Where Peter Taylor went, Junior Lewis followed

The year was 1995. The place was the Crabble, Dover. When their eyes first met over a crowded football pitch, they knew what it meant. A footballing love story had begun which would take Junior Lewis and Peter Taylor from Dover to Brighton to Bradford to Wycombe and many other places in between.

Certain managers like signing certain players but few have linked up as many times as Taylor and Lewis. Over 15 years, Taylor took Lewis to eight different clubs across every division from the Premier League to the Conference. Not even Lewis retiring in 2008 could prevent them working together; Taylor simply started appointing him to his coaching staff instead.

Lewis had already been at Dover Athletic for two years when Taylor rocked up on the white cliffs. Because of how intertwined their careers were, it is a little known fact that Lewis actually started off as a professional at Fulham.

He came through the ranks at Craven Cottage, making six first team appearances before being released in 1993. Next stop, the wonderfully named Crabble Athletic Ground where he plied his trade for two years before Taylor arrived and their beautiful relationship could begin.

There was a short term divorce in 1996 when Taylor was appointed England Under 21 boss. Frankly, it is a bit of a surprise that he did not try and call up Lewis for a squad.

You probably do have to draw a line somewhere and even Taylor must have known selecting a 26-year-old midfielder who was by now at Hendon to play alongside the likes of Jamie Carragher, Steven Gerrard, Kieron Dyer and Emile Heskey would look a little odd.

Taylor returned to club management in 1999 with Gillingham and there are no prizes for guessing who immediately joined him at the Priestfield after racking up an impressive 68 goals in 146 appearances for Hendon, including the winner in a famous FA Cup upset against Leyton Orient.

When Taylor was then appointed Leicester City boss to replace the Celtic-bound Martin O’Neill in the summer of 2000, he took Lewis with him to Filbert Street.

This was no ordinary transfer though. Leicester originally loaned Lewis from Gillingham in January 2001, which must surely be the only time in football history that a Premier League club in contention for a top six finish have temporarily borrowed a player from a side battling relegation in the second tier.

Needless to say, Taylor convinced the Foxes to turn the deal into a permanent one for £150,000 in March – just as Leicester embarked on a disastrous run of form which saw them lose nine of their last 10 games, turning dreams of Europe into a 13th place finish.

The Foxes also suffered a shock FA Cup Quarter Final defeat at home to Division Two Wycombe Wanderers. They were in a slide that Taylor could not arrest and Taylor was subsequently sacked by Leicester in October 2001.

He was not out of work for long. Micky Adams had quit as Albion boss to become number two to new Foxes manager Dave Bassett and Dick Knight wasted no time in bringing Taylor to Withdean as Adams’ successor.

The question now was not if, but rather when Junior Lewis signed for Brighton. It actually took a surprisingly long time for Taylor to raid Filbert Street for his favourite son; four months to be precise.

Lewis arrived with the Albion locked in a tight and tense battle for promotion with Reading and Stoke City. Brentford, Huddersfield Town and Bristol City were all lurking on the periphery.

The signing of Lewis was greeted by a degree of cynicism by Brighton supporters. Charlie Oatway and Richard Carpenter were a pretty decent midfield by third tier standards, ably backed up by Paul Rogers and the lesser spotted Steve Melton.

Would Junior Lewis really improve Brighton in that position or was he coming in because there was an unwritten law that meant Taylor had to sign him wherever he went?

It did not take long for the answer to that question. Lewis made his full Albion debut on Monday 11th February 2002 at home to Reading, who were seven points ahead of Brighton at the top of the table and unbeaten in 12 matches stretching back to December at the time.

Brighton though had a game in hand on account of the Withdean pitch turning into a swamp during the winter months. The Reading match also kicked off a run of three successive home matches.

To say it was a big game in the race for the title would be an understatement. If Reading won, they would open up an even more sizable lead, extend their barnstorming run of form and confirm the opinion of pundits and bookies that they were the best side in the division and favourites for the championship.

If Brighton won, it would continue the momentum that had been building since Taylor took over, inflict a psychological blow on Alan Pardew’s Biscuitment and make a real statement: The Albion are coming for you.

Lewis lined up alongside Carpenter and it became apparent quite quickly that he was different to any of Taylor’s other midfield options. Whereas Oatway was an enforcer and Carpenter a passer with a rocket of a shot on him, Lewis was a two-footed holding midfielder who glided around the pitch almost effortlessly.

One minute he would be on the edge of the Albion’s area defending, the next he would be popping up in the opposition box to score. That was how he he scored Brighton’s third in a 3-1 win, arriving to net a tap in after brilliant work from the outstanding Bobby Zamora.

Zamora scored once himself and set up both Lewis and Melton on one of the best evenings the Albion enjoyed at a particularly wet and misty Withdean.

Five days later and Lewis was again on the scoresheet, netting the only goal of the game in another huge win over a set of promotion rivals. Huddersfield were the visitors and a scrappy affair was decided by Lewis’ brave header from Paul Brooker’s cross.

Up until that point in the season, Brighton had been reliant on Zamora to get their goals. Carpenter, Oatway, Rogers and Melton had contributed four between them from central midfield. Within 180 minutes of football, Lewis had half that total by himself.

He did not just do scoring, either. He made things happen as well, most memorably when laying on two goals for Zamora in a 4-0 demolition of Wycombe Wanderers.

Lewis’ third and final goal in a Brighton shirt was arguably his most important. It came on that Easter Monday when the Albion were comprehensively outplayed by Bristol City, only for Michel Kuipers to give one of the greatest individual displays of goalkeeping ever seen in a Seagulls shirt.

It was completely against the run of play when Junior Lewis gave Brighton the lead, getting on the end of a Paul Watson free kick just before the break.

Tommy Doherty equalised early in the second half for City who then threw the kitchen sink at the Albion. They could find no way past Kuipers and that paved the way for Lee Steele to grab a last minute winner as it finished Brighton 2-1 Bristol City. Kuipers was arrested a day later for his role in committing daylight robbery.

A week later and Brighton had their promotion confirmed as Division Two champions. Lewis had played his part, finishing with three goals in 15 appearances for the Albion.

What made his performances all the more impressive was that they were given whilst he was struggling with a groin injury. Once the title was in the bag, Lewis sat out the final game of the season against Port Vale to undergo surgery.

Not many players would have played through the pain for a club they were only on a three month loan with, but Lewis did. Okay, it was definitely more for Taylor than Brighton but who cares? It is not every day the Albion win a league title. Once every 30 years on average, actually.

As a result of those efforts and the fact that a black hole would swallow up planet Earth if the two were separated, Taylor was on record as saying he wanted to keep Lewis at Brighton beyond his loan spell. He had previously told The Argus that Junior Lewis held the key to promotion.

Lewis would have been a fine permanent addition that summer but any hopes Brighton had of signing him were dashed when Taylor handed in a shock resignation just nine days after the 2001-02 season concluded at Vale Park.

He did not feel that the budget for the following campaign would be sufficient to survive in the second tier and so rather than risk having a relegation on his CV, he walked.

Taylor of course turned out to be correct as the Albion finished the 2002-03 campaign in the bottom three, although had Steve Coppell been appointed as Taylor’s successor in the summer rather than after Martin Hinshelwood had overseen one win, one draw and 10 consecutive defeats from the first 12 games, then who knows how different things would have been.

With Taylor out of a job, Lewis returned to Leicester who had by now got rid of Bassett and put Adams in his place. Adams did not like the look of Lewis though and so when Taylor took over as Hull City manager, it was fairly obvious what was going to happen next.

A fifth link up between the pair at the KC Stadium meant that Lewis and Taylor eclipsed Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton for marriages. Taylor would go onto sign Lewis for a sixth and final time at Stevenage before appointing Lewis to his coaching staff at both Wycombe Wanderers and Bradford City.

All beautiful relationships have to come an end and Braford was the last time Lewis and Taylor were together. We only saw it fleetingly at Brighton, but what a partnership they were – as the Division Two winners medal they both possess from their brief time at Withdean is testament to.