This picture is from Superclubs Soccer Yearbook 1998/99 and shows livid Brighton fans staging a sit down protest on the pitch during the ‘Troubles’ of the mid-1990s:
Do you recognise anyone in this photo?
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Yearly Archives: 2013
Brian Clough: You Can’t Win ‘Em All
A fitting time to share this gem of a pop record, after Brighton’s painful 0-2 Play-Off Semi-Final home defeat against Crystal Palace yesterday.
This track (file under ‘philosophical football’), where Brian Clough made an astounding guest appearance, was by JJ Barrie, the Canadian singer and songwriter, most famous for his cover of ‘No Charge’ which was number one in the UK in June 1976. How he ended up recording a song with the then Nottingham Forest manager is a mystery to me although I have heard suggestions that Barrie was a fan of the City Ground side.
For your reference, the improbable fantasy commentary is:
“Neeskens is going down the wing. He’s crossed to Beckenbauer and he heads down to Keegan. A one-two with Dalglish. He takes on two defenders. Brady takes over. He lobs to Cruyff. He’s in the 30 yard box with a short pass to Pele. He shoots. It’s in! What a goal – ONE – NOTHING! In the final twenty seconds. It’s just as Peter Taylor predicted!”
A very nice touch to namecheck assistant boss Peter Taylor in there. Apart from the FA Cup, the management double-act pretty much did win ’em all: League Championship, League Cup, Charity Shield, European Cup and European Super Cup. Unlike at Forest and Derby, I think the track is far more relevant to Clough and Taylor’s brief time at Brighton together, where results were often mediocre, or even dire such as Albion losing 4-0 at home in the FA Cup to Walton & Hersham (which Clough wittily said sounded more like a branch of solicitors than a football club!) in November 1973 and then getting trounced 8-2 by Bristol Rovers at the Goldstone Ground three days later.
Here the two men are in an unhappy mood, with Brighton chairman Mike Bamber in between. As the song suggests, defeat is no more than ‘a toss of a coin, the luck of the draw’ although when the stakes are high, it doesn’t often feel this way.
Longest throw competitions
While Brighton slid down the Football League in 1995/96, young central defender Ross Johnson could still be proud of his calm performances, showing good aerial ability and growing in confidence.
The Brighton-born lad, who turned 20 in February 1996, even got a bit of national media coverage in Shoot! Magazine, with his long throw-in, which served the team well in matches as effectively as a corner:
A throw of 33.6m propelled Johnson onto the Leaderboard in fifth place. Sadly, I have no record of Eddie Spearritt’s effort for Grandstand in 1970/71, in the BBC’s sport show’s Longest Throw competition, presented by Frank Bough, who also presented on Nationwide in the 1970s and then Breakfast Time in the early 1980s.
Sporting some lovely curly blonde hair, Spearritt was an impressive utility player for the Albion in the late 1960s and early 1970s. He could play in defence and midfield, and even deputised in goal when required. He’s also the uncle of Hannah Spearritt, ex-member of S Club 7. Here, his long throw is beaten by Cardiff’s Bobby Woodruff:
Brighton v Nigeria, 1981
Amazingly, on 24th August 1981, Brighton played a friendly against the Nigerian national side.
Here’s Steve Foster’s high challenge that created the opening for Tony Grealish to get Albion’s first goal. So high, the cameraman almost missed it.
According the club’s match programme, Neil McNab was ‘always in the thick of the action against the Nigerians.’
In a match sponsored by British Caledonian Airways, Brighton & Hove Albion triumphed 5-1. Grealish, Foster, Ritchie, McNab (pen) and Smith got on the scoresheet. We beat a whole country at football, in other words!
In Gordon Smith’s entertaining autobiography, ‘And Smith Did Score,’ he writes vividly about the match:
We were playing a friendly against the Nigerian national side at Brighton and it turned into a real roughhouse. I was playing up front and we were winning 3-0 when their six-feet-four centre-half came up to me and said, ‘You are shit.’
‘What do you mean?’ I asked.
‘I said you are shit. You are a bad team. Liverpool are a good team but you are shit.’
‘Well, if we’re beating you 3-0 and we’re shit, what does that make you?’
And the giant centre-half answered menacingly, ‘I am going to get you. I’ll kill you.’
After some really bad tackles were going in and Tony Grealish got such a bad tackle you could see the bone and the ligaments in his leg through the gash. The whole Nigerian team were acting like maniacs and, at the final whistle after we had won 5-1, I said to the big centre half, ‘So who’s shit now?’
‘But we’re amateurs,’ he said.
‘Yes, we can tell,’ I replied.
That’s when he went off his head and came chasing after me. There was a huge scuffle in the tunnel and he had to be held back while I headed for the dressing room.
Abou ten days later, I walked into the club and was told to go to the treatment room to get an injection from the club doctor. When I asked what it was for, I was told I was going to play a return match against Nigeria, in their capital city, Lagos. I immediately said I wasn’t going. ‘It’s one of the worst places in the world,’ I said. ‘The land that time forgot.’
Mike Bailey said that, if I didn’t go, he would fine me two weeks’ wages.
‘Do you want to take it out of my wages or do you want a cheque now?’ I asked him.
I got back to the dressing room and the boys were wondering what was going on. I told them about Nigeria and why I wasn’t going. One by one, the rest of the team agreed they wouldn’t go either. A team meeting was held and we told the management we weren’t prepared to go to Lagos to play the Nigerians. The following day, the doctor was back in, giving the reserves their injections to go to Nigeria. Mike Bailey didn’t even go and no one was fined. The incredible thing was that, although the reserve boys didn’t enjoy the trip, they played in front of 90,000 people in Lagos – the biggest crowd most of us would have experienced at that stage in our careers. The reserves were used to playing in front of 200-300 fans.
Pro Set Cards 1990/91
Anyone remember collecting these cards in the early 1990s?
Pro set was a Dallas company founded by Ludwell Denny. It began with a set of cards covering American football from 1989 onwards. Indeed, ‘pro set’ is the name of a formation commonly used in this sport. (After a look at wikipedia, it’s roughly a 2-1-8 formation, I think!). By the early 1990s, ice hockey and golf enjoyed the fledgling company’s card-making ways, as it made great use of the deals it had signed to gain access to extensive photo libraries. It even put together a patriotic ‘Desert Storm’ series based on the Gulf War!
Skipping over the Atlantic ocean, in 1990/91, Pro set also launched a set of 328 cards based on the English Football League, designed to be housed in plastic wallets within an oversized binder. Division One clubs enjoyed thirteen or fourteen player cards each while little Brighton & Hove Albion, together with the other Second Division sides, were allocated two to four player cards.
Here’s the set of three Brighton cards in this series:
With me having been schooled in the ways of Panini, it certainly was unmistakeable that Pro set cards had a different sensibility, with the head and shoulders shot of the player relegated to the back of the card. The front of the card featured a high quality borderless action shot of the player in the home or keeper’s kit (not in a tracksuit nor away shirt, unlike some other collections I could mention!) within the drama of a match. Drawing from a rich stock of images, you can also be sure that this really was Perry Digweed that you were looking at, with absolutely no photo jiggery-pokery of superimposed heads on other players’ bodies!
For me, as a school child, having only really known Panini stickers and not having yet clapped my eyes on the Topps’ cards of the 1970s, it was so novel to see that players plying their trade below the top flight were getting their own individual card or sticker. John Byrne had previously had his own individual sticker in Panini Football 86, 87 and 88, although that was, of course, with a Division One club at the time, Queen’s Park Rangers.
John Byrne is joined by Gary Chivers, his former team-mate at QPR, who played 42 League games during the 1990/91 season. It was a fine time for Brighton devotees to collect these cards, as our team had a great season, reaching the Play-Off Final. Had we beaten Notts County, we’d have had even more incentive to collect during the following season. As it was, I can only remember my brother and I still showing interest in them by 1991/92!
Barry Butlin scores the winner at Selhurst Park
Classic match report by John Vinicombe from the Evening Argus in September 1975:
Fighting Albion sink pacemakers Palace
Albion shattered the unbeaten seven-match run of Third Division leaders Crystal Palace last night before a crowd of 25,606 – the best for two seasons at Selhurst Park – with a goal after only three minutes from new loan signing Barry Butlin.
Having seized a dramatic lead Albion fought to stay in front and redeem themselves after that abject defeat at Colchester.
In the physical battle Albion came out on top – a fact ruefully acknowledged by Malcolm Allison: “They marked us very tight and they kicked us. We missed three tremendous chances that should have been put away. For football we slaughtered them… how many shots did Brighton have, three, four? We were beaten by frustration. You can outplay a side and not beat them. That is what happened to us.”
As a strict contrast to the Palace manager, Peter Taylor confined himself to the pertinent comment: “I was delighted with the result, but I have talked too much this week. The lads did the talking out there tonight.”
Indeed, they did: it was a performance that could well herald the much-promised revival. This was no ordinary League match.
The exchanges were conducted in a cup-tie atmosphere, and the cut-and-thrust carried through with the zest of deadly rivals.
No quarter was asked, or given, but not once did I see a vicious or mean foul awarded by the TWO referees. The first half was run by Denis Turner of Cannock. But he strained an ankle and the second period saw John Hazell from Colchester promoted from senior linesman to the middle.
On 22 occasions Albion were penalised, while Palace had 18 free kicks given against them. This stiffening of resistance by Albion was a direct contrast to their last outing when Allison had them watched. “I was told that Brighton didn’t fight very hard. Well, you saw them tonight… the teams that will go up from this division will be those who fight every week, not just here and there.”
Albion can take this as a compliment and start believing themselves away from home. The first free kick of the match produced the only goal and a first for Albion from Butlin. Machin split Palace with his artful kick and Fell, with room to move, hit a low cross that Binney jumped over. When the ball arrived at the far post, Butlin’s shot was unstoppable.
Barry Butlin was a former Derby and Luton striker who had topped the Second Division scoring charts when his seventeen goals helped the Hatters to promotion in 1973/74. (You can see footage of him scoring for Luton in a remarkable game in the snow and fading light against Huddersfield). He had joined Nottingham Forest in a £120,000 deal in October 1974. Making smart use of his ties with Brian Clough, Brighton boss Peter Taylor was able to secure Butlin on loan in September 1975. The goal at Selhurst Park was in the second of the attacker’s five appearances with the Albion. He followed up his Selhurst winner in the next game with another goal as Brighton romped to a 3-0 win against Chesterfield at the Goldstone.
The two successive victories pushed Brighton up to sixth position, a welcome relief after three successive campaigns battling relegation. Nevertheless, inspired by the flamboyant Malcolm Allison and breathtaking wing-play of Peter Taylor (as opposed to the then Brighton boss of the same name), Crystal Palace were still sitting pretty at the top of Division Three, with the loss to the Albion their only League reverse of the season so far. It was still their sole defeat by 6th December when the South London side held a yawning seven point gap between them and second place Brighton. Surely an unbridgeable gap? In the promotion chase that followed, however, Albion completed the League double over Crystal Palace in February 1976, with Sammy Morgan getting both goals at the Goldstone. Helped by wins such as this, Brighton held the runners-up slot as late as 3rd April 1976, before a run of one win in the last five matches ended their dreams. As for Crystal Palace, they seemed distracted by a wonderful run to the FA Cup Semi-Final where they enjoyed famous victories over Leeds, Chelsea and Sunderland. The League form of Malcolm Allison’s side imploded and they finished the campaign weakly with one win in eight matches. By the season’s conclusion, they had nosedived to fifth spot, one place behind the Albion.
When the year ends in ‘3’
It was often said by football folk that it’s a good year for Tottenham Hotspur when the year ends in ‘1.’ They’ve won the FA Cup in 1901, 1921, 1961, 1981 and 1991 and the League Championship in 1951 and 1961. For Brighton & Hove Albion, I’m not aware of any particularly ‘lucky’ years. However, it’s true that the club has a truly appalling League record when the year ends in ‘3’. Let’s have a flick through post-war history…
It was not so bad in 1952/53, with Brighton finishing 7th in Division Three (South). Fast forward ten years later to 1962/63 and the club suffered relegation from Division Three, finishing 22nd out of 24 clubs. The manager was George Curtis (not the same one who managed Coventry in the 1980s) who had a disastrous spell in charge at the Goldstone, having seen the club relegated from the Second Division the previous campaign.
Here’s the team photo for the inglorious season:
The season was memorable for the heavy snow in the New Year. Here’s some shots from the Halifax match in January 1963. The pitch looks like an ice rink:
And from the Crystal Palace match in the same month:
The younger players were dubbed ‘Curtis’ Cubs’ as he put his faith in youth. New signings included teenagers John Dillon (Sunderland), Bobby Walker (Gateshead), and David James and Ken Franks (Blantyre Victoria). A day before his twentieth birthday, defender Norman Gall, made his debut at Watford in September 1962, replacing popular captain Roy Jennings, before being dropped after a mere three matches, all lost. This was in the middle of a twelve match run without a win. Not surprisingly, Curtis left the club by mutual consent in February 1963, with Archie Macaulay being appointed in April after a caretaker managerial spell by Joe Wilson.
Ten years later, in 1972/73, goalkeeper Brian Powney and defender Norman Gall were the only survivors in the Brighton side that finished bottom of the Second Division under Pat Saward. Another long winless run put the kybosh on the season. This one ran for sixteen matches with the last thirteen all ending in defeat! A decade on, Brighton & Hove Albion again finished bottom, in Division One, but at least they had an FA Cup Final to look forward to. In 1992/93, Brighton finished ninth in the third tier (Division Two) before another relegation in 2002/03 (Division One – second tier), when twelve successive League matches were lost from mid-August 2002.
With Brighton & Hove Albion in the Championship play-offs in 2013, this League season is probably the best one ending in ’3′ in the club’s history. Time to lay the ghosts of 1963, 1973, 1983 and 2003 to rest.
Your questions for Fred Binney
Through doing The Goldstone Wrap blog, I’ve been contacted by Fred Binney’s son Adam. As many of you know, Fred was the Brighton team’s goal poacher supreme in the mid-1970s, hitting 23 League goals in 1975/76 (all but five at the Goldstone) before losing his place to the Ward-Mellor partnership the following season.
Adam says his dad is “retired now and spends as much time on his narrow boat with my mum as possible. He’s invited to go back to Brighton to walk the pitch every year and loves it when he has the time to get there. Apart from that he stopped coaching Plymouth Uni this season, But I suspect he misses it.”
His son also adds “he is not really interested in being lauded and doesn’t look for any kind of adoration. He doesn’t really like the attention, but he does love Brighton & Hove Albion and remembers his time there fondly.”
I asked if Fred was willing to do an interview with questions from Albion fans, and he was. So, if anyone has any questions for Fred, or thoughts on him as a player, please add them as a comment or email them to seagulls@me before adding .com at the end.
Thanks!
The Dolphins badge
This rather gorgeous item was found on eBay a few months ago. It is from the brief period of time in the mid-1970s when Brighton had adopted the Dolphins nickname. Flicking through a 1974/75 match programme, this Club Lapel badge would have cost 25p, while a pin badge would have set you back 5p.
Curiously, the Dolphin design never made it onto the shirts of the team but some enterprising Albion fans have taken a step in this sartorial direction. The very wonderful Albion fanzine The Seagulls Love Review have produced T-shirts in a range of colours (white, black and royal blue) with the Dolphins logo, cheekily sticking their zine name on it.
If you’re interested, you can buy one here. Good work, chaps!
Steve Foster: third choice as captain
From Match Weekly:
Brighton defender Steve Foster wasn’t the club’s original choice as skipper… he was third in line!
Before the season started Brian Horton, who led ‘Seagulls’ to the First Division in 1979, was expected to carry on the captaincy.
But his surprise move to Second Division promotion favourites Luton created a chance for Eire international Mark Lawrenson and he took charge for a couple of pre-season friendlies.
Mark didn’t keep the job for long because he too fond his way from the Goldstone Ground when Liverpool manager Bob Paisley parted with £900,000 to take him to Anfield.
So new manager Mike Bailey found himself looking for another leader and he had no hesitation in choosing 23 year-old Steve.
‘Mike’s decision to make me skipper came right out of the blue – I’d never even thought about leading the team before,” said Steve. “But it’s a great honour and I’m really enjoying the job. I suppose I play in the ideal position for a captain. Being a defender means you can see more of the game and can tell where things are going right or wrong. I see my role as putting over what the manager wants on the field. It’s my job to make sure each player does what he has been told to do. I’m a bit of a moaner on the field. Part of my game is talking and if things go wrong I’m not scared of bullying my team-mates.
‘The lads have been tremendous. They’ve just knuckled down and done what I’ve told them. I think we can do really well this season. We’ve made a good start and I’m sure we can build on it.’
Foster did so well in 1981/82 that he found himself picked for the England World Cup squad in Spain that summer.
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