Tony Rougier couldn’t have wished for a better Albion start

A GOAL by Tony Rougier three minutes into his debut as a substitute gave Brighton a glimmer of hope in their battle to avoid relegation.

His strike against Mark McGhee’s mid-table Millwall side at Withdean Stadium on 22 February 2003 was the only goal of the game and lifted Albion out of the bottom three of the Championship.

When Bobby Zamora dummied Kerry Mayo’s pass to allow Arsenal loanee Graham Barrett to turn and move the ball goalwards, Rougier nipped in to complete a neat finish past Tony Warner in the Millwall goal.

Manager Steve Coppell had sent on the Reading loanee as a 61^st minute substitute for winger Paul Brooker although he admitted to Stuart Barnes of The Guardian: “I honestly didn’t know if Tony would make a difference, but I felt he would pep up everybody else because we were starting to lose our grip.

“Getting out of the bottom three will give the players a lot of self-esteem. For a long time this season they have questioned whether they belonged at this level.”

Trinidad and Tobago international Rougier joined the Seagulls having been sidelined by Alan Pardew at Reading who paid £325,000 when signing him from Brian Horton’s Port Vale.

Horton gave the Argus an insight of what Albion fans might expect when he said in an interview: “Tony has a great build and he is a threat with his pace and strength.

“We had to sell him because we needed the money and he was one of our major earners.”

He had been Vale’s leading goalscorer with eight goals in 38 games when they were relegated from the First Division in 2000 before moving to Reading that August.

Rougier made a total of 84 appearances for Reading, scoring six goals, and in his first season helped them to the Division Two play-off final where they lost 3-2 to Walsall (and Rougier scored an own goal after going on as a substitute). But a year later, he made 20 starts and 13 appearances off the bench as Reading were promoted in second place – behind the Albion!

He had scored twice in 12 outings for Pardew’s high-flying Royals in 2002-03, including in a 1-0 win against Albion at Withdean. But competition for places was fierce, with the likes of Nicky Forster, Darius Henderson, John Salako and Nathan Tyson.

Coppell told the Argus: “I speak with Alan fairly regularly but this came totally out of the blue when I phoned him up.

“Tony is a big, strong lad and he gives us options. He can play as a wide man or down the middle and the move suits Reading, the player and me.”

*Getting to grips with Jason Brown of Gillingham*

Coppell needed forward cover because Gary Hart was about to start a four-match suspension, Zamora was banned for the next away game at Gillingham, Paul Kitson was still injured and Barrett was struggling for form and goals.

The following matchday programme observed Rougier had not been signed for his goalscoring prowess, but rather for his “power, direct running, and causing havoc that others can exploit”.

But the goal was very welcome in a season that might well not have ended in relegation if Coppell had started the season in charge rather than joining after so many games had already been lost under Martin Hinshelwood.

Rougier made his first start in a 3-0 defeat away to Gillingham playing up front with Barrett when Zamora and Hart were suspended.

He featured in home wins over Rotherham United (2-0) and Nottingham Forest (1-0) as well as an away defeat at Stoke City (0-1), but he missed the 2-1 defeat at Sheffield United after twisting his right ankle against Forest.

He bowed out in style in his final appearance, making one goal and scoring a second in a memorable 2-2 draw away to Ipswich Town.

I took my then 14-year-old son Rhys to the clash at Portman Road and the lively midfielder-cum-striker in the no.34 shirt, who had been taken to the hearts of the Albion faithful, was suitably serenaded with the chant ‘Ra-ra-ra Rougier’ to the tune of the popular vaudeville and music hall song Ta–ra–ra Boom-de-ay.

His first significant involvement saw him go up for a header from Hart’s cross and Town goalkeeper Andy Marshall diverted the ball into his own net to gift Albion an equaliser.

Future Albion loanee striker Darren Bent missed a penalty that would have put Ipswich back in front, and then, with 10 minutes to go, Albion fans were buoyant with expectation when Rougier slammed the ball into the roof of the net after Ipswich had failed to clear their lines.

Unfortunately for Brighton, a 30-yard thunderbolt from Martin Reuser flew past Dave Beasant to put the home side level and Albion had to be content with a point, which ultimately wasn’t enough to avoid making an immediate return to the division they’d left the previous season.

While the player was keen to extend his stay, Pardew wanted him back to help with Reading’s promotion run-in, although thankfully he wasn’t involved in Brighton’s shock 2-1 win at the Madejski Stadium on 4 April (and Steve Sidwell, who had been on loan at the Albion earlier that season was an unused sub). Goals from Brooker and sub Kitson took the spoils for the Albion, Cureton netting for the home side.

The Royals finished fourth in the league before losing 3-1 on aggregate to Wolves in the play-off semi-finals, and Rougier was released on a free transfer having scored three times in 13 starts and nine appearances off the bench.

Rougier told the Argus he would be interested in returning to the Albion, but nothing came of it and he joined Brentford instead. Manager Wally Downes believed the player had “real quality” although Brentford fans seemed to have divided opinions on what he brought to the side.

‘Snappy’ on The Griffin Park Grapevine reckoned: “The guy is a huge asset, especially in the last 10 minutes of a game when he can hold the ball up and dance his way around players like they were statues and relieve the pressure on the defence.”

‘West Ealing Bee’ agreed: “He is an asset to the club and a very important part of the team.” But ‘Boston Bee’ had a totally different take on the player: “Even when he actually tried (15min/match) he looked like he wasn’t trying. His lack of interest in the game going on around him drove me crazy.”

Rougier made 34 appearances for the Bees, scoring five goals but when Martin Allen took over as manager in March 2004, Rougier was one of five players he allowed to leave Griffin Park as part of a squad overhaul that ultimately helped them to a last-day escape from relegation.

Meanwhile, Rougier linked up with another ex-Albion captain, Danny Wilson, at Bristol City on a free transfer. Indeed, Rougier appeared for the Robins when they lost 1-0 to McGhee’s Albion in the divisional play-off final in Cardiff on 30 May.

But when Wilson lost his job that summer, Rougier followed him out of the exit and he returned to Trinidad, where he won the last of 67 international caps for Trinidad and Tobago.

He has since turned to coaching, becoming a UEFA A licensed coach, and attained a degree in sports development. On his LinkedIn profile, he describes himself as the founder, president and technical director of FC South End, and, in 2014, among his past coaching experiences was a spell working with his nation’s under 20 squad.

Four years later, he had moved to the United States to coach the New England Revolution academy team.

Born on 17 July 1971 in Sobo, a village in south west Trinidad, his footballing career was initially confined to his home country.

Tom Lunn, writing for Reading fan website thetilehurstend.sbnation.com in 2019, profiled Rougier describing how the player began his senior footballing career in his home country with La Brea Angels. His Wikipedia page says he also played for Trintoc, United Petrotrin, and Trinity Pros.

An Albion matchday programme article said Rougier then moved to New York where he spent a year working in the baggage department at John F Kennedy airport before heading to the UK.

After overcoming work permit issues, he was taken on by Raith Rovers where, over the course of two years, he became something of a cult hero. In 2018, he returned to Fife to be inducted into the club’s Hall of Fame.

“This is where it all started,” he said in an interview with the club’s TV channel. “It never felt the same whichever club I went to afterwards. The Fife people gave me respect and it’s something I’ll never forget.”

During the interview, Rougier remembered fondly an occasion when he man-marked Paul Gascoigne, playing central midfield against Rangers.

His stand-out moment was a UEFA Cup second round tie in Munich’s Olympic Stadium on 30 October 1985 when Raith only narrowly lost 2-1 to Bayern Munich who boasted the likes of Oliver Kahn in goal and Jurgen Klinsmann up front.

His performances for Raith earned him a £250,000 move to Hibernian. He scored four times in 45 matches for Alex McLeish’s Edinburgh outfit but in January 1999 joined Port Vale, signed by Horton’s predecessor John Rudge for £175,000.

By then, he had established himself in the Trinidad and Tobago national side, a teammate of Dwight Yorke, and often being chosen as captain.

In his own words, he describes himself as: “A highly experienced football coach and former professional player with a career in the game spanning more than 25 years, I has successfully made the transition into coaching, management and club operations through a consistent focus on long term player and team development.

“A former national team captain with Trinidad & Tobago and a promotion winner in both England and Scotland, I have been able to effectively apply my on-field experience to guide team success and coaching strategy at professional, grassroots and school level.

“I am a positive, dynamic and passionate professional who is committed to my continued progression as a coach. I am always open to opportunities in which I can develop while positively impacting a football club or organisation, and would relish the opportunity to work with elite players within an ambitious environment.”

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.

Did Albion fans only get to see half a Lita?

PROLIFIC second tier goalscorer Leroy Lita was a Gareth Southgate free transfer signing for Middlesbrough where he scored 20 in 82 games.

Two years after Boro cashed in and sold him for £1.75m to newly promoted Premier League side Swansea City, Lita joined an injury-hit Brighton side three months into Oscar Garcia’s reign.

Goals had been harder to come by for Lita after Brendan Rodgers had signed him for the Swans and he was sent out on loan, spending time back in the Championship with Birmingham City and Sheffield Wednesday.

It was a familiar story for Lita who had been Reading’s first £1m player when Steve Coppell signed him from Bristol City in 2005.

He netted a goal every three games for the Royals, but towards the end of his four years at the Madejski Stadium, he’d gone on loan to Charlton Athletic and Norwich City.

By the autumn of 2013, Lita had become something of a footballing nomad, fed up with a lack of first team action under Michael Laudrup.

With Albion’s leading striker Leo Ulloa out for two months with a broken foot, and Craig Mackail-Smith and Will Hoskins also sidelined, Garcia brought the diminutive striker to Brighton on a three-month loan arrangement.

“He is strong, fast and direct, and he has shown he can score goals in the Championship,” Garcia told the club website. “He offers us something different going forward.”

I can remember being at the Keepmoat Stadium, Doncaster, when he scored his only goal for the club two minutes after going on as a substitute for Jake Forster-Caskey (he’d played with his stepdad Nicky Forster at Reading).

Forster-Caskey had scored a wonder goal with his left foot from 35 yards before Rovers equalised but visiting Albion went on to collect three points in a 3-1 win (David Lopez scored the other with a long range free kick).

Lita had made his debut in a 0-0 draw at Yeovil on 11 October, going on as a sub for Ashley Barnes and his home debut saw him replacing another loanee, Craig Conway, in a 1-1 draw with Watford.

The eager striker made a public plea via the Argus to be given a start but Garcia only ever used Lita off the bench for the Seagulls (he went on as a sub on five occasions and was an unused sub for three games).

“The staff have a bit of doubt but I feel fine,” Lita said. “When I am on the pitch my mind just takes over anyway.
“I don’t ever feel tired or not match fit. I know you still need your match fitness, but you have to get that at some point, so hopefully this week.”

Having got off the mark for the fifth Championship club he had served on loan, he added: “Once you get that first goal you are thinking about the next one and the next one. I am just looking forward to scoring plenty of goals.

“I know I can score goals wherever I go so I’ve never had that doubt. Whoever has doubted me it’s up to them. My belief in myself is not going to end until I am 50 years old and can’t move!”

But with Ulloa’s fitness restored, Lita’s final appearance in an Albion shirt was on 3 December when he went on for Barnes at the Amex as the Seagulls succumbed 2-1 to Barnsley.

Maybe Lita’s Albion spell was cursed from the start when he was handed squad number 44 (all the fours, droopy drawers)?

He was still only 28 when he arrived at the Amex with an impressive record of 101 goals in 330 league and cup games, 14 of which had been in Reading’s 2006-07 Premier League season.

“I know the Championship well,” Lita said in the matchday programme. “Consistency is the main thing at this level because everyone beats everyone; some teams start well and drop off, while others start badly then pick up a run of results. So, it’s all about putting a good run together then you never know what might happen.”

Lita followed in the footsteps of former Swansea teammates Kemy Agustien and Andrea Orlandi to the Amex, but he also knew Liam Bridcutt and Andrew Crofts from his time as a youngster at Chelsea.

He recalled summer training camps at Horsham with Bridcutt and he played in the same Chelsea junior side as Crofts. “They have both gone on to become really good players,” he said.

“It helps when you go to a club and know a few people but I think the style of play here will also suit me.

“It is similar to Swansea and the club only signs players here who know the system.

“I played against Brighton last season, scoring on my home debut for Sheffield Wednesday, and although we won that day, I was still impressed by the way the team played.” He had also played at the Amex before when he was on loan at Birmingham and (below right) was the subject of a page feature in the matchday programme.

Born in Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo on 28 December 1984, it was as a teenager on Chelsea’s books that he couldn’t believe his luck to be sharing a training pitch with Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and Eidur Gudjohnsen.

“I would go home and see them on TV and the next day I would be training with them,” he told The Guardian. “It was unbelievable.”

Reporter Jon Brodkin wrote: “Chelsea broke his heart by releasing him but his three years at the club he supports were hardly wasted. The thrill of being a ballboy was surpassed by training with the first team’s front two.”

Lita told him: “I was 15 and the academy director said he had spoken to my school and I could have a couple of days off a week to train with the first team and the ressies [reserves]. It was a great opportunity and I learned a lot from it.

“Hasselbaink’s finishing was unbelievable, he didn’t mess about. He could place it and smash it. I mainly did finishing with them, not much else, but I could see as well how professional they were and how they looked after themselves.”

After Lita’s release, he contacted a few clubs – Fulham were interested but didn’t offer a contract – and he was aware that after leaving Arsenal Andy Cole had made a new start to his successful career at Bristol City.

It was the Robins who gave Lita an opportunity and former Albion skipper Danny Wilson handed him his first team debut at the beginning of the 2002-03 season when he was still only 17.

His first league goal was a late winner on 28 September 2002 to secure a 3-2 victory after going on as a substitute at Port Vale (for whom an 18-year-old Billy Paynter had scored).

“The striker hit a glorious goal to end Vale’s hopes of a point after they had fought back to level matters just a minute earlier,” said the BBC report of the game.

It wasn’t until the following season that he was given a professional contract and it was only after Brian Tinnion succeeded Wilson as manager in 2004-05 that Lita established himself in the City side. He scored 29 goals in all competitions and that form earned him a call-up to the England under-21s, Lita having decided not to play for his birth country.

He scored on his debut on 8 February 2005 when he went on as a sub for Justin Hoyte in a 2-1 defeat against the Netherlands at Derby’s Pride Park.

Those goals also earned him a £1m move to Reading, even though Tinnion advised him against the move, believing a Premiership club would come in for him.

“Once I got down here, I knew it was right,” Lita told The Guardian. “I want to go a step at a time. Reading are a good club, they’re looking to get into the Premiership and that’s where I want to be.”

He went on to score 15 goals in 25 league and cup games (+ seven as a sub) as Reading topped the Championship, and he returned to the England under-21 fold in February 2006.

He was on home turf at the Madejski Stadium when he earned his second cap, again as a sub, replacing David Nugent in a 3-1 win over Norway (future Albion loanee Liam Ridgewell was among his teammates).

A year later, after finding the net in the Premier League with Reading, Lita got a third cap as a substitute (for James Milner) and scored again in a 2-2 draw against Spain at Pride Park. Liam Rosenior was also a substitute that day.

Lita’s first start for the under 21s came the following month, on 24 March, in a 3-3 draw with Italy in the first game played at the new Wembley Stadium, in front of 55,700. On 5 June the same year, Lita scored England’s fifth goal in a 5-0 win over Slovakia at Carrow Road after he’d gone on as a sub for Nigel Reo-Coker.

Lita was an overage player in the 2007 UEFA European Under 21 Championship: he missed an 88^th minute penalty after going on as a sub in a 0-0 draw with the Czech Republic but scored in each of the three games he started: 2-2 v Italy, 2-0 v Serbia and 1-1 v the Netherlands (who won the tie 13-12 on penalties). But a full cap eluded him.

Lita was a regular throughout Reading’s first top-flight campaign. In a side that include Ivar Ingimarsson and Steve Sidwell, Lita scored 14 times in 26 league and cup starts plus 12 appearances off the bench.

But with Kevin Doyle and Dave Kitson the preferred strike duo in 2007-08, Lita’s game time was much reduced and he went on loan to Charlton in March 2008.

It was a similar story the following season when he scored seven times in 16 games during a three-month loan at Norwich City – the haul included a hat-trick against eventual champions Wolves.

The excellent Flown From The Nest website, that profiles former Norwich players, recalled how that treble attracted the interest of plenty of other clubs, but City boss Glenn Roeder said: “It’s a better problem to have than him not scoring and playing rubbish – then none of us want him. What can you do?

“He was brought here to score goals. He was a little bit rusty in his first game which was understandable. He did better in the second game against Bristol City when he had a couple of chances which unfortunately never went in, and then in the third game on Tuesday night, we saw the real Leroy Lita and what he is all about.”

Lita returned to Reading and played in a FA Cup third round defeat at Cardiff and although Sheffield United made a bid for him, he preferred to stay with the Royals.

Nevertheless, at the end of the season, he finally left the Madejski and headed to Teesside on a three-year deal.

On signing for Boro, Lita said: “The manager has been after me for about a year, it’s great to feel wanted. I have a lot of respect for the gaffer and I want to do well for him and the club.

“I aim to repay him for his faith in me with goals. That’s the main strength to my game and I’m looking forward to scoring goals for Middlesbrough.”

He told the Northern Echo: “I’m raring to go. I haven’t enjoyed the last two seasons one bit, but this is a fresh start and I’m excited about the challenge.

“Other clubs were interested in signing me, but there was only once place I wanted to go and that was Middlesbrough.”

Southgate added: “Leroy has a hunger to score goals and his goalscoring record in the Championship in particular is very strong.

“His record says he gets one in two at this level so that will be important for us. I think he has a point to prove and, when he’s fully fit, he will relish the challenge.”

It wasn’t long before Southgate was succeeded by Gordon Strachan but Lita made the second highest number of appearances (41) in that season’s squad and scored nine goals as Boro finished mid-table.

There was yet another managerial change the following season, with the return of former player Tony Mowbray, but Boro once again finished mid-table with a side that featured Joe Bennett at left back and Jason Steele in goal.

Lita scored 11 times in 40 matches, which was enough to attract newly-promoted Swansea. “I’ve had a good chat with Leroy,” said Mowbray. “He has a chance to play in the Premier League and good on him. His talent has earned him that chance.”

But he only scored twice in six starts (+ 12 appearances off the bench) all season and in September 2012, Lee Clark signed him on a three-month loan for Birmingham.

“I know Leroy very well having worked with him at Norwich during a loan spell in which he scored seven goals in 16 games,” said Clark. “He’s a proven goalscorer who has power and pace and there’s no doubt that he’ll add quality to my squad.”

Lita scored three goals in 10 games for Birmingham before being recalled early, but in late January 2013, he joined Sheffield Wednesday on loan until the end of the season.

Wednesday manager Dave Jones told BBC Radio Sheffield: “Leroy has a lot of experience at this level and the one above. It could be with a view to a permanent deal. This lets us have a look at him and he can have a look at us.” But he only scored twice in nine appearances for the Owls.

Released by Swansea at the end of the 2013-14 season, Lita was then reunited with Danny Wilson, manager at newly relegated League One Barnsley.

“He was my first manager and I like the way he works,” said Lita. “He’s got a lot of trust in me and I’ve got a lot of trust in him.

“I enjoyed my time under him as a youngster. He helped me a lot and helped me progress in my career so far. I just want to get back to playing football regularly again and I’m going to get that opportunity here.”

He scored in his first two league games but didn’t register again for 21 games. When Wilson was replaced by Lee Johnson in February 2015, within a matter of weeks Lita joined lowly Notts County on loan until the end of the season but was unable to prevent their relegation.

On expiry of his Barnsley contract, Lita moved to Crete side AO Chania in August 2015 but was back in England the following March, signing a short term deal with League Two Yeovil Town, where he scored once in eight games. That was his last league club in England.

He scored five goals in 21 games for Thai Premier League side Sisaket in 2017 and on his return to the UK turned out for a number of non-league clubs: Margate, Haverhill Rovers, Salisbury and Chelmsford City.

In May 2020, the Coventry Evening Telegraph hailed his signing for Nuneaton Borough, whose manager Jimmy Ginnelly told the newspaper: “His partner is from Nuneaton and they’ve recently moved into a house on The Longshoot, which is just five minutes from the ground, so this is a win-win situation for both parties.

“These sorts of players don’t come onto Nuneaton’s radar very often so we moved quickly and obviously all of us here at the Boro are very excited.”

He scored eight goals in 33 appearances for Nuneaton, went on to play for Southern League Premier Division Central rivals Stratford Town before moving on to Hednesford Town, where he’s still playing.

In March 2022, the Express and Star reported: “Lita lit up Keys Park last night as he smashed a debut hat-trick to help Hednesford to a 3-1 victory over Stourbridge.”

Albion offered temporary refuge to winger Scott Thomas

A PLAYER seen by only a few hundred loyal Albion supporters played under Brian Horton for Manchester City and Brighton.

Scott Thomas was spotted by City as an 11-year-old, joined them straight from school and was on the club’s staff for six years.

But he only ever featured for the first team on two occasions, in successive matches during Horton’s Maine Road reign.

A serious injury while playing on loan in America dealt a devastating blow to his hopes of a top flight career, and when City overlooked Thomas during the club’s slide towards the third tier, Horton threw him a brief lifeline.

Albion’s former captain, back at the club as manager when they played home games in exile at Gillingham, inherited a side in turmoil when he took over from Steve Gritt in February 1998.

Albion were second from bottom of the basement division and had endured a 12-game winless home run under Gritt. A Valentine’s Day nightmare 0-0 draw at home to bottom club Doncaster Rovers followed by successive away defeats against Rochdale and Exeter saw chairman Dick Knight wield the axe on a man who had delivered the miracle escape from relegation less than a year earlier.

Horton wheeled and dealed as best he could with limited resources and, after one of many loanees, Steve Barnes, returned to parent club Birmingham City, he remembered the youngster who he’d given a couple of outings to at the end of the 1994-95 season.

It seems extraordinary to say it now, but Manchester City were in a pretty desperate plight themselves between 1996 and 1998. Five different managers took charge over the course of the 1996-97 season. Alan Ball was in charge at the beginning, he was followed by Asa Hartford. Then Steve Coppell took the reins, before deciding after six matches that it wasn’t for him. Former Liverpool full-back Phil Neal succeeded his former England teammate. Eventually, former Nottingham Forest player and boss Frank Clark took over.

Clark was still in charge at the start of the following season, but a run of poor results saw him off, replaced by former Everton and City centre-forward Joe Royle. He couldn’t stop the rot and City were relegated to the third tier for the first time in their history.

Although a total of 38 players saw action in that desperate but ultimately fruitless attempt to avoid relegation, Thomas wasn’t one of them.

There had been a succession of players not wanted at other clubs who pulled on Albion’s stripes that season and Horton turned to blond-haired winger Thomas on the eve of the March transfer deadline day as he shuffled his pack trying to steer the side away from the bottom of the fourth tier.

“He can play on either wing or down the middle,” said Horton, by way of introduction in his Albion matchday programme notes.

*Scott Thomas (front row, second from right) in a pre-match Albion line-up*

After making his debut in a 0-0 draw at Cardiff City on 28 March 1998, skipper Gary Hobson declared: “Scott Thomas did well on the right of midfield.” And Horton said: “I was pleased with the first game for Scott Thomas, he looked lively and he came off with a bit of cramp late on.”

It was the first of seven games Thomas played for the Seagulls as the season drew to a close, and in his second game Albion earned their first win in six matches, beating Scunthorpe United 2-1 in front of a Priestfield crowd of 2,141.

*Thomas took over the no.9 shirt v Scunthorpe*

He switched wings and played on the left in that match and Horton made a point of mentioning in his programme notes how the youngster had been unlucky to have been denied by a fantastic save by Iron ‘keeper Tim Clarke.

Unfortunately, that was the only game in which he was on the winning side: Albion drew three and lost two in the remaining matches. And Thomas was sent back to City at the season’s end.

It has since emerged that a serious injury the winger sustained two years earlier ultimately put paid to him continuing to play professionally.

He had been sent on loan to the United States to play for Richmond Kickers in Virginia. He told the Bolton News: “It was a brilliant opportunity being in the States but I shattered my left leg in four places and had to come back. I was gutted.”

As part of his recovery, he was sent to his local gym, Phoenix Health and Fitness in Bolton, and, four years after the injury forced him to retire, he bought it.

“Football will always be my main love,” he told the newspaper. “Keeping fit has played such a big part of my life — I’ve done various marathons and two Ironman triathlons too — so owning a gym was a natural choice.”

Born in Fairfield, Bury, on 30 October 1974, Thomas told the newspaper his father reckoned he started kicking a football against a wall or fence as soon as he could walk.

He was playing for Radcliffe Juniors when he was seven and, at 11, was scouted by City while he was playing in the Bury League.

“I thought it was brilliant at the time – it was a really big deal,” he said. “I did trials in the school holidays and then trained after school, so I’d get a bus from Bolton, through Bury and into Manchester to meet my dad before going to the grounds.”

Thomas’ son, Luca, has followed in his father’s footsteps. He worked his way through City’s academy sides but when he turned 16 switched to Leeds United’s scholarship scheme.

In the 2021-22 season, he scored 15 goals in 17 matches in the Under-18s Premier League North, and in August 2022 signed a two-year professional contract with Leeds.

“It has changed from when I was younger,” Thomas Snr told the Bolton News. “They have to grow up a lot quicker these days. It’s such a cut-throat industry: you can be flavour of the month one minute, winning Young Player of the Year like me, then out with an injury the next.”

Both of Scott’s City first team appearances were as a substitute. The first was on 6 May 1995 when he went on for Maurizio Gaudino on the hour mark at the City Ground, Nottingham. Forest won by a single goal, scored by Stan Collymore in the first half.

Eight days later, Thomas only got on in the 83^rd minute when he replaced Paul Walsh as City went down 3-2 at Maine Road to QPR, for whom Les Ferdinand scored twice.

The winger also played in America for Richmond Kickers founder Bobby Lennon’s other club, Palm Beach Pumas, and he is quoted on the US Soccer Academy website as saying: “The level of football was excellent. Even though my career was cut short due to an injury, I will always have great soccer memories of my time in Florida.”

The strange tale of Lorenzo Pinamonte, a gentleman of Verona

IF CASH-STRAPPED Brighton hadn’t been outbid by Brentford for a little-known Italian striker in the opening months of the 21^st century, a teenage forward who went on to earn a place in the club’s history might never have appeared in an Albion shirt.

‘If only’, ‘but’ and ‘maybe’ preface many a football fan’s dashed hopes but in the case of Lorenzo Pinamonte, it seems the Gods were smiling on the Seagulls.

The imposing Italian scored only three goals in 26 appearances for the Bees after their £75,000 gazumped Albion’s bid to take him permanently from Bristol City.

Thankfully Brighton’s fortunes were vastly improved by the chap they signed instead: a raw reserve at City’s neighbours Rovers called Bobby Zamora!

Let’s go back to the last month of the 20^th century. After a spectacular start to life back in Brighton following the two-year exile playing home games at Gillingham – including an opening day 6-0 crushing of Mansfield Town – mid-table Albion were struggling to find the back of the net with any consistency.

Twice-red-carded striker Darren Freeman missed multiple games through suspension, former soldier David Cameron struggled to cut it at leading the line, and former England Youth international Aidan Newhouse didn’t live up to Micky Adams’ expectations either.

That’s when Adams turned to the first Italian to represent the Albion, 22-year-old 6’3” Pinamonte, who was struggling to get a game under Tony Pulis, then boss of the relegated Robins (they’d dropped down to the third tier the season before).

He made his debut for ‘flu-hit Albion away to Swansea City on a rainy night at the Vetch Field, only meeting his teammates for the first time when being picked up en route to Wales for the game.

“Pinamonte led the line as a lone striker,” recalled wearebrighton.com. “A thankless task was made even harder when the Albion were reduced to 10 men following a red card for Jamie Campbell with only 25 minutes played.”

While makeshift Albion lost 2-0 to the Swans, their run of defeats was halted courtesy of a 1-1 Boxing Day draw at home to Barnet and a last game of the century 3-1 win at Rotherham. The 3 January match at home to Exeter City not only famously saw Freeman score the first football league goal of the 21^st century, it also featured a brace from the lanky loan signing as Albion won 4-2.

It seems Adams had seen enough to want to make Pinamonte’s move permanent, but matters became complicated when Pulis decided to quit the Robins and take over at Portsmouth.

Because the departing manager’s successor may have had a different view of the striker, he signed on loan for a second month, rather than permanently, Adams telling the Argus: “We are pleased to keep Lorenzo for another month. The situation at Bristol won’t be resolved for a few weeks, so a permanent deal is up in the air.”

The same article declared that Pinamonte wanted to join Albion permanently but the bid put in by chairman Dick Knight was below the asking price, and Brentford, a division above Albion at the time, had also made an offer.

Pinamonte unsurprisingly felt in limbo and confessed to being distracted when he played in a 1-0 defeat against Leyton Orient.

“In your mind you wonder what is happening, whether you are going to stay or go, so there was a little bit of confusion.

“That probably affected me. I was thinking about it, and perhaps not concentrating,” he said. “I think I have done well so far, but not in that game.”

The turn round in form took the Seagulls to within five points of a play-off place but Pinamonte’s head was turned by the chance to play at a higher level and Brentford eventually got their man.

Offered a lucrative three-and-a-half-year contract at Griffin Park, Pinamonte admitted to the Argus: “I am a little bit upset to be leaving and I would love to come back in the future. I wanted to stay but for my future it is better to leave. Money talks and I will be playing in a higher division.”

A disappointed Adams admitted he would have to look elsewhere for a big, hold-up striker. “We thought Dave Cameron would come in and be that big centre forward and Aidan Newhouse also. Unfortunately Dave prefers the ball into his body and feet so he can jink and turn.

“Big Lorenzo came in and gave us that other option. Gary Hart and Darren Freeman gambled off him. Now that he has gone, to get the best out of them and the other forwards at the club, we may need to bring another big man in.”

Adams later told Greville Waterman, one of the voices of authority on all things Brentford: “We were going through an indifferent spell and struggling for a big centre forward. David Cameron wasn’t up to it and we had been outbid by Brentford for Lorenzo Pinamonte, so I called Ian Holloway at Bristol Rovers who told me: ‘I have got a young lad who’s been on loan at Bath City. He’s only 19 and as raw as anything, but he has scored a few goals for them.’

“I was not totally convinced but we were desperate and the clincher was when Ian told me he was only earning £140 per week, so I said ‘send him down,’ and the rest is history!”

For his part, Pinamonte reflected some years later that his time at Brighton probably just came too early in his life. “Maybe if I had gone when I was 25 or 26 it would have been different for me,” he told Brian Owen of the Argus in 2016. “I enjoyed England but it probably came too early for me. I was there alone and I was very young.”

Pinamonte’s time at Brentford certainly divided opinion. ‘Smilely’ on griffinpark.org described him as “Lorenzo Pinthetailonthedonkey” but ‘Saffrey’ on the same platform said: “I think he’s been unlucky with (Ron) Noades as he was never really given a chance, as Uncle Ron brought in that donkey Steve ‘Murray’ Jones, when he should have given Pinamonte, who had recently joined the club, a decent run out.”

*The Bees lured Pinamonte from Albion’s grasp – thankfully*

‘Chalfont Bees’ reckoned: “All I’ve seen of Lorenzo is him getting booked or worse. He just doesn’t seem to be good enough at the moment and I can’t see him improving. I say cut our losses and get rid of him so as to give other strikers a chance.”

And ‘Holysmith’ opined: “Although Pinamonte hasn’t done much, he has a good strike rate for the amount of time he has played for Brentford. The problem is he doesn’t move about much.”

In the 2000-01 season, Pinamonte went out on a mid-season loan to Leyton Orient and at the season’s end he was released by Steve Coppell.

As he explained in that 2016 interview with Brian Owen, he then returned to Italy and spent eight years playing in the Italian third division until retiring as a pro at the age of 31.

Born on 9 May 1978, a gentleman of Verona (Caprino Veronese to be precise), the young Pinamonte was with southern Italy side Foggia before trying his luck in England. He joined Bristol City on a free transfer in the 1997-98 season.

In City’s disastrous 1998-99 season, when they were relegated from Division One (now the Championship) in bottom place, Pinamonte celebrated his 21^st birthday by scoring the only goal of the game on his debut as Norwich City were beaten at Ashton Gate in the last fixture of the campaign.

With their fate already sealed and with an eye to the following season, Swedish manager Benny Lennartsson, who had won only five of the 30 games he’d taken charge of, chose to blood a few youngsters and handed Pinamonte his debut up front alongside £1.2m signing Ade Akinbiyi.

Five minutes before half time, the City faithful finally had a moment to cheer, as Bristol Evening Post reporter Richard Latham recorded. “Akinbiyi, made captain for the day against the club who launched his career, headed down a Micky Bell corner and Pinamonte stuck out a long right leg to find the top corner of the net from close range.”

Lennartsson was relieved of his duties at the end of the season and two months later he was replaced by former Gillingham boss Pulis, who sent the young Italian striker on a fruitless loan at Carlisle United (he didn’t play a game) before answering Brighton’s call for reinforcements.

Off the field, Albion’s matchday programme informed us how Pinamonte was staying at the Courtlands Hotel in Hove during his temporary stay where the manager was Italian Jo Guiseppe-Messina, and he had also enjoyed the hospitality of Angelo Cavalli, the owner of Topolino Duo restaurant in Hove.

Apart from scrapbook memories of his time with the Albion, Pinamonte continued his friendship with Cavalli; the restaurateur had been to visit him at the hotel at Lake Garda that he ran after his professional playing days were over.

Day of reckoning beckoned for talent spotter Mervyn

THE YOUNGEST goalkeeper to appear in a FA Cup final spent 20 months picking out future players for Brighton.

It was one of several different post-playing roles Mervyn Day filled for various clubs.

Day, who at 19 won a winners’ medal with West Ham in 1975, was Albion’s head of scouting and recruitment between November 2012 and the end of the 2013-2014 season under head of football operations David Burke.

At the time, his appointment was another indicator of the gear change taking place at the club as it built on the move to the Amex Stadium and sought to gain promotion from the Championship.

Day said in a matchday programme interview: “This club has come such a long way in such a short space of time.

“When you think of the debacle of the Goldstone, the wilderness of Gillingham, then Withdean, you only have to get a player through the front door at this wonderful stadium to have a chance of signing them.

“Hopefully, within the next year or so, the new training ground will be up and running and, when you’ve got that as well, you’ve got the perfect opportunity not only to encourage kids to sign but top quality players as well.

“If we are fortunate enough to get ourselves into the Premier League at some point, we’ll be able to attract top, top players.”

It was a case of ‘the goalkeepers union’ that led to him joining the Albion. Day explained he’d been chatting to Andy Beasley, Albion’s goalkeeping coach at the time, who had been a colleague when Day was chief scout at Elland Road. Beasley wondered if he’d like to help coach Albion’s academy goalkeepers but Burke, who he also knew, stepped in and offered something more substantial: the job of scouting and talent identification manager.

He certainly brought a wealth of experience to the task. He had previously been assistant manager to former Albion midfielder Alan Curbishley at Charlton and West Ham; manager and assistant manager at Carlisle United, a scout for Fulham and the FA (when Steve McClaren was England manager) and chief scout at Leeds until Neil Warnock took charge.

In addition to that background, in the days before full-time goalkeeper coaches, Day had worked at Southampton under David Jones, Chris Kamara at Bradford City and John Aldridge at Tranmere Rovers. Then in 1997 Everton came along and he joined Howard Kendall’s backroom team alongside Adrian Heath and Viv Busby. “I was living in Leeds at that time, so distance wasn’t an issue, but it was an interesting trip across the M62 in the winter months,” Day recalled in an October 2021 interview with efcheritagesociety.com.

Brighton made Day redundant at the end of the 2013-14 season following a reshuffle of the recruitment department amid criticism of the quality of signings brought in.

That assessment might have been rather harsh because during his time at the club there was a change in manager (Oscar Garcia taking over from Gus Poyet) and, although the season ended in play-off disappointment, the likes of former Hammer Matthew Upson (who’d played under Day when he was at West Ham) had signed permanently on a free transfer (having been on loan from Stoke City for half the previous season).

The experienced Keith Andrews and Stephen Ward also joined on season-long loan deals and played prominent roles in Garcia’s play-off reaching side.

It was under Day’s watch that the promising young goalkeeper Christian Walton was signed after a tip-off from Warren Aspinall. Aspinall told the Argus in 2015: “I went to Plymouth to do a match report. I set off early and took in a youth team game off my own back. He was outstanding, commanding his box. I reported straight back to Gus (Poyet). He told Mervyn Day. He went to see him, Mervyn liked him.”

It wasn’t the first time Day had played a role in securing a goalkeeper for the Albion. As far back as 2003 he had an influence on Ben Roberts’ arrival at the Albion. Manager Steve Coppell revealed: “He is one of three goalkeepers at Charlton and at the moment nearly all the Premiership clubs are very protective about their goalkeepers.

“I have seen him play a number of times, although I certainly haven’t seen him play recently. I spoke with Mervyn Day (Charlton coach) and he says Ben is in good form. It’s a little bit of a chance and it will certainly be a testing start for him, but he is looking forward to the challenge.”

Day was also sniffing around another future Albion ‘keeper when he was chief scout for Bristol City (between 2017 and 2019). According to Sky Sports commentator Martin Tyler, Mat Ryan was on their radar in the summer of 2017 when he swapped Belgium for England. In an interview with Socceroos.com, Tyler reveals he was asked by City’s ‘head of recruitment’ (thought to be Day) to glean the opinions of Gary and Phil Neville (manager and coach of Valencia at the time) on Ryan and whether he’d be suitable for the English game.

“I got a text saying, ‘Can you find out from the Nevilles whether they rate Mat Ryan’,” Tyler said. “It wasn’t my opinion they were looking for – quite rightly – it was Gary and Phil’s. I was able to do that and both Gary and Phil gave Mat the thumbs up.”

After leaving Brighton, Day moved straight into a similar role with West Brom, where he worked under technical director Terry Burton and first team manager Alan Irvine, but he was only there a year before linking up with the Robins. He has since been first team domestic scout for Glasgow Rangers, although based in his home town of Chelmsford.

Day was born in Chelmsford on 26 June 1955 and educated at Kings Road Primary School, the same school that England and West Ham World Cup hero Geoff Hurst attended. He moved on to the town’s King Edward VI Grammar School and represented Essex Schools at all levels. He joined the Hammers under Ron Greenwood on a youth contract in 1971.

“On my first day as an associate schoolboy I got taken by goalkeeping coach Ernie Gregory into the little gym behind the Upton Park dressing room and he had Martin Peters, an England World Cup winner, firing shots at me,” Day later recounted. “As a 15-year-old that was incredible.

“The bond got even closer when my father died when I was 17. I was an apprentice but Ron signed me as a full pro within a very short space of time to enable me to earn a little more money to help out at home. A short while later he gave me another increase. He was almost a surrogate father to me.”

In the early part of 1971, Day played in the same England Youth side as Alan Boorn, a Coventry City apprentice Pat Saward took from his old club to the Albion in August 1971.

The goalkeeper was just 18 when he made his West Ham United debut, on 27 August 1973, in a 3-3 home draw with Ipswich Town.

He went on to play 33 matches in his first season and only missed one game in the following three.

Tony Hanna, for West Ham Till I Die, wrote: “In only his eleventh game for the Hammers he received a standing ovation from the Liverpool Kop in a 0-1 defeat that could have been a cricket score but for his fine display and, in his next visit to Anfield, he saved a penalty in a 2-2 draw.”

Day recalled: “As a kid, I had no fear, I took to playing in the first team really, really well. At West Ham, the ‘keeper always had lots to do as we were an entertaining team. We had forward-thinking centre-backs in Bobby Moore and Tommy Taylor, and then after Bobby came Kevin Lock.”

*Mervyn Day in action for West Ham against Brighton at the Goldstone Ground, Hove.*

In 1974, Day progressed to England’s Under-23 side. He won four caps that year and a fifth in 1975 but it was a golden era for England goalkeepers at the time and he didn’t progress to the full international side, despite being touted for a call-up.

By the time Day won that last cap, he had been voted PFA Young Player of the Year and, at 19, had become the youngest goalkeeper to appear in a FA Cup Final, keeping a clean sheet as West Ham beat Fulham 2-0 at Wembley.

Hanna continued: “At times he was performing heroics in the West Ham goal and he was fast becoming a fans favourite. Tall and agile, he was a brilliant shot stopper and he was playing like a ‘keeper well beyond his years.”

However, by the 1977-78 season Day’s form had tapered off as the Hammers were relegated. “His confidence was so bad he was eventually dropped and he only played 23 games that season,” said Hanna. “There are several theories to what triggered the loss of form, but one thing that did not help the lad was the stick he was getting from the Hammers supporters.

“In hindsight Mervyn said that he was ill prepared for such a tough run of form. The early seasons had gone so well that he had only known the good times and when the bad ones came he struggled to come to terms with the pressure.”

In 1979, West Ham smashed the world record transfer fee for a goalkeeper to bring in Phil Parkes from QPR and Day was sold to Leyton Orient, where he replaced long-standing stopper John Jackson, who later became a goalkeeper coach and youth team coach at Brighton.

Day spent four years at Brisbane Road before moving to Aston Villa as back-up ‘keeper to Nigel Spink. After a falling-out with Villa boss Graham Turner, he switched to Leeds under Eddie Gray and then Billy Bremner. During Bremner’s reign, he had the humiliation of conceding six at Stoke City at the start of the 1985-86 season and, in spite of vowing it wouldn’t happen again, let in seven in the repeat fixture the following season. Amongst his Leeds teammates that day were Andy Ritchie and Ian Baird.

Nevertheless, he ended up playing more games (268) for Leeds than any of his other clubs. He rarely missed a game up to the end of 1989-90, the season when was he was named Player of the Year and collected a Second Division championship medal.

Howard Wilkinson offered him a post as goalkeeping coach for United’s first season back in the elite, having lined up a £1m move for John Lukic from Arsenal. Day had a couple of loans spells – at Luton Town and Sheffield United in 1992 – but was otherwise back-up for Lukic, alongside his coaching duties, until Wilkinson saved Brighton’s future by signing Mark Beeney from the Seagulls.

After eight years at Elland Road, Day moved to the Cumbrian outpost of Carlisle in 1993. When he moved into the manager’s chair at Brunton Park, he not only led them to promotion from the Second Division in 1997, but they also won the (Auto Windscreens Shield) Football League Trophy. United beat Colchester 4-3 on penalties at Wembley after a goalless draw; one of the scorers being the aforementioned Warren Aspinall, later of Brighton and Radio Sussex.

Day worked under Curbishley at Charlton for eight years between 1998 and 2006, helping the club stabilise in the Premier League.

And, in December 2006, he followed Curbishley as his No.2 to West Ham, where the duo spent almost two years.

It was in 2010 that he returned to Leeds as chief scout, working under technical director Gwyn Williams. United manager Simon Grayson said at the time: “We’re restructuring the scouting department under Gwyn and Mervyn will be both producing match reports and watching our opposition and working on the recruitment of players.

“Merv’s knowledge and experience will prove important to the football club as we look to progress and develop what we are doing.”

‘Hendo’ earned Seagulls stripes before becoming Hornets’ hero

WATFORD play-off final goalscorer Darius Henderson was the perfect foil for pint-sized Leon Knight at the beginning of Albion’s 2003-04 season.

Steve Coppell borrowed the 6’4” striker from his old pal Alan Pardew at Reading giving him game time that was eluding him at the Madejski Stadium.

There was plenty of competition for places in Reading’s forward line at the time with Nicky Forster, Shaun Goater and Nathan Tyson ahead of him.

It had led to another forward, Martin Butler, being sold to Rotherham and because Pardew generally picked a lone frontman, Henderson found himself on the fringes.

“The solitary striker system, and the superb form of Nicky Forster, meant the vast majority of his appearances came as a substitute,” the Albion matchday programme noted.

In fact, he’d started only five league matches for Reading after turning professional in August 1999; but he had appeared 65 times as a substitute!

Given the chance of a start with the Seagulls, he got off to a flyer with the opening goal of the season from the penalty spot in a 3-1 win at Oldham, as well as netting the opener in a 2-0 home win over Luton Town.

Henderson, who celebrated his 22^nd birthday while with the Seagulls, was adept at setting up chances for Knight too, outjumping QPR’s defence to set up Knight to score the winner as Albion won 2-1 at the Withdean and following it up at Plymouth where a strong run and cross teed up Knight for Albion’s third in a thrilling 3-3 draw.

It was good news when Pardew agreed to the loan being extended by another month, Coppell admitting: “It’s as good as it gets as far as I am concerned.

“Darius has given us a physical presence we didn’t have before and with him in the side I didn’t feel as exposed as we were defending set pieces.”

Unfortunately, Coppell couldn’t resist the lure of the Madejski Stadium when Pardew was poached to manage West Ham, and Henderson returned to Berkshire after 10 matches.

Born in Sutton, Surrey, on 7 September 1981, Henderson was brought up in Doncaster, south Yorkshire, and, after being rejected by Leeds, it was Rovers who gave him his first steps towards a professional career.

However, he joined Reading’s academy in 1999 and was one of three of that squad – along with Tyson and Alex Haddow – to make it through to the first team.

Although Coppell gave him game time at Brighton, the manager faced the same striker surplus issues as Pardew once he arrived at Reading, and he therefore sanctioned Henderson’s departure in January 2004. He’d made only 12 starts for the Royals but 71 appearances as a sub.

He was signed by Andy Hessenthaler’s Gillingham, telling the club’s official website: “I have had a good chat with the chairman and the gaffer and as far as I’m concerned I’m over the moon and am looking forward to playing now and getting to know my new team-mates.

“There was limited first-team options for me at Reading which was made clear by Steve Coppell. There was no doubt in my mind that I had to get away.”

He scored 10 goals in one and a half seasons with the Gills, as well as enjoying a prolific loan spell at Swindon Town, where he scored five times in six games.

The day before the 2005-06 season got underway, a £450,000 fee took him to Watford where he enjoyed the best three years of his career.

He became something of a fans’ favourite, with Matt Reveley, of footballfancast.com, explaining: “Darius is a player that often epitomises Watford’s footballing ethic (for) the 110 per cent effort and workrate that Watford fans like to see from their players.”

Manager Aidy Boothroyd paired him with Marlon King and Henderson’s 14 goals in 27 matches contributed towards Watford winning promotion to the Premier League.

*Henderson scores against Leeds in the play-off final*

It couldn’t have been sweeter when he scored a late penalty to round off Watford’s 3-0 win over Leeds in the 2006 play-off final at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.

As Henderson told watfordlegends.com: “Leeds released me when I was 16, and ever since that very day they released me I have always had the drive to go on and prove them wrong, so it was a great feeling to prove my point to them.

“The whole day though was memorable, just a terrific day all round and to score as well topped it off perfectly. I was mentally exhausted after the game though. It was incredibly draining and very emotional.”

The win sent the Hornets up with Henderson’s former club Reading and future employer Sheffield United.

Goals were far harder to come by amongst the elite and he managed only three as Watford went back down to the Championship.

He had scored 31 times in 117 appearances for the Hornets before being sold to the Blades for £2m in July 2008.

Before that, the striker could have joined Preston North End after a £1.3m fee was agreed between the clubs, but he decided to stay at Vicarage Road and fight for his place.

When Kevin Blackwell ‘sold’ United to him, though, he was persuaded. “Sheffield United is a massive club and it was a great opportunity for me so I went for it,” he told watfordlegends.com.

Henderson once again got amongst the goals, netting 21 for United, including one in April 2011 in a surprise 3-2 win over his old club Reading. It wasn’t enough to prevent relegation under Micky Adams, though, and Henderson moved to Millwall to take over the main striker role from Steve Morison, who had switched to Norwich City.

Henderson’s goals continued to flow and he registered three hat-tricks and a brace in his first Championship season with the Lions. In total, he scored 26 times in 56 matches for them, including his 100^th professional goal.

Wage bill trimming in January 2013 saw him move to fellow Championship side Nottingham Forest where his teammates included Dan Harding, Greg Halford and Gonzalo Jara Reyes. Unfortunately, he was more often a substitute than a starter for Billy Davies’ side.

In the summer of 2014, former Albion boss Russell Slade picked him up on a free transfer for third-tier Leyton Orient on a three-year deal, although Slade left the club in September.

Henderson was also on the move again after only one season in East London, heading back up north with Scunthorpe United. But after failing to register a goal in 16 matches, he moved to Tony Mowbray’s Coventry City (above) in February 2016 on a short-term deal, once again failing to get on the scoresheet in five substitute appearances.

He joined his last league club in August 2016, linking up with League Two Mansfield Town, where he scored once in 13 matches before manager Steve Evans released him. He dropped out of the league and moved to Eastleigh Town. But he played only two games for the National League side and retired from playing in April 2017.

According to Everything Orient, Henderson now works as a consultant for AFC Bournemouth.

Bearing in mind the number of clubs he played for, it’s not really surprising @DHenderson7 has 13,500 followers on Twitter.

Nicky Forster was the definition of a goalscoring thoroughbred

NICKY FORSTER played for and managed Brentford as well as captaining Brighton and scoring a vital relegation-saving goal into the bargain.

The Surrey-born striker, who played alongside David Beckham for England under-21s, scored more than 200 goals in 700 games and it always seemed a shame that his time with the Seagulls didn’t come sooner in his career.

He built a reputation for finding the back of the net at first club Gillingham and was prolific in his first spell with the Bees but he viewed his six years leading the line for Reading as his most successful time in the game.

Forster plundered 67 goals in 179 games (plus 35 as a sub) in six years with the Royals, mostly playing under Alan Pardew and Steve Coppell, but he left for pastures new before they reached the Premier League.

A free transfer took him to Ipswich Town, where Joe Royle’s side were competing in the Championship, and, although Forster top-scored for the Tractor Boys, his total of seven typified a rather lacklustre campaign. One of those goals came against Brighton on Easter Saturday when the relegation-bound Seagulls pulled off a shock 2-1 win courtesy of goals from on-loan Gifton Noel-Williams and young Joel Lynch.

Forster scored in each of the three remaining games that season but they were his last for Town because he moved to link up with his former Reading teammate, Phil Parkinson, at Hull City, who paid £250,000 for the striker’s services. Forster scored six times for City as the side battled to retain their tier two status. Albion tried to sign Forster in January, but Parkinson’s successor Phil Brown wanted to keep him, and they rejected Albion’s £100,000 bid.

Albion finally got their man for £25,000 less in the summer that year, and, in a side largely made up of promising youngsters, in Forster they gained more than just an experienced striker.

Brighton fans were given an idea of what to expect from the new signing when his former Reading teammate Bas Savage told the Argus: “I played a few games with him in the first team and he will definitely bring goals. He is proven wherever he has been.

“He is also a very intelligent player. He makes good runs, works hard, has got very good pace and he can finish, so he will be an asset to Brighton, especially in League One. I think he will really shine.

“He will fit in easily to the dressing room as well. He was a joker at Reading, very funny and a good, bubbly character to have around.”

Savage added: “He was one of the top strikers at Reading and I learnt off all of them.

“I was a young boy at the time and, whoever it is that plays, Alex Revell, Nathan (Elder), Gatts (Joe Gatting), I can see them working well with Fozzy.

“It will be good to link up with him again and hopefully show our stuff together. I know Fozzy’s strengths and I will be looking to help him along in the same way that he can help me along. He brings experience to the team.”

Emerging defender Tommy Elphick was certainly appreciative of the new arrival. “Apart from in games, he brings a competitive edge to training,” he said. “In my eyes he is a bit of a legend really, the model pro on and off the pitch.”

When interviewed by Mike Ward for the matchday programme later that season, Forster declared: “I really am enjoying it here at Brighton. I like being on the training ground and I enjoy playing.

“I am now getting old in football terms, but I have got as much enthusiasm and energy for the game now as I had when I started. I feel that I am a better player now and I am enjoying my football as much as ever.”

Sure enough, with 19 goals in 48 appearances in the 2007-08 season, there was no question Forster proved a great addition to Dean Wilkins’ squad, and he took over as captain when Dean Hammond left the club under a cloud.

In the second half of the season, after Glenn Murray was signed from Rochdale for £300,000, manager Wilkins declared to the Argus: “I think we have got one of the best strike pairs in the division, one of the most threatening.

“When we have got possession and play with a bit of quality they are a really potent pair. If you have got a pair that score 20 goals a season you would expect to be quite successful.”

Unfortunately, seventh place in League One (seven points off the play-off places) was not quite successful enough for chairman Dick Knight, who turned to former boss Micky Adams to steer Albion’s fortunes in the 2008-09 season (a furious Wilkins declining the offer of continuing as first team coach).

While Forster got off to a great start under Adams, scoring a last-minute goal to seal a 2-1 win for the Seagulls in the season-opener at Crewe Alexandra, the Albion’s fortunes gradually unravelled as Adams chopped and changed the side with what, on reflection, were too many loan signings.

For a while, things didn’t look too clever after Russell Slade had been parachuted in to try to stave off the threat of relegation.

At a time when the new boss could really have done with Forster and Murray firing on all cylinders, both were sidelined with injuries. Forster missed eight matches with what was thought might be an anterior cruciate ligament injury in his knee.

Thankfully another former Brentford striker, Lloyd Owusu, stepped into the breach to score some vital goals, together with loan signing Calvin Andrew and the rejuvenated Gary Hart.

Nevertheless, going into the last game of the season, at home to Stockport County at Withdean, Albion still needed to win to avoid the relegation trapdoor.

When Hart left the action early and his replacement Andrew had to be withdrawn at half-time with what turned out to be a bad ACL injury, Slade had no option but to turn to the by-no-means-fit Forster to enter the fray from the bench for a crucial second half.

Fortunately, after County ‘keeper Conrad Logan could only parry a shot from Gary Dicker, Forster was on hand to stab in the only goal of the game from six yards, sparking massive celebrations.

Forster later conceded in an Argus interview: “It wasn’t quite right but I got through the game and the goal was a gift. I didn’t have to be particularly mobile to score it.

“I dosed up on tablets and rehabbed and was really determined to be involved in that game. Thankfully it worked out for me and for Brighton. But I wasn’t 100 per cent. I still had that niggling feeling.”

In a subsequent exploratory operation, it turned out that torn cartilage had been Forster’s problem and he underwent surgery during the close season, somewhat ironically the procedure being delayed a little while because the surgeon involved was operating on Andrew!

“When they took me down to the anaesthetist’s room, there was a guy in there before me,” said Forster. “I had to wait ten or 15 minutes and they said it was an ACL reconstruction going on. I didn’t realise it was Calvin.”

Tony Bloom took over from Dick Knight as Albion chairman that summer and, when the new season got under way, Slade had decided to give the captain’s armband to defender Adam Virgo (Forster remained club captain).

The opening part of the season went horribly wrong and, with only three wins in their first 15 matches, Slade was replaced by effervescent Uruguayan Gus Poyet.

By the end of January, Forster had scored 15 times in 27 matches (plus three as sub), but the beginning of the end of his time with the Albion was nigh when a contractual dispute went public.

The player, by then 36, wanted to know whether he was going to be offered a contract the following season, but that commitment wasn’t forthcoming. Forster aired his dissatisfaction in the media and Poyet left him out of the side.

Forster subsequently clarified his position in a statement on the club website, saying: “I have thoroughly enjoyed my playing years with Brighton and genuinely hoped – and still do – that I would remain at Brighton until the end of my playing days, hopefully with the opportunity to take up a training role.

“The decision to delay the offering of contracts makes life very difficult, particularly for players of my age. I have always been totally committed to Brighton and will continue to be so.”

While the air was cleared, and he was restored to the line-up for a 1-1 draw away to Leeds, that turned out to be his last start for the Albion. Only a matter of weeks later he was sent out on loan to Charlton Athletic until the end of the season, once again linking up with former teammate Parkinson.

Nevertheless, his 51 goals across two and a half seasons at the club were the best measure of his contribution and he was later a more than interested onlooker of Brighton’s fortunes when his stepson, Jake Forster-Caskey forced his way into Poyet’s Championship side.

Born in Caterham, Surrey, on 8 September 1973, Forster was comparatively late into the game, staying on at school to take A-levels.

But he had a lucky break when he played for non-league Horley Town against Gillingham in a friendly. “It was a real right-place-at-the-right-time scenario,” he told Ward in another Albion matchday programme interview.

Gillingham offered him the chance to become a professional and after impressive displays for their youth and reserve sides, he duly signed professional terms in May 1992 when Damien Richardson was in the manager’s chair.

The Gills sent him out on loan to Southern League Margate and Hythe Town. Forster’s career stats are comprehensively recorded by the Margate history website, even though he only played one game for them, when he scored with a clever lob after three minutes of his debut.

Back with the Gills, Forster made his first team debut in September 1992, going on as sub in a 4-1 home win over Wrexham. He went on to establish himself in the side under former Charlton striker Mike Flanagan in the 1993-94 season, top scoring with 18 goals. It was an achievement which prompted Brentford to pay a fee of £320,000 to take him to Griffin Park in June 1994.

The 1994-95 season is firmly etched in the annals of Brentford’s history because David Webb’s side were denied promotion to the elite when a one-off organisational blip meant the fledgling Premier League only took one promoted side from the division below – and the Bees finished second!

Forster had proved a major hit at his new club alongside strike partner Robert Taylor, with the pair netting 47 goals between them (Forster got 26 of them). But automatic promotion was denied when Brentford “choked” in the last month of the season and their agony was compounded when they lost on penalties to Neil Warnock’s Huddersfield in the play-off semi-finals.

For Forster personally, however, his goalscoring prowess brought him to the attention of the international selectors and in June 1995 he earned four England under 21 caps at the Toulon tournament in France, making his debut in a 2-0 defeat against Brazil in a team featuring future full internationals Beckham and Phil Neville.

Forster scored England’s only goal in his third match for Ray Harford’s side, as they beat Angola. He also played in the 2-0 win over Malaysia and in the semi-final against France, when they lost 2-0.

The Bees failed to follow up their near miss the following season, finishing 15^th and, although at one point there was talk of Crystal Palace preparing a £2m bid for Forster’s services, it came to nothing. The striker damaged knee ligaments in October 1995 and managed to find the net just the eight times by the season’s end.

It promised to be a different story in 1996-97, though. With Carl Asaba and Marcus Bent supplementing the Forster and Taylor strikeforce, Brentford got off to a flyer and topped what is now the Championship courtesy of an 11-match unbeaten run at the start of the season.

However, the bcfctalk blog was incredulous at what happened next. “We were coasting at the top of the league when the quite staggering decision was taken in January to sell Nicky Forster to arch-nemesis Birmingham City for a mere £700,000.

“He was never replaced, the prolific Carl Asaba was mysteriously shifted out wide to the left wing and the remaining 17 league matches produced a mere 18 points. We failed to score in ten of our last fourteen games and won only once at home after Christmas.”

Forster’s desire to progress his career didn’t play out well with the supporters of Brentford or Gillingham.

“I get booed every time I go there,” he told Brighton’s matchday programme. “It’s sad because I feel I did well for both clubs. And what they paid for me wasn’t a huge amount, so value-for-money wise I feel I did very well for them. It’s not something I worry greatly about, but I do think it’s time they learnt to forgive and forget.

“I don’t think they can really begrudge a player wanting to move on and better himself, better his career. Sometime fans can be a bit fickle!”

While Forster hoped to establish himself at Birmingham, he struggled to get a starting berth in a side managed by former Blues playing legend Trevor Francis. Paul Furlong and Peter Ndlovu were preferred up front, and later Dele Adebola. Forster invariably had to be content with involvement of the bench. Indeed, 46 of his 75 Blues appearances were as a substitute and, when he left for Reading in June 1999, he’d got just 12 goals to his name.

That all changed once he’d made the switch to the Madejski Stadium. The goals flowed (in 2002-03 there were two hat-tricks included in his season’s tally of 17) and in his six seasons with the Royals he notched 67 goals in 214 appearances (35 of which were as a sub).

His form tailed off in his final season with Reading and he began to look elsewhere because he wanted a longer contract than the club were prepared to offer.

Nevertheless, he respected manager Coppell and, when later in his career he took over as boss at Brentford, he said: “I was with Steve Coppell at Reading and I like his manner and demeanour. He is not a ranter and raver. I just like the way he goes about his business.

“He is quite a subdued guy when he speaks, but he speaks a lot of sense. When he talked to me, whether I liked it or not, I couldn’t really argue because it made a lot of sense.”

When Forster returned to Griffin Park as a player at the start of the 2010-11 season, he reflected: “The club holds many happy memories for me. Both the club and I have moved on over the years but I still have the hunger and the mobility to give a good account of myself.”

Manager Andy Scott added: “His goalscoring is a major attraction as that is an area where we have struggled to compete with other teams.

“His ambitions match those of the management team. He is a very dedicated footballer who will add experience, competition and, more importantly, goals to the team.”

Sadly, it didn’t pan out well with Forster only making 12 starts and scoring once. After a topsy turvy six months, Scott and his assistant Terry Bullivant were dismissed and Forster took over as caretaker boss, assisted by Mark Warburton.

When the Bees collected 14 points from six games, the temporary stint was extended until the end of the season.

Remarkably during his brief tenure, Forster took charge of Brentford at Wembley for the final of the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy, which they lost 1-0 to Carlisle United.

Brentford centre back Leon Legge said later: “Growing up, Wembley was always a sacred ground that not many people get to play at. I wanted to win so bad but it was just a shame we came second-best, especially against Carlisle, who we’d played just over a week earlier and beaten 2-1. Everything went for them that day.

“I know the gaffer at the time [Nicky Forster] made a few changes and I don’t think many agreed with it – for example, Marcus Bean didn’t play when he’d been such a good player leading up to that game. I think that made a difference.

“I still remember looking at the crowd of 40,000 and to play in such a sacred ground in front of that many fans, whether we won or lost, it was a good experience.”

Despite leading Brentford to a mid-table finish, Forster was told he was not in the running for the job on a permanent basis, and Uwe Rösler was appointed instead.

Nonetheless, Forster decided management was his next step and announced an end to his playing days.

“I have had a fantastic career, but the time has come to cross over into management,” he said.

“I’ve scored 200 goals in 700 games and haven’t got anything left to achieve as a player, so I want to concentrate on management.”

The eloquent Forster popped up on Sky Sports, covering Football League matches, and also brought his boots back out to play for Sussex County League side Lingfield.

Then, in September 2011, Forster was appointed player-manager of Blue Square Bet South club Dover Athletic, whose chairman Jim Parmenter said: “Nicky has had an impressive playing career at some big clubs and did very well during his time as manager at Brentford.

“As well as having both UEFA ‘A’ and ‘B’ licences, he is also a great man manager and motivator. Nicky is totally enthused by the prospect of managing the club and we look forward to a very successful future.”

Among his signings were former Brighton teammates Steven Thomson and young goalkeeper Mitch Walker.

Forster said: “I am delighted get Thommo down here at Crabble, especially as his signature was being chased by a number of other clubs both in our league and above. He is an experienced professional who is still hungry for success.”

Sadly, after a run of five successive defeats, his time in charge at Dover was brought to an end in January 2013 when he was replaced by the club’s former manager Chris Kinnear.

Two years later, Forster gave management another go taking charge of Conference South side Staines Town. But he quit after a year, telling getsurrey.co.uk: “I enjoyed every moment even though we had some low times, but it’s a learning experience and I left on good terms with the chairman and the fans who were great to me.”

In September 2016, Forster set up his own gym – The Spot Wellness Centre – in Godstone. As well as running that, he is now self employed and, on LinkedIn, describes himself as a goal setting coach and keynote speaker.

• Pictures from the Argus, Albion’s matchday programme and online sources.

‘Film star’ defender Osman’s cameo role for the Seagulls

RUSSELL OSMAN achieved lifelong fame for his appearance in the much-shown 1981 prisoner of war football film Escape to Victory but 17 appearances for Brighton in the latter stages of his career have largely been forgotten.

A cultured central defender who played in the same side as Jimmy Case at Southampton won 11 England caps at the peak of his game when a key part of Bobby Robson’s Ipswich Town side of the early 1980s.

He was 36 by the time he arrived on a monthly contract at third-tier Albion in September 1995 and what was happening on the pitch at that time was largely overshadowed by events off it.

News was emerging that the Goldstone Ground had been sold, leading to manager Liam Brady quitting in disgust in November 1995, passing on the reins to Case, who very reluctantly took on the job.

With Steve Foster and Stuart Munday struggling with injury, Brady brought in the experienced Osman to play alongside Paul McCarthy. His debut came in a 4-1 Auto Windscreens Shields game away to Cambridge United, the first of 12 successive games before Munday returned towards the end of November when Osman picked up a hamstring injury.

Meanwhile, Case pointed out in his first programme notes as manager, for the FA Cup game at home to Fulham on 14 December: “There is no secret he would still like to get back into management and we are happy to leave his position as it is on a month-to-month basis.”

Osman was back in the side for the 1-0 Boxing Day win away to Brentford and kept his place for the next two matches. But with Ross Johnson taking on the no.5 shirt, Osman got only one more start: in a 0-0 draw away to Hull City. He made one appearance as a sub in place of McCarthy and was twice a non-playing sub. As he turned 37, he took the opportunity to switch to Cardiff City, which, as the match day programme noted, was a lot closer to his Bristol home.

Born on 14 February 1959 in Repton, Derbyshire, Osman eventually followed in his dad Rex’s footsteps in becoming a professional footballer (Osman senior played for Derby County in the ‘50s), but it was rugby at which Russell excelled during schooldays at Burton on Trent Grammar. So much so that he played for England at under 15 level and captained his country as an under 16.

However, the sports-mad youngster also played football for his village team and when they reached the final of the Derby & District Cup, he was watched by Bobby Robson’s brother Tom, who lived in the area. “He came down and watched the game, we won the final and the next thing I knew I had a call from Ipswich to go on trial,” Osman said in an interview with the East Anglian Daily Times. “The rest is history. They were very good at getting kids to go on trial and they went that extra mile to make sure we were looked after and treated well.”

Osman recalls many aspects and anecdotes of his career on a blog, Golf, Football and Life, and he said he would be forever grateful for the dedication shown by Ipswich’s youth team coach, Charlie Woods, who became Robson’s right-hand man throughout his career.

“Charlie used to drive from Ipswich to my dad’s pub in Repton on a Friday to pick me up and take me back down to Ipswich, putting me up for the night in his and Pat’s house, just so that I could make the game on a Saturday morning,” he wrote. “I doubt that you would get many coaches who would make an eight-hour round trip just to get a schoolboy to a game.”

Osman became an apprentice at Portman Road in July 1975 and signed on as a professional in March 1976. Eventually, he and Terry Butcher took over the centre back roles previously filled by Northern Ireland international Allan Hunter and England international Kevin Beattie.

*Osman in action for Ipswich against Arsenal’s Liam Brady, later to become his boss at Brighton*

The 1980-1981 season was certainly momentous in Osman’s life. He played in 66 matches (including four for England) over the course of the season as Ipswich won the UEFA Cup, finished runners-up in the old First Division and reached the semi-finals of the FA Cup.

For a large part of the season, Town looked like they would win the First Division title for the first time since 1962 under Alf Ramsey but only three wins from the last 10 matches meant they had to settle for second place, four points behind Aston Villa.

At the end of the season, Robson asked the squad if any of them fancied spending the summer playing more football to help make a feature film. Osman and teammates John Wark, Kevin O’Callaghan, Robin Turner, Laurie Sivell, Paul Cooper and Beattie jumped at the chance and spent five weeks in Budapest making Escape to Victory, directed by the legendary John Huston.

*The* Escape to Victory *football team which featured Osman (back, left)*

Osman played the part of prison camp inmate Doug Clure and he has since talked and written about the experience, in July 2021 remembering the experience in an interview with a BBC reporter. Osman recounts how the Ipswich lads and other professionals such as Bobby Moore, Pelé, Mike Summerbee and Ossie Ardiles played football scenes alongside established actors Michael Caine and Sylvester Stallone.

Beattie was Caine’s ‘double’ in the football scenes and Cooper helped Stallone with goalkeeping skills. Turner and Sivell played for the German team and Osman, Wark and O’Callaghan had speaking roles.

“Michael was brilliant, he made all the lads feel at home on set by telling a few funny stories and taking all the tension out of the situation,” said Osman. “I managed to deliver my lines and we were off and running, literally.”

Osman’s first international football recognition came for England under 21s in February 1979 as a substitute for Billy Gilbert in a 1-0 win over Wales at Swansea. In September the same year, he got his first start at that level alongside his Ipswich teammate Butcher (in a 1-0 win over Denmark at Vicarage Road).

The first of Osman’s 11 full England caps came on 31 May 1980, in a 2-1 win v Australia in Sydney which was the game in which Peter Ward made his one and only appearance for the full England side, appearing as an 82^nd minute substitute for Alan Sunderland.

Osman was 21 at the time and he went on to play in five competitive matches and five more friendlies, rather curiously only playing for his country on home soil three times, and only being on the winning side twice, both times against Australia.

Osman did make a couple of appearances for the England B side: on 26 March 1980 he played in a 1-0 win over Spain at Roker Park, Sunderland (Joe Corrigan was in goal) and later the same year, on 14 October, he was in the B team that beat the USA 1-0 at Old Trafford.

He had been in Ron Greenwood’s provisional squad of 40 for the 1982 World Cup but was not included in the final 22, Albion’s Foster getting the nod instead as reserve centre back.

Osman’s last international was on 21 September 1983, when England lost 1-0 to Denmark in a Euro 1984 qualifier, by which time his former club manager Robson had taken over from Greenwood, who’d given Osman his first six caps.

Although Ipswich challenged at the top of the First Division in 1981-82, they once again finished four points behind the champions, this time Liverpool, and after Robson left to take on the England manager’s job, the side was gradually broken up. Osman and Eric Gates both left in 1985.

After making 385 appearances for Town, Osman signed for Leicester City for £240,000 where he played 120 games under three different managers: Gordon Milne, Bryan Hamilton and David Pleat.

When the Foxes dropped down to the second tier, it was Southampton, and manager Chris Nicholl, who gave Osman – at 29 – the chance to play at the top level again.

A tribunal-determined fee of £325,000 took him to The Dell where he made his debut in the opening match of 1988-89, a 4-0 win over West Ham. He initially partnered Kevin Moore at the heart of their defence, then later Neil Ruddock.

“At Southampton I played just behind the great Jimmy Case, and what an experience that was,” Osman recalled. “Every day there would be something that made you smile about playing with Jimmy; well, it did if he was on your side anyway. Hard as a rock, cute and clever as a footballer, better than people gave him credit for, a wonderful passer of the ball. Sometimes his playing ability was overshadowed by his extravagances off the pitch!”

The Southampton FC player archive enthusiastically records Osman’s time with the Saints, which was largely successful at first. With Alan Shearer, Rod Wallace and Matt Le Tissier scoring the goals, the side finished seventh in the table. But they couldn’t sustain that success the following season and Nicholl was sacked. Writer Duncan Holley on sporting-heroes.net recalled: “One of the manager’s last actions had been to sanction the signing of Jon Gittens from Swindon and Russell had been displaced for the final run in.”

Nicholl’s successor, Ian Branfoot, picked Osman at left-back for the opening four games of the 1991-92 season but, as Osman told Ian Carnaby in a 2007 interview: “The day Ian Branfoot walked through the door, my Southampton career was over. All those years I’d been a centre-half, but he thought I’d make a good left-back.”

Osman joined Bristol City on loan initially before making the move permanent for a £60,000 fee, and he put down roots in the city. After about a year as a player, manager Jimmy Lumsden was sacked and Osman, as a senior player, was asked to take temporary charge.

However, Denis Smith, sacked as Sunderland boss in December 1991, took over at City in March 1992, with Osman named player-assistant manager. In a 2020 Facebook interview, Osman somewhat sharply said: “Denis Smith didn’t last too long because he wasn’t a very good manager, so they offered me the job.”

That happened in January 1993 and he remained in the manager’s chair at Ashton Gate just short of two years. He steered City to mid-table finishes in 1993 and 1994.

A look through City fans’ forum One Team In Bristol (otib.co.uk) reveals mixed opinions about Osman’s time in charge although some believed he was dealt a raw hand by the Ashton Gate hierarchy. It was said he was dismissed after the directors called him in and said they wanted European football within 10 years. Under Osman’s successor, Joe Jordan (appointed in November 1994), the Robins were relegated.

One significant highlight from Osman’s City reign was leading them to a shock 1-0 win at Anfield in a FA Cup third round replay in January 1994, a result which brought an end to Graeme Souness’ time as Liverpool manager.

Hailed as “the class of ‘94 etching their names into the club’s roll of honour” the achievement was apparently masterminded in the club’s canteen a few days earlier when Osman and his assistant Tony Fawthrop decided to deploy Brian Tinnion just behind the strikers instead of out wide, and he ended up scoring the only goal of the game.

After Osman’s departure from Ashton Gate, his next stop was Plymouth Argyle, where his old Ipswich teammate Steve McCall was a key player in Peter Shilton’s side.

When Shilton left, McCall took charge of the Pilgrims for two months as temporary player-manager, then Osman took over the running of the side for the last few weeks of the season. However, because of an ongoing legal case with Bristol City, Osman couldn’t be given the title manager or receive payment. He was known as ‘adviser of team affairs’. The arrangement didn’t last, though, because Argyle appointed Neil Warnock as manager that summer.

It was three months later that Osman took up Brady’s offer of a return to playing with Brighton. After moving on from the Goldstone in February 1996, Osman signed for Cardiff City as a player.

Team manager Phil Neal left to become Steve Coppell’s assistant at Manchester City in October 1996, director of football Kenny Hibbitt took charge for a month, then Osman ran the side for a month. He took the managerial reins in time for a first-round FA Cup clash with non-league Hendon. The Bluebirds made hard work of a 2-0 win, but earned a second-round tie against Gillingham, which they lost 2-0.

Osman remained working under Hibbitt until January 1998 when, according to one observer, he “departed due to draw fatigue” (over the season, City drew an astonishing 23 matches out of 46, only winning nine times) and was replaced by the returning Frank Burrows.

Direct involvement in the game has since been sporadic. He and Kevan Broadhurst were appointed as caretaker managers of Bristol Rovers until the end of the season on 22 March 2004 but they were only in charge for just over a month as former Oxford United boss Ian Atkins was appointed manager on 26 April.

Three years later, former Southampton teammate Paul Tisdale recruited Osman as interim assistant manager and, between February 2011 and August 2013 he was assistant academy coach back at Ipswich when ex-Albion striker Sammy Morgan was the academy manager.

Osman had a hand in Ipswich taking on Tyrone Mings. Mings was playing for the same non-league Chippenham team as Osman’s son Toby and Osman senior recommended him to Town boss Mick McCarthy, as he explained to the East Anglian Daily Times.

After he left Ipswich, Osman embarked on a co-commentator / pundit career covering Indian football, initially working alongside the veteran commentator John Helm. It involved travelling extensively in India although he was latterly based in a Mumbai studio – until Covid-19 restrictions intervened.

One brief hiatus to that career came in the summer of 2015 when he was invited by his old Ipswich defensive partner, Butcher, to be his assistant at Newport County. Unfortunately, the partnership was short-lived. They were sacked just a few months into the new season after a string of poor results.

*Pundit Osman meets up with ex-Albion boss Steve Coppell, boss of Kerala Blasters*

Aside from sharing his views on Indian football, ever the all-round sportsman Osman is a keen golfer, cyclist and runner, and espouses the energy and recovery powers of a juicing diet, having fresh vegetable juice and fruit juice smoothies every day.

Osman uses his blog to cover a variety of topics, he has 5,100 followers on Twitter, and, during lockdown in 2020, took part in an interesting online interview with India-based The View and Reviews Show.

*Osman shares thoughts about his career and the wider game in an online interview*

“I have worked in the media for 20 years now,” Osman said in an interview for Kings of Anglia magazine. “I worked for Eurosport, starting prior to the Euro 2000 championships and I go a long way back with them and the BBC. I also started working in India through a contact I made at Eurosport about 15 years ago.”

Pictures from a variety of online sources, and matchday programmes.

‘Rolls’ Royce was surprise Christmas presence at QPR

IN THE DAYS before wall-to-wall media coverage of all things football, I can remember turning up at Loftus Road to watch a Boxing Day match between QPR and Brighton and wondering who on earth was in goal for the Albion.

It was in the Second Division days when Michel Kuipers was an almost permanent fixture between the sticks for the Seagulls (he’d played 46 consecutive games). But, on 26 December 2001, there was a stranger behind Danny Cullip and Simon Morgan.

He was certainly a stranger to the players, who’d only met him a few hours before kick-off, but, thankfully, he was well known to manager Peter Taylor.

It turned out, Kuipers had pulled a thigh muscle in the previous Saturday’s 2-2 draw at home to Chesterfield and, rather than chance rookie Will Packham, Taylor opted for an experienced ‘keeper who he’d signed twice before.

Taylor had hastily gone back to his previous employer, Leicester City, on Christmas Eve, to sign Simon Royce on loan to cover the period Kuipers was indisposed.

Royce did well to keep a clean sheet in what finished a 0-0 draw, having not had a chance to train with his new teammates.

It transpired Royce had only met them a few hours earlier, at Reigate, en route to Shepherd’s Bush, as the Argus reported, having spent Christmas Day with his family at his Essex home.

Royce managed to pull off decent saves in each half of the encounter at Loftus Road, stopping a goalbound Danny Shittu header in the first half and dealing with a 20-yard shot from crowd favourite Doudou in the second.

Albion’s Paul Watson hit the bar with one of his trademark free-kicks early in the second half while Cullip went close to breaking the deadlock from a Watson corner, only for his header to be cleared off the line by Karl Connolly.

Taylor knew what he was getting with Royce having signed him for both Southend United and the Foxes, where, under Taylor’s successor, Dave Bassett, the ‘keeper had slipped down the pecking order following a bout of laryngitis.

“I had been second choice all season at Leicester, but the way Dave Bassett works, if you are ill or injured he changes it and you have to work your way back,” Royce told the Argus. “I did so well last year, but, when you don’t play, you get forgotten just as quickly.”

He added: “I had been ill a couple of weeks before, so I had lost my place on the bench at Leicester.

“I’d not really played much reserve team football for three or four weeks, so when Peter asked me if I fancied playing a few games I jumped at the chance. It’s nice to keep yourself match fit.”

Royce admitted knowing the manager certainly helped him to drop down two divisions for the chance to play, but the main reason was to get some games under his belt.

“Dropping down a couple of divisions doesn’t bother me at all,” he said. “It’s still a decent standard and Brighton are flying high.

“There are some very good teams in the Second Division, like QPR and Blackpool, so it’s not a problem. I’ve played in the Second Division before with Southend and I quite enjoyed it.

“This is a perfect opportunity for me to get some games in and let people know I am still around.”

Royce was delighted to start his spell with a clean sheet – but that was as good as it got because he conceded 13 goals in the other five matches he played.

Three days after his debut, he let in two but saved a penalty in a 2-2 draw at Blackpool. Albion’s 10-game unbeaten away league record shuddered to a halt in a 3-0 defeat at Wigan, during which Royce needed treatment after being clattered by a Latics striker.

*Physio Malcolm Stuart tends to the clattered Royce at Wigan*

When Royce finally got to make his Withdean debut, against Cambridge United, he spoiled the occasion with a gaffe, pushing a long-range shot from Paul Wanless into the path of Luke Guttridge for an easy tap-in. Thankfully a Bobby Zamora hat-trick meant the Seagulls prevailed 4-3.

Royce’s penultimate game was a 2-1 win away to Chesterfield but three days later he bowed out in ignominy as Albion were thumped 4-0 by Steve Coppell’s Brentford in a live ITV Digital match, Ivar Ingimarsson and Steve Sidwell scoring two of the Bees goals.

Born in Forest Gate, London, on 9 September 1971, Royce began his football career with non-League Heybridge Swifts while working as a painter and decorator. At the age of 20, a £35,000 fee took him to Southend, signed by former Chelsea defender David Webb, who was managing the Shrimpers back then.

He made his debut for Southend in a 3-1 home win over Grimsby Town in March 1992.

In seven seasons at Roots Hall, Royce made 169 appearances in Divisions One and Two, a couple of them under Taylor, before getting a move to Premier League Charlton Athletic on a Bosman free transfer.

Addicks boss Alan Curbishley briefly promoted him from third to first choice when Andy Petterson was loaned out to Portsmouth and Sasa Ilic lost form. He kept four clean sheets in a row in eight Premier League matches in the 1998-99 season, but injury issues then sidelined him. He didn’t feature at all in the 1999-00 season and, with the arrival of Dean Kiely at The Valley, decided to link up again with Taylor at Leicester, again moving on a Bosman ‘free’.

“I couldn’t have asked for a better move,” Royce told the Daily Gazette. “I played under Peter at Southend and I can’t wait to work with him again because he’s a great coach.

“He had a hard time at Roots Hall, but Peter has matured into an excellent manager in recent years, picking up valuable experience with both the England under-21 side and Gillingham.

“I owe Peter a lot. He knew I was out of contract at Charlton this summer, but he promised me that he would take me to whatever club he was at this year.

“At the time we spoke, Peter was still with Gillingham and I’d have been happy to play for him there in the First Division. But Peter got the Leicester job and he has remained true to his word and brought me on board.”

Initially an understudy to Tim Flowers, Royce had a run of 19 Premier League matches in the second half of the 2000-01 season, keeping clean sheets on seven occasions.

David Lacey, the renowned football writer for The Guardian, even hinted at international recognition for him, after newly installed England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson had been to watch Ipswich Town beat Leicester 2-0 at Portman Road.

“Eriksson was here primarily to run an eye over Richard Wright, Ipswich’s once capped goalkeeper, although, since Wright had so little to do, he must have gone away more impressed by Simon Royce, whose saves kept alive Leicester’s hopes of a point,” wrote Lacey. “Royce, back in the Leicester side because of another injury to Tim Flowers, showed excellent agility and anticipation in keeping out headers from Alun Armstrong and Matt Holland as Ipswich increasingly dominated the match.”

Taylor told the journalist: “Simon Royce’s goalkeeping was the only positive thing to come out of our own performance.”

Any hopes Royce had of taking over the no.1 shirt permanently at Leicester were dashed when Taylor paid £2.5m to install Ian Walker as his first choice ‘keeper.

After his loan spell at Brighton, he went on a similar arrangement to Manchester City later that same season, although he didn’t play any first team games.

The following season he went on loan to QPR, where he featured 17 times.

On his release from Leicester, he moved back to Charlton on a two-year contract, but made only one Premier League appearance in 2003-04.

He was quite literally a loan Ranger in 2004-05, initially playing a couple of games for Luton Town and then returning to QPR, making 13 appearances in their Championship side.

He made a permanent move to Loftus Road in 2005 and, in an away game at Stoke City, was in the news when caught up in a crowd invasion, although manager Ian Holloway said his ‘keeper was fine: “Simon Royce is a big lad and he can look after himself.”

Royce recounted the incident in an interview for brentfordfc.com. “We’d won the game 2-1. I always kept a towel and a water bottle by my left-hand post, so I bent down to pick them up and felt someone jump on my back.

“At first, I assumed it was a team-mate because we’d won the game, but then I looked down and saw a pair of trainers and felt a blow to the back of my head. It was a Stoke supporter who’d run on to the pitch, shouting ‘I’m going to do you, Roycey!’

“I had my hand on the post so managed to pick him up and throw him in the net. After that the stewards rushed on and we had more supporters on the pitch – it was complete mayhem. The fan in question was sentenced to four months in prison for assault.”

Royce managed to hold down a regular starting berth for the first time in several years during his time in west London, playing 32 games in 2005-06 and 22 in 2006-07.

However, he was back on the loan circuit, briefly, when in April 2007 he moved to League One Gillingham to play in their last three games of the season.

During the summer break, he signed for the Kent club on a permanent basis. He featured in 36 matches in the 2007-08 season, and was named Supporters’ Player of the Year, although the Gills were relegated.

When Royce penned a new one-year deal in the summer of 2008, manager Mark Stimson told the club website: “I’m delighted with Simon’s decision. He’s going to be a vital player for us next season and one that we will need to help get this club back to where we want to be.”

He was first-choice ‘keeper throughout the 2008-09 season, making 49 appearances as Gills were promoted back to League One via the League Two play-off final at Wembley. Royce, by then 38, said keeping a clean sheet as Gillingham beat Shrewsbury Town 1-0 was one of his career highlights. Former Seagulls Albert Jarrett and Mark McCammon were on the Gillingham subs bench that day.

Unfortunately, in December 2009, Royce sustained several injuries in a car accident.

Stimson told BBC Radio Kent: “His knee is in a bad way and he has a bad neck. He’s going to be out for a couple of weeks. He’s had a scan on his knee, we should get the results of that this week.

“He’s also had X-rays on his neck. I’m praying it’s just a couple of weeks because he’s a big player for us. Until we get the scan results we have to wait and see. He’s been a big part of it. He’ll be missed.”

As it turned out, Royce never regained the no.1 spot from Alan Julian, who’d stepped in to replace him, and he left Gillingham at the end of the season to take up a goalkeeper coaching job at Brentford, during which time former Albion no.2 David Button was among the goalkeepers he helped to develop.

Royce eventually left Griffin Park in the summer of 2018 after eight seasons with the Bees.In thanking him for his contribution, Phil Giles, Brentford’s co-director of football, told the club website: “He leaves behind a fantastic legacy, having developed some top goalkeepers during his time here, including Simon Moore, David Button, Dan Bentley, Jack Bonham and Luke Daniels.”

He returned to Gillingham as goalkeeper coach for the 2019-20 season, working with Bonham once again, and on 28 September 2019, at the age of 48, suddenly found himself on the substitute’s bench for Gills’ away game against Oxford United when reserve goalkeeper Joe Walsh suffered an injury just before kick-off. His previous involvement in a competitive match had been more than eight years earlier, for Brentford, in a 4-1 defeat to Dagenham & Redbridge.

Royce remained on the bench as Oxford won 3-0 and, at the season’s end, he left Priestfield as part of a Covid-related cost-cutting measure.

Pictures from various online sources.

In parallel lines

Memories from more than 55 years following Brighton & Hove Albion

Tag: Steve Coppell