Happy birthday, Gary!
Date of birth: 8 March 1955.
Car: Chrysler Horizon.
Favourite player: Liam Brady.
Favourite TV shows: The Kenny Everett Video Show and Fawlty Towers.
Most difficult opponent: They’re all easy.
From Shoot! Magazine in 1979/80.
The Goldstone Wrap
The Albion Retro Blog
Category Archives: Media Coverage
The glorious bubble perm of Peter Ward
In this perm, Wardy hit ten goals to help fire Albion into the top flight and then another sixteen to help keep Brighton amongst the elite. In Scoop Magazine, from 12 July 1980, it says:
Although he’s a hero down Brighton way, life hasn’t always been easy at the Goldstone Ground for star striker Peter Ward.
He was on the transfer list last summer and again in the autumn.
But when Brian Clough failed to whisk the talented star away to Nottingham Forest, it triggered off a South Coast revival!
Peter sat down and had a long chat with his manager, Alan Mullery, and sorted out a lot of problems. He felt much happier after that and it showed in his big match performances.
“I had a very good Christmas,” Peter smiled. “First there was my first hat-trick in Division One against Wolves. Then I scored again on Boxing Day, when we beat our old rivals, Crystal Palace. Those results obviously helped everyone at the club and we went on to hold our First Division place last season quite comfortably.”
Sadly, in the summer of 1980, Ward ill-fatedly grew a moustache to add to the perm. Not sure why – perhaps the additional weight – but he was never the same again. He scored just one League goal in eleven games at the start of the 1980/81 season before signing for Brian Clough, where again he was far from prolific. Ward did rejoin the Albion on loan in 1982/83 and his two League goals in 16 League matches barely hinted at what kind of player he was in the late 1970s. Goldstone regulars spoke of how his movement was not what it was.
Some players are weighed down by their big transfer fee. Ward may well fit into the rare category of star players weighed down by their ‘taches.
Evening Argus previews the season
I’m sure the Argus has been previewing the football season since time immemorial. And covered every one since the start of the 1990s. However, I don’t think they’ve ever done a job as good as this fondly remembered free magazine-sized publication from the start of the 1989/90 campaign, ditching the usual newspaper-sized format. Mine came with an ‘Evening Argus – Seagulls’ cardboard banner. If only I’d still kept it!
A forty-page special is graced with interviews with cover star Steve Gatting, comeback kid Martin Lambert, Robert Codner and Perry Digweed, a colour team photo centre-spread, pen pictures and photo opportunities with the players in pre-season training, including in that horrid red and white patterned away kit that looked more like a dull pink from a distance.
A full page advert for embarrassing club sponsors NOBO promised the company would be ‘top of the 1st division for display and training aids.’ However, the British Gas ad below with 1970s-style comic is splendidly retro, even for back then.
The only downside is that the magazine is rather heavy on adverts. Even so, they help give an evocative sense of what life was like in the late 1980s, when the local dialling code was still 0273, Garry Nelson had his car sponsored by FIAT, and ASICS were a popular sportswear manufacturer proud to have Barry Lloyd (awkward, insincere smile and all) advertising its football boots.
Kevin Bremner – The Seagull Has Landed
By 1989, Brighton were no longer regulars in the weekly national magazines, so any coverage was like gold dust.
In Shoot! Magazine, he said:
“It’s all very relaxed down here and even when I was sent-off pre-season nothing much was said about it. Manager Barry Lloyd loves to play entertaining, attacking football so wherever we go and whatever the score, it’s tally-ho, forward we go.”
After being in his strike-partner’s shadow for a couple of seasons, Kevin Bremner certainly did turn the tables on Garry Nelson in 1989/90, getting twelve League goals compared to his striking counterpart’s five. Nelson was hampered by injury from February onwards, which opened the way to Sergei Gotsmanov’s arrival.
Shoot Cover: Neil Smillie (25 February 1984)
Unlike his other photos, winger Neil Smillie doesn’t quite look like the doppelgänger for Just Good Friends‘ actor Paul Nicholas in this front cover.
Inside this edition, there is a preview of the Watford v Brighton FA Cup tie. John Barnes says:
‘I watched Brighton beat Liverpool in the Fourth Round and I was very impressed. They’ve lost none of the snap and sparkle that carried them to Wembley last season. But I for one am delighted we’ve drawn them. Brighton are an attacking team and an attractive team.’
Brighton’s teddy bear
Alan Mullery is holding Albion’s one-time mascot…
…and so is Mark Lawrenson.
Why, you may ask, is Mark Lawrenson sitting holding a giant, cuddly teddy bear?
“After all the injuries I’ve had lately, any mascot is welcome,” explains the Brighton star. “I was out for ten weeks at the start of the season with severed ankle ligaments.”
Mullery is one of Mark’s greatest admirers, and Alan’s sure the kid from Preston can go to the very top.
“When I signed him I knew the lad had tremendous potential. Now people can see what I was talking about. I said he could be another Beckenbauer… and I stand by that.”
At 22, Mark is one of Britain’s rising young stars. To reach his full potential, he needs to steer clear of more serious injuries, And that’s why you’ll find him holding that teddy bear mascot down at the Goldstone!”
To read the full article of ‘Mark Lawrenson – Brighton’s Beckenbauer’ from the 1979/80 campaign, just click on the photo.
Spotlight on Brighton
Full of optimism here. However, a wretched run of one win in the last ten Division Two games puts paid to the promotion push in 1985/86 and cost Chris Cattlin his job.
Note how much Dennis Mortimer resembles Gordon Greer!
1982/83 Evening Argus Fixture Card
Each season when the Evening Argus produced these, even the most ardent supporter would consider it rather over-optimistic that there would be a space to fill the score in if Brighton reached the FA Cup Final. Except, of course, it happened this season.
Note, for copyright reasons, that the charming footballer graphic on the front doesn’t quite include the adidas logo, three stripes, the British Caledonian logo, but rough approximations.
While we are on the subject of 1983, this week TalkSport has a wonderful retrospective on this FA Cup Final, with guests Jimmy Case, Gordon Smith and Arthur Albiston.
Fred Binney – in Focus
Shoot! magazine’s famous ‘Focus’ feature sets its sights on goal-poacher Fred Binney. Nothing quite dates this article more than that groovy font for Fred’s name.
Biggest disappointment? ‘The performances of Brighton during 1974/75 and 1975/76.’ Interesting!
Jimmy Case’s cracking header – as drawn using felt-tips
Case’s thumping headed goal against Liverpool at the Goldstone Ground 1981/82 is celebrated at Match Magazine through a rather primitive yet charming diagram.
The goal, Brighton’s second, can be seen below:
You be the judge of whether Grobbelaar’s positioning was really as hapless as the drawing suggests!
The Goldstone Wrap 