Bees and Seagulls milestones on Michael Bennett’s wellbeing journey

IT ALMOST certainly wouldn’t have occurred to the loyal few Albion fans who followed the basement division Seagulls in exile in 1998-99 that one of the men in stripes would go on to make a difference to the lives of hundreds of footballers.

Brighton was the eighth and last league club Michael Bennett played for over the course of 12 years in which he discovered all the highs and lows that footballers can experience.

Since packing up playing, those personal insights helped him to begin a journey that led him to help huge numbers to cope with the game’s often-unseen stresses and strains.

Bennett became a psychotherapist, gained a degree and led the setting up of a counselling and mental health and wellbeing support network for the Professional Footballers’ Association, where he worked for 15 years, latterly as director of player wellbeing. In that role, he was frequently a media spokesman for the PFA.

Now running his own counselling business it’s all a far cry from the days when his league playing career ended filling a variety of positions in Brian Horton’s fourth-tier Brighton team, playing home games in exile at Gillingham. In one game, he was racially abused by a Swansea City fan who ran onto the pitch to confront him (more of which, later).

It was quite a fall from career highlights that saw him play for England at under-20 level alongside the likes of Matt Le Tissier, David Batty, Neil Ruddock and Tim Sherwood, make his debut at 17 in the top division for Charlton Athletic alongside John Humphrey, Colin Pates and Steve Gritt, and feature for Brentford (with Chris Hughton and Neil Smillie) when the Bees played second-tier football for the first time in 38 years.

While Addicks fans remember Bennett fondly, Bees supporters are a lot less generous and mainly recall a training ground incident in which the player broke a teammate’s jaw with a single punch.

The internet can be – and is – many things and unfortunately for people like Dr Bennett, such past incidents are still recorded for all to read about.

Thankfully, all the excellent work he has achieved in the health and wellbeing field is also documented and, in October 2021, Andy Naylor of The Athletic did an in-depth piece which examined his journey in detail.

“The story of his rise to prominence as a leader in his field is inspirational, a demonstration that with application, determination and drive you can build a career in the game that extends well beyond playing football,” wrote Naylor.

Bennett eschewed a coaching career (even though he passed his UEFA B licence) and at college, while studying Maths and English, was urged to take up counselling. As Naylor reported: “By 2004, Bennett had his degree in it and the following year he set up his own company, Unique Sports Counselling.”

Three years later, he joined the PFA as southern region education adviser aiming to get players to prepare for life after football. He also invited attendees to his workshops to speak to him privately about emotional issues – and he discovered there were plenty who took up the offer.

Eventually he persuaded then PFA chairman Gordon Taylor of the need for a designated wellbeing department dealing with the welfare of players.

In 2015, Sam Wallace of The Independent interviewed Bennett for an article about troubles ex-Arsenal and England full-back Kenny Sansom was facing. He discovered the year before the PFA had requests for support from 197 of its members.

“That is some caseload for Bennett, a man who talks in the careful, measured tones of someone used to dealing with problems that must seem intractable,” wrote Wallace. “Last year, the PFA established a 24-hour telephone helpline for members. Safe to say, it is not underused.”

The problem, Bennett told Wallace, is that the elite-level game prepares footballers physically but not emotionally. “What we realise is players often don’t get asked how they are. They get asked about football. When they get asked about their emotions, they tend to open up.”

After a 2017 presentation by Bennett to first and second-year scholars at Norwich City, Canaries’ assistant head of education and welfare Mike Macias told Press Association Sport: “When they see it and hear it coming from someone like Mickey, who has been there, done it and bought the T-shirt, they will think: ‘This impacts me and there is someone there to help me’.”

When Bennett left the PFA earlier in 2025, he said: “I am proud of the work we have done within the department which has grown into a vital and impactful part of the PFA’s mission, ensuring that wellbeing remains at the heart of everything we do.”

Among dozens of messages of thanks for his contribution left on his LinkedIn account was one from former Albion and West Ham midfielder George Parris, who wrote: “A great stint Dr Bennett, thanks for all your help, support and encouragement not just to myself, but loads of other people along the way during your time at the PFA.”

Born to Jamaican parents in Camberwell on 27 July 1969, Bennett was raised in a block of flats near Millwall’s old ground, The Den, and it was only when he was spotted by Charlton playing Sunday League football that thoughts of a professional career in the game arose.

He went straight into the Addicks academy at 16 and made his debut in Charlton’s first team a year later. In his interview for The Athletic, he said: “You move from a youth team changing room to a first-team changing room. People don’t talk about that transition but that, for me, was pressure. I’ve gone from having jokes and banter with the boys in the youth team to the first team.

“The pressure intensifies. You put it on yourself more than anything else, because you don’t want to let anyone down.”

He continued: “The first well-being issues came when I signed for Charlton. I went from parks football, having fun, to going into a pressurised environment where results are key and you know if you have one or two bad games there’s somebody behind you waiting to take your spot.

“So, the pressure for me was constant. I wasn’t able to deal with that, I didn’t know who to talk to about it. I’d already formed my personality going into the game. I’m a very talkative person and I like to talk about stuff. There wasn’t anyone to do that with.”

On top of the various issues he was facing as a young player, he then ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament and crushed the cartilage in his knee against QPR in December 1988 which sidelined him for nine months. By his own admission, when he eventually returned to action he was not the same player, concerned over whether the injury would happen again.

On the fans forum Charlton Life: ‘Amos on the wing’ wrote: “One of the good guys Mickey Bennett. Good player, but was never quite the same player after his bad injury against OPR in 1988.”

Another poster, Leroy Ambrose, said: “One of my favourite players from the ‘Sellout’ era (ed: Charlton played ‘home’ games at Selhurst Park at the time). Good bloke – my mate was a mascot back when he was playing and he and his parents were thrilled at how nice he was, and how much time he took with them during the pre-match kickabout and after the game.”

And Ormiston_Addick added: “Started brilliantly for us, great pace and drive but never the same player after doing his knee. Great little period in 88-89 with our ‘Black Magic’ front line of Bennett – Leaburn – Williams – Mortimer.”

‘Home’ continued to be Selhurst Park between 1990 and 1992 after Bennett switched to then top division Wimbledon, who rented Palace’s stadium because their own Plough Lane wasn’t up to scratch for the top division. But Bennett was never a regular for the Dons and he and Detzi Kruszynski were used as makeweights in the transfer of Dean Holdsworth from Brentford to Wimbledon.

He joined just as Brentford began playing second tier football for the first time since 1954 but the elevation didn’t last long. They were relegated in bottom place come May 1993 although Bennett was a fixture in the side, playing a total of 43 league and cup matches plus six as a sub, and scoring four goals.

The Brentford fans forum bfctalk declared: “Despite losing Chris Hughton in December to a career ending injury, no real replacement was signed until March by which time the rot had well and truly set in. Mickey Bennett flattered to deceive and was a one game in four merchant, Detzi Kruszynski had an aversion to training and hard work.”

In another post, the forum said Bennett had “started out like a house on fire as a direct and goal hungry right winger and we thought we had discovered a new star, but he too flattered to deceive”.

It was what happened in November 1993 that many Bees fans of a certain vintage remember. Bennett had his contract terminated by manager David Webb after breaking transfer-listed teammate Joe Allon’s jaw in three places with one punch in a training ground incident.

But the PFA backed Bennett’s version of the incident and took Brentford to a Football League commission of appeal which decided the player should be reinstated. However, Bennett knew his position in the Griffin Park dressing room was untenable, and he was released by mutual consent.

The incident was back in the spotlight five years later when the media was pondering what fate awaited John Hartson for his infamous West Ham training ground kick in the head of teammate Eyal Berkovich.

Bennett, by then playing for Brighton, told a reporter: “Obviously you can’t do that sort of thing to a teammate and I would prefer to leave that memory where it belongs – in the past.”
He added: “You have to get on with life, and I have no complaints. What happened between me and Joe Allon was little more than handbags at six paces – that’s why the PFA got involved and stood my corner.”

Bennett also said: “What happened to me at Brentford was way back. Right now, I’ve got other things on my mind, like trying to score my first goal of the season for Brighton.”

However, when an enterprising journalist caught up with Allon, he said: “Mickey broke my jaw in three places with a single punch in an unprovoked attack. There had been no history of ill-feeling between us and something inside him must have snapped.

“He just flipped, I collected a punch on the chops and got carted off to hospital, where they operated on me and wired up my jaw. I was in hospital for about 10 days and out of football for three months.

“The funny thing is that Mickey was supposed to be a born-again Christian, and I couldn’t work out how such a religious bloke could just clock one of his teammates.”

For all Bennett’s desire to steer clear of headlines for the wrong reason, it was while playing for Brighton away at Swansea City on 5 February 1999 that he was in the spotlight again when he was racially abused by a home supporter who ran onto the pitch.

“I was shocked by it,” he told Naylor of The Athletic in 2021. “I knew it was bad because I couldn’t function in the game after that, my head had gone.

“The police came to me and asked what I wanted to do. For a split second I remember thinking, ‘I just want to get on the bus and go home’. The other side of me thought, ‘If I don’t do something, that person could do something to another player’.”

The case went to court and the 29-year-old assailant, who admitted racially abusing Bennett and invading the pitch, was sent to prison for a year and banned from watching in a football league ground for three years.

The player told The Argus: “All of a sudden, I turned around and saw this fan running towards me. He was coming closer and closer.

“I remember thinking to myself should I just take a punch or what do I do? Then a steward and one of their players jumped in front of him when he was about a foot away from me and hauled him off.

“For five minutes I was a bit shaky. He could have done anything to me.

“After that I just got on with the game and tried to cancel it out, but when the police came to me after the game to take a statement it brought it all back again.”

By the time of that match, Jeff Wood had succeeded Horton, the manager who’d taken on Bennett after he’d impressed enough on trial in pre-season games against Lewes and Crawley to be awarded a one-year contract.

The matchday programme introduced him as “a versatile right sided player who can operate at anywhere down the right side or in the centre of midfield”.

He started off in central midfield alongside Jeff Minton and later was used as a central defender. That autumn, he clocked up his 150th League appearance in a 2-0 defeat to Cardiff City, where he’d spent the opening three months of the 1996-97 season. Having left Brentford, he’d gone back to Charlton briefly before barely featuring in the 1995-96 season at Millwall. On leaving south Wales, he spent a year at non-league Cambridge City, and at Christmas 1997 returned to the league at Orient under Tommy Taylor.

Before facing the Os in a first round FA Cup tie in 1998, Bennett told The Argus: “I knew Tommy Taylor from my time at Charlton and I figured in one game away to Exeter, then four or five more as a sub before I was eased out.

“I’ve got another chance to face them now because I missed the league game away with a groin injury. It’s a nice tie, but I’ve got nothing to prove to Tommy or anyone else.” (Albion lost 4-2).

*Bennett in Albion’s change kit in the 1998-99 season*

Bennett found himself playing for a third Albion manager when Wood’s brief and unsuccessful reign at the Albion helm was brought to an end and, although he featured under Micky Adams, he was one of eight players released at the end of the season.

His league career at an end, he continued to play at non-league level for Canvey Island and in the 2003-04 season was part of a Canvey Island squad that also included former Brighton players Junior McDougald, Peter Smith, and the aforementioned Minton.

Meanwhile, he transitioned into a mental health and wellbeing counsellor, saying: “I identified the value of offering to the side of the game that rarely grabs the headlines but is just as affecting to the people it helps.”

On his LinkedIn profile, he points out: “Playing at all levels of the football league has provided me with an invaluable knowledge of the inner workings and operational structure of football in this country, experience that I have endeavoured to apply for the benefit of my fellow pros since my retirement.”

Great start, but Fulham stalwart Stan Brown couldn’t help slide

A WIN ON his debut was as good as it got in Sussex-born tenacious midfielder Stan Brown’s two months as a Brighton player.

Brown, who spent 15 years with Fulham, was one of too many loan signings manager Pat Saward turned to as he dismantled his 1972 promotion-winning side and tried in vain to get Albion to adapt to the old Second Division.

Brown had six seasons as a Fulham regular in the old First Division, two in the Second and two in the Third before his two-month loan with the Albion.

He was following in the footsteps of two of his five brothers, Irvin and Alan, who had both played briefly for Brighton several years earlier.

Stan certainly couldn’t have wished for a better start, in a side with another loanee debutant, Luton’s John Moore (in as a replacement for sold ex-skipper John Napier), for an away match at Huddersfield Town on 14 October 1972.

With only one win (ironically against Fulham) in the opening 12 league games, there was cause for optimism that a corner had been turned when the Albion earned a surprise 2-0 victory in south Yorkshire (Eddie Spearritt and Barry Bridges the scorers).

*A Goal magazine picture shows Brown in action for Fulham against Albion’s Eddie Spearritt in 1969-70*

“It was as if I had been playing for Albion all my life,” Brown told the matchday programme. “You see, I live at Lewes, the training ground is only four miles from my house and I have known Bert Murray and Barry Bridges for a long time.

“As for the rest of the lads, I felt I knew them too from reading about them in the Evening Argus every night. So, when it actually came to turn out for Albion at Huddersfield I knew all the players by their first names.”

Manager Saward was certainly impressed by the impact of his two new acquisitions. “The new men played a major part in our success,” he said. “It was quite remarkable really the way they slotted into the side as if they had been playing for Albion all season.

“They are, of course, experienced professionals who have been around the game a long time. But even the best professionals sometimes take time to settle into new environments and this is why the performances of these two was so outstanding.”

Injuries to regular midfielders John Templeman and Brian Bromley had provided an opening for Brown and his subsequent involvement helped the side to three successive draws. But the wheels fell off big time in his last five games as Albion lost the lot without scoring a goal.

Brown returned briefly to Craven Cottage before moving on to Colchester United while Albion’s losing streak continued through to the following February!

Although fortunes eventually improved in the final third of the season, the damage had been done and Albion dropped straight back down to the old Third Division.

Born in Lewes on 15 September 1941, Brown played for East Sussex schoolboys and captained Sussex Schools. It was in that representative side that he was spotted by Fulham, who took him on as a 16-year-old apprentice in 1957.

Older brother Irvin, a centre-half, had joined Albion’s staff in 1951 but only played three games in the 1957-58 season before moving on to greater success with Bournemouth; signed by Don Welsh, the manager who’d taken him to Brighton.

The day after Irvin left the Albion in 1958, 6’4” brother Alan signed for the club as a centre-half but was converted into a centre-forward and scored twice in eight first team games before moving on to Exeter City; signed by former Brighton teammate Glen Wilson.

Stan was undoubtedly the most successful of the three although, when he made his Fulham first team debut on 21 January 1961, it was memorable for all the wrong reasons: he was in for the injured Johnny Haynes and Fulham lost 6-1 at home to Sheffield Wednesday.

Initially a centre-forward, at 5ft 7ins he was on the small side to lead the attack, so switched to midfield – his preferred position – but he also featured in the back four.

It was in the 1962-63 season that he earned a regular place in the side and was known as a “player’s player” for his selflessness and desire to put the team before his own ambitions. He enjoyed playing in midfield alongside Haynes and Alan Mullery but was prepared to slot in anywhere if necessary.

Fulham fan Pete Grinham summed him up as “a high octane team player of the highest calibre without the individual skills of his more illustrious teammates but with the heart of a lion”.

The supporter added: “He was a very effective, tenacious tackler, and his distribution was extremely good. He did the lion’s share of the hard graft allowing others to shine.

“This selfless work for the team was not always appreciated in some fan quarters but if you could ask any player who played with him, they would commend his importance to the team.”

His loyalty to Fulham was rewarded with a testimonial game in late 1970, Fulham losing 2-0 to Chelsea at Craven Cottage watched by a crowd of 11,024.

His total of 393 appearances for Fulham, plus five as a substitute, put him in the Cottagers’ top 20 appearances’ chart. It was only when Mullery returned to the Cottage from Spurs in the summer of 1972 that Brown lost his place.

Grinham was staggered to see Brown appear at the age of 59 in a testimonial for Simon Morgan, another Fulham stalwart, who won promotion with the Albion in 2002.

The game, on 2 August 2000, saw Brown play for a Fulham veterans side against Chelsea veterans, still displaying a remarkable level of fitness.

It was that fitness that had seen his post-Fulham career continue at Colchester for five months (he played 23 matches through to the end of the 1972-73 season), then Wimbledon (1973-74) and Margate.

He continued to play at Sussex County League level for a number of years, turning out for Haywards Heath, Ringmer, Southwick and Burgess Hill, and also playing for the county representative side.

When he died aged 76 on 16 March 2017, the Argus remembered how Brown helped to nurture young talent by coaching junior football teams Lewes Bridge View and Ringmer Rovers, as well as setting up and organising the Lewes Saturday Soccer School.

Teenage prodigy Newhouse quit game to teach maths

AIDAN NEWHOUSE scored twice on his Albion debut but only started two games for the Seagulls!

The former Fulham striker netted two of Brighton’s six goals in the 1999-2000 season opening match at the Withdean Stadium.

He replaced hat-trick man Darren Freeman with the Albion 4-0 up on 7 August 1999 and promptly added two more goals to complete a 6-0 rout of Mansfield Town (pictures below).

Newhouse, wearing the no.25 later worn iconically by Bobby Zamora, was given a start in a 2-0 league cup defeat away to Torquay United. Although he regularly went on as a substitute, often for Freeman, he only began one other game: a 1-0 home league win over Cheltenham Town.

*Newhouse* *had limited opportunities in Albion colours*

Newhouse had previously played under manager Micky Adams at Fulham in 1997, and, unluckily for him, Freeman and Gary Hart were the first choice forward choices in those opening months.

Competition for places intensified in the autumn with the arrival of Warren Aspinall and Lorenzo Pinamonte. Newhouse was swiftly on his way to Conference club Sutton United.

When they were relegated at the end of the season, he switched to Northwich Victoria in 2001, but only played one match before quitting and becoming a schoolteacher.

Born in the Wirral town of Wallasey on 23 May 1972, Newhouse showed so much early promise that he made his debut for Chester City before his 16^th birthday.

He was just 15 years and 350 days old when he was sent on as a substitute by manager Harry McNally on the final day of the 1987–88 season as Chester won away at Bury 1–0 in the Third Division.

The talented teenager was in David Burnside’s 1988-89 England side for the UEFA Under-18 Championship preliminary matches against Greece (home and away), France and Czechoslovakia, scoring in the 3-0 win away to Greece on 8 March 1989. He played up front with Andrew Cole, later of Manchester United and Newcastle United fame.

The following season he went on as a sub for Cole in a 0-0 draw with Denmark at Wembley; a game which was played at Wembley before the England-Brazil full international. Three weeks later he scored England’s third when he started in a 3-0 win over Poland, another game played before a full international (England v Denmark).

In July the same year, he started all three of England’s matches (a draw and two defeats) when they finished fourth in the UEFA Under-18 Championship in Hungary.

Chester cashed in on their young prodigy, selling him to then First Division Wimbledon for £100,000 in February 1990.

First team opportunities for Wimbledon were few and far between for Newhouse and he is in the same exalted company as former Albion loanee Gary Bull in being one of only four players to have scored on their single Premier League appearance.

Ironically, it came in a match in 1992-93 against Aston Villa best remembered for Dalian Atkinson’s individual goal that won the BBC’s Goal of the Season award. “It was deflected past the goalkeeper,” Newhouse told premierleague.com. “It was a bit of a low-life goal compared to Dalian Atkinson’s.”

It was Bobby Gould who gave him his Wimbledon debut but a stomach injury halted his progress under Gould’s successor Ray Harford, as well as the form of John Fashanu and Terry Gibson.

In a 1990-91 season matchday programme article, Newhouse said: “I was really looking forward to this season. Bobby Gould had given me a taste of first team action and I felt I was ready to really stake a claim for a place.

“Then I picked up the injury and it took me months even to get back into full training let alone playing well.”

Although he was a Wimbledon player for seven years, he went out on loan on four occasions: to Tranmere Rovers, Port Vale, Portsmouth and Torquay United. He eventually left permanently for Fulham in 1997.

He scored four goals in only 12 league and cup matches for Fulham: three in a two-legged League Cup match against Wycombe Wanderers and one in the league in a 2-0 win away to Bristol City on 2 September 1997 (Richard Carpenter scored the other). But, only a few weeks’ later, Adams was controversially replaced by Ray Wilkins and Kevin Keegan under the new Mohammed Al-Fayed regime.

Before long, Newhouse was on his way too. A £30,000 fee took him to Swansea City although, by the time he had arrived, Adams’ short tenure as boss was already over, his role filled by his former no.2 Alan Cork.

It’s probably an understatement to say things didn’t work out for Newhouse in South Wales. Indeed, in a FourFourTwo magazine poll inviting supporters to name their club’s worst player, Newhouse earned the tag from Swansea fans.

He failed to score in 17 appearances across two seasons and Steven Carroll, of the SOS Fanzine, cited a particular game in February 1999, when Carlisle visited the Vetch Field, to back up the claim.

“Due to injuries and suspensions, Newhouse was awarded a rare start. Early on, he was put through on goal and fouled by the ‘keeper inside the box – but while the referee looked set to award a penalty, with said goalkeeper on the floor and both Newhouse/the ball free, our hapless striker shot from close range and missed an open goal. No penalty.

“In the second half, Stuart Roberts received the ball on the edge on the box and was about to shoot, only for Newhouse to kick him in the back of the leg. He never played again after that.”

After retiring from the game in 2001, Newhouse became a maths teacher and he told premierleague.com: “Not all of us are Stevie G and the likes of Neymar,” he said. “I played 13 years, made about £250 a week on average.

“It shows you that, you know, we can do all sorts of things and eventually, to do a job that you enjoy, you will need some education. You will need that to give you an option and a choice.

“Teaching…it’s one of those things. It’s like football, there’s a camaraderie between you and the class.

“Once the guys realise they’re part of a team, there are some similarities. You can have a laugh with the lads and they realise you are there to try and help them succeed.”

‘Talent in his boots and balance sheets in his briefcase’

ROBERT CODNER, Brighton’s first black captain in the early ‘90s, was an enigma for plenty of managers throughout his playing days but, by his own admission, the much-maligned Barry Lloyd got the best out of him.

A dynamic midfielder with a terrific shot in his locker, Codner made way more appearances for the Albion than any other club he went to and his attachment to the Seagulls continued into the modern era when he was Solly March’s agent.

Of Lloyd, he told Albion’s matchday programme: “Barry Lloyd was good for me and I don’t think he gets the acknowledgement he deserves as he steered the club through some difficult times. I know I had my moments on and off the pitch, but he always stood by me and backed me all the way.”

Born in Walthamstow on 23 January 1965, nearby Tottenham Hotspur were Codner’s first club and, although he featured in their youth team alongside future first-teamers Ian Crook, Mark Bowen and Tony Parks, he didn’t take the next step with them.

“It is very difficult to come through at White Hart Lane, they always seemed keener to go and buy someone than risk a youngster,” Codner told Shoot! magazine.

And in a matchday programme interview with Dave Beckett, he said: “At 18, Tottenham told me that they wouldn’t put me on a professional contract, so I ended up at Leicester under Gordon Milne for about 18 months.

“I never managed to make a break into the first team which I thought I deserved, and that’s why I left in the end.”

In a slightly different telling of the story, he said: “At the end of my contract he (Milne) didn’t offer me another one which was a bitter disappointment. I felt let down and was disillusioned with the game.”

After a spell working on a building site, he tried to get fixed up with Luton Town but their manager, David Pleat, urged him to get experience playing non-League football while they kept tabs on him.

“That’s why I joined Dagenham for four or five months, but I didn’t particularly like it there, so when Barnet offered me a good deal and Luton said they couldn’t top it, I switched clubs,” he said.

His form for Barnet brought him selection for the England semi-professional side; Wimbledon showed some interest but in a pre-season game in August 1988, as a triallist for Millwall, he played against the Albion.

Brighton boss Lloyd was sufficiently impressed that he was prepared to fork out what at the time seemed like an amazing sum of £115,000 for a non-league player to give him another chance to make it as a professional. (Only a matter of days previously, Lloyd paid the same sum to secure the services of centre back Nicky Bissett from Barnet).

The ebullient Barry Fry, Barnet manager at the time, said: “Codner is a super athlete with two good feet, pace and an ability to score goals.”

The conundrum at the time was that away from football Codner had begun to pursue a successful career in the City, having turned the tables on a would-be finance salesman suggesting he could do a better job.

The salesman’s employers agreed and Codner was suddenly thrust into the world of advising on unit trusts, pensions, mortgages and insurance.

It prompted a description of him in that Shoot! article as the ‘City whizz-kid with talent in his boots and balance sheets in his briefcase’.

In an interview with John Vinicombe in the Argus, Codner denied he was not utterly dedicated to playing.

“That is not so,” he said. “I’m more dedicated because I choose to play. I always believed I would get a second chance after what happened at Leicester, and Brighton have given me that chance.

“Players have to look ahead, and, ten years from now, I want to be comfortably off.

“Of course, I’m ambitious. I want to be a millionaire as a footballer and be a millionaire financial consultant too.

“I’m lucky because I don’t have football as the be all and end all, I play because that’s what I enjoy doing.”

He added: “People may ridicule me sometimes for carrying on in business as well, but a lot of footballers end up on the scrapheap; I’m determined not to be one of them.

“Having been given a second bite of the cherry, I’ll make sure I don’t end up with nothing.”

His time with the Seagulls was certainly not a smooth ride, however, and even the club’s own mouthpiece – ie the matchday programme – said: “His time at the Goldstone has not been without controversy. Earlier this season he failed to report on time for the game at West Bromwich Albion.

“At the beginning of the season the manager said he was hoping that Robert would be one of those players who, having benefited from the experience of more than a season in the league, would play a prominent part in the club’s performances this campaign. However, he is still striving to reach a high level of consistency and his name has now been circulated to other clubs as being available for transfer.”

A retrospective article in a subsequent matchday programme also didn’t spare the midfielder’s feelings. “Codner made an immediate impact and went on to score some brilliant goals, but his relationship with the supporters, like his form, eventually blew hot and cold.

“Several clubs were interested in Codner during his time with the Albion, including West Ham, who were reported to have bid £500,000 for the player in 1991.”

Codner was almost a permanent fixture in the no.10 shirt as Albion reached the 1990-91 end-of-season play-offs with the chance to return to the top tier. He scored in both the home and away semi-final legs against Millwall as the Seagulls guaranteed a place in the Wembley final v Notts County with a 6-2 aggregate win.

After the disappointment of losing 3-1 to Neil Warnock’s County, Codner said: “We’d put in so much to get to the final and unfortunately we didn’t really turn up when it mattered most. We had phenomenal support that day at Wembley but it just didn’t happen for us.”

Albion began to implode financially and were relegated at the end of the next season. Codner was still a mainstay of the midfield, though, making more appearances than any other player, and it was a spot he shared with Mark Beeney and Gary Chivers in the 1992-93 campaign.

Perhaps it was fitting that both Codner and Bissett should be the scorers in the first game after Lloyd parted company with the Albion (Martin Hinshelwood was in temporary charge). Bissett’s 89^th-minute goal salvaged a point in a 2-2 draw at Hartlepool on 11 December 1993 but Albion supporter The Groundhog remembered Codner’s 54^th-minute goal for the Seagulls thus: “You can’t not love a guy who, at Hartlepool’s Victoria Ground in 1993, while the away fans were shielding themselves from freezing sideways daggers of rain blowing in off the North Sea onto the exposed corner terrace, unleashes a 35-yard thunderbolt thwang-er-wang-er-wanging off the underside of the bar to score. You just can’t.”

While Codner appeared in new manager Liam Brady’s first game in charge, a 1-0 defeat at home to Bradford City, his off-field demons caught up with him when he had to serve three weeks in Lewes Prison for driving offences.

Codner was restored to the side towards the end of January and retained his place through to the end of the season.

A subsequent matchday programme noted: “He emerged from prison a more focused player, but, after an alleged bust-up with (Liam) Brady, was dropped in early 1995 and then released at the end of the season.”

Although Codner had been a regular under Brady in the first half of the 1994-95 season, he didn’t play for the first team again after being part of the side thrashed 4-0 at Crewe Alexandra on 14 January. Brady maintained in his programme notes: “The attitude on the day was not what we were looking for and that’s what contributed largely to losing as badly as we did.”

After finally leaving the Albion with more than 260 appearances for the club under his belt, Codner popped up at a multitude of clubs subsequently (Wikipedia lists 17 he was associated with), playing a handful of games for Reading, Peterborough and Southend United, and having a slightly longer spell back at Barnet in the 1996-97 season.

Codner now operates his own Epsom-based football agency, RC Ballers Ltd.

Boss weighed into ex Spurs teammate Joe Kinnear

JOE KINNEAR was no stranger to expletive-filled rants so we can only imagine how he reacted when his former Tottenham Hotspur teammate Alan Mullery told him he was a stone overweight and shouldn’t expect any special treatment at Brighton.

The right-back who’d won silverware alongside the former Spurs skipper ended up leaving the Goldstone acrimoniously after his former colleague took over as Albion boss.

Having made 258 appearances in 10 years at White Hart Lane, Kinnear only played 18 games for Brighton after being signed by Mullery’s predecessor, Peter Taylor in August 1975.

He’d followed fellow former Spurs defender Phil Beal to third-tier Brighton, both having been eased out of the door as Tottenham’s new boss Terry Neill re-shaped the award-winning squad built up by the legendary Bill Nicholson and his faithful assistant, Eddie Baily.

Back when Taylor and Brian Clough were turning round the fortunes of Derby County, they had acquired the services of former Spurs hardman Dave Mackay, a friend of Kinnear’s, so he was no stranger to turning to experienced old pros.

“I left Tottenham because although I was good enough to hold down a regular first team place, manager Terry Neill didn’t think so,” Kinnear told Shoot! magazine. “I’m 28-years-of-age and have plenty of soccer at senior level left in me. Brighton have the potential to become as big-time as Spurs once were.”

Three days after signing, the Irishman made his Albion debut at right-back in a 1-0 home defeat to Cardiff City and, while he played in the following game too, previous regular right-back Ken Tiler was restored to the line-up for the next three months.

Nevertheless, his lack of involvement at Brighton didn’t stop the Republic of Ireland selecting him and he made what was his last and 26^th appearance for his country as an 83^rd minute substitute for Tony Dunne in a 4-0 win over Turkey at Dalymount Park, Dublin, on 29 October (Don Givens scored all four).

Kinnear was on Brighton’s bench a few times in the days of only one substitute, and he managed four consecutive starts in December, but he had to bide his time for his next starting spot, which only came when a bad injury in mid-March brought an end to Tiler’s involvement in Albion’s promotion push.

It was timely because on 23 March a testimonial match for him against Spurs took place at the Goldstone. It had been part of the arrangement made when he signed, and the Albion XI who took to the field in front of 7,124 fans included Kinnear’s old teammates Terry Venables, Mackay and Jimmy Greaves, along with guest star Rodney Marsh.

Spurs were in no mood for sentiment, though, and ran out 6-1 winners, with Kinnear scoring a consolation for Albion from the penalty spot.

As Albion’s promotion bid unravelled, Kinnear played in 10 league matches, only three of which were won. Although he was successful with another penalty, this time against Chesterfield, the Spireites won 2-1 with two penalties of their own.

Fingers were pointed at Kinnear for a gaffe in a decisive Easter game at promotion rivals Millwall which Albion ended up losing 3-1.

In his end-of-season summary, the Evening Argus Albion watcher John Vinicombe pointedly considered it was the injury ruling out Tiler that had been a key turning point in the failure to gain a promotion spot.

Kinnear himself suffered a serious knee injury in the penultimate game of the season, a 1-1 home draw against Gillingham, capping a dismal afternoon in which he also had a penalty saved. His departure on a stretcher on 19 April 1976 was his last appearance in an Albion shirt, other than being pictured kneeling on the end of the front row in the August pre-season team photo.

What happened next was covered in some detail in a 2013 blog post on thegoldstonewrap.com. In short, Mullery had arrived as manager following Taylor’s decision to quit and link up again with Clough, who’d taken over at Nottingham Forest.

Mullery was unimpressed by his former teammate’s level of fitness and attitude and called him out in front of the squad. Peter Ward, the new kid on the block at that point, thought it was the wrong approach and, in Matthew Horner’s book He Shot, He Scored, said: “It seemed that Mullery and Kinnear didn’t get on very well.”

Contractually, Albion still owed Kinnear money but it was evident he wasn’t going to feature while Mullery was in charge and a settlement had to be reached. Eventually Kinnear moved on to become player-manager of non-league Woodford Town, beginning a career in coaching and management that ultimately took him back to the top level of the game, albeit frequently attracting headlines for some extraordinary and controversial behaviour.

But let’s stick with Kinnear the player for the moment. Born in Kimmage, Dublin, on 27 December 1946, he moved to Watford at the age of seven. After leaving school, he became an apprentice machine minder in a print works and played amateur football for St Albans City. It was there he was spotted by the aforementioned Baily, who invited him to join Spurs’ pre-season training. He initially signed as an amateur in 1963, turning professional two years later.

His breakthrough season was 1966-67. He made his debut for the Republic of Ireland on 22 February 1967 in a 2-1 defeat to Turkey and won a regular place in the Spurs side when Phil Beal was sidelined with a broken arm. Kinnear performed well in Beal’s absence and he ended it as a member of the side which beat Chelsea 2-1 in the 1967 FA Cup Final.

“I was 20 when we played in the 1967 FA Cup Final and I got Man of the Match, so it was a great start for me,” Kinnear told tottenhamhotspur.com.

All was going well until January 1969 when in a home game against Leeds United he broke his right leg in two places, and he was out of the side for a long while.

Kinnear’s misfortune provided an opportunity for emerging youngster Ray Evans, as this Spurs archive website recalls: “When he got his chance through an injury to regular right back Joe Kinnear, Evans took over in that position and provided a threat with fast, over-lapping runs along with a notable fierce shot that chipped in with a few goals for the club. Strong in the tackle and quick to recover his position, his height also helped him when teams tried to play diagonal passes in behind him.”

Evans had long spells in the side, especially in the 1973-74 season when Kinnear barely got a look-in, but the Irishman battled for his place and was first-choice right-back in Spurs’ League Cup winning sides of 1971 and 1973, and the UEFA Cup winning line-up in 1972.

The revered Nicholson had encouraged Kinnear to become a coach once his playing days were over, but he struggled to get a foot on the ladder in the UK. Ex-Derby boss Mackay, with whom he used to go to Walthamstow dogs after training, took him on as his assistant in the United Arab Emirates and Malaysia, then later at Doncaster Rovers after Kinnear had spent time in India and Nepal.

Eventually, in 1992, he got his chance at Wimbledon, defying the purists with a brand of football that saw them finish in sixth place in 1993-94 – and Kinnear won the League Managers’ Association Manager of the Year award.

Over seven years, The Dons played 364 games under him, winning 130, drawing 109 and losing 125. Despite not even playing at their own ground – they played home matches at Selhurst Park – Wimbledon continued to defy the critics with their resilience in the Premier League and progress in the cups but in 1999 Kinnear stood down as manager after suffering a minor heart attack.

He later enjoyed success in two years (2001-03) at Luton Town and had colourful spells as manager of Nottingham Forest (2004) and manager (2008-09) then director of football (2013-14) at Newcastle United.

Acres of newsprint and plenty of clips on YouTube record some extraordinary behaviour following his appointment by Mike Ashley at Newcastle. Perhaps one of the best summaries is on planetfootball.com, with reporter Benedict O’Neill saying: “Mike Ashley’s mismanagement of Newcastle has been a long-term affair with many bizarre decisions, but his appointment of the long-forgotten Joe Kinnear — twice! — may just be the strangest of all.”

Kinnear, who was diagnosed with dementia in 2015, died aged 77 on 7 April 2024.

Pictures from my personal scrapbook, matchday programmes and various online sources.

Outcast Peter Suddaby was Albion top-flight saviour

PETER SUDDABY spent nearly 10 years at Blackpool before playing a key role in Brighton’s inaugural top-flight season. The university graduate later spent a season with the Seagulls as a coach.

Albion had been struggling to adjust to the old First Division after promotion from the second tier in 1979 and it hadn’t helped that star defender Mark Lawrenson missed 12 matches following a bad ankle ligament injury at Spurs.

When Lawrenson was ready to return for a crunch match away to Nottingham Forest on 17 November 1979, instead of putting Lawrenson in the back line, manager Alan Mullery put him in midfield and thrust new free transfer signing Suddaby into the defence alongside Steve Foster.

Suddaby was 31 and had been playing for Third Division Blackpool’s reserve side at the time, so it was certainly a bold step but Mullery said: “I signed Peter because of his attitude to football. Whenever I played against him he struck me as being one of the worst losers in the game.

“If Blackpool were losing by five goals, he’d still be trying as hard as ever, and that is the sort of character we needed in the team.”

Mullery’s gamble paid off because at the City Ground Gerry Ryan’s 11^th minute goal (not to mention Graham Moseley saving a John Robertson penalty on the stroke of half-time) gave Albion an unexpected victory against a Forest side who hadn’t lost at home for two years.

The game earned top billing on Match of the Day and Mullery hailed Suddaby after the game, telling commentator Barry Davies: “He’s got something to live up to, the boy, because he had a tremendous game today up against Garry Birtles.” (see still from footage, above)

Suddaby later told Shoot! magazine: “Forest are a very good side, but we defended well against them and had that little bit of luck we needed. Everyone in the Brighton side buckled down and gave everything.

“Alan Mullery has given me a chance to prove myself in the best league in the world, and I certainly do not wish to let him down now.”

Plaudits from journalists continued as Albion built on the victory at the City Ground with successive victories over Christmas against Wolves and Crystal Palace taking the club out of the bottom three for the first time that season.

*Suddaby in an aerial battle with Coventry’s Garry Thompson at the fenced-in Goldstone*

Jack Steggles in the Daily Mirror wrote: “Alan Mullery, ready to spend a million to buy his way out of trouble, could find salvation in a man who cost him nothing. For Brighton’s chances of survival have looked a lot brighter since he signed university graduate Peter Suddaby on a free transfer from Blackpool. Suddaby’s arrival has stiffened the defence and Brighton have bagged five points from three games.” (there were only two points for a win in those days).

thegoldstonewrap.com recalled: “Suddaby definitely didn’t let Brighton down. His strong, determined tackling and ability in the air at the heart of defence was an important factor in moving Albion up the table.”

Mullery told Shoot! that he’d tried to sign Suddaby the previous season but Bob Stokoe, Blackpool’s manager at the time, refused to let him go. “He’s a tremendous winner and is just the sort of player we needed,” said Mullery.

When Suddaby lost his place in the Tangerines side under Stokoe’s successor, Stan Ternent, Mullery was quick to seize the moment.

“My career wasn’t going anywhere, and a move to the First Division was the perfect remedy,” said Suddaby, who admitted he’d been hoping for a return to the top flight since Blackpool dropped out of it. “Obviously it wasn’t easy to adjust after playing two games in the reserves and I was sad about leaving Blackpool,” he said. “But it was made clear to me that I was fourth in line for the centre-half position, so I made up my mind to move if the opportunity arose.”

Suddaby continued: “I wanted a challenge and still felt I had something to offer which is why it didn’t worry me to join a struggling club.”

Even back then, Blackpool, who’d dropped down to the Third Division, were beset with boardroom issues which the defender said had “rubbed off on the players and gave the club an unsettled atmosphere”.

Albion only lost five of the 21 games Suddaby played in and succeeded in avoiding relegation. In another Shoot! article, Mullery said of Suddaby: “He may not be a big name, but Peter does it for me week in, week out. I know I can rely on him to turn in a good performance.”

Suddaby looked forward and said: “We have enough good players to build on what we did last season.

“The club think big and I’m delighted to be part of their success. I didn’t think I’d ever play in the First Division again, but now I’ve been given this chance I mean to make the most of it.”

Unfortunately, in May 1980, Suddaby’s back gave way while out walking – a reaction to an operation five years previously when two discs were removed – and, instead of being part of Albion’s second season at the top, he spent nine months trying to recuperate.

Mullery told Phil Jones of BBC Radio Brighton: “The football club needs players of his calibre. He’s good for everybody – a tremendous professional who immediately stamped his authority on the place. I cannot speak too highly of his service to the Albion.”

Sadly, while Suddaby did recover to play for Albion’s reserves, he was not fit enough to return to first team duties.

He tried to extend his playing days with a move to Wimbledon, where he made half a dozen appearances, and then returned to his former club Wycombe Wanderers. He played 10 games in 1982, and then moved on to Isthmian League Hayes in December 1982, eventually becoming player-coach in September 1984. At the same time, he reverted to his original plan and taught maths at the American School in Uxbridge.

Born in Stockport on 23 December 1947, Suddaby was the only son of a garage proprietor, and when he was still young the family moved to north Wales where his father took over a caravan park.

Suddaby started school at Gronant Primary School near Prestatyn, where no football was played, but the local village under 16s played him on the wing when he was aged just 10, and he developed a liking for the game.

When he moved on to St Asaph Grammar School, he became a regular in the school teams. In those days he was a centre-forward and it was in that position he earned his first representative honour when he was selected for Flintshire County Schools.

Suddaby earned A-level passes in Maths, Physics and Chemistry with an eye to moving on to university although, while in the sixth form, he turned out for various Welsh League clubs and for Rhyl in the Cheshire League.

He gained a place at Swansea University and, while doing a three-year BSc course in Maths, played football for the university and Welsh Universities and British Universities, by now as a defender.

After going to Lilleshall on a university coaching course, he was chosen by former Hove Grammar School teacher Mike Smith, later the manager of Wales, for a universities team to play against several non-league sides, one of which was Skelmersdale United.

They were among the top amateur sides at the time and Suddaby agreed to join them, travelling each weekend from Swansea back to the family home in north Wales, from where he was just over an hour’s drive to Skelmersdale.

Amongst his teammates were Steve Heighway, later to gain fame at Liverpool, and Micky Burns, who became a playing colleague at Blackpool.

After gaining his degree at Swansea, Suddaby took a post-graduate course at Oxford University to gain the necessary qualification to become a teacher.

While there, he started playing for Wycombe (then non-league) and gained a Blue playing for Oxford University in the Varsity match at Wembley in December 1970.

Three days later he earned the first of three amateur international caps when he was chosen to play for England against Wales at Cardiff.

With his teacher qualification under his belt, he signed for Blackpool as an amateur in the summer of 1970 and played a few games towards the end of 1970-71 season, when they were relegated from Division One, and then turned professional.

“1 hadn’t really thought too much about becoming a professional,” he told Shoot! “I’d virtually decided that my future was as a teacher.

“Looking back, I have no regrets apart, possibly, that I didn’t join a league club a couple of years earlier. On the other hand, I am happy that I finished my education. University life taught me a lot and developed my character.”

Suddaby ended up spending nine and a half years at Blackpool, making 331 appearances, most of which came in the second tier where the Tangerines were a top 10 side for six consecutive seasons, narrowly missing out on promotion back to the elite in 1974 and 1977, but then being relegated to the old Third Division in 1978.

“I had approaches from Reading, Oxford, Watford and Blackpool but chose the Seasiders as they were in the First Division then,” he told Goal magazine in a July 1972 article. “The year we were relegated wasn’t too good, but I have never really regretted joining Blackpool.

“I had planned to take up teaching as soon as I left Oxford, but things went so well in amateur football and, after the offers started coming along, I decided to forget the teaching for a bit.”

He was part of Blackpool’s 1971 Anglo-Italian Cup winning team (below), managed by Stokoe, alongside the likes of Tony Green, Paul Hart, Alan Ainscow and Tony Evans.

Unlike many players, Suddaby always knew he had teaching to fall back on as a career, but he also got coaching qualifications to enable him to stay in the game as a coach or manager.

When Mullery returned to manage Brighton in the summer of 1985, he appointed Suddaby as his first team coach while Barry Lloyd was put in charge of the reserves.

Mullery’s second term ended acrimoniously in early January 1986. Suddaby stayed on at the Albion under Lloyd but left at the end of the season. He went back to Wycombe as manager in August 1987 but was only in charge for five months.

Suddaby subsequently joined the coaching staff at Tottenham Hotspur, serving as the club’s academy director between July 1995 and April 2004.

During that period, he helped nurture the talent of the future, seeing the likes of Peter Crouch and Ledley King break through into first team football.

They didn’t all turn to gold though. Leigh Mills was at Spurs for five years, captained the England under-16s and was capped for his country at under-17 level.

“By his regular selection for the England under-17 team, Leigh has been recognised as a leading player at his age in the country,” Suddaby told theguardian.com in November 2004. “He has an excellent attitude to maintaining his football progress, and we have great hopes that he will play at a very high level.”

However, Mills ended up on loan at Brentford and Gillingham briefly before playing non-league.

When youngster Phil Ifil broke into the Spurs first team, in 2004, Suddaby said in an interview with the Standard: “Neither I nor my coaches will ever say we made Phil Ifil or any other player. We provide them with an opportunity, and they make themselves.

“The satisfaction we get from seeing them make it is massive, though. We try to get kids from local areas and we use that as a lever because they can see if they come here, they will get a chance.

“It is difficult for kids in football these days, particularly at big clubs. But at Spurs we try and give them knowledge about all sorts of things including the media and even driving lessons. We try to make them confident young men and give them a chance.

“As an academy, we sometimes don’t push ourselves into the limelight but we have produced players like Stephen Clemence and Luke Young, both playing in the Premiership, as well as those now getting their chance in the first team at Spurs.

“But without doubt Ledley is our jewel in the crown. We can only show them the door to success – it’s up to the kids to kick it down.”

After leaving Spurs, Suddaby reverted to maths teaching, working at independent girls school Maltmans Green, in Chalfont St Peter, for nearly 13 years before retiring in August 2018.

The following year, it was reported Suddaby suffered a stroke and, in February 2020, he and former Wycombe teammate Keith Samuels visited Buckinghamshire Neurorehabilitation Unit (BNRU) at Amersham Hospital to make a donation towards the sort of equipment that helped Suddaby recover from his illness.

Pictures from Goal magazine, the Argus, the 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.

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 Bent At 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 goal Bent 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 Bent Nevertheless, 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.

Promotion-winner Sam Baldock part of Albion’s history

BRIGHTON’S football history will record Sam Baldock as part of the squad who earned the club promotion back to the top division after a 34-year absence.

Baldock and Oliver Norwood famously crowd surfed on a train from Falmer to Brighton, held aloft by jubilant supporters celebrating after the April 2017 win at home to Wigan Athletic.

It was one of the many joyous scenes that will live long in the memory banks of Brighton fans following that momentous occasion.

In the cold light of day, though, it’s probably fair to say Baldock divided opinion about his contribution to the cause. Manager Chris Hughton described him as “a great professional and a good character in the dressing room” but, whether because of injuries or lack of opportunity, the diminutive striker never quite made it at the top level his brother George would go on to reach with Sheffield United.

Baldock was certainly a hard-working player but perhaps he didn’t deliver goals consistently enough to warrant the ‘super’ status attributed to him by some of Albion’s more vocal supporters. Injuries seemed to take their toll on a player whose most successful spells have generally been at third tier level.

SB WHU West Ham United, under Sam Allardyce, gave Baldock a platform to take his lower-league goalscoring prowess to a higher level when they began the 2011-12 season in the Championship. But, after a bright start, he disappointed and eventually only stayed for one year of a four-year deal.

Although he was popular with fans, he clearly didn’t float Allardyce’s boat. West Ham fans are astute observers of the game and one of the best summaries I’ve read about Baldock’s contribution was in a piece on westhamworld.co.uk.

“Baldock is a short, pacey, centre forward. He has an eye for goal, which is great but, he doesn’t have the strength or power like other players we have like (Carlton) Cole or (Ricardo) Vaz Te,” the author of the article wrote.

“In a world where it appears the 4-4-2 system is dying very quickly, especially at the top level, it causes problems for Baldock, who seems to be a player who likes to feed off the other striker who can hold the ball up and thread a pass through for him to run onto.

“He is your ideal little man in the big man and little man 4-4-2 but, with the formation not being used very often and, especially under Allardyce, we don’t see it much at all.”

Born in Buckingham on 15 March 1989, Baldock went to the town’s The Royal Latin School (where his mum was the deputy head) and, at 16, joined Wimbledon’s youth system at the time they relocated to Milton Keynes. He signed on as a trainee in 2004 (pictured below signing a contract with MK Dons owner Pete Winkelman) and after impressing in FA Youth Cup games earned call-ups to the first team squad.

Former Albion captain, Danny Wilson, gave Baldock his first-team debut at 16 as a late substitute against Colchester United in a 2-1 Football League Trophy defeat on 20 December 2005.

He didn’t feature again until the 2006-07 season, by which time Martin Allen had taken over as manager. One of only two Football League Trophy games he was involved in included a 4-1 defeat against Brighton.

It was when Paul Ince became manager that Baldock got a few more chances at first-team level and he got to appear at Wembley as a substitute in March 2008 when MK Dons beat Grimsby Town to win the Football League Trophy (otherwise known as the Johnstone’s Paint ‘Pot’).

However, it was when Roberto di Matteo took over from Ince in the 2008-09 season that Baldock finally became a Dons regular, netting 13 goals in 44 appearances and catching the eye of the international selectors.

In September 2009, he was selected for the England under 20 squad which took part in the World Youth Championship in Egypt – a squad which interestingly also included goalkeeper Jason Steele, later a back-up ‘keeper at Brighton, and future full England internationals Danny Rose and Kieran Trippier.

Baldock played in the opening 1-0 defeat against Uruguay, went on as a substitute in the following game, a 4-0 defeat to Ghana, and again in the final game, a 1-1 draw with Uzbekistan. England finished bottom of their group and were eliminated.

Baldock didn’t get selected again but, having scored a total of 43 goals in 124 appearances for MK Dons, he became Allardyce’s seventh summer signing for West Ham in August 2011.

SB WHU colours He couldn’t have asked for a better start when he scored five times in his first six games for the Hammers. Unfortunately, as has been the case throughout his career, he picked up an injury that sidelined him, and, in his absence, Nicky Maynard and the aforementioned Vaz Te became first choices in the forward line.

The Hammers decided to cut their losses after just one year of his deal and he was sold to Bristol City for £1.1m. His 10 goals in 34 games were insufficient to keep the Robins in the Championship but back at League One level, the goals flowed once more.

Baldock was the Robins captain under Steve Cotterill and scored 26 in 54 games in the 2013-14 season (neatly compiled on YouTube), earning him the League One Golden Boot. That prompted Brighton to snap him up on 27 August 2014, signing for an undisclosed fee (thought to be £2m) on a four-year deal until June 2018.

Signed as part of the regime under head of football David Burke, Baldock, 25, joined the squad assembled under new manager Sami Hyypia, who told the club website: “Sam was one of our key summer attacking targets and I’m delighted we have now completed the transfer.

“He’s a predator, instinctive in front of goal and his career goal record is excellent. He’s played and scored goals at this level, and we are confident he can be a major threat for us going forward.”

As it turned out, Baldock scored only four goals in each of his first two seasons but contributed 12 in the Seagulls’ promotion-winning campaign of 2016-17.

It was enough to earn him a new deal, and he told the club website: “As soon as the club made noises that they wanted to extend my contract it was always in my head that this is where I want to be.

“Last season was probably the pinnacle of my career, and I hope now we can establish ourselves in the Premier League and continue to improve together.”

Hyypia’s successor, Hughton, added: “We are delighted that Sam has agreed a new deal with us. He has been a key member of the squad since he arrived at the club and this new contract is recognition of his contribution over the last couple of seasons.”

However, Hughton ultimately gave him very few chances in the Premier League and, after playing only five games in the 2017-18 season, he was sold to Championship side Reading.

Baldock-Reading Royals boss Paul Clement told the Reading website: “I’m very happy that Sam has joined us here at Reading, having pursued his signature throughout the summer.

“I always felt he was the right striker for us to bring to this club in terms of his age, his experience and his quality.”

Although he penned a three-year deal with the Royals, his initial season at the Madejski was blighted by injury and, having scored just five in 23 games, and seemingly not in new manager Jose Gomes’ plans, there were reports during the recent close season that he would be invited to look for a move elsewhere.

On 17 August 2021, Baldock signed a short-term deal with Derby County to cover the injury absence of former Brighton striker Colin Kazim-Richards. When that contract came to an end in February 2022, Baldock joined League One Oxford United until the end of the season, and in May 2022 was given a two-year contract by manager Karl Robinson, another of his former managers at MK Dons.

“I walked through the door back in February and it felt like the right place straight away,” the boyhood U’s fan told oufc.co.uk. “The badge has always had a special place in mine and my family’s hearts ever since it was the first club we watched live at the Manor.

“Having previously worked under the gaffer I knew I wanted to play for him again – he got the best out of me earlier in my career and I hope that can happen again.”

Pictures from various online sources.

Cherries legend Mark Morris and the memorable Storer moment

mark morris bw bourne

STUART Storer is rightly remembered as the scorer of the vital winner against Doncaster Rovers in the last ever match at the Goldstone Ground.

Few remember exactly how the ball fell kindly to him that rain-lashed afternoon on 26 April 1997, but close scrutiny of the much-played clip before games at the Amex (also available on YouTube) shows it was from a rebound off the bar following a header by centre back Mark Morris.

Although defending was his priority, Morris had chipped in with a fair few goals over the years – including getting the winner for the Albion on his debut in a 3-2 win at Hartlepool on 2 November 1996.

Morris was a seasoned pro who had captained Bournemouth and Wimbledon and been part of a promotion-winning side at Sheffield United.

He had answered the call to join Brighton when his old Bournemouth teammate Jimmy Case was manager, as he told The Argus in a 2001 interview. The Seagulls were struggling at the foot of the bottom division with the trapdoor to oblivion gradually creaking open.

Maybe if the Morris header had gone in rather than rattling the bar, a different name would have been etched into the annals of Albion history.

Of the vital last-ditch game at Hereford, Morris told The Argus: “As a player, we were playing for the future of a club steeped in tradition. It was one of the biggest games in my career and the result was paramount.

“I was about 35 then. It was getting to be close to the end of my career and I wanted to end on a decent result. Hopefully I played some part in keeping the club up.” Continue reading “Cherries legend Mark Morris and the memorable Storer moment” →

In parallel lines

Memories from 55 years following Brighton & Hove Albion

Tag: Wimbledon