A pleasant illustrated history of the Albion, from the Brighton v Bournemouth programme from September 2001:
Click image to expand it.
The Goldstone Wrap
The Albion Retro Blog
Category Archives: Around The Goldstone
Bamber’s dream of a future stadium
I found this amazing artist’s impression of the club’s proposed new home in a copy of the Evening Argus in 1983. It’s rather laughable now to see the suggested design captured by this rather primitive looking sketch. Even more laughable that it’s so talked up:
Architects will tour the United States before drawing up final plans for Albion’s £8 million super stadium.
Henry Carn, of the Hove firm of Morgan, Carn and Partners, believes a two-month stay would be needed to catch up with advances in design.
They are determined not to make mistakes like that which occurred with one U.S. stadium which generated its own atmosphere… and thunderstorms.
Albion’s planned stadium is currently designed with 25,000 seats, although Chairman Mike Bamber might opt for 20,000 seats and space for 10,000 standing fans.
Areas under the seating would be for office use or other sporting activities. Around the playing pitch would be a running track to attract local and regional athletics meetings.
I wonder at what point was a consensus reached that athletics tracks spelled bad news, with the cost to the atmosphere at football games eclipsing the financial gain of athletics events. Certainly not in 1983. At least not here. Of course, Brighton fans did end up watching home games on a pitch surrounded by an athletics track – at Withdean Stadium from 1999 to 2011.
The structure above ground would be ringed by precast concrete arms. Between these would be overlapping concrete planks which allow in air but keep out rain. The roof cover would be made of polycarbonate translucent sheeting hung from steel masts and cables.
That would be some eyesore! If we had got this design, would we have been stuck with it?
The sheeting would allow natural light through to the playing area while artificial lighting would be slung below the inner edge of the overlapping concrete roof planks.
Like Mr Bamber, Mr Carn believes fans now demand much better facilities than the Goldstone Ground offers.
“It’s not necesarily just the men who want to see matches now. Soccer is much more a family activity and you need facilities that accommodate families and cut out the aggro we see at grounds today,” he says.
In April 1983, East Sussex County Council’s Policy and Resources Committee offered to hold talks with the club on a new home. It was envisaged that the stadium could be built at any of half a dozen sites on the outskirts of Brighton. Mike Bamber most favoured the site of Waterhall, off Mill Hill:
Close to the proposed Brighton bypass and the main Brighton-London rail line, the site would be easy for fans to reach. But it’s not just soccer fans that would benefit from the development, Sitting in his plush American-style offices in Hove Street, the property millionaire outlined his thoughts on how the stadium would be financed and its variety of uses.
“All we would need from council is the land – the rest won’t cost a penny,” he said.
A supermarket concern would pay for the stadium in exchange for approval to build a giant superstore. Parking space for thousands of cars would be provided for shoppers in the daytime and fans in the evening or at weekends. The development would be set low in the valley to protect the natural beauty of the surrounding Downs. And with soccer being played only once or twice a week, the complex would become a multi-purpose community centre.
Gyms, squash courts, athletics tracks and clubs could be established at the stadium and the main hall would cater to community events and major entertainment. It’s a concept well advanced in North America and one the Government in this country is thought to favour. There would be other benefits for Albion. The sale of the Goldstone would wipe out the club’s debts and put them back into black.
Youth team football pitches adjoining the new stadium could provide valuable prospects for the team. Mr Bamber rejects the idea that the complex would drive trade out of the town centre and he insists the facilities will generate their own business. “I expect to get opposition but I believe we will win through in the end,” he said. “We have a team in the FA Cup Final. All that’s missing is a decent ground. The new stadium will be great for the community and I’m convinced it will bring back the missing fans.”
His big dream since becoming chairman eight years ago, Mr Bamber believes the stadium could be the first of many in Britain and would rival some of the greatest centres in Europe. “People are much more upmarket these days,” he said. “The days of the cloth-cap terraces and the cup of tea and hotdog stands are over.”
Sadly. relegation from Division One, financial difficulties and boardroom unrest took their toll on Mike Bamber. He suffered a heart attack in March 1984 and resigned as chairman and director in July, citing ‘major and mutual disagreements on policy.’ As a result, his plans for a stadium never got off the ground.
Small, Codner, Wilkins
Here’s Mike Small
Here’s Robert Codner
And here’s Dean Wilkins
All excellent players on their day. All plucked from non-league football or as English players brought back from abroad, hallmarks of a Barry Lloyd signing for the club at the time.
On Saturday 15th September 1990, all three players scored for Brighton in a 3-2 victory over Charlton Athletic at the Goldstone Ground. Small, Codner, Wilkins. Nothing unusual about that.
The following Wednesday, 19th, Brighton played their next match, against south coast rivals Portsmouth, again winning 3-2. And you’ve guessed it, the scorers were… Small, Codner and Wilkins. In that order. I wish I could say the attendance was exactly the same for both games, but that wouldn’t be true!
Then, the next Saturday, Brighton were away to Bristol City, 2-0 down at half-time. Could the miraculous happen again with a stirring 3-2 comeback courtesy of our famous goalscoring trio? Sadly, it was not to be. Although Mike Small scored, Codner and Wilkins didn’t and Brighton ended up losing 3-1.
Albion Ladies in the 1970s
From the Brighton v Oxford programme in 1990/91:
The photograph was one of the first that was taken of the Albion Ladies team founded in 1969 by long time Brighton supporters Christine Read (née Basilio) and Jean and Alf Walker and financed by the Supporters Club. Christine and her mother, Janet, played in the team in 1971 and are still season ticket holders, as is Christine’s 11 year old daughter who hopes to play for the Albion Women’s team.
Pictured with the team in the above photo is Miss Albion, Maureen Beech (centre in the photo below), who won despite competition from runner-up Sandy Straw (right) and third-placed Patricia Leahy (left).
OK, it’s not quite up there with Coventry City’s match programme’s rather salacious ‘Girl of the Match’ feature. Even so, the above photo came about via a valiant attempt to smuggle some sex interest into the pages of the Brighton & Hove Albion Supporters’ Club Official Handbook for 1970/71. Not sure the club would get away with such a competition these days!
South coast switch for Terry Connor
It was a sad day for Albion fans when goalscorer Terry Connor left relegated Brighton for Portsmouth. From summer 1987 (I’m not sure if it’s from Shoot! or Match):
A short move down the South Coast has put Terry Connor on course for a return to the First Division. Twenty-four-year-old Terry was linked with a number of clubs during the season, but his £200,000 move to Portsmouth came out of the blue with the player insisting: “It’s been claimed that I said I would never play for Brighton in the Third Division, but that’s just not true. I never said anything of the sort. I admit that last season was a disaster for the club but I hadn’t asked for a transfer and just wanted some time to think about my future. Then I got a call from Brighton manager Barry Lloyd and he told me Portsmouth had come in for me and the club were prepared to let me go. No player likes to drop down a division and, of course, everybody wants to play in the top flight. I’m no different and, if the club were prepared to sell me for the right price and I wanted to get into the First Division, then it’s quite simply good business for all concerned.”
Connor had previously experienced top flight football with Leeds and Brighton:
His flirtation with the First Division ended when he was swapped with Andy Ritchie and arrived at the Goldstone ground just in time to see the club drop in the Second. “Leeds were my home-town club and it took me about a season to settle in Brighton,” says Terry. “Then, earlier this season, I won my first England Under-21 cap, managed to get a goal and, at that stage, Brighton were just below half-way in the Second and there wasn’t too much to worry about. But there were problems in the boardroom, with the manager and with the players and all of a sudden we were in the Third.
The move did not go well for Connor. Having been relegated from Division One with Leeds in 1982 and Brighton in 1983, he made it an unwelcome hat-trick as Portsmouth under Alan Ball crashed out of the top flight after just one season, in 1988. As a manager, of course, the ex-Goldstone favourite was also in charge of Wolverhampton Wanderers as caretaker boss as the side slid out of the Premier League in 2012.
Ray Clarke, the striker who turned Peter Ward’s fortunes around
It’s strange that Ray Clarke seems almost a forgotten striker in Brighton’s history. Fans waxing lyrical about the late 1970s speak in high regard for the Peter Ward-Ian Mellor striking partnership that terrorised Third Division defences in 1976/77. They also talk glowingly of Michael Robinson’s swashbuckling centre-forward style and, of course, Gordon Smith’s famous chance in 1983.
But where is the praise for Ray Clarke, the striker that helped turn Peter Ward from a struggling top flight striker into a force in Division One?
Clarke’s 28 goals for Mansfield fired the Stags to the Fourth Division Championship in 1974/75 and his 24 goals the following campaign contributed immensely to keeping the side in the Third Division. This led to a remarkable £80,000 transfer to Sparta Rotterdam in Holland in July 1976, where he was top scorer (with 16 and 24 goals) in each of his two seasons there.
In Marshall Cavendish’s Football Handbook Part 59, there’s a fascinating piece about Ajax in the late 1970s under coach Cor Brom, as the new generation struggled to gain recognition while living in the shadow of the ‘Total Football’ side of Cruyff et al, plus this magnificent photo of Ray Clarke, looking for all the world like a ’70s fashion king in his Ajax get-up.
Londoner Ray Clarke, the player Brom had brought with him from Sparta of Rotterdam, was also the target of criticism inside the club. Clarke, once rejected by Spurs, is a strong and unselfish striker with an excellent scoring record. Last season he finished as Ajax’s top scorer with 38 goals – 26 in the league, six in the cup, six in the UEFA Cup – but during the summer they sold him to Bruges for £200,000.
Clarke spent only one season with Ajax… and early on he had problems adjusting. ‘One problem was that the quality here is so much higher than anything I’ve been used to before,’ he said. ‘Ajax have some fabulous players – Rudi Krol, for example… I don’t think it’s possible to appreciate just how good he is until you’ve played with him. It was only in the last three or four months that I started to play the way I know I can.’ Clarke’s 26 league goals put him second only to European Golden Boot winner Kees Kist of Alkmaar in the Dutch League.
Clarke’s spell in Belgium at Bruges was very brief as Alan Mullery snapped him up for Brighton in October 1979 for £175,000. As John Vinicombe wrote in ‘Super Seagulls’:
He spent only five months with Bruges and admitted that it had been a mistake not to go straight back to England. ‘It was quite an upset then for me to leave Ajax. I had heard a whisper they wanted to buy some new players and that they intended to raise the money by selling me. So I thought that if that was their attitude, I might as well accept the offer Bruges had made me.’
Before Clarke’s arrival at the Goldstone, Brighton & Hove Albion were finding life tough in the top flight, bottom after twelve matches, having recently shipped four goals at home to Norwich City. However, as Vinicombe continues:
The arrival of Clarke was a vital injection and his cheerfulness did much to cast off the blues. He was a fresh mind looking at Albion’s situation, and reminded despairing fans: ‘It is ridiculous for people to write Brighton off at this stage. I remember in my second season at Mansfield the team was bottom after 26 games with only 16 points, but in our last 20 games we won 15 and drew five and finished sixth (sic: 11th) from top.’ That was the sort of fighting talk people wanted to hear on the eve of a second meeting with Arsenal.
Ray Clarke made his Brighton debut in a 3-0 defeat at Arsenal, but scored a consolation goal against League Champions Liverpool in the next match at the Goldstone in November 1979. Then came the match that was the turning point of the season. Albion travelled to City Ground to European Champions Nottingham Forest more in hope than expectation, and pulled off a sensational result, winning 1-0. See the picture on the right for Clarke having a shot under the watchful eye of Viv Anderson and Martin O’Neill. It was Forest’s first home defeat in Division One since they were promoted to the top flight in April 1977.
Clarke’s strength and selfless play had a profound effect on Peter Ward. Before partnering up with Clarke, Ward was finding it hard against First Division defences. He had only scored twice in twelve Division One matches. Supported by Clarke’s hold up play and service, Albion’s star player transformed into a striker that hit around one goal every two games in Division One, quite a useful asset to have to get Albion climbing up the table. By the end of the season, in the games playing alongside Clarke, Peter Ward scored fourteen times in only thirty First Division matches, an exceptional tally in a team in the lower half of the table. Clarke himself weighed in with eight League goals as Brighton finished in sixteenth position, comfortably safe from relegation. He even managed to score against his old club Mansfield in the FA Cup, something that he finds bittersweet.
In Matthew Horner’s ‘He Shot, He Scored, the biography of Peter Ward,’ Ward says:
‘Ray was a good player – not at all flash , just a sound, straightforward target man. I liked playing with him and after he joined and Teddy (Maybank) left, we played every game together. I hadn’t had a regular partner since Ian Mellor in the Third Division and it helped to have some consistency. When I played alongside Ray I probably played the best football of my Brighton career – it was a shame that he left so soon.’
Here’s an example of a chance Ray Clarke fashioned for Ward:
Clarke was sold to Newcastle United in July 1980, perhaps as an outcome of seeing a specialist. As an interview with Spencer Vignes in the Brighton v Preston programme from 2004/5 says: ‘The specialist told him it was his hips which, to cut a long story short, were disintegrating. He might have four years left, or just 12 months. It was hard to tell’ and to make things worse Clarke was uninsured so Brighton would not receive a penny if he broke down while with the club. Maybe that is why he was sold so quickly. Perhaps Mullery was determined to buy Michael Robinson anyway. What is clear, however, is that without Clarke as a striking partner, Peter Ward went back to a low scoring rate in the First Division. Partnered with Robinson, Ward got one goal in eleven League matches at the start of 1980/81 before being sold to Nottingham Forest where, again, he was far from prolific. Neither did he hit a rich scoring vein on his loan spell back at Brighton in 1982/83 when he scored just two goals in 16 Division One matches. As for Clarke, his spell at Newcastle was over when he broke down with injury after only fourteen matches in 1980/81. He was just 28 when his playing career ended.
How it was then: Alan Mullery leaves Brighton in June 1981
At the end of ‘Up, Up And Away,’ John Vinicombe’s account of Brighton’s promotion to the First Division, he paints a rosy picture of the relationship between chairman and manager in 1979:
It took the arrival of Mike Bamber to bring about a new era, for, without Bamber, there would have been no Mullery – no promotion. They are twin architects of Albion’s success and the key to their thinking can be seen in Bamber’s motto on the wall of his Goldstone office – “they can, because they think they can”:
(In the photo above, from ‘Through Open Doors’ by Brian Radford, you can just about see the slogan).
However, by 1981, things had turned for the worse. Manager Alan Mullery resigned after disagreeing with Mike Bamber about the chairman’s plans to reduce the size of the coaching staff and how to resolve the Mark Lawrenson transfer saga. Mullery had cut a deal with Manchester United that involved cash plus a part exchange of a player, but Bamber had already set his sights on a money only £900,000 deal with Liverpool. Mullery decided it was time Bamber found a new club manager.
From Alan Mullery – ‘The Autobiography’ (2007):
Angry.
That’s how I felt in the days after I left Brighton. I thought I’d achieved more than any previous manager at the club. I’d started with a decent Third Division team and developed it into a Division One side filed with top-level players – Mark Lawrenson, one of the best defenders of modern times; John Gregory, Steve Foster and Gary Stevens, all of whom went on to play for England; Michael Robinson of Eire; Neil McNab and Gordon Smith, both Scottish internationals.
Plenty of that calibre would never have dreamed of joining Brighton and Hove Albion before I took over. My credibility helped me to sign them. I’m not saying I deserve all the praise for the rapid rise the club enjoyed during my five-year stay, but I sure as hell played my part. Our two seasons in the top flight were tough, there’s no denying that, but any club should expect a similar period of transition.
If I had continued to enjoy the backing I’d received while Harry Bloom was alive, I’m sure we could have consolidated our position as a First Division club. Instead I was out of the cold and Brighton went on to be relegated just two seasons later.
Did I regret walking out after my confrontation with Mike Bamber? Was I too headstrong? The honest answer is yes, I was fiery and prone to rush into emotional decisions. I should have taken my time to think things through before resigning, but it wouldn’t have changed anything in the long term. If I had backed down over the Lawrenson transfer, I believe Bamber would have walked all over me from that moment on. And my pride was too strong to allow that. Our split was inevitable.
As Mullery departed from Brighton & Hove Albion that summer, “the truth was,” he later wrote, “my best days as a manager were already behind me.”
Jimmy Case spills the beans on his team-mates in 1984/85
From Shoot! Magazine in 1984/85:
My team mates are a varied collection of characters, from the very shy to the extremely noisy and unpredictable.
Graham Moseley: Our ‘Mose’ is a great lad for charity work. The other week he dragged his three kids with him on a wind-swept charity trudge along the seafront – a do organised by our tremendous supporters’ club. He’s also a very fine keeper.
Gary O’Reilly: Just arrived from the heady regions of Spurs and quickly added his wit and outspoken character to our dressing room. “Gaz” is a fine player and a great asset to the side.
Eric Young: “Youngers” is such a powerful and impressive player, yet he is too quiet! I believe that he can go all the way if he can develop the verbal side of his game and organise everything round him. Always loses his contact lenses!
Steve Gatting: “Gats” has a smooth, relaxed approach to his game that stems from his ability to read situations quickly. That earns him time on the ball and he’s good at using it. Loves golf and can relax for hours with a few good records.
Chris Hutchings: “Hutch” is another fine golfer – he spends a lot of time on the course with “Gats” and a very fine left-back who began his career with Chelsea.
Danny Wilson: Danny is currently attending relaxation classes with his wife, who’s expecting a baby in a few months. Only hope he doesn’t relax too much! Tenacious midfield player who has made a big impact since joining the club from Nottingham Forest.
Steve Jacobs: Known to us all as “Duggie” … and he hates it. Stems from our discovering that his middle name is Douglas. Sorry Steve!
Gary Howlett: Talented young Dubliner who is one of the reasons we now have a squad strong enough to stay the pace of the season. Started his career with Home Farm and joined us via Coventry.
Terry Connor: There’s danger in the air when Terry’s around. Chases lost causes, frightens defenders and scores good goals. “T.C” is the type of forward who will win a game for you out of almost nothing.
Frank Worthington: Takes a lot of stick from us because of the flashy and sometimes astonishing clothes he wears on match-days. Loves the rock and roll scene.
Steve Penney: Fast, tricky and now finding that defenders are ready for him and willing to spare two men to shut him out.
In the upbeat article Case is adamant that “if we work hard and keep our sights fixed on one game at a time, we have the necessary know-how and experience to make a return to the First Division.”
Well, he was right in one respect. He did make a return to the top-flight, but it was with Southampton, as Chris Cattlin made a massive mistake by selling the Liverpudlian for a mere £30,000 to Brighton’s south coast rivals in March 1985. The Seagulls missed out on promotion by just three points.
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.
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.
The Goldstone Wrap 