Alan Mullery and the Golden Years

[Baron Pepperpot]

I remember the Mullery years, but I was young and never went to the games.

I'd be interested to hear about what people thought of that time. Was Mullery a good manager, or were we just an outstanding team ? What were away days like on the Seagull Special ? What did it feel like during the first season in the top flight. I'd be interested to hear about the style of football we played. As a kid I was always on the outside looking in.

 

[catfish]

They were great days to be an Albion fan. Mullery inherited a good team and turned it into an exceptional one. His motivational skills were second to none and his footballing philosophy was based around attack.
He got the best out of players like Nobby, Wardy and Sully and made some superb signings such as Lawrenson, Willliams and Fozzie.

 

[HovaGirl]

Great days. We were really going somewhere. Built on the solid foundation Brian Clough had left behind, Mullery really hauled the club towards the big-time. Other than Jimmy Melia taking us to Wembley, once Mullery left, it was downhill all the way. But now we're on our way upwards again and with a fabulous new stadium.

 

[Brovion]

HovaGirl makes a good point about Brian Clough; when Brighton fans talk about the years BC we mean Before Clough. Playing-wise we didn't actually do much with him, in fact we were a bit shit, but it was just the message it sent out that the club was serious about progressing. The equivalent today would be if we'd appoint Alex Ferguson after Russel Slade was sacked. Then when he left his assistant Peter Taylor stayed and carried on the good work, including signing a scrawny little lad called Peter Ward in whom he saw something. Having just missed out on promotion and having seen the start of the Palace rivalry, Taylor left to re-join Clough, and Mullery built on the foundations.

The Seagull Specials were brilliant, absolutely brilliant. They were charter trains rather than standard services and they ran direct from Brighton to wherever we were playing. The players would sometimes travel on it as well coming home; the journey back after the Newcastle game in 1979 has gone down in legend. The fares were dirt cheap (maximum of about £4 for games in the North East for example) and as it was all Brighton fans the atmosphere was great and it was known as 'a social club on wheels'. Technically there was no alcohol, but people always smuggled it on, much to the chagrin of the chief steward, a lovely man called Tony, but known to all and sundry as 'Stavros'.

Great days.


EDIT: The subject of the 'Glory Years' is obviously a popular one on NSC and I've written similar posts before, but I never get tired of talking about them! However, like with England's World Cup win in 1966 I live in hope that someday the achievement of those years will be surpassed and us old buggers can finally shut up!

 

[Henfield One]

They were really exciting times - home form invincible and away matches were brilliant with the door to door service of the legendary Seagull Specials. Players & Management travelling with us - unheard of now of course. We were one big team - and dear Stavros was one of my unsung Albion heroes. Pictures anyone?

The Seagull Specials used to cross London (rarely done by any trains those days, certainly no commuter trains from London went across the river). For the infamous Palace 2nd FA Cup replay at Stamford Bridge, our train took us to the back of the Stadium direct from Brighton.

Catering was beans and more beans, plus the odd pie and sausages - but hot food served on a plate. Tables were almost always put on throughout the train.

Yes they were very special times.

 

[Daffy Duck]

The Mullery years were fantastic. But the man who set it all in motion was Peter Taylor (thanks to Mike Bamber, of course).

I remember a home game against Millwall where we went 2-0 down by half-time and the players went off into the tunnel.
A couple of minutes later they were all back out on the pitch & we all wondered what on earth was going on. Evidently, Mullers had been so pissed off with them he sent them back out on to the pitch for half-time and wouldn't let them in the dressing room.

Needless to say, we won 3-2.

 

[Brovion]

Still on the subject of Stavros and the Seagull Specials let me bore you all with an article I wrote for the Brighton fanzine 'Keep The Faith' in 2001 (Yes, I am sad enough to keep copies of everything I've written). Those who aren't interested can obviously stop reading now.

Goldstone Memories #986 - The Seagull Specials

Robert Louis Stevenson said "To travel hopefully is better than to arrive" - well he obviously never had to sit for two hours in a freezing railway carriage that had been shunted onto a goods siding due to a points failure at Crewe. If he had he would have changed it to "Arriving before kick-off is all that matters." Such events were occasional unfortunate facts of life for all those who travelled on the famous Seagull Specials - charter trains that carried Albion fans to away games during the 1970s.

The Seagull Specials were a brilliant idea. Instead of making us travel by standard rail services the club would charter a whole train, the advantages were that travel was incredibly cheap and they didn't stop anywhere outside Sussex which meant you didn't have to go into London and change. Best of all as they only carried Brighton supporters there was no chance of having your carriage invaded by a load of illiterate Palace fans struggling to read the Sun headlines. There were however a few problems; being football fans we were often given rolling stock that wasn't deemed fit for normal human beings, plus some of the ancient locomotives should have been taken out of service about the time they abandoned the Broad Gauge. Also there was the problem that the rail network is geared towards London, if we were going further north we had to be routed round the city and so for endless hours we would slowly clank and judder along forgotten tracks that hadn't seen a train since Stevenson’s Rocket. Add this to the fact that as a charter train we had the lowest priority on the network and you can see why getting there before kick-off, or even getting there at all, could never be taken for granted.

All this might make the Seagull Specials seem like a kind of traveller's purgatory, but even with the breakdowns, heating failures and signalling delays these trains were the best thing the club ever organsised for the supporters. Almost everybody who travelled on them remembers them with affection, with their card schools, smuggled beer and friendly atmosphere they were effectively social clubs on wheels. However they didn’t run themselves and their success was due in no small part to the Chief Steward; a large man in his fifties with a chubby face, a cheerful personality and a voice like a pregnant cow experiencing particularly acute labour pains. To my eternal shame I never found out his real name, I think it was Tony, but he was known to all the younger fans as Stavros.

Stavros was Brighton through and through. He was also the epitome of the perfect steward because he got our co-operation by making polite requests rather than by bullying. He would shout if he had to, he treated any transgression of the rules as a personal insult, but you could tell he didn’t like berating people - his soft crumpled exterior masked hidden depths of pure syrup. On the outward journey he would wander up and down the train saying hello, his distinctive voice announcing his arrival about two carriages before he reached you. He would bawl announcements about the travel situation and the status of the cuisine in the buffet car whilst chatting to supporters with a homespun charm that made Terry Wogan and Michael Parkinson look about as friendly as the Kray twins.

In those days the players would often travel back on the train as well and Stavros sometimes acted as a conduit between them and the supporters, repeating jokes or reporting little vignettes of their conversations. He always wore his heart on his sleeve, every victory cheered him and he appeared to blame himself personally for every defeat as if by better stewarding he could have prevented it. One trip to Walsall stands out, it was the 1977 return game after that memorable 7-0 victory at the Goldstone. The match itself was incredible; we completely outplayed them in the most one-sided game I have ever seen, straight from the kick-off we totally overran them and the only question was how many would we score? .....….. So there we were, three minutes to go, 0-0. Then (you know what's coming don't you) with virtually their only attack of the match Walsall scored. Gutted? We felt like Safeways chickens. The journey home was conducted in silence, Stavros was wandering around commiserating with supporters as if a close relative had just died, his booming voice reduced to a mere hoarse grunt. People were looking at him blankly and he would pat them comfortingly on the back and say "I know, I know, the players are gutted too, they're not talking." Just south of London he walked through the train with a sad smile and told everybody in a voice just above a whisper: "The players have just started talking to each other again." I think he was scared that the Mike Bamber was suddenly going to appear and shout “Oi!, if you hadn’t let those kids flick mashed potato all round the buffet car we’d have won!”

In 1979 I purchased a car that I felt confident could be risked on the motorway network without it disintegrating halfway up the M1, so my last trip on the Seagull Special was that never-to-be-forgotten day at Newcastle. That day still remains one of the greatest high points of my life, the anticipation, the atmosphere, the result, a superb reaction from the Newcastle fans and the certain knowledge that the club had moved on. Sure we might get relegated from the top division again at some time but it would only be a temporary setback, the team would get rebuilt and we’d be back; never again would we return to the bad old days of shuffling hopelessly up and down the lower divisions with all the other dead wood. (Don't say anything). The train back to Brighton that night was a huge party; the no-alcohol rule that was usually in force was suspended and I enjoyed free champagne courtesy of Mike Bamber, cans of beer courtesy of a very drunk Gary Williams and my own orange juice which I’d liberally laced with vodka in anticipation of the happy event. One of the best moments was an impromptu speech to our attentive carriage by Chris Cattlin in which he said how proud he was to play for the club, how he had never known such a warm relationship between players and supporters and how this season was easily the highlight of his career. ("What about your time with Coventry?" someone queried, "Oh f*** Coventry!" he spat back).

Sadly the Seagull Special trains soon died. This was due to a combination of rising costs and the fact that many Albion fans agreed with Robert Stevenson and decided that travelling hopefully up the divisions had proved far more enjoyable than actually being in the First – and so it was back to cars, coaches and regular trains. It is extremely unlikely, but not totally outside the bounds of possibility, that at some future date the club will re-start the Specials. I would obviously welcome this but in the same way that I judge every wearer of the No. 8 shirt against Peter Ward so the new Chief Steward would have to realise that he has a lot to live up to.

 

[BensGrandad]

They were the highlights of my Albion watching days so far, perhaps they will be surpassed who knows we can only hope. I remember the first game of the season one year and at 2.00 they went to blow up the balls and had no adapter so a quick call to a sports shop in Brighton and a taxi was arranged to pick one up and bring it to the Goldstone post haste. We were playing Portsmouth with Alan Ball as manager, when the game started,surprisingly on time there was a ruck between Ball and Mullers almost immediately. You could never imagine that happening tonight.

 

[Charlies Shinpad]

Best football we have ever played and will ever play

 

[cheshunt seagull]

Still on the subject of Stavros and the Seagull Specials let me bore you all with an article I wrote for the Brighton fanzine 'Keep The Faith' in 2001 (Yes, I am sad enough to keep copies of everything I've written). Those who aren't interested can obviously stop reading now.

Goldstone Memories #986 - The Seagull Specials

Robert Louis Stevenson said "To travel hopefully is better than to arrive" - well he obviously never had to sit for two hours in a freezing railway carriage that had been shunted onto a goods siding due to a points failure at Crewe. If he had he would have changed it to "Arriving before kick-off is all that matters." Such events were occasional unfortunate facts of life for all those who travelled on the famous Seagull Specials - charter trains that carried Albion fans to away games during the 1970s.

The Seagull Specials were a brilliant idea. Instead of making us travel by standard rail services the club would charter a whole train, the advantages were that travel was incredibly cheap and they didn't stop anywhere outside Sussex which meant you didn't have to go into London and change. Best of all as they only carried Brighton supporters there was no chance of having your carriage invaded by a load of illiterate Palace fans struggling to read the Sun headlines. There were however a few problems; being football fans we were often given rolling stock that wasn't deemed fit for normal human beings, plus some of the ancient locomotives should have been taken out of service about the time they abandoned the Broad Gauge. Also there was the problem that the rail network is geared towards London, if we were going further north we had to be routed round the city and so for endless hours we would slowly clank and judder along forgotten tracks that hadn't seen a train since Stevenson’s Rocket. Add this to the fact that as a charter train we had the lowest priority on the network and you can see why getting there before kick-off, or even getting there at all, could never be taken for granted.

All this might make the Seagull Specials seem like a kind of traveller's purgatory, but even with the breakdowns, heating failures and signalling delays these trains were the best thing the club ever organsised for the supporters. Almost everybody who travelled on them remembers them with affection, with their card schools, smuggled beer and friendly atmosphere they were effectively social clubs on wheels. However they didn’t run themselves and their success was due in no small part to the Chief Steward; a large man in his fifties with a chubby face, a cheerful personality and a voice like a pregnant cow experiencing particularly acute labour pains. To my eternal shame I never found out his real name, I think it was Tony, but he was known to all the younger fans as Stavros.

Stavros was Brighton through and through. He was also the epitome of the perfect steward because he got our co-operation by making polite requests rather than by bullying. He would shout if he had to, he treated any transgression of the rules as a personal insult, but you could tell he didn’t like berating people - his soft crumpled exterior masked hidden depths of pure syrup. On the outward journey he would wander up and down the train saying hello, his distinctive voice announcing his arrival about two carriages before he reached you. He would bawl announcements about the travel situation and the status of the cuisine in the buffet car whilst chatting to supporters with a homespun charm that made Terry Wogan and Michael Parkinson look about as friendly as the Kray twins.

In those days the players would often travel back on the train as well and Stavros sometimes acted as a conduit between them and the supporters, repeating jokes or reporting little vignettes of their conversations. He always wore his heart on his sleeve, every victory cheered him and he appeared to blame himself personally for every defeat as if by better stewarding he could have prevented it. One trip to Walsall stands out, it was the 1977 return game after that memorable 7-0 victory at the Goldstone. The match itself was incredible; we completely outplayed them in the most one-sided game I have ever seen, straight from the kick-off we totally overran them and the only question was how many would we score? .....….. So there we were, three minutes to go, 0-0. Then (you know what's coming don't you) with virtually their only attack of the match Walsall scored. Gutted? We felt like Safeways chickens. The journey home was conducted in silence, Stavros was wandering around commiserating with supporters as if a close relative had just died, his booming voice reduced to a mere hoarse grunt. People were looking at him blankly and he would pat them comfortingly on the back and say "I know, I know, the players are gutted too, they're not talking." Just south of London he walked through the train with a sad smile and told everybody in a voice just above a whisper: "The players have just started talking to each other again." I think he was scared that the Mike Bamber was suddenly going to appear and shout “Oi!, if you hadn’t let those kids flick mashed potato all round the buffet car we’d have won!”

In 1979 I purchased a car that I felt confident could be risked on the motorway network without it disintegrating halfway up the M1, so my last trip on the Seagull Special was that never-to-be-forgotten day at Newcastle. That day still remains one of the greatest high points of my life, the anticipation, the atmosphere, the result, a superb reaction from the Newcastle fans and the certain knowledge that the club had moved on. Sure we might get relegated from the top division again at some time but it would only be a temporary setback, the team would get rebuilt and we’d be back; never again would we return to the bad old days of shuffling hopelessly up and down the lower divisions with all the other dead wood. (Don't say anything). The train back to Brighton that night was a huge party; the no-alcohol rule that was usually in force was suspended and I enjoyed free champagne courtesy of Mike Bamber, cans of beer courtesy of a very drunk Gary Williams and my own orange juice which I’d liberally laced with vodka in anticipation of the happy event. One of the best moments was an impromptu speech to our attentive carriage by Chris Cattlin in which he said how proud he was to play for the club, how he had never known such a warm relationship between players and supporters and how this season was easily the highlight of his career. ("What about your time with Coventry?" someone queried, "Oh f*** Coventry!" he spat back).

Sadly the Seagull Special trains soon died. This was due to a combination of rising costs and the fact that many Albion fans agreed with Robert Stevenson and decided that travelling hopefully up the divisions had proved far more enjoyable than actually being in the First – and so it was back to cars, coaches and regular trains. It is extremely unlikely, but not totally outside the bounds of possibility, that at some future date the club will re-start the Specials. I would obviously welcome this but in the same way that I judge every wearer of the No. 8 shirt against Peter Ward so the new Chief Steward would have to realise that he has a lot to live up to.

Absolutely brilliant and totally accurate description of the Specials and great pen picture of Stavros.

 

[Return of the Rev]

THE RIGHT MANAGER AT THE RIGHT TIME WITH THE RIGHT PLAYERS AND THE RIGHT CHAIRMAN
AND THE FANS WERE NOT TOO BAD AND THE RIGHT FOE

 

[BensGrandad]

Could the Seagull Specials be revived or would it prove to costly and impracticable due to the rise in the numbers of cars now used and their efficiency.

 

[mune ni kamome]

I firmly believe that in his pomp and before injuries started to slow him down that Wardie was the best player in England for a while. No-one could stop him. I will never forget that feeling of expectation and pride when he had the ball.

 

[BensGrandad]

I firmly believe that in his pomp and before injuries started to slow him down that Wardie was the best player in England for a while. No-one could stop him. I will never forget that feeling of expectation and pride when he had the ball.

And when he tripped himself up to win a penalty usually when we had a ref from Dover, cant remember his first name but it was Taylor and he always fell for it, and gave him a penalty

 

[One Teddy Maybank]

Could the Seagull Specials be revived or would it prove to costly and impracticable due to the rise in the numbers of cars now used and their efficiency.

Would be fantastic.....

 

[Icy Gull]

El Pres wrote on another thread that the journey was better than the arrival and this sums it up perfectly for me. We swept other teams away for 3 odd seasons and arrived to be the whipping boys of the 1st division for the most part. It was however a fecking FANTASTIC journey.

 

[One Teddy Maybank]

I consider myself incredibly fortunate to have grown up supporting us during the Taylor/Mullery era. I didn't miss a home game between 75 - 83 and saw the majority of the away games (fortunately my parents were and remain keen supporters).

Incredible games, great crowds. Lawrenson, Ward, Horton, Mellor - just great times.

Newcastle for promotion, Sheff Wed home for promotion, Palace in 76 (thank you Sammy Morgan), I could just recite so many great games. Paul Clark away at Orient, with a shot so hard I swear it hissed (like a golf ball being struck). Tottenham at home in 78 for right and wrong reasons, Eric Potts - two goals in a minute......

Alan Mullery was the right person at the right time and is a BHA legend, it is completely wrong that he is not on the wall of fame outside the ground.....

 

[maltaseagull]

Ahh Those WERE the days

 

[LamieRobertson]

Loved them..as simple as that

 

[Mo Gosfield]

I consider myself incredibly fortunate to have grown up supporting us during the Taylor/Mullery era. I didn't miss a home game between 75 - 83 and saw the majority of the away games (fortunately my parents were and remain keen supporters).

Incredible games, great crowds. Lawrenson, Ward, Horton, Mellor - just great times.

Newcastle for promotion, Sheff Wed home for promotion, Palace in 76 (thank you Sammy Morgan), I could just recite so many great games. Paul Clark away at Orient, with a shot so hard I swear it hissed (like a golf ball being struck). Tottenham at home in 78 for right and wrong reasons, Eric Potts - two goals in a minute......

Alan Mullery was the right person at the right time and is a BHA legend, it is completely wrong that he is not on the wall of fame outside the ground.....

You are right about Mullery...he should be there ( Leon Knight ffs !!!!!! ). No reflection of that era can be made without reference to Mike Bamber ( How these two are omitted from the ' gallery '..words fail me )He was the man who drove BHA forward. He chased after and secured the services of the biggest management team in football. He saw Mullery punch a team-mate at Fulham and decided that when the time was right, he was the type of guy he wanted managing BHA. He was dynamic and charismatic and responsible for putting us on the football map.
As Cloughie said " the best chairman I ever worked for "....now, it can be argued he said that because Bamber paid him a shed load of money and let him swan off to do his media work, whenever it called. Bamber was no fool and knew the baggage that would come with Cloughie. He just hoped that the biggest gamble of his life would result in just a little bit of the Clough/Taylor magic working and putting us in the spotlight. I don't blame him for that and the seeds they sowed, reaped dividends later.
He got £900k from Liverpool for Lawrenson when Mullery had done a verbal deal with Big Ron for £400k ( yes, I know it caused a rift and Mullery eventually left ) but he was a business man, first and foremost.
Bamber, Mullery, Ward, Lawrenson and Horton were the men that made that era so good ( and for us oldies...still the best, thus far ) but without Bamber, the exciting, gambling, ambitious chairman..none of it would have happened.
RIP Mike and thanks for taking those chances.