Warren Aspinall makes a mark on Brighton far beyond 37 matches

When you are nine-years-old and watching the Albion in Nationwide Division Three, you probably don’t tend to either know or care about opposition players. Which makes it remarkable that nine-year-old me remembered Warren Aspinall before he joined Brighton.

The reason for this was because of what happened when Aspinall visited the Goldstone Ground in Carlisle United colours on Saturday 23rd November 1996.

Playing Carlisle at this time was always memorable because of their amazing green, orange and white away kit designed to look just like an Eddie Stobart lorry.

It was made doubly memorable on this occasion by Aspinall scoring one of the best goals the old Goldstone ever saw. Picking up the ball deep inside his own half a few minutes before half time, Aspinall proceeded to run the entire length of the pitch.

Three, four, five Brighton defenders tried to get close to him. Still Aspinall weaved forward. He eventually made it to 20 yards out from goal, from where he cannoned an unstoppable effort beyond Mark Ormerod.

Think Vicente against Derby County at the Amex in the 2011-12. The difference being Aspinall scored rather than hitting the bar. A goal extraordinary enough to leave an indelible mark on a nine-year-old.

Since his waltz from one end of the Goldstone to the other, Warren Aspinall has gone onto make his mark at Brighton in other ways and on different generations.

Some will remember him playing 37 times for the Albion in 12 months between 1999 and 2000. For the Amex generation, he does a magnificent job on BBC Radio Sussex summarising matches alongside commentator Johnny Cantor.

And then there are those who know Aspinall as a source of inspiration for the candid way he has spoken about battling his demons.

Professional football has a problem with addiction. Something which is not discussed anywhere near enough. Aspinall is different.

Unafraid to talk about how drink and gambling almost led him to take his life, Aspinall tells his story in the hope it can make a difference.

He played a huge part in The Samaritans Men on the Ropes campaign, fronting their efforts to highlight the prevalence of male suicide and urging those struggling to cope to seek help.

Aspinall was honest enough in that campaign to admit he lost over £1 million gambling over the course of his career.

Warren Aspinall had just turned 32 when he joined Brighton in September 1999 from Colchester United, initially in a rare loan-swap deal which saw Andy Arnott move from Withdean to Layer Road. Two months later and the clubs agreed to make the swap permanent.

Aspinall already had over 500 professional games and more than 100 goals to his name when he arrived in Sussex. He made his debut for hometown club Wigan Athletic as a teenager and by the age of 19, earned a £150,000 move to Everton.

The Toffees were arguably the best side in English football at the time, meaning first team opportunities were limited for Aspinall.

His form though for the reserves though was prolific. 21 goals from 23 appearances convinced Aston Villa to pay out £300,000 to take Aspinall to Villa Park.

Aspinall helped fire Villa to promotion back to the top flight in 1987-88, followed by a £315,000 transfer to Portsmouth. He spent six years at Fratton Park, making 159 appearances.

A move to Bournemouth followed, then Carlisle. Aspinall scored six times from midfield for the Cumbrians, helping them win promotion in that same 1996-97 season he channelled his inner George Weah at the Goldstone.

Wanting to move back south, Aspinall found himself linking up with Micky Adams for the first time at Brentford in November 1997. Adams remained a big fan and so engineered the swap deal involving Arnott, enabling him to sign Aspinall again for the Albion.

Warren Aspinall made his Brighton debut two days later in a 1-0 win over Cheltenham Town on Saturday 25th September 1999.

He scored his first goal for the Albion the following month, securing a 1-0 victory at Carlisle of all places. Needless to say, it was not quite spectacular as that effort three years earlier when the boot was on the other foot and Aspinall was helping the Cumbrians to victory in Sussex.

Aspinall ended the 1999-00 campaign having played 36 matches, scoring three times . He came off the bench in the opening home game of the 2000-01 season when two Bobby Zamora goals gave Brighton a 2-1 win over Rochdale. Little did anyone know at the time it would be the final appearance of Aspinall’s career.

Aspinall underwent surgery in a routine operation to have a piece of floating bone removed from his ankle. He ended up catching the MSRA, which ate away the tendons in his ankle.

Worse was to come when Aspinall’s body struggled to fight off the superbug. He underwent two subsequent procedures to try and remove the MSRA, neither of which worked.

The final option was another operation to insert two tubes into his heart. One would deliver antibiotics straight to the body via an intravenous drip and the other take blood out.

In the plain speaking, matter-of-fact-manner which makes him such a good radio commentator, Aspinall told Portsmouth newspaper The News in a 2022 interview what happened next.

“That (heart operation) sounded good to me. Apart from my heart subsequently stopping during the procedure. I died. I don’t know what happened on that operating table, but they brought me back.”

“I lived, the antibiotics killed the superbug, but my career ended there and then. I was aged 33, with nothing planned, no coaching badges. I had to go into the real world.”

What happened next has been well documented. The shock of the only professional life he knew coming to a drastic close, drinking, gambling and a costly divorce led Aspinall to be sat on a railway line near his Hampshire home in 2007.

Thankfully, Aspinall changed his mind over ending his life at the last minute. He spent a fortnight in Tony Adams’ Sporting Chance clinic, followed by taking on scouting work for the Albion – it was Aspinall who spotted Christian Walton playing youth team football for Plymouth Argyle – and landing his role with BBC Sussex.

And what a job he does on the radio. His struggles with complicated foreign names have become so famous that you almost wonder whether the only reason Brighton signed Alireza Jahanbakhsh was to see how Warren Aspinall pronounced it.

His quips from his career are always enjoyable. When Carlos Baleba notched his first Brighton goal and celebrated with acrobatics which would not look out of place in an Olympic gymnastics final, Warren said he once tried a forward roll after scoring but it caused an earthquake.

The Streets will never forget that time a clearance flew straight towards the commentary position in the West Lower. Cool as you like, Aspinall headed back towards the pitch, earning the biggest cheer of the day from everyone inside the Amex.

For a bloke who played less than 50 times for Brighton and only in the bottom division, Aspinall has managed to make himself a hugely popular figure with supporters spanning 25 years and counting.

Aspinall reflects that affection from Albion fans with his own back at the club. On commentary, he talks of Brighton as “we”.

This passion also comes through in the way Aspinall is unafraid to say the performance has been crap if the performance has indeed been crap. He speaks like one of us.

And when the Albion are good? You can always rely on Johnny and Warren to soundtrack it with memorable one-liners. “Am I watching Brighton or Barcelona?” remains Aspinall’s most famous piece of commentary.

Somewhat ironic given that Lionel Messi, Diego Maradona-esque goal of individual brilliance at the Goldstone all those years ago.