Thanks to Nick Spiller for lending me these marvellous items.
A pair of badges from the late 1970s:
…some discs from 1979/80:
…and yet more discs, this time from 1980/81:
The Goldstone Wrap
The Albion Retro Blog
Tag Archives: gerry ryan
The Boys in the Old Brighton Blue
Here are the the 12″ and 7″ versions of Brighton’s 1983 FA Cup Final song, with ‘The Goldstone Rap’ as the B-Side, released on Energy Records:
With superb attention to detail, the front and back covers had lavish designs that helped to soften the blow to club sponsors British Caledonian Airways, whose name would not feature on the players’ shirts on Cup Final day, due to TV regulations at the time:
Back row: Michael Robinson, Steve Gatting, Gordon Smith, Graham Moseley, Perry Digweed, Gary Stevens, Steve Foster, Jimmy Case;
Middle row: Sammy Nelson, Giles Stille, Neil Smillie, Tony Grealish, Graham Pearce, Gary Howlett, Gerry Ryan;
Front row: Terry Connor, Chris Ramsey.
I originally bought the 12″ from one of the second hand record shops on Trafalgar Road, Brighton. Not sure how much it cost me, but it was considerably less than the £50 forked out by one of The Seagulls Love Review fanzine lads, Stefan, at a BHACHS auction at Withdean about five years ago!
You can see a dance performance to this song here:
The song can be heard in its entirety below:
In case you want to have a sing-a-long, the rather corny lyrics are:
Chorus
come on you seagulls, we’ll follow you
come on you seagulls, we’ll see you through
come on you seagulls, we’ll follow you
the boys in the old Brighton blue
verse 1
we are the boys in the white and the blue
football’s our game, Brighton’s our name
we are the team who’ll be out there for you
the boys in the old brighton blue
verse 2
here we are on the road to wembley way
fighting hard for our place on that day
for the pride of our town down by the sea
we’ll do our best to bring them victory
verse 3
cause we are the boys in the white and the blue
football’s our game, Brighton’s our name
follow the flag we’ll be flying for you
the boys in the old Brighton blue
reprise chorus
verse 4
as we go on our way to meet the best
once again we’ll be put to the test
but we’ll play like we always try to do
we won’t give up until the game is through
verse 5
we are the boys in the white and the blue
football’s our game, Brighton’s our name
follow the flag we’ll be flying for you
the boys in the old brighton blue
verse 6
follow the boys in the white and the blue
football’s our game, Brighton’s our name
follow the flag we’ll be flying for you
the boys in the old Brighton blue (twice)
reprise chorus with last line sang twice
I have been told that the lyrics of Albion’s FA Cup final song were reproduced on an A4 sheet which was distributed over the counter at the Seagulls Shop.
In the end, the song reached number 65 in the UK singles chart. Not a bad achievement considering the song wasn’t all that good!
The walking wounded
Gerry Ryan, Chris Hutchings, Justin Fashanu and Terry Connor posed before Brighton’s match with Blackburn at the Goldstone in September 1985:
Making up a ‘plaster cast’, the photo illustrated how Chris Cattlin was down almost to a bare minimum of players from which to choose his team. Ryan’s injury was caused by the terrible challenge by Crystal Palace’s Henry Hughton in the previous season. He never played for the Seagulls again and eventually had to retire, receiving a benefit match in August 1986.
By contrast, Hutchings recovered by October, eventually making 29 League appearances, mainly as right-back. Even so, he was surprisingly dropped for the FA Cup Quarter-Final against Southampton in March, a decision that Cattlin readily admitted was a mistake, before being restored for the rest of the campaign.
Fashanu also enjoyed an extended run after the controversial striker made his return in the 4-0 defeat by Liverpool in the Milk Cup at the end of October 1985. While never quite hitting the heights of form, he was ever-present in the number 9 shirt in December and January. His last game for the Seagulls was in the memorable FA Cup tie at Peterborough in February 1985 before he fell foul of recurrent knee injury problems.
It was Connor, though, who made the biggest impact upon his return. He had limped off against his former side Leeds in the 1-0 home defeat at the start of September. It took two months to recover and yet the centre-forward plundered a very creditable 14 goals in the rest of the season, one short of top scorer Dean Saunders.
Horton leads Brighton to glory
While he was with Luton Town, Brian Horton took the time to reflect upon the greatest moment in his career, winning promotion to the First Division with Brighton, after a 3-1 victory at Newcastle. This is from Shoot! Magazine:
Brian Horton meticulously gathered together the contents of his kit bag for the most imporrant match of his life. Then, just as carefully, he made sure he had not forgotten the lucky charm that is his constant companion.
A Sphinx, given to him while he was playing for Brighton in the Third Division, has not left his keyring since.
Horton explains: “One of our supporters handed it to me, saying the Sphinx would bring me good luck, That night we played at Lincoln and Steve Piper, who was with me at the time, and myself each scored a goal.” So Horton, now doing the same inspiring captain’s job at Luton as he did with Brighton, was not without the key-ring when his team made the trip from the South Coast to play Newcastle at St. James’ Park on May 5th, 1979.
Brighton needed to win to be certain of gaining promotion to Division One for the first time. There could be few more daunting trips than to the heart of Geordieland.
Horton, a tenacious midfield player, recalls: “We travelled to Newcastle by train on the Wednesday before the match, played golf on the Thursday and trained on Friday. Alan Mullery, our manager, wanted to get us in as relaxed a frame of mind as possible.
Goal 1: Brian Horton
“I managed to score an early goal with a near-post header from a corner. When I think about it even now, I can almost feel the ball hitting my head. It is probably the most important goal I’ve ever scored and it gave us the perfect start.
“Peter Ward and Gerry Ryan added further goals to give us a 3-0 lead at half-time.”
Goal 2: Peter Ward
Goal 3: Gerry Ryan
“Newcastle pulled one back in the second-half, but we’d done enough in our superb performance before the interval. We came home the same night and the champagne hardly stopped flowing all the way from Newcastle to Brighton. There were hundreds of fans on the train as well, so the atmosphere was marvellous.
“When we arrived back at Brighton in the middle of the night there were thousands of people to greet us and there were memorable celebrations when we went round the town the next day.” Horton was a significant figure in Luton’s promotion last season.
He says the two campaigns were different: “Everybody expected Luton to go up and we were clearly the best team.
“But at Brighton, we’d missed out a couple of times in tight finishes and we realised that it was imperative we made it.” Horton received a Second Division Championship medal with Luton last season, but did not get any medal for leading Brighton to the First Division. Players from clubs finishing second or third do not receive any momento from the League.“But I do have my lucky Sphinx to remind me of Brighton’s day of glory.”
Horton still sees some members of the Brighton side that never failed to finish in the first four of either Division Three or Two in four successive seasons.
Whenever he wants to recall that memorable day in May at Newcastle, he needs merely to insert the television recording in his video.
“Every now and again I watch it,” he says. “It always makes me feel good.”
Ryan lords it over Fulham
A photo of star-striker Peter Ward against Fulham in 1978/79 was featured in Roy of the Rovers magazine:
However, it was Gerry Ryan that stole the headlines in October 1978 as the Seagulls won 3-0 at the Goldstone. Here is the match report by Tony Roche of the Sunday Mirror:
Brighton’s new winger Gerry Ryan hit two goals and lorded it over Fulham.
Before the destruction, manager Alan Mullery made his Albion men sit through a film of their hammering last week at Crystal Palace.
Fulham, with 12 points from their previous seven games, paraded their new signing £80,000 John Beck from Coventry. But it wasn’t their day.
Mullery said: “I made the lads watch the whole 90 minutes of last week’s match. And they saw their own shortcomings. Fulham suffered as a result and for me and Teddy Maybank, it is always nice to beat your old team.”
The first half riddled with frustrating back-passes, narrowly went to Brighton.
In front of a shirt-sleeved crowd, Brighton weathered Fulham’s early assaults and slowly got a grip in midfield where man-of-the-match Brian Horton dominated.
Fulham seem capable of absorbing the pressure until an 18th minute moment of indecision by Peyton.
Horton’s right-wing throw bounced in the box and as Peyton hesitated, Ryan hooked the ball into the empty net.
Evans (dissent) and Beck (foul) were booked in the space of six minutes, shortly after the goal.
Fulham rallied in the second half and Graham Moseley did well to hold a powerful Gale header at full stretch.
But once again lose concentration cost Fulham dear. Evans fouled Ward and as Rollings curled in the free-kick, Horton burst between Gale and Money to bullet header wide of Peyton.
Fulham had their chances – both falling to Davies. He did well to create space only to shoot wide.
Horton reserved the best for last, whipping through a glorious ball in the 90th minute to release Ryan on the right.
The Irishman sprinted into the area, seemed to take too long as he sidestepped defenders then coolly found Peyton’s bottom right-hand corner.
The day’s big duel was between Rollings and Guthrie. Rollings came out on top to help Brighton reach fourth spot in the Second Division.
Ryan’s goals seemed to give Albion a more immediate return for their £80,000 spending than Fulham had for gaining John Beck for the same figure. The Seagulls signing had scored in the previous month in the 5-1 slaughtering of Preston North End. By the end of the season, the Irish winger and midfielder had amassed 35 League appearances for his new side, scoring nine goals including the final one in the famous fixture at Newcastle.
From this point on, Gerry Ryan developed a habit of getting notable goals in encounters with the best sides, such as the only goal in the famous victory against Nottingham Forest at the City Ground in November 1979, the winner against Arsenal in September 1983, not to mention those FA Cup goals against Liverpool in February 1983 and January 1984.
Meridian TV: Goodbye Goldstone
Bill Archer gives the show a touch of the surreal
Yesterday on North Stand Chat, a user called The Great Gatsbt answered a request by posting the infamous hour-long special on Brighton’s plight, on Sunday 9th February 1997:
It makes for remarkable viewing. As Foster’s Headband remarked:
Bellotti and Archer were on telling the usual lies and a few very irate fans. Tony Millard, John Vinnicombe, Atilla, Paul Samarah, Alan Mullery, Mark Lawrenson, Gerry Ryan all had their say and Ivor Caplin who proved that both Archer and Bellotti to be lying about a supposed planning application they had put in, but Caplin informed the programme this had already been refused.
Here is an extract from Stephen North and Paul Hodson’s ‘Build a Bonfire’ (p.166-167) about the show:
WARREN CHRISMAS: We’d all had such a great time at Fans United and everyone was still buzzing on the coach going over to Meridian to record the programme. We weren’t made to feel very welcome and it was a bad programme. It was bad PR for Albion supporters, it just didn’t go right. At the beginning of the programme Geoff Clarke says there will be plenty of opportunity for Albion’s fans to ask questions, and there never was and before we knew it, it was over and it wasn’t until it was over that everybody started to get really angry.
PAUL SAMRAH: Fans United on the Saturday was a brilliant day – the Sunday, the ‘Goodbye Goldstone’ debate on Meridian TV, was a disaster. We went in there rather naively thinking that all the facts surrounding the furore about the club will be explained in a balanced view and it wasn’t. Dick Knight was not going to attend because Bill Archer wouldn’t attend. Well, to our surprise Bill Archer was there, David Bellotti had the cheek to turn up and also arrived with his wife which was even more galling because in our negotiations with Bellotti he’d asked us to refrain from any verbal or other attacks on his wife and we naturally assumed that, really, she would take a back seat.
Regrettably things got out of hand and we didn’t get our case across in a professional way and it ended up being a shouting match and I was glad the programme ended when it did because I think we could have done our cause an awful lot of harm.
Bellotti is brilliant in front of the cameras, he’s a superb guy in an interview – he can answer a subsidiary question and miss the main question.
Archer came across as a nice guy sitting in a studio in Liverpool.
As soon as I came out of the debate I rang Dick Knight and said, ‘Did you know that Archer was appearing?’ and he told CEDR because it was a CEDR agreement that they wouldn’t go. Driving back the 60 miles from Southampton we felt cheated, we felt hijacked and the most annoying thing was that we knew it was down to us. It wasn’t anybody else really that had let us down, it was ourselves that let ourselves down.
LIz COSTA: The ‘Goodbye Goldstone’ programme was a total triumph for Archer and Bellotti. And this having taken place a week after Bellotti had said to us, ‘Please leave my wife alone’, he brought her into that studio. She had nothing whatsoever to do with that programme – she had no input, was not expected to have any input.
Archer was there with a patch over his eye, we were told, because he had corneal problems. The neutrals, the people who didn’t really know what was going on or had chosen not to take any notice, must have thought, ‘What the hell are the supporters on about? Archer and Bellotti are so totally feasible.’ Well, that’s how they bloody wriggled their way in in the first place, by being feasible.TONY FOSTER: To some extent we were stitched up on that – as far as I’m concerned so was Dick Knight and the consortium. Things were edited, we had to re-do quite a bit and at the end of the programme re-record certain bits that probably didn’t come across on the programme.
PAUL SAMRAH: I am afraid it was the low point of our campaign.
Seagulls soar over Anfield
The Daily Mirror’s headline, ‘The Seagulls have landed’, captured the moment that Brighton truly arrived as movers and shakers in the FA Cup by beating Liverpool at Anfield on 20th February 1983:
By HARRY MILLER:
Liverpool 1, Brighton 2Jimmy Case, a Scouser by birth, habit and conviction; went back to Merseyside yesterday and destroyed a dream. This morning the talk about Liverpool winning four trophies is silenced because Case and Brighton believed the impossible.
Liverpool manager Bob Paisley muttered “Never again on a Sunday” after Case’s 71st-minute winner had silenced the Kop and sent Jimmy Melia’s men forward to the FA Cup quarter-finals.
But Paisley was one of the first into the Seagulls’ dressing room afterwards to shake the hand of Case, the midfield player he sold to the south coast club for £300,000 18 months ago.
“Good luck to Brighton. I hope they go on to win the Cup,” said Paisley. “This is what happens when you get people saying a team can win four trophies. It just wasn’t on.”
Case, who still goes to watch Liverpool with a red-and-white scarf wrapped around his neck when they play in the European Cup, recalled with a smile: “I said it would be a dream if I got the winner. The dream has come true.”
There has been no bigger sensation in the competition this season than Brighton, bottom of the First Division, going to Anfield and knocking out the runaway leaders.
It was Llverpoors first defeat at home in a Cup tie since Mlddlesbrough best them 64 cup games ago back in 1974.
Just as significant in front of a 44,868 full house, it was Liverpool’s first defeat at Anfield since Brighton won 1-0 there last March.
Brighton hustled, denied Liverpool space, defended superbly, took their chances and deserved to win.
Acting manager Melia, as much a Scouser as Case, said: “We matched Liverpool for work-rate and that pleased me more than anything. I said we would play attacking football and we did.”
Mella particularly praised striker Michael Robinson – for whom any move to Newcastle must now walt – and centre half Steve Foster.
Brighton’s first goal came after 32 minutes from Gerry Ryan. Case sent the magnificent Robinson racing forward for a cross that Ryan side-footed past Brace Grobbelaar.
Alan Kennedy hit a post with a thundering drive and Robinson thumped a header against the bar at tne other end before Liverpool equalised in the 70th minute.
It was unfortunate that young Gary Stevens, who with Foster and Steve Gatting, performed wonders at the back, should assist Johnston’s shot past his own ‘keeper Perry Digweed follov~ng a Kenny Dalglish free-kick.
The winner came little more than a minute later. Case got it with a 25-yard drive that was helped by a deflection from a Liverpoot defender.
Liverpool’s agony wasn’t over. Phil Neal, on his 32rd birthday, shot wide from the penalty spot after Tony Grealish had pulled down Kennedy.
Grealish protested so heatedly that he was booked by referee All Grey. “I thought I’d won the ball. It was a harsh penalty,” he said.
Afterwards Brighton headed for the south coast with their FA Cup ambitions as high as the British Caledonian flight that took them there.
In case you haven’t seen the 46 minutes of highlights on YouTube, here I have spliced it with commentary from Tony Millard and Stephen Rooke of Radio Brighton:
It’s a Seaside Knockout – Ryan wrecks Liverpool’s day out
Tomorrow, it’ll be exactly thirty years since Brighton’s tremendous FA Cup 4th Round humbling of mighty Liverpool in January 1984. As a Second Division side, the Seagulls beat the League Champions 2-0 on ‘The Big Match Live’ thanks to two goals in two second half minutes from Gerry Ryan and Terry Connor.
A great image from the game can be found on the Football Association Yearbook 1984-1985, with Tony Grealish in a midfield tussle with Graeme Souness, while Steve Gatting watches on:
Meanwhile, Match Weekly covered the game in its feature article the following fortnight, via interviews with Gerry Ryan and Jimmy Case:
Gerry Ryan and Terry Connor celebrate after the match
Seaside sensations Brighton capped a season of shocks when, for the second year in succession, they sent FA Cup favourites Liverpool spinning out of the competition.
“Match” brings you the inside stories and the best pictures from the Fourth Round stunner.
Seagulls hero Gerry Ryan came down to earth this week to re-live his FA Cup fairy tale.
Gerry set South coast Brighton on their way to yet another sensational Cup victory over Liverpool by scoring the opening – against the League champlons for the second year running.
The Irish international rocked Anfield last year with Brighton’s opener in the Fifth Round… and he repeated the trick in this season’s tie at the Goldstone Ground.
And the scourge of Liverpool admits: “It’s unbelievable. To beat the best team in Europe twice in the FA Cup is magnificent, but to score on both occasions really puts the icing on the cake for me. I*11 never forget it.
“The goal at Liverpool was a simple tap-in after some great work by Michael Robinson but it will always be special because it helped set up a victory at Anfleld .. and not many teams achieve that.
“My effort last week was more spectacular, although I thought the referee was going to blow for offside when Tony Grealish lobbed the ball over the heads of Mark Lawrenson and Alan Hansen.
“Fortunately, Phil Neal had played me on so I raced towards the penalty area and struck the ball past Bruce Grobbelaer.”
And just 60 seconds later, the Second Division club had wrapped up another sensational victory when Terry Connor put Brighton 2-0 ahead.
“Even though that goal killed them off, the rest of the game was very nerve-racking.”
Gerry admits that the early departure of skipper Graeme Souness with a hamstring injury had a big bearing on the result. He says: “Graeme is a major influence on the side and his loss unsettled them.
“This victory was more satisfying than the one at Anfield because we deserved to win. Last season we were very lucky because we were under the cosh for most of the 90 minutes.
“Liverpool could have been over-anxious. Our win at Anfleld last season hurt their pride and they must have been really keyed up to beat us.
“Even though we’ve beaten them twice in the last year, I still regard them as the best. I thoroughly expect them to finish the season as League Champions and European Cup holders.
“Brighton have done the rest of the teams still left in the FA Cup a big favour by knocking out the favourites and Gerry says: “Anyone can win it now – even us.
The Second Division club’s win has once again got the South coast fans buzzing and dreaming of s dramatic return to Wembley, where they were beaten last season 4-0 by Manchester United in a replay.
‘There aren’t many quality teams left in the Cup now and we must fancy our chances because we’ve got players here who can rise to the big occasion; “But I’m afraid to think about the prospect of returning to Wembley at this early stage,” says Gerry, who joined Brighton from Derby for £80,000.
“Before dreaming of another Wembley visit, we’ve got a few more games to play and Watford are going to be really tough in the next round.”
‘It’s anyone’s Cup,’ says Jimmy Case
Jimmy Case believes Brighton can take Liverpool’s place in the FA Cup Final … so taking the glorious ride down Wembley Way for the second year in succession.Explains Jimmy: “Most people would have forecast Liverpool as one of the finalists.
“Having beaten them again, we SHOULD go all the way. No disrespects to our next opponents Watford but that’s the feeling at the club now.
“Looking at the teams left in the competition, it’s anyone’s Cup.” Jimmy was speaking just 24 hours after Brighton’s latest shock victory over the League champions and he told ‘Match’: “It still hasn’t sunk in. I just can’t believe it.
“This has to be an even greater achievement than when we knocked them out of the Cup last season.
“People might have thought us lucky last time but this proved it was no fluke.
“The lads were really keyed-up and it was a really great all-round team performance.
“Against a team like Liverpool, every player has to be on top form and, on this occasion, everyone played their part.
“It was certainly one of our best performances of the season.
“The defence kept Ian Rush and Michael Robinson pretty quiet and, in goal, Joe Corrigan made some vital saves at crucial times.
“The midfield was biting all the time and wide men Neil Smillie and Steve Penney were both on song.
“It seemed to stun Liverpool when we scored our second goal but they slowly started coming back into the game.
“They put on a lot of pressure in the last quarter of an hour but I would say they began the game a little apprehensively.” Jimmy could only watch from the sidelines as he served out a one-match suspension and, as the celebrations died down, he admitted his problem now could be getting back in the team …
“I’m still in the Cup but, after that last performance, who knows if I’ll be selected for the next tie?”
Panini Football 80 – Brighton’s first double spread
I originally bought this second hand at the Sunday market outside Brighton train station in the early 1990s. I thanked my lucky stars that all the Albion stickers were there. This was years before eBay, so finding someone with a spare Peter Sayer sticker lying around would have been tricky, whereas now it would only take a few seconds…
Looking at the Arsenal pages now, it’s striking that out of the 14 Gunners on display, five would eventually join Brighton (Steve Gatting, Willie Young, Sammy Nelson, Liam Brady and Frank Stapleton). Neil McNab lined up as a Bolton player sticker for the last time, while future Seagull favourite Michael Robinson smiled for his Manchester City photo shoot with a joviality that was not reflected in his unhappy year at Maine Road.
However, it’s the Albion double-spread that really catches the eye!
In these head and shoulder shots, we get to see the bubble perms of Sayer and Ward, but even these are outnumbered by the popularity of moustaches within the Brighton first team, through Lawrenson, Horton, Clark, O’Sullivan, Poskett and Ryan. Curiously, our players here are wearing flared collars with a triangular panel at the bottom, whereas during the season (I’m addressing fellow shirt anoraks, here!) it was open flared collars that were on display, at least for the home kit.
As the season unfolded, keeper Eric Steele gave way to Graham Moseley. Gary Stevens and Steve Foster also played much stronger roles in defence than either Chris Cattlin or Andy Rollings. Sayer, Maybank and Clark would be further casualties as Mullery moved his Panini stickers around his imaginary album to try to find a winning formula. Then, from nowhere (OK, Blackpool in the Third Division) Peter Suddaby took Lawrenson’s spot in defence while the Republic of Ireland international was pushed further forward. He would have taken one of the midfielder stickers, while Neil McNab and Ray Clarke would have been the new arrivals bringing high quality passing and forward play to the Goldstone. Good swopping, Mullers!
Gerry guns down Arsenal
Gatting, ex-Arsenal midfielder, in conversation with Ryan
The Arsenal hoodoo was well and truly broken. Having been the Gunners’ whipping boys in the time that Brighton had been a First Division club, the Seagulls achieved a second successive victory over their more distinguished opponents. On Tuesday 7th September 1982, following away thrashings at West Brom (0-5) and Nottingham Forest (0-4), Mike Bailey’s men showed that Goldstone was still a fortress with a superb win.
Here is the match report from the Daily Express:
Arsenal’s £1 million ticket to ride to the League title is already being declared null and void by the rest of soccer.
They have invested heavily in strikers Tony Woodcock and Lee Chapman to provide the finishing touches to a team renowned for outstanding organisation and resilience.
But the Highbury horror story is that Arsenal have managed only one point from their opening four matches.
In fact, after tonight’ fixtures, the club which has never known the ignominy of relegation could be bottom of the First Division [not true. Arsenal were relegated from Division One in 1903-04].
Woodcock has begun his Highbury career with a little more style and panache than his unhappy partner, Lee Chapman.
A goal for Chapman, signed from Stoke, would provide a massive boost for his flagging confidence and he was unlucky not to get one last night with a fine header in the 33rd minute that was hacked off the line by Tony Grealish.
On the hour Chapman tried again from a John Hollins corner but his firm header thudded into the chest of goalkeeper Perry Digweed.
Brighton emerged as victors with a display of guts and determination, following the crisis meeting of all the staff with chairman Mike Bamber on Monday morning.
Internationals Steve Foster and Mike Robinson, who have both been seeking to leave the club, were both left out of the team, along with midfield player Neil McNab.
Gerry Ryan, in for Robinson, scored the all-important goal in the 32nd minute – a firm, incisive finish from close range after clever creative work by Giles Stille and Gary Stevens.
The considerable influence of injured full-back Kenny Sansom and striker Alan Sunderland was missed by Arsenal who are surely capable of much better than this when those two are available for selection again.
The Gunners were hardly helped by the loss of midfield player Brian Talbot at half-time. He had spent most of the opening 45 minutes in obvious pain after a juddering collision with Jimmy Case.
This sweet victory calmed the nerves at the Goldstone, taking Albion out of the relegation zone into 16th position. As for Arsenal, they fell to 21st place by the time the following evening’s games were concluded.
Mike Bailey, who had made a brave team selection, was very happy with outcome:
‘Following our disappointing results at West Bromwich and Nottingham Forest I was delighted with the performance against Arsenal here at the Goldstone on Tuesday. After things went so very wrong at the City Ground we were looking, on Tuesday, for 100 per cent commitment from everyone, and I was very pleased that the lads gave just that against Arsenal.
What had gone wrong was that some of the players had allowed off the field problems, not associated with football, to go onto the field with them and affect their game. As a result some players weren’t able to produce their best form, this shouldn’t have happened, but as a result I had to make changes and it clearly had the desired effect.’
The Goldstone Wrap 