He was cheeky, he was sneaky, he was George Parris
It’s Saturday 28th October 1995. Bristol Rovers are the visitors to the Goldstone and another Brighton attack has just come to nothing in familiar fashion for a side who would finish 23rd out of 24 in Division Two come the end of the season.
As a result, George Parris’ run to the back post has been rendered completely pointless and the midfielder doesn’t look too impressed about it as he takes a rest next to the upright in front of the South Stand.
Except he isn’t unimpressed. Or taking a rest. He’s actually about to produce one of the cheekiest moments in Albion history. It’s cheekier than the Cheeky Girls going for a cheeky Nandos and will earn him a place in Brighton folklore as well as the moniker of Sneaky George.
Rovers goalkeeper Andy Collett hasn’t realised that Parris is lurking behind him. Collett drops the ball at his feet, this being those prehistoric days when keepers could only move four steps with the ball in their hands, mistakenly thinking he has all the time in the world to come forward with it.
Very quickly, he finds out he doesn’t. Sneaky George suddenly appears from behind him, steals the ball and rolls it into the empty net. Brighton would go onto win the game 2-0.
It was a goal typical of Parris, a hard working and intelligent midfielder who was a real leader on the pitch and a quiet, calming force away from it. With so much off-the-field unrest and a young squad that desperately needed experience, it was those qualities that made Liam Brady so desperate to bring him to Hove.
Brady and Parris had first met at West Ham United, where Parris began his career and is most revered. He spent eight years at the Boleyn Ground having come through the ranks, making 290 appearances and scoring 17 goals.
Parris was the Hammers’ first choice left back as they secured their highest ever finish of third in the top flight in the 1985-86 season and he starred in two runs to the last four of the League Cup and one to the semi finals of the FA Cup.
His time with West Ham was testing, largely because this was the 1980s and Parris was a successful black player who therefore had to endure terrible racism. He dealt with it as calmly as he did everything else that his career threw at him.
Take one particular incident, when a visiting fan to the Boleyn Ground decided to launch a banana at him. Parris put his hands on hips, pretended to look knackered and then acted as though he’d just spotted the banana. He peeled it, ate it, and then made a gesture of thanks.
The visiting neanderthals were incensed. The Hammers supporters responded with a chorus of “There’s only one George Parris”.
It wasn’t just fruit that Parris had thrown at him. Insults were par for the cause, as were coins. Often, Parris would pick up the loose change that opposition fans would send his way and pretend to pocket it. If it were only pennies, he’d call them cheapskates.
Parris moved to Birmingham City for £100,000 in March 1993 and it was from St Andrews that Brady brought him to the Goldstone, initially on loan in February 1995 until the end of the season.
Parris made quite the impression with his battling qualities, determination and spirit during his three temporary months in Sussex. He started the 1995-96 season on trial at Stoke City and had a month in Sweden with Norrkoping, but by the end of September he was back with the Albion on a permanent basis.
His Sneaky George moment came a month later, one of five goals he managed in a total of 88 appearances in a Brighton shirt and he went onto assume the club captaincy from Paul McCarthy when the popular Irish defender was sold to Wycombe Wanderers in the summer of 1996 following the Albion’s relegation into Division Three.
Parris began the 1996-97 campaign in decent form – one of the few players who did – but when Steve Gritt replaced Jimmy Case as manager, Parris lost his starting spot in the middle of the park to a teenage Kerry Mayo.
He was released at the end of the season, although there was something much bigger going on at that time as Parris was facing a personal battle with a crippling gambling addiction that nearly led to him taking his own life in Newhaven a few years later.
Parris told the Daily Mail in a pretty candid interview, “I can remember looking out over the bridge there and thinking ‘what do I do?'”
“I couldn’t see how I was going to get myself out of the big hole I was in. I’d begged and borrowed from everyone I knew and, yes, I did give serious thought to killing myself.”
A long road lay ahead for Parris but with the same qualities that were hallmarks of his football career, he managed to overcome his demons.
He became a UEFA A Licensed Coach and in 2016, led the Albion’s Women’s team to promotion into the Women’s Super League for the first time in the club’s history as Interim Head Coach. Parris remains a part of the setup at the Albion, now working as Technical Director of the Girl’s Regional Talent Club.
To be honest, we’ve got no idea what that means. But who cares? To us, he’ll always be Sneaky George. A great player and an even better man.
