Tag: Sunderland

Chirpy as a Canary but Mark Walton squawked as a Seagull

A CAREER highlight saw Welshman Mark Walton keep goal for Norwich City in a FA Cup semi-final in front of 40,000 at Hillsborough but his time with the Seagulls was marred by Brighton’s boo boys.

Walton’s first action in an Albion shirt was in front of only a few Albion followers because Brian Horton signed him in the summer of 1998 when the side was playing in exile at Gillingham’s Priestfield Stadium.

Walton, who’d been part of Micky Adams’ fourth tier Fulham promotion side in 1996-97, found himself out of favour at Craven Cottage once Kevin Keegan had been installed as manager following the club’s takeover by Mohamed Al-Fayed.

Not wishing to play second fiddle to Northern Ireland international Maik Taylor, Walton moved for £20,000 to Brighton, who were a ‘keeper light after Nicky Rust’s departure to Barnet. Walton was Horton’s first choice between the sticks in the opening 16 games of the season.

“When Maik arrived, it was a matter of when I went rather than anything else,” he told fulhamfocus.com.  “I was at a stage in my career that I just wanted to play, so moving was a necessity. In retrospect, I probably should have thought harder about my decision to join Brighton.”

After he’d shipped six goals in two successive 3-1 defeats in October, young Mark Ormerod took over and kept the ‘keeper’s jersey until Horton quit to take over at Port Vale shortly into the new year.

Caretaker boss, Jeff Wood, who’d been a goalkeeper himself, reinstated Walton to the starting line-up for five matches, but he damaged a hamstring in a 3-0 defeat at Southend on 20 February and didn’t play again that season.

Walton must have been encouraged when his old boss Adams took over from Wood, and he shed a stone and a half during the summer to get back into shape. Although Ormerod started the first five games of the new season back in Brighton, Walton was then reinstated as first choice ‘keeper.

But a gaffe — wearebrighton.com recounted how Walton’s attempted clearance from a back pass cannoned into the back of Paul Watson and into the net for an own goal — as Albion succumbed 3-2 to previously winless Chester City on 18 September (despite a goalscoring debut for Danny Cullip) saw feelings running high.

Adams had the players in for an extra training session the following day and Walton was dropped for the next match. Before the month was over, he submitted a transfer request citing the stick he was receiving as his reason for wanting to go.

“It’s one of those things you cannot really do too much about,” he told The Argus. “I am not the first and I won’t be the last. Everybody hears it. It’s just general abuse from boo boys and it’s the same home and away.

“It is obviously not the best feeling in the world, but you are paid to do a job and you go out and give your best.”

The manager was clearly upset that Walton felt he had to leave because of criticism from supporters.

“I’m immensely disappointed that a boy has come in to see me and wants to leave the club because he feels he is not being given a fair crack of the whip by the fans,” Adams told The Argus. “I am disappointed it has come to this and that he feels he has got to bow to fan pressure.

“Mark is a great lad. Whichever eleven lads I put out on the pitch in the blue and white stripes, they are representing Albion and the fans have got to get behind them. They are going out to give their best for the supporters and the club.”

Support came too from part-time goalkeeping coach John Keeley, who said: “Mark looks ever so fit now and the way he has trained and looked after himself in the summer shows he wants to prove to people he is a good goalie.

“As a goalkeeper you want the crowd on your side because it gives you a certain amount of confidence, especially when you are playing at home.”

Adams showed his faith in Walton by restoring him to the starting line-up and he was rewarded for his loyalty by two shut-outs on the road as Albion drew 0-0 at Peterborough and beat Carlisle United 1-0.

The matchday programme noted of the big ‘keeper’s performance at London Road: “Walton didn’t put a foot, or should that be hand, wrong during the 90 minutes, prompting praise from supporters, who chanted his name at the final whistle.”

Adams added: “Mark was terrific. I cannot speak highly enough of him. He is a good, honest pro and he answered his critics.”

Walton collected a player of the month award for conceding only one goal in five matches during October. He kept the shirt for the rest of the season, only missing two games towards the end, and playing a total of 45 games.

But the last-day 1-0 home win over Carlisle United turned out to be his last for the Seagulls. It was reported he’d verbally agreed a new contract but just before the start of the new season he chose to move on to Cardiff, along the road from where he was born in Merthyr Tydfil on 1 June 1969.

As it turned out, the move worked out well all round because Walton helped the Bluebirds win promotion from Division Three as runners up behind the Seagulls in top spot, Adams having unearthed a more than capable replacement in Michel Kuipers.

In an interview with Dan Smith in 2018 for fulhamfocus.com, Walton explained how his footballing life began at South Wales valleys village side Georgetown Boys Club and, because he suffered from severe asthma when he was 12, he decided it would be better to play in goal than in an outfield position. He was inspired by Phil Parkes of West Ham, Jimmy Rimmer of Aston Villa and Everton’s Neville Southall.

Walton played youth team football for Swansea City but his first senior professional club was Luton Town, where he spent six months. With the experienced Les Sealey and Andy Dibble ahead of him, he wasn’t able to break through to the first team. He moved initially on loan to Colchester United, managed by Mike Walker, who’d previously kept goal for the Us after a distinguished career at Watford.

Walker gave him his debut at Layer Road as an 18-year-old in August 1987 and he went on to make a total of 56 appearances for United, having moved permanently for £17,500 in December 1987, by which time Roger Brown was in charge.

Walker, meanwhile, had moved on to take charge of Norwich’s reserve side and, on his recommendation, City signed the Welsh goalkeeper for £75,000 in 1989.

“I owe Mike Walker a debt of gratitude to this day, as he basically taught me from scratch and helped develop me into a solid keeper with a sound technique,” Walton told Ed Couzens-Lake in a 2013 article for myfootballwriter.com.

Walton spent most of his three years at Carrow Road as understudy to first choice Bryan Gunn. It was because of a serious back injury to Gunn that Walton found himself facing Sunderland in the 1992 FA Cup semi-final, when a single goal from John Byrne settled the tie.

Looking back on his time with the Canaries, Walton told Couzens-Lake: “I loved my football and I loved Norwich, and, for me, it is still ‘my club’. The camaraderie of the dressing room was fantastic – indeed, whilst I don’t miss playing one bit, I do miss the changing room banter, all the characters, bad and good, and those shared triumphs, disasters and the shared sense of humour.”

The admirable Flown From The Nest website notes Walton made 28 appearances for the first team and 114 for their reserves. He had loan spells with Wrexham and Dundee United, trials with St Johnstone and West Ham, but it was Bolton Wanderers during Bruce Rioch’s reign that he next saw first team action, playing three games for the Trotters.

After his release from Norwich, a bizarre series of circumstances which he explained to fulhamfocus.com saw him spend two years out of the game before a Fulham fan, who was a member of the Norfolk cricket club he’d been playing for, wrote to Adams and suggested he give Walton another crack at league football.

“Micky telephoned and invited me for a trial. After three weeks, I was offered a year’s contract,” he said.

When ousted by the upheaval at the Cottage, Walton went on loan to Gillingham in March 1998 but couldn’t agree terms for a permanent move and on transfer deadline day ended up back at Norwich on loan as cover for Andy Marshall.

After his stint with the Albion and initial success at Cardiff, Walton slipped down the pecking order and briefly tried his luck with a semi-professional side in Melbourne, Australia.

He returned to South Wales after retiring from playing and went on to gain a first-class sports psychology degree at Cardiff Metropolitan University, a Masters degreeand a Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) which led him to become a teacher for 10 years.

He also worked for Cricket Wales as a researcher and community coach and in January 2021 joined the cricket staff of Glamorgan.

“Cricket has always been a passion of mine,” he told his new employers’ website. “I’ve always played but that became more sporadic when I focused on football, but I always tried to sneak in the odd game here and there which was often in midweek.

“I played some league cricket in Norfolk, Essex and Wales and was able to represent Wales Minor Counties. Then about 20 years ago I fell into coaching and it’s prospered from there and I’ve coached every age group within Cricket Wales.”

• Pictures from the Albion matchday programme and online sources.

Steve Harper’s part in the Seagulls-Magpies goalkeeping ‘trade’

BRIGHTON and Newcastle United clearly have a similar eye for goalkeepers with a string of custodians having played for both clubs.

A few years before I started watching, Dave Hollins, older brother of ex-Chelsea midfielder John, moved to Tyneside in 1960 after three years with the Albion, and played twice as many games for Newcastle in the early part of that decade than he had for Brighton.

Back in the first Alan Mullery era, Eric Steele, who went through the Newcastle ranks without making the first team, arrived at Brighton to replace the injured Peter Grummitt in 1977 and was in the side that won promotion to the elite via a 3-1 win at St James’ Park in 1979.

Dave Beasant, who Newcastle bought from Wimbledon for £850,000 in 1988 – although he only played 20 games for the Magpies – was between the sticks for the Albion for 16 games in 2003.

More recently, Dutchman Tim Krul – who’d been at Newcastle a decade – spent a couple of seasons as back-up to Mat Ryan and would probably be disappointed he didn’t get more game time.

My post on this occasion, though, is about Steve Harper, United’s longest-ever serving player having been there 20 years. He later went back as one of the coaches working with Steve Bruce, as well as being goalkeeping coach to the Northern Ireland international side.

Harper is a qualified UEFA A coach and UEFA A goalkeeping coach, and holds a Masters degree in Sport Directorship.

Back in 2011, Harper was happy to lend his experience to the second tier Seagulls during Gus Poyet’s tenure as manager, a decision applauded by Alan Pardew, Toon boss at the time.

“He just wanted to play,” Pardew told the Chronicle. “Not all the top players in the country would have gone on loan – you’re vulnerable.

“You’re going down a division, but he was prepared to do that, and fair play to him.”

For his part, Harper told BBC Sport: “Everybody knows I haven’t played enough football until the last two-and-a-half years.

“I hadn’t played a competitive game for about six months so it was nice to blow the cobwebs out.”

In his first Seagulls match, unfortunately Albion lost against West Ham to a single goal from Harper’s former teammate Kevin Nolan, and he said: “It was disappointing to lose against West Ham with the possession we had.

“Now I’m here, it’s time to get stuck in. We want Brighton to consolidate and finish as high as we can. People tell me it’s a lovely city. I’m looking forward to seeing more of it.”

Harper recalled the time fondly in an interview for the Albion website in 2019.

He featured in five games for the Seagulls, keeping two clean sheets. While he conceded five goals, three came away to Southampton when the Seagulls were unjustly punished by referee Peter Walton.

Harper told journalist Nick Szczepanik: “I would have stayed longer given the opportunity. They made me feel very welcome.”

He even managed to give two of his new teammates a surprise when he started speaking to them in Spanish. Playing behind Spanish speakers Inigo Calderon and Gonzalo Jara Reyes, he explained to Andy Naylor, then of The Argus: “After five years of Bobby Robson and his multi-lingual team talks my Spanish is okay.

“Calde got quite a shock with how much Spanish I know, but I had Colocinni and Enrique in the team with me at Newcastle.”

After his brief spell with the Albion, Harper returned to Newcastle and played nine more games for them the following season before moving on to Hull City (at the time managed by current Toon boss Bruce), where he played alongside Liam Rosenior.

Born in Seaham on 14 March 1975, Harper grew up in the County Durham mining village of Easington and went to its local comprehensive school. Originally a striker at local Sunday league level, he only started playing in goal from the age of 17 and he turned out for Newcastle’s youth team while he was still at college doing A levels.

In fact he was offered a place at John Moores University in Liverpool to study for a Sports Science degree but he deferred it when Newcastle offered him a one-year contract. He signed in 1993 as a back-up for first choice Pavel Srnicek, later Shaka Hislop and subsequently Shay Given.

Much of his time at Newcastle was as a more than capable deputy to whoever was first choice although in United’s 2009-10 season in the Championship, under Chris Hughton, he was the main man and played 45 matches.

Harper had nothing but praise for Hughton, telling chroniclelive.co.uk: “He came in at an incredibly difficult, turbulent time after relegation.

“Chris was the man at the centre of a perfect storm who steered us through some very choppy waters.

“He did a wonderful job and I don’t think he got enough credit. It was no surprise to me to see him go on to do an excellent job at Birmingham City and then at Brighton.”

In total, Harper played 199 games for Newcastle, featuring under nine different managers – Kevin Keegan and Bobby Robson being his favourites.

Periodically over the years, he went out on loan to gain first-team action, appearing between the sticks for Bradford City, Gateshead, Stockport County, Hartlepool and Huddersfield. The Brighton move was his sixth spell out on loan.

Harper’s long service for Newcastle was rewarded with a testimonial against AC Milan in 2013 before he left the club to join Hull, where he spent two seasons.

Six months after his departure from Hull, he was taken on by then Premier League Sunderland as cover for Jordan Pickford and Vito Mannone, but he didn’t make a first-team appearance and was released at the end of the season.

‘Sleekly skilful’ Dale Jasper remembered with a smile

FORMER teammates expressed fond memories and a sense of shock when Dale Jasper died in January 2020 aged only 56.

A product of Chelsea’s youth system in the 1980s, he made it through to the first team but moved to Brighton to get more playing time.

Although he succeeded – playing a total of 52 matches plus eight as a sub under Alan Mullery and Barry Lloyd between 1986 and 1988 – he had to move on again, this time to Crewe Alexandra, to establish a regular starting berth.

It was certainly no mean achievement, though, to have on his CV that he won promotion with all three clubs.

In Ivan Ponting’s obituary for Back Pass magazine, Jasper was described as “a sleekly skilful midfielder-cum-central defender”.

Born in Croydon on 14 January 1964, Jasper was an associate schoolboy with Chelsea from the tender age of 10.

He progressed to the youth ranks and turned professional at Stamford Bridge in January 1982. Manager John Neal gave him his first team break against Cardiff City in March 1984, and Chelsea fans remember him for his involvement in some eye-catching matches.

One involved a 4-4 League Cup quarter final against Sheffield Wednesday but in the semi-final v Sunderland he conceded two penalties.

Although part of the squad Neal steered to promotion from the second tier in 1983-84, the form of his friend Colin Pates, who later had two spells with Brighton himself, and Joe McLaughlin, meant first team chances were few and far between.

Nevertheless, former Chelsea star Pat Nevin remembered Jasper’s involvement in a warm tribute on chelseafc.com.

“Dale was about as much fun as you could find wrapped up in one person,” said Nevin. “He had a brilliant personality in the dressing room at Stamford Bridge and was always up for a surreal laugh with all of us, particularly when he was with his great friends Colin Pates and John Bumstead.”

When Neal’s replacement, John Hollins, failed to offer Jasper the first team game-time he craved, he took the chance to join Brighton in May 1986, and enthused about the move in an interview with Albion matchday programme contributor, Tony Norman.

“I signed on the Monday and three days later I flew out to Hong Kong with the team, so it wasn’t a bad week, was it? We played an exhibition match over there. I was a bit disappointed when a goal I scored was disallowed, but I was smiling by the end of the game, because we won 3-1.

“We were away for about a week and it was a very good way for me to meet the rest of the p!ayers and get to know them. It all seemed a bit unreal, because it had all come out of the blue, but it was very enjoyable.”

Unfortunately for him, the manager who signed him for Brighton – Mullery – was unable to recapture the midas touch he’d previously enjoyed at the club.

Jasper started the first 13 games of the 1986-87 season but only three wins were chalked up and Mullery was shown the exit door shortly into the new year.

Jasper played 16 games plus one as a sub under new boss Lloyd but, after the side were relegated back to the third tier, he found it difficult to cement a regular place in the starting line-up.

Apart from a 10-game stint of starts between November and January, he spent most of the 1987-88 season on the subs bench, with Alan Curbishley and Mike Trusson preferred and, for the promotion run-in, Lloyd turned to Adrian Owers. instead.

Although Jasper scored in successive matches in February (one after coming on as a sub in a 2-2 home draw with Chesterfield), his final appearance in an Albion shirt was in a 5-1 defeat at home to Notts County in a Sherpa Van Trophy regional semi-final on 9 March 1988.

Jasper’s well-known sense of humour was evident in his answers for a profile feature in the Albion matchday programme. Perhaps reflecting his lack of first team game time, he said his ambition was “to win the Sussex Senior Cup” and said his favourite actress was teammate Perry Digweed!

Interestingly, he listed (former Chelsea coach) Dario Gradi as one of the main influences on his career, and it was to Gradi’s Crewe side that he moved on leaving the Albion in July 1988.

At the Alex, he made more than 100 appearances in four years, including being involved in their 1989 promotion from the fourth tier. He later played non-league for Crawley Town and Kingstonian.

After his playing career came to an end, he worked in the building trade.

Shocked to learn of Jasper’s death on 30 January 2020, former Albion teammate John Keeley told the Argus: “Dale was really well liked by everyone. He had some real talent and was a top, top lad.”

Irish defender Stephen Ward surprised Albion supporters

SWARDWHEN Wolverhampton Wanderers slipped into the third tier, they urgently needed to loan out some of their higher-paid players – hence, in August 2013, the arrival at Brighton of left-back Stephen Ward.

Most Seagulls supporters were not sure of his attributes having had the pleasure the previous season of watching the imperious Wayne Bridge shine in that position while on loan from Manchester City.

However, Albion fans were delighted to be proved wrong after Ward helped to shore up a defence that had leaked seven goals in the first eight days of the season. The Irish international defender went on to make a total of 47 appearances and was runner-up to Matt Upson as Albion’s 2013-14 player of the year.

Ward also chipped in with four goals, including the tide-turning equaliser at Nottingham Forest on the final day of the season.

Forest equaliser

Although injury-hit Albion failed to get past Derby County in the play-off semi-finals, it was thought Ward would sign permanently for the Seagulls that summer. But Burnley stepped in, offering Wolves and the defender more money, not to mention the more immediate chance of Premier League football.

Ward’s agent, Scott Fisher, later told the Argus that dithering or perhaps a bit of brinkmanship by then head of recruitment David Burke had scuppered the deal.

“We really tried our best to make Stephen Ward a permanent Brighton player. Had they done their business earlier this wouldn’t have happened,” he said.

Ward spoke more about the circumstances in an interview with the Argus in April 2016.

Previously, as the season drew to a close, Ward told the Argus: “If I’m going to move on, I don’t see why this wouldn’t be one of the better options for me. I’ve been here for a year; I’ve really enjoyed it.

SW Argus

“I couldn’t say one bad thing about the club. The crowd we get, the stadium we have is phenomenal, probably the best in the Championship, and with the new training ground the club is on a real up and a real high.

“If I was to move on from Wolves, Brighton would definitely be high on the list. It’s not in my hands, it’s going to be in other people’s hands to discuss the future, but it has been a great move for me. I’ve really enjoyed it. It’s a really good club and one people should be privileged to play for.”

Ward went on to spend five years at Turf Moor, making 110 appearances, but only featured 11 times in the 2018-19 season, and manager Sean Dyche told punditarena.com: “He (Ward) has been brilliant for us, absolutely brilliant, he’s done a fantastic job.”

SW BurnPerhaps it was no surprise that former Albion coach Nathan Jones stepped in to sign the experienced defender for Stoke City, where he’d taken on an often-perilous managerial hotseat.

Jones said: “He’s had a fantastic career, the only downside for him is his age, because he isn’t what we normally go for.

“But I feel we need to add certain things to the changing room and the environment and Stephen brings those.

“He’s a wonderful player, a great character, very experienced. He’s been promoted – won the Championship twice. He’s an Irish international, I worked with him, he’s technically very, very good so he ticks every box. It’s just the aging process is the only drawback.

“With Stephen, he’s a specialist in what we need and he will provide vital competition and good strength in that area.”

Unfortunately Ward couldn’t claim a regular starting place and in December 2019 picked up a calf injury which sidelined him for four months. Having made only 17 appearances for City, in August 2020 he switched to League One Ipswich Town on a free transfer.

After playing 29 games for them in the 2020-21 season, the club announced on 5 May 2021 he would be released at the end of the season (one more appearance would have triggered a 12-month extension to his contract).

Born in Dublin on 20 August 1985, Ward grew up in Portmarnock and, as a schoolboy, played football for Home Farm and Portmarnock before joining League of Ireland side Bohemians.

He attributed his eventual success in making it as a player to staying in Ireland when he was younger and continuing to live at home rather than going to play at a UK club’s academy.

In an excellent lengthy interview with the Irish Independent, he said: “I had a few trials – Leicester a couple of times, I went to Aston Villa a lot and Hibs for some reason – nothing worked out and I signed for Bohs. And the most important thing for me then was living at home and having my family around me.

“It does depend on the academy, but you are in a bubble from a young age. You train in a certain way, everything is done for you; I know you get your jobs, but not that many now, and sometimes there is a mentality that once you are in an academy, you’ve made it. I was 17 and played in a league where players were playing for their mortgages and to put food on the table.”

Originally a forward, he scored 26 goals in 93 appearances, and, having been looked at by Sunderland boss Mick McCarthy and deemed not quite ready, McCarthy kept tabs on him when he took over at Wolves.

“I signed for Wolves as a striker,” Ward told the Irish Independent. “I was not a typical number nine, scoring 20 or 30 a season, but an old-fashioned centre-forward running round, closing down.

“We signed a couple of strikers – Sylvan Ebanks-Blake and Chris Iwelumo – and I knew if I was going to play consistently it was probably not as a centre-forward. So, I went to left-wing for a bit.

“I played at left-back at Norwich for 30 minutes or so when we went down to nine men. We scraped a draw and afterwards Mick said, ‘You could make a career playing there.’ I thought, ‘Yeah, whatever’. Next season, three games in, and new left-back George Elokobi suffers an awful injury, the window was shut and Mick had no one else . . .”

On the international stage, Ward played through the age levels for the Republic of Ireland and had a dream full international debut in May 2011 as he scored in a 5-0 win over Northern Ireland.

He went on to play 50 times for his country before announcing his retirement from international football in March 2019.

Halford’s timely role in helping Albion avoid the drop

TIME was of the essence when utility player Greg Halford agreed to make a temporary move to Brighton.

He penned a deal to join the Seagulls temporarily at Nottingham Forest’s training ground at 12.30pm and then got in his car to drive to Brighton for 6pm in time to be involved in the squad for that evening’s game at the Amex against Wigan Athletic.

It was 4 November 2014 and he was Sami Hyypia’s sixth loan signing – even though only five were eligible to play in any matchday squad (emergency loan goalkeeper Ali Al-Habsi only played one game).

Regular centre backs Gordon Greer and Lewis Dunk were perilously close to suspension and deputy Aaron Hughes was sidelined with an ankle injury, so Hyypia moved to bring in an experienced back-up.

Albion hadn’t registered a win in the previous 11 league matches but the 29-year-old Halford proved to be a lucky charm as the side finally reacquainted themselves with the taste of victory. Fellow loanee Gary Gardner got the only goal of the game and Halford made an appearance off the bench towards the end of the game.

“I wasn’t really expecting to get any game time. I thought I’d just be in and around the lads, to get a feel for how everything works,” he told the club programme. “But I’m glad I got a few minutes at the end.”

Halford explained how he’d agreed to join the Seagulls because he’d been frozen out at Forest after Stuart Pearce took over as manager.

The player said he was familiar with the south coast having previously played for Portsmouth.

Asked what he could bring to the side, he added: “I can add a bit of height, I can score goals and obviously I can defend, which is my main attribute. I’m here to help the team and manager in any way I can.”

It wasn’t long before he was helping out a different manager as the side’s run of poor form brought a premature end to Hyypia’s brief time in charge.

Halford, though, hung around at the Amex, his loan extended by Hyypia’s successor, Chris Hughton, and he had made 14 starts and five substitute appearances by the season’s end, when the Seagulls narrowly escaped the drop back to the third tier.

Born on 8 December 1984 in Chelmsford, Essex, Halford began his professional career at nearby Colchester United. I well remember a Chelmsford-based work colleague telling me about this talented young footballer who’d been head and shoulders the best player in a local schoolboy football team his son had played for.

That player was Halford, who progressed from Colchester’s youth team and made his first team debut in April 2003. Loan spells at non-league Aylesbury Town and Braintree Town were part of his development, but he eventually made his mark at Colchester and was named in the PFA League One team of the year in 2005-06.

Played mainly at right-back, Halford’s speciality was his ability to deliver searching long throws which led to a good proportion of goals for Colchester.

After playing more than 150 games in five years for the Us, Halford wanted to prove himself at the highest level. He got a move to Premier League Reading in January 2007 but he couldn’t make the breakthrough there and ended up switching to Sunderland, signed by Roy Keane.

Just six months later, Sunderland made him available on loan and he joined Championship side Charlton until the end of the season. Then he spent the whole of the 2008-09 season on loan to Sheffield United, featuring in 49 of their 56 games that season.

His personal highlight was scoring the only goal of the game as United beat Preston to reach the 2008-09 play-off final.

Unfortunately, United lost the final 1-0 to Burnley, and that summer Halford was on the move again, this time to newly-promoted Wolverhampton Wanderers. Although he featured in 20 games, a regular starting berth eluded him and, in October 2010, he joined Championship side Portsmouth. Initially on loan, he eventually joined Pompey on a permanent basis but relegation to the third tier brought with it the need to trim budgets and in July 2012, they offloaded Halford to Nottingham Forest.

GH ForestUnder Billy Davies, Halford was generally deployed as a striker but when Pearce took over at the City Ground, he didn’t get close to the first team. On his return from Brighton at the end of the 2014-15 season, he was released by Forest and joined Rotherham United on a free transfer.

Manager Steve Evans appointed him captain but, after a winless run of five games, he was deposed and only played one more game for the Millers before joining Birmingham City on loan.

GH CardThat spell was also brief and although he returned to Rotherham and played 15 games for them in the 2016-17 season, he then joined Cardiff City and made 33 appearances in two seasons for Neil Warnock’s side.

Without a club for six months, in February 2019, he joined Scottish Premiership side Aberdeen as defensive cover but only made two appearances.

The multi-million pound striker who scored on his Albion debut

STRIKER Darren Bent spent the last month of 2014 with Championship-struggling Brighton as the hapless Sami Hyypia tried to bring a halt to a dismal run of form.

Unable to command a regular starting spot at Aston Villa, Bent made an encouraging enough start, scoring on his debut against Fulham.

But the game ended in a 2-1 defeat and his only other goal came at Molineux two days before the axe fell on Hyypia’s time in the hotseat as Albion drew 1-1 with Wolves.

Bent told BBC Radio Sussex he’d reached “boiling point” in his frustration at the lack of starts under Paul Lambert at Villa. Previous boss Gerard Houllier had smashed Villa’s transfer fee record to take Bent from Sunderland for an initial £18m in January 2011, but, after Lambert became manager in 2012, he made just 13 Premier League appearances.

albion D BentAt the time he headed to the Amex, Bent had scored 184 goals in 464 career appearances, not to mention scoring four while winning 13 caps for England.

“I hope he will score plenty of goals for us during his time with us,” Hyypia had told the club website. “His record speaks for itself. He is a top-class striker with more than 100 Premier League goals with Charlton, Spurs, Sunderland and Aston Villa.

“Three years ago, he was a regular in the England squad under Fabio Capello; there is no doubting his ability to score goals.

“He also wants to play regular games and that is evident in his willingness to step down from the Premier League to the Championship.”

Bent told the matchday programme: “It doesn’t bother me that I’ve had to drop down a division to play football. Anyone who knows me knows that all I care about is football.

“It has never been about money or anything like that. It has always been about playing football. I’m always at my happiest when I’m playing.”

At least Bent found some familiar faces in the Albion dressing room in fellow Villa loanees Joe Bennett and Gary Gardner and former Fulham teammates David Stockdale and Aaron Hughes.

“Brighton felt like the perfect place to come and play football, especially for someone like Sami Hyypia, who I’ve played against many times over the years,” Bent added. “As a manager, I think he is the right man. He is the kind of guy I want to play for.”

Bent goalBent returned to Villa after playing in five games and although new boss Chris Hughton indicated a willingness to bring him back, the striker was soon on his way to Derby County for the remainder of the season.

He scored 12 in 17 games for Steve McLaren’s Rams and subsequently joined them on a permanent basis in the summer of 2015. After two seasons in the Championship with Derby, scoring 14 in 67 matches, a hamstring injury sidelined him for the start of the 2017-18 season and in January 2018 he went on loan to Championship strugglers Burton Albion.

Having been without a club since released by Derby in the summer of 2018, he announced his retirement at 35 in July 2019.

Since then, he has joined the football pundit circuit, although not everyone is convinced he’s making that good a job of it!

pundit D BentNevertheless, Talksport and Sky Sports are happy to give him a platform and, in an interview with Metro, he suggested what might be the most difficult aspect of it. “I played with some of these guys and regard them as friends so, when they have had a bad game, will I be able to dig them out? It’s finding the line between being objective and respectfully constructive.”

Only in January 2020, Bent could be found arguing the case for Lewis Dunk to be recalled by England. The former striker is also active on Twitter with @DarrenBent attracting just short of 492,000 followers.

Born in Tooting, south London, on 6 February 1984, Bent was probably destined to be a footballer because his dad Mervyn had been on the books of Wimbledon and Brentford as a youngster.

The family moved to Cambridgeshire when the young Bent was only 10 and his early football career was nurtured at Godmanchester Rovers.

Ipswich Town picked him up as a 14-year-old and nurtured him through their youth ranks until he eventually made it to the first team in November 2001.

In four seasons with Ipswich, he scored 56 goals in 141 appearances before then Premier League Charlton Athletic paid a fee of £2.5m to take him to The Valley.

After two successful seasons in which he bagged 37 goals in 79 games for the Valiants, he made another big money move, this time to North London to join Spurs.

It was in June 2007 they paid a club record £16.5m and he scored 25 in 79 games for them before a similar fee saw him move to Sunderland, then in the Premier League, in the summer of 2009.

After 18 months in the North East, Bent put in for a transfer and Aston Villa paid £24m to sign him on a four-and-a-half year contract. He marked his debut with the only goal of the game in a win over Manchester City.

In his second season with Villa, Bent took on the captaincy for a while but managerial changes meant his face didn’t always fit and he spent the whole of the 2013-14 season on loan to Fulham, where he scored six in 30 matches.

Wearside hero Gary Rowell blighted by injury after leaving Sunderland

gary rowell tony normanBRIGHTON fans never got to witness the best of prolific goalscorer Gary Rowell who, to this day, Sunderland fans eulogise in the same way Albion fans still sing about Peter Ward.

He died aged 68 on 13 December 2025, exactly 50 years to the day of his first appearance for the Black Cats following a long battle with leukaemia.

Rowell has a place in Sunderland’s best all time XI selection, in 2005 he topped a Football Focus poll as Sunderland’s all-time cult hero and, in 2020, was inducted into the SAFC Hall of Fame, which he described as ‘the best night of my life’.

There is a website that details every one of the 103 goals the Seaham-born footballer scored for the Wearsiders in 297 games after making his debut as a 71st minute substitute for Mel Holden in a 1-0 Sunderland win over Oxford United at Roker Park.

Unfortunately, the free-scoring striker-turned-midfielder was struck by a knee injury which hampered the latter part of his career, including his spells with Norwich City and the Seagulls.

Having left Sunderland on a free transfer after 12 years at the club, Rowell tore ligaments in his right knee on a pre-season tour of Scandinavia with Norwich before he even managed to kick a ball in anger.

In a year at Carrow Road, he made only six appearances – four as a substitute – and scored just the once, coming off the bench to net against Aston Villa. Typical of this spell between August 1984 and July 1985, he was substituted after only 16 minutes of his reserve team debut.

The following season, a £35,000 fee took him back to the North East to play for Middlesbrough, but, at the time, they were in the middle of a financial crisis and lost their second-tier status. Rowell top-scored with 10 goals in 27 appearances – two of them against the Albion at the Goldstone in January 1986 – but Boro were relegated in second-to-last spot (Brighton finished in 11th place that season).

Brighton were not exactly flush with cash themselves in the summer of 1986 when Alan Mullery, the manager who’d previously led them from third tier to the elite, returned to the club to replace Chris Cattlin.

Mullery found a very different set-up to the one he’d left acrimoniously in the summer of 1981. With little money available to be spent on new arrivals, hard-up Albion, not for the first time, had turned to the supporters in an effort to raise transfer funds.

Money from a scheme called the Lifeline fund went towards buying goalkeeper John Keeley for £1,500 from non-league Chelmsford, Darren Hughes for £30,000 from Shrewsbury Town, and Rowell from Middlesbrough on a free transfer (the Lifeline funds being used to help with his relocation to the South Coast).

Mullery explained the Rowell signing thus in his programme notes: “I see his role with us as coming forward from midfield and adding to our power in the box.

“We know he can get goals and he is a versatile player. When we further improve the squad, we may use him a little differently.”

Rowell , who discovered Mullery had tried to sign him back in 1979 (but Sunderland hadn’t informed him), joined just after the start of the season, in time to be given a place on the bench for the away 1-1 draw with his former club Sunderland. He went on for Kieran O’Regan with 18 minutes left.

He kept the bench warm for two more matches before getting his first start in place of Northern Irish centre-forward Gerry Armstrong in a 2-2 draw away to Plymouth Argyle on 13 September.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t long before Mullery was reporting his absence from the side because of an ankle injury sustained in training.

Nevertheless, interviewed by Tony Norman in the matchday programme, Rowell, who was 29 and married with two small children, said: “I’m delighted with the move. I’ve found it to be a very friendly club and people have gone out of their way to make us feel at home. Now I want to repay the club by playing well for the team.”

The longest run of games he got in an Albion shirt came in November and December 1986 when he took over from winger Steve Penney for six matches (two wins, two draws, two defeats).

rowell BW HS

A broken toe and a troublesome hamstring made him feel injury-jinxed but, during his run back in the side, he had what Mullery described as “his best game since joining us” in a 3-0 win over Shrewsbury Town on 21 December. Six days later, the toe went again, and he didn’t play for the rest of the season.

Mullery was then controversially dismissed the following month and Rowell had to wait until the start of the following season for successor Barry Lloyd to select him.

He featured in three pre-season friendlies, all of which ended in defeats and wore the no.4 shirt in the opening two fixtures of the 1987-88 season, but those were his only first-team starts that campaign. His midfield berth was taken over by the experienced Alan Curbishley.

By October, the matchday programme reported Rowell and fellow midfielder Dale Jasper had been placed on the transfer list following long discussions with Lloyd. Curiously, it added: “However, both players are keen to stay with the club, regardless of any offers made, and will be battling hard for first team places.”

Rowell subsequently appeared seven times as a substitute for the first team, but he was largely confined to the Reserves for whom he made 20 appearances and scored once. In February 1988, he moved to Dundee on trial, but, when not taken on, moved the following month to Carlisle United.

After just seven games for the Cumbrians, he finished his professional career at Burnley, where he scored once in 19 appearances.

Born in Sunderland on 6 June 1957, Rowell grew up in the mining village of Seaham, became an apprentice at Sunderland in 1972 and two years later turned professional.

In 1976, when Sunderland were struggling in the First Division, manager Jimmy Adamson gambled on the introduction of the 19-year-old Rowell: it paid off in spades as he scored 44 goals in two and a half seasons.

During that prolific spell, Rowell was in the squad for two end of season England Under 21 Championship preliminary matches; he went on for Laurie Cunningham in a 1-0 win over Finland in Helsinki on 26 May 1977 but wasn’t involved in a 2-1 win over Norway in Bergen six days later. This was an England side including future full internationals Peter Barnes and Peter Reid.

He was also a non-playing member of Dave Sexton’s squad that assembled at the Goldstone Ground three months later, but he had to watch as an over-age Peter Ward (22), playing on home turf, of course, scored a hat-trick in a 6-0 win over Norway. The aforementioned Curbishley was also a non-playing onlooker in that squad.

footballinprint.comUndoubtedly, the stand-out moment of Rowell’s Sunderland career came when he scored a hat-trick in a 4-1 win over arch rivals Newcastle United at St James’ Park, which he referred to in a profile article (see above).

In a vote for Sunderland’s best players of the 1970s, Rowell was described as “a lovely footballer. Though not blessed with blistering pace, he would ghost into goal-scoring positions and his finishing was deadly.” Rowell was an expert penalty taker, scoring 25 of 26 he took for Sunderland.

Some observers reckon but for injury he would surely have gone on to gain full England international honours. However, his career was severely disrupted by a serious knee injury sustained in a March 1979 game against Leyton Orient.

After a lengthy recovery, he resumed scoring goals regularly but there were doubts over his being able to maintain fitness for the duration of a whole season.

As part of a big team rebuilding exercise carried out by manager Len Ashurst in 1984, Rowell was allowed to move to Norwich.

After his playing days ended, Rowell became a financial consultant in Burnley and those loyal Sunderland supporters still got to hear their hero because, for a number of years, he was a commentator on Sunderland games for Metro Radio.

  • Pictures mainly from matchday programmes. Sunderland profile article: footballinprint.com.

Cattlin wasn’t backed to buy ex-City defender Jeff Clarke for £6,500

HARD-UP Albion wanted to sign dominant centre-back Jeff Clarke in 1984 but, unable to meet Newcastle United’s modest asking price, they were forced to walk away from a deal.

Clarke, who began his career at Manchester City, had plenty of experience to bring to a young Brighton side having played more than 300 games for north-east giants Sunderland and the Magpies.

At the start of the 1984-85 season, Clarke found himself on the outside looking in at St James’ Park, following the arrival of the legendary Jack Charlton as manager.

Although Arthur Cox had led them to promotion to the old First Division, he quit during the close season because he didn’t feel the club’s owners were investing enough in the playing side (some things never change!).

Former England World Cup winner Charlton, whose uncle ‘Wor’ Jackie Milburn was a Newcastle legend, took the hot seat and his preferred centre back pairing at the start of the season was John Anderson and Glenn Roeder.

Down on the south coast, Brighton boss Chris Cattlin was keen to bring some experience to the spine of the team he was rebuilding, and he took Clarke on loan to play alongside the emerging Eric Young, as well as introducing his old Huddersfield teammate Frank Worthington up front.

Clarke and Worthington made their debuts in an opening day 3-0 win at Carlisle United on 25 August (Danny Wilson, Terry Connor and Steve Penney the goalscorers).

The on-loan defender couldn’t have had a more eventful home debut three days later, in an ill-tempered evening game at home to Larry Lloyd’s Notts County, who had Justin Fashanu playing up front.

A clash between Fashanu and Clarke saw the defender come off worse, a back injury forcing him to be substituted with only 36 minutes gone (replaced by sub Neil Smillie).

In a game which saw seven players booked, fellow central defender Young joined him in hospital having been concussed by a stray Fashanu elbow. In the days before multiple substitutes, the Seagulls were forced to play the second half with only ten men, but nevertheless ran out 2-1 winners. Steve Jacobs opened the scoring on 22 minutes, Fashanu equalised on 55 but Worthington marked his home debut with the winner in the 67th minute. (The following June, Fashanu joined the Albion for a fee of £115,000).

jeff clarke BWClarke had sustained a fracture to a bone in his back but he was fit enought to return to the side on 22 September, in a 1-0 defeat away to Oldham Athletic, and was then on the winning side in the following two games: a 3-1 first leg Milk Cup win over Aldershot and a 2-0 home win over Fulham.

Unfortunately, that proved to be his last game for the Seagulls. Cattlin wanted to sign him permanently and Newcastle wanted just £6,500 for Clarke but the Albion board wouldn’t sanction the fee, as Cattlin explained at the Albion Roar live show in December 2018 (skip to 28 minutes in), which he believes signalled the beginning of the end of his time at the club.

In his matchday programme notes at the time, Cattlin said: “With the current cash crisis at the club, I could not finalise what I think is a very important deal in the long-term for this club. Clarke is a fine professional who, in many ways, reminds me of Peter Withe in his outstanding professionalism and leadership qualities.”

That sounds like he felt the captaincy of the side wasn’t in the right hands, and later in the same notes he explained how he had taken the job of skipper from Jimmy Case (“he needs to get his own game back to what we know he is capable of”) and given the role to Danny Wilson (“his leadership qualities on the park have become self evident”).

Born 18 January 1954 in the West Yorkshire mining town of Hemsworth, near Wakefield, Clarke was a Sheffield Wednesday fan as a boy and admired Owls central defender Vic Mobley.

However, it was on the other side of the Pennines that he made his breakthrough as a professional, with Manchester City.

Manager Tony Book handed Clarke his debut in a 4-0 home win over West Ham United on 17 August 1974 but he only played 15 games for the Maine Road outfit, his last game coming in a 2-1 home defeat to Carlisle United on 19 March 1975.

Clarke moved to Sunderland as a makeweight in the deal which saw the Sunderland and England international centre back Dave Watson move to City in the summer of 1975.

J Clarke Sund BW

The move to Roker Park finally saw his career take off and in seven years he made 213 appearances for the Wearsiders, many as captain (as seen in team photo above), including helping them to promotion to the top flight in 1976.

The excellent MatchDayMemories.com unearthed a Shoot/Goal profile of Clarke which revealed he had earned schoolboy under 18 international honours, his favourite food was peanut butter sandwiches and Brian Kidd, then of Arsenal, had been his most difficult opponent.

In 1982, at the age of 28, he switched to north east rivals Newcastle United on a free transfer, and stayed with the Magpies for five years.

When his two-month loan on the south coast wasn’t made permanent, he had other loan spells in Turkey and at Darlington but then returned to Newcastle and was restored to the first team, and featured in a New Year’s Day win over Sunderland in which future Albion winger Clive Walker was an opponent.

When Charlton quit as boss on the eve of the 1985-86 season, it signalled better fortunes for Clarke and under Willie McFaul he became a regular alongside Roeder, racking up 45 appearances and chipping in with three goals. The following season he played only seven games and hung up his boots in 1987.

Clarke stayed at St James’ Park in a coaching capacity after his playing days were over but simultaneously he took a degree in physiotherapy at the University of Salford, graduating in 1996.

He later became physio at former club Sunderland before moving to Leeds United in 2001. Made redundant at Elland Road in 2003, he moved to Dundee United in November the same year and has been the first team physio ever since.

Winger Walker a genuine crowd-pleasing entertainer

CW Nobo 91 progIN MY OPINION, one of the best wingers ever to pull on the famous blue and white stripes was Clive Walker, an evergreen player who remarkably played more than 1,000 games for eight clubs.

Although well into his 30s when he arrived at the Goldstone Ground, the balding former Chelsea and Fulham wideman was an effervescent talent with the ball at his feet.

Asked by the Argus to preview the squad ahead of the 1991 Division Two play-off final at Wembley, Brighton coach Martin Hinshelwood said of him: “Alias Phil Collins. A great character. The dressing room buzzes when he is around. He is good on the ball, a great crosser and has scored some great goals this season.”

Both Albion’s wingers for that game had Wembley experience behind them having been on opposing sides in in the 1985 League Cup Final.

Walker had missed a penalty for Sunderland as Mark Barham’s Norwich City won 1-0 and six years later, against Neil Warnock’s Notts County, Walker’s bad luck continued when a Wembley post denied him as Brighton’s dream of promotion ended in a 3-1 defeat.

Both had played big parts in Albion reaching Wembley, though: Barham levelled for the Seagulls in the first leg of the semi-final at home to Millwall and Walker got the third when the Seagulls upturned the form book and beat Bruce Rioch’s side 4-1.

Born on 26 May 1957 in Oxford, Walker joined Chelsea in 1973, made his league debut in a 1-0 defeat away to Burnley on 23 April 1977 and was a first team squad regular between December 1977 and the summer of 1984, although, in 1979, Chelsea loaned Walker to Fort Lauderdale Strikers (as pictured below) where he scored nine goals in 22 appearances.

CW Fort Laud

“Those were exciting, lively times and we loved our football. We were a bunch of young lads growing up together and, in my last couple of years there, I played with the likes of Kerry Dixon for the side who brought good times back on the pitch,” Walker told Mike Walters of the Mirror. “We were a close-knit bunch with a great sense of camaraderie, and a lot of teams these days would probably envy us in that regard.”

A fast winger with the knack of scoring stunning goals, Walker netted 17 in 1981-1982 and the next season, with Chelsea looking set to be relegated to Division Three, fans still remember how he scored the winner at Bolton Wanderers to maintain their status.

Details of many of his memorable moments at Chelsea are highlighted by the Sporting Heroes website.

And a Chelsea fans’ blog, Game of the People emphasised the impact he had at Stamford Bridge, pointing out: “He was left-footed, as quick as a sprinter and awkward to knock off the ball. And he could shoot! Those that liked wingers were excited by his willingness to run between players and take a pot shot at goal. Put simply, he was exciting to watch.”

In what is an otherwise interesting and informative piece about Walker in 2014, they unfortunately failed to mention his successful stint with the Seagulls.

Although he began the 1983-84 season well, he sustained a broken jaw which put him out for several weeks and, during his absence, another nippy winger – Pat Nevin – seized the opportunity to claim a first-team spot and Walker’s Stamford Bridge days were numbered.

3-2 N v Sun CWalker

Come the end of the season, he was allowed to join Sunderland (above in action v Newcastle) for a fee of £70,000. “He returned to torment Chelsea in the Football League Cup semi-final second leg, scoring twice in what was a dreadful night for the club,” Game of the People observed. “Walker was abused from the stands, too, which was especially heartbreaking for those that appreciated his efforts at the Bridge.”

After two years in the north-east, Walker returned to London in September 1985, initially via a £75,000 move to Jim Smith’s First Division (Premier League equivalent) QPR, where he played 28 games in the 1986-87 season, alongside the likes of David Seaman, Michael Robinson and John Byrne. Just 20 months later, he left on a free transfer to Third Division Fulham for whom he made 127 appearances in three years, scoring 32 goals.

His debut was certainly memorable as he scored twice in a 3-1 home win over York City. Writer Ian McCulloch remembered the occasion in an article on fulhamfc.com.

“Fulham were in the doldrums, on the brink of extinction, owned by property developers, and going nowhere fast. And then, in the midst of all the doom and gloom, appeared one of football’s all-time, genuine crowd-pleasing entertainers. Walker ran the show that night, scored twice, and generally lifted both the fans and the team.”

Walker recalled: “That game really does stand out. And in the pouring rain as well! To score two goals on your debut is very special, and I just look back at it as a fabulous memory. Very, very enjoyable.”

Walker explained that it was Ray Lewington who took him to Craven Cottage, adding: “I had a great rapport with him – of course we were both apprentices at Chelsea – and we’re still good friends today. But then other managers came in, and you couldn’t escape the feeling that the club was going backwards and that was very, very sad because I had a lovely time at Fulham and I’ve got some very fond memories of those years. I loved playing at the Cottage and on the Cottage pitch.”

Walker picked up Fulham’s 1989-90 Player of the Year award before former Fulham captain Barry Lloyd went back to his old club to secure Walker’s services for the Seagulls in the summer of 1990. Even though he was the wrong side of 30, he pulled on the no.11 shirt on his debut away to Barnsley (in a side containing his old Chelsea teammate Gary Chivers in defence) and missed only one game all season as Albion nearly made it back to the elite level.

After that Wembley disappointment and only three games into the new season, Walker suffered another blow when he sustained a serious knee ligament injury away to Barnsley which sidelined him for several weeks.

With the previous season’s goalscoring duo Mike Small and John Byrne having been sold for big money, the side struggled, and eventually ended up being relegated.

Emerging young winger John Robinson had slotted into Walker’s place in the side during his absence although it was Barham who was the odd man out when Walker was fit to return to the line-up.

Back in the third tier the following season, although the return of Steve Foster in defence was a plus point, off the field the rumblings of financial meltdown grew louder and louder. Young Robinson was sold to Charlton Athletic and only the proceeds of the sale of goalkeeper Mark Beeney to Leeds United kept the taxman at bay when there was a winding-up order threat hanging over the club.

Three cup games against Manchester United were rare highlights in that precarious season and one of my favourite Walker moments came at Old Trafford in a League Cup replay on 7 October 1992.

Having managed a 1-1 draw against United in the first game, Albion gave United quite a scare in the replay, largely through Walker giving England full-back Paul Parker a torrid time. I watched the game sat amongst United supporters and they were full of praise for the veteran winger, albeit that United edged it 1-0.

Walker’s final appearance in an Albion shirt came on 24 April 1993 when he came on as a substitute for Matthew Edwards in a 2-1 home defeat to Rotherham United. Alas, as he recounted in an interview with Spencer Vignes for the matchday programme, his time with the Albion came to a sour end.

Together with Chivers and Perry Digweed he was let go by Lloyd apparently because he said as the highest earners the club could no longer afford them. He was unceremoniously ushered out of the door with his boots in a bin bag. “That was the thank-you we got from Brighton,” he said.

When most players would be considering hanging up their boots, at the age of 36, Walker left Brighton and moved into non-league with Woking where he scored 91 goals in 210 games.

A poster called NewAdventuresinWiFi, on Sunderland’s readytogo.net fans website, recalled watching Walker play for Woking, and said: “Walker was an absolute class act when he fancied it. He was instrumental in the cup run of 96-97 when Millwall and Cambridge were dispatched and Premiership Coventry given an almighty fright.

“Also remember a Conference game against Altrincham when we put seven past them and Walker was unplayable that day…to the point the opposition full back ended up getting a straight red for a frustrated desperate two footed ‘challenge’ he attempted on Clive after yet another glorious attacking run.”

Another poster, JumpingAnaconda, remembered: “I saw him playing for Woking in a minor cup final at Vicarage Road, in the season where he won a few big games for them in their FA Cup run. He was 40 years old and he was absolutely quality, up and down the line all night. That season there was some talk of Premiership sides looking at him to come in to do a job for them. His level of fitness was incredible. He ran around like a 20-year-old. He was probably the closest we would get to another Stanley Matthews in the Premiership era in terms of a winger that kept his pace, creativity, ability to beat a man and make crosses into his 40s.”

From Woking, he had a spell as the assistant manager at Brentford under Eddie May but then went back to playing, at Cheltenham Town. Finally, after winning the FA Trophy and the League, he retired at the grand old age of 43, although he continued to turn out for Chelsea Veterans teams.
He had a brief excursion into management with Molesey but a career in the media took off and he became a regular and well-known voice with BBC London, and for Sky TV’s coverage of Conference football.

CW on Chels TVWalker has also worked for Talksport and appears regularly with former Chelsea and Spurs player Jason Cundy on Chelsea TV and radio (as above).

Pictures from a variety of sources but mainly the Albion matchday programme.

Much-travelled Ade Akinbiyi a big hit in brief Seagulls spell

A STRIKER with wildly differing fortunes in a varied and much-travelled career made a good early impression when joining Albion on loan from Norwich City back in the autumn of 1994.

Ade Akinbiyi had not long since broken through to the City team as a teenager and he scored four times in seven games on loan to the Seagulls.

Just turned 20, Akinbiyi arrived at a time when Liam Brady’s Albion hadn’t registered a win for 11 games and, although Albion lost the first game he played in, the remaining six produced three wins and three draws.

AA scores

There is some YouTube footage of him scoring Albion’s second goal on a snowy pitch at Hull City’s old Boothferry Park ground in a game that finished 2-2.

“He is powerful and big and he can take knocks and we have missed having somebody in that mould,” Brady wrote in his matchday programme notes.

Later in his career Akinbiyi would prove to be a real handful for the Seagulls – I recall him shrugging off a powder-puff challenge from a young Dan Harding at Withdean and muscling his way to a winning goal for Stoke City. Manager Mark McGhee subbed Harding off and publicly lambasted him afterwards.

Born in Hackney on 10 October 1974, Akinbiyi was more interested in athletics at an early age, as he told the Lancashire Telegraph.

“I was interested in football but not massive on playing it,” he said. His school PE teacher persuaded him otherwise. “I went to play for my district team, Hackney, and it all started from there.”

From Hackney, Akinbiyi joined nearby Senrab, the team that blooded the likes of Bobby Zamora, Leon Knight, John Terry and Jermain Defoe.

His age group earned a place in a children’s tournament in Great Yarmouth called the ‘Canary Cup’ where he was spotted by a scout for nearby Norwich, who signed him as a schoolboy.

“The schoolboy and youth team system was second to none, as it still is now,” said Akinbiyi. But he found it hard living away from home, missing his mum’s native Nigerian cooking.

But after finding new digs with a few of his team-mates, he stuck at it and earned a dream debut as a substitute against Bayern Munich in the return leg of their UEFA Cup second round game, less than a month after his 19th birthday.

“I thought my debut would come in a cup game, perhaps against lower league opposition, not against Bayern Munich,” he said. “Not many people make their debut in a European cup competition.”

Although Akinbiyi made 51 league appearances for Norwich, his Canaries career never really took off, hence the Brighton loan spell and a similar move to Hereford United.

Eventually, though, a manager who believed in him, Tony Pulis, made him a record £250,000 buy for Gillingham in January 1997. Akinbiyi repaid Pulis’ faith in him with 29 goals in 67 starts, leading to Bristol City paying £1.2million for the striker following their promotion to the old Division One (now the Championship).

akinbiyi + colin lee

After scoring 21 goals in 47 league appearances for the Robins, in 1999 he completed a £3.5m move to Wolverhampton Wanderers. In the same year, he played his one and only game for Nigeria, in a friendly against Greece in Athens.

He made a great start at Wolves, scoring eight times in his first 12 games for Colin Lee’s side, but a year later, switched to Premier League Leicester City, after the Foxes’ boss Peter Taylor (later to replace Micky Adams at Brighton) paid out a £5m fee for the striker.

Ade A LeicesterAkinbiyi was brought in to replace Emile Heskey, a real Filbert Street hero who had been sold to Liverpool for £11m. However, his goal touch eluded him and he managed to score only 11 goals in 58 league appearances for the club – some Leicester fans dubbing him Ade Akin-Bad-Buy!

Akinbiyi looked back on it in an interview with Four Four Two magazine and said: “I came in as Emile Heskey’s replacement, but he is a different breed of footballer.

“He’s big, strong and scores goals, but, back then, if Heskey wasn’t scoring a lot he could get away with it. He was the local hero. I was a different player – I’d be running in behind and trying to cause people problems. But Leicester looked at my record in the Championship and thought I’d come and do the same thing.”

Eventually they cut their losses and sold him to Division One Crystal Palace for £2.2m. At Selhurst, he was rather ignominiously given the number 55 shirt! Having scored just one goal in 14 league and cup appearances, in 2003 he was loaned to Stoke City, under his old boss Pulis.

He scored twice – the second goal coming in the last game of the 2002-03 season, when the Potters won 1-0 against Reading to seal their Division One (now the Championship) status (the season Albion were relegated).

Akinibiyi discussed the events in an interview with another ex-Stoke, Burnley and Brighton striker, Chris Iwelumo, for Stoke City FC TV.

AA chat with CIIt led to Akinbiyi joining on a permanent basis, on a free transfer, and he became a cult hero with the Stoke City crowd.

In March 2005, Burnley signed him for £600,000 – and he was promptly sent off on his debut! The game was only two minutes old when he head-butted George McCartney of Sunderland, and was shown a straight red.

Less than a year later, he was on the move again, switching to Sheffield United in January 2006 for what was then a club record £1.75m fee.

He scored on his Blades debut against Derby County but by October that year he was in the news for his alleged involvement in a training ground bust-up with team-mate Claude Davis.

In all, Akinbiyi made only five appearances for the Blades in the Premiership in 2006 and, on New Year’s Day 2007 he returned to Burnley for a £650,000 fee, with add-ons.

He scored in his first game back, against Reading, but only notched three by the season’s end. Burnley fans have some good memories of him, particularly in a brief spell when he played alongside loan signing Andrew Cole, but on 2 April 2009, Burnley offloaded him to Houston Dynamo.

Dave Thomas, a prolific writer on all things Burnley, talked about Akinbiyi’s cult hero status among Burnley fans, telling thelongside.co.uk: “Ade certainly had a talent and that talent was scoring goals. The story that he was utterly bad at this is totally inaccurate, but that is the legend that developed, at one club in particular, Leicester City.

“In truth, at Burnley too, he missed sitters that Harry Redknapp might say his wife could have scored. But then so do all other players and, in many games, he displayed all the things that he was good at, and the attributes that he had in abundance.”

After he was released by Houston, back in the UK he played 10 games for Notts County, as they won the League Two title In 2009-10, and the following season pitched up in south Wales to play for then non-league Newport County.

In July 2013, Akinbiyi became a player-coach for Colwyn Bay, managed by his former Burnley teammate Frank Sinclair, but both resigned in January 2015 after a 5-0 defeat at Boston.

Akinbiyi now lives in Manchester and in 2015 was interviewed about work he has done as an ambassador for Prostate Cancer UK after his father died from the disease.