premiership during Sam Allardyce’s tenure as manager that Upson finally left the Hammers at the end of the 2010-11 season.

studio upson

Gary Williams knew where the goal was – even from left back

A CARTILAGE operation when he was just 17 changed Gary Williams’ career, but, after success at Brighton, it eventually brought his playing days to a premature end at Crystal Palace.

Originally a winger, the operation, when he was an emerging player at Preston North End, took the edge of his pace and led to him converting into an overlapping left back.

Thankfully, as Brighton fans would witness, his ability to score important goals never left him.

Born in Litherland, Liverpool, on 8 March 1954, Gary Peter Williams had unsuccesful trials with Liverpool and Coventry City before starting his career with non-league Marine. He caught the eye of a scout who’d gone to watch a different player and ended up signing for Preston in April 1972.

Williams made his Preston debut in the final game of the 1971-72 season as Preston drew 2-2 at home to Swindon.

He then played in the opening match of the following season, against Aston Villa, but had to wait until the end of March at Brighton for his next appearance.

After his cartilage op, and just when he thought he was set to be released aged 18, Preston’s reserve team left-back got injured, Williams filled in, did a good job, and it was the platform he needed to launch his career.

“Because I used to be a winger, I knew which way to shepherd them to make it difficult to cut inside,” he told the journalist and author Spencer Vignes in his 2005 book, A Few Good Men.

It was the legendary Bobby Charlton, briefly trying out management at North End, who gave Williams his big break into first team football, selecting him at left back for the final eight games of the 1974-75 season.

Young Gary Williams with former England World Cup winner, Nobby Stiles, at Preston, and scoring the winner at Sunderland.

Former Everton boss Harry Catterick took over from Charlton and made Williams the first choice left back in 1975-76. The following season his outstanding performances earned him the Player of the Season award and on 22 March 1977, he made his 100^th league appearance in a 1-0 defeat at Selhurst Park.

By then, Williams was catching the eye of clubs higher up the league and his final game for Preston was the season-ending fixture at Shrewsbury on 14 May, which North End won 2-1.

In July 1977, Preston accepted a £45,000 fee from Brighton to sign Williams shortly after his teammate Mark Lawrenson joined for £100,000. Albion’s Graham Cross and Harry Wilson moved in the opposite direction to fill the positions they’d vacated.

Williams told Vignes how he’d always enjoyed playing against Brighton because of the size of the crowds they got.

“To run out in Division 3 at the Goldstone in front of a full house was amazing. You knew you were in for a hard time but the atmosphere was just infectious,” he said.

Manager Alan Mullery had called him and asked him to get himself down to Brighton and the club booked a room in the Metropole Hotel, the sea view helping to make up his mind about the move.

“I wanted to better myself and get into the First Division but football is such an up and down game that it’s not too wise to look too far ahead,” Williams told Football Weekly News magazine in 1980.

The start to his Albion career was somewhat inauspicious. Although he came on as a substitute in the opening game, a league cup tie away to Cambridge United which finished 0-0, injury then prevented him making his league debut for two months.

It finally came in a 2-0 win away to Sunderland on 1 October 1977 and he then missed only one game through to the end of the season, appearing a total of 34 times as the Seagulls finished fourth, missing promotion on goal difference to Tottenham.

The following season saw Williams play every game, scoring twice, as Brighton were runners-up to Palace gaining promotion to Division One for the first time.

In Albion’s first season amongst the elite, Williams was again ever present – indeed, he remarkably played 146 consecutive games during his time at the club.

The Everton-supporting full-back got the chance to play against his boyhood side in December 1979 and three months later he scored the first of two cracking, memorable Brighton goals in the top division as the Seagulls finished in 16th position.

On 29 March 1980, at the Goldstone, he lashed a shot from 30 yards that flew past England goalkeeper Peter Shilton to earn Albion the double over European Cup holders Nottingham Forest.

Williams beats Nottingham Forest full back Viv Anderson at the Goldstone and, together with Gary Stevens, tries to thwart Liverpool’s Kenny Dalglish.

Williams admits he was about to pass it until skipper Brian Horton urged him to ‘hit the ****ing thing!’

“When you hit the ball that sweetly, you don’t even really feel a thing,” he recounted to Vignes, in that 2005 interview. “By the time I looked up, it was heading for the top corner.”

Although Forest boss Brian Clough declared it a fluke in a post-match interview, because the game took place in front of the TV cameras, it was selected as one of the goals of the season.

Thirteen months after that goal, Williams struck another beauty, this time to silence the Sunderland faithful at Roker Park.

It clinched Albion a 2-1 win and was part of a late flurry of good results which saw the Seagulls escape the clutches of relegation.

Describing it to Vignes, he said: “It was our last attack of the game. Gordon Smith knocks a good ball into the penalty area and I’ve just taken a gamble and gone up from the halfway line. I say so myself but it was a really good volley.

“It fell to me around 10 yards out and you hear the net ripple because the crowd went silent.”

While it contributed to Albion staying up, that summer saw the departure of Mullery, Lawrenson and Horton and the arrival of Mike Bailey into the manager’s chair. It was to signal the end of Williams’ Brighton career.

Bailey favoured a far more defensive approach to his predecessor and brought in the experienced Northern Ireland international Sammy Nelson, who had been displaced at Arsenal by the arrival of Kenny Sansom.

Williams only learned about the signing through The Argus and, when he confronted the manager about it, was told Nelson was only going to be a squad player.

“I’m thinking ‘bollocks’ but he didn’t play him straightaway,” Williams recounted. “He couldn’t drop me because I wasn’t doing anything wrong.”

Ironically, however, he lost his place after bombing forward and scoring in a 4-1 win over Manchester City. Astonishingly, Bailey was annoyed that he had been too adventurous!

With Nelson keen to carry on playing and earn a place in Northern Ireland’s 1982 World Cup squad, it meant Williams was left to languish in the reserves.

By the end of the season, though, Mullery, by now manager of Crystal Palace, came to Willams’ rescue and gave him a chance to resume first team football.

In a swap deal that saw winger Neil Smillie arrive at the Goldstone, Williams moved to Selhurst.

But after only 10 games he was forced to have an operation on his troublesome knee. Expert advice steered him towards a painful decision but he took it and retired from the game aged just 29.

Williams told the Argus: “The trouble with my knee is really wear and tear. I had a cartilage out at 17, and I was told after the operation last October a lot of harm might be caused if I went on playing.”

In A Few Good Men, Vignes gained a great insight into a northern lad who fell in love with the Albion and remains a fan to this day.

“I was very lucky in that I played right at the beginning of the era of overlapping full-backs,” Williams told him. “It was beginning to creep in when I first came onto the scene, and I had an advantage as I’d started my career as a left-winger. I knew all about coming forward.”

gwms quit cutting

Mike Bailey took the Seagulls to their highest-ever finish

ONE OF the all-time greats of Wolverhampton Wanderers led Brighton & Hove Albion to their highest-ever finish in football.

Midfield general Mike Bailey played for Wolves for 11 seasons between 1965 and 1976, leading the team to promotion from the Second Division in 1966-67, helping them to top-flight positions of fourth and fifth in 1971 and 1973, getting to the final of the UEFA Cup in 1972, and lifting the League Cup at Wembley in 1974.

MB WWFCLgeCup Mike Bailey holds aloft the League Cup after Wolves beat Manchester City 2-1 at Wembley.

It was perhaps a hard act to follow Alan Mullery as manager of Brighton, particularly as the former Spurs and Fulham captain had led the club from Third Division obscurity to the pinnacle of English football within three years.

But Bailey had just got Charlton Athletic promoted from the Third Division and in the 1981-82 season led Albion to a 13^th place finish, a record which was only threatened in 2017-18 by Chris Hughton’s side, who eventually ended up 15^th.

Unfortunately, although Bailey’s team was relatively successful, the style of play he adopted to achieve that position was a turn-off to the fans who deserted the Albion in their hundreds and thousands.

Eventually, chairman Mike Bamber felt he had to address the slump in support by sacking Bailey in December 1982. “He’s a smashing bloke, I’m sorry to see him go, but it had to be done,” said Bamber. There are plenty – in particular Bailey! – who feel he acted a little too hastily.

Bailey shared his feelings in an interview he gave to the News of the World’s Reg Drury in the run-up to the 1983 FA Cup Final.

Mike Bailey talks to the News of the World; his often frank programme notes; his assistant, John Collins, a former Luton Town player.

“It seems that my team has been relegated from the First Division while Jimmy Melia’s team has reached the Cup Final,” he began.

Wanting to put the record straight having been hurt by some of the media coverage he’d seen since his departure, he explained: “I found the previous manager Alan Mullery had left me with a good squad, but, naturally I built on it and imposed my own style of play.”

Bailey resented accusations that his style had been dull and boring football, pointing out: “Nobody said that midway through last season when we were sixth and there was talk of Europe.

“We were organised and disciplined and getting results. John Collins, a great coach, was on the same wavelength as me. We wanted to lay the foundations of lasting success, just like Bill Shankly and Bob Paisley did at Liverpool.

“The only problem was that winning 1-0 and 2-0 didn’t satisfy everybody. I tried to change things too soon – that was a mistake.

“When I left, we were 18^th with more than a point a game. I’ve never known a team go down when fifth from bottom.”

It was clear from the outset of Bailey’s reign that he didn’t suffer fools gladly and there were numerous clashes with players, notably Steve Foster, Michael Robinson and Neil McNab, the displaced Gordon Smith and Mickey Thomas, a Bailey signing who repeatedly went missing because his wife didn’t like it in the south.

Bailey would vent his feelings quite overtly in his matchday programme notes; he was not afraid to hit out at referees, the football authorities and the media, as well as trying to explain his decisions to supporters, urging them to get behind the team rather than criticise.

Happier times as Mike Bailey becomes Albion manager and signs Tony Grealish to replace outgoing stalwart midfielder and skipper, Brian Horton.

Attempting to shine a light on the comings and goings associated with his arrival, he explained: “The moves we have been making are designed to provide Brighton with a better football team and one that can consolidate its position in the First Division, rather than struggle, such as in the last two seasons.”

By Christmas, the team were comfortably in the top half of the table and in an interview with the Argus, Bailey said: “I must admit that as a player and captain of Wolves I was a bit of a bastard, slagging others off, and that sort of thing. But being a manager, one sees everything in a different light. I am still trying to learn as a manager, especially now that I am with a First Division club.”

Three months later, shortly after he had appeared at a fans forum at the Brighton Centre, he very pointedly said: “It is my job to select the team and to try to win matches.

“People are quite entitled to their opinion, but I am paid to get results for Brighton and that is my first priority.

“Building a successful team is a long-term business and I have recently spoken to many top people in the professional game who admire what we are doing here at Brighton and just how far we have come in a short space of time.

“We know we still have a long way to go, but we are all working towards a successful future.”

As he assessed his first season, he said: “Many good things have come out of our season. Our early results were encouraging and we quickly became an organised and efficient side. The lads got into their rhythm quickly and it was a nice ‘plus’ to get into a high league position so early on.”

He had special words of praise for Gary Stevens and said: “Although the youngest member of our first team squad, Gary is a perfect example to his fellow professionals. Whatever we ask of him he will always do his best, he is completely dedicated and sets a fine example to his fellow players.”

Meanwhile, in his own end of season summary, Argus Albion reporter John Vinicombe maintained: “It is Bailey’s chief regret that he changed his playing policy in response to public, and possibly private, pressure with the result that Albion finished the latter part of the season in most disappointing fashion.

“Accusations that Albion were the principal bores of the First Division at home were heaped on Bailey’s head, and, while he is a man not given to altering his mind for no good reason, certain instructions were issued to placate the rising tide of criticisms.”

Vinicombe recorded that the average home gate for 1981-82 was 18,241, fully 6,500 fewer than had supported the side during their first season amongst the elite.

“The Goldstone regulars, who are not typical of First Division crowds (but neither is the ground) grew restless at a series of frustrating home draws, and finally turned on their own players,” he said.

At the beginning of the following season, off-field matters brought disruption to the playing side. Arsenal’s former FA Cup winner Charlie George had trained with the Seagulls during pre-season and senior players Foster, Robinson and McNab publicly voiced their disappointment that the money wasn’t found to bring such a player on board permanently.

McNab in particular accused the club of lacking ambition and efforts were made to send him out on loan. Similarly, Robinson was lined up for a swap deal with Sunderland’s Stan Cummins, but it fell through.

Meanwhile, Albion couldn’t buy a win away from home and suffered two 5-0 defeats (against Luton and West Brom) and a 4-0 spanking at Nottingham Forest – all in September. Then, four defeats on the spin in November, going into December, finally cost Bailey his job. Perhaps the writing was on the wall when, in his final programme contribution, he blamed the run of poor results on bad luck and admitted: “I feel we are somehow in a rut.”

It would be fair to say Bailey the player enjoyed more success than Bailey the manager. So, where did it all begin?

Born on 27 February 1942 in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, he went to the same school in Gorleston, Norfolk, as the former Arsenal centre back Peter Simpson. His career began with non-league Gorleston before Charlton Athletic snapped him up in 1958 and he spent eight years at The Valley.

M Bailey charlton During his time there, he was capped twice by England as manager Alf Ramsey explored options for his 1966 World Cup squad. Just a week after making his fifth appearance for England under 23s, Bailey, aged 22, was called up to make his full debut in a friendly against the USA on 27 May 1964.

He had broken into the under 23s only three months earlier, making his debut in a 3-2 win over Scotland at St James’ Park, Newcastle, on 5 February 1964.He retained his place against France, Hungary, Israel and Turkey, games in which his teammates included Graham Cross, Mullery and Martin Chivers.

England ran out 10-0 winners in New York with Roger Hunt scoring four, Fred Pickering three, Terry Paine two, and Bobby Charlton the other.

Eight of that England side made it to the 1966 World Cup squad two years later but a broken leg put paid to Bailey’s chances of joining them, even though he got one more chance to impress Ramsey.

Six months after the win in New York, he was in the England team who beat Wales 2-1 at Wembley in the Home Championship. Frank Wignall, who would later spend a season with Bailey at Wolves, scored both England’s goals. Many years later, Wignall was playing for Burton Albion when a certain Peter Ward began to shine!

In 1965, Bailey broke his leg in a FA Cup tie against Middlesbrough and that was at a time when such injuries could be career-threatening.

“I was worried that may have been it,” Bailey recalled in his autobiography, The Valley Wanderer: The Mike Bailey Story (published in November 2015). “In the end, I was out for six months. My leg got stronger and I never had problems with it again, so it was a blessing in disguise in that respect.

“Charlton had these (steep) terraces. I’d go up to them every day, I was getting fitter and fitter. But it was too late to get in the 1966 World Cup side – Alf Ramsey had got his team in place.”

Bailey missed out on the 1966 England World Cup squad but he won Football League representative honours and enjoyed success as captain of Wolves.

During his time with the England under 23s, Bailey had become friends with Wolves’ Ernie Hunt (the striker who later played for Coventry City) and Hunt persuaded him to move to the Black Country club.

Thus began an association which saw him play a total of 436 games for Wolves over 11 seasons, leading a side with solid defenders like John McAlle, Francis Munro and Derek Parkin, combined with exciting players like forwards Derek Dougan and John Richards, plus winger Dave Wagstaffe.

However, when coach Sammy Chung stepped up to take over as manager, he selected Kenny Hibbitt ahead of Bailey so the former skipper chose to end his playing days in America, with the Minnesota Kicks, who were managed by the former Brighton boss Freddie Goodwin.

Nevertheless, Bailey’s contribution to the team famous for their old gold kit saw him inducted into the Wolves Hall of Fame in 2010.

On his return to the UK, Bailey became manager of Hereford United, then he returned to The Valley as manager of Charlton and, immediately after getting them promoted to the third tier, took over at Brighton in the summer of 1981.

A somewhat extraordinary stat I discovered about Bailey’s management career in England through managerstats.co.uk was that he managed each of those three clubs for just 65 games. At Hereford, his record was W 32, D 11, L 22; at Charlton W 21, D 17, L 27; at Brighton, W 20 D 17, L 28.

In 1984, he moved to Greece to manage OFI Crete, and he later worked as reserve team coach at Portsmouth. Later still, he did some scouting work for Wolves.

Pictures from various sources: Goal and Shoot! magazines; the Evening Argus, the News of the World, and the Albion matchday programme.

In parallel lines

Nick Turrell's Brighton & Hove Albion blog

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