Calamity Colin Hawkins, Brighton & Hove Albion’s unluckiest ever player

Nobody summed up Colin Hawkins’ Brighton and Hove Albion career better than Colin Hawkins.

The day was Tuesday 18th November 2008. The venue was Victoria Park, Hartlepool. Hawkins was holding court with BBC Southern Counties Radio after he had conceded a 67th minute penalty that had helped Hartlepool United to a 2-1 FA Cup First Round replay victory over the Albion, the latest in a spectacular line of game changing errors which could be attributed to the Irish defender.

“The referee didn’t actually give it, the referee was honest enough to say he didn’t think it was a penalty but the linesman who was miles away flagged and gave it,” Hawkins said. “Y’know, it’s a crazy decision but to be fair it sums up my luck at the minute, nothing is going right for me at the moment.”

Nothing seemed to go right for Colin Hawkins during his entire two year stay at Brighton. It says much that a bloke who could have so many goal costing moments attributed to him never features with the likes of Michael Mahoney-Johnson, Damien Hilton and Mark Farrington in the Albion all-time worst players list. He just came across as being simply unlucky, which made him all the more likeable.

Hopes were high when Micky Adams made Hawkins the first signing of his second spell in charge of the Albion in May 2008. Adams had replaced Dean Wilkins as manager a few weeks earlier and inherited a young group of players who had finished one place outside the League One play offs in the 2007-08 season. With a little bit more experience and quality, it was hoped a promotion push could follow the next season.

The reason that Adams had enjoyed so much success in his previous spell at the helm between 1999 and 2001 was because of his transfer dealings.

He had completely rebuilt a squad that was consistently finishing towards the bottom of the fourth tier and turned it into a side that was capable of securing back-to-back promotions to the second tier. That made him seem like the perfect man to tweak Wilkins’ team, turning them from nearly-men into genuine promotion candidates.

Hawkins being the first player that Adams bought through the door marked him out as an important signing, as did the fact there were already four highly capable young central defenders at the club.

Tommy Elphick had just been crowned Player of the Season, Joel Lynch and Adam Hinshelwood both had England honours at youth level to their name and Adam El-Abd was solid back up. The new arrival from Coventry City must obviously be something special if he was coming in to compete with those four.

Adams certainly thought so, telling Southern Counties, “He is a leader on the pitch. The influence he will have, particularly on our young defenders, will be invaluable to us.”

Prophetic words those from Adams, as Hawkins first influence on the young defenders was to take Lynch’s place in the team, hastening the departure of Brighton’s best defender to Nottingham Forest.

Lynch was swapping League One for starting place in a Championship side because of Hawkins. That must make the new arrival special, we all thought. Little did we know.

Colin Hawkins marked his debut with a rare Brighton victory away at Crewe Alexandra on the opening day of the season and followed that up with a comfortable 4-0 win over Barnet in the League Cup.

So far, so good – until his home league debut when Bristol Rovers were the visitors to Withdean. Nicky Forster’s 10th minute penalty looked like it was going to be enough to make it three wins from three until four minutes from time when Craig Disley managed to turn Hawkins and get a shot away.

Somewhere in there, referee Trevor Kettle saw Hawkins pulling a shirt and awarded a penalty. A ridiculously harsh decision against the Irish defender, something that would become a running theme. Rickie Lambert did what he always used to do against the Albion and slammed home the resulting spot kick to ensure Rovers left with a 1-1 draw.

Things still looked quite rosy three games later when Scunthorpe United visited Withdean but this was the moment when the wheels came off for both the Albion and Hawkins.

The Iron left with a 4-1 success with Hawkins being at fault for one goal, inexplicably believing himself to have the dribbling skills of Diego Maradona and embarking on a run with the ball, strangely towards his own goal.

Needless to say this did not end well, Matt Sparrow of all people dispossessing Hawkins to set up Gary Hooper who was well on his way to a hat-trick by that point.

It was then revealed that Hawkins had been playing with a hernia which required an operation. Now, the NHS reckon that a hernia takes at least three weeks to heal with a longer time out if your occupation involves manual labour, which football obviously does.

Remarkably, Colin Hawkins missed just two weeks and three games – including Brighton beating Manchester City in the League Cup, obviously – before he was rushed back in for a 2-2 draw at Northampton Town.

Why Adams was so desperate to have Hawkins back we’ll never know, but the defender looked out-of-sorts at Sixfields and never seemed to fully recover from the problem, after which it was calamity after calamity.

Soon, Hawkins conceded his second penalty of the season as Leyton Orient visited in the Paint Pot. This time, Adam Chambers was heading out of play with the ball when Hawkins came trundling over like a rampaging cow and clumsily brought the Orient player down the area. Adam Boyd scored from the spot and the game finished 2-2 with the Albion eventually squeezing through on penalties.

Cup games clearly were not kind to Hawkins and he followed up that penalty in the world’s worst cup competition with a quite brilliant own goal in the world’s best cup competition.

Hartlepool were the FA Cup visitors and a cross in from the left was met with a diving header from Hawkins at full stretch that powered into the bottom corner of John Sullivan’s goal.

This was one of the best own goals you will ever see and what made it even better is that it helped Hartlepool secure a 3-3 draw, condemning 92 Albion fans to a Tuesday night, 600 mile round trip for the replay. As we have already noted, Hawkins then went and gave away a penalty at Victoria Park to ensure Brighton’s elimimation.

Three penalties conceded, at least one goal which could be directly attributed to him and a cracking own goal in 24 appearances represented a solid start to Hawkins’ Albion career.

He then suffered a bizarre injury at Shrewsbury Town in a later round of the Paint Pot after somehow managing to kick himself in the face which ruled him out for the entire second half of the 2008-09 season.

By the time Hawkins was fit to return again, Adams had been replaced by Russell Slade. Slade had masterminded the Great Escape of 2009, leaving confidence again high that a promotion push could be on the cards in 2009-10.

A new manager meant a new start for Hawkins. He had battled his way back to fitness and was rewarded with a spot on the bench as Stockport County visited Withdean in the fifth league game of the season.

Hawkins didn’t have to wait long for an opportunity to impress either as Tommy Elphick’s 62nd minute red card saw him enter the fray as a substitute as part of a tactical reshuffle. His first appearance under Slade also happened to be his last appearance under Slade as he lasted just 90 seconds before being sent off.

Hawkins’ crime? This time he had won the ball with a tackle from behind but the referee decided that was enough to award a penalty and send Hawkins off for an early bath – not that he needed one as the only sweat he would have worked up was jogging onto the pitch and then promptly jogging off it.

Given the position of the dugouts at Withdean in front of the South Stand in relation to the players tunnel in the north west corner, Hawkins could almost have run in a straight line on his way from bench to changing rooms. Brighton went onto lose 4-2 to Stockport County.

And that was the last we saw of Hawkins in an Albion shirt. He suffered another serious injury following his 90 second cameo which required an operation on his Achilles and never played professionally in England again.

That wasn’t for want of trying though. Hawkins worked hard to get back and he had the backing of Brighton supporters everywhere. The Seagull Love Review even launched an admirable campaign to get Hawkins back in the side when handing out masks of the defender for the game at The Leeds United in February 2010.

Unfortunately, all our hopes and dreams were crushed when Gus Poyet released Hawkins in the summer of 2010. Poyet did say that Hawkins was welcome to report back for pre-season in a bid to earn a new contract, but it was always wishful thinking that he would be able to do so.

Poyet’s style of football was hardly suited to a big nosed Irish defender with a penchant for scoring worldy own goals and giving away ludicrous penalties.

After leaving the Albion, Hawkins returned to Ireland with Sporting Fingal before moving onto Dundalk and Shamrock Rovers, where he currently manages their reserve side. Hopefully, he enjoys far more luck in his coaching career than he experienced during his two eventful years at Withdean.

If you want to relive Hawkins’ Albion career in actual video footage – trust us, it is worth it – then check out our YouTube compilation below.

Here’s to you, Colin Hawkins – Brighton & Hove Albion’s unluckiest ever player.