11 former Brighton players who returned to score against the Albion
Brighton & Hove Albion have a long and proud tradition when it comes to conceding goals scored by former players.
Not only that, but there is usually a direct correlation between how shit said player was in a Seagulls shirt and the increased likelihood of them coming back to haunt the Albion.
How else can you explain the likes of Mark McCammon, David Cameron and Craig Davies looking like absolute donkeys as Brighton players before going onto rub salt into the wounds by netting when we met again?
To illustrate this point, we have decided to put together a list of 11 former Albion employees who went onto score past Brighton after leaving the Amex, Withdean or the Goldstone Ground. Yes, this has been going on for years.
Mark McCammon – Doncaster Rovers 1-0 Brighton. Saturday 25/11/2006
Super super Mark, Super super Mark, Super super Mark, super Market Trolley. Oh how funny we thought we were serenading former Albion striker Mark McCammon from the away terrace at Belle Vue as Brighton visited Doncaster Rovers in October 2006.
In 18 months as a Brighton player, McCammon’s achievements read getting the train home from Burnley after Mark McGhee chucked him off the team coach and calling the BBC Southern Counties Fans’ Phone In to argue live on air with presenter Ian Hart, who had earlier described McCammon as “Not good enough.”
Comparing McCammon to a trolley was not so much tempting fate as poking it with a bloody big stick. Low and behold, McCammon scored the only goal of the game in front of the Albion support on one of the worst away days of the Dean Wilkins era. And there was plenty of competition for that accolade.
David Cameron – Lincoln City 2-0 Brighton. Saturday 26/08/2000
In February 2000, the curtain had come down on the Brighton career of David Cameron (Scottish striker rather than former Prime Minister) in glorious fashion.
Cameron had been hauled after just 19 minutes of what would end up being a 2-0 defeat at Hull City. When asked afterwards why the early substitution had taken place, Albion assistant manager Alan Cork said: “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.”
In fact, Cameron never played for Brighton again. Released shortly after Cork’s comments, Cameron wound up at Lincoln City for the 2000-01 season – the Albion’s opponents in their third Division Three game of the campaign.
No prizes for guessing what happened next. Cameron scored the second for the Imps in a 2-0 win, leaving Adams and Cork looking very glum as the famous Sincil Bank air raid siren which greets every Lincoln goal rang in their ears.
Glenn Murray – Brighton 1-3 Crystal Palace. Tuesday 27/09/2011
Glenn Murray scored his fair share of goals against Brighton for both Crystal Palace and Reading during his five years away from the Amex.
The worst from an Albion point of view was easily on his first return to Sussex as an Eagle. Brighton were yet to lose a league game at their shiny new home until Palace rocked up, which naturally meant the old enemy would become the first visiting side to leave with all three points.
To make matters worse, it was Murray who completed the humbling with the final Eagles goal in their 3-1 win. The moment was captured perfectly by somebody filming from the North Stand, complete with the now infamous line “For fuck sake Murray.”
Chris Wood – Every single game he has played against Brighton. Ever.
Murray may have an impressive scoring record against the Albion, but it is never compared to Chris Wood. The striker was an important part of Gus Poyet He Who Must Not Be Named’s 2010-11 League One champions, netting nine goals from 31 appearances as a teenager on loan from West Brom.
Since then, Wood has gone onto score against Brighton for Millwall, 1996 Coca Cola Cup runners up The Leeds United and Burnley. And he never does things by half either.
Two goals for the Lions when they drew 2-2 at the Amex in December 2012. Another two when Chris Hughton’s Albion suffered a 2-0 defeat at Elland Road in the 2016-17 promotion season.
And two more for Burnley in their 3-1 Sussex win in February 2019. The other Clarets scorer that day? Ashley Barnes, of course.
Garry Nelson – Torquay United 1-1 Brighton. Wednesday 1st January 1997
Players not celebrating against their former clubs is nothing unusual. Players really, really, really not wanting to score against their old employers is something else altogether.
This was the quandary Garry Nelson found himself in when Brighton visited Torquay United on New Year’s Day 1997, an afternoon so freezing that Albion fans took to running up and down a car park behind the away terrace at Plainmoor at half time in an attempt to warm up.
Nelson had fired Brighton to runners up spot in Division Three in the 1987-88 season with 32 goals, making him a popular figure with the Albion crowd. The affection was mutual as the striker retained more than a soft spot for the Seagulls from his time at the Goldstone.
Nine years on from that promotion winning campaign and Nelson was winding his career down on the English Riviera with Torquay. Brighton meanwhile were bottom of the Football League and needing all the help they can get.
As the game entered its final five minutes, it looked like the Albion were going to make the long journey home with a point for their efforts with the scores locked at 1-1.
And then Nelson found himself presented with an opportunity he simply could not miss to make it 2-1. When the ball hit the back of the net, he was almost apologetic.
Craig Davies – Brighton 5-1 Barnsley. Saturday 25/08/2012
A smattering of boos around the Amex in 2022 elicits criticism of supporters from Graham Potter and a 1,500 word essay from Paul Barber telling Brighton fans how to support their team.
Imagine if Potter and Barber had been present when the Albion lost 2-0 away at MK Dons in April 2009. A 3,000 strong away end booed the team off at full time, sung “You’re not fit to wear the shirt” and directed a rather fruity number at Craig Davies calling him a wanker.
Perhaps that is why the lazy striker took such joy in taunting the North Stand when he converted a penalty for Barnsley at the Amex in the 2012-13 season? Whatever the reason, the Albion had the last laugh in running out 5-1 winners.
Dean Hammond – Brighton 2-2 Southampton. Thursday 01/04/2010
Speaking of former players taunting Brighton fans after scoring – has anybody ever done it better than Dean Hammond?
A very public falling out between Hammond and Dick Knight in 2008 after contract talks stalled had seen the Albion sell their captain to Colchester United.
Hammond’s first return to Withdean came with Southampton a little over two years later. Clearly not a man to hold a grudge, Hammond scored a 41st minute equaliser at the East End of the Theatre of Trees to cancel out Elliott Bennett’s opener.
To celebrate, he sprinted over to the South Stand and then ran the length of the touchline from in front of the disabled section all the way up to the away dugout waving his arms like he was directing a plane.
It was simply an incredible goal celebration that drew apoplectic rage from Brighton fans, to the point whereby some refused to forgive Hammond even after he returned on loan and helped the Albion to the Championship playoffs in 2013.
Joel Lynch – Nottingham Forest 1-1 Brighton. Saturday 24/03/2012
One ex-Seagull who had every right to feel aggrieved about the way his Brighton career ended was Joel Lynch. The talented defender was essentially forced out of the Albion once Micky Adams took the pretty incredible decision that Colin Hawkins was a better option.
This led to the surreal scenario where a player not deemed good enough by the manager of struggling League One Brighton could secure a move to become a regular at Championship outfit Nottingham Forest.
Lynch was soon pushing for the Premier League whilst we all marvelled at Hawkins’ ability to score own goals, give away penalties and get sent off 90 seconds after coming on as a substitute.
Both Adams and Hawkins were long gone from the Albion by the time Brighton met Lynch again at the City Ground in March 2012.
Still, it must have been sweet for Lynch to score the 94th minute equaliser which all-but ended the playoff hopes of Poyet You Know Who’s side.
Andy Ritchie – Oldham Athletic 6-1 Brighton. Saturday 01/12/1991
Teenage striker Andy Ritchie arrived at Brighton in 1980 for a club-record £500,000 as the replacement for Peter Ward. A big price tag and big boots to fill.
26 goals in 102 top flight Albion appearances over the next two-and-a-half years was not a great return but the numbers only told half the story.
Ritchie was voted Player of the Season in the 1981-82 campaign when Mike Bailey led Brighton to their highest ever league finish.
He left after a falling out with Jimmy Melia, moving to Leeds as part of a swap deal with Terry Connor a little over a month before the FA Cup Final.
Speaking after the Albion defeated Sheffield Wednesday to advance to Wembley, Ritchie said: “I’ll have a few pangs of jealousy when the lads walk out at Wembley knowing that I might have been involved.”
The best way to get over it? Score for Oldham Athletic eight years later to inflict a 6-1 defeat on Brighton at Boundary Park on a day when temperatures at the coldest football ground in the world were lower than Antarctica.
Kurt Nogan – Burnley 3-0 Brighton. Saturday 21st October 1995.
In his first 100 games as a Brighton player, Kurt Nogan scored 60 goals in between spending time in the various bookmakers around Seven Dials and downing pints in West Street nightclubs.
That gave him a better goals-per-game average than any player in post-war Albion history. Nogan was on course to be statistically speaking the best striker Brighton had seen since the days of Tommy Cook.
And then it all went wrong. Nogan embarked on a 20 game streak without a goal and became the butt of jokes from the terraces. When Burnley came in with a £250,000 offer for his services in February 1995, Liam Brady bit their hands off.
Such a fee was massive for a cash-strapped club, let alone when it was being paid for a forward whose form had deserted him.
Knowing he had been mocked by the Albion crowd, Nogan spoke about the move to Turf Moor giving him the chance to join a bigger club.
Predictably, it was Nogan who went onto prove his point. Burnley were rampant when the sides met in Lancashire six months after his move, going into half time 3-0 ahead with Nogan opening the scoring.
A man who could not find the back of the net for love nor money at the end of his Brighton career had no problem in notching against the Albion with the first opportunity that presented itself.
Alan Navarro – Swindon Town 3-0 Brighton. Tuesday 14/08/2021
We have saved the best until last. In 85 games for Brighton spanning three seasons, Alan Navarro had managed a grand total of one Albion goal.
A strange twist of fate meant that following his release by Poyet He Who Must Not Be Named, Navarro ended up making his debut for new club Swindon Town against Brighton in the League Cup.
Let us again remind ourselves of Navarro’s Albion career numbers. One goal. 85 matches. One goal. 85 matches. One goal. 85 matches.
It took Navarro just 65 minutes to open his Swindon account by beating Tomasz Kuszczak. 10 minutes later and Navarro had a second, meaning he had scored more goals for Swindon in 75 minutes against Brighton than he had for the Albion in his three season career with the Seagulls.
Extraordinary.
