When Chris Cattlin rocked up to play for and manage Brighton

1-cat-in-goal IT MUST BE difficult for today’s reader to imagine a player with the opportunity to sign for either Coventry City or Chelsea choosing the Sky Blues over the London giants.

But in 1968, when the choice faced Huddersfield Town’s Cattlin, he moved to Highfield Road because the following day they were playing a star-studded Manchester United side and, as the full-back who’d be marking the legendary George Best, he couldn’t resist pitting his ability against the Irish wizard.

It was one of several career insights Cattlin revealed in an excellent interview by Doug Thomson in the Huddersfield Examiner in June 2013.

Huddersfield were happy to collect a £70,000 transfer fee when Coventry bid for Cattlin, but he told the Examiner: “Chelsea also came in for me and I was due to speak to them in the afternoon after talking to Coventry in the morning.

“City were playing Manchester United the next day and the manager, Noel Cantwell, told me I would definitely be in the team.

“I knew that if I could say I’d played against George Best, Denis Law and Bobby Charlton, I could die a happy man, so I never got as far as Stamford Bridge!

“I signed for £65 a week when the man in the street was probably getting £20, so to be paid like that for playing football made me more than happy!”

As it turned out, Cattlin marked Best out of the game and his new team won 2-0 with goals from Ernie Machin (who later left the Albion at the same time Cattlin arrived at the Goldstone) and Maurice Setters, against his old team.

Cattlin went on to play more than 250 league and cup games for Coventry, (then in the equivalent of today’s Premier League), before moving to Brighton in 1976, where his playing career finished, but he returned as manager between 1983 and 1986.

Going back to the beginning, though, Cattlin was born in Milnrow, Lancashire, on 25 June 1946, the son of a rugby league player, Bob, and his early school days were spent at Milnrow Parish School. He moved on to Ashton-under-Lyne Technical College (Geoff Hurst was three years his senior there) and then took a job in textile engineering.

In the meantime, he trained and played for Burnley’s youth team but he struggled with the 40-mile round trip travelling from his home. A Huddersfield Town scout, Harry Hooper, had spotted his potential and he was offered a professional contract with the Terriers in the summer of 1964 which allowed him to carry on working two days a week at the textiles factory.

“I went across to Leeds Road, and just fell in love with the place. It was far from luxurious, but there was just a feel about the ground and the people there,” he recalled.

Maybe it was also a feeling that Huddersfield knew a thing or two about decent left backs. Cattlin took over from Bob McNab, who later made a name for himself at Arsenal, and played four games for England, and McNab had replaced England World Cup winner Ray Wilson, who Town transferred to Everton.

Cattlin was signed by Eddie Boot only for the manager to resign the day after, following a 2-1 home defeat by Plymouth. Boot’s successor was Tom Johnston and he insisted on Cattlin becoming a full-time pro, which caused a degree of angst with Cattlin’s concerned parents, but he went for it and didn’t look back.

It was emerging coach Ian Greaves, a former Manchester United player (who later took Town to the top flight as manager), who was to have a lasting effect on Cattlin. “Ian lived in Shaw, the next village to Milnrow, and he’d give me a lift to Leeds Road each day, in the days before the M62, on that winding old road over the moors,” he explained.

“He was a great coach and later manager, and a superb motivator, just a football man through and through.”

Cattlin made his debut in a 3-1 home win over Derby on the final day of the 1964-65 Division 2 (now Championship) campaign but didn’t fully establish himself in the side until the 1966-67 campaign.

In total, he played 70 times for Huddersfield and, for a while, he was playing for the town’s football team while dad Bob was playing for its rugby league side. “My dad played for Huddersfield at rugby league, I played for Huddersfield Town at football. I think we’re the only father and son to have done that,” he said.

After that 1968 transfer to Coventry, Cattlin became a firm favourite at Highfield Road and although he didn’t quite emulate Wilson and McNab, he did play twice for England Under 23s. He made his debut on 2 October 1968 in a 3-1 win over Wales at Wrexham in a side that also included Peter Shilton in goal, West Ham’s Billy Bonds and John Sissons and Everton’s Howard Kendall and John Hurst.

Six weeks later he won his other cap in a 2-2 draw with the Netherlands at Birmingham’s St Andrews ground, when Arsenal’s John Radford and Hurst were the scorers. Cattlin also represented the Football League v the Scottish Football League.

Cattlin was part of the only Coventry side ever to qualify for Europe (in 1970-71) and remembered relative success, only eventually getting knocked out by a Bayern Munich side that included the likes of Franz Beckenbauer and Gerd Muller.

On another occasion, in a tour match, he played in a 2-2 daw against Santos of Brazil, with Pele in their team, in front of an 80,000 crowd. “Pitting your wits against those kinds of players was a fantastic education,” he said.

When manager Gordon Milne decided to give Cattlin a free transfer after nine years and 239 matches for Coventry, fans organised a petition to keep him at Highfield Road.

But there was no turning back and Peter Taylor signed him for Brighton – along with another experienced defender, Graham Cross (from Leicester City) – a short time before quitting the club to rejoin Brian Clough at Nottingham Forest.

It was Alan Mullery’s good fortune to inherit a squad that would take Division 3 by storm to earn promotion and Cattlin was able to contribute in both full back positions although mainly at left back, having the edge on Harry Wilson.

With the arrival of Gary Williams from Preston, Cattlin switched to the right and vied with Ken Tiler for the shirt, regaining the upper hand for the final two thirds of the season which ended with promotion from the old Division 2 in 1978.

“That Brighton promotion team – what a fantastic set of lads, with no little ability,” he said. “They could all play and were great characters. I was a very lucky lad to come along at the end of my career and join a dressing room like that.”

Although he made just one appearance (in the disastrous 4-0 League Cup defeat at Arsenal) during the 1979-80 season, he notched up a total of 114 games for Brighton.

And he obviously liked the place so much that once his playing days were over he opened a rock shop on Brighton seafront, as well as investing in property. However, three years after quitting as a player, he returned to the Goldstone as a coach, appointed in the summer of 1983 by chairman Mike Bamber to assist manager Jimmy Melia – without Melia’s knowledge!

It all got rather messy with Melia and Cattlin clearly not getting on and talk of a takeover rumbling on in the background.

By the middle of October, Melia quit and Cattlin took over as manager, with another well known former left back, Sammy Nelson, elevated from reserve team manager to assistant manager.

Cattlin then began to shape his own squad and among notable signings who served Albion well were Steve Penney, Danny Wilson and Dean Saunders while there were some memorable cup games, including beating Liverpool in what I believe was the first FA Cup tie – other than finals – to be shown live on TV.

One of TV’s pundits of today, Martin Keown, was another Cattlin signing, joining on loan from Arsenal and beginning with Brighton what was a memorable career with the Gunners, Aston Villa, Everton and England.

Cattlin admitted in 2010: “I had to sell a lot of the popular, best players for financial reasons and bring other ones in to keep the show on the road and make it interesting for the crowd. That was my job.” The likes of Steve Foster (to Aston Villa), Jimmy Case (to Southampton), Tony Grealish (to West Brom) and Gordon Smith (to Manchester City) were all sold by Cattlin.

In 1984, Cattlin certainly found an entertainer when he brought to the Albion a former teammate from his days at Leeds Road, the mercurial Frank Worthington, who moved along the south coast from Southampton.

By that time, Worthington wasn’t too mobile but he’d lost none of his skill and flamboyance and Cattlin told his 2013 interviewer: “He did a good job for me.

“Frank wasn’t only a great player, but a great bloke as well, a dedicated trainer and a great bloke to have around a club.”

Catt dog — *Barking up the wrong tree? Cattlin couldn’t quite restore Albion to the elite when he returned as manager*

Cattlin stayed in the manager’s chair until April 1986, overseeing finishes of ninth, sixth and 11th in the second tier, although he clearly felt the writing was on the wall as far as his job was concerned when the Albion board wouldn’t give him £6,500 to sign the experienced defender Jeff Clarke from Newcastle, as Cattlin explained at the Albion Roar live show in December 2018 (skip to 28 minutes in).

Distractions and changes in the boardroom were an uncomfortable backdrop to much of his time in charge and it was evident that the fans didn’t perceive Cattlin to be to blame for the failure to finish higher.

When he was sacked, there were protests from supporters, a 2,000-signature petition calling for his reinstatement and Cattlin himself addressed a 200-strong rally in Hove.

But it was all to no avail. His former boss, Mullery, returned and Cattlin went back to his non-football business interests.

In a 2010 interview in the matchday programme, Cattlin said: “I think I deserved another season at least to get them back into what is now the Premiership.

“If it had gone wonky then they wouldn’t have had to fire me – I’d have gone myself. Nevertheless, to play, coach and manage Brighton and Hove Albion made me a very proud man. But I wish I could have put them back where I felt they belonged.”

Pictures show (top) Chris Cattlin pictured in Goal magazine in Coventry’s sky blue; in an Evening Argus shot alongside new manager Alan Mullery and fellow close season signing Graham Cross; how the Albion programme headed his managerial notes.

100 goals in Scotland and England for Neil Martin

2 Martin SCOTTISH international Neil Martin remains a legend at one of his homeland clubs but his brief time at Brighton was more like a bad dream after a goalscoring start.

The striker’s youthful picture can still be found on the legends section of Queen of the South FC’s website where it notes he was among the first players to score 100 league goals in both Scotland and England.

It was while playing for the Wearsiders that he gained three Scotland international caps, all in 1965.

Martin scored 28 goals in 119 games for Nottingham Forest having moved down from Scotland in the 1960s and begun his English league career with Sunderland.

Martin partnered the legendary Denis Law up front in World Cup qualifiers against Poland and Finland and his third and final cap was earned in a 1-0 win over Italy playing alongside Tottenham’s Alan Gilzean.

One of his most prolific spells was at Coventry City (above) where, in three years, between 1968 and 1971, he scored 40 goals in 106 appearances.

He was slightly less prolific for Forest (although he was on the scoresheet in Clough’s first game in charge) before Peter Taylor brought him to the Albion on 26 June 1975.

Four new players were presented to the assembled press that pre-season and standing alongside Martin was one Peter Ward.

Martin scored on his league debut for Brighton as Rotherham United were dispatched 3-0 but he didn’t stay in the side long because Taylor brought in loan signing Barry Butlin, also from Forest, for five games to play up front alongside Fred Binney and Gerry Fell.

Martin did get a run back in the side during the autumn, when he added to his goals tally. But Taylor obviously felt the attack needed something extra and the £30,000 arrival of Northern Ireland international Sammy Morgan from Aston Villa spelt the beginning of the end of Martin’s short spell at the club.

He scored eight league goals and one in the FA Cup in 18 starts (plus four substitute appearances) but it all ended somewhat acrimoniously.

The Argus reported on February 13 1976 that the 32-year-old former Scotland international had been transfer listed and banned from the Goldstone.

Words had evidently been exchanged after Martin had been subbed off in a reserves game and, try though he did, reporter John Vinicombe couldn’t find out exactly what had gone on.

Taylor was renowned for his tough stance with players. He suspended six players in the September that season and he had fallings out with Ian Mellor, Joe Kinnear and reserve ‘keeper Derek Forster.

Martin didn’t play for the club again, instead being moved on to Crystal Palace where he scored just the once in nine appearances.

At the end of the season, he joined what was a familiar exodus for ageing English league players at the time and played alongside England’s World Cup winning captain Bobby Moore, and ex-Arsenal full back Bob McNab, for San Antonio Thunder in America.

It wasn’t unfamiliar territory for Martin because, in the summer of 1967, he was part of the Sunderland contingent who played in the NASL as Vancouver Royal Canadians. The 16-man squad also included the above-mentioned Forster.

After Martin’s 1976 stint at San Antonio, he didn’t play in England again. His final playing days were in the Republic of Ireland, interestingly being given a lifeline by another former international striker who’d played for Brighton – Barry Bridges.

The former Chelsea, Birmingham, QPR and Millwall striker had a couple of seasons managing Dublin side St Patrick’s Athletic, where Martin joined him.

The Scot had a brief managerial foray with Walsall, mainly in tandem with Alan Buckley, but it didn’t end well and he left the club in 1982.

Born in Tranent, just east of Edinburgh, on 20 October 1940, Martin’s break into the professional game came at Alloa Athletic. His 25 league and cup goals in the 1960-61 season brought about a move to Queen of the South where he continued to score plenty of goals – 33 in 61 appearances.

A £7,500 transfer fee took him to Hibernian in 1963. He’d supported them as a boy and after Jock Stein took over as manager in 1964, Martin netted 29 league and cup goals in the 1964-65 season. He said later that Stein was the biggest influence on his career.

It was top-tier Sunderland who paid £45,000 to take Martin south of the border. His goalscoring in his first taste of English football wasn’t quite as prolific as it had been in Scotland, mainly due to the Wearsiders not being able to decide on the best strike partner for the Scot.

Eventually, in 1968, he moved on to Coventry City, newly-promoted to the old First Division. He spent three years at Highfield Road, developing good partnerships with Ernie Hunt and John O’Rourke, with the emerging talents of Willie Carr and Dennis Mortimer providing good service from midfield.

His switch to Nottingham Forest towards the end of the 1970-71 season helped them survive the drop, but they went down the following season and that was the last Martin saw of top-flight football.

Ian Mellor – the postman who delivered for Peter Ward

Mellor BHA THE SONGS still sung today that immortalise Peter Ward sadly fail to recognise the man who laid on so many of the nimble striker’s goals.

But fans of a certain vintage will never forget the contribution of former postman Ian ‘Spider’ Mellor.

Nicknamed because of his long-legged build, the beanpole midfielder-turned-striker, scored 31 goals in 122 appearances for Albion between 1974 and 1978.

Born in Wythenshawe on 19 February 1950, Mellor grew up supporting Manchester City and dreamt of playing for them. He went to Sale Moor Secondary School in the city and, aged 15, he was offered a trial at Maine Road but he didn’t get taken on. Undeterred, two years later he got a second chance after bombarding the club with cuttings of his exploits playing Sunday league football in the area.

He lapped up the experience of being coached by Malcolm Allison. It was towards the end of the Bell, Summerbee, Lee era and Mellor managed 40 appearances for City. In March 1973, however, while Allison was ill, chairman Peter Swales sold him to Norwich City for £60,000.

“Malcolm said he left Maine Road because I’d been sold without his permission when he was ill in hospital,” Mellor told the Manchester Evening News.

“I didn’t really stop to think what I was letting myself in for,” he said. “I should have stayed at City and then, to make it even worse, soon after I’d left, Denis Law rejoined the club. I could have been playing in the same team as my idol.”

After Mellor scored the only goal of the game in Albion’s 1-0 win over Allison’s Crystal Palace at the start of the 1974-75 season, Allison said: “I remember Spider when I was at Manchester City.

“I didn’t want to see him leave for Norwich. Directors force you to do that sort of thing, then they sack you. Spider was a late developer, but his timing is so good now.”

Norwich were struggling at the wrong end of the old First Division when Mellor moved to Norfolk and although he agreed to the deal, he reflected years later that he regretted it.

Perhaps, therefore, it was no surprise when Brian Clough arrived at Carrow Road in the spring of 1974 with the promise of making him Brighton’s record signing for a fee of £40,000, he jumped at the chance to play for the league title-winning manager.

Mellor was part of a triple signing from Norwich as Clough persuaded him and centre backs Andy Rollings and Steve Govier to drop down a division to play for Brighton.

Ironically, he never played competitively under Clough because of ol’ Big Ed’s move to Leeds that summer but under Peter Taylor he played mainly in a left-sided midfield role.

It was Taylor’s successor, Alan Mullery, who changed him from a wide midfield player to a centre forward, a position from which he contributed so many ‘assists’ for Ward. Those in the know certainly recognised his contribution.

In Matthew Horner’s excellent biography of Ward, He shot, he scored, Mullery is quoted as saying: “Ian Mellor had the ability: he was a big tall lad and he had super pace and a great left foot. I thought that they would form a terrific partnership.

“In my opinion, Mellor was wasted in midfield. He could hold on to the ball and he’d learnt his skills from Malcolm Allison and Joe Mercer at Manchester City, who were both great coaches. He shouldn’t really have been playing at the level we were at – he was too good – but he was and that was great for us.

“Spider would get the ball to him and Peter would go on these mazy runs and, nine times out of 10, would knock the ball into the back of the net.

“The partnership is history now but they were absolutely fantastic together.”

Former Albion colleague, now BBC pundit, Mark Lawrenson said of him: “Playing Ian Mellor alongside Ward was the masterstroke really – Mellor was an out-and-out footballer and a perfect partner for Wardy.”

Club skipper at the time, Brian Horton, added: “In the first year Ward and Spider were unbelievable. We didn’t have a big target man but the movement with those two was fantastic. They got about 50 goals between them and I chipped in with about a dozen more.”

Ironically one of the stand-out games of his Albion career, on 3^rd May 1977, came against Albion’s play-off opponents, Sheffield Wednesday, in front of 30,756 fans at the Goldstone.

Argus reporter John Vinicombe named him his Albion man-of-the-match as Wednesday were beaten 3-2 to earn promotion.

Not long into the following season, Mullery splashed £238,000 on centre forward Teddy Maybank from Fulham and he went straight into the team alongside Ward, which unsurprisingly didn’t go down well with Mellor.

“I knew I was better than him, but they had to justify his price and that’s why I got dropped,” Mellor maintained in a an Albion matchday programme interview with Spencer Vignes. Mellor requested a transfer in spite of chairman Mike Bamber urging him to stay.

“In hindsight, of course, I should have stayed,” said Mellor. “I was still good enough. I was 29, with two good seasons left in me.”

Instead, in February 1978, he moved back to his native north west from Brighton to play for Chester for two years but then had three years at Sheffield Wednesday where he managed 11 goals in 70 games and, like his spell alongside Ward, provided a perfect foil for Terry Curran to bang in the goals.

He ended his career at Bradford City and later worked as a commercial executive for the PFA. He also worked for football boot supplier Puma and was a representative for football kit supplier Pelada.

Younger readers will be more familiar with the former Liverpool striker Neil Mellor, who now works in the media, who was one of Ian’s sons.

Ian Mellor died aged 74 in Cheadle on 1 May 2024 after a long battle with amyloidosis.

Pictures from my scrapbook and Albion matchday programmes show headlines Mellor made and the player in action.

scrapbok mellor

A little less hirsuit than in his playing days…

Welsh wizard Peter O’Sullivan an all-time Albion great

WHILE Peter Ward rightly attracted much of the attention during Albion’s rise to the top in the late ‘70s, few would deny that midfield maestro PETER O’SULLIVAN also deserves a place amongst the club’s all-time greats.

Sully had a long career with the Seagulls before a short stint with Fulham towards the end of his playing days.

The statisticians of the modern football era would have needed their calculators to record the ‘assists’ racked up by Sully, who, from the left wing or left midfield, found goalscoring teammates with unerring accuracy throughout a remarkable 11 years with the Albion.

Managers came and went, a huge swathe of teammates were discarded, but Sully stayed put, showed his worth to whoever sat in the manager’s chair, and entertained the watching faithful.

He played in the same position as the Brazilian genius Rivelino and even sported the same style of moustache in homage to him.

As Brighton rose through the footballing pyramid, Sully was a constant, displaying the talent to make an impact in the third, second and top tiers. One of his former teammates, Andy Rollings, maintained: “He should have played at the top level all the time, he was that good a player.

“He had natural ability and great fitness,” Rollings told freelance journalist Spencer Vignes. “What he did at this club was incredible, and as an individual player he was one of the best I ever played with. He’s a lovely, smashing guy.”

In the excellent Vignes’ book A Few Good Men (Breedon Books Publishing), Sully admitted there had been occasions when he couldn’t wait to get away from Brighton, and he had some serious arguments with all of the managers he played under.

Sully shared his thoughts in a Goal magazine article of 22 December 1973, a couple of months after the arrival of Brian Clough and Peter Taylor. Having won promotion from the Third Division, won five Wales under 23 caps and made his full international debut against Scotland, he was disillusioned after relegation from Division 2.

“I was bitterly disappointed at that,” he said. “It seemed at last I was getting over the depression of being in the Manchester United reserves for four years when life began to turn sour again.”

However, with the arrival of Clough and Taylor, O’Sullivan changed his outlook and told the magazine: “I’ve been impressed with their ideas and they have completely overhauled the set up down here. Now I am more than happy to stay – that is if Mr Clough still wants me – and help Brighton back into the big time.

“The potential down here is enormous and I am sure we will realise it under Mr Clough.”

Vignes’ 2007 interview with Sully explained exactly how he ended up at Brighton having been given a free transfer from Manchester United. None other than the great Bobby Charlton was responsible.

sully man u

Young Peter crouches alongside George Best in a Manchester United team photo

Born in Colwyn Bay, north Wales, on 4 March 1951, Sully had trained alongside the United legend while at Old Trafford as a youngster and, on being released on a free transfer in 1970, was considering offers from several different clubs.

He’d gone to Bristol to have a trial with Bristol City when, on a neighbouring pitch, Charlton was taking part in an England training session prior to the 1970 Mexico World Cup.

The kindly maestro exchanged the time of day with his recently departed colleague and asked which clubs were in for him. On hearing that one of them was Brighton, managed by his former Busby Babe teammate, Freddie Goodwin, Charlton advised him to link up with his old pal……and the rest, as they say, is history.

What Charlton and Sully didn’t know, however, was that no sooner had he arrived on the south coast than Goodwin was heading for the exit, en route to Birmingham City. Sully hadn’t even kicked a ball in anger for him.

“I was a little apprehensive about joining Brighton and it was unsettling when Freddie Goodwin left the club before I had even played for Albion,” he said. “I wondered what was going on and how it would affect me.

“But then Pat Saward arrived and I was overjoyed when he put me in the team. My hopes were quickly dashed again, though, when he dropped me after about six games.”

A homesick Sully struggled to settle at first but he stuck at it and went on to cement his place in the side. He ultimately featured under four different managers, Saward, Clough, Taylor and Alan Mullery.

He was part of the promotion-winning teams in 1972, 1976 and 1979, and was player of the season in 1978. He won promotion with Fulham too, going up to the old Division 2 in 1982 when the former Newcastle, Arsenal and England centre forward Malcolm MacDonald was in charge.

Sully had one amazing period with the Albion in which he made 194 consecutive appearances, an Albion record for an outfield player.

The performances of the lad from Colwyn Bay also saw him earn three international caps for Wales, two against Scotland and one in a rout against Malta when he also got on the scoresheet. Unfortunately for him, during the same period, a superb left-sided player called Leighton James was the first choice for the national side.

“When I joined Manchester United from school it was always one of my ambitions to play for Wales,” he told the Albion matchday programme. “But I thought those hopes had been dashed when Manchester United released me.” PO Wales

Sully’s 491 appearances for Brighton made him the club’s longest-serving post-war player. He actually left the club in 1980 to play in America for San Diego Sockers but a £50,000 transfer fee saw him return just five months later.

Eventually Sully moved on to Fulham in 1981 and notched up 46 appearances. There were short loan spells with Reading and Charlton in 1982-83 and his Football League career came to an end when he made 14 appearances for Aldershot in the following season.

Peter Grummitt a contender for Brighton’s best ever no.1

grummitt portrait ONE OF the best goalkeepers I’ve ever seen play for Brighton and Hove Albion previously spent a decade with Nottingham Forest and was an England under 23 international.

Peter Grummitt was outstanding between the sticks and racked up an impressive career total of more than 650 league and cup appearances, virtually half of them in what is now the Premiership.

Born in Bourne (the Lincolnshire market town) on 19 August 1942, he was the last line of defence for Forest between 1960 and 1969, and credited Forest reserve team coach Joe Mallett, a former Southampton stalwart as a player, as the biggest influence on his career.

GrumForest But he also made 158 appearances for the Albion between 1974 and 1977. Signed on loan initially from Sheffield Wednesday in the wake of the famous 8-2 defeat to Bristol Rovers, he went on to be a key part of the side that was on the up in the mid ‘70s until injury cut short his career, albeit that he was in his mid 30s by then.

Grummitt headed south having been edged out as first choice at Wednesday, where he’d played 130 games after leaving the City Ground. He knew Brian Clough’s sidekick Peter Taylor well having played in the same Nottingham Taxis cricket team, and Taylor had called him to ask if he fancied the move.

Screenshot

“The fact Brighton were in the Third Division didn’t bother me at all, ” he said. “I knew what sort of managers they both were and I knew straight away that I wanted to go. I met Clough at a motorway service station, we had a chat, and I signed there and then.”

His arrival at the Goldstone was Clough and Taylor’s direct response to that horrendous home defeat to Rovers in front of the TV cameras. Long-standing no.1 Brian Powney was axed and Grummitt was drafted in for the next game – but in his first match even he had to fish the ball out of his net four times as Tranmere ran out 4-1 winners.

As it turned out, Powney did reclaim the ‘keeper’s jersey when Grummitt was injured in a game against Shrewsbury in a challenge with Ricky Marlowe, who the following season became a teammate.

Looking back, though, the signing of a goalkeeper of Grummitt’s undoubted pedigree was very much the beginning of what was to become a memorable era in the club’s history.

Mrs Grummitt was pleased with the move too, as the matchday programme enlightened us. Jill said the couple had found a house in Saltdean with a sea view. “Both of us have always wanted to live by the sea,” she said.

Their mutual love of horses was also satisfied by Brighton’s closeness to Hickstead, where they were visitors to see shows. Additionally we learned: “Peter’s main interest outside football is golf. Apart from that he is really a home-bird. He’s a master at relaxing and can just switch off by settling fown for a night in front of the television.”

Handyman Grummitt had also concreted part of the garden at the house in Mannings Vale and built a stone fireplace in the lounge.

In the 1960s, he was a contemporary of Chelsea’s Peter Bonetti, and they vied for the number one spot for the England Under 23 team.

Grum Eng Grummitt made his debut in a 5-2 win over the Netherlands in Rotterdam on 29 November 1961 when his teammates included future England World Cup winning captain Bobby Moore and future Brighton manager Alan Mullery.

While Bonetti reclaimed the shirt for the next seven matches, Grummitt was back between the sticks two years later when on 13 November 1963 he played in England’s 1-1 draw against Wales at Ashton Gate, Bristol. Those other West Ham World Cup winners, Martin Peters and Geoff Hurst, were in that under 23 line-up, together with Graham Cross, who would also later play for Brighton.

A fortnight later, Grummitt was again in goal when the national under-23s beat West Germany 4-1 at Anfield. But that was his last cap as Bonetti and Jim Montgomery (Sunderland) were selected ahead of him.

However, in 1971, Grummitt went on an end-of-season tour to Australia with an English FA squad that also included Barry Bridges (then of Millwall) and Dennis Mortimer (of Coventry at the time). The group played the Republic of Ireland in Dublin, drawing 1-1, before heading Down Under where they won all nine of the matches they played in various locations across a month.

Looking back through my scrapbooks, I found a feature from Shoot! magazine in which Grummitt and Bonetti, by then both 35, exchanged views and memories.

Grummitt revealed how he ended up being a ‘keeper. “My fate was decided at an early age because my brother was a budding inside forward and he used to stick me in goal so that he could practice his shooting on me,” he told the magazine.

In the same article, Grummitt said he hoped he would be able to carry on for another four or five years. Sadly that wasn’t to be. His last game was against the same opponents he’d made his Brighton debut against, Tranmere, and he suffered a knee injury which, together with an arthritic hip, prevented him regaining full fitness and forced him to retire in December 1977.

Grummitt explained in an interview with Spencer Vignes in a 2015-16 matchday programme how his right knee completely let him down. “I’d been going down on the hard ground on my knees for years and I think it got to the point where it just couldn’t take any more,” he said. An operation he underwent involved drilling and scraping the knee to try to make it grow again.

“It did grow eventually, but it was too late for me to stay on at the club,” he said. “If I’d had nine months to recover, then maybe I’d have been okay.” He subsequently had a knee replacement.

Grummitt added: “I’d have liked another two or three years at Brighton, what with us starting to go places, but it wasn’t to be.”

On 2 May 1978, a testimonial for him took place between Albion and an Alan Mullery All Stars XI in front of a crowd of 5,615. In the match programme notes, Mullery admitted when he took over as manager he thought Grummitt might be too old to continue in the first team, but he pointed out: “Until he got his injury, he was as good a goalkeeper as there was in the country at that time.”

Describing him as “a first class goalkeeper”, Mullery praised Grummitt’s character and loyalty. “With players of Peter’s quality they are never forgotten. He has had a tremendous time here at the Goldstone and I certaiinly don’t think anyone will forget him.”

Vignes discovered in his interview how Grummitt used the proceeds from the testimonial to buy a newsagent’s shop in Queens Road, Brighton, as well as briefly managing Lewes and working as a youth coach at Worthing. He also had brief spells playing part-time for Worthing and Dover Athletic but eventually returned to the East Midlands, settling in Newark.

One small claim to fame on my part – I once played in the same team as Grummitt at Withdean Stadium.

Former Argus sports reporter Jamie Baker put together a team of Sussex sports writers for a game and, as one who reported on local football at the time, I was invited to play.

Imagine my surprise as we were getting changed before the match to discover sitting alongside us in the dressing room was Peter Grummitt, who Jamie had drafted in as a “ringer” to try to ensure at least our last line of defence was sound!

grum full