25 years later, Brighton fans still waiting for Horton’s Heroes Part II

January 22nd 2024 marked the 25th anniversary of Brian Horton leaving his role as Brighton manager for the bigger, better opportunity on offer at Port Vale. And after a quarter of a century, now is probably the time to give up on Horton’s Heroes Part II ever appearing in the Albion club shop.

Four questions have long burned unanswered at the heart of Seagulls fandom:

1) What happened to the prize money from the 1983 FA Cup final?
2) How and who exactly managed to lose the 62 feet by 32 feet flag Robert Eaton Memorial Flag?
3) When will the second and third parts of the Albion Centenary History VHS be released?
4) Will Horton’s Heroes Part II ever see the light of day?

In the days before every goal scored and conceded by Brighton was available to watch online, the Albion used to produce season reviews on VHS. But only when the campaign had been worth reliving.

Needless to say, 1997-98 did not get the VHS treatment as Brighton finished second-bottom of the Football League, saved from relegation into the Conference only by Doncaster Rovers being somehow worse.

The 1998-99 season in contrast was much improved. Brian Horton had replaced Steve Gritt as manager in February 1998, the man who captained the Albion from the third tier to the top in the 1970s answering the call 20 years later to try and transform the club on the pitch again.

Horton faced a difficult task. There was little money and no ground. How do you convince players to join a club who train in one city and play games in a town 75 miles away?

Home matches were effectively away matches with a 150-mile round trip, supported by just a couple of thousand hardy supporters willing to travel to Gillingham 23 times in 10 months.

And yet Horton managed to completely rebuild the squad in the summer of 1998. He found bargain buys from non-league like Gary Hart and brought in experienced campaigners such as Ian Culverhouse.

Horton even managed to secure some much-needed cash for a club struggling to get by without a home of their own. In one of the strangest yet bizarre transfer dealings the Albion have ever been involved in, Horton signed midfielder Paul Holsgrove on a free transfer from Stoke City.

39 days later and without ever playing in a competitive game for Brighton, Holsgrove was sold to Hiberninan for £110,000.

“Horton’s business acumen would make Derek Trotter green with envy,” read the Albion programme for the opening home game of the season, a 2-2 draw with Chester City.

Or as Horton himself put it in his autobiography Two Thousand Games: A Life in Football: “£110,000 was more than my salary. I had effectively paid for myself.”

After a slow start to the 1998-99 campaign, Horton’s new-look Brighton side began to motor. Having finished 91st out of the 92 in the previous two seasons, the Albion found themselves surprisingly in Division Three (or League Two in modern day currency) playoff contention.

Never one to miss an opportunity to make money, Dick Knight decided to strike whilst the iron was hot. Rather than wait to release an end of season review VHS, Brighton went early by bringing out highlights of the opening 20 games via Horton’s Heroes Part I, just in time for Christmas 1998.

“The story of a football club which is on its way back, featuring highlights of the historic, record-breaking five consecutive away league wins” screamed the loud-and-proud tagline in the programme advertisement.

So it went on: “From the inauspicious start at Carlisle in August (the Albion lost 1-0 at Brunton Park) with no hint of the away glories to come, to the high optimism of December, it’s all here in this action-packed video of the Seagulls’ fascinating season to date.”

“Every single goal, including Rod Thomas’ spectacular effort against Hartlepool, Richard Barker’s flashing header at Hull, Gary Hart’s clinical strike at Shrewsbury and all Jeff Minton‘s classic trademark ‘eat your heart out Beckham’ free kicks.”

“Featuring footage of the historic, record-breaking FIVE away league wins in succession, plus coverage of the Albion’s landmark off-the-field victory over Gareth Barry, and in-depth interviews with Brian Horton, Rod Thomas, Gary Hart and Ian Culverhouse.”

Can you guess what happened next? In typical Brighton style, less than one month after releasing Horton’s Heroes Part I and Horton was gone.

Did the board of directors at Port Vale grab themselves a copy of Horton’s Heroes Pat I before making the decision to approach the Brighton boss?

Or were they impressed enough by the remarkable turnaround at the Albion without the need to confirm their suspicions via VHS?

We will never know. What we do know though is that the offer was too good for Horton to turn down. The idea these days of a Brighton manager begrudgingly leaving the Albion because Port Vale is a much better job seems utterly mad.

Back then though it was reality. Port Vale were two division higher and provided more security than a homeless club who had only just identified a muddy field in Falmer as their preferred site for a permanent stadium.

There was also the lure of Horton having started his professional career at Vale Park, playing 236 times over six years before moving to the Goldstone Ground in 1976.

With Horton gone, assistant manager Jeff Wood was initially placed in caretaker charge. A pair of 1-0 victories in his first two games over Scarborough and Peterborough United kept Brighton in the playoff places, after which Wood was given the job on a full time basis.

The obvious sequel to Horton’s Heroes therefore was Wood’s Wonders, documenting the second half of the Albion’s charge to promotion.

Except of course it all went terribly pear shaped. Brighton lost nine and drew two of their 11 games following Wood’s permanent appointment as hopes of a return to Division Two transformed into fears of getting sucked into another battle against relegation to the Conference.

Wood was subsequently sacked in April. His place was taken by Micky Adams, who steadied the ship and led the Albion to 17th place, seven points clear of the one relegation spot filled by Scarborough and 16 off the playoffs.

Wood’s Wonders never saw the light of day. Which was a shame, because who doesn’t want to relive Marco Gabbiadini scoring a hat-trick as Darlington won 4-0 at the Priestfield or a 3-1 Tuesday night home hammering at the hands of Cambridge United?

Unsurprisingly given what happened when Knight tempted fate by championing the achievements of the Albion with only 20 games of the league campaign completed, Brighton have never since released a half-season review – giving Horton’s Heroes Part I a unique place in Seagulls history.