Four days after their long unbeaten league run was finally ended at Anfield, Forest immediately returned to winning ways by beating Second Division promotion hopefuls, Brighton & Hove Albion. 40 years ago, I was there, at the City Ground, among over 30,000 others, to watch the tricky trees storm through this League Cup quarter final to their second successive semi-final appearance in the competition.
As this was the first time I'd ever seen Brighton, home or away, I'll do a bit a review of their 78 year history most notable for its almost complete lack of success before this match, as well as the 22 years or so years after it, until the end of the millennium. Brighton stayed in Division Three South for over 30 years - I'll look at that in context of other stability runs.
There's a special look at Clough & Taylor's brief time on the south coast and Brighton's amazing escape from the brink in 1996 and 1997.
Previously: Liverpool 2 Forest 0 at Anfield
Brighton is quite a big town, with a population of nearly 230,000 today, so it's natural that there should be a half decent football club there. Hove and Brighton have formed a continuous conurbation for many years and it's only a 2.5 km walk to go from one town center to the other.
In the 19th century a club called Old Brightonians had represented a boarding school called Brighton College and, I suppose, the town too, in the F. A. Cup for a few years. Their first appearance seems to have been a 3-0 first round defeat at (Slough) Swifts on November 8th 1884. They participated in the cup every year from then on until 1889, but never got past the third round.
There was a club called Brighton United that played for a while, then there was Brighton & Hove Rangers - but they didn't last long either. An amateur club, called Hove FC played at the same time at a local field called the Goldstone Ground.
Brighton & Hove United were formed on 24th June 1901 but were renamed to "Albion" soon afterwards, it seems because the fans in Hove didn't want the club to imply that they were "united" with Brighton. They played their first season in the Southern League Second Division, at Sussex County Cricket Ground, which was in Hove, and they did rather well, finishing 3rd.
The next season, however, the club wanted to play at a better ground and they started to share the home of Hove FC, who were struggling to pay the rent. The Goldstone Ground would remain the home of the club for 95 years, and was finally purchased by the club in 1930.
The club won their first (and it has to be said, very rare) silverware in 1910 when they won the Southern League. This qualified them to play in the F.A. Charity Shield against the Football League Champions of the same season - who were Aston Villa. Brighton won.
Although it seems an odd match, and even odder that Brighton won it (at Stamford Bridge, home of Chelsea), one must remember that this was a time when many "non-league" sides were actually professional and were a strong match for the league clubs.
So, having beaten Villa, Brighton were briefly known (at least to the folk in Sussex) as "Champions of England".
They continued to play in the Southern League up until the first world war and before the football league's massive expansion which followed it. Brighton & Hove Albion were one of 22 clubs that came into the new Division Three South. The football league had numbered 40 teams in two divisions for the previous ten years before the war and four more new teams came in just after. So, the expansion Brighton was part of took the number of league clubs to 66. A further 20 teams would form Division Three North in 1921-22. By 1923-24 it had expanded to 88. It wasn't until 1950 that the still current 92 club level was reached.
It was around this time that Brighton & Hove Albion supporters started to adopt the classic song "Old Sussex By the Sea" as their anthem...
Brighton & Hove Albion played in their famous blue and white stripes for almost their entire history.
They survived in the second division for three more seasons before being relegated back down to the new third division in their fourth, in 1961-62.
Brighton went on a major downturn in fortunes from here and five seasons later they'd be playing in the fourth tier for the first time in their history.
They only played at that level for a couple of seasons before winning the fourth division title, only the fourth piece of silverware in 63 years.
Brighton enjoyed seven years of Third Division stability until they won promotion back to the second tier again in the 1971-72 season along with champions, Aston Villa.
That was a great season, including some massive attendances. I went to Meadow Lane, home of Notts County, to watch Villa win there 3-0 in front of over 34,000 fans. The best crowd of the division was the 48,110 at Villa Park for the visit of Bournemouth in February.
At the time, Notts County or Bournemouth looked more likely to go up than Brighton.
But a month later, Brighton managed to beat Aston Villa 2-1 at home in front of over 29,000 to close in on the leaders.
So it was Brighton that went up with Villa, not Notts County or Bournemouth.
This promotion brought the two clubs together again for just the third time. Forest beat Brighton 1-0 at home in August (Martin O'Neill scored for us, only his second ever) and we drew 2-2 on the South Coast in the last game of the season. Miah Dennehy and Duncan McKenzie scored for Forest in the first half, only for Eddie Spearitt (with a penalty) and Mike Conway to equalise for Brighton in the second. It was too little to late though as Brighton were already relegated and so destined to go straight back down.
The next season Brighton were struggling in the Third Division when the club managed to land the biggest names in football as their new management team - one very familiar to us Forest fans...
Bristol Rovers had already gone 18 league games without defeat since the start of the season.
The match was shown on the Big Match and a sweet-looking Nigel Clough was the guest on the show with commentator Brian Moore...
This was the second of five consecutive defeats for Brighton & Hove Albion and on Christmas Day 1973 Brighton were just above the relegation zone.
Things did improve in the new year and, at one point, Brighton won four league games on the trot to reach 10th place in the league. However, they ended up 18th.
In the summer, though, Brian Clough was tempted to leave the third division outfit and go and manage English League champions Leeds United in succession to his old rival, Don Revie who had been given the England job. (See my Leeds blog for the 1977-78 season for more about that episode).
Peter Taylor stayed on and eventually led Brighton to 4th place in his only full season in charge before rejoining Brian at Nottingham Forest.
It was in this season - that's 74 years after the club started, remember - that Brighton finally stumbled across a nickname for their club, "The Seagulls."
Incredible, isn't it?
Brighton had been known as the "Dolphins" or, imaginatively, "The Albion" before this.
How did it happen? Even more incredible, really.
As you can see from the table below, Brighton had become big rivals to another unfashionable, unsuccessful club, Crystal Palace and matches between the two would later become known as the M23 derby.
Anyway, when the clubs played in the league in the season at Brighton, a bunch of Palace fans were in a pub and they were chanting "Eagles! Eagles!" Fair enough, it is their nickname, after all. You'll never guess what the Brighton fans replied... Yes. "Seagulls, Seagulls!"
The wit of football fans, eh?
And that was it. Somehow the club adopted the new nickname on that basis. Brilliant.
For once, it's a no-contest in terms of the league record of Nottingham Forest and our opponents.
By the time of this game, in 1978, Forest had finished higher in the league than Brighton on literally every occasion. 116 times altogether.
Forest had only played them six times before, but we had won three, drawn two and lost one.
This was the first cup game between the sides.
At Nottingham University we had got to know a lot of football fans and I remember a small but very fanatical band of Brighton fans which included, strangely at the time, a very attractive young lady. They annoyed the hell out of me the season after when they did the double over us. Must have been great for them, though.
Brighton had a few notable names in their line up.
Stalwart Brian Horton made over 600 league appearances in his career, 218 for Brighton.
At the center of their defence was Mark Larwenson who would go on to a magnificent career with none other than Liverpool.
"Lawro" of course, like his team mate, Alan Hansen, became a BBC regular pundit and remains so even today. He's famous for his prediction head-to-head with famous people... like Shane Warne!
The other notable, from my point of view, is Peter Ward...
Ward was from Derby and worked at Rolls Royce as a fitter before playing for Burton Albion, then of course, a non-league outfit. He joined Brighton & Hove Albion in 1975 at the age of 20 and had a prolific record there, scoring 79 goals in 179 appearances.
So impressed was Peter Taylor in his skills, he persuaded Brian Clough to buy him for Forest in 1980 as part of a "love triangle" with Gary Birtles going to Manchester United and Andy Ritchie joining Brighton.
Fittingly, he scored Brighton's only goal for them that night.
Nottingham Forest
1 Peter Shilton, 2 Viv Anderson, 3 Frank Clark, 4 David Needham, 4 John McGovern, 5 Larry Lloyd, 6 Ian Bowyer, 8 Archie Gemmill, 9 Gary Birtles, 10 Tony Woodcock, 11 John Robertson.
Goals: John McGovern 1, Gary Birtles 1, John Robertson 1.
Brighton & Hove Albion
1 Graham Moseley, 2 Chris Cattlin, 3 Keith Williams, 4 Brian Horton, 5 Andy Rollings, 6 Mark Lawrenson, 7 Malcom Poskett, 8 Peter Ward, 9 Teddy Maybank, 10 Peter Sayer, 11 Perer O'Sullivan.
Goals : Peter Ward 1.
Substitutions: Paul Clark(12) came on for Teddy Maybank (9).
Attendance: 30,672
Bizarrely, I could find no video footage of any of the quarter final ties for that season. So all I can reproduce here are the reports in the Guardian and some photos of the action from various sources.
Southampton would draw Leeds United in the semis, who brushed aside Luton Town 4-1.
Forest would have to wait to find out our opponents as Stoke and Watford could only draw 0-0. Presumably because of poor weather, the replay couldn't be played until the new year.
This was the final second division table which would see Brighton gain promotion to the top flight for the first time in their history.
I went to the Goldstone Ground for the first time the year Brighton made their debut in the First Division and saw Forest get beaten 1-0 by Alan Mullery's side, as they had at the City Ground earlier to end our long home unbeaten run. It was very unusual seeing anyone do the double over us in those days.
Highlights here, with some great post match comments from OBE.
Brighton would cling on to their first tier status for four seasons but would never finish above us. The closest they got was in 1981-82 when we ended up just one place above them
Here are the highlights as presented by Danny Baker...
Brighton were very close to losing their 77 year old league status as the millennium drew to a close.
This was the season they played their last game at The Goldstone Ground as it had been recklessly sold off even before a new ground arrangements had been made.
Brighton were miles adrift at the bottom of the league at one point and it looked certain that they'd be playing in the GM Vauxhall Conference the next season without even a ground to play on.
The last home game at the Goldstone Ground was against Doncaster Rovers on 26th April 1997.
11,341 fans turned up to watch the Seagulls beat Donnie 1-0 to keep their hopes of survival alive. You have to play this clip if only for the commentary of Stuart Storer's goal, which proved a life saver.
The tension for the match, a week later, was incredible. As fate would have it, Brighton had to play bottom club Hereford United needing a draw to stay up and send their hosts down to the Conference.
Brighton scraped through with a 1-1 draw in front of 8,532, easily the biggest crowd of the season at Edgar Street, and so escaped the drop into potential oblivion by the skin of their teeth.
Here's a great news clip of the day.
You might be wondering, looking at the final table below (generated by my rather unsophisticated table generator), why, if Brighton had a worse goal difference than Hereford, they managed to stay up.
Amazingly, that season, if teams tied on points it was goals scored, not goal difference that was the decider.
The next season, they almost slipped out of the league again, having to play 70 miles away at Gillingham. Not surprisingly, their average league crowd that season was just 2,328, less than 40% of what it had been the previous season, the last at the Goldstone Ground.
Luckily for Brighton, Doncaster Rovers had their worst season ever (in terms of wins per game) and so were certain to get relegated to the Conference long before the season had ended. Brighton, notice, got twelve points fewer than they had the season before!
These were grim times for the Seagulls.
With sheer determination
Without a hint of fear
We made the noise which brought the boys
From Hereford to here.
First - BISA. The fightback begun.
Concorde Club, Monday night.
We called for help to save our club.
We got it. Thanks, Dick Knight.
So many colours joined with ours
On Fans’ United Day
And then we drew at Hereford
And drank the night away.
A joyous celebration
Washed down by lakes of beer -
We made the noise which brought the boys
From Hereford to here.
Homeless. ‘Right, Brighton Council.
Find us somewhere to play.
‘Cos we’re the Seagulls Party now
And we’ll vote you away..…’
Withdean. Bobby Zamora.
We really cut a dash.
He scored the goals which took us up –
I cheered and played the Clash
With pride and dedication
A vision fine and clear
We made the noise which brought the boys
From Hereford to here.
To Falmer now, our final goal.
It took so bloody long!
Petitions. Demonstrations.
A Top 20 hit song…
Our lovely Falmer Stadium.
The Board may not agree.
I’ve never had a credit card.
It’s still Falmer to me.
With hope and expectation
And yes, a little tear
We made the noise which brought the boys
From Hereford to here.
The fight is won. We're fans again.
All cheering on our team.
A glorious end to twenty years.
Fulfilment of our dream.
The Albion in the Premier League -
And we’ve all played our part.
We’re more than corporate football here.
We’re football’s beating heart.
With sheer determination
Without a hint of fear
We made the noise which brought the boys
From Hereford to here.
With hope and expectation
And, yes, a little tear
We made the noise which brought the boys
From Hereford to here.
This is our celebration
So have another beer -
We’ve made the noise and brought the boys
From Hereford.....
To here.
I don't think anyone could begrudge them that.
I for one am so impressed with the way the club has continued to build from those days when they were almost relegated out of the league and maybe into oblivion. In today's Greediership, Chris Hughton's Brighton are definitely some of the few good guys for me.
As this was the first time I'd ever seen Brighton, home or away, I'll do a bit a review of their 78 year history most notable for its almost complete lack of success before this match, as well as the 22 years or so years after it, until the end of the millennium. Brighton stayed in Division Three South for over 30 years - I'll look at that in context of other stability runs.
There's a special look at Clough & Taylor's brief time on the south coast and Brighton's amazing escape from the brink in 1996 and 1997.
Previously: Liverpool 2 Forest 0 at Anfield
Brighton & Hove Albion
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| Just a "Hove hour" walk from Brighton |
In the 19th century a club called Old Brightonians had represented a boarding school called Brighton College and, I suppose, the town too, in the F. A. Cup for a few years. Their first appearance seems to have been a 3-0 first round defeat at (Slough) Swifts on November 8th 1884. They participated in the cup every year from then on until 1889, but never got past the third round.
There was a club called Brighton United that played for a while, then there was Brighton & Hove Rangers - but they didn't last long either. An amateur club, called Hove FC played at the same time at a local field called the Goldstone Ground.
Brighton & Hove United were formed on 24th June 1901 but were renamed to "Albion" soon afterwards, it seems because the fans in Hove didn't want the club to imply that they were "united" with Brighton. They played their first season in the Southern League Second Division, at Sussex County Cricket Ground, which was in Hove, and they did rather well, finishing 3rd.
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| Brighton's First Season - Southern League Division Two 1901-02 |
The next season, however, the club wanted to play at a better ground and they started to share the home of Hove FC, who were struggling to pay the rent. The Goldstone Ground would remain the home of the club for 95 years, and was finally purchased by the club in 1930.
The club won their first (and it has to be said, very rare) silverware in 1910 when they won the Southern League. This qualified them to play in the F.A. Charity Shield against the Football League Champions of the same season - who were Aston Villa. Brighton won.
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| Brighton win the Southern League in 1909-10 |
Although it seems an odd match, and even odder that Brighton won it (at Stamford Bridge, home of Chelsea), one must remember that this was a time when many "non-league" sides were actually professional and were a strong match for the league clubs.
So, having beaten Villa, Brighton were briefly known (at least to the folk in Sussex) as "Champions of England".
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| Brighton Win the Charity Shield |
They continued to play in the Southern League up until the first world war and before the football league's massive expansion which followed it. Brighton & Hove Albion were one of 22 clubs that came into the new Division Three South. The football league had numbered 40 teams in two divisions for the previous ten years before the war and four more new teams came in just after. So, the expansion Brighton was part of took the number of league clubs to 66. A further 20 teams would form Division Three North in 1921-22. By 1923-24 it had expanded to 88. It wasn't until 1950 that the still current 92 club level was reached.
It was around this time that Brighton & Hove Albion supporters started to adopt the classic song "Old Sussex By the Sea" as their anthem...
Brighton & Hove Albion played in their famous blue and white stripes for almost their entire history.
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| Brighton & Hove Albion 1914-15 |
Brighton's first season in the league was a bit of a struggle...
Not much success in the league, and not much in the cup, either.
Although they regularly challenged for promotion to the second division, Brighton spent the entire inter-war years (that's twenty seasons) and the first twelve after the second world war, continually in Division Three South - 32 years in the same (lowly) division.
This got me thinking. How long is that, really? 32 years in one division sounds a long time but in fact there were a whole cluster of 22 clubs that joined the Third Division South in 1920 and many of them never got promotion (only one team did each year, remember) and relegation wasn't a danger in those days either.
Ironically, the season Brighton finally did win promotion from the Third Division South was its last "edition" (as they call it these days). The very next season, the top half of Div Three (South) combined with the top half of Div Three (North) to form the new Third Division and the bottom halves formed the Fourth Division. A few clubs that were in the top halves of the two Division Threes continued to play in the third tier for a few more years.
Bournemouth & Boscombe Athletic (as they were called in those days) had the longest run in the third tier - some 41 seasons, from 1923 until 1970.
Brighton's run, was in the end, only the joint eighth best.
In the fourth division, the current (today, in 2018) longest stretch was made by Rochdale from 1974 until 2010 but at the time of this match, back in 1978, the record was held by Chester City, a run of 17 seasons from 1958 until 1975.
Forest have the dubious honour of keeping steady in the second division for 18 seasons from 1925 until 1949 but this is only the eighth longest. The "title" goes to Barnsley who stayed in the second tier for 30 seasons from 1898 until 1932.
Note that Ipswich Town, currently struggling against relegation to the third tier, could overtake Forest in this peculiar table if they avoid the drop.
But if you include all divisions, top of the longevity league has to go to Arsenal, of course. They have been in the top flight now an astonishing 94 successive seasons. (And yes, contrary to an oft repeated football tale, they have been relegated, in 1912-13.) Everton are also in the running to extend their 65 years, as are Liverpool (57 seasons), Manchester United (44 seasons) and Tottenham (41 seasons.)
So Brighton's run is in the top twenty of all time.
Anyway, back to Brighton and their long run in Division Three South...
It was during this period, in August 1949, that Brighton and Forest met for the first time - at the Goldstone Ground in Division Three South. It was a 2-2 draw.
Forest lost the return leg 1-0 but ended up above Brighton in the league - the first time they'd played in the same division.
The next season, Forest ran away with the Third Division (South) title and did the double over Brighton, winning 4-0 at home and 2-1 away.
The nearest Brighton came to winning promotion themselves was in 1953-54 when they finished three points behind champions, Ipswich Town and in 1955-56 when they were pipped for the title by just one point by Leyton Orient.
Promotion was finally achieved in 1957-58, when they won the league as champions. It was Brighton's 32nd consecutive season in the Third Division South and, as I wrote earlier, it was the last time the third tier was split geographically.
Here's the match report...
Perhaps unsurprisingly, that 9-0 score remains both Boro's biggest win ever, and Brighton's worst defeat, sixty years on.
(Thanks to my old mate, Boro, for notifying me of this extra twist in the Brighton story.)
Somehow Brighton managed to recover from this traumatic opening and even secured a mid-table place, surprisingly actually finishing above Boro. They also had their record attendance ever at the Goldstone Ground this season, for a Boxing Day fixture against Fulham.
This would remain Brighton's best ever league position until 1978.
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| Brighton admitted into the league in 1921 |
Not much success in the league, and not much in the cup, either.
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| Brighton played Arsenal in the F. A. Cup in 1935 |
This got me thinking. How long is that, really? 32 years in one division sounds a long time but in fact there were a whole cluster of 22 clubs that joined the Third Division South in 1920 and many of them never got promotion (only one team did each year, remember) and relegation wasn't a danger in those days either.
Ironically, the season Brighton finally did win promotion from the Third Division South was its last "edition" (as they call it these days). The very next season, the top half of Div Three (South) combined with the top half of Div Three (North) to form the new Third Division and the bottom halves formed the Fourth Division. A few clubs that were in the top halves of the two Division Threes continued to play in the third tier for a few more years.
Bournemouth & Boscombe Athletic (as they were called in those days) had the longest run in the third tier - some 41 seasons, from 1923 until 1970.
Brighton's run, was in the end, only the joint eighth best.
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| Third Tier (Div 3, N & S) Consecutive Seasons |
In the fourth division, the current (today, in 2018) longest stretch was made by Rochdale from 1974 until 2010 but at the time of this match, back in 1978, the record was held by Chester City, a run of 17 seasons from 1958 until 1975.
Forest have the dubious honour of keeping steady in the second division for 18 seasons from 1925 until 1949 but this is only the eighth longest. The "title" goes to Barnsley who stayed in the second tier for 30 seasons from 1898 until 1932.
Note that Ipswich Town, currently struggling against relegation to the third tier, could overtake Forest in this peculiar table if they avoid the drop.
But if you include all divisions, top of the longevity league has to go to Arsenal, of course. They have been in the top flight now an astonishing 94 successive seasons. (And yes, contrary to an oft repeated football tale, they have been relegated, in 1912-13.) Everton are also in the running to extend their 65 years, as are Liverpool (57 seasons), Manchester United (44 seasons) and Tottenham (41 seasons.)
So Brighton's run is in the top twenty of all time.
Anyway, back to Brighton and their long run in Division Three South...
It was during this period, in August 1949, that Brighton and Forest met for the first time - at the Goldstone Ground in Division Three South. It was a 2-2 draw.
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| Brighton's programme for their first game with Forest must have looked like this |
Forest lost the return leg 1-0 but ended up above Brighton in the league - the first time they'd played in the same division.
The next season, Forest ran away with the Third Division (South) title and did the double over Brighton, winning 4-0 at home and 2-1 away.
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| Forest Up and away |
The nearest Brighton came to winning promotion themselves was in 1953-54 when they finished three points behind champions, Ipswich Town and in 1955-56 when they were pipped for the title by just one point by Leyton Orient.
Promotion was finally achieved in 1957-58, when they won the league as champions. It was Brighton's 32nd consecutive season in the Third Division South and, as I wrote earlier, it was the last time the third tier was split geographically.
Brighton's Second Tier Baptism of Brian
After playing for 56 years in southern leagues, it was ironic that Brighton & Hove Albion's first fixture in England's second tier couldn't have been much further away.
They started their life in the second division with a 630 mile round trip to Middlesbrough's Ayresome Park. It turned out to be a very dramatic day.
Notice the No 9 for Boro?... Remember that number (nine)!
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| Opening day fixture 1958-59 |
Yes, that's the same Brian Clough that would, of course, end up managing both Brighton and Forest.
Bizarrely, Brian Clough's presence in the side actually made the front page headlines in the local paper!!! The 23-year old was passed fit after a thigh injury in a pre-season friendly.
Clough captained the side and led them out.
Brighton were slaughtered!
Brighton were slaughtered!
N I N E N I L !!
And Brian Clough scored five of them!
(Thanks to my old mate, Boro, for notifying me of this extra twist in the Brighton story.)
Somehow Brighton managed to recover from this traumatic opening and even secured a mid-table place, surprisingly actually finishing above Boro. They also had their record attendance ever at the Goldstone Ground this season, for a Boxing Day fixture against Fulham.
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| Boxing Day 1958 - 36,747 watch Brighton v Fulham |
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| Brighton's best league record in their history until 1978 |
They survived in the second division for three more seasons before being relegated back down to the new third division in their fourth, in 1961-62.
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| Relegation in their fourth season in the second tier |
Brighton went on a major downturn in fortunes from here and five seasons later they'd be playing in the fourth tier for the first time in their history.
They only played at that level for a couple of seasons before winning the fourth division title, only the fourth piece of silverware in 63 years.
It was around this time that Brighton changed from their traditional striped kit to blue shirts and white sleeves, like Sheffield Wednesday made famous.
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| Brighton drop the stripes for a few years |
Brighton enjoyed seven years of Third Division stability until they won promotion back to the second tier again in the 1971-72 season along with champions, Aston Villa.
That was a great season, including some massive attendances. I went to Meadow Lane, home of Notts County, to watch Villa win there 3-0 in front of over 34,000 fans. The best crowd of the division was the 48,110 at Villa Park for the visit of Bournemouth in February.
At the time, Notts County or Bournemouth looked more likely to go up than Brighton.
But a month later, Brighton managed to beat Aston Villa 2-1 at home in front of over 29,000 to close in on the leaders.
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| Note the games in hand |
So it was Brighton that went up with Villa, not Notts County or Bournemouth.
This promotion brought the two clubs together again for just the third time. Forest beat Brighton 1-0 at home in August (Martin O'Neill scored for us, only his second ever) and we drew 2-2 on the South Coast in the last game of the season. Miah Dennehy and Duncan McKenzie scored for Forest in the first half, only for Eddie Spearitt (with a penalty) and Mike Conway to equalise for Brighton in the second. It was too little to late though as Brighton were already relegated and so destined to go straight back down.
The next season Brighton were struggling in the Third Division when the club managed to land the biggest names in football as their new management team - one very familiar to us Forest fans...
The Clough & Taylor Years
After resigning from Derby County, just days after leading them to a 1-0 win at Old Trafford in the league on 13th October 1973, Brian Clough and Peter Taylor surprised everyone when they joined Brighton a couple of weeks later at the beginning of November 1973. Albion had started the season badly and were looking for someone to lift the side back to a higher level.
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| Brighton's league position B.C. |
It's yet another bizarre story of many in the life and times of Clough & Taylor. Apparently, they just liked Brighton's chairman, Mike Bamber. Clough later said of him, he was "a wealthy, night-club-owning, gem of a man, who turned out to be the nicest and best chairman I ever worked for."
One is tempted to think that, after Sam Longson at Derby County, anyone might have seemed good in comparison.
Over 16,000, almost triple Brighton's recent home gates, turned up to watch Brian Clough and Peter Taylor's first game in charge at the Goldstone Ground - a 0-0 draw with promotion chasing York City.
A week later, away to Huddersfield Town at Leeds Road, Brighton got another draw, 2-2 this time. And then in midweek, Brighton won their first game under the dynamic duo, a 1-0 win at Walsall, moving them up one place in the league... to 18th!
The following Saturday, another home game (v Chesterfield) in front of over 14,000 saw Brighton play out another 0-0 draw.
Next, it was the F.A. Cup first round and Brighton had drawn a potential banana skin in the form of Isthmian League side, Walton & Hersham, away. Many pundits noticed that Clough & Taylor's previous cup tie was Derby County v Juventus in the European Cup semi-final and here they were at a lowly non-league club to watch Brighton luckily scrape through to another 0-0 draw.
So, played five, won one, drawn four, lost none. Not a bad start, to be fair.
But if Cloughie had started to get cocky, it was about to blow up in his face.
The following Wednesday, Brighton played the replay of the cup tie at The Goldstone Ground. 9,657 turned up to watch, but I suspect most of them wished they hadn't.
One is tempted to think that, after Sam Longson at Derby County, anyone might have seemed good in comparison.
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| Peter Taylor, Mike Bamber and Brian Clough in 1973 |
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| Big News on the South Coast |
Over 16,000, almost triple Brighton's recent home gates, turned up to watch Brian Clough and Peter Taylor's first game in charge at the Goldstone Ground - a 0-0 draw with promotion chasing York City.
A week later, away to Huddersfield Town at Leeds Road, Brighton got another draw, 2-2 this time. And then in midweek, Brighton won their first game under the dynamic duo, a 1-0 win at Walsall, moving them up one place in the league... to 18th!
The following Saturday, another home game (v Chesterfield) in front of over 14,000 saw Brighton play out another 0-0 draw.
Next, it was the F.A. Cup first round and Brighton had drawn a potential banana skin in the form of Isthmian League side, Walton & Hersham, away. Many pundits noticed that Clough & Taylor's previous cup tie was Derby County v Juventus in the European Cup semi-final and here they were at a lowly non-league club to watch Brighton luckily scrape through to another 0-0 draw.
So, played five, won one, drawn four, lost none. Not a bad start, to be fair.
But if Cloughie had started to get cocky, it was about to blow up in his face.
The following Wednesday, Brighton played the replay of the cup tie at The Goldstone Ground. 9,657 turned up to watch, but I suspect most of them wished they hadn't.
Wednesday, November 28th 1973... Brighton & Hove Albion 0 Walton & Hersham 4 (9,657)
Russel Perkins scored for Walton & Hersham in the 20th minute (with his head whilst practically lying prostrate on the ground) and it stayed that way until half time. It would have been interesting to be a fly on the wall in the Brighton dressing room as the players faced Cloughie, 1-0 down.
Brighton apparently put on a lot of pressure in the second half but just couldn't score. With just eight minutes to go their frustration turned into a nightmare as Clive Foskett scored for the Isthmian League outfit. Two minutes later, he scored again. Five minutes after that... again.
Here's a full report of the match in "The Goldstone Wrap" a retro blog about Brighton & Hove Albion.
In case you were wondering as I was, Walton & Hersham were knocked out in the next round at Hereford United, 3-0.
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| Brighton sub, Graham Howell, Brian Clough and coach John Sheridan |
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| Lowest F.A. Cup headed goal ever recorded? Good goal, Sir! (Perkins was a teacher) |
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| Greatest night in Walton & Hersham's History? |
In case you were wondering as I was, Walton & Hersham were knocked out in the next round at Hereford United, 3-0.
Saturday, December 1st 1973... Brighton & Hove Albion 2 Bristol Rovers 8 (10,762)
Three days later, the nightmare only got worse for Cloughie as they faced the rampant Bristol Rovers team with "Smash & Grab" (aka Bannister & Warboys) up front.
Bristol Rovers had already gone 18 league games without defeat since the start of the season.
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| Nigel witnesses the carnage with his dad |
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| He seemed to enjoy the goals |
See "The Goldstone Wrap" for more details, but here's the sequence of goals...
5 min 0-1; 12 min 0-2; 20 min 1-2; 29 min 1-3; 32 min 1-4; 39 min 1-5; (Half Time) 45 min 1-6; 63 min 1-7; 70 min 1-8; and 87 min 2-8.
Watch it for yourself...
The match was shown on the Big Match and a sweet-looking Nigel Clough was the guest on the show with commentator Brian Moore...
This was the second of five consecutive defeats for Brighton & Hove Albion and on Christmas Day 1973 Brighton were just above the relegation zone.
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| Merry Christmas, Brian! |
In the summer, though, Brian Clough was tempted to leave the third division outfit and go and manage English League champions Leeds United in succession to his old rival, Don Revie who had been given the England job. (See my Leeds blog for the 1977-78 season for more about that episode).
Peter Taylor stayed on and eventually led Brighton to 4th place in his only full season in charge before rejoining Brian at Nottingham Forest.
It was in this season - that's 74 years after the club started, remember - that Brighton finally stumbled across a nickname for their club, "The Seagulls."
Incredible, isn't it?
Brighton had been known as the "Dolphins" or, imaginatively, "The Albion" before this.
How did it happen? Even more incredible, really.
As you can see from the table below, Brighton had become big rivals to another unfashionable, unsuccessful club, Crystal Palace and matches between the two would later become known as the M23 derby.
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| Peter Taylor almost won Brighton promotion |
Anyway, when the clubs played in the league in the season at Brighton, a bunch of Palace fans were in a pub and they were chanting "Eagles! Eagles!" Fair enough, it is their nickname, after all. You'll never guess what the Brighton fans replied... Yes. "Seagulls, Seagulls!"
The wit of football fans, eh?
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| Seagulls - born February 1976 |
And that was it. Somehow the club adopted the new nickname on that basis. Brilliant.
Of course, when Clough was sacked by Leeds after 54 days he would join Nottingham Forest in January 1975 and eventually he'd persuade his partner to rejoin him at the City Ground to set the wheels in motion of Forest's incredible elevation to the point we see them here.
So this brings us pretty much up to date.
So this brings us pretty much up to date.
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| The Goldstone Ground in the 1970s |
For once, it's a no-contest in terms of the league record of Nottingham Forest and our opponents.
By the time of this game, in 1978, Forest had finished higher in the league than Brighton on literally every occasion. 116 times altogether.
Forest had only played them six times before, but we had won three, drawn two and lost one.
This was the first cup game between the sides.
Brighton... spectacularly unsuccessful
Brighton & Hove Albion were, in 1978, a spectacularly unsuccessful club. Only four higher placed clubs in the league at the end of the season before had, like them, not won a single major domestic trophy. (Sorry, Brighton, I don't count the Charity Shield.)
And, if you discount London clubs - what is the catchment of Millwall, Wimbledon etc? - only four bigger towns/cities in England have clubs that had never won owt - in 1978.
Brighton on the way Up in 1978
However, to be fair, Brighton were on the way up at the time of this match and although they were only 7th in the second division on the night of the game, they would end up securing promotion at the end of the season and thus be scheduled to play Forest in the league again in 1979. Not good news for us, as it turned out.
At Nottingham University we had got to know a lot of football fans and I remember a small but very fanatical band of Brighton fans which included, strangely at the time, a very attractive young lady. They annoyed the hell out of me the season after when they did the double over us. Must have been great for them, though.
Match 292: Nottingham Forest 3 Brighton & Hove Albion 1 (149th visit to the City Ground, 227th time I'd watched Nottingham Forest, 1st time for Brighton & Hove Albion)
I somehow seem to have lost the programme for this match so if anyone has a copy, I'd really appreciate it if you could scan/photograph it and send it to me.
Here's the front cover though....
Here's the front cover though....
Tony Woodcock was back up front pushing Steve Elliott aside for the last time in his Forest career.
Brighton had a few notable names in their line up.
Stalwart Brian Horton made over 600 league appearances in his career, 218 for Brighton.
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| Brian Horton |
At the center of their defence was Mark Larwenson who would go on to a magnificent career with none other than Liverpool.
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| Larwenson - 152 league appearances for Brighton followed by 241 at Liverpool |
"Lawro" of course, like his team mate, Alan Hansen, became a BBC regular pundit and remains so even today. He's famous for his prediction head-to-head with famous people... like Shane Warne!
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| Noyce, Shane! |
The other notable, from my point of view, is Peter Ward...
Ward was from Derby and worked at Rolls Royce as a fitter before playing for Burton Albion, then of course, a non-league outfit. He joined Brighton & Hove Albion in 1975 at the age of 20 and had a prolific record there, scoring 79 goals in 179 appearances.
So impressed was Peter Taylor in his skills, he persuaded Brian Clough to buy him for Forest in 1980 as part of a "love triangle" with Gary Birtles going to Manchester United and Andy Ritchie joining Brighton.
Fittingly, he scored Brighton's only goal for them that night.
Nottingham Forest
1 Peter Shilton, 2 Viv Anderson, 3 Frank Clark, 4 David Needham, 4 John McGovern, 5 Larry Lloyd, 6 Ian Bowyer, 8 Archie Gemmill, 9 Gary Birtles, 10 Tony Woodcock, 11 John Robertson.
Goals: John McGovern 1, Gary Birtles 1, John Robertson 1.
Brighton & Hove Albion
1 Graham Moseley, 2 Chris Cattlin, 3 Keith Williams, 4 Brian Horton, 5 Andy Rollings, 6 Mark Lawrenson, 7 Malcom Poskett, 8 Peter Ward, 9 Teddy Maybank, 10 Peter Sayer, 11 Perer O'Sullivan.
Goals : Peter Ward 1.
Substitutions: Paul Clark(12) came on for Teddy Maybank (9).
Attendance: 30,672
Bizarrely, I could find no video footage of any of the quarter final ties for that season. So all I can reproduce here are the reports in the Guardian and some photos of the action from various sources.
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| McGovern 1-0 |
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| Robbo (just visible on the left) scores a belter to put Forest back in front |
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| Robbo gets the congratulations he deserves. |
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| Birtles, 3-1 |
League Cup Quarter Finals 1978-79
The first of the other three quarter finals was played the night before with Southampton beating fancied Manchester City to reach their first league Cup semi-final appearance.
Southampton would draw Leeds United in the semis, who brushed aside Luton Town 4-1.
Forest would have to wait to find out our opponents as Stoke and Watford could only draw 0-0. Presumably because of poor weather, the replay couldn't be played until the new year.
What Happened Next?
Almost a month later, Watford beat Stoke City 3-1 to reach the semi-finals and a two-legged tie against Forest. Jenkins and Blissett (2) got their goals.
This was the final second division table which would see Brighton gain promotion to the top flight for the first time in their history.
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| Brighton won promotion to the first division for the first time at the end of this season |
I went to the Goldstone Ground for the first time the year Brighton made their debut in the First Division and saw Forest get beaten 1-0 by Alan Mullery's side, as they had at the City Ground earlier to end our long home unbeaten run. It was very unusual seeing anyone do the double over us in those days.
Highlights here, with some great post match comments from OBE.
Brighton would cling on to their first tier status for four seasons but would never finish above us. The closest they got was in 1981-82 when we ended up just one place above them
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| Brighton's best ever final league placing - in 1982. Could it be beaten this season? |
F.A. Cup Finalists 1982-83
The closest Brighton got to winning a major domestic trophy was in 1983 when they came so close to beating Manchester United in the F.A. Cup final almost at the end of extra time. Striker Gordon Smith missed an absolute sitter with practically the last kick of the match, so it ended a 2-2 draw at Wembley after extra time. Brighton lost the replay 4-0. Ironically, they were also relegated from the first division that season.
Here are the highlights as presented by Danny Baker...
Sinking Seagulls
After this four-year period in the top flight came a few years in the second or third tiers before they started to hit a terrible low in the mid 1990s.Brighton were very close to losing their 77 year old league status as the millennium drew to a close.
This was the season they played their last game at The Goldstone Ground as it had been recklessly sold off even before a new ground arrangements had been made.
Brighton were miles adrift at the bottom of the league at one point and it looked certain that they'd be playing in the GM Vauxhall Conference the next season without even a ground to play on.
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| Brighton looking doomed |
The last home game at the Goldstone Ground was against Doncaster Rovers on 26th April 1997.
11,341 fans turned up to watch the Seagulls beat Donnie 1-0 to keep their hopes of survival alive. You have to play this clip if only for the commentary of Stuart Storer's goal, which proved a life saver.
The tension for the match, a week later, was incredible. As fate would have it, Brighton had to play bottom club Hereford United needing a draw to stay up and send their hosts down to the Conference.
Brighton scraped through with a 1-1 draw in front of 8,532, easily the biggest crowd of the season at Edgar Street, and so escaped the drop into potential oblivion by the skin of their teeth.
Here's a great news clip of the day.
You might be wondering, looking at the final table below (generated by my rather unsophisticated table generator), why, if Brighton had a worse goal difference than Hereford, they managed to stay up.
Amazingly, that season, if teams tied on points it was goals scored, not goal difference that was the decider.
The next season, they almost slipped out of the league again, having to play 70 miles away at Gillingham. Not surprisingly, their average league crowd that season was just 2,328, less than 40% of what it had been the previous season, the last at the Goldstone Ground.
Luckily for Brighton, Doncaster Rovers had their worst season ever (in terms of wins per game) and so were certain to get relegated to the Conference long before the season had ended. Brighton, notice, got twelve points fewer than they had the season before!
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| The longest journey to home matches ever? |
These were grim times for the Seagulls.
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| Brighton's almost out the next season too |
In 1998-99 they had another tough season, again playing in Kent, finishing 17th, but then, miraculously, the phoenix rose from the ashes.
They moved to the shoddy Withdean Stadium and started their climb up the table. I saw Wycombe Wanderers win there 2-1 in 1995 in front of 5,360. Martin O'Neill had just moved on but new manager Alan Smith had inherited a great squad.
Within a couple of seasons, however, Brighton had left the bottom tier behind and after a few years of yo-yo-ing between the second and third tiers they finally moved into their new ground, The Falmer Stadium, in 2011. Since then Brighton remained in the second tier until their promotion to the Premier League two seasons ago.
What an incredible roller-coaster ride it must have been, beautifully summed up by a poem by a Brighton fan who apparently goes by the name of Attila....
FROM HEREFORD TO HERE
With sheer determination
Without a hint of fear
We made the noise which brought the boys
From Hereford to here.
First - BISA. The fightback begun.
Concorde Club, Monday night.
We called for help to save our club.
We got it. Thanks, Dick Knight.
So many colours joined with ours
On Fans’ United Day
And then we drew at Hereford
And drank the night away.
A joyous celebration
Washed down by lakes of beer -
We made the noise which brought the boys
From Hereford to here.
Homeless. ‘Right, Brighton Council.
Find us somewhere to play.
‘Cos we’re the Seagulls Party now
And we’ll vote you away..…’
Withdean. Bobby Zamora.
We really cut a dash.
He scored the goals which took us up –
I cheered and played the Clash
With pride and dedication
A vision fine and clear
We made the noise which brought the boys
From Hereford to here.
To Falmer now, our final goal.
It took so bloody long!
Petitions. Demonstrations.
A Top 20 hit song…
Our lovely Falmer Stadium.
The Board may not agree.
I’ve never had a credit card.
It’s still Falmer to me.
With hope and expectation
And yes, a little tear
We made the noise which brought the boys
From Hereford to here.
The fight is won. We're fans again.
All cheering on our team.
A glorious end to twenty years.
Fulfilment of our dream.
The Albion in the Premier League -
And we’ve all played our part.
We’re more than corporate football here.
We’re football’s beating heart.
With sheer determination
Without a hint of fear
We made the noise which brought the boys
From Hereford to here.
With hope and expectation
And, yes, a little tear
We made the noise which brought the boys
From Hereford to here.
This is our celebration
So have another beer -
We’ve made the noise and brought the boys
From Hereford.....
To here.
Brighton v Forest up to 1999
So, to complete the Forest v Brighton head-to-head sequence (at least up to 1999)...
Forest's domination continued
So, Forest's league domination over Brighton was (in 1999 at least) complete.
Our 100% record was maintained. In the 138 seasons that Forest existed they had always finished above Brighton.
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| That made it 138-0 ! |
American Express? That'll Do Nicely
Having escaped the drop and having been recscued by playing at the Withdean stadium for a few years, Brighton fans finally reached the promised land of a brand new stadium to be proud of in 2011.I don't think anyone could begrudge them that.
I for one am so impressed with the way the club has continued to build from those days when they were almost relegated out of the league and maybe into oblivion. In today's Greediership, Chris Hughton's Brighton are definitely some of the few good guys for me.
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| The site of the Old Goldstone Ground |
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| From The Goldstone to the Amex, via Withdean (not showing Gillingham!) |
good work !
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