Tag: Preston

Set-piece expert Darren Currie earned Uncle Tony’s approval

THE PINPOINT accuracy of Darren Currie’s passing and shooting was a joy to watch, even though a lack of pace stopped him being as good a player as his famous uncle.

Currie was a decent player in his own right, making nearly 700 appearances for 15 different clubs, but wherever he went he was always known as the nephew of the former Sheffield United, Leeds, QPR and England creative midfielder Tony Currie.

Perhaps with a hint of family bias, Uncle Tony said in an interview for ITV Digital: “Darren is, without doubt, the best crosser of the ball, after Beckham, in the country. He’ll produce nine times out of ten, right foot or left foot.”

The young Currie attributed his crowd-pleasing skills to the start he was given in the game by West Ham. After 10 years stuck in the lower leagues, Currie was given a platform to perform in the Championship by Brighton, and he very nearly made it to the top when transferred for £250,000 to high-flying Ipswich Town.

As if by a cruel twist of fate, Ipswich lost to the Hammers in the 2004-05 Championship play-off semi-finals having just missed out on automatic promotion.

“Playing for West Ham at youth and reserve levels was a terrific way to start a career,” Currie told the Ipswich Star. “They gave me everything but my debut.”

He certainly came close though, featuring alongside recognised first-teamers like Lee Chapman and Frank Lampard in friendlies and testimonials, but he had to move elsewhere to gain competitive first-team action.

Initially he had loan spells with Shrewsbury Town and Leyton Orient, and when the Shrews bid £70,000 for him in 1996, he chose to drop down a couple of divisions to get regular football.

“The difference in money was only about £50. The then West Ham manager Harry Redknapp called me in and said that I was an adult and had to think about continuing to play regular first team football,” Currie explained. “I was given the opportunity to have a new contract at West Ham or moving permanently to Shrewsbury.

“I was a young pro at West Ham and I had been out on loan a couple of times and I got the buzz for playing at three o’clock on a Saturday afternoon. There was no other feeling like it.

“I thought to myself I’ll go to Shrewsbury and I’ll play really well for a year and I’ll get a move back up to the top.

“My naivety kicked in then because it didn’t quite happen. I thought I’d done OK and I was linked with a couple of moves but the route back to the top wasn’t as simple as I thought it would be in my head.”

Indeed, it was a decade in which, after three seasons with the Shrews, he moved on briefly to Plymouth Argyle, then to Barnet (three seasons) and Wycombe Wanderers (three seasons).

Currie said it got to a point where Wycombe couldn’t afford to keep him, and boss Tony Adams made it clear he was free to look elsewhere.

Mark McGhee invited him to Brighton for a trial and was impressed with the way he knuckled down in training to get himself fit following a programme devised by McGhee’s deputy, Bob Booker.

Currie was offered a 12-month contract but it was more about the opportunity to play at a higher level that prompted him to sign.

“It wasn’t a fantastic offer – put it this way, Peterborough offered me three years – but it wasn’t about the money,” Currie told Spencer Vignes in an Albion matchday programme article.

“It was about the football and playing in the Championship. I was determined to do well and to prove myself, which I did. That’s when people began to sit up and take notice.”

Currie’s ability on the ball carved him out to be a crowd-pleaser and the first of two goals for the Albion typically came from a free kick in a 3-2 home defeat to QPR that left Argus reporter Andy Naylor purring over its execution.

“Currie, having shaved a post and hit the bar with two earlier free-kicks, made it third time lucky from 20 yards just before the break. It was a sumptuous effort from the set-piece expert which rendered Rangers’ keeper Chris Day motionless.”

His other goal came in a 1-1 draw at home to Sheffield United, more noted for Albion wearing the limited-edition Palookaville strip to help publicise backer Fatboy Slim’s latest album.

Injury-hit Albion considered it a point gained rather than two dropped and Naylor complimented Leon Knight for “superbly crafting” Currie’s goal by evading his marker and threading a square pass through the legs of Leigh Bromby.

“Currie, with time as well as room, picked his spot to score, which meant even more to him because of the opposition,” wrote Naylor, informing readers that the Yorkshire side had rejected him as a 16-year-old following a fortnight’s trial.

Unfortunately for Currie, he was only on the bench when the Albion travelled to Upton Park on 13 November 2004. After three successive defeats, McGhee confessed he set the side up not to lose rather than go for a win.

Somewhat ironically, the Seagulls blagged a 1-0 win courtesy of a Guy Butters goal, in a real backs-to-the-wall match, with veteran striker Steve Claridge ploughing a lone furrow up front.

It was only in the 90th minute of the match that McGhee introduced Currie in place of Claridge to play out the final few minutes of the game.

Currie only played 22 games for Brighton over four months but the fee they received for him from Ipswich gave a vital boost to club funds when they were struggling to compete in the division because of the restricted crowd numbers at Withdean. Having signed him on a free transfer, the deal was a no-brainer for the Albion hierarchy, even if it weakened a squad who subsequently only avoided relegation back to the third tier by a single point.

McGhee wasn’t that surprised to see Currie go, telling the Argus: “He was obviously happy here, but I thought he was doing so well that he would keep his options open.

“I cannot see Darren being a regular for Ipswich in the Premiership if they are promoted, but his skills and touch are good enough to justify him making a contribution to a squad in the Premiership.”

It didn’t pan out like that, but Currie was nonetheless grateful to the Albion, and told Vignes: “I am so pleased I had the chance to be a part of it all down there, to see what the support is like and to play with a group of lads who stick together through thick and thin.

“I played at the Goldstone when I was a kid, playing youth team football with West Ham, so I know how important the stadium issue is for everyone. I always will be extremely grateful to the Brighton fans and Mark McGhee because without a doubt without their help this opportunity wouldn’t have come along.”

Currie explained in a matchday programme article how McGhee had helped to develop his game and to add other dimensions which improved him. “I owe a helluva lot to Mark and Bob Booker,” he said.

Currie became an instant hit with the Tractor Boys fans earning the man of the match accolade in two of his first four games.

“I tend to build up a rapport with supporters wherever I go,” he told the Ipswich Star. “I am my own biggest critic and I know when I have done well, and I am very satisfied with my contribution so far.”

After his brief cameo for the Seagulls at West Ham, he got the chance to play against his boyhood club three times that season with Ipswich.

He was in the Town side that lost 2-0 at home to the Hammers on New Year’s Day 2005. Then, in the first leg of the play-off semi-final, Currie and Matt Richards (later a loanee with the Albion) were half-time substitutes who helped Ipswich to recover a deficit to draw 2-2.

Currie started the second leg and had Ipswich’s best opportunities with a shot straight at James Walker, then a long-range drive 10 minutes before the interval which the goalkeeper hopelessly misjudged but fumbled to safety. But they failed to make the final when Bobby Zamora scored two second half goals for West Ham to earn them a 2-0 second leg win. West Ham beat Preston in the play-off final.

Born in Hampstead on 29 November 1974, Currie’s early footballing talent drew interest from Watford and Chelsea, but he decided to join West Ham’s academy.

“The facilities were great, the training for us there as kids was first class and I really enjoyed my time there,” Currie said.

“A lot of the player I became was what I was taught as a kid at West Ham,” he told twtd.co.uk. “It was all about the ball and all about the technical skill and how to manipulate the ball. It was a way I enjoyed playing anyway so it was a really good fit for me.”

After signing professional in 1993, he was a regular in the West Ham reserve side and a trawl through the excellent archive website whu-programmes.co.uk records show he played in a Football Combination game away to Brighton on 1 April 1994, and later the same month was up against Guy Butters in Portsmouth’s reserve side at the Boleyn Ground. Mark Flatts and Paul Dickov were in opposition when the Hammers stiffs entertained their Arsenal counterparts at home on 11 May.

In an Avon Insurance Combination match at the Goldstone Ground on 30 November 1994, Currie scored the only goal of the game from the penalty spot in a West Ham side also featuring Lee Chapman and Frank Lampard.

The following summer, Currie played in four matches when he was part of West Ham’s squad on a centenary tour of Australia.

Shrewsbury boss Fred Davies, a former playing colleague of Redknapp’s at Bournemouth, took Currie on full time after his two loan spells at Gay Meadow.

He moved on to Plymouth Argyle in 1998 but only played five matches in three months, then switched to Barnet where he made 136 appearances, plus seven as a sub, in three years.

Wycombe Wanderers paid £200,000 to sign him in the summer of 2001 and manager Lawrie Sanchez told BBC Three Counties Radio: “He’s obviously a quality player. He gets crosses in and that’s an area where we weren’t very good last year. He’s come to add that to our game and his free kicks will trouble the ‘keeper as well.

“It was quite a lot of money for our club to spend but I’ve got to back my judgement. I’d looked at him for a while and quite liked him. He gives us something we haven’t got, he’s a great technician. He hasn’t got particularly great pace but what he does with the ball is tremendous. We’re hoping he does all the things he was doing at Barnet and a little bit more for us.”

Sanchez added: “A lot of people looked at him for a long time. He’s always been considered one of the best players in the Third Division and hopefully we’ll give him the stage where he can prove he’s one of the best players in the Second Division.”

After Currie’s flirtation with promotion to the Premier League ended in disappointment, Joe Royle left Portman Road and his replacement Jim Magilton axed Currie from the side in the 2006-07 season. He was sent on loan to fellow Championship sides Coventry City and Derby County, for whom he made a play-offs appearance as a substitute, although he wasn’t involved in the final when County beat West Brom 1-0.

That summer, on the expiry of his Ipswich contract, Currie moved on a free transfer to League One Luton Town. He made 38 appearances for the Hatters but when they went into administration, were deducted 10 points and relegated, he was among several players given a free transfer.

Micky Adams, back in the hotseat at the Albion, was hopeful of getting Currie back to Brighton for a second spell, telling BBC Southern Counties Radio on 11 July: “He’s a player I’ve admired for a long, long time. We want him, and he wants to come back. He’d offer competition for places and fantastic delivery from set pieces.”

But at the end of the month the player rejected the terms on offer and took up a three-year contract at Chesterfield instead.

While the first year at Saltergate went OK, in the second season, the manager who signed him, Lee Richardson, had been replaced by John Sheridan, and Currie was out of the picture. He went on loan to fellow League Two side Dagenham & Redbridge and the deal was made permanent in January 2010. Currie played in 16 matches as the Daggers won promotion to League One.

They went straight back down the following season, and Currie departed for Conference South outfit Borehamwood as player assistant manager. He was there less than three months before moving to Isthmian League Hendon for a year as a player.

In October 2012, Currie returned to Dagenham & Redbridge, initially as a development coach and later as assistant manager under John Still.

In June 2018, Currie was appointed assistant manager at National League side Barnet, working under Still. He succeeded Still in December 2018, initially as caretaker, before landing the role permanently in January 2019.

Currie, assisted by former Albion loanee midfielder Junior Lewis, came close to getting Barnet promoted to League Two but, having missed out, and the club struggling financially because of the Covid-related lack of fan revenue, both left the club in August 2020.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

GR leg break

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ram Ryan

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ryan Eire

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

GR prog snow

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

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

GR pots

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

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

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

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

Imperious Mark Lawrenson starred at Brighton before hitting Liverpool heights

MARK LAWRENSON was without doubt in my mind the best player ever to play for Brighton and Hove Albion. Peter Ward was exceptional but Lawrenson did it for Brighton and went on to have a glittering career with Liverpool, the top club in the country at the time.

And, whatever your thoughts about his contribution as a pundit – and many are very disparaging – you can’t take away his longevity on our TV screens and across our media.

Although now slightly less prominent as a TV pundit, for a good many years, Lawrenson reprised his successful Liverpool central defensive partnership with Alan Hansen in the BBC Match of the Day studios.

But where did it all begin? Born on 2 June 1957 in Penwortham, Lancashire, Lawrenson joined nearby Preston at 17 in 1974, who at the time were managed by the legendary Bobby Charlton.

Lawrenson made his full debut for the Lilywhites the following year, two months before his 18th birthday. However, it was Charlton’s fellow World Cup winner, Nobby Stiles, to whom Lawrenson was most grateful.

“I was a winger when I joined Preston, while he was coach, and he was the one who converted me to my present position – in the middle of the back four,” Lawrenson told Keir Radnedge in Football Weekly News.

“Nobby was very good with the youngsters. He was almost like a father-figure. He commanded respect not only because of what he’d achieved himself but because of the way he’d help iron out your faults.”

At the age of 19, and thinking he’d never be good enough to play for England, Lawrenson opted to play for the Republic of Ireland when player-manager Johnny Giles (perhaps not coincidentally, Nobby’s brother-in-law) found out that he qualified to play for them through his grandfather.

That debut for Ireland in April 1977, in a 0-0 draw with Poland, came at the end of a season in which he was voted Preston’s Player of the Year.

Within weeks, he joined the Albion for £112,000 (£100,000 + VAT @ 12 per cent) after Brighton manager Alan Mullery persuaded Albion to outbid Liverpool to get their man.

Shoot article

Mullery recalled in his 2006 autobiography how he had taken the board of directors to see Lawrenson perform superbly in an end-of-season game at Crystal Palace, where he marked their new star striker Mike Flanagan out of the game.

Lawrenson recollects how he was on an end-of-season ‘jolly’ in Spain with his Preston team-mates when Brighton chairman Mike Bamber and director Dudley Sizen turned up and ‘sold’ the club to him in a Benidorm beachside bar.

There was nearly a hitch in the deal when his medical showed high sugar levels in his blood – but it turned out he had been drinking blackcurrant-flavoured Guinness while on the Spanish holiday.

Mullery was building on the success of guiding the Seagulls to promotion from Division Three in his first season in charge, and the young defender replaced the experienced Graham Cross, who went to Preston in part-exchange.

Shortly after signing Lawrenson, Mullery told Shoot magazine: “I know a lot of people have not heard too much about him yet. But they will – believe me, they will. He is only 20, is big and strong and will make his mark in a big way.”

And, in his autobiography, Mullery said: “Any manager would love to have a player of Mark’s ability in their side. He had a calm, strong temperament, he never caused any problems and he always performed brilliantly on the field. His presence helped to lift the team to a whole new level of performance in the 1977-78 season.”

Lawrenson made his Brighton debut on the 20 August 1977 in a 1-1 draw against Southampton at The Dell and went on to make 40 league appearances by the end of his first season at the club.

The following season, when Albion went one better and earned promotion to the top division for the first time, Lawrenson was a stand-out performer. In his book, A Few Good Men, author Spencer Vignes said: “His timing in the tackle and ability to read the game belied his relative youth, but what really caught the eye was his skill on the ball, which, for a centre-back still earning his wages in English football’s second tier, was little short of remarkable.”

Skipper Brian Horton told Vignes: “The way he used to bring the ball out from the back had to be seen to be believed.”

In a special Argus supplement of April 1997, to mark Albion’s departure from the Goldstone, Lawrenson was interviewed by Mike Donovan, and told him: “The Goldstone was a great place to play and I was extremely happy there.

“It was an excellent team that played good football the way it should be played – by passing it around. Also, we had a great team spirit, mainly because a lot of the team were outsiders coming in and stuck together. We all played and socialised together.”

Unfortunately, Albion’s first season amongst the elite was only five games in when Lawrenson received a serious injury in a clash with Glenn Hoddle at White Hart Lane.

Badly torn ankle ligaments and a chipped bone was the diagnosis and it sidelined Lawrenson for 12 matches, although his absence created an opportunity for young Gary Stevens.

lawro yellowWhen Lawrenson was fit to return, Mullery sprung a surprise by utilising him in midfield, but it was an inspired decision and he stayed there for the rest of the season, helping Albion to finish a respectable 16th of 22.

He went on to make 152 league appearances by the end of 1980-81.

It was his sale to Liverpool in the summer of 1981 that was part of the reason Mullery’s reign at the club came to an end. Mullery had negotiated with Ron Atkinson to sell him to Manchester United with two United players coming to Brighton as part of the deal.

But, behind his back, chairman Bamber had been talking to Liverpool and, in exchange for what was then a Liverpool club transfer record of £900,000, he was destined to be heading back to the North West with midfielder Jimmy Case coming South as part of the deal.

Interestingly, though, Lawrenson revealed in his autobiography how new manager Mike Bailey had actually made him Albion captain, but then asked him how he saw his future, which sowed a seed of doubt about the club’s intentions.

“I don’t know if there was a financial crisis and they were looking for a big transfer fee from my sale to sort themselves out, but the uncertainty did unsettle me,” he wrote. Lawrenson was sent off in an ill-tempered pre-season friendly (against FC Utrecht in the Dordrecht Tournament) and put it down to his personal frustration.

“On our return flight, there was a message that Terry Neill of Arsenal was waiting to meet the chairman at Gatwick,” Lawrenson recalled. “Somehow they missed each other and the next day there was talk of me going to Manchester United.

“But then Mike Bailey asked me if I would meet Liverpool, and I travelled to the Aerial Hotel at Heathrow to meet Bob Paisley, Peter Robinson and Liverpool chairman John Smith.

“Terry Neill was, at the time, waiting in the next hotel in case discussions broke down. He missed out because it only took me 15 minutes to agree to move to Liverpool.

“I travelled North and had a medical at 11.30 at night. I even took the registration forms to the League offices myself, because they are only a few doors away from my mother’s home at St Annes.”

Argus front page

Lawrenson went on to form a formidable central defensive partnership with Hansen after England centre back Phil Thompson suffered an injury, but, as he had showed at Brighton, he was versatile enough also to play at full back or in midfield.

Indeed, Lawrenson made his first start for Liverpool at left-back in a 1-0 league defeat to Wolves. In his first season, Liverpool won the League championship and the League Cup. They won it again in 1982 and retained both for another two seasons, becoming only the third club in history to win three titles in a row. They also added the club’s fourth European Cup in 1984.

Many believed Lawrenson and Hansen were the best central defensive partnership in English football by the time Liverpool clinched the League and FA Cup “double” in 1986.

But Lawrenson was being put under pressure by young centre back Gary Gillespie and an Achilles tendon injury in 1988 prematurely ended his career after 332 appearances and 18 goals, although he earned a fifth and final title medal when that season ended.

Lawrenson tried his hand at management at Oxford United in 1988 but, in almost a mirror image of the situation over his own transfer from Brighton, he resigned after their star striker Dean Saunders, the former Albion player, was sold by the board of directors without Lawrenson’s blessing.

Lawrenson later managed Peterborough United for 14 months between September 1989 and November 1990, but it was a largely unsuccessful tenure.

Apart from one brief foray back into football as a defensive coach at Newcastle during Kevin Keegan’s first reign in the North East, Lawrenson’s involvement since has been one step removed as a pundit and newspaper columnist.

At the 2018 World Cup, Lawrenson particularly hit the headlines when many observed his cantankerous and sarcastic observations were just too much.

Never shy of voicing his opinions, they once led to him losing what at the time was a trademark moustache!

He was so convinced that Bolton would be relegated that he said live on Football Focus that he would shave it off if they proved him wrong, which they did!

In 2003, my friend Andrew Setten somehow blagged tickets which gave us the opportunity to go into the exclusive Football Association area at the FA Cup Final between Arsenal and Southampton at the Millennium Stadium and, all those years later, I finally got the chance to meet Lawro and to get his autograph.

• Pictures from Shoot magazine, cuttings from the Evening Argus and the matchday programme.

Lawrenson pictured in 2024

Dennis Burnett – England World Cup trio’s teammate – added finesse to Brighton’s defence

1newhamrecorder.co.uk

WITH all due respect to his predecessors in the number 6 shirt, Dennis Burnett was a classy addition to Brighton’s defence when he signed from Hull City in 1975.

At the end of his first season with Brighton, when they toyed with promotion from Division 3 but just missed out, Burnett was selected in the PFA Third Division Team of the Year, which said everything about his stature amongst his fellow professionals. Albion’s Peter O’Sullivan was also selected while the goalkeeper was Eric Steele, then with Peterborough, and Crystal Palace winger, and, future Brighton manager, Peter Taylor, was also in the XI.

Before 1975, Brighton fans had been used to seeing their centre halves hoof it, but Burnett play more in the style of another famous former West Ham number 6. OK, he might never have reached Bobby Moore’s level but he played alongside the great man for a while and came through the ranks at West Ham when they had a reputation for playing cultured football.

He started off in the West Ham youth team and was in the 1963 FA Youth Cup winning side alongside the likes of Harry Redknapp, Clive Charles, Bobby Howe and John Sissons.

Burnett made his first team debut for the Hammers as a 21-year-old in October 1965, along with Jimmy Bloomfield (the future Orient and Leicester manager), in a 3-0 defeat to Fulham at Craven Cottage. He made 24 league appearances in 1965-66, the most he managed in any one season for the Hammers.

In March 1966, he collected a League Cup runners-up medal playing right back in a side that lost 5-3 over two legs to West Brom. The team was captained by Bobby Moore, and included Martin Peters and Geoff Hurst, just four months before all three played in England’s one and only World Cup win.

Burnett went on to complete 66 league and cup appearances for West Ham.

Born in Southwark on 27 September 1944, perhaps it was no surprise his next stop was Millwall. West Ham sold him to The Lions in 1967 for £15,000, and the vast majority of his football career was spent at The Den, playing in the second tier.

Playing alongside Barry Kitchener at centre half and Harry Cripps at left back, he was part of a team that nearly made it to the First Division, particularly in 1971-72.

In a scene you would never get now in the mobile phone age, Millwall were leading Preston at home and the word went round The Den that rivals for promotion Birmingham were losing at Sheffield Wednesday. It looked like Millwall would be promoted to the elite for the first time in their history and the news spread to the players on the pitch.

Unfortunately, the rumour was completely wrong. Birmingham were leading, not losing. Club skipper Cripps had even gone round the Preston players telling them Millwall were going up but level-headed Burnett didn’t get carried away.

millwall-history.org records: On-the-field skipper Dennis Burnett was less convinced. “I wasn’t going to believe it until I knew for sure,” he said. “Those last few minutes were agonising. We played on in a dream. It was the longest 20 minutes ever for me.”

As the end of the game approached, the crowd jammed the touchline, waiting to cheer off the Millwall players. The pressure behind Millwall’s goal was so great that the woodwork began to buckle.
Centre-forward Barry Bridges (who would join Brighton five months later) ran back to appeal to the fans to be patient. When the referee blew for the last time – suspiciously early – half the 20,000 crowd stormed on to the pitch. Cripps was carried aloft and some of the other players lost their shirts.

Finally the correct score from Hillsborough was announced and the crowd fell silent and faded away.

The following season, Millwall struggled near the bottom of the table and manager Benny Fenton moved Burnett into midfield.

“As a sweeper I was a bit restricted,” he told Goal’s Ray Bradley, who described him as “one of the most accomplished and stylish players outside the First Division”.

“I had to stay back and wasn’t so involved,” said Burnett. “ Now I find I can express myself more and go up in support of the attack.”

Unlike his illustrious former Hammers teammates, full international recognition eluded him but in April 1973 Burnett was part of an English FA squad managed by Sir Alf Ramsey that thrashed Gibraltar 9-0 in a ‘friendly’. Frank Worthington (of Leicester at the time) scored a hat-trick.

Hankering for another shot at top division football, Burnett went on to the transfer list at The Den. He got his move, but only to a club in the same division.

After clocking up 257 appearances for Millwall, in 1974, Terry Neill paid £80,000 to take Burnett to Hull City, where a young Stuart Pearson, future West Ham, Man Utd and England international was making a name for himself.

However, when Neill left to become manager of Spurs, his replacement John Kaye brought in his own man while Burnett was out of the side suspended. After losing his place, Burnett had a brief loan spell back at Millwall.

During the summer of 1975, he played 21 games in the States with St Louis Stars (for whom former Chelsea and England goalkeeper Peter Bonetti was playing) before Brighton manager Peter Taylor secured his services for the Seagulls.

In an article in Shoot incorporating Goal, Burnett explained how, although he’d been sidelined for two months with an ankle ligament injury, he’d got back in the side only to be sent off in a game away to Bristol City.

“It was a most unjust decision. Even the opposition seemed flabbergasted,” he said. “Anyway, I never played for Hull again. The signing of Dave Roberts from Oxford United put paid to my chances of a first team recall, following my suspension.

“Eventually, manager John Kaye called me into his office and asked if I wanted a move. A price of £30,000 was put on my head, later reduced to £15,000. No one came for me so in April I went to the United States and played for St Louis Stars in Missouri, a North American Soccer League club.

“While there I received another contract from Hull City, which I refused to sign. I lodged an appeal against it to the Football League Management Committee. Surprisingly they upheld it, and, during July, I received a letter to say I’d been given a free transfer.

“I arrived back in England on August 24th, made and received a number of ‘phone calls which resulted in my being offered a three-year contract by Brighton, plus excellent wages, which at the age of 31 was fantastic for me,

“Added to all this is the potential of Brighton in terms of location, players and attendances. It was a move not to be resisted.”

Burnett told the magazine he felt Brighton were much better prepared for promotion than Millwall had been. “Had we gone up, we would have needed a miracle to survive in the First,” he said. “At Brighton, we are winning matches without being fully stretched. The right blend is there and we can only get better.

“If I look after myself, I can get through another four or five seasons, by which time Brighton could be up amongst the big boys.”

Burnett was obviously a good judge because Brighton certainly got themselves up amongst the ‘big boys’ four years later – although by then he was no longer a part of it.

After a successful first season in which he developed a formidable central defensive partnership with Andy Rollings, and earned that placed in the PFA team of the year, perhaps there were signs that age was catching up with him.

In his end of season review in the Evening Argus, Albion reporter John Vinicombe observed: “Over the course of the season, the most improved player was Andy Rollings who profited by the experience of Dennis Burnett at his elbow.

“There were times when Burnett looked unflappable in the centre of the defence. As time wore on, and situations became more frenetic, that casual style, no doubt a legacy of his West Ham upbringing, now and again landed him in trouble.”

Maybe manager Taylor thought the same because one of the last things he did before quitting and rejoining Brian Clough was to sign veteran defender Graham Cross, which spelled trouble for Burnett.

Under new manager Alan Mullery, in the league at least, Cross was preferred alongside Rollings. Burnett deputised for Rollings when he was injured – for example, he played alongside Cross in the memorable 7-2 demolition of York City – and was given some games in midfield, but mainly in the League Cup he got the chance to shine.

He played in memorable games against First Division opponents Ipswich, West Brom and Derby, and was assured alongside Cross in the memorable narrow 2-1 defeat at the Baseball Ground in November 1976.

Vinicombe reported: “Cross and Burnett played coolly and neither looked out of place among the high-priced cream.”

He kept his place for a league game away to Port Vale five days later, but that 2-2 draw was his last in an Albion shirt.

In early February 1977, together with ex-Spur Phil Beal, he agreed a pay-off with the club and played non league with Ilford for the remainder of the season before returning to the States and another 19 games for St Louis Stars, where he was joined by former Albion teammate Fred Binney.

Mullery explained several years later in his autobiography that he had inherited a squad of 36 professionals and needed to prune the numbers. The older players were the obvious ones to go and, although Beal and Burnett went quietly, he had more truck dispensing with Joe Kinnear’s services – but that’s a story for another day.

On his return to these shores, Burnett headed for Ireland to play for Shamrock Rovers, at that time managed by the legendary Johnny Giles.

The defender subsequently played for three years in Norway, for SK Haugar, and popped up back in Sussex in 1994 as assistant manager of Sussex County League side Lancing, and played in a 2-1 defeat against Horsham YMCA in the FA Cup a month before his 50th birthday!

According to Wikipedia, Burnett ran a painting and decorating business in Sussex after he left football and was working in the hospitality suites at Upton Park before West Ham moved to the Olympic Stadium.

Pictured above are a Newham Recorder shot of Burnett in West Ham colours; in action for Millwall (from Goal), and in Albion’s stripes (from Shoot!). Below, an archive shot of the St Louis Stars side of 1975 with Burnett in the back row wearing the 18 shirt and Peter Bonetti in the centre of the front row.

back row burnett