The record setting King Kit Napier
Not many players achieved what Kit Napier did in a Brighton and Hove shirt. Hardly anyone, actually.
The Scottish striker was a record setter in every sense of the term. His 99 goals for the Albion is the most by any player in the post-war era. It’s also the second highest total in peacetime football after Tommy Cook’s 123.
Napier is the only man to score 10 or more goals in six consecutive seasons. He is one of only 15 players to score two or more on his debut.
Only three players have ever managed more in a single season since the war than his 28 in 1967-98, an achievement made all the remarkable give that Peter Ward’s, Garry Nelson’s and Bobby Zamora’s hauls all came in promotion years. The Albion finished in a mediocre mid table position the year Napier hit his highest tally.
You’d have got long odds on Napier achieving all that when he first rocked up at the Goldstone in September 1966. He’d begun his career at Blackpool in 1960 but made just two top flight appearances at Bloomfield Road in three years.
A move to nearby Preston North End for £2,000 followed in the summer of 1963 but that was an even more barren spell than his experience with the Tangerines, with Napier making just one league appearance in his season with Preston before moving to Workington, the birthplace and first club of another great Albion striker in Glenn Murray and back then, a Football League side.
Napier’s time in Cumbria was much more successful and he hit 25 goals in the third tier for the Reds to earn a move back to the top division with Newcastle United, but again opportunities were limited and he played just eight times for the Magpies.
Albion boss Archie Macaulay had been suitably impressed by Napier’s spell with Workington though and a summer long pursuit for the strikers signature began. Macaulay eventually got his man at the end of September for £8,500 and the 23-year-old instantly endeared himself to the Goldstone ground, scoring twice on his debut as the Albion won their first league game of the 1966-67 season with a 5-2 victory over Peterborough United.
From that opening salvo, it was fairly obvious that Brighton had a quality player on their hands. He was skillful on the ball, brave, two footed and played across the front line as a central striker, a supporting striker and even a winger.
Napier could deliver beautiful in-swinging corners from the right and even scored directly from one against Bury in December 1969. At times, he looked a little lazy but then he’d throw in a swerve or a burst of pace and be away from whichever opposition player had been given the unenviable job of marking him.
But most important of all was that he scored goals. Lots of them. He netted 10 from 32 appearances in his first season including in a 3-1 FA Cup Third Round replay against Aldershot in front of 29,208 at the Goldstone to help set up a plum fourth round tie at home to star-studded Chelsea. That drew 35,000 to Hove, the second largest crowd ever to watch the Albion in a home game.
The following season was Napier’s 28 goal campaign in which he missed just one of the Albion’s 50 games. Come the end of the season, he was presented with a gold wrist-watch in honour of the achievement of equalling Albert Munday’s post-war record for goals in a season.
Napier notched 14 times from 43 games in 1968-69 including a hat-trick in new manager Freddie Goodwin’s first game in charge following the resignation of Macaulay. Goodwin’s arrival rejuvenated the club and he steered the Albion from the third tier relegation zone to a 12th placed finish.
That was the basis for a promotion push in the 1969-70 season and Brighton looked well placed, sitting top of the table with five games remaining. But in a meltdown that topped anything the class of 2016-17 managed, bar there not being two own goals in a game from a goalkeeper very fond of cake, they lost four of their final five matches to end the season in fifth spot. Napier scored 10 times that season, which turned out to be Goodwin’s last in charge as he was headhunted that summer by Birmingham City.
In came Pat Saward but it was a season of struggle in 1970-71. The Albion scored only 50 times as a late run of form saw them finish five points clear of the relegation zone, with Napier contributing 13. In order to combat their lack of goals, Saward moved to a policy of all-out attack in 1971-72 with Napier and strike partner Willie Irvine being supported by wingers Peter O’Sullivan and Bert Murray in what was basically a formation featuring four strikers. Chris Hughton dislikes this.
That policy paid dividends as the Albion ended the campaign scoring 82 goals and winning 37 times to finish in second place behind champions Aston Villa. One of the key results came on December 27th when promotion rivals Bournemouth visited. 30,600 packed the Goldstone, a remarkable attendance for a third tier game and they were treated to Napier setting Brighton on their way to a 2-0 victory with one of the best goals that the old ground ever witnessed.
Napier also grabbed the winner in a 2-1 home win over Villa which featured on Match of the Day, part of a tally of 19 goals in all competitions that helped to fire the Albion into the second tier for only the second time in the clubs history.
Napier started the first four games of the 1972-73 season and was then dropped to the bench for the fifth, a 1-0 defeat at home to Nottingham Forest. Having been transfer listed along with fellow stalwarts Stewart Henderson, Dave Turner and his namesake John Napier, the writing was on the wall and a falling out with Saward hastened his departure to Blackburn Rovers for £15,000 in August 1972.
The man who had given so much to trying to get the Albion promoted was denied the proper opportunity to play for the club in the division who’s football he had helped to deliver. He spent two seasons at Ewood Park, scoring 10 times in 54 games before moving to South Africa to play for Durban United.
Napier may have cruelly missed his final crack at second tier football, but he’ll always have those Brighton and Hove Albion records. So many of them.
