Time rightly kinder to beleaguered Brighton boss Barry Lloyd

One of my first memories of supporting Brighton involves Barry Lloyd but not an actual game of football. Perhaps that is rather apt seeing as it was the mid-1990s and the Albion were just a couple of years from the period in their history when Saturday afternoons became about trying to save the club rather than what happened on the pitch.

It was a trip to Plucky Little Bournemouth in the 1993-94 season, which the records say took place on Saturday 16th October. I would have just turned six and anti-Lloyd sentiment was at its height.

Albion supporters were planning to hold up red cards at Dean Court, demanding the departure of Lloyd. I remember there being a fierce debate amongst the parents accompanying their kids on the Junior Seagulls coach to Bournemouth – and presumably, the kids old enough to hold an opinion on Lloyd – over whether to join in.

Yes. The officially sanctioned Brighton & Hove Albion Junior Seagulls Supporters Club publicly stating they wanted the Brighton & Hove Albion manager and managing director sacked.

A mind blowing concept in the Amex Era where any sort of criticism or dissent is fiercely debunked by the club. But something considered totally normal, if perhaps not acceptable back in 1993.

I say not acceptable because I have no recollection if any of the Junior Seagulls contingent ended up joining in with the protest. But that it was even up for discussion offers some idea of the disdain in which many Brighton fans held Barry Lloyd by the end of tenure.

The passage of time though has rightly enhanced Lloyd’s reputation and standing. Without his hard work behind the scenes, the Albion could easily have gone out of business when the club’s financial issues reached their nadir.

In December 1991, Lloyd was appointed managing director. He became responsible for the day-to-day running of the Albion, alongside his duties as first team manager.

It is the equivalent of Fabian Hurzeler taking on Paul Barber OBE’s job as well. Another mind blowing concept in the Amex Era.

With his chief executive hat on, Lloyd found himself trying to reduce mounting debts and fight off winding up orders.

Most famously, Lloyd was instrumental in the deal which saw The Leeds United pay £350,000 for Albion goalkeeper Mark Beeney.

Brighton were due to be wound up in the High Court on April 21st 1993 over a £398,000 PAYE debt. Beeney agreed personal terms with Leeds on April 20th.

Lloyd himself drove the bank draft from Leeds for the transfer of Beeney over to the Worthing tax office that day to pay off the debt as the Albion lived to fight on.

But what of Barry Lloyd the Brighton manager? He arrived at the Goldstone Ground in April 1986 after overseeing what was then the greatest period in Worthing history.

Lloyd won the Isthiman League Division Two title, the Isthmian Division One title, led the the Mackerel Men to two runners up finishes in the Isthmian Premier Division and the first round proper of the FA Cup for the first time in 50 years.

Alan Mullery was back at the helm of the good ship Albion for his second spell as manager. Having played with Lloyd at Fulham, Mullery brought his old teammates to Brighton as reserve and youth team boss with the brief of overhauling the club’s development system.

Unfortunately, Mullery like Micky Adams 21 years later ended up being a prime example of why successful managers should never go back to former clubs.

Mullery was sacked in January 1987 and Lloyd found himself thrown in at the deep end, put in charge of a team sitting 15th in the second tier of English football.

Albion fans were unimpressed by the appointment of a man whose managerial CV was restricted to non-league football and directed their ire not at Lloyd initially, but chairman Bryan Bedson. The board responded to criticism by doubling down and handing Lloyd a three-year contract.

Amid the acrimony, Lloyd failed to win any of his opening 15 games in charge. Brighton sank to the bottom of the table and an inevitable relegation took the Albion into the third tier for the first time in a decade.

Lloyd was subjected to intense abuse from the terraces but it did not impact him as he set about rebuilding the team in the summer of 1987. High earners were cleared out – partly what caused the relegation – and cheap buys on lower wages sought.

Doug Rougvie came in from Chelsea and was instantly appointed captain by Lloyd. Alan Curbishley and Gary Chivers added further experience and steel through the middle.

In attack, Barry Lloyd created a new-look Brighton strike force of Kevin Bremner and Garry Nelson. Bremner was a free transfer from Reading and Nelson a £72,000 buy from Plymouth Argyle.

Nelson had never played as a central striker in his career before but Lloyd’s use of him through the middle proved to be a stroke of genius.

32 goals followed with Nelson voted Player of the Season as Lloyd took the Albion to runners up spot and an immediate promotion back to the old Division Two.

It was some turnaround from the utter shambles when Brighton were relegated the previous season. Winning is everything in football and unsurprisingly, Lloyd was now a popular figure amongst Albion supporters.

Barry Lloyd initially tried to be loyal to the Brighton players who had delivered promotion, giving them the opportunity to prove themselves in the second tier at the start of the 1988-89 campaign.

Six consecutive league defeats though highlighted the need for reinforcements – but again restricted by budget. It was to non-league Barnet that Lloyd turned, plucking Nicky Bissett and Robert Codner from relative obscurity. The Albion survived relegation, but only just.

Bargain buys like Nelson, Bissett and Codner became Lloyd’s calling card during his time as Albion boss. Beeney for example cost just £30,000 and went onto be sold for 10 times that, saving Brighton in the process.

Lloyd also had a knack for finding low-cost players plying their trade abroad, like Russian all-rounder Sergei Gotsmanov and Romanian sweeper Stefan Iovan.

John Byrne, Mike Small and Dean Wilkins were all brought back to English football from the Netherlands. They went onto form the backbone of Lloyd’s side who came to within 90 minutes of promotion into the top flight.

Not even Brighton fans gave their side much hope of finishing in the playoffs going into the 1990-91 season after 19th and 18th places in the previous two campaigns.

Yet that is precisely what happened. Lloyd led the Albion to sixth spot despite having a minus goal difference. Millwall were shocked in the playoff semi finals, dismantled 4-1 in the first leg at the Goldstone before an even more impressive 2-1 Brighton victory at The Old Den.

Wembley was calling but Brighton were unable to overcome Notts County in the playoff final, losing 3-1 to a Magpies side who finished the regular season 10 points ahead in the standings.

Promotion would have been worth £1 million to the Albion. The riches on offer if Brighton had managed to stay in the top flight for more than two seasons would have been beyond the club’s wildest dreams, seeing as Sky Sports were just one-year away from inventing football by coming up with the idea of the Premier League.

Instead, the summer of 1991 saw the Seagulls cashing in on their star assets. A £400,000 bid for 21-goal Small was too good to turn down. Nelson also moved on, joining Charlton. Seven games into the season and Brighton sold Byrne to Sunderland for £225,000.

Turned out that selling your entire forward line in the space of a couple of months was not conducive to a successful season. 12 months after being one goal away from the top division, Brighton were relegated into the third.

By the time that happened, Lloyd had been in his managing director role for five months. His involvement on the playing side became less and less, leaving Martin Hinshelwood to run training and Lloyd to effectively take charge only on match days.

Given the financial turmoil, ninth place in 1992-93 was a better performance than most would have expected. The pressure though continued to grow on Lloyd.

A run of only two wins from the first 18 matches of the 1993-94 season caused mass demonstrations, including the one at Bournemouth which even the Junior Seagulls almost joined in with.

In November 1993, Lloyd was relieved of his managing director duties. New chairman Bill Archer appointed David Bellotti as chief executive, meaning Lloyd could return to focussing solely on football.

But the new arrangement was short lived. Just three weeks later, with Brighton embroiled in a relegation battle, Goldstone crowds at their lowest since the 1910s and virtually everyone calling for his head, Lloyd left the Goldstone by mutual consent.

Archer, Bellotti and Greg Stanley were widely praised for the decision. The trio became even more popular when managing to convince the legendary Liam Brady to succeed Barry Lloyd as Brighton manager.

Nobody knew at the time the pain and suffering Archer, Bellotti and Stanley would go onto inflict on Brighton. And whilst they will forever be hated in Albion circles (apart from when the club posted an actual obituary “with regret” to Stanley on the official website), Lloyd’s reputation has gone in the opposite direction.

The outpouring of respect and gratitude which greeted Lloyd’s passing in September 2024 reflected an appreciation from Brighton supporters for the thankless job he did during his seven years with the Albion – a job he never got any credit for at the time.

Most important were those transfer dealings which played a huge part in keeping Brighton alive. Lloyd delivered player profit of £1.2 million during his time in charge. Not much to Premier League Albion, but a huge amount back in the early 1990s.

His contribution to Brighton did not end when he left the Goldstone in December 1993, either. 14 years later and Lloyd was brought back as chief scout by Wilkins, now himself Albion manager.

Wilkins was hoping his old boss could find the 2007 equivalents of Small, Byrne and Nelson to improve his League One Seagulls squad.

Within a few months, Lloyd was recommending a striker he had seen playing for League Two Rochdale. That Glenn Murray didn’t go onto have a bad Brighton career now, did he?

RIP Barry.