Ashley Neal, the Liverpool loanee who was the worst Brighton player ever

Whenever somebody tries to put together a list of the worst ever Brighton players, some familiar names tend to crop up every time – and chief among them is Ashley Neal

Most of the candidates hail from the glorious period between 1996 and 1998 when the Albion finished 91st out of 92 clubs in the entire Football League in consecutive seasons.

You have got Damien Hilton, a man who couldn’t even secure employment giving rides to people on his back on Blackpool beach. Michael Mahoney-Johnson, a striker who had 12 more letters in his surname than professional goals.

Where to begin with David Adekola? Scottish striker David Cameron was even worse at football than his namesake at winning referendums and Glen Thomas’ performance away at Brentford in 1998 is still known to leave some who witnessed it waking up in a cold sweat over 20 years on.

And then there was Ashley Neal. While Hilton, Thomas and your Cameron were expected to be bad, Neal wasn’t. Which is arguably what makes him the worst of the lot.

Whenever any club signs a player on loan from one of the Premier League’s big boys, there is a sense of excitement and anticipation. They must have something about them if they are in the academies of Manchester United, Arsenal or Liverpool, with all the famous players they’ve produced down the years.

That excitement and anticipation is even greater if you’re floundering towards the bottom of Division Three and in a desperate need of inspiration.

It was certainly the case when Ashley Neal arrived at Brighton. A young player coming in from a top four side seemed like a real coup at the time and a source of comfort that maybe, despite the obvious car crash taking place off the pitch, we would not be marooned near the bottom for too long.

The obvious question to ask was why were Liverpool willing to let Ashley Neal drop so far down the leagues to join Brighton and why was he prepared to do so? The answer most fans reached for was because Albion boss Jimmy Case maintained a strong relationship with the red half of Merseyside.

Case was a former Anfield team mate of Phil Neal, Ashley’s revered father who lifted every major trophy going in over 400 appearances for Liverpool. Not many people stopped to consider that the actual reason son Ashley was coming to the Godstone was because no other bugger wanted him.

It became apparent that might actually be the case pretty soon into Neal’s debut away at Northampton Town. He’d come straight into the centre of midfield in place of Kevin McGarrigle for the Albion’s first ever visit to the Cobblers’ new Sixfields Stadium.

Neal’s debut was one of three changes Case made from the side who hadn’t been too convincing in drawing 2-2 at home to Torquay United a week previously.

The other two saw Nicky Rust replace Mark Ormerod in goal and Derek Allan take over from Ross Johnson at the back. What followed was a complete and utter disaster, not just for Ashley Neal but Brighton in general as they were hammered 3-0 in one of the worst performances of a season which featured plenty of those.

Things didn’t get any better for Neal. He played just three more times for the Albion, losing 1-0 away at Wigan Athletic and 2-1 at home to Cambridge United.

There were a whole host of mistakes throughout those games which made it very apparent that the only reason Neal was a professional footballer was because of his surname.

The Goldstone faithful realised very quickly that Neal was a complete liability. The fact that every game he played ended in defeat was damning enough, not to mention his obvious lack of talent.

Yet incredibly, Case kept picking him. How could one of Brighton’s greatest ever players not see that Neal was, to put it bluntly, shit?

In fact, it was only when Neal’s loan spell came to an end that Case stopped selecting him. Had he been signed for another month, we would undoubtedly have been subjected to four more weeks of Neal’s nonsense.

As a result, Neal’s departure from the Albion is probably the most celebrated ending of a loan deal in the history of football. There can’t have been many times when the supporters of the club that the player is departing have been delighted to see the back of him. Thank Christ he has gone was the overwhelming feeling, you are welcome to have him again, Liverpool.

Neal wasn’t back on Merseyside for long however – two months later he moved on a free transfer to Huddersfield Town. He failed to make an appearance for the Terriers before moving onto Peterborough United where he managed nine games in one and a half seasons. Peterborough lost six of them.

Unsurprisingly, Neal was released by the Posh at the end of the 1997-98 season, bringing the curtain down on a glorious professional career of 13 appearances, three victories and a very special place in Brighton folklore.