2004-05: McGhee’s miracle work keeps Brighton in the Championship

Unpopular opinion: The biggest managerial achievement of any Brighton & Hove Albion boss was when Mark McGhee kept the Seagulls in the Championship in the 2004-05 season.

People might laugh at that. After all, it was hardly a memorable campaign and there were long periods when it was downright ghastly to watch. Six consecutive defeats in March and April as part of a nine game winless run even had some supporters turning on McGhee.

Yet Brighton survived, a 20th placed finish in the Championship being the club’s highest since the 1990-91 season some 14 years earlier.

And in terms of a manager leading a squad of players to a league position that vastly exceeded their abilities, you won’t find a campaign that betters it.

People may say winning league titles and promotion is more impressive. But when Gus Poyet, Peter Taylor, Micky Adams and Alan Mullery led their Albion sides out of their respective divisions, they did so with squads who were expected to challenge towards the top.

Then there are those great escapes from relegation. Steve Gritt and Russell Slade both lifted Brighton from seemingly hopeless positions to safety.

That’s a different type of achievement though. Slade and Gritt took over groups of players who were under achieving because of the inept managers who preceded them.

Their tasks were centred around taking the decent players they had at their disposal and eking the sort of performances out of those players that they had the ability to deliver.

Compare that to the job McGhee had to do in the 2004-05 season. Challenge number one for McGhee was that it was widely recognised that he had the weakest squad in the Championship – hence why the Albion were every bookmakers’ favourites to finish bottom of the table.

In fact, it was probably a weaker squad than McGhee had at the end of the previous season’s Division Two campaign. Ben Roberts didn’t play again after the playoff final victory over Bristol City as the back trouble he had suffered throughout his career finally forced his retirement and Chris Iwelumo turned down a permanent move from Stoke City in favour of trying his luck in Germany with Almenia Aaachen.

Brighton’s budget stretched as far as four summer arrivals – young midfielders Alexis Nicolas and Albert Jarrett from Chelsea and Wimbledon respectively, unknown Swiss striker Maheta Molango and 29-year-old winger Darren Currie, who had just been released by Wycombe Wanderers. A set of signings hardly likely to set the division alike.

The Albion’s survival hopes would therefore revolve around Leon Knight repeating the scoring heroics that saw him plunder 27 goals the previous year.

And there was challenge number two for McGhee. The story of Knight’s career – other than the bouts of bad behaviour – was that he was a striker who could dominated in the third tier but didn’t cut it a division up.

Knight’s cause wasn’t helped by an untimely suspension ruling him out of the first three league games. But four goals in 41 appearances for Brighton in the 2004-05 season was a terrible return for a leading striker and left the Albion with a real hole in the goals for column.

Challenge number three for McGhee was linked to challenge number two – if Knight didn’t score, the only other strikers he could call on were Maheta Molango, Chris McPhee, Jake Robinson and Mark McCammon who arrived in December from Millwall.

Compare that to Brighton’s relegation rivals. Nottingham Forest went down with Marlon King, Jack Lester, Scott Dobie, David Johnson, Neil Harris and Gareth Taylor as their striking options.

Gillingham had Patrick Agyemang, Darren Byfield, Darius Henderson, Tommy Johnson, Iwan Roberts and Mamady Sidibe. Crewe Alexandra finished below the Albion with Dean Ashton, Luke Varney and Steve Jones. Three teams with a who’s who of strikers you could always rely on for goals at that level of football.

None of those clubs needed to play a 21-year-old right back with 40 career appearances to his name as striker. Even more incredible than McGhee’s bizarre decision to turn Adam Virgo into a striker six games into the 2004-05 season was that it actually worked, Virgo ending the campaign as Brighton top scorer with eight goals.

Challenge number four came in December when McGhee’s already weak squad was made even weaker through the sale of two of his best players – neither of whom was then replaced.

Captain Danny Cullip departed for Sheffield United for £250,000 on December 17th 2004. Seven days earlier, Darren Currie had been sold to Ipswich Town for the same fee.

That Currie deal was a remarkable piece of business on the part of McGhee. In July, Currie was a winger just a matter of months away from his 30th birthday, who had just been released by the side who finished bottom of Division Two. He simply wasn’t a signing a Championship club should be making.

McGhee however saw something he could work with and handed Currie a contract. After four months in which Currie’s performances were nearly as dazzling as his highlights, he was being sold for a quarter of a million pounds to a side pushing for promotion to the Premier League.

Hard-up Brighton couldn’t turn down that sort of money. What Dick Knight perhaps could have done is reinvest it in some new signings to compensate McGhee for the loss of two outstanding talents.

Instead, McGhee was made to battle on for the rest of the season, minus his captain and most creative player. Another reason why McGhee’s feats are almost without compare.

Challenge number five reared its ugly head in January when Michel Kuipers suffered the serious shoulder injury which would rule him out for nearly a year.

Nottingham Forest were the visitors and with five minutes remaining at Withdean, the Former Dutch Marine tore his shoulder to pieces. So bad was the damage that the surgeon who carried out the operation said it looked as if there had been an explosion inside Kuipers’ shoulder.

Suddenly, McGhee wasn’t just faced with the problem of having no recognisable striker of Championship quality. He also had no goalkeeper, an issue that wasn’t as easy to solve as simply sticking Virgo, Dean Hammond or Charlie Oatway in goal – although it’s a surprise that wasn’t tried at some point.

Instead, the Albion rattled through four custodians in four months. Chris May was followed by David Yelldell who was followed by Rami Shaaban who was followed by Alan Blayney.

The one position that you don’t want to have a revolving door policy is goalkeeper. Kuipers’ injury plunged McGhee into another unenviable situation that would have sunk many sides.

So to clarify; McGhee led Brighton to 20th place in the Championship with the weakest squad in the league. Said squad then lost its two best players before Christmas, played most of the season without a recognised striker and McGhee had to use four goalkeepers in the second half of the campaign after his number one suffered a career-threatening, long term injury.

Perhaps that’s why every Brighton victory in the 2004-05 season seemed so big. The first came in Virgo’s first game as a striker, a 1-0 win over Preston North End thanks to a Marlon Broomes own goal.

Virgo scored a goal that a seasoned striker would have been proud of 48 hours later as the Albion triumphed 1-0 away at recently relegated Leicester City, Brighton’s first shock success of the season.

There were more to come. When the Albion went to the City Ground in September, nobody expected Forest would end the season being relegated and so Virgo’s winner against the Tricky Trees felt like another unexpected result.

The Leeds United were beaten at Withdean in October. That was followed in November by one of the most ridiculous results in Brighton history as Guy Butters’ header secured a 1-0 win away at West Ham United.

West Ham had 70% possession and 17 shots and yet the Albion somehow left the Boleyn Ground with three points. Butters summed it up best, saying, “The first 10 minutes was the absolute Alamo. Coming off after the game, in the changing room everyone was just in fits of laughter. How did we win it?!”

‘How did we win it’ could have been the Brighton motto for the entire 2004-05 season really. Currie and Cullip were gone by the time there was a plucky 2-1 defeat away at Tottenham Hotspur in the FA Cup, Spurs only just avoiding a replay at Withdean thanks to a brilliant strike from Robbie Keane.

A week later and the Albion won 2-1 away against Cullip and his new Sheffield United teammates as Knight chose a timely moment to pop up with a rare goal in the 90th minute at Bramall Lane.

Eventual champions Sunderland came to Withdean in mid-February. Virgo saw red after only 30 minutes with Brighton 1-0 ahead through Richard Carpenter.

Against all the odds, McCammon added a second with the Albion down to 10. Julio Arca’s 80th minute strike for the Black Cats set up a nervous last 10, but Brighton held on for another impressive three points.

Millwall were defeated 1-0 at Withdean the following week on February 26th. That was followed by those six consecutive defeats.

Most disappointing was a 5-1 hammering away at Plymouth Argyle and a Jimmy Bullard inspired Wigan Athletic storming into a three goal lead inside of 17 minutes at Withdean. A late Albion rally wasn’t enough and the Latics ran out 4-2 winners.

Brighton were suddenly slipping towards the relegation that so many had predicted back in July. McGhee needed to rally the troops for one final push for safety.

Robinson was recalled from a fruitful loan spell at Conference side Aldershot and Brighton picked up draws against Leicester, Burnley and West Ham United.

Victory in the penultimate game away at bottom side Rotherham United meant that a point on the final day against Ipswich Town would secure the most unlikely of survivals.

The visitors arrived at Withdean still in with a chance of promotion. An Ipswich win coupled with a Wigan defeat would see Joe Royle’s Tractor Boys secure a place in the Premier League.

Shefki Kuqi gave Ipswich the perfect start as they took a fourth minute lead. Virgo – who else – equalised six minutes later. As news filtered through that Wigan were cruising to a 3-1 victory against Reading, Ipswich all but gave up and the game sauntered to a conclusion. Brighton had the point they needed.

10 months earlier, nobody had given the Albion a hope of avoiding an immediate return to the third tier. They were supposed to finish rock bottom of the pile. And now, here they were with Rotherham, Forest, Gillingham and Crewe all below them.

It isn’t an exaggeration to say that the Brighton side of the 2004-05 season might be the worst ever to stay in the Championship. And that is why – unpopular opinion – the biggest managerial achievement of any Brighton & Hove Albion boss was when Mark McGhee kept the Seagulls up.