[Albion] If you don't feel old at times.....

[dejavuatbtn]

We organised an evening Christmas party for the Junior Seagulls in Brighton when he was manager. He got every single player there under threat of a fine - a measure of how important he saw player involvement in the community. Top player, top captain and top bloke. It was a real shame we couldn’t keep him here when he left to manage Port Vale. He was turning things round for us at that time.

 

[Questions]

Yep best seagull captain ever

Without doubt in my opinion. God, some of our players got a blast from him. Led by example though and I think he might well be my favourite player as well as captain of all time.

 

[Questions]

Came on NSC to see if anyone had started a thread about our great Captain's birthday. Didn't realise it was his 70th today.

Also my mates birthday and the pair of us went to Hull away on the 4th February 1978, Boothferry Park. All Albion fans sang Happy Birthday to him. Much appreciated by the finest Captain we have ever had. 1-1 I believe it finished.

I remember that game well. We went on the Seagull Special and had to smuggle what booze we could on away from the prying eyes of Stavros....... (What was his real name ?....... He looked like Kojak’s brother from the tv show)

 

[Brovion]

I remember that game well. We went on the Seagull Special and had to smuggle what booze we could on away from the prying eyes of Stavros....... (What was his real name ?....... He looked like Kojak’s brother from the tv show)

Tony McLeod.

 

[papajaff]

I remember that game well. We went on the Seagull Special and had to smuggle what booze we could on away from the prying eyes of Stavros....... (What was his real name ?....... He looked like Kojak’s brother from the tv show)

Yes we were on the Seagull Special. So easy travelling on that. Sausages, mash and beans for 40p. Tony was Stavros' name.

 

[Weststander]

My favourite Albion skipper. A real full-on blood and guts leader.
Met him in a Walsall hotel once, when he was Man. City boss. Think they were due to play Villa that evening.
Great bloke; had a good chat about the old days.
Happy Birthday, Brian.
Nothing wrong with 70 and at least you are about 6 months younger than me!

A quiet hard nut and a bloody good footballer. Equally as important as Ward, Lawrenson, to our ascent. Every good team up until this diving century needed a couple of enforcers, so not to be bullied out of games ... Horton had that in spades.

 

[Dave the OAP]

Cheers

Best ever Captain
Best ever midfielder (maybe apart from when Lawrenson played with him in midfield)
Best ever penalty taker
Most influential player
My favourite ever player
IMHO

Spot on

 

[Questions]

A quiet hard nut and a bloody good footballer. Equally as important as Ward, Lawrenson, to our ascent. Every good team up until this diving century needed a couple of enforcers, so not bullied out of games ... Horton had that in spades.

Probably mentioned elsewhere but got Player of the Season even after Ward netted 36 times that year. Shows the regard the fans had for him.

 

[Dave the OAP]

Whilst I admit this era is the Best Ever in the Albion's history for me, 20 years old in 1977, nothing will beat that period when we went from the Third to the First division. Wonderful times with our wonderful captain.

Happy birthday Sir Brian.

Agree 100%. Nothing comes close to that period.

 

[Dave the OAP]

I remember that game well. We went on the Seagull Special and had to smuggle what booze we could on away from the prying eyes of Stavros....... (What was his real name ?....... He looked like Kojak’s brother from the tv show)

Yes I was on that train...the toilet was overflowing with all the " ahem...water..." we were all drinking that day

 

[sams dad]

.

Interesting.
I met Jim Cannon ..................he was usually pretty good at marking Wardy.

He wasn’t on Boxing Day 1979, Wardy ran rings round him.

 

[daveinplzen]

I met him once at the Goldstone, just as a fan... a few weeks later we were all coming back on the train with the team and when he saw me, he was waving at me like I was family. Loved him as our captain.

 

[Return of the Rev]

A poor man's Tony Grealish

 

[el punal]

Definitely this, The walk to Hove station after the 74 game was very scary to a 15 year old..

I caught the train down from Rugby to Euston that day. It was packed with Man.Utd fans on their way to Leyton Orient for their first game in the old Division Two since being relegated. Suffice to say I stayed shtum the whole way. At the time United fans had the worst reputation in the country and would literally take over an away ground - and the town!

I breathed a sigh of relief when we got to London, caught the tube down to Victoria and train to Brighton. Part Two of “You’re Going To Get Your F***ing Heads Kicked In” (possibly!) was about to take place. Luckily I managed to miss all the confrontations and got to see Spider Mellor score the only goal.

Nothing like the good old days, eh?

 

[BLOCK F]

.
He wasn’t on Boxing Day 1979, Wardy ran rings round him.

I know, I was there.
Wardy was determined to get the better of him that day and he certainly did.
Fabulous memories!

 

[nelson73]

what a player.id just started watching the albion with my dad and loved watching nobby play.one of my favorite players to this day

 

[Lush]

Happy Birthday to the captain. I still want to see him stepping up to take a penalty when we get one.

This seems as good a time to ask as any, but why 'halftime iceberg'?

 

[Official Old Man]

Happy Birthday Nobby.

 

[Horton's halftime iceberg]

This seems as good a time to ask as any, but why 'halftime iceberg'?

At our lowest point at Gillingham, Brian came back and performed a miracle, he put some life back into us, and started to re-float the titanic, it co en-sided with (the internet i.e one needed a name and avatar) and two young women that would walk around the touch line of the ground just before half time. This happened at every game, they would walk around three sides of the pitch starting at the Priestfield Road end, along the Gordan road side, in front of the Rainham End and then up the tunnel on the Redfern Avenue side, just before the halftime whistle went.

One always carried one of those sack money bags (I assume with the takings) the other always had a clingfilm wrapped iceberg lettuce. It showed how awful the games could be, that we ever noticed this. I then realised that this lettuce was somehow brought at Mr Hortons request and that he would both throw, kick and flail the iceberg lettuce around the changing room during his halftime rant-motivational speech. I imagine as it was so terrifying this is why we have never heard, Kerry Mayo or Gary Hart ever mention it in interview, although they may never have been asked.

I now read this back and it seems so surreal (like a Meades Ball post) in this age of £35 million training centers and a week where we spent over £12 million pounds on three youth players no one gets to see play. But I am sure somewhere in the AMEX museum perhaps out the back their is a display cabinet with both Brian Horton's no 4 shirt and alongside it one of those plastic food fibre glass imitation lettuces the kind you get displaying food in restaurants.

Unimaginable I know - but its the truth and story behind the online name, I do hope he got an iceberg lettuce for his birthday and I like to think he blasted a penalty or two with it into the grand kids football nets in the garden perhaps while no one was watching. So even though he is a Wolves fan he loves Brighton and Hove Albion and says that the two promotions he won with us were the highlights of his career. Forever our captain marvel.

Oh and vegster says the one on my avatar is not a iceberg lettuce but something like a batavia lettuce, but it took ages back in the day to make it fit around the ball in the photo of him tackling Jerry Murphy in one of his Palace derby games, so the incorrect one stayed.

 

[Lush]

At our lowest point at Gillingham, Brian came back and performed a miracle, he put some life back into us, and started to re-float the titanic, it co en-sided with (the internet i.e one needed a name and avatar) and two young women that would walk around the touch line of the ground just before half time. This happened at every game, they would walk around three sides of the pitch starting at the Priestfield Road end, along the Gordan road side, in front of the Rainham End and then up the tunnel on the Redfern Avenue side, just before the halftime whistle went.

One always carried one of those sack money bags (I assume with the takings) the other always had a clingfilm wrapped iceberg lettuce. It showed how awful the games could be, that we ever noticed this. I then realised that this lettuce was somehow brought at Mr Hortons request and that he would both throw, kick and flail the iceberg lettuce around the changing room during his halftime rant-motivational speech. I imagine as it was so terrifying this is why we have never heard, Kerry Mayo or Gary Hart ever mention it in interview, although they may never have been asked.

I now read this back and it seems so surreal (like a Meades Ball post) in this age of £35 million training centers and a week where we spent over £12 million pounds on three youth players no one gets to see play. But I am sure somewhere in the AMEX museum perhaps out the back their is a display cabinet with both Brian Horton's no 4 shirt and alongside it one of those plastic food fibre glass imitation lettuces the kind you get displaying food in restaurants.

Unimaginable I know - but its the truth and story behind the online name, I do hope he got an iceberg lettuce for his birthday and I like to think he blasted a penalty or two with it into the grand kids football nets in the garden perhaps while no one was watching. So even though he is a Wolves fan he loves Brighton and Hove Albion and says that the two promotions he won with us were the highlights of his career. Forever our captain marvel.

Oh and vegster says the one on my avatar is not a iceberg lettuce but something like a batavia lettuce, but it took ages back in the day to make it fit around the ball in the photo of him tackling Jerry Murphy in one of his Palace derby games, so the incorrect one stayed.

What a great story. To be filed under 'Stranger Than Fiction'. Thank you for taking the time to post.