Tag: Paul McShane

Outspoken Scot whose words and tactics divided opinion

MENTION Mark McGhee to supporters of Wolverhampton Wanderers and most are less than complimentary about the Scot who won third tier promotion with Brighton in 2004.

Steering the Seagulls to that 1-0 play-off final win over Bristol City at the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff, (as I covered in my previous blog post about McGhee) emulated his feat of taking Millwall out of the same division three years previously, and certainly helped to repair a reputation sullied by his experience at Wolves.

A play-off winners’ medal at last for Mark McGhee

It also delivered much relief for a manager who’d previously only experienced play-off heartache, seeing Wolves’ hopes of returning to the Premier League dashed by a play-off semi-final defeat to Crystal Palace in 1997 and losing to Birmingham with the Lions at the same stage in 2002.

After cutting his managerial teeth at Reading and Leicester, McGhee succeeded former England boss Graham Taylor at Wolves, appointed by chairman Jonathan Hayward, the son of owner Sir Jack Hayward (the pair subsequently had a big falling out and McGhee was caught in the crossfire).

McGhee’s three years at Molineux weren’t all bad – many supporters said he certainly rated higher than the hated Glenn Hoddle – and he couldn’t be faulted for spotting genuine talent having given Irish striker Robbie Keane his Wolves debut as a 17-year-old away to Norwich. “I always believed he could be special,” he said. “Even at that age he was sensational.”

Young Mark McGhee on his arrival at Molineux

But fans of the boys in old gold disliked his managerial style of winding up forthcoming opponents with disparaging remarks. They also felt some of his signings weren’t up to it – a feeling echoed in the spat that emerged between Sir Jack and Jonathan.

“Nice man, Mark, and he had done well enough at Reading and Leicester. But he didn’t buy very well, did he? You have to ask questions about the quality of the players he brought to this club,” Sir Jack told reporter Paul Weaver in January 1999.

“We should never have let Graham Taylor go. Graham is an outstanding football manager. I’m afraid we bowed to pressure from the fans. We didn’t give him enough time. Then we gave McGhee plenty.”

For many, the final straw in the McGhee reign was when he left club legend Steve Bull on the subs bench in favour of much-derided Steve Claridge when Wolves lost the 1998 FA Cup semi-final to Arsenal.

“No turning back after that really, he’d lost it,” said ‘Bend It Like Dennison’ on molineuxmix.co.uk. “A very negative manager, prone to making stupid comments which wound opposition teams up and made us one of the most hated teams in the division,” opined ‘Nashie’ on the same platform.

“I had high hopes for McGhee and sometimes I quite liked the way he wound up the opposition with his arrogance, however, while he could talk the talk, he couldn’t quite walk the walk!” said ‘Bill McCai’.

The Scot was never afraid to speak his mind and even his former Newcastle boss, Bill McGarry (a figure well known to Wolves fans from his days as manager between 1968 and 1976) told him:  ‘Mark, you talk too much. Tone it down a bit.’

“I tried to take his advice, give nothing away in media briefings. Then, somebody would say something interesting and I wasn’t able to stop myself,” McGhee admitted in an interview with theleaguepaper.com.

On molineuxmix.co.uk, ‘stuj4z’ reckoned: “McGhee started to believe his own hype and became a parody of himself. Stupid signings were his downfall because overall I thought his tactics were ok. McGhee wasn’t the devil incarnate and did do some good things for the club.”

‘Florida Wolfey’ maintained: “McGhee was a decent manager and he certainly cared about this football club. He was unfortunate not to get us up in his first season and we never really recovered from that failure. Like all managers he made some good decisions and some decisions he’d rather have made again.”

When the axe fell, McGhee admitted to Nick Townsend of The Independent: “For that first month after I was sacked by Wolves, until I got over the initial shock, I never really opened the door. I became a recluse. I was feeling angry and frustrated.”

Townsend observed that having previously walked out on Reading and Leicester to take the Wolves’ job, “many supporters among his former clubs relished the spectacle of the assured and articulate McGhee being thrown from the steed of his own galloping ambition, his features ground in the dirt”.

“I was 100 per cent justified in leaving Reading after John Madejski gave me permission to talk to Leicester” McGhee told Townsend. “Leaving Filbert Street, a year later, was different. I knew when I walked out of there that it was, in a sense, wrong.

“I knew I’d let their chairman, Martin George, down badly, and the players I’d brought in. People thought, when Wolves dangled the bait, that was me, off and out, no hesitation, no qualms, and that’s where I got my reputation. But it wasn’t like that. It was torture.

“Two minutes before I made the decision to go, I was staying. There was pressure from all kinds of people I respected to go. Against my own conscience, I took the job.”

He added: “I read the papers and I don’t recognise myself. But, obviously, people are thinking that a guy who can up and leave Leicester after a year like that must be one kind of arrogant, callous bastard. All I can do to fix that impression is to go on from here and prove to people that’s not the way I am.”

As it turned out, he feared the football community had turned its back on him when no further managerial opportunity surfaced for nearly two years. It was only a regular punditry slot on Sky Sports that reminded people he was still around.

When he eventually got back in the game as manager of Millwall in September 2000, McGhee garnered a sympathetic ear from The Guardian football writer Roy Collins.

“I don’t think I got a bad deal,” McGhee told Collins. “I think I got exactly what I deserved. The biggest mistake I made was in underestimating the reaction of people when I walked out on Leicester. That is not to say that I regret leaving Leicester but it tarnished my reputation in such a way that Wolves’ fans never really accepted me.

“I was only fulfilling my ambition but I’ve learned that sometimes you have to think twice and maybe it would have been right for me to have said, no matter how much I want to take what I see as a bigger job, I can’t have it.”

McGhee admitted to the reporter he’d had sleepless nights and restless days wondering whether any club would forgive him, so he was grateful for the chance Millwall gave him, admitting: “This is a second chance for me and if I mess it up, I won’t get a third.”

A relieved McGhee told the Evening Standard: “To say I am very pleased to get back into the game is an understatement. I am absolutely ecstatic, but I would not have come back for any job.

“I haven’t been applying for everything that has been going because I felt the opportunity had to be one I was motivated by.

“It did not have to be the biggest club, or in the top league, but I had to really want to do it. I got a gut feeling about some jobs and I had that for Millwall.

“You get a feel for the place and I had an idea what they were about because I am a good pal of their old manager Mick McCarthy.

“In my playing career I was at Newcastle and Celtic. They have demanding, but passionate fans and I know that is the same at Millwall. It is very exciting.”

Millwall chairman Theo Paphitis admitted: “Mark was not always the front runner for the job, but got himself into the position at the interview.

“He said the right things. I believe he was sincere and I am very pleased we have him on board. He is the right person for the job.”

When there was a mutual parting of the ways in October 2003, Paphitis said: “He took over in September 2000 with the brief to get the club into the First Division that season which he duly achieved.

“We then enjoyed a very successful first season at this level, reaching the play-offs the following year. Last season was a frustrating one for the club and whilst expectations were high at the start of the current campaign, we have struggled to live up to them.”

Interestingly, when he was shown the door at Brighton, likewise there was appreciation rather than dismay at what he had brought to the club.

Powering up

“No matter where you stand on the club’s decision to part company with the former Scottish international, you can’t say he didn’t leave us without one or two golden memories, especially during his first season in charge,” the matchday programme reminded readers.

“There are more than a few supporters out there who rate what happened inside the Millennium Stadium that May day in 2004 as their top Albion moment, above Wembley 1991 and – whisper it – even 1983. Why? Well, for once, we actually won on a big stage. But there was more to it than that: thirty thousand fans invading Wales and laying siege to what is generally regarded as one of the finest stadiums in the world.”

The piece reminded supporters that in the higher division, against clubs with hugely superior resources, Albion beat the likes of Leeds United and Sunderland at humble Withdean as well as nicking unlikely wins at Leicester City, West Ham and Sheffield United.

Even in the season (2005-06) when they weren’t able to retain that hard-earned status, they managed a first win in 22 years at Selhurst Park, toppling the old rivals on their own patch with the only goal of the game scored by loanee Paul McShane.

After a fascinating 3-3 draw at Elland Road, home boss Kevin Blackwell observed that McGhee had “the hardest job in football”.

The programme pondered: “One can’t help but wonder what McGhee’s record would have been had the club been playing inside a stadium worthy of the upper echelons of the English game, with some finance to burn and facilities good enough to tempt Championship and Premier League calibre players to Sussex.” Indeed.

‘Rooster’ became pivotal to developing young players

FORMER BRIGHTON apprentice Kevin Russell enjoyed a 20-year playing career in which he scored 105 goals in 552 games but he had forgettable spells at three South Coast clubs.

As we learned in my previous blog post, England Youth international Russell scored goals for Albion’s youth team and reserves but moved on before making the first team after a falling out with manager Chris Cattlin.

He got on better with Alan Ball at Portsmouth but only played eight games in three years at Pompey.

In March 1994, he was back in the south after a £125,000 move from Burnley to AFC Bournemouth. Unfortunately, his time at Dean Court coincided with dismal form on the pitch and financial pressures off it.

Russell was signed by Tony Pulis, who, it turned out, was in the final throes of his first spell as a manager, having succeeded Harry Redknapp at Dean Court.

The side had a dreadful run of form the month after Russell joined, suffering five defeats and three draws in eight matches. It was in the last of these that Russell finally got on the scoresheet for the Cherries as they picked up a point in a 1-1 draw at Hull City (his only goal in 17 matches).

While Mark McGhee won the Division Two title with Reading and Russell’s former club Burnley won promotion via a play-off final win over Stockport County, the Cherries finished a disappointing 17th in the table.

Portsmouth-born Russell had joined a squad (above) that included a number of players with past or future Brighton connections: Gary Chivers, Mark Morris, Paul Wood, Steve Cotterill and Warren Aspinall.

Cotterill recalled in a 2023 interview with gloucestershirelive.co.uk: “I know Rooster very well. I played with him at Bournemouth and he’s a great guy and a good coach.

“I liked him when I played with him because he used to stick crosses on a sixpence for me. I remember scoring a few goals from his crosses.”

Back in 1994, Pulis was sacked early on in the new season and former player Mel Machin took over, but the Cherries had managed only one win and a draw in their first 14 matches by the time they met the Albion at the Goldstone on 2 November 1994.

The game ended in a 0-0 draw and, although they won their next game, by Christmas they’d only got nine points from 21 games. Staring down the barrel of relegation, a last ditch revival in fortunes saw the season go down in memory as ‘The Great Escape’ because Bournemouth managed to avoided the drop by two points.

Russell, who had scored twice in 18 matches, had moved on by then and according to Aspinall, in a September 2011 interview with the Bournemouth Daily Echo: “Mel wanted rid of myself and Kevin Russell.”

Russell, who later had a habit of scoring against the Cherries – he hit four in 10 games against them – said after a 2001 encounter between Wrexham and Bournemouth: “The club was in a bad state when I was there, but Mel Machin and Sean O’Driscoll have turned things round and you know you’re always going to have a hard game against them.

“I don’t try any harder than normal when I play against them, but because I am playing up front and not in midfield or out wide, I get more chances to score.”

Aspinall had a couple of trial matches for the Albion before being packed off to Carlisle, while in February 1995 Russell joined First Division strugglers Notts County where he was reunited with former Leicester teammates Gary Mills and Phil Turner.

Howard Kendall was in charge at the time but County, who got through four managers that season (including Russell Slade for four months), finished bottom of the table having won only nine matches all season.

Russell then returned to his spiritual home in north Wales and, over the next seven years, played a further 240 matches for Wrexham, scoring 23 goals along the way.

One of the most memorable was a last-minute winner at the Boleyn Ground in January 1997 as Wrexham pulled off a FA Cup giant-killing against West Ham. Having held the Hammers to a 1-1 draw at the Racecourse Ground, Russell went on as a 75th minute sub in the replay and scored a screamer in the dying seconds against a side that included Rio Ferdinand and Frank Lampard.

While the Dragons fans were elated, protesting home supporters spilled onto the pitch in anger at Harry Redknapp’s side’s performance and lowly Premier League position.

Slaven Bilic, later West Ham’s manager, was playing alongside Ferdinand and remembered the game thus: “We were struggling. We weren’t conceding a lot of goals but we couldn’t score and then Wrexham came and they scored at the end of the game, a great goal from 25 yards. After that we signed Johnny Hartson and Paul Kitson and we stayed up.”

When Russell’s playing days were over, he stayed on as a coach and worked as assistant manager under Denis Smith, taking Wrexham to promotion from the Third Division in 2002-03 and winning the LDV (English Football League) trophy in 2005.

That same year his loyalty and service to the club were rewarded with a pre-season testimonial against Manchester United – managed by his former teammate and captain Darren Ferguson’s dad!

Russell played the first 14 minutes of the match against a largely youthful United before being replaced by Ferguson. United won the game 3-1 with goals from Giuseppe Rossi, Liam Miller and Frazier Campbell and one of their subs that day was Paul McShane.

“I can’t speak highly enough of Alex for bringing his side here for me,” said Russell. “I’ve been treated to a special team with a lot of quality. I know there were a lot of young players out there, but you could see the potential they’ve got is immense.”

A crowd of nearly 6,000 watched the match and Wrexham secretary Geraint Parry said: “It just shows how well respected Kevin Russell is after his many years in the game.”

Smith and Russell were sacked in January 2007 but he went straight to Peterborough with Ferguson, who had been appointed Posh player-manager.

“We had an unbelievable time at Peterborough,” Russell told John Hutchinson. “We took them from the bottom league to the Championship in successive seasons in 2008 and 2009.”

There was a brief and unsuccessful spell for the managerial duo at Preston North End in 2010 – they were sacked four days after Christmas with Preston bottom of the Championship – but they weren’t out of work for long because they were re-appointed at Peterborough the following month.

They lost their first game back in charge though – to Brighton. Albion, on course to be league one champions under Gus Poyet that season, beat Posh 3-1: Chris Wood two and Elliott Bennett the scorers while Craig Noone made his home debut for the Seagulls.

After three years at Peterborough, Russell moved back to the Potteries to join the coaching staff at Stoke (below) and stayed for nine years! He mainly worked with the under 18s and under 21s but also helped with the first team in between managerial changes in 2018 and 2019.

In May 2023, Russell joined Cheltenham Town as assistant manager to Wade Elliott. He was in caretaker charge for two matches when Elliott was sacked four months later but didn’t want the job on a permanent basis and left the club in October 2023 when Darrell Clarke was appointed.

Robins chairman David Bloxham said: “I am extremely grateful to Kevin for all his hard work and dedication and for his willingness to step in to manage the side in an extremely difficult period between Wade leaving and Darrell’s appointment.”

Once again, Russell wasn’t out of work for long. In January 2024, he was reunited with former Stoke technical director Mark Cartwright, a former goalkeeper who played 15 matches in Brighton’s 2000-01 promotion winning side, at Huddersfield Town.

Back in the game at Huddersfield Town

He was appointed as B team manager with a glowing endorsement from Cartwright, now Town’s sporting director, who said: “Not only is Kevin a great coach, but he also has a brilliant ability to develop relationships with young players.

“He’s a lively character and he knows how to relate to individuals to get the best out of them. Whilst at Stoke City, he played the pivotal role in developing players such as Nathan Collins, Harry Souttar, Tyrese Campbell, and Josh Tymon, alongside many others.

“He’s been so successful in doing that because he has a great understanding of the qualities that senior coaching staff want to see in young players.”

The Uruguayan who saw red on Lewis Dunk’s debut

URUGUAYAN international Diego Arismendi shook his Staffordshire neighbourhood but left football followers somewhat unmoved.

Noisy late-night parties hosted by the defensive midfielder at his Newcastle-under-Lyme home hit the headlines for the wrong reasons but on the pitch he made little impact, in spite of high expectations. He ended his first season in England on loan at Brighton – and got sent off in his last game for the Seagulls.

Stoke City, then in the Premier League, paid £2.6m for the 20-year-old after he had already won medals at one of his home country’s top teams – Nacional – and two caps for his country.

He made his first appearance for Stoke on his first day at the club, setting up the only goal of the game in a reserve team win over Wolves.

Peter Reid, assistant manager at the time, said: “Diego was excellent. He broke up the play and the beauty with him is, for a defensive midfielder, he can pass, which he did extremely well.

“It will take him a little bit of time to get used to the pace but first impressions on him, I’m very pleased. He has had a smile on his face since being with us and he really enjoys his football. He has the attributes to be a very good player for us.”

Arismendi made his first team debut in a League Cup match against Blackpool but was forced off with an injury on 47 minutes of the 4-3 win.

Having struggled with the language barrier and not being able to force his way into Tony Pulis’s starting line-up, he was loaned to third tier Albion…where there was a Uruguayan in charge.

Gus Poyet was excited by signing his fellow countryman and saw it as quite a sign of the Albion’s intentions under Tony Bloom. He told The Argus: “We are showing where we want to go as a club, starting from the chairman and going through the whole of the staff.

“We are trying to achieve things that are not very easy but, because of the knowledge of the game and the contacts we’ve got, sometimes they work.

“When you know people and people know you personally and they are happy to let you have a player like Diego, you have to take advantage of that.

“I know him and his agent very well from before he came to England. He was a player growing up in one of the two biggest teams in Uruguay (Nacional) and playing for them regularly.

“I was surprised when he came because, I don’t know why, but Uruguayans have got a little bit of fear about England. I suppose it’s because of the language and the weather. They prefer Italy or Spain.

“I was very pleased by his decision to come and join Stoke. Of course, I have been following him a bit to see if he was making the first team.

“Unfortunately, Stoke are doing very well and there is no place for him right now there. He wants to play football, so he is very welcome.”

One place he wasn’t so welcome was Newcastle-under-Lyme. The month before he joined Brighton he had upset his neighbours by holding a number of noisy, late night parties, playing loud music and apparently having indoor kickabouts with his friends.

One neighbour at the prestigious No 1 London Road apartment complex, plastic surgeon Dr Muhammad Khan, told the Daily Mail: “I can’t sleep and I can’t concentrate doing my work. I am at my wits’ end. My flat vibrates from the volume of the music and it is like elephants stomping across the floor.

“Sometimes it sounds like he is playing football in the flat. It makes my lights flicker. It is every single night and then gets worse at weekends. I have spoken to Mr Arismendi twice, but all he said was that it was his friend’s birthday.”

In Sussex, Poyet hoped Arismendi would find the surroundings more to his liking. “I think he will love the city, a young boy with his girlfriend. He is going to adapt to Brighton very nicely. He wants to enjoy playing football so, slowly, I think he is going to get into the team.”

Poyet thought Arismendi would adjust to life in League One and the English game in general, but things didn’t work out that way and he only made three starts and three appearances off the bench for the Seagulls.

To make matters worse, in his final game he saw red (above) after scuffling with MK Dons’ Alex Rae. It was the same match that saw Lewis Dunk make his debut.

Poyet considered bringing Arismendi back to the Albion the following season on a season-long loan but they couldn’t afford to buy him and instead he ended up joining Barnsley, newly promoted to the Championship, on a similar arrangement.

He scored once (against Yorkshire rivals Leeds United in a 5-2 win) and featured in 32 games for Mark Robins’ Tykes, together with fellow loanees Kieran Trippier (from Man City), Chris Wood (from West Brom) and Paul McShane (from Hull) before returning to Stoke at the end of the season.

Because previous season’s FA Cup winners Man City had qualified for the Champions League in third place, cup runners up Stoke got to play in the Europa League (their first venture into Europe since 1975) and Arismendi started two matches and was sub in another two.

As an aside, in August 2011 I was on holiday in Split, Croatia, when City and their fans arrived to play local side Hadjuk (the visitors won 1-0). Our swimming pool sunbeds were taken over by red and white striped towels!!

Back in England, Arismendi remained firmly rooted to the bench as an unused sub for league matches and in March 2012 he was sent out on loan again, this time to Huddersfield Town until the end of the season.

Newly appointed manager Simon Grayson gave him seven starts and two appearances off the bench but he was not involved as the fourth-placed Terriers won promotion via an 8-7 penalty shoot-out win over Sheffield United at Wembley.

When Stoke excluded him from their 25-man squad at the start of the 2012-13 season, the writing was on the wall and his unhappy three-year spell in England came to an end when his contract was terminated in November 2012. He rejoined Nacional back in Uruguay.

Born in Montevideo on 25 January 1988, Arismendi said: “I had a tough upbringing. Everybody in Uruguay has a hard life, that is just the way it is there. But I come from a working class family and my childhood was not really any harder than anyone else.

“The aim, though, for me was always to play football and I have managed to realise that dream.”

He was only 20 when he won his first international cap in a friendly match against Norway in May 2008 and his second came in a World Cup qualifier against Bolivia. Both games finished 2–2.

After he returned to Montevideo and helped Nacional continue their domestic dominance by winning the Torneo Apertura (round robin South American tournament) and Uruguayan championship, he won two more caps in 2014.

He spent the 2015-16 season in Saudi Arabia playing for Al-Shabab but returned to Nacional for a third spell between 2016 and 2018. He then moved to Argentina, and at Rosario Central he once again didn’t leave a lasting impression.

A Copa Argentina win for Rosario in 2018 – but Arismendi was a non-playing sub

In a rather scathing assessment elciudadano.com reported: “Arismendi had the confidence of the coach when he signed earlier this year but did not meet expectations at all.

“(Coach) Paton Bauza thought he would fit in quickly but that was very far from reality. He never adapted to the team. When he had chances to show himself, he wasted them; he suffered injuries and he always showed more errors than virtues when he got on the pitch.”

Arismendi once again returned to the Uruguayan capital, this time to play for Racing Montevideo, where he spent one season, before switching to one of the city’s other clubs, Montevideo City Torque.

Boo boys saw off international ‘keeper Wayne Henderson

DISGRUNTLED former Albion goalkeeper Wayne Henderson helped Grimsby Town keep their place in the Football League.

The Republic of Ireland international stopper, forced away from Brighton by a section of voluble supporters, was on loan to the Mariners in 2009 as they desperately tried to avoid the drop.

Although there were Grimsby grumbles on his debut, Henderson’s mission was a success, Town avoiding the drop by four points. But it was only a stay of execution because they finally fell out of the league for the first time in 100 years in 2010.

By then, Henderson was back at parent club Preston North End, who had bought him from the Seagulls for £150,000 on deadline day in January 2007.

He managed only 10 appearances for the Lancashire club – his last game coming in the final match of the 2009-10 season – and in March 2011, when only 27, he was forced to quit the game after two years plagued with spinal injuries.

Much had been expected of the young Irishman at Brighton after an initial loan spell from Aston Villa, where he had been coached by former Seagulls ‘keeper Eric Steele. He made his Albion debut away to Derby County, together with fellow countryman Paul McShane (on loan from Manchester United), in the opening game of the 2004-05 season.

Manager Mark McGhee said the youngster hadn’t put a foot wrong. “His kicking really took the pressure off us,” he said. “He was composed and took a couple of crosses towards the end which also helped relieve the pressure.”

McGhee had first hoped to sign Henderson in January 2005 to help solve a goalkeeping crisis created by a serious shoulder muscle injury to Michel Kuipers in a home match against Nottingham Forest.

Youngster Chris May, son of former Albion defender Larry May, had come off the bench to replace Kuipers in the match but McGhee didn’t see him as experienced enough in the battle to stay in the Championship. The previous season’s first choice ‘keeper, Ben Roberts, was a long-term absentee with a back injury, so McGhee had few options.

The Seagulls hoped a contractual hitch relating to Henderson’s previous loan spell at Notts County could be resolved in time to enable him to make his debut for the Albion at Elland Road. But it couldn’t and Brighton turned to Blackburn’s David Yelldell instead. That was the game where the loan goalkeeper famously wore a bright pink goalkeeper jersey and predictably suffered abuse from the Leeds crowd.

Although Clarke Carlisle put Leeds ahead just before half time, Yelldell had the last laugh when defender Guy Butters prodded home an equaliser in the 81st minute.

When McGhee didn’t see Yelldell as a long-term option, he turned to one-time Arsenal ‘keeper Rami Shabaan, who hadn’t played a competitive game for two years, but he let in 13 goals in six games. The manager brought in Southampton’s Alan Blayney, and he was between the posts for the last seven games of the season when Albion just managed to cling on to their tier two status.

McGhee finally managed to bring in Henderson ahead of the new season and, perhaps mindful of the goalkeeping headache he’d had the previous season, found he suddenly had an embarrassment of riches in that department.

Promising youngster Richard Martin appeared as a back-up on the bench, as did season-long French loanee Florent Chaigneau. In September, Southampton’s Blayney also returned for another loan spell and eventually took over the gloves when Henderson’s three-month loan from Villa came to an end.

Intriguingly, Henderson’s penultimate game on loan was a 1-1 draw with Ipswich at the Withdean when another Villa loanee, Stefan Postma was in goal for the visitors.

It had been Henderson’s understanding that a permanent move would follow soon after he’d featured in a 1-1 draw at home to Wolves on 1 November. But a two-month on-off saga began which, according to McGhee and chairman Dick Knight, was largely down to demands made by Henderson’s agent.

Albion agreed a fee with Villa of £20,000, plus £15,000 if he helped avoid relegation from the Championship. He didn’t.

The Argus sought the opinion of former Albion no. 1 Steele who felt Henderson had a chance to make a name for himself with the Seagulls.

“With Thomas Sorensen as the no. 1 and Stuart Taylor bought in from Arsenal, Wayne’s route in terms of playing first team football was always going to be limited,” Steele told the paper. “Our problem is that we only need one goalkeeper to play in one position and it’s just been a question of what level he would make his mark.

“He’s 22 now and he really had to be looking to move on and I wish him all the best. I’ve worked with him now for four and a half years and always thought he would make a good living from the game.

“I think that’s summed up by the fact that Brighton are going to pay a small fee and we’ll also get sell-ons. He’s the same height, he’s got the same build and he has got the same attributes as Shay Given (Newcastle and Republic of Ireland). And he just needs the chance to go and play.

“He’s been away at Wycombe and been away at Notts County, who would have signed him had they had the money. He’s done it in the Second Division and the First, now he’s got the chance to do it in the Championship.”

Even if supporters of the club he’d just joined had doubts about his merits, the Republic of Ireland selectors were confident enough to give him a first senior call up in February 2006, and he made his full international debut on 1 March 2006, as a second half substitute in a 3–0 win over Sweden.

After the Albion had forfeited their tier two status that season, and the omitted Kuipers had been transfer-listed after falling out with McGhee, Henderson opened his heart to the Argus.

“Michel is liked by the fans and hopefully one day I will get the respect of the fans I feel I deserve,” he told Andy Naylor. “Michel has that because he has been at the club for a long time. I have mixed feelings about him being on the transfer list because it’s good to have someone with his reputation at the club pushing me, but sadly he fell out with the manager.

“Hopefully, I can prove the fans who are criticising me wrong but if they are set in their ways there is nothing I can do about that. It’s a shame if that is the way they feel but I couldn’t care less. I am not going to worry about it.

“I know myself how well I have done, and I am an international player because of that.”

Although he started the new season as first choice ‘keeper, three defeats on the spin saw McGhee sacked and Kuipers back in the starting line-up.

New boss Dean Wilkins restored the Irishman to the team in October which was enough to convince Eire manager Steve Staunton, a former Aston Villa colleague, to put him into a Euro 2008 qualifier against the Czech Republic, when first choice Shay Given and back-up Paddy Kenny were unavailable.

“I knew Stan from Villa, yes, but I like to think I’m being picked on merit not just because he knows what I’m capable of,” said Henderson. “I’ve got a long way to go in all aspects but being at Brighton and playing first-team football means I’m developing under pressure and getting a chance to show Stan (Staunton) what I can do.”

The Irish drew 1-1 and, having been to Dublin to watch the match, Albion goalkeeping coach John Keeley believed Henderson could be Albion’s ‘keeper for 10 years.

“I’m so pleased for Wayne. It proves what a good goalkeeper he is,” said Keeley. “He has taken some stick but people should appreciate him.”

The coach praised his handling at Lansdowne Road, the way he had made himself available for back-passes from his full-backs, and his composure. Highlighting a fine one-handed save he made to deny Milan Baros, Keeley said: “The save that he made just before half-time was world class.”

He added:“I honestly believe that Wayne is a better ‘keeper than Paddy Kenny. His all-round game is more suited to international football.”

Henderson makes his Eire debut, replacing Shay Given

Keeley reckoned: “He’s 22 and we’ve got a world-class player. With Wayne being so young we’ve got a goalkeeper now for the next ten years. That’s the way I look at it.”

The following month, Henderson even made the headlines when he wasn’t playing! Injury ruled him out of Albion’s side to face Bradford City at Valley Parade on 4 November and he decided to watch from the seats behind the goal.

When Dean Bowditch scored an 89th-minute winner for the Seagulls, the exuberant ‘keeper jumped over the hoardings – and was promptly escorted out of the ground by a steward!

“It was over-zealous stewarding,” he said afterwards. “Alex Revell made the goal and he was celebrating right in front of where I was sitting in the front row of the stand.

“The natural thing was to go and celebrate within him but one of the Bradford stewards – who knew I was one of the non-playing squad members – took exception to my celebration.

“I think he was a Bradford supporter and perhaps he thought I was trying to rub his nose in it – but I wasn’t. I was just pumped up to see the lads score a last-minute winner.

“The next thing I was being grabbed by a steward and then I was marched out of the ground where the police took my name and address, but I think they saw the funny side of it.”

Henderson wasn’t laughing a few weeks later. He’d returned from injury but the side was on a losing streak in December. Away to Bournemouth on New Year’s Day, it looked like Albion might come away with a point but in stoppage time the ‘keeper lost his footing and gifted the Cherries a win, and a section of Brighton supporters booed him off the pitch.

After a 3-0 defeat to West Ham in the FA Cup third round, the Seagulls entertained Millwall at Withdean and a mix-up between Henderson and Joel Lynch led to the visitors winning by the only goal of the game.

Manager Dean Wilkins dropped him and it was the last time he played for the club. The barracking had got to him to the extent he had submitted a second transfer request of the season and, referring to the fans who’d got on his back, he told the Argus: “They love their football as much as anyone else but the way they reacted was pathetic really.”

After securing a deadline day move to Preston, he said: “It was disappointing the way it finished. I was devastated at being left out of the team. The mistake I made against Bournemouth could have happened to anybody and the Millwall game was a mistake by someone else that caught me out.”

Now free to air his feelings about the series of events, he said: “A lot of fans have certain opinions of players. For me the whole experience at Brighton was more like the X Factor.

“It just seemed to be a personality contest and I couldn’t enjoy my football.”

He continued: “I’ve never felt welcome at the club, except by the coaching staff and the players. The coaching staff have been magnificent, and I wish them all the best, because, if anyone is going to get anything out of the kids, it is Dean (Wilkins) and Dean (White), so I hope they are given a fair crack of the whip.

“Outside of them and the lads, a handful of fans have backed me lately and I really respect that but there were an awful lot of fans who didn’t and other people at the club who, for some reason, made it more difficult than it should have been.”

Within the tight confines of the small capacity Withdean Stadium, perhaps it was always going to be a tall order for Henderson to supplant crowd favourite Kuipers.

The ‘former Dutch marine – chef’ Kuipers, as he was serenaded by the singing section, had endeared himself to the Albion crowd after Micky Adams brought the previously unknown shot-stopper to the club in 2000. Subsequent managers brought in their own alternatives but Kuipers, always a reliable shot-stopper, had a habit of bouncing back.

If Henderson was perturbed by unfavourable crowd opinion at Brighton, it seems there was similar mood music when he made his debut for Grimsby.

Manager Mike Newell brought him in along with three other loan players (Joe Widdowson, Peter Sweeney and Barry Conlon) and, in 14 games he played through to the end of the season, five wins and three draws were enough to give them a finish four points above the relegation trapdoor (Chester City and Luton Town went out of the league).

The excellent Cod Almighty fans website observed some fans booed and jeered Henderson on his home debut because the gale force wind kept blowing his goal kicks into touch.

Pete Green, on the same website, later wrote: “These temporary Mariners have played an enormous part in preserving the club’s status in the Football League – even as repeated mistakes by experienced, longer-term Town players such as Phil Barnes and Tom Newey continued to jeopardise it. Henderson has already gone back to Preston, and we stand no chance of signing him permanently.”

While the other three loan players did sign permanently, Newell brought in another Irish international goalkeeper in Nick Colgan the following season.

Born in Dublin on 16 September 1983, Henderson followed in the goalkeeping footsteps of his father and brothers. Dad Paddy played for Shamrock Rovers; brothers Dave and Stephen played in the League of Ireland. Even his nephew, Stephen, was a goalkeeper – most notably for Portsmouth, Charlton and Nottingham Forest after also going through the youth ranks at Villa.

Wayne played for the same Cherry Orchard club in his home city that also spawned the likes of Mark Yeates, Dave Langan, Andy Reid and Stephen Quinn.

John Gregory was in charge at Villa Park when Henderson joined Aston Villa in July 2001. A year later, he was in goal when Villa won the FA Youth Cup (below), beating Everton – with Wayne Rooney playing up front – 4-2 on aggregate over two legs. Also in the Villa side that day was Liam Ridgewell, who later had a brief loan spell at Brighton, and Peter Whittingham, who went on to play more than 500 professional games and died in tragic circumstances aged just 35.

Joy for Henderson as Aston Villa win the 2002 FA Youth Cup

Although Henderson was chosen on Villa’s first team bench occasionally, he didn’t play any competitive fixtures for the first team. Those opportunities came via loans.

After a month at non-league Tamworth in the spring of 2004, he spent a month on loan at Second Division Wycombe Wanderers under Tony Adams towards the end of the 2003-04 season, when their last place finish meant they were relegated to the newly formed League Two.

The following season he joined Notts County, another of the clubs who’d been relegated with Wycombe, and had two loan spells, three months under Gary Mills and then a month under his successor, caretaker boss Ian Richardson.

Paul Simpson signed Henderson for Preston but when injuries forced him to retire at just 27, he told skysports.com: “I’ve decided to actually step out of football and give my body time to heal for once.

“It is exciting for me though because I’m looking to go into a completely different environment from playing but stay within football at the same time.

“I’ve been trying to get back fit for a few years now with injections and operations, but I’ve decided that rest is the way forward for it now.

“I’ve not signed anything yet, but there are a good few options for me to choose from, which I am really excited about.”

Henderson, who married 2010 Apprentice winner Liz Locke, now works as a licensed intermediary for agency YMU, who, among plenty of other elite footballers, represent Albion’s Evan Ferguson and Andrew Moran.

Agustien talked a good game but fitness was a big issue

A MIDFIELD player who helped keep Crystal Palace in the Championship frustrated Brighton fans in an injury-plagued two seasons with the Seagulls.

Kemi Agustien, who hailed from the Dutch Caribbean island of Curaçao, wasn’t fully fit when he joined Oscar Garcia’s Seagulls from Swansea City in the summer of 2013, and injuries he picked up restricted him to just 10 starts and seven appearances off the bench.

Albion’s ‘keyboard warrior’ followers were not at all impressed and poured out their vitriol, accusing the player of being overweight and not being committed to the cause.

The main gripe seemed to be frustration that a player who had played 31 games in the Premier League only fleetingly showed his capabilities in the division below.

It seems remarkable that Agustien once scooped the official man of the match award for a powerful display in Swansea’s midfield in a 1-1 top flight draw against Manchester United.

As Brighton fans would later discover for themselves, Agustien wasn’t shy at singing his own praises, saying after that United match in March 2013: “I put out a statement to the manager, the staff and for myself and my family.

“There were doubts over my fitness or if I had the ability to play in the Premier League but hopefully everybody who watched the game against Manchester United will have seen what I can do.

“I always put pressure on myself, I’ve been in and out of the team and, like every footballer, I want to play and start every week. It was my first start for such a long time and I thought I did well.

“I am not the sort of player who likes to talk about himself, but I think I can be proud with how I played.”

As so often seemed to be the case in his career, an injury stopped any hoped-for progress in its tracks and by the end of the season boss Michael Laudrup dispensed with his services on a free transfer, even though he still had a year left on his contract.

There was a sense of irony that the midfield slot Agustien took on at the Albion had become vacant when the Seagulls managed to offload Ryan Harley, another ex-Swansea player who had been a disappointment. Harley was allowed to join Swindon Town after a settlement was agreed on the remaining 11 months of his contract.

What Albion were getting in return was, on the face of it, an upgrade, and Agustien’s agent, Wessel Weezenberg, somewhat bullishly told the Argus: “Brighton are getting an excellent, all-round midfielder. He is a very technical player, physically good and strong, and will fit in well with their type of football due to his Dutch background.”

Head coach Garcia seemed to buy into it, too, saying: “He has experience in the Premier League with Swansea and his technical level, experience and confidence with the ball will help us a lot with the way we want to play.

“We will work with him, because he is not fit enough to play 90 minutes at the moment, but he wants to be fit as soon as possible and, with our fitness coaches, I don’t think it will take much time.”

Somewhat immodestly, Agustien reckoned he could fill any of the Albion’s midfield positions, explaining: “I feel I can play box-to-box, I have the power and the ability to do that. I can be dangerous in the final third, but if I need to hold I can do that as well.

“I think I’ve got all the strengths to do both but I know I can still improve. There is more to come from me.”

When he was sidelined with calf injury issues not long into his time at Brighton, he told the matchday programme: “I want to be an important part of this team, but the only way I can do that is when I’m fully fit.

“I can’t do myself justice on 80 or 90 per cent. I know when I’m 100 per cent I can bring quality to this team.”

Reflecting on his ill-fated spell at the Albion in a March 2020 interview with Tom Coleman of Wales Online, Agustien admitted: “It started all wrong. There was a certain pressure coming out of Swansea and going to Brighton.

“I had a meeting with the manager back then, and he told me how he wanted to play a certain way and that he wanted me to play in a certain position, as a number 10.

“For me, to start in that position was like adapting to a new style, and I wasn’t really fit because I didn’t really have a pre-season because of what happened with Swansea. I came quite late and I was overweight.”

Over the course of the 2013-14 season, Agustien made just eight starts plus six appearances off the bench in Garcia’s side, and he was an unused substitute on eight other occasions. Rohan Ince, Jake Forster-Caskey, Andrew Crofts and loan signing Keith Andrews formed the mainstay of the midfield before the arrival of Dale Stephens.

Albion supporters were, it would be fair to say, divided in their opinions about Agustien’s contribution. For example, ‘Clean Sheet’ on the Argus comment section said: “This guy has the potential to be a game-changer. He needs to get fit and motivated. If this happens, then he could be like a major new signing.”

But ‘Steveg1958’ reckoned: “This guy is unbelievable. He needs firing now and kicking out. What a joke. If any of the rest of us worked like him, we would be given the push. How he has got away with this for so long at Albion is nothing short of scandalous.”

On the popular fans forum North Stand Chat, ‘BensGrandad’ said: “He shows great skill and some brilliant passes but he appears to be lazy and not prepared to tackle back when required, or when he loses the ball. Perhaps that is where the problem lies.”

‘Stumpy Tim’ maintained: “He’s not mobile enough to play centre-mid. Wouldn’t mind seeing him in one of the forward positions as he’s definitely one of the more creative players in the team.”

If Agustien thought his Albion fortunes might change when Sami Hyypia replaced Garcia, he was to be disappointed. He made just two starts under the former Liverpool man, plus one substitute appearance, all at the start of the season.

He was sent on as a sub for Forster-Caskey in the opening day 1-0 home defeat to Sheffield Wednesday that got Hyypia’s reign off to an ignominious start.

I do recall him putting in a decent shift away to Leeds United later the same month, contributing to a fine 2-0 win which saw Albion leave Elland Road with all three points, although he had to go off after twisting an ankle.

He started in a 2-0 League Cup win over Cheltenham Town but was replaced by Kazenga LuaLua on 68 minutes and wasn’t seen in first team action again.

He underwent surgery for a persistent thigh muscle injury, and Hyypia’s successor Chris Hughton didn’t rule him out altogether, but he said at the end of February 2015: “At this moment he is quite a way from being fit and ready to play.

“He hasn’t been fit for most of the season. If he is able to get fit and available for any part of the season we’d be delighted.” But he left the club without reappearing in the first team.

It wasn’t that he hadn’t done OK at that level, either, because he had already played 18 games for Birmingham City in the Championship during the 2008-09 season, and, in the 2010-11 season, three starts for Swansea under Brendan Rodgers and, when he hadn’t been able to win his City place back after injury, six starts and two appearances off the bench on loan at Dougie Freedman’s Crystal Palace as they fought to avoid the drop at the end of the season.

Explaining the Palace loan, Rodgers told Sky Sports News: “I felt Kemy needed games. He has found it difficult this season. I brought him in and he is a good lad, but some players are all right if they are not playing and others are not.

“Kemy is the type who wants to play. He came here injured and the players in his position have done very, very well.

“He has another season on his contract with us and, while it hasn’t quite happened for him here as he would have wanted, I want to see him getting games. Hopefully, come the start of pre-season, he will be fully fit.”

He got off to a decent start under Freedman when Palace won 2-1 against a Barnsley side which had former Brighton loanees Paul McShane in defence and Diego Arismendi, who went on as a substitute.

The Palace website reported Agustien impressed with his distribution on his debut, combining well with James Vaughan, and in a 2-1 defeat at Ipswich, it was an Agustien free kick that found skipper Paddy McCarthy who scored the visitors’ goal.

The loanee was in the starting line-up for Palace’s crucial away trip to Hull City when both sides needed a point to be sure of staying up. It finished 1-1. And his last game in Palace colours was in the final game of the season when the home side succumbed 3-0 to Nottingham Forest.

Respected Rosenior a dedicated student of the game

LIAM ROSENIOR is one of the most articulate footballers to pull on Brighton’s stripes.

He wasn’t a bad player, either, making nearly 450 appearances for seven clubs in a 17-year career, usually as a full-back.

The son of former Fulham, QPR and West Ham striker Leroy, Liam joined Albion in the summer of 2015, brought in as one of Chris Hughton’s first signings of that transfer window, and went on to make 51 appearances for the Seagulls.

Arguably his best days were behind him when Hughton signed him on a free transfer from Hull City, but he quickly endeared himself to the Albion faithful, bringing his top-level experience to a squad looking to rise to the Premier League and appreciated for his passion, best demonstrated by his chin-up gesture as the Seagulls came close but narrowly missed out on promotion.

A year later, Rosenior was part of the Albion squad which celebrated the club’s promotion to the Premier League.

Rosenior could talk a good game as well as play it so it was no surprise he was in demand as a football pundit on TV and radio, and in the final year of his playing career he wrote a weekly column for The Guardian. His views on the politics of the game and wider issues – such as racial abuse – have been sought by many news outlets.

Rosenior flanked by Darren Bent and Keith Andrews, both of whom also played for the Albion

As a student of the game, he didn’t waste time in getting his coaching badges and, when his playing career at Brighton came to a close in 2018, he was appointed to assist under 23s coach Simon Rusk, although he’d already been involved on an informal basis.

Hughton told the Argus: “Liam has played a huge part in our achievements over these few seasons. Unfortunately, over that time, he’s had a couple of injuries that kept him out for periods but at this moment he is in good shape.

“His value has not only been on the pitch but also off the pitch. He has also made a small contribution to the success of the under-23s. Because he wants eventually to be a coach and a manager, he’s had an involvement with them. That has been great for them and for us as a club.”

It seemed only a matter of time before he would step up to first team management but, in 2019, just such an opportunity was presented first by Derby County, and he left to become part of the small group supporting Phillip Cocu.

Rosenior’s contribution to the Seagulls was recognised in glowing terms by chairman Tony Bloom, who thanked him for “his superb service and consummate professionalism as both player and coach” and remarked: “Liam has become a firm favourite here at the club since he joined us from Hull City.

“He played a crucial role in our promotion to the Premier League and was an important part of the squad during our first-ever season at that level.”

Bloom continued: “Liam has made no secret of his desire to coach at first-team level, and so, while we are very sorry to see Liam leave the club, we fully understand the opportunity which is available to him and the reasoning behind why he has chosen to join Derby County.”

Rosenior told the Derby Telegraph: “I have always wanted to coach, and coach at the highest level.

“I gained my pro-licence when I had just turned 32. It is something I have always been interested in and something I have always done,” he said.

“My dad was a manager and a coach. I used to go with him to games, and to training sessions, and I think that is why at a relatively young age in terms of coaching I have got quite a lot of experience.

“I was working with soccer schools when I was 11 years old, taking sessions.”

After becoming caretaker co-manager of Derby with Wayne Rooney last November, Rosenior explained in an extended interview with The Athletic’s Dominic Fifield how he always saw becoming a manager as his destiny.

 “I’d be with my dad while he prepared his team-talk, in the dressing-room as he delivered it, and in the dug-out during the game. You see old pictures of Brian Clough on the bench with his son, Nigel. Well, it was the same with me. I’d be shouting at the players from the sidelines when I was 10. It’s always been in my blood.”

As a child, he even drew a picture of himself on the touchline as a manager. “That’s why, to me, it feels like my calling, my goal in life. And not just to be a manager, but a successful manager.

“I’ve studied for 26 years to ensure I’m the best coach I can be, to understand people as well as I possibly can. If I was injured or out of the team at Hull or Brighton, I’d annoy the stewards by watching the game from the mouth of the tunnel so I could practise making snapshot decisions from the touchline.”

Rosenior declared: “I want to show that a young black coach — and I want to do it young — can be successful in a position of authority at the very highest level.”

On 15 January 2021, Rosenior was appointed as assistant manager when Rooney was confirmed as the new Derby boss.

Born in Wandsworth on 9 July 1984, Rosenior started out in the youth team at Bristol City (another of his dad’s former clubs) and became a professional in April 2002. In 19 months at City, he made only four starts but was a sub on 24 occasions.

The most memorable of those was when he entered the action at the 2003 Football League Trophy Final in the 62nd minute, with Danny Wilson’s City a goal to the good against Carlisle in front of a 50,000 crowd at the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff. Rosenior scored a decisive second goal for the Robins in the 89th minute.

Premier League Fulham paid £55,000 to sign him in November 2003 but it was 10 months before he made his first team debut. Still only 19, he went on loan between March and May 2004 to Third Division Torquay United, a side his dad was managing, making nine starts plus one as a sub.

Rosenior’s first full season at Fulham was quite an eye-opener: an ignominious start under Chris Coleman saw him sent off on his debut (in a Carling Cup game against Boston United in September 2004), then awarded Sky Man of the Match when he made his league debut aged 20 in a 1-1 draw with Manchester United three months later. He also saw red in the last game of that season.

Rosenior made 86 appearances (plus five as a sub) for Fulham during his time there and despite signing a new four-year deal in 2006, moved on to Reading for £1.5m on August deadline day in 2007.

Rosenior signed a three-year contract with Steve Coppell’s Royals but in his final year he joined Ipswich Town on a season-long loan, making 28 starts plus three substitute appearances in what was Roy Keane’s first season in charge at Portman Road.

Released by Reading in the summer of 2010, Rosenior eventually linked up with Hull City where he spent five years, making the largest number of appearances (128 + 33 as sub) across his various different clubs.

They included starting in the 2014 FA Cup Final alongside former Albion loanee Paul McShane when Hull lost narrowly (3-2) to Arsenal at Wembley.

Rosenior in action in the 2014 FA Cup Final

At the end of the following season, after City had been relegated from the Premier League, Rosenior was one of six players let go by Steve Bruce (McShane and goalkeeper Steve Harper were also released).

His experience in winning promotion from the Championship with Hull in 2013 was seen as a key ingredient in Hughton’s decision to sign him.

In May 2020, Rosenior took on another responsibility when he was appointed tothe FA’s Inclusion Advisory Board (IAB), set up in 2013 to increase diversity within the game.

After parting company from Derby in September 2022, Rosenior was not out of work long because two months later he returned to Hull City as head coach.

He was in charge for 18 months and only narrrowly missed out on the Championship play-off places in 2024, but falling short cost him his job.

Once again, though, he was not unemployed for long. In July 2024, he was appointed head coach of French Ligue 1 side Strasbourg, replacing the departing Patrick Vieira. At the end of his first season with Strasbourg, he steered them to UEFA Conference League qualification.

Among the young players in his side was Albion loanee Valentin Barco, who subsequently made the move permanent.

Injury curtailed Saints stalwart Jason Dodd’s Albion swansong

INJURY deprived Albion of the services of the experienced former Southampton captain Jason Dodd throughout the 2005-06 season.

After completing 499 games for Saints, Dodd had originally intended to retire at the end of the 2004-05 season having been sidelined by boss Harry Redknapp to such an extent that he’d gone out on loan to Plymouth Argyle.

However, Brighton were missing the long-term injured Adam Hinshelwood and manager Mark McGhee gave the 34-year-old Dodd a season-long deal at the Albion.

Dodd slotted in at right-back for the opening five fixtures of the season but then had to have surgery on a troublesome ankle injury which put him out of action for two months.

He returned to first team action at the end of November but was then struck by a mystery back injury that was severely debilitating, as he told The Argus.

“They cannot really pinpoint what the problem is and it isn’t just not being able to train,” he told the paper. “I am in constant pain 24-seven so, from my point of view, it’s not just at work it’s when I go home. I can’t pick the kids up or go for a walk with the dog.”

Dodd col HSUnfortunately, he managed just two more games in a season when Albion finished bottom of the Championship table. One fond memory I have of his contribution to Albion’s cause came in a game at QPR in March 2006.

The game was memorable for the sending off just after half time of Rangers’ skipper and long-serving striker Kevin Gallen for punching Paul McShane. Sadly, Albion only managed to take a point when they really needed three, but it was their first away point for nine games, so it was a triumph of sorts.

QPR full back Marcus Bignot put a deep Gary Hart cross through his own net under pressure from substitute Joe Gatting to equalise Gareth Ainsworth’s early header for Rangers.

The tricky Ainsworth gave Adam El-Abd, playing in an unfamiliar left back role, such a torrid time that McGhee switched the fullbacks with half-an-hour played and put Adam Hinshelwood there instead. Shortly after half time, McGhee switched it again and Dodd replaced El-Abd.

In the 40 minutes, or so, he was on the pitch he showed what we had missed by providing an outlet for some neat passing, and hardly ever gave the ball away.

Born in Bath on 2 November 1970, Dodd began his distinguished career by signing for his home town club, non-league Bath City. In 1989, Southampton paid £15,000 to take the 18-year-old to The Dell.

Jason Dodd (Southampton)

He certainly couldn’t have got off to a better start, making his first team debut at home to Liverpool, marking England international John Barnes.

Londonsaints.com was fulsome in its praise for the impact he made, declaring: “Not only did he completely snuff out the efforts of the England winger but found enough time to supply a perfect cross for Paul Rideout’s opening goal in a momentous 4-1 win.”

From that encouraging beginning, he went on to establish himself as Saints’ regular right back, playing under nine different managers and captaining the side. Dodd remained a fixture in a team that more often than not found itself fighting for survival in the top flight.

Between 1990 and 1991, he won eight England under-21 caps, making his debut in a 1-0 defeat to Poland at White Hart Lane on 16 October 1990 and playing his last game against the same opponent, away in Pila, on 11 November 1991, when England lost 2-1, their goal being scored by Paul Kitson, who later played for Brighton.

In his fifth under 21 game, Dodd was sent off as England trounced Mexico 6-0, when, as well as a goal for Kitson, Alan Shearer scored a hat-trick (including two penalties).

Although Dodd had been involved in earlier rounds of the FA Cup in 2003, injury meant he missed out on the final, when Saints lost to Arsenal.

At the end of his injury-plagued season with Brighton, Dodd joined his former Saints teammate Francis Benali as a coach at non-league Eastleigh before stepping into the manager’s role for seven months.

The lure of his old club was too great, though, and, in the summer of 2007, he became first team coach at Southampton under George Burley. He was briefly caretaker manager before leaving Saints in July 2008, had a short tenure as caretaker manager at Aldershot in the autumn of 2009, and then returned once again to Southampton as a development coach and under 18s coach at St Mary’s.

During his five years with the Saints youth academy, working with former teammate Paul Williams, together they brought through the likes of Luke Shaw, Callum Chambers and James Ward-Prowse.

But they were controversially let go in May 2014 – some reports said it was because they didn’t spend enough time with the younger age groups.

Shaw took to Twitter when news of their dismissal was announced saying he was “gutted” for them.

Dodd obviously keeps a close eye on the progress of the young players he was once responsible for and, when Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho subbed Shaw at half-time during United’s 2-0 FA Cup win over Brighton in 2018, the BBC sought Dodd’s opinion. He admitted a tough love approach was the way to get the best out of him.

“He does make you pull your hair out at times. You have to try different things to get the best out of him,” said Dodd. ”I think they have tried everything and they have not got through to him to get him out on the pitch and perform.

“Luke is one of those players where you have to keep on, you have to keep pushing him and he needs to be challenged.

“I was constantly on him. He likes it. He needs more of a cuddle, and then give him a little dig,” Dodd added.

The Saints stalwart is frequently asked his views on current happenings, but his day job is as head of football in the PE department of independent school, Winchester College. He has a few other sidelines on the go, as he told the Daily Echo earlier this year.

Booed on his Burnley debut, Gifton Noel-Williams was the centre forward Brighton craved

GNW DackFOR ALMOST the whole of Championship seasons 2004-05 and 2005-06, Albion manager Mark McGhee spoke about how the side desperately needed an old-fashioned hold-up centre forward.

In the first season, he converted defender Adam Virgo to the role with some degree of success, but after Virgo’s summer 2005 departure to Celtic, the problem returned, in spite of the occasional promise of the inexperienced Colin Kazim-Richards.

It wasn’t until March 2006 that McGhee finally landed his man in the shape of 6’ 3” Gifton Noel-Williams, on loan to the end of the season from Burnley.

The omens were good when he made his debut against Luton on 25 March because he had scored on his debut for both Burnley and previous club Stoke City. Sure enough, he did it again, netting with a brave diving header from an Adam Hinshelwood cross after 18 minutes.

It demonstrated only too emphatically what Albion had been missing for so long.

Unfortunately a glaring miss by midfielder Dean Hammond saw the chance to go 2-0 up squandered and Luton went straight back down the other end and equalised when ‘keeper Wayne Henderson could only parry Warren Feeney’s shot and the rebound went into the open net off on-loan defender Paul McShane running back.

Luton were destined to join Albion and Leeds as the fall-guys from the division but they hung on that afternoon on a quagmire of a pitch to earn a point.

GNW BHAGary Hart came close to nicking it for the Albion with a volley that struck a post but the points were shared, which was no good for either side.

McGhee was philosophical after the game, recognising it would “take something astonishing” for Albion to stay up with only six games remaining. It would. They didn’t.

Nevertheless, before the inevitable happened, Noel-Williams scored again  – on Easter Saturday 2006.

Brittle old Ipswich, with Joe Royle in charge, stood in the way of Albion notching some desperately needed points, but somehow I just fancied their chances that day and I made a late decision only on the morning of the match to travel up to Ipswich with my son Rhys.

Wearing the all-burgundy away strip, Albion had a new-found confidence in their play thanks to the arrival of Noel-Williams, who, after scoring against Luton, had got an assist by laying on a goal for Paul Reid in a 2-0 win at Millwall two weeks before.

McGhee made an interesting choice in playing Hart at right back rather than Reid, who slotted in ahead instead. The decision was justified when Hart’s strong challenge on Alan Lee midway inside the Albion half enabled Hammond to release Kazim-Richards down the right.

He crossed into the left back area, where the lurking Noel-Williams seemed to have acres of space to turn on the cross and drive the ball home from ten yards. Photographer Simon Dack captured the goal celebration for the front page of the Sports Argus (below).

GNW IpsIf that delight was not enough, teenage defender Joel Lynch made sure our trip was a memorable one by scoring his first-ever goal for the club.

Albion, never wanting to make life too easy for themselves or their fans, allowed Ipswich to pull a goal back when 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.

Nevertheless, Noel-Williams seemed to enjoy his brief time with the Seagulls, telling Andy Naylor in The Argus: “I like the way the team plays football. They play my type of football.

“It is not only in the air for me to flick it on, they get the ball on the deck and want to knock it about a bit as well. That suits me, that’s what I like.

“The manager hasn’t asked me to be tearing around the pitch, he’s asked me just to use my movement and get into the channels when I have to. I appreciate that, so I’m enjoying my football, and, when I’m enjoying my football, I think I’m not a bad player.”

The downside of not having played regularly at Burnley was a lack of match fitness, and he admitted: “I play all right for maybe the first hour and then that’s it, my legs are gone.”

Certainly a fascinating character, Noel-Williams was still only 26 when he pitched up at the Albion, and was already a father of six children.

But how did he end up at Brighton?

An article on the excellent Burnley supporters website,claretsmad.co.uk, gives a great insight into the background. Published in June 2013, Tony Scholes wrote: “There was heavy criticism of his signing and he was booed by his own fans during his league debut for us at Crewe on the opening day of the 2005-06 season.

“He was one of Steve Cotterill’s five summer signings during that 2005 summer, and the plan was to partner him up front with his old Stoke City team mate Ade Akinbiyi, a partnership people were quick to say hadn’t worked when they had played together for Stoke.”

Scholes continued: “He must have wondered what he’d come to when he was roundly booed in that first match of the season at Crewe. He scored our equaliser, then hit the woodwork in the last minute which would have earned us a point.”

A week later, he missed a penalty against Coventry, and, even though he scored in a home draw against Derby, the poor start to the season saw Cotterill tinker with the line-up, and he lost his place.

He was then a peripheral figure and, just before the end of the loan window in March, Cotterill, who had once been on loan to Brighton himself, loaned him to struggling Albion.

Burnley fans thought they had seen the last of him but, despite being placed on the transfer list, and missing the club’s pre-season trip to Italy, he was still a Burnley player when the season began.

Then, remarkably, he went from zero to hero during the space of a few days in September. When he came on as a substitute against Colchester, yet again he was met by a chorus of boos from the Burnley faithful.

Scholes said: “The booing that greeted him was shameful. How he could go on and play in those circumstances is hard to believe, but he did and by the end of the game he’d turned those boos to cheers. We lost, but he’d played well.

“Three days later we went 2-0 down against Barnsley and he was brought on to replace the injured Alan Mahon. This was without doubt Gifton’s night. He never turned in a better performance for Burnley, and after Jon Harley pulled one back to give us hope, he scored a hat trick as we ran out 4-2 winners.”

Taken off the transfer list, over the next couple of months he became one of the most influential players in the side as Burnley climbed to third in the table.

Sadly, it didn’t last. The team and player’s form dipped from November.

“As the results went against us, the rumblings of discontent about him were being heard in the stands again,” said Scholes.

Meanwhile, Akinbiyi returned to the club which further reduced the chances of his former strike partner getting games. As the January transfer window came to a close, Noel-Williams was sold to Real Murcia in Spain for £50,000.

“Burnley fans will remember him as a player who struggled with pace and movement, a player who didn’t score enough goals, and a player they just loved to criticise,” said Scholes.

How different it all was from the early promise he had shown when blooded in the Watford first team at the tender age of 16.

Born in Islington on 21 January 1980 to Jamaican parents, the young Noel-Williams played for district and county representative sides and Carl Dixon, a coach at his local Sunday side Apex Arvensdale, recommended him to Watford.

When he played in a national cup final fo Islington and Camden at Highbury, he scored a hat-trick in front of the Sky Sports TV cameras and Arsenal, Spurs and Chelsea all took an interest in him but he stuck with Watfod, and it paid off when, in 1996, Kenny Jackett gave him his first team debut at just 16.

A serious knee injury sustained in a tackle by Sunderland’s Paul Butler in 1999 put him out of the game for the best part of 18 months and he subsequently developed rheumatoid arthritis in both knees.

In an interview with itv.com on 4 April 2016, the striker revealed how he might never have had a career at all if it hadn’t been for former Watford chairman Elton John.

GNW WatHe was told he would have to give up the game, but Watford’s pop icon chairman was living in America at the time and saw an article about a drug that could save his career. He contacted Graham Taylor and they paid for him to get the necessary treatment.

The injury and illness came just as Noel-Williams had received a call-up to the England Under-21 squad. At 18, he had been playing in junior England teams alongside Michael Owen and Michael Bridges.

Noel-Williams told interviewer Will Unwin: “Even though I had rheumatoid arthritis I was still able to play at Championship level and abroad.”

After seven years and 33 goals in 169 appearances for Watford, Noel-Williams signed for Stoke City; Tony Pulis taking him on a Bosman free transfer in 2003.

Across two seasons, he scored 23 goals in 88 games for The Potters banishing all thoughts that he wasn’t fit to play.

Then, in 2005, he joined Burnley because he was encouraged to by his former Stoke teammate, Akinbiyi (another striker who had impressed on loan from Norwich to Brighton earlier in his career, when he scored four times in seven games).

As an aside, Akinbiyi had distinctly mixed fortunes throughout his career and after he completed a £600,000 move to Burnley was sent off on his debut within two minutes for head butting Sunderland’s George McCartney!

But back to Noel-Williams, who told itv.com: “I did not want to go to Burnley, to be honest. What happened was that Tony Pulis left Stoke at the end of the season, he went to Plymouth – so as he was leaving and a new manager coming in, I didn’t want to stay at Stoke.

“Ade Akinbiyi was at Burnley at the time and he was with me at Stoke so he kept phoning me, saying ‘come to Burnley, they want us to play up front together’, so that’s why I went to Burnley, but then six months later Ade left to go to Sheffield United, so my time at Burnley crashed a little bit and that’s why I didn’t stay there for so long.”

Noel-Williams said he didn’t really see eye-to-eye with Cotterill, which hastened his departure to Spain.

The Spanish lifestyle suited him but his game time was restricted mainly to substitute appearances and when Real Murcia were promoted he was told he would not be guaranteed a place.

So he switched to Elche, where he said he enjoyed his football but they didn’t pay him for a year because of financial issues. He ended up having to take action via FIFA to get the money he was owed, and left after just one season.

His old Watford mentor, Jackett, gave him a short-term contract with Millwall, but he played just the one game whilst Tresor Kandol and Neil Harris were unavailable. On 5th November 2008, he signed for Yeovil Town on a month’s loan.

He played eight times for Yeovil, the last coming on the Saturday before Christmas. But 2009 saw him once again without a club and on 8th January it was confirmed that he was signing a two-year deal with American USL club Austin Aztex, a club managed by former Burnley boss Adrian Heath.

He was released at the end of the 2009 season and signed for American fourth-tier side DFW Tornados (based in Dallas).

After he packed up playing in 2010, he became a coach at the Brentwood Christian School in Austin, Texas.

He returned to the UK and linked up with his former Watford teammate Allan Smart at Daventry Town and subsequently had various coaching and managing roles with non-league sides – Northwood, Burnham and Codicote. In November 2017, he was sacked after Hertfordshire-based Codicote, who play in the 10th tier of English football, lost 12 of their first 14 league matches.

1 GN-W Argus2 GN-W Argus main3 G N-W PA (watford)

Pictures published by The Argus show THAT diving header to score on his Albion debut, and a study in determination to get to the ball. Also a Press Association image of a youthful Gifton in Watford colours.