Melton took Micky at his word – and saw red

MIDFIELDER Steve Melton took manager Micky Adams at his word in a notorious pre-season friendly – and ended up being sent off after putting in a waist-high tackle on an opponent.

Adams subbed off a riled Richard Carpenter against Longford Town in July 2001 with instructions to former Nottingham Forest trainee Melton “to give the lad who was booting our players up in the air a taste of his own medicine. Make sure he knows you are around.”

Melton duly put in a flying lunge on Longford midfielder Alan Reynolds that saw him receive an automatic red card and the fall-out from the challenge sparked an almighty punch-up which ended up with Albion’s Charlie Oatway and opponent Alan Murphy also being sent off after an altercation.

That particular battle then led to an even bigger scrap involving coaches and even the Longford chairman who took a punch in the face from one of his own players!

The so-called pre-season “friendly” – later dubbed the Battle of Longford – was abandoned with only 44 minutes on the clock by inexperienced ref Dermot Tone, who had only stepped in to officiate because senior Irish referees were at a seminar.

For Melton, it was all a far cry from making your Premier League debut two years earlier in front of 25,353 fans at the City Ground, Nottingham, in Ron Atkinson’s last-ever game as a manager. Melton was pitched in for already-relegated Forest for an East Midlands derby against Leicester and they went down in style (Blackburn and Charlton also went down), scraping a 1-0 win against the Foxes.

Born in Lincoln on 3 October 1978, Melton first linked up with Forest when he was just 11, playing at the centre of excellence. He signed full time at 16, a matter of days after finishing his GCSEs. He progressed through the youth team and reserves and it was during that time that he first worked with Adams, who’d been assistant manager to Dave Bassett before Atkinson’s arrival.

Before he got close to the Forest first team, 18-year-old Melton and another trainee had experienced competitive football in Finland where Bassett had sent them to play for Sami Hyypiä’s old club MyPa on a three-month loan.

“He sent us out there to toughen us up. It also got us used to playing in a proper men’s league so that we learnt to value the prize of the three points and the standing within the first team,” he explained in a matchday programme interview.

That experience followed by his Forest first team debut didn’t have the outcome he wanted and after only three games under Atkinson’s successor, David Platt, he picked up an injury and couldn’t force his way back into the first team picture.

In February 2000, he switched 50 miles west to third tier Stoke City and admitted: “It seemed a good move as I didn’t have to travel too far.

“It was a chance for me to play for a decent-sized club that were going strong in the cup and in the league. It was either that or play reserve team games for the rest of the year at Forest and wait for a break that I didn’t think was going to come.”

As it turned out, it was mainly a watching role, making only seven appearances as a substitute. He was a non-playing bench warmer alongside Chris Iwelumo (who did get on) when City won the Football League (Auto Windscreens Shield) Trophy at Wembley, beating Bristol City 2-1.

Stoke’s new Icelandic consortium hinted that they wanted to keep him on but in the absence of a contract offer, rather than risk uncertainty, he took up Adams’ offer to join fourth-tier Albion.

*A complimentary caption in the club match day programme*

On a trial in the Emerald Isle the year before the Longford incident, Melton did enough across the week of the tour to earn a one-year contract. He had a long wait before getting a start but after 11 introductions as a substitute he finally made his full debut in February 2001, stepping in for Carpenter at Torquay after the regular midfield starter pulled out with an injured ankle.

After playing his part in Albion’s first win (1-0 courtesy of Bobby Zamora) at Torquay for 36 years, Melton told The Argus: “I’m enjoying it here. I’ve settled in with the lads and I share a house with some of them.”

On playing for Adams, he said: “I think Micky is going to be a really good manager. I enjoy working with him. A lot of the lads do.

“Hopefully he will take Brighton up. He’s had a taste of managing at a higher level at Forest and I think he has the potential to do it again.”

Melton’s outlook brightened the following month and he got starts in nine of the season’s remaining 15 matches as Adams led the Seagulls to promotion as champions.

At home to his future employer Hull City, Melton made his home debut and scored his first goal for the club in a 3-0 win (Paul Watson and substitute Phil Stant also scored).

Reflecting on his involvement, he said: “It’s difficult to break in when the team keep winning every week, and they go unbeaten for 12 or 13 games, maybe drop a point but then go off on another run.

“It’s frustrating because you’re not playing, but you can’t really have too much of a case when the team is sat at the top of the league.”

Come the end of the season, he had done enough to be offered a two-year extension to his contract. As it turned out, the 2001-02 season followed much the same pattern as his first in terms of more appearances off the bench than starts.

He was on the scoresheet twice in the LDV Vans Trophy, scoring an extra time golden goal in a 2-1 home win over Wycombe Wanderers but was then inadvertently the fall guy in a 2-1 quarter-final defeat at Cambridge United.

Having given Albion a 36th-minute lead, latching on to Dirk Lehmann’s lay-off to fire a low right-footer past Lionel Perez from just outside the penalty area, he lost possession to Dave Kitson, who ran away to equalise, and then, four minutes into extra time, a shot by Armand One that was going wide took a wicked deflection off Melton’s shoulder to send United through to the next round.

A happier outing came when he made a rare start and scored as promotion-chasing Albion beat table-toppers Reading at the Withdean in February 2002. Peter Taylor’s Seagulls triumphed 3-1 on a rain-lashed night under the lights (Zamora and Junior Lewis also scored).

*Goalscorers Melton and Zamora after a memorable win over Reading*

“It was pleasing to start,” Melton told The Argus. “You have got to be patient and I have waited a good few months.

“I have been on the outside for the last few weeks. Hopefully I can stay on the inside now.

“Playing against the League leaders is a different matter completely from the LDV appearances that I made earlier in the season.

“You can only do as well as you can when you are chosen to play and hopefully I did that. Once you have been given the shirt you have to try and keep it.”

Melton’s goal was only the second league goal of his career and his first for 11 months.

Taylor reckoned it was the best home performance since he took over from Adams the previous autumn and Albion won eight (and drew five) of the following 14 games to go on and clinch the third-tier title with the also-promoted Royals six points behind.

Melton scored Albion’s first goal of the 2002-03 season when he started in the 3-1 win at Burnley under his third Brighton manager, Martin Hinshelwood (Zamora and Paul Brooker also scored; Hinshelwood’s 18-year-old nephew Adam made his debut).

Unfortunately, Melton tweaked a hamstring in the process and had to be subbed off. He only made nine more appearances (six starts plus three off the bench) as Hinshelwood’s short reign in charge ended with 10 league defeats in a row.

Incoming boss Steve Coppell brought in the likes of free agent Simon Rodger and Arsenal loanee Steve Sidwell and Melton found himself surplus to requirements.

It was in October 2002 that he moved to Hull on loan shortly after Peter Taylor had replaced Jan Molby as manager with the club about to move out of Boothferry Park and into the Kingston Communications Stadium.

Melton made 19 starts plus six appearances off the bench as the Tigers finished 13^th in the old Third Division.

According to the website oncloudseven.com: “Despite his promise and Taylor’s persistence, Melton’s career at City was not a success and he showed only brief flashes of good form. Melton is, however, forever enshrined in the City record books because in December 2002 he scored the first ever goal at the KC Stadium against Sunderland, for the honour of lifting the Raich Carter Trophy.”

He found himself only on the fringes the following season and he had moved on to Boston United under Steve Evans by the time Taylor steered Hull to promotion as divisional runners up.

A recurring back injury restricted his playing time at Boston and during 2005-06 he was sent out on loan to Conference National side Tamworth. On his release from Boston in the summer of 2006, he switched to Southern League Premier King’s Lynn FC for two seasons.

In September 2008, he rejoined Boston with manager Tommy Taylor telling the club’s website: “Steve has great quality on the ball and that’s what we have been missing in the midfield area.

Hopefully he will add another dimension to our team.”

But he was released at the end of the season and joined Lincoln United of the Northern Premier League Division One East, alongside his former Boston and King’s Lynn teammate Matt O’Halloran. After spells with Lincoln Moorlands Railway, Grantham Town and Worksop Town, he wound up his playing days back at Lincoln United.

In the meantime, his first job outside of football was in sales for mobile comms company Vodacom. He spent nearly seven years with the now defunct energy advice and installation company the Mark Group and since 2019 has worked for building services certification business The National Association of Professional Inspectors and Testers, where he is now commercial and compliance director.

Petterson the fall guy during disastrous winless run

ANDY PETTERSON conceded two goals in the first seven minutes of his Albion debut but still picked up the man of the match award when managing to deny visitors Walsall any further goals in a 2-0 defeat.

He pulled off a brilliant point-blank save on the stroke of half-time to deny goalscorer Jorge Leitao a second goal and later blocked the same player’s angled drive. Steve Corica had opened the scoring for the Saddlers.

The game on August Bank Holiday Monday in 2002 was part of a disastrous run under new manager Martin Hinshelwood. In only eight games as a stand-in for injured Michel Kuipers, Petterson conceded eighteen goals, including four against his old club, Portsmouth, in only his second game.

He shipped another four in a game at home to Gillingham, one of which the matchday programme described as “the most embarrassing moment of Petterson’s long career”.

With the score 3-2, and Albion committing everyone forward, including the goalkeeper, in search of an equaliser, when 10-man Gillingham broke on a counter attack, backpedalling Petterson fell over giving Gills striker Kevin James an open goal to notch a fourth for the visitors.

Petterson only appeared once under Hinshelwood’s successor, Steve Coppell, when Kuipers had been sent off in the 89^th minute of a home game against Bradford City. Paul Brooker was withdrawn and the sub goalie went between the sticks, although his first involvement was to pick the ball out of the net, Andy Gray having scored from the penalty kick awarded for the infringement that saw Kuipers dismissed.

In pouring rain, Albion – and Petterson – clung on throughout five added minutes for a 3-2 win, bringing to an end a 14-game winless league run. Bobby Zamora scored two penalties for the Seagulls and new arrival Simon Rodger, a loyal Coppell lieutenant, curled in a beauty from outside the area.

Although he was a non-playing sub on two further occasions, Petterson was let go. In a recent interview, he said he had been nursing a recurring calf injury during his time with the Albion.

Albion were the 12^th of a remarkable 21 clubs the Aussie ‘keeper joined on loan or permanently.

Wolverhampton Wanderers were another stopping off point for the perennial back-up ‘keeper from Fremantle and it was one of his regrets that he only had a four-month loan spell at Molineux, having previously spurned a two-year deal with the Black Country side to make what turned out to be a career-damaging move to Pompey.

Instead of building on a career that had shown signs of promise at Charlton Athletic, Petterson flitted from club to club without ever putting down roots.

Born in Fremantle, Western Australia, on 26 September 1969, he was still only a teenager when he arrived in the UK and signed for Luton Town, where he spent four seasons.

The Hatters Heritage website recalls: “Andy was so desperate to make a name for himself in the English professional game that he paid his own passage to take up a trial at Luton. Fortunately, his gamble paid off as he was offered a contract at Kenilworth Road in 1988 although he had to wait until the start of the 1992-93 season before making his League debut.

“Impressing in pre-season with his shot stopping ability and quick reflexes, Andy was ever present for the first 14 games but a calamitous performance during a 3-3 draw at Cambridge effectively put paid to his Luton career.”

Petterson joined Alan Curbishley’s Addicks for £85,000 in July 1994, was their player of the season in 1996-97 in the First Division and played for them in the Premier League.

But he was generally no. 2 to Sasa Ilic, and subsequently dropped down to third choice behind Simon Royce, another goalkeeper who spent time with the Seagulls. The situation prompted Petterson to join struggling Portsmouth on loan in November 1998.

“Portsmouth were in financial trouble and down at the bottom of the table,” he recalled in an interview with the Argus. “I went there for three months and everything went very well. Then in the summer I was out of contract at Charlton.

“Portsmouth were one of three clubs in for me and they offered me quite a good deal, so I decided to sign for them. Everything went well under Alan Ball for the first six months, but he got the sack and it was downhill for me from there.

“We had another four managers (Tony Pulis, Steve Claridge, Graham Rix and Harry Redknapp) in the three years I was there and my face never fitted really. It was just unfortunate I went there. I was happy with the way it started, and it was a good club to be at, but it just wasn’t meant to be for me.”

In an extended interview with Neil Allen of The News, Portsmouth, in June 2020, Petterson reflected on his missed opportunity to join Wolves instead of Pompey, when he had been released by Charlton.

“Wolves’ boss Colin Lee was interested,” he said. “I was in Australia and flew back to England ahead of signing at Molineux on a two-year deal on the Monday afternoon.

“Then, late Sunday, my agent called. Milan Mandaric had taken over Pompey and they wanted to talk on Monday morning.

“That was the club I wanted to join, I had familiarity there. I signed a three-year deal. If the club had been taken over 24 hours later, the move would never have happened and I would have ended up at Wolves.”

Petterson told The News: “It was the beginning of the end when I went back to Pompey. My career never really recovered. I was kind of a journeyman before that, but at least was signed to a parent club and sent on loan to places.

“After moving to Pompey permanently it was six months here, three months there. It was the beginning of the end for my career. I guess everything happens for a reason – and for some reason it happened to me.”

Ipswich (three times), Swindon, Bradford, Plymouth, Colchester, Wolves, Torquay and West Brom were all temporary moves for the Australian stopper. After his short stint in Sussex, he also went to Bournemouth, Rushden and Diamonds, Southend, Walsall and Notts County.

“I always had belief in my ability and always wanted to play,” he said. “I think I was a good goalkeeper, although maybe mentally didn’t have the belief in myself enough.

“I’m a bit of a laid-back, casual sort of guy. Sometimes you have to be that pushy arrogant sort of person for the coach to take notice of you a bit more. I tried to do it, as a footballer you have to be a bit of an actor, but it just wasn’t in my nature.”

Referring to the fact he had 16 years as a professional footballer in the UK, he added: “That’s what gives me the belief that I was a decent goalkeeper. But something wasn’t quite there for me to go to the next level, I guess.”

He eventually only got a run of regular games when he returned to Australia and played for Newcastle Jets and then ECU Joondalup.

After his playing days were over, he became a goalkeeper coach for several clubs, including Bali United in Indonesia for a while. In August 2022, he was appointed goalkeeper coach at East Bengal FC.

“I have experienced the highs, the lows, all that kind of stuff, so can relate to goalkeepers,” he told Allen. “I’ve been through plenty.”

Fate dealt blows throughout Essex lad David Lee’s career

IT MAY simply have been David Lee’s misfortune that he joined Brighton at a time when they weren’t short of decent midfield players.

Nevertheless, a player who had gone through the ranks at Spurs alongside the likes of Peter Crouch and Ledley King might have been expected to make more of an impression.

As it was, the manager who signed him moved on and he ended up starting just one league game in two and a half years with the club.

Ultimately a horror injury brought a premature end to Lee’s career at the age of 28, but he stayed in the game as an agent – Lewis Dunk being one of his clients.

It was in January 2002 that Peter Taylor, a one-time Spurs player himself, brought Lee to the Albion from Hull City in direct exchange for fringe player Matthew Wicks.

Taylor had been close to signing him when he was manager of Gillingham but, after moving on to Leicester City, Taylor recommended him to Southend United instead.

By the time Lee arrived at the Albion, they were already on an upward trajectory towards promotion from the third tier and he had to be content largely with reserve team football and a seat on the first-team subs bench.

The first Albion fans got to see of him came on 23 February 2002 at home to Wrexham when he went on as a 23^rd minute substitute for Gary Hart alongside inexperienced Chris McPhee, who was playing in the absence of goal king Bobby Zamora.

Wrexham brought Albion’s run of five straight home wins to an end in what the Argus described as “a dour deadlock” and in the process became the first side to stop the Seagulls from scoring at Withdean Stadium for 13 months.

In fact, sharper-eyed Albion watchers might have recognised the newcomer as a player who’d scored against the Seagulls twice the previous season.

He marked his debut for Southend in the opening match of the 2000-2001 season with an 83^rd-minute second goal that sealed a 2-0 win for the home side.

Then, in the reverse fixture, he scored again as United completed the double over the Seagulls on a quagmire of a pitch at Withdean on New Year’s Day 2001. On that occasion, Lee went on as a 77^th minute substitute for Ben Abbey and scored five minutes later as the Shrimpers again won 2-0.

Described by Spurs history website ‘My Eyes Have Seen The Glory’ as “a slightly built, but athletic midfielder, who had an eye for an attacking option as he used his passing to try and open up opposition defences”, Lee spent a season at Roots Hall, initially under Alan Little, scoring 10 goals in 52 games. “I played nearly every game so it couldn’t have gone much better really,” Lee told the Basildon Canvey and Southend Echo.

But after just one season with Southend, Lee joined Division Three Hull City, managed by previous manager Little’s brother Brian (better known for his time in charge of Leicester and Aston Villa). It was a decision Lee later rued.

“Looking back, I do regret it,” he said. “I left because the (Southend) manager Dave Webb said he thought I’d had a good season and that Leicester were interested in me.

“My form wasn’t good at the end of the season so he told me they would be coming back to have another look at the start of the next season. Then he told me I’d have to take a pay cut to stay.

“At the same time, Hull offered to double my money for three years.” Hence he ended up with the Tigers.

He made his debut as a substitute in the League Cup and followed up that appearance with brief cameo roles off the bench in the league. One saw him score Hull’s fourth goal in a comprehensive 4-0 thumping of York City for whom Graham Potter was playing!

Lee made a rare start in a 1-1 draw away to Shrewsbury Town and kept his place for the next game (a 1-0 win over Torquay United), but it was back to appearances off the bench after that.

It was Taylor, fired by Leicester but installed as Micky Adams’ replacement at promotion-seeking Albion, who rescued him from Hull, signing him on a two-year contract in January 2002.

Unsurprisingly, Lee saw it as a “massive blow” when Taylor quit the Albion after steering the side to promotion because he didn’t believe enough was going to be spent on investing in the squad to compete at the higher level.

“I’m disappointed because he brought me to the club in the first place,” Lee told the Argus. “When I came, he wasn’t looking for me to get straight into the first team.

“He told me next year he would look to get me more involved. Now he has left it’s going to be difficult. When the new manager comes in, I have got to make sure I am fit and try to impress him.

“It’s a huge stage for a young player in the First Division and I need to be playing.”

Of course, if Lee had hung on at Hull slightly longer, he’d have been joined there by Taylor!

“I should have stayed there for longer but I went to Brighton,” Lee told the Basildon Canvey and Southend Echo. “I did three and a half years there (ed. it was two and a half) and had some great times winning the promotions but I never did hold down a first team place and, when Peter Taylor left, I was well out of it.”

Indeed, in the 2002-03 season, Lee didn’t make a single league or cup appearance for the Albion, although, in October 2002, after Steve Coppell’s appointment as manager, he appeared – and scored – in the first half on a rainy, gale-battered evening alongside trialists Simon Rodger and Dean Blackwell when an Albion XI beat Hassocks 5-0 in a game to mark the opening of a new stand for the County League side. While Blackwell and Rodger subsequently signed up, Lee was sent on loan to Bristol Rovers, but only stayed for a month.

Pretty clear his future didn’t lie with the Albion, on 23 April 2003 he played in a trial match for Cambridge United’s reserves against Gillingham in a 3-0 win. Impressing in another reserve match against Colchester, the U’s manager said he would like to sign Lee on a permanent basis. But nothing came of it, and he remained on Albion’s books.

As if to emphasise what they missed out on, in August 2003 Lee scored against Cambridge in a comprehensive Albion Reserves win. The 3-0 win was the opening fixture for the Seagulls’ second string in the Pontin’s Holidays Combination League.

A short spell on loan to Ryman League Thurrock followed in October 2003 but, in the time he was away, Brighton had a new manager; Mark McGhee replacing Coppell, who had moved to Reading.

And so it was, in December 2003, that Lee finally made his full Albion debut, away to QPR in the LDV Vans Trophy. Albion narrowly lost 2-1, and he was subbed off on the hour mark, being replaced by Gary Hart, but McGhee defended his selection in the following matchday programme.

“I saw the game as an opportunity to find out about players who haven’t had the chance since my arrival,” he said. “The inclusion of David Lee and Dan Harding in particular did not result in us losing the game. Basic defensive errors led to the defeat. However, I did learn a lot about Dan and David and I do believe that both players will continue to make a contribution this season. So, as an exercise, there were positives to take out of the game.”

While Harding would go on to become an established member of McGhee’s side, Lee was a perennial bench warmer and only started one league match: a 2-1 defeat at Sheffield Wednesday on 27 March 2004.

“That was a nice surprise,” he said. “I thought I did okay, apart obviously from the result.”

But Lee realised his Albion future was up in the air, telling the Argus: “I’ve had a meeting with the gaffer and he said he is going to have to wait and see where we are next season, so it’s touch and go for me.”

He admitted he’d been close to moving to Grimsby just before the transfer deadline, but Town boss Nicky Law had chosen alternative options.

Lee was able to join in the celebrations that followed Albion’s promotion via the play-off final win over Bristol City at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, but he was only ever on the periphery.

He was given one last chance to prove himself when he was handed a three-month deal in July 2004. But, over that period, Albion brought in Darren Currie and Alexis Nicolas, so, on the expiry of the short term deal, Lee was released.

Assistant manager Bob Booker said: “David worked extremely hard but just fell a little short to make the first team.”

While Lee told the Argus: “I never really got started all the time I was at Brighton. But I worked really hard in the summer, and I did quite well pre-season. That’s why I am disappointed to be going now.”

Born in Basildon, Essex, on 28 March 1980, Lee went to Gable Hall School in Thurrock from 1991 to 1996 and his young footballing talent was spotted as an under 10 by Spurs scout Lenny Cheesewright.

Lee talked at length about his career to Lennon Branagan in August 2020 for the excellent SuperHotspur blog.

He developed through the different age groups at Spurs under various coaches, citing in particular Tommy Cunningham really putting him through his paces aged 15-16, then Bobby Arber after he’d signed a scholarship. “He was a real top coach who taught me a lot about tactics and positioning and the ugly side of the game.”

The highlight of his time at Spurs came when he was captain of the 1996 Spurs youth team that won the Northern Ireland Milk Cup, an annual international youth tournament. Spurs beat Blackburn in the final by a single goal scored by John Piercy, who later also moved to Brighton.

Another memorable moment came when Lee, aged only 16, scored the winning goal for Spurs Reserves against Bristol City in a testimonial for Leroy Rosenior (father of Liam).

In Spurs’ youth team, Lee was managed by the former West Ham winger Patsy Holland, who he felt never really rated him. Eventually, in Spurs’ reserve side, he was managed by Chris Hughton – “one of the best coaches that I’ve played for and had the pleasure of working with”.

While contemporaries such as Luke Young progressed to the first team, Lee fell just short and he was honest enough to admit: “Looking back now, I think the thing that you look at was did I really show the coaches that I wanted it enough? And did I really give absolutely everything to be a top player? And probably the answer’s no, if I’m being honest with myself. That’s the biggest regret or the real shame that I have really.”

Ironically, it was when his friend Piercy got a first team call-up instead of him that he decided to move on from Spurs although, once again with the benefit of hindsight, he reckons he was probably too hasty in his decision.

George Graham was manager at the time and Lee reckoned he wasn’t his type of player. Although he still had 18 months left on his contract, he decided to move on because he couldn’t see himself making it at Spurs. But not long afterwards, Glenn Hoddle took over as manager and Lee reckons if he had stayed he might have had a better chance of training with the first team a bit more, and improving as a player.

After the Seagulls released Lee in September 2004, he trained with Oldham Athletic and signed on a non-contract basis for a month but was not retained.

He returned to Thurrock, had a trial at Kidderminster Harriers, signed for Conference side Stevenage Borough in February 2005, but then changed his mind and signed for Aldershot instead.

It was during a game for the Shots against Canvey Island in August 2005 that he suffered a horrific injury that doctors told him would end his career.

“I was actually only an hour away from losing my foot and it was all quite worrying as you would expect,” said Lee. “When I was in hospital they told me I would never play again.”

The injury forced him to miss the majority of the 2005-06 season, and, although he extended his contract by a year on 30 May 2006, he eventually left the Shots at the end of January 2007 and signed for Ryman League Division One Harlow Town. That didn’t last long; he had a short spell with Braintree, then AFC Hornchurch and then Canvey Island.

In an interview with Chris Phillips of the Basildon Canvey and Southend Echo in June 2008, Lee said he was pleased to have proved the doctors wrong in managing to get back playing football, but he admitted: “I’ve been playing non-league this season, but my heart hasn’t been in it.”

Lee turned to football agency work that year and has continued in that line ever since. He was with Skillequal for 10 years before switching to ICM Stellar Sports in April 2018.

McGhee provided Albion platform for playmaker Mark Yeates

TRICKY playmaker Mark Yeates spent five years as a Tottenham Hotspur player but it was with Brighton that he played his first competitive football.

Yeates looked like a useful loan signing when he joined new manager Mark McGhee’s Albion squad in November 2003. He drew plenty of admirers and featured in 10 games over two months.

It wasn’t long before McGhee was talking about the possibility of signing him on a permanent basis, but Spurs had other ideas. He eventually had to leave north London to pursue his career but he ultimately made nearly 500 professional appearances.

Eighteen-year-old Yeates arrived on the south coast shortly after Zesh Rehman had also signed on loan (from Fulham), Albion having lost midfield duo Charlie O atway and Simon Rodger to injuries.

The diminutive Irishman made his debut in McGhee’s first match in charge: a 4-1 defeat to Sheffield United at Withdean.

The matchday programme’s assessment was thus: “The second half was better. Mark Yeates moved into the centre of midfield and so had an opportunity to show what he can do. He could beat players, look up, and try a perceptive through ball. Wide on the left in the first half, he’d been exposed and given the ball away too often.”

On the day England won the Rugby World Cup, Yeates was one of six Albion players booked as the Seagulls beat Notts County 2-1 at Meadow Lane; an eventful game which saw Adam El-Abd make his league debut, Leon Knight score twice and John Piercy sent off for two bookable offences.

After only his third game, Yeates was off on international duty, playing for the Republic of Ireland under 19s away to France.

It was in early December that McGhee spoke about wanting to take Yeates on a permanent basis, telling the club’s website: “I’ve said already that I knew before he came here what a good player he is and I imagined he would do well in this team, and he has done that.”

McGhee told the Argus: “He has a kind of Gaelic confidence. Robbie Keane had it and Mark is similar in that respect.

“His character is perfect really for the way he plays. It goes with the ability and flair.”

Yeates hailed from the same Tallaght district of Dublin as Keane – a player McGhee knew well having given him his English football debut at 17 when manager of Wolves.

After extending his stay at the Albion to a second month, Yeates told the Argus: “Before I came here I had never really played in the centre of midfield. I usually play up front off a big man.

*Yeates takes control watched by Adam Hinshelwood*

“The gaffer tried me up front in the first half at QPR (in the LDV Vans Trophy) but we didn’t get the ball into mine and Leon’s feet, and with two little men you are not going to get much joy.

“At Tottenham we play with wingbacks and two holding midfielders and I am allowed a free role.

“I have to be a bit more disciplined here. Sometimes I can go running about a bit, it’s just up to the lads to call me back in to help out.”

Yeates appreciated the opportunity Albion had given him to taste senior football, telling the newspaper: “It’s great for me just to be getting first team football, plus the reason I am staying here is because they are a good bunch down here.”

He observed: “It’s a lot more fast and furious because everyone is playing for their living. You have to give a bit more and get more out of yourself which you probably wouldn’t get in a reserve game.

“In reserve football, players are going through the motions. It’s just a matter of playing a game.”

After he’d played his final game on loan, a 0-0 home draw with Oldham Athletic, the matchday programme observed: “Yeates showed some neat touches and was Albion’s most creative outlet once again.”

When Albion struggled to beat Barnsley 1-0 in the FA Cup, the matchday programme noted: “The passing abilities of Mark Yeates, and his desire to get into the penalty area, were sorely missed.”

Back at Spurs, Yeates had to wait until the very last game of the season to make his Premier League debut. He’d previously been an unused substitute when Glenn Hoddle’s Tottenham were thrashed 5-1 by Middlesbrough at the end of the 2002-03 season.

But in May 2004, David Pleat selected him to start in a side also featuring Ledley King, Jamie Redknapp, Christian Ziege, Jermain Defoe and Robbie Keane.

The fixture at Molineux ended in a 2-0 win for the visitors and Yeates helped Spurs take the lead against the run of play, laying on a cross for Keane to score against his former club. Defoe netted a second to seal the win.

Born in Tallaght on 11 January 1985, Yeates was the eldest son of former Shelbourne, Shamrock Rovers, Athlone Town and Kilkenny City striker Stephen Yeates, who died aged just 38 following a tragic accident, just as Mark was making his way through the youth ranks at Spurs.

The young Yeates first played competitive football with Greenhills Boys, a club who his grandfather and father had been involved with, and then moved on to Cherry Orchard, a Dublin side renowned for producing a number of players who went on to have successful professional careers.

In an extended interview with Lennon Branagan for superhotspur.com, Yeates recalled how Tottenham scout Terry Arber did a two-day coaching course at Cherry Orchard, after which he, Willo Flood (later to play for Manchester City and Dundee United) and Stephen Quinn (who went on to play for Sheffield United) were invited to London for a trial with Spurs.

Yeates was only 15 but he was taken on and had to up sticks from home and move into digs in London.

“As a skilful dribbler who was regularly a source of assists and goals in the youth set-up, Yeates quickly demonstrated to the coaching staff at Tottenham that he possessed the raw materials required to graduate to the next level,” wrote Paul Dollery in an October 2021 article for the42.ie.

Sadly, his progress through the youth ranks was interrupted by the shock news of his father’s death in an accident. Yeates told Dollery how it could have all gone the wrong way, but he thankfully remained focused.

“It was really tough, but you’d ask yourself what else you could do if you didn’t keep going – go home to your estate in Tallaght, drink cans every weekend and get roped into whatever else?

“I could have done that, or I could look at the three-year contract that was on the table at Tottenham and get my head down to go after that.

“It was hard, but a bit of willpower and the desire to be a footballer – which I had since I started kicking a ball – got me through it.”

In his interview with Branagan, Yeates said: “I started to train with the first team at a decent age and really being involved quite a bit as well as being a regular with the reserves group with Colin Calderwood and Chris Hughton at the time.

“I’ve just got so many unbelievable things to say when I look back now and I can only say so many good things about Spurs because it sort of built me and gave me so much.”

It was in January 2005 when Yeates next appeared for the Spurs first team, Martin Jol sending him on as a sub in the third round FA Cup tie against Brighton at White Hart Lane when Tottenham edged it 2-1.

The following week he once again replaced Pedro Mendes as a sub when a star-studded Chelsea side won 2-0 on their way to winning their first Premier League title under Jose Mourinho. He also got on in the next game, as Spurs crashed 3-0 at Crystal Palace,

While he could have continued to bide his time at Spurs, he preferred to go out on loan again to get some games under his belt. He played four times for League One Swindon Town and then had a season-long loan at Colchester United, helping them to promotion from League One in 2005-06 in a squad which included Greg Halford and Chris Iwelumo.

Further loan spells followed at Hull City and Leicester City but, in the summer of 2007, he joined Colchester on a permanent deal.

Yeates scored 21 goals in 81 games for United drawing him to the attention of future England manager Gareth Southgate who took him to Middlesbrough (who had just been relegated from the Premier League) for a £500,000 fee.

On signing a three-year deal, Yeates said: “This is massive for me. There was interest from other clubs but there was only one thing on my mind once my agent told me Middlesbrough had been in touch.

“This club belongs in the Premier League, the fans deserve to be there and I can’t wait to play in front of them. It’s a Premiership club in my mind – all you have to do is look around the facilities, the training ground, the stadium, everything is spot on.”

Yeates reckoned his versatility would suit Boro. “I can play on the right or the left,” he said. “I played a full season’s Championship football on the right for Colchester, while I played most of last season on the left. But then, in probably eight of the last 10 games, I played behind the front two.

“For a winger, I think my goals record is quite good,” he added. “I got 14 last season and nine by Christmas the season before I got injured.

“I like to get on the ball and take on defenders. The number one job of being a wide man is creating chances and I certainly like to do that, but scoring goals isn’t a bad habit to have either. I promise the fans I’ll give 110 per cent. I’m hungry to prove that I deserve to be here.”

Fine words but it didn’t pan out well for him because Southgate was sacked in October 2009 and his successor Gordon Strachan shunned the Irishman. By January 2010, Yeates was on the move again, this time to Sheffield United.

Blades boss Kevin Blackwell told the club’s website: “He’s a player we have looked at before, I’ve had my eye on him for a year or two but we couldn’t agree terms with Colchester. I’m delighted to finally get my man, although I was surprised that Boro would let him go.”

Yeates was reunited with Stephen Quinn and another former Albion loanee, Darius Henderson, was up front for the Blades. Yeates reckoned he had his best ever spell playing under Blackwell’s successor, Gary Speed.

“He was just an unbelievable man and, going back to when I was at Tottenham as a young lad, he was the prime example of the player you should aspire to be like,” he said. “He had faith in me.”

Unfortunately, when Speed left to manage Wales, former Albion boss Micky Adams took charge and the pair didn’t see eye to eye, as he explained to watfordlegends.com.

“I was at Sheffield United and it was the season when we went from the Championship to League One. Micky Adams was the manager and we weren’t getting on. In the summer Micky was sacked and Danny Wilson came in as manager.

“I trained for the full pre-season with the club, but I was aware that there were a couple of clubs keeping an eye on my situation throughout the summer. It was Blackpool and Watford who put in offers for me, and I spoke with both clubs, but when I met Dychey (Sean Dyche) I decided to sign for Watford.

“I still had a house in Loughton so overall it was a good opportunity to get back down south, and everything that Sean said to me on the phone really appealed to me.”

Yeates was at Watford for two seasons, initially under Dyche and then Gianfranco Zola, but his contract wasn’t renewed in the summer of 2013 and he decided to link up once again with his former Colchester and Hull boss, Phil Parkinson, at League One Bradford City.

He was one of the goalscorers for Bradford when they completed a massive upset by beating Premier League table toppers Chelsea 4-2 at Stamford Bridge in the fourth round of the 2015 FA Cup.

However, released that summer, he switched across the Pennines to join Oldham Athletic and six months later was on the move again, this time to Blackpool.

“Since leaving Hull it’s been a bit up and down,” he told Branagan. “I was on a short term deal at Oldham which went alright before then deciding to go to Blackpool because of a longer contract which was put in front of me which I don’t regret, as I’ve been living around the St Annes area now for five years and my children have grown up here and are at school and it’s a great area to raise a family in.”

His final league club as a player was Notts County, who he joined on a short-term deal in January 2017, and he appeared in 11 games plus three as a substitute as new manager Kevin Nolan’s side turned what at one point looked like relegation from the league into a 16^th place finish (although two years later County lost the league status they’d held for 157 years).

After playing non-league for Eastleigh, in 2019 Yeates moved closer to home and signed for AFC Fylde. In September 2021, he became an academy coach at Fleetwood Town, although he continued to keep his hand in as a player at Bamber Bridge.

Reflecting on the player’s career, Dollery wrote: “With a ball at his feet, Yeates was one of the most technically accomplished Irish players of his generation, cut from the same cloth as the likes of (Wes) Hoolahan and Andy Reid.

“That such a claim isn’t backed up by international achievements can perhaps be partly explained by his own admission that he didn’t marry his talent with a devotion to other aspects of the game that were beginning to play a more prominent role in the life of a professional footballer.

“If fitness coaches scheduled a gym session, Yeates felt his time would be better spent by staying on the training pitch to perfect his free kicks. A predilection for crisps, fizzy drinks and nights out didn’t aid his cause either.”

Yeates recognised he could have done things differently and said: “The reality was that I didn’t live like a saint.

“Everyone who knows me would know that that’s just not my personality. I’ve always been a fella who likes a bit of craic; just a normal Irish lad from an estate who happened to love playing football.”

• Pictures from the Albion matchday programme and various online sources.

Why Roman’s roubles spelled bad news for Alexis Nicolas

A PROMISING young midfielder edging towards first team football at Chelsea had his dreams extinguished when Roman Abramovich arrived with lorry loads of cash.

Manager Claudio Ranieri had let Alexis Nicolas know that he was heading in the right direction after he’d broken through to the fringes of the first team.

But when Abramovich took over at Stamford Bridge, big name signings started to arrive and Nicolas was left way down the pecking order behind the likes of Juan Sebastián Verón, Claude Makélélé, Geremi and Scott Parker.

New boss Jose Mourinho informed the youngster he should look elsewhere to make progress, and Brighton, newly promoted to the Championship, offered a refuge for the talented London-born Cypriot under-21 international.

Albion’s midfield options were depleted at the beginning of the 2004-05 season with Simon Rodger a long-term absentee, stalwart Richard Carpenter recovering from close-season knee surgery, and Charlie Oatway also sidelined through injury.

It meant Nicolas had a chance to show what he was made of and he played 15 games on loan from the start of the season through to October.

Enthusiastic Albion boss Mark McGhee said: “He has brought energy and he has got quality. He is a certain type of player, similar in many ways to Charlie Oatway.

“He is not a box-to-box goalscoring midfielder but what he does brilliantly is that he is always in the area around the ball where you need him.

“He breaks things up quickly and, when we win possession, we go more quickly from defence into attack with Alexis in there than we did previously.”

Nicolas clearly relished the opportunity he’d been given and, as the prospects of a permanent move grew stronger, he told the Argus: “It’s flattering that Brighton want to keep me. I like it here. I am happy with the club and the manager and I don’t see why it can’t be permanent.

“If everything can come together, and I think it will be a good move, then I don’t see why it won’t go ahead.”

He added: “There is a lot of stuff to be sorted out with a lot of different people.

“All I can say is I am happy here and I like the club. They are good people and the fans are great. Anyone with an offer to come here has got to be chuffed with that, because it is a great set-up.”

McGhee made no secret of his admiration for the 21-year-old, saying: “He’s been a fixture in the team and that says it all. He is improving week in and week out and I think he has got a good future.

“He has a terrific little engine and attitude. He quietly goes about his job and he has been really important for us so far this season.

“The boy himself is modest and unassuming. He loves Chelsea, he loved being there and I am sure he will be very disappointed to leave, but he wants to be a footballer more than he wants to be a Chelsea player. That is the important thing for us.”

McGhee explained the difference Nicolas made to the side. “He has that knack of being in the right place at the right time; he seems to cover such a big area. For a physically small lad, he is everywhere.

“He anticipates where the next ball is going and gets there early, puts people under pressure, wins the ball back and activates us going forward. He wins it and, before you know it, we’re going forward.”

When he signed permanently, Nicolas said: “It feels great. You are always sad to leave a club and I have been at Chelsea for a while, but I am excited and glad that I have signed for Brighton.

“The role I play is similar to Claude Makélélé’s and I used to speak to Claude regularly. He used to give me a lot of good advice. I’ve learned from all of the players at Chelsea, but now it’s time for me to open another chapter in my life and learn some other stuff.”

Nicolas said breaking into the Chelsea first team had whetted his appetite to return to that level and he told the Albion matchday programme: “Having played in the Premiership, I would like to achieve it here at Brighton and I don’t see why one day Brighton can’t be a club in the Premiership.”

Unfortunately, he joined an injury and suspension hit squad that couldn’t compete with better-resourced clubs in the second tier because of crowd-restricted home gates at the Withdean Stadium.

While Nicolas impressed in his first season, playing in a further 19 games, McGhee was forced to sell star players Danny Cullip and Darren Currie to bolster the club’s perilous finances, and the side only just managed to avoid the drop.

The following season, with Dean Hammond and Carpenter the mainstays in central midfield, Nicolas too often watched on from the bench and missed several weeks because of ankle and knee injuries.

Asked about his watching brief from the sidelines, he said in a matchday programme article: “It’s been very frustrating for me this season and I’m upset about it. I’d like to think that a lot of the fans would like to see me out there. The manager can only pick eleven players and he’s the boss – what he says goes and I respect that.”

His frustration was barely disguised in an interview with the Argus on 23 Feb 2006, after a reserve match he was due to play in was called off.

“It seems impossible for me to get 90 minutes at the moment,” he said. “I was out for six weeks injured and have only managed 60 minutes football against Millwall in a reserve match since because of postponements.

“Before that I was mostly on the bench. I have hardly played this season.

“Even though I am not fully match fit, I have been training hard and have enough about me to be able to cope. I am not thinking of myself when I say this. I have put personal goals to one side.

“After all, I pulled out of international squads with Cyprus earlier in the season even if it meant I could just be on the bench for Brighton. I feel I have a lot to offer.”

The midfielder added: “What matters is Albion. I love the club, the lads and the fans and want to do my best for them.”

Unfortunately, after playing only 12 matches in 2005-06, he wasn’t kept on after the Seagulls were relegated on 30 April 2006, and he never played league football again.

Born in Westminster on 13 February 1983, Nicolas went to Trent CE Primary School in Cockfosters, where he first showed a talent with a football. He also enjoyed long distance running and tennis.

He played football for a decent Sunday League side in Colliers Wood alongside two other future professionals, Steve Sidwell and Leon Britton, and eventually became part of Arsenal’s youth set-up. But he ended up as an apprentice at Aston Villa, and got taken on as a professional. He was in the same under-19s squad as future Albion goalkeeper Wayne Henderson and defender Liam Ridgewell.

But in December 2001, he joined Chelsea on a free transfer, and with 24 starts plus one as a sub, he missed only one of the reserves side’s 26 matches in the 2002-03 season.

He was handed the no.27 shirt for the 2003-04 season and made his Chelsea first team debut in their 1-0 FA Cup win away to Scarborough on 24 January 2004.

John Terry scored the only goal of the game and Nicolas played in midfield alongside Frank Lampard and Emmanuel Pettit in a side also featuring Joe Cole and Wayne Bridge.

Guardian football reporter, Paul Wilson, noted: “Alexis Nicolas made an encouraging debut, but time and again Cole, in particular, would attempt something complicated when a simpler option was available.”

Nicolas made his Premiership debut a week later in a 1–0 win over Charlton Athletic. His only other appearance was as a 90^th minute substitute for Lampard as the Blues rounded off the season with a 1-0 home win over Leeds United.

Nicolas spoke about those early years at Chelsea in an interview with Simon Yaffe of planetfootball.com.

“Ranieri called me into his office at the end of 2002-2003 and told me the club didn’t have a lot of money to invest and that he didn’t have too many midfielders at his disposal, so I would be in his plans for the following season,” Nicolas said.

Even as the oligarch’s takeover was going through in the summer of 2003, the youngster was part of Ranieri’s team which beat Newcastle United 5-4 on penalties in the final of the FA Premier League Asia Cup in front of a crowd of 41,500 in Kuala Lumpur’s national Bukit Jalil stadium. It was the first piece of silverware of the Abramovich era.

“It maybe wasn’t the most glamorous of trophies, but it was still the first of many under the new owner,” Nicolas said.

It wasn’t long before a flurry of big-name signings soon changed the picture for Nicolas; the arrival of five midfielders in particular being somewhat ominous.

“I had planned to go out on loan because I had fallen so far down the pecking order,” Nicolas added. “But some of the midfielders, like Makélélé and Petit, were picking up injuries, so I stuck around.

“Looking back, it was easy to think, ‘He’s signed, so that is why I am not playing,’ but it was really a turning point in Chelsea’s history, and it was nice to have been part of it.

“I was pleased for the club when Abramovich took over but also a little bit disappointed for myself.”

After relegated Brighton released him, Nicolas tried to continue his league career and had a trial with Bradford City, but after an unremarkable game for their reserves side, manager Colin Todd told the Bradford Telegraph & Argus: “At the moment I can’t guarantee him anything. His fitness levels aren’t the best but if he wants to continue to train with us and try to improve on that then it’s up to him.”

In fact, he decided to join St Albans City on 26 September 2006 and made his Nationwide Conference debut in a 2-1 defeat at Weymouth four days later.

On 12 November, the St Albans City website noted: “A knee injury restricted Alexis to just six appearances for St Albans City but, with a number of League One and League Two sides showing an interest, the player has decided to move on.”

Nicolas said he was grateful to manager Colin Lippiatt for giving him the opportunity and added: “I was not in the best of states when I joined the club but everyone has been a great help and when fully fit I hope to join one of the League One or League Two sides who are showing an interest in me.”

But it was a career in property investment that opened up for him instead and in 2012 he set up his own business in partnership with Ryan Springer.

He wasn’t completely done with football, though, and, also in 2012, Nicolas had a spell as player-manager of Hadley FC, a Spartan South Midlands League Premier Division side, and in 2014-15 he was part of the club’s management team under former Spurs and Chelsea player Micky Hazard.

Pictures as featured in the Albion matchday programme and from various online sources.

Promotion-winning full-back Paul Watson delivered for Zamora

DEPENDABLE full-back Paul Watson will best be remembered by Brighton fans for a sweet left foot that invariably created goalscoring chances for Bobby Zamora

.Previously, Watson made 57 appearances in a season-and-a-half with Fulham, and was a mainstay in their famous 1996-97 side that earned promotion from Division Three under Micky Adams.

.Born in Hastings on 4 January 1975, Watson began his playing career with Gillingham, where he spent five years before following Adams to Fulham in July 1996.

He teamed up with Adams once more, at Brentford, where he played for 20 months before signing for the Albion in a joint deal with Bees teammate Charlie Oatway.

Watson was a key member of the side that won back-to-back championships, helping the Seagulls from the fourth to the second tier.

The left-footed right back was particularly accurate from dead ball situations and his pinpoint passing proved ideal for Zamora to thrive on.

In Paul Camillin’s Match of My Life book (knowthescorebooks.com, 2009), Zamora said: “Whenever Watto got the ball I knew precisely where I needed to run to and he knew where to deliver it to.

“It was just such a great connection: Watto has an absolutely wonderful left foot and it made my job as a striker so much easier when you get deliveries like that.”

At the time of the interview, Zamora had moved on to Premiership Fulham and had played several seasons at the highest level. He said: “I don’t think I have come across anybody with a better left foot than Watto’s.

“I was very lucky to have played in the same team as him: he created numerous goals for me; not only with his deliveries but with his intelligent play as well.”

When the Seagulls finished top of the third tier under Adams’ successor Peter Taylor, Watson was one of four former Fulham players in the side: Danny Cullip, Simon Morgan and Paul Brooker the others.

The disastrous run of 12 defeats under Martin Hinshelwood, after such a promising start in the second tier, took the players by surprise, as Watson revealed in an extended interview with Jon Culley for the Wolverhampton Wanderers matchday programme on 11 November 2002.

“Obviously we were aware it was a step up but we thought we would at least do okay,” he said. “Nobody was suggesting we would win promotion for a third season in a row, but, with a couple of new signings and the quality that was already in the side, we didn’t think we would struggle as we have.

“Everything started off all right. We had a good win at Burnley and then a 0-0 draw against Coventry and the way we were playing seemed to be working but after that nothing would go right.

“Every bit of luck, even the referees’ decisions, seemed to go against us and we could not get a point for love nor money.”

Watson conceded that the squad Peter Taylor had led to the Second Division title before his resignation faced a steeper learning curve than anticipated.

“You have to appreciate that 80 per cent of the squad had never played in the First Division before and it is a big jump in terms of the technical quality of some of the people you are up against,” he said.

Watson admitted the loss of Taylor had come as a big blow, and said: “Peter Taylor had been the England coach, even if it was only for one game, and to attract a manager of that quality to a club such as ourselves was very exciting. Lots of players were gutted when he left.”

The arrival of Steve Coppell as manager gave the team renewed hope, although at the time Watson also spoke about the return to fitness and form of Zamora.

“Bobby was out for a while at the beginning of the season and you are always going to miss a player of his quality,” he said. “Now that he is beginning to get his fitness back, hopefully he will be able to make a difference to our fortunes.

“Nobody here is talking about relegation despite the start we have made. The arrival of players like Dean Blackwell and Simon Rodger have given a bit more know-how to the squad. We think we have what it takes to stay up.”

Obviously, it didn’t quite turn out that way, although they came mighty close to avoiding the drop. Watson stayed with the club the following season when Mark McGhee came in and steered the Seagulls to play-off victory in Cardiff against Bristol City, but his regular right-back slot was taken over by Adam Virgo.

After six years with the Seagulls, Watson left in July 2005, once again following ex-boss Adams, this time to Coventry City.

“I’ve got a lot of respect for him,” Watson told fulhamfc.com. “He’s made my career, basically! I’ll always have good things to say about him. Wherever he’s been he’s always been able to get the best out of his players, and he got the best out of me as well.”

However, Watson only played three games in a six-month spell with the Sky Blues, before going non-league with Woking, playing 15 games and, in the 2006-07 season, appearing in 44 games for Rushden & Diamonds.

He then had a season with Crawley and finally finished playing with Bognor. After hanging up his boots, Watson undertook a physiotherapy degree and was subsequently taken on by the Albion.

“It kind of started when I was at Brighton,” Watson told fulhamfc.com. “I had a couple of injuries towards the end of my time there and the physio at the time, Malcolm Stuart, helped me along and pointed me in the right direction.

Watto phys

“I did a couple of courses while I was still playing which helped me get onto my degree when I retired.”

Watson spent just short of nine years with the Albion’s physio team, initially with the development squad and then with the first team, during which time he earned a first class honours degree in physiotherapy at Brunel University, graduating in 2012.

Since June 2017 he has been head physio at Sheffield United and is currently studying for a Master’s degree in Sports Physiotherapy with Bath University.

Steve Coppell not the first ex-Man U player to quit the manager’s chair

coppell crop STEVE Coppell was not the first former Manchester United player I saw become manager of Brighton. More than 30 years previously Busby Babe Freddie Goodwin had been at the helm when my Albion-watching passion began.

Unfortunately, there was a parallel in their outcomes: both were wooed by better opportunities elsewhere (Goodwin to Birmingham; Coppell to Reading). One other parallel to record, though, is that each of their successors (Pat Saward and Mark McGhee) got Albion promoted.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but, if Coppell hadn’t been jet lagged the first time chairman Dick Knight interviewed him for the Brighton job, the 2002-03 season may have panned out differently…and Kolo Touré, a future Premier League winner with Arsenal and Manchester City, might have spent a season helping the Seagulls to retain their recently-won second tier status. Let me explain.

Coppell had been out of the country in Thailand during the summer of 2002 and, although Knight wanted to interview him with a view to appointing him as Peter Taylor’s successor, when the meeting in London eventually came about, Coppell began to nod off with the effects of his long-distance travel.

A frustrated Knight, under pressure on several fronts that summer (as told in his autobiography Mad Man: From the Gutter to the Stars, the Ad Man who saved Brighton) left him to it and took the decision to appoint third choice Martin Hinshelwood instead. (Knight had also considered German Winfried Schäfer, who had just managed Cameroon at the World Cup, but his poor command of English went against him).

As the opening to the season drew closer, Knight went with Hinshelwood to watch an Arsenal under 23 side in a friendly at Barnet. He was running the rule over Steve Sidwell with a view to taking him on a season-long loan but the stand-out player who caught his eye was Touré, and Albion’s cheeky chairman said he’d take the pair of them.

To his delight, Arsène Wenger and Liam Brady agreed…but astonishingly Hinshelwood said they weren’t needed because, in his opinion, they weren’t any better than Albion’s own youngsters, who he had been coaching, and who he was now intending to blood in the first team. An incredulous Knight kept schtum, believing he needed to support his new manager.

When they started the season with a 3-1 win at Burnley, it seemed maybe Hinshelwood had a point. But, after a disastrous run of 12 defeats, leading to the inevitable sacking of Hinshelwood, Knight reverted to Plan A and succeeded in attracting Coppell to manage the side.

He then swiftly went back to Arsenal to secure the loan services of Sidwell (who’d played for Coppell at Brentford the previous season). But he was too late as far as Touré was concerned. He’d already played his way into first team contention for the Gunners and was no longer available.

coppell + booker

With Albion at the foot of the table, Coppell had a rocky start at the helm of the Seagulls, including an embarrassing 5-0 defeat to Palace, but he quickly brought in some quality players such as Dean Blackwell and Simon Rodger, and, together with Bobby Zamora up front and the busy Sidwell in midfield, they put together some decent results that dared to suggest a great escape was possible.

Albion notched up some surprise results, including a 1-0 Boxing Day win at Norwich and a 4-1 home win over Wolves, who ended up in the play-offs. There was also a memorable 2-2 draw at Ipswich, a 4-0 home win over Watford and a 2-1 win at Reading, most notable for a rare appearance and goal from former Premiership striker Paul Kitson, who had been injured for much of the season.

Sadly, it wasn’t quite enough to keep the Seagulls in the division and they went down second from bottom, five points adrift of 21^st placed Stoke City.

The following season was in its infancy when West Ham decided to sack Glenn Roeder as their boss. The Hammers were determined to replace him with Reading’s Alan Pardew; and Reading, once they realised their fight to keep Pardew was fruitless, turned to third tier Albion’s Coppell as his replacement.

Chairman Knight knew Reading could offer Coppell the opportunities that were still some way in the distance if he’d stayed at the Albion, so he did the next best thing which was to get a healthy sum in compensation which went a long way to funding that season’s wage bill.

Knight was a big fan of Coppell and admired his meticulous preparation for games through in-depth viewing of opponents.

In an interview with The Guardian, Knight said: “He is probably the most analytical mind brought to football management for many a year. His preparations are detailed to the point of fastidious. His briefings are second to none. He spent hours with the video in the afternoons breaking down moves in slow-mo to work out how the opposition operate. He is very perceptive.”

Knight added: “People say he’s cold and uncaring, but he came to one of our marches on the seafront to campaign about the new stadium at Falmer long after he left for Reading. That’s Steve. He left a big impression on us.”

coppell at reading.jpg

Coppell left the Albion with a 36.7 per cent win ratio over his 49 games in charge, just over three percentage points behind his first spell as Palace manager, but higher than his other three spells at Selhurst.

To avoid this blog post turning into War and Peace, I’m not going to cover the whole of Coppell’s career but, in the circumstances, it is worth touching on how he came to be a star on the wing for Manchester United and England.

The Liverpool lad went to the same Quarry Bank Grammar School that produced Joe Royle and Beatle John Lennon, but head teacher William Pobjoy ensured football mad Coppell stuck to his studies.

It didn’t deter Coppell from having a trial with Liverpool and playing for an Everton junior side a couple of nights a week. But both rejected him as too small and his dad Jim told playupliverpool.com: “He lost faith in ever becoming a footballer and took up golf and became quite good.” He still played football for a local side but that was just for pleasure.

A Tranmere Rovers scout made several approaches but Steve wasn’t interested, and decided he was going to go to Liverpool University to take a degree in economics and social history.

Ron Yeats, the famous colossus around who Bill Shankly built his Liverpool team in the 1960s, became Tranmere manager in the early 1970s. He remembered of Coppell: “We signed him so he could combine it with university.”

Around the same time, Coppell shot up from 4ft 11in to 5ft 7in in a year, and went on to play 38 times for Tranmere, scoring 10 goals.

Word reached Manchester United boss Tommy Docherty who paid a £35,000 fee to take him to Old Trafford. He was playing for United in the old second division while still completing the third year of his degree course. United’s deal with Tranmere had it built in that they’d pay an extra £20,000 if Coppell made it to 50 appearances. They paid it after only two games, such was the impact Docherty knew he was going to have.

Indeed, he went on to make 373 appearances for United and scored 70 goals; and the 207 games he played between 1977 and 1981 broke the record for the most consecutive appearances for an outfield Manchester United player, and still stands to this day.

coppell utd action

He played in three FA Cup Finals for United, in 1976, 1977 and 1979, only ending up with a winners’ medal when Liverpool were beaten 2-1 in 1977.

Coppell was still at United in 1983, and had been United’s top scorer on the way to the Milk Cup Final that season, but he was recovering from a cartilage operation on his damaged left knee so was unable to play in the FA Cup Final against Brighton.

He told Match magazine: “I was always fighting a losing battle against time to get fit for the final. In my heart of hearts, I knew when I had the cartilage operation that five weeks wasn’t enough time to get fit for a match of this importance. I was struggling to make it from the off.”

Coppell told Amy Lawrence of The Guardian: “’I had nine wonderful years there and I still remember running on at Old Trafford for the first time. It was a real heart-in-the-mouth moment, an incredible experience for a 19-year-old whose biggest crowd before then was probably about 5,000.”

He also won 42 caps for England and Sir Trevor Booking, one of his contemporaries in the England team, spoke in glowing terms about Coppell the player in his book My Life in Football (Simon & Schuster, 2014).

“He was a winger at a time when wingers were unfashionable,” he said. “He had the pace to reach a 30-yard pass, the skill to wriggle past a defender and send over the perfect cross. But he also had the energy to run back and provide cover for his defensive team-mates down the right flank that set him apart from so many other wingers at that time.

“When his team lost possession, Steve didn’t hang about on the flank waiting for someone to win it back. He wanted to win it back himself. He was involved all the time – a quality that is a prerequisite for today’s wide players.”

Coppell made his England debut under Ron Greenwood against Italy at Wembley in 1977 in a very exciting line-up that saw him play on the right, Peter Barnes on the left, and Bob Latchford and Kevin Keegan as a twin strikeforce. It was a favoured foursome for Greenwood and when they all played together against Scotland in 1979, Coppell, Keegan and Barnes all scored in a 3-1 win.

It was while on England duty that Coppell picked up the injury that would eventually lead to a premature end to his career. Brooking recalled: “A tackle by the Hungarian József Tóth at Wembley in November 1981 damaged his knee and although he played on for a year or so more, the knee condition worsened.

“He was able to play in the first four games of the 1982 World Cup but the problem flared up after the goalless draw with West Germany and he had to miss the decisive match against Spain.”

From 2016, Coppell spent three years as a manager in India. Amongst the players he worked with at Kerala Blasters (owned by cricketing great Sachin Tendulkar) in 2016-17 was Aaron Hughes, who had a season with Albion.

The following season Coppell became the first head coach of newly-formed Jamshedpur, owned by Tata Steel, and for the 2018-19 season he took charge of Indian Super League club ATK, once part-owned by Atletico Madrid. Among its owners were former Indian cricket captain Sourav Ganguly.

thoughtful coppell

In parallel lines

Memories from 55 years following Brighton & Hove Albion

Tag: Simon Rodger