“Dave Cameron was useless, full stop”

Hull City away, Saturday 5th February 2000. The Albion had just gone down to a disappointing 2-0 Division Three defeat against the Tigers and Micky Adams was locked in the away changing room reading his players the riot act.

With Adams otherwise engaged, the post match interview duties at Boothferry Park fell to his assistant, Alan Cork.
When the subject inevitably got round to the decision to substitute striker Dave Cameron after just 19 minutes, Cork didn’t hold back.

“Cameron was useless, full stop. If he wants to be a professional footballer, he has got to liven up. On that performance it will be a long time before he plays again.”

Cork was right on the last part at least, as Cameron wouldn’t play for Brighton again. But his comments otherwise provoked a backlash among Seagulls supporters with Adams being forced to defend his number two against fans who felt that Cork had gone too far in publicly decrying a player as useless.

Which was ironic as Cameron was useless. The thing was though that wasn’t through a lack of trying. He worked as hard as anyone in the Albion’s 1999-00 squad, he just didn’t seem to possess very much footballing ability at all.

Cameron wasn’t a Craig Davies or a Leon Best, those hated strikers who were hated precisely because they didn’t give a toss. He wasn’t somebody whose ineffectiveness was down to the fact that he just couldn’t be bothered.

If he was, then Cork’s analysis would have had people cheering from the rooftops. Imagine if Russell Slade or Chris Hughton came out and said exactly what the rest of us thought about Davies and Best, it would have been brilliant. Take that you money grabbing, shyster wankers.

And Cameron certainly wasn’t a money grabber. In fact, he’d actually paid money to become a Brighton player eight months before his Albion career came to a juddering halt on Humberside.

Cameron had been playing for St Mirren in the Scottish First Division whilst also serving in the British Army with the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. In order for him to leave the army and become a professional footballer, he personally paid the £1,400 required to buy himself out the forces, signing a two year contract with the Albion.

His appeal to Adams was obvious. One of the highlights of the previous season had been the burgeoning strike partnership between Gary Hart and Richie Barker, who plundered 22 goals between them. That was a lot in those days.

Unfortunately, Barker had turned down the offer of a new contract in favour of moving to Macclesfield Town to be closer to his seriously ill father who lived in the North. Adams was therefore in the market for a like-for-like target man replacement and he hoped Cameron would be that man.

Zero goals from 22 appearances tells you how that worked out. The writing was on the wall almost from his league debut in the 6-0 opening day win against Mansfield Town.

If ever there was a game for a striker to score, this was it. Withdean was buzzing as the Albion played their first game in Brighton for two years after exile in Gillingham.

The Stags were woeful and even Aidan Newhouse managed to net twice in 17 minutes from the bench after replacing hat-trick hero Darren Freeman. Cameron got half an hour after coming on for Rod Thomas but ended up with nothing to show despite his best efforts.

In only one game did Cameron look like he had the ability to be a professional footballer. That came on Tuesday 23rd November 1999 in a 2-2 home draw against Lincoln City.

Adams controversially dropped both Freeman and Hart, starting with a new look front pairing of Cameron and Thomas. It worked though as Cameron was a real handful all evening with his best moment being moment some classic big striker play to hold the ball up, turn his marker and lay off to Charlie Oatway who had the simple task of side footing home.

Adams was impressed, saying afterwards; “Thomas and Cameron both looked sharp. David’s had a difficult time since he came down from Scotland, but he has worked hard, lost weight and now looks sharper for it.”

Playing so well against the Imps turned out to be Cameron’s lifeline to extending his football career once his brief time with the Albion came to an end.

He had a free scoring spell with Worthing after that Hull humiliation including notching five times on his debut for the Rebels against Barton Rovers and in the summer, Lincoln invited him for a trial at Sincil Bank based on the torment he’d caused them at Withdean the previous November.

He ended up signing a two-year deal with the Imps and with brilliant predictability, scored his first goal for his new club with Adams and Cork watching on from the dugout while trying to wipe the egg from their faces as City beat the Albion 2-0.

Cameron went onto score nine times for the Imps in two years before dropping into non league, playing for a host of clubs including Chester City, Droylsden, Telford United, Tamworth, Halifax Town, Rhyl and Droylsden United. It’s unclear whether any of the assistant managers at those clubs subsequently called him useless.

Still, the whole sorry incident worked out quite well for the Albion. Cameron’s banishment coupled with Lorenzo Pinamonte’s decision to turn down Brighton in favour of moving to Brentford meant that Adams had to dip into the loan market for a new striker before the following week’s home game with Plymouth Argyle.

That man? A 19-year-old from Bristol Rovers by the name of Bobby Zamora. He certainly wasn’t useless.