STEELE is a familiar name in an Albion goalkeeper’s shirt. In the current set-up, there’s Jason. Back in the 1970s there was Eric. And very briefly, in the early 1980s, there was Simon.
After three years as an Everton youth player, Simon Steele joined the Albion a few weeks after they’d lost to Manchester United in the 1983 FA Cup Final.
When the Albion went on a pre-season tour in Majorca, the new arrival suddenly found himself keeping goal for the Seagulls in a match against the mighty Real Madrid.
“It may well only have been the City of Palma Tournament, a four-team pre-season competition, but Steele will never forget that evening on August 18, 1983,” The Argus reported in a 2004 article.
By then 40 and with 14 years behind him as a detective with Sussex Police, Steele recalled: “I had joined Brighton just after the FA Cup final. I had done a bit of pre-season training and then we went out to Majorca for this tournament.
“Graham Moseley wasn’t on the tour, I can’t remember why, so it was between me and Perry Digweed.
“I was really surprised to be selected for the game. I think Perry thought we would get a good hiding and threw an injury.”
A crowd of more than 20,000 watched the game and Steele told the newspaper: “They had a good side with plenty of internationals. We had quite a bit of support so the atmosphere was really good, especially considering it was a pre-season game with not a lot resting on it. There were a lot of Brits out there who came to support us and we were playing for personal pride.
“I just remember them scoring in injury time. Santillana turned on a sixpence and put the ball in the bottom corner from eight or ten yards out.
“Other than that we held them at bay. Although I had quite a bit to do, I dealt with it comfortably. I never felt under any great pressure and it was gutting when the goal went in.”
Indeed, The Argus said the match report of the time raved about Steele’s performance, in particular picking out “one breathtaking stop” from Camacho, who had played for Spain at the 1982 World Cup.
Steele retained his place when Albion beat Hungarian side Vasas Diosgyori 3-2 in the tournament’s third place play-off, with goals from Steve Gatting, Tony Grealish and a Terry Connor penalty.
However, although Steele reckoned he had done enough to earn a place when the action proper began, he was to be disappointed.
“I did play well and it catapulted me on to the fringes of the first team,” he told The Argus. “I really thought I would start the season, then I got a call the day before the season started and Jimmy Melia said he would start with Moseley in the first game at Oldham.
“It was a bolt out of the blue because I thought I had played well in pre-season.”
Thankfully, he didn’t have long to wait for his chance, though. Two days later, with Moseley injured and Digweed suspended, the youngster made his League debut in a 3-2 defeat against Leeds at Elland Road.
Grealish gave the Seagulls the lead before, as the matchday programme highlighted, Steele came out well to make saves at the feet of Andy Ritchie and John Sheridan.
He also “saved brilliantly” from George McCluskey but was beaten by an equaliser from Andy Watson and a Frank Gray penalty.
Connor levelled the match, rising high to head home against his old club, but, agonisingly, a last-minute 25-yard right-footed shot from Sheridan left Steele helpless and gave Leeds the win.
Melia turned to the more experienced Digweed for the next match, at home to Chelsea, and within a matter of days, former England international Joe Corrigan arrived to dominate the goalkeeper pecking order – and Steele’s brief Albion career was over.
He went on loan to fourth tier Blackpool and Melia explained in his matchday programme notes: “With the surfeit of goalkeepers at present at the Goldstone, his opportunities are limited and I felt that he could get some valuable experience in the league with Blackpool which will stand him in good stead.
“He is only nineteen and I think he has a great future; we feel that a loan spell will sharpen up his game, but it certainly doesn’t mean he has left the Goldstone permanently.”
Steele played three games for the Tangerines and the following spring went on loan to third tier strugglers Scunthorpe United, where he featured five times.
The Iron, managed by ex-Leeds and England striker Allan Clarke, actually wanted to keep him but Steele said he was not happy with the terms being offered and reckoned he would be better off getting a job and playing part-time football instead.
Born in Southport on 29 February 1964, Steele went to Ainsdale High School in the seaside town between 1975 and 1979. He joined Everton at the same time as Shaun Teale (according to the website efcstatto.com), who later won the League Cup with Aston Villa.
Despite his best efforts in goal for Everton’s youth side in the 1982 FA Youth Cup, they lost 2-0 to Villa in the third round. The Liverpool Echo report of the game noted: “Paul Kerr picked up a free kick rebound and seemed certain to score until Steele denied him with a spectacular save. But the Midlanders went ahead after 41 minutes when winger Obi beat Steele with a powerful swerving shot from 25 yards.”
It added: “After Mark Walters had struck the face of the Everton bar, Kerr chipped the advancing Simon Steele with devastating accuracy to notch Villa’s second in the 83rd minute.”
After turning his back on the chance to play lower league football with Scunthorpe, Steele turned out for a variety of Sussex non-league sides – Worthing, Bognor, Pagham, Peacehaven, Whitehawk and Withdean – and became a detective constable with Sussex Police in October 1990.
He was in the news in 2019 when, in his role as secretary of the Sussex Police Federation, he spoke out about the lack of investment in detectives in the county.
He said victims of crime weren’t getting the service they should have done because of a lack of sufficient detectives in the force.
“It used to be easy to fill the detective roles,” he said. “Now officers don’t want to go into the department for whatever reason, down to the workloads that they’re carrying, the pressures, the hours that they’re working, and a lot of them are pretty close to breaking point.”
“The bigger the atmosphere, the more I like it. For instance, my best two games this season were against Arsenal, and in the replay there was a crowd of 47,000.”
Between them, they literally couldn’t stop scoring goals, and the success of their striking partnership restricted Morgan to only two starts in 1976-77. He was on the sub’s bench throughout that first promotion season under Alan Mullery, and he scored just once in 16 appearances as the no.12.
In parallel lines 