Tag: Paul Cooper

John ‘Stonewall’ Jackson a loyal George Petchey disciple

NOT TO BE confused with the founder and first manager of Brighton & Hove Albion, that man’s namesake, John Jackson, was a coach at the Goldstone in the ‘80s and the ‘90s.

Less well known was that he could have been in goal for Albion for the 1983 FA Cup Final. Rather like Steve Foster, back-up ‘keeper Perry Digweed was serving a suspension when the game against Manchester United came round.

Digweed had been sent off in a reserve match in early May 1983 and was banned for the final and the replay. So, if anything had happened to first choice Graham Moseley – and let’s face it, he had been known to have off-field mishaps at other times during his Albion career – the man between the sticks at Wembley could well have been Jackson.

Jackson had signed on emergency Combination forms in February 1983 and played for the Reserves in a 1-1 draw at home to Luton when Moseley and youth team ‘keeper Martin Hyde were both injured. He stayed on and helped coach the youth team alongside John Shepherd and with Moseley fully fit was not needed for first team duty (in those days, there were no substitute goalkeepers on the bench).

Jackson, who died aged 80 four days after Christmas 2022, had spent the earlier part of the 1982-83 season at Hereford United, who had just finished bottom of the Fourth Division. He had appeared in six matches at the end of a 19-year career. bullsnews.blogspot.com reveals that Jackson was the oldest league player to turn out for United. He was six days past his 40th birthday when he played against Darlington on 11 September 1982.

It was all a far cry from the days when he was Crystal Palace’s first choice goalkeeper for eight seasons. He subsequently followed his former Palace coach George Petchey to Orient (where he played in the same side as Albion’s 1983 FA Cup Final captain Tony Grealish) and Millwall.

It seemed wherever Petchey went, Jackson was sure to go too. When Petchey was Chris Cattlin’s assistant manager at Brighton, he brought in Jackson to coach the Albion goalkeepers once a week. It was certainly a job close to home for Jackson, who lived in Hangleton with his wife and three daughters.

In an interview with Football Weekly News in 1979, Jackson said: “Petchey was coach at Palace, and manager of Orient, when I was with them, therefore I felt it was right to join the devil you know than the one you don’t know! I find George a straightforward and honest man to work with.”

When Petchey returned to the Albion in January 1994, as part of Liam Brady’s backroom team, it wasn’t long before Jackson was added to the staff to help his mentor develop young players.

And after Brady’s departure and Petchey’s elevation to become Jimmy Case’s assistant, Jackson took over running the youth team.

Jackson remained in post throughout the managerial upheavals of Case’s departure, the Steve Gritt reign, and the arrival of Brian Horton. But he left at the end of the 1997-98 season when Horton brought in Martin Hinshelwood as director of youth and former captain Dean Wilkins as youth team coach.

Born in Hammersmith on 5 September 1942, Jackson went to St Clement Danes School and spent time with Brentford as a junior. But it was Palace who swooped to sign him up, as Jackson explained in a 2019 cpfc.co.uk interview.

“Arthur Rowe spotted me playing for a London grammar school against an FA youth XI made up of players from other London teams and he got in touch with my teacher, and from that conversation I ended up having a couple of games with the Palace reserve side aged 18. Then, when I joined full-time, I eventually took the opportunity with both hands, literally!”

Jackson was often described as the best goalkeeper England never had. While he was unfortunate not to earn a full international cap, he played seven times for England Youth between February and May 1961, his teammates including the likes of Bert Murray, Ron Harris, Francis Lee and David Pleat.

He signed as a trainee at Palace in March 1962, and in the 1964-65 season initially shared the ‘keeper’s jersey with Welsh international Tony Millington (whose younger brother Grenville was briefly back-up ‘keeper to Brian Powney at Brighton).

Once Jackson established himself as first choice, he kept the shirt for the next eight seasons. At one stage, he played 222 consecutive games for Palace.

On the where-are-they-now.co.uk website, contributor Martin Wiseman said: “He was definitely one of the best goalkeepers I ever saw as Palace were pretty terrible most of the time and often he was the only thing that kept us in the game. When we played one of the bigger teams, the game was often just a succession of John Jackson saves. Brilliant player.”

Indeed, he was nicknamed ‘Stonewall’ Jackson (after the famous American Civil War Confederate general). Of his mentor Petchey, he said: “He used to work me hard but the harder you worked at your game the more you learned and the better you would become. He made me a more confident player.”

Unluckily for Jackson, it was an era when England were blessed with a string of fine goalkeepers. Apart from Gordon Banks, there was Gordon West (Blackpool and Everton), Jim Montgomery (Sunderland), Peter Bonetti (Chelsea) and, at under 23 level, Peter Grummitt was preferred.

The closest Jackson came to senior international recognition came on 17 March 1971 when he kept goal for a Football League XI that beat a Scottish League XI 1-0 at Hampden Park. Ralph Coates scored the only goal of the game and the English line up included World Cup winners Bobby Moore and Geoff Hurst. Playing in defence alongside Moore were Paul Reaney (Leeds), Roy McFarland (Derby) and Derek Parkin (Wolves).

Jackson’s reign between the sticks for Palace came to an end when flamboyant Malcolm Allison took over as manager. Palace fans were not happy. In the book We All Follow The Palace edited by Tony Matthews (Eagle Eye 1993), Keith Brody wrote: “When Jacko left us, it marked the end of an era, culturally as well as football-wise.

“It is oddly fitting that he was swept away with the same disrespect that has come to symbolise the generation that replaced his ilk. Even though we have plenty to thank Big Mal for, his treatment of our hero means it should always be done through clenched teeth.

“It would have been offensive if a loyal, but crap, goalkeeper had been replaced by Paul Hammond and Tony Burns, but to do it to Jacko was unthinkable.

“Watching the ineffective Hammond for three long years after the joys of Jackson was almost unbearable. Every game was spent pondering on the value of what we’d given away.”

It was on 16 October 1973 that Jackson followed his former coach Petchey to Orient for £25,000 (Gerry Queen, Phil Hoadley, Bill Roffey and David Payne were other ex-Palace players who made that switch) and at Bloomfield Road he went on to attract a whole new band of admirers. Indeed, in Tony McDonald’s book Orient in the 70s, Jackson is described as “Orient’s greatest ever goalkeeper”.

Palace did give Jackson a testimonial match, however, and on 11 December 1973, a Selhurst Park crowd of 11,628 turned out for a match opponents Chelsea won 3-1.

Orient were a second tier side throughout Jackson’s time at the club, during which they had some unsuccessful tilts at promotion but enjoyed some exciting FA Cup runs, including making it to the semi-final in 1978 before losing 3-0 to Arsenal.

Their run to the semis included a memorable fifth round replay win over Chelsea, with Jackson pulling off a superb save to deny Clive Walker an equaliser as Orient clung on to a 2-1 lead courtesy of two Peter Kitchen goals.

Jackson had taken over from Ray Goddard as Orient’s no.1 and it must have been a very happy Christmas for him when promotion contenders Orient beat Palace 3-0 at home on Boxing Day 1973 in front of a bumper crowd of 20,611.

Come the end of the season, they missed out on promotion by a single point to Carlisle United after failing to beat Aston Villa (it was 1-1) in front of another huge crowd of 29,766, and the LWT cameras for The Big Match.  Days earlier Villa had lost 2-0 at Carlisle for whom Graham ‘Tot’ Winstanley proved an able deputy for suspended captain Bill Green.

Another memorable game filmed for The Big Match saw Jackson concede three on 7 April 1979 when Albion were on their way to promotion from the Second Division. Orient took the lead at Brisbane Road but Brighton equalised thus: “Paul Clark cracked in a seemingly unstoppable shot, miraculously John Jackson parried the effort but only to Peter Sayer, and (pictured above) the little Welshman slammed the ball joyfully into the home goal,” the matchday programme recorded. The game eventually finished 3-3, Albion’s other goals coming from Martin Chivers (his only one for Brighton) and Clark.

Three years earlier, Orient were finalists in the rather curious Anglo-Scottish Cup tournament of that time: 16 English teams and eight Scottish sides played a mix of group stage games and two-legged knockout matches.

Orient topped their group above Norwich, Chelsea and Fulham; they beat Aberdeen 2-0 on aggregate in the quarter finals and Partick Thistle 4-2 in the semis. They eventually lost out 5-1 on aggregate to Nottingham Forest, but it was Brian Clough’s first piece of silverware as Forest manager, and he said in his biography: “Those who said it was a nothing trophy were absolutely crackers. We’d won something, and it made all the difference.”

In common with many other English players at the time, Jackson tried his luck in the United States and in 1977 played for St Louis Stars, returning in 1978 when they became Californian Surf. His head coach was John Sewell, who’d been a playing colleague at Crystal Palace and Orient. Ironically, his predecessor at St Louis was Bill Glazier, the former Coventry City ‘keeper, who’d also been his predecessor at Palace.

It was the arrival of former West Ham ‘keeper Mervyn Day at Brisbane Road that signalled the end of Jackson’s time in Leyton and, in August 1979, Petchey, who’d taken over from Gordon Jago as boss at Millwall, signed him for £7,500.

“I have been in the game too long to end it in the reserves and decided that if I was to finish playing, it would be in the first team,” Jackson told Football Weekly News.

The then Third Division Lions went on to win the league. Jackson played a total of 53 matches for them that season and he was chosen by his fellow professionals in the 1979-80 PFA team of the year. (Former Brighton winger Tony Towner played 50 games for Millwall that campaign and scored 13 goals)

After two years with Millwall, by a curious turn of events, Bobby Robson signed him for the previous season’s First Division runners up Ipswich Town as a back-up to Paul Cooper.

His one league appearance for Ipswich was in a top-of-the-table clash against Manchester United, with Ipswich needing to win to stay in with a chance of winning the League Championship. And they did, 2-1, with John Wark scoring both and John Gidman replying for United.

The game was played in front of a 25,763 crowd at Portman Road and Jackson was given a standing ovation at the end after he’d pulled off three important saves. Robson was quoted in the Guardian as saying: “We have paid him a year’s salary to make those saves, but it was worth it!”

However, while Ipswich finished the season five points ahead of United, they were once again runners up, finishing four points behind champions Liverpool.

Even a second placed finish was enough to convince the English FA to give Robson the job of replacing Ron Greenwood as England manager after the country’s unbeaten exit from the World Cup in Spain.

While Jackson might have thought his playing days were over, they weren’t quite. Frank Lord signed him for Fourth Division Hereford United. Lord wasn’t long in the job, though, and he was succeeded by the Bulls’ long-serving former ‘keeper Tommy Hughes, who had played on loan for Brighton in 1973.

Jackson’s move into goalkeeper coaching at Brighton under Cattlin was to prove a career-defining moment for another top goalkeeper of that era: former Manchester City custodian Joe Corrigan.

“I got talking to him and it inspired me to look into doing something similar,” Corrigan told the Manchester City matchday programme on 29 September 2018. “So, it was down to Brighton indirectly that I moved into the next phase of my career.”

Corrigan had been signed by Jimmy Melia and was coming to the end of his illustrious playing career. He fell out with Melia’s successor, Cattlin, and went on loan to Stoke City, but eventually was forced to quit after being injured in an Albion reserve match.

He went on to become goalkeeper coach at Liverpool for 10 years, and also worked at Stockport, West Brom and Hull.

Jackson took a variety of different jobs outside of football – fitting blinds, working for a golf magazine, selling golf equipment and as a courier for Lewes Council. During his second spell back at the Albion, amongst the youngsters he took through was goalkeeper Will Packham.

Jackson signed him on as a YTS trainee after he left Blatchington Mill School in Hove, and he spent nine years on the club’s books.

‘Film star’ defender Osman’s cameo role for the Seagulls

RUSSELL OSMAN achieved lifelong fame for his appearance in the much-shown 1981 prisoner of war football film Escape to Victory but 17 appearances for Brighton in the latter stages of his career have largely been forgotten.

A cultured central defender who played in the same side as Jimmy Case at Southampton won 11 England caps at the peak of his game when a key part of Bobby Robson’s Ipswich Town side of the early 1980s.

He was 36 by the time he arrived on a monthly contract at third-tier Albion in September 1995 and what was happening on the pitch at that time was largely overshadowed by events off it.

News was emerging that the Goldstone Ground had been sold, leading to manager Liam Brady quitting in disgust in November 1995, passing on the reins to Case, who very reluctantly took on the job.

With Steve Foster and Stuart Munday struggling with injury, Brady brought in the experienced Osman to play alongside Paul McCarthy. His debut came in a 4-1 Auto Windscreens Shields game away to Cambridge United, the first of 12 successive games before Munday returned towards the end of November when Osman picked up a hamstring injury.

Meanwhile, Case pointed out in his first programme notes as manager, for the FA Cup game at home to Fulham on 14 December: “There is no secret he would still like to get back into management and we are happy to leave his position as it is on a month-to-month basis.”

Osman was back in the side for the 1-0 Boxing Day win away to Brentford and kept his place for the next two matches. But with Ross Johnson taking on the no.5 shirt, Osman got only one more start: in a 0-0 draw away to Hull City. He made one appearance as a sub in place of McCarthy and was twice a non-playing sub. As he turned 37, he took the opportunity to switch to Cardiff City, which, as the match day programme noted, was a lot closer to his Bristol home.

Born on 14 February 1959 in Repton, Derbyshire, Osman eventually followed in his dad Rex’s footsteps in becoming a professional footballer (Osman senior played for Derby County in the ‘50s), but it was rugby at which Russell excelled during schooldays at Burton on Trent Grammar. So much so that he played for England at under 15 level and captained his country as an under 16.

However, the sports-mad youngster also played football for his village team and when they reached the final of the Derby & District Cup, he was watched by Bobby Robson’s brother Tom, who lived in the area. “He came down and watched the game, we won the final and the next thing I knew I had a call from Ipswich to go on trial,” Osman said in an interview with the East Anglian Daily Times. “The rest is history. They were very good at getting kids to go on trial and they went that extra mile to make sure we were looked after and treated well.”

Osman recalls many aspects and anecdotes of his career on a blog, Golf, Football and Life, and he said he would be forever grateful for the dedication shown by Ipswich’s youth team coach, Charlie Woods, who became Robson’s right-hand man throughout his career.

“Charlie used to drive from Ipswich to my dad’s pub in Repton on a Friday to pick me up and take me back down to Ipswich, putting me up for the night in his and Pat’s house, just so that I could make the game on a Saturday morning,” he wrote. “I doubt that you would get many coaches who would make an eight-hour round trip just to get a schoolboy to a game.”

Osman became an apprentice at Portman Road in July 1975 and signed on as a professional in March 1976. Eventually, he and Terry Butcher took over the centre back roles previously filled by Northern Ireland international Allan Hunter and England international Kevin Beattie.

Osman in action for Ipswich against Arsenal’s Liam Brady, later to become his boss at Brighton

The 1980-1981 season was certainly momentous in Osman’s life. He played in 66 matches (including four for England) over the course of the season as Ipswich won the UEFA Cup, finished runners-up in the old First Division and reached the semi-finals of the FA Cup.

For a large part of the season, Town looked like they would win the First Division title for the first time since 1962 under Alf Ramsey but only three wins from the last 10 matches meant they had to settle for second place, four points behind Aston Villa.

At the end of the season, Robson asked the squad if any of them fancied spending the summer playing more football to help make a feature film. Osman and teammates John Wark, Kevin O’Callaghan, Robin Turner, Laurie Sivell, Paul Cooper and Beattie jumped at the chance and spent five weeks in Budapest making Escape to Victory, directed by the legendary John Huston.

The Escape to Victory football team which featured Osman (back, left)

Osman played the part of prison camp inmate Doug Clure and he has since talked and written about the experience, in July 2021 remembering the experience in an interview with a BBC reporter. Osman recounts how the Ipswich lads and other professionals such as Bobby Moore, Pelé, Mike Summerbee and Ossie Ardiles played football scenes alongside established actors Michael Caine and Sylvester Stallone.

Beattie was Caine’s ‘double’ in the football scenes and Cooper helped Stallone with goalkeeping skills. Turner and Sivell played for the German team and Osman, Wark and O’Callaghan had speaking roles.

“Michael was brilliant, he made all the lads feel at home on set by telling a few funny stories and taking all the tension out of the situation,” said Osman. “I managed to deliver my lines and we were off and running, literally.”

Osman’s first international football recognition came for England under 21s in February 1979 as a substitute for Billy Gilbert in a 1-0 win over Wales at Swansea. In September the same year, he got his first start at that level alongside his Ipswich teammate Butcher (in a 1-0 win over Denmark at Vicarage Road).

The first of Osman’s 11 full England caps came on 31 May 1980, in a 2-1 win v Australia in Sydney which was the game in which Peter Ward made his one and only appearance for the full England side, appearing as an 82nd minute substitute for Alan Sunderland.

Osman was 21 at the time and he went on to play in five competitive matches and five more friendlies, rather curiously only playing for his country on home soil three times, and only being on the winning side twice, both times against Australia.

Osman did make a couple of appearances for the England B side: on 26 March 1980 he played in a 1-0 win over Spain at Roker Park, Sunderland (Joe Corrigan was in goal) and later the same year, on 14 October, he was in the B team that beat the USA 1-0 at Old Trafford.

He had been in Ron Greenwood’s provisional squad of 40 for the 1982 World Cup but was not included in the final 22, Albion’s Foster getting the nod instead as reserve centre back.

Osman’s last international was on 21 September 1983, when England lost 1-0 to Denmark in a Euro 1984 qualifier, by which time his former club manager Robson had taken over from Greenwood, who’d given Osman his first six caps.

Although Ipswich challenged at the top of the First Division in 1981-82, they once again finished four points behind the champions, this time Liverpool, and after Robson left to take on the England manager’s job, the side was gradually broken up. Osman and Eric Gates both left in 1985.

After making 385 appearances for Town, Osman signed for Leicester City for £240,000 where he played 120 games under three different managers: Gordon Milne, Bryan Hamilton and David Pleat.

When the Foxes dropped down to the second tier, it was Southampton, and manager Chris Nicholl, who gave Osman – at 29 – the chance to play at the top level again.

A tribunal-determined fee of £325,000 took him to The Dell where he made his debut in the opening match of 1988-89, a 4-0 win over West Ham. He initially partnered Kevin Moore at the heart of their defence, then later Neil Ruddock.

“At Southampton I played just behind the great Jimmy Case, and what an experience that was,” Osman recalled. “Every day there would be something that made you smile about playing with Jimmy; well, it did if he was on your side anyway. Hard as a rock, cute and clever as a footballer, better than people gave him credit for, a wonderful passer of the ball. Sometimes his playing ability was overshadowed by his extravagances off the pitch!”

The Southampton FC player archive enthusiastically records Osman’s time with the Saints, which was largely successful at first. With Alan Shearer, Rod Wallace and Matt Le Tissier scoring the goals, the side finished seventh in the table. But they couldn’t sustain that success the following season and Nicholl was sacked. Writer Duncan Holley on sporting-heroes.net recalled: “One of the manager’s last actions had been to sanction the signing of Jon Gittens from Swindon and Russell had been displaced for the final run in.”

Nicholl’s successor, Ian Branfoot, picked Osman at left-back for the opening four games of the 1991-92 season but, as Osman told Ian Carnaby in a 2007 interview: “The day Ian Branfoot walked through the door, my Southampton career was over. All those years I’d been a centre-half, but he thought I’d make a good left-back.”

Osman joined Bristol City on loan initially before making the move permanent for a £60,000 fee, and he put down roots in the city. After about a year as a player, manager Jimmy Lumsden was sacked and Osman, as a senior player, was asked to take temporary charge.

However, Denis Smith, sacked as Sunderland boss in December 1991, took over at City in March 1992, with Osman named player-assistant manager. In a 2020 Facebook interview, Osman somewhat sharply said: “Denis Smith didn’t last too long because he wasn’t a very good manager, so they offered me the job.”

That happened in January 1993 and he remained in the manager’s chair at Ashton Gate just short of two years. He steered City to mid-table finishes in 1993 and 1994.

A look through City fans’ forum One Team In Bristol (otib.co.uk) reveals mixed opinions about Osman’s time in charge although some believed he was dealt a raw hand by the Ashton Gate hierarchy. It was said he was dismissed after the directors called him in and said they wanted European football within 10 years. Under Osman’s successor, Joe Jordan (appointed in November 1994), the Robins were relegated.

One significant highlight from Osman’s City reign was leading them to a shock 1-0 win at Anfield in a FA Cup third round replay in January 1994, a result which brought an end to Graeme Souness’ time as Liverpool manager.

Hailed as “the class of ‘94 etching their names into the club’s roll of honour” the achievement was apparently masterminded in the club’s canteen a few days earlier when Osman and his assistant Tony Fawthrop decided to deploy Brian Tinnion just behind the strikers instead of out wide, and he ended up scoring the only goal of the game.

After Osman’s departure from Ashton Gate, his next stop was Plymouth Argyle, where his old Ipswich teammate Steve McCall was a key player in Peter Shilton’s side.

When Shilton left, McCall took charge of the Pilgrims for two months as temporary player-manager, then Osman took over the running of the side for the last few weeks of the season. However, because of an ongoing legal case with Bristol City, Osman couldn’t be given the title manager or receive payment. He was known as ‘adviser of team affairs’. The arrangement didn’t last, though, because Argyle appointed Neil Warnock as manager that summer.

It was three months later that Osman took up Brady’s offer of a return to playing with Brighton. After moving on from the Goldstone in February 1996, Osman signed for Cardiff City as a player.

Team manager Phil Neal left to become Steve Coppell’s assistant at Manchester City in October 1996, director of football Kenny Hibbitt took charge for a month, then Osman ran the side for a month. He took the managerial reins in time for a first-round FA Cup clash with non-league Hendon. The Bluebirds made hard work of a 2-0 win, but earned a second-round tie against Gillingham, which they lost 2-0.

Osman remained working under Hibbitt until January 1998 when, according to one observer, he “departed due to draw fatigue” (over the season, City drew an astonishing 23 matches out of 46, only winning nine times) and was replaced by the returning Frank Burrows.

Direct involvement in the game has since been sporadic. He and Kevan Broadhurst were appointed as caretaker managers of Bristol Rovers until the end of the season on 22 March 2004 but they were only in charge for just over a month as former Oxford United boss Ian Atkins was appointed manager on 26 April.

Three years later, former Southampton teammate Paul Tisdale recruited Osman as interim assistant manager and, between February 2011 and August 2013 he was assistant academy coach back at Ipswich when ex-Albion striker Sammy Morgan was the academy manager.

Osman had a hand in Ipswich taking on Tyrone Mings. Mings was playing for the same non-league Chippenham team as Osman’s son Toby and Osman senior recommended him to Town boss Mick McCarthy, as he explained to the East Anglian Daily Times.

After he left Ipswich, Osman embarked on a co-commentator / pundit career covering Indian football, initially working alongside the veteran commentator John Helm. It involved travelling extensively in India although he was latterly based in a Mumbai studio – until Covid-19 restrictions intervened.

One brief hiatus to that career came in the summer of 2015 when he was invited by his old Ipswich defensive partner, Butcher, to be his assistant at Newport County. Unfortunately, the partnership was short-lived. They were sacked just a few months into the new season after a string of poor results.

Pundit Osman meets up with ex-Albion boss Steve Coppell, boss of Kerala Blasters

Aside from sharing his views on Indian football, ever the all-round sportsman Osman is a keen golfer, cyclist and runner, and espouses the energy and recovery powers of a juicing diet, having fresh vegetable juice and fruit juice smoothies every day.

Osman uses his blog to cover a variety of topics, he has 5,100 followers on Twitter, and, during lockdown in 2020, took part in an interesting online interview with India-based The View and Reviews Show.

Osman shares thoughts about his career and the wider game in an online interview

“I have worked in the media for 20 years now,” Osman said in an interview for Kings of Anglia magazine. “I worked for Eurosport, starting prior to the Euro 2000 championships and I go a long way back with them and the BBC. I also started working in India through a contact I made at Eurosport about 15 years ago.”

Pictures from a variety of online sources, and matchday programmes.