Four Ipswich players on loan at Brighton, Dick? That’s insane

It was August 2007. Dick Knight went to Portman Road. He watched the Pontins Holiday Combination League Champions Cup final. And he saw the light. He realised the route to glory for Brighton in the 2007-08 season would be signing 27 different Ipswich Town players on loan.

Okay, maybe 27 is a slight exaggeration. But when the Albion were referred to as Ipswich Reserves during that League One campaign, it was not entirely inaccurate.

Three loan signings were made straight from the Tractor Boys – George O’Callaghan, Matt Richards and Dean Bowditch. Another came from The Leeds United but was an Ipswich player to all intents and purposes.

Ian Westlake had scarcely played in 18 months at Elland Road. Ask most Albion fans where Brighton signed him from and a lot would say Ipswich. That was what I thought had happened until Wikipedia suggested otherwise.

The Ipswich Four had varying degrees of success during their respective loan spells with Brighton. And Dean Wilkins led the Albion to seventh place come the end of the season, just outside the playoffs. Suggesting Knight’s strategy was maybe not as mad as first appeared.

But before we look at the individuals involved – a quick examination of how Knight forged the relationship which turned Brighton into Ipswich Reserves.

The Pontins Holiday Combination League Champions Cup Final

Having being crowned Pontins Holiday Combination League South Division champions at the end of the 2006-07 season, Brighton earned the right to face the North Division title winners – Ipswich – in the Champions Cup Final.

Quite why the game took place when the 2007-08 campaign was already underway is anybody’s guess. And how did the Tractor Boys end up with home advantage?

Whatever the reason, Knight found himself going along to Portman Road. Ipswich won 2-0 on the night. O’Callaghan was named man-of-the-match and Richards set up the first Tractor Boys goal, scored by Chris Casement.

Little could either player have known they had just been successful in an audition to switch Ipswich for Brighton on loan.

George O’Callaghan

Knight was so impressed with O’Callaghan that he actually tried to bring him to Withdean Stadium on a permanent deal. Which, for Albion fans who remember how his particular Seagulls story ends, would have been magnificent.

Brighton had a £75,000 offer accepted by Ipswich for the maverick Irish midfielder. A combination of disagreement over personal terms and O’Callaghan wanting to stay at Championship level scuppered the deal.

But with the transfer window about to shut, a compromise was reached. O’Callaghan joined the Albion on loan until January. His aim was to play so well for Brighton that Ipswich boss Jim Magilton would have to take him back when his temporary deal at Withdean expired.

And if Magilton still did not see O’Callaghan as a first team player at Portman Road, Brighton would be in pole position to either agree personal terms at the second attempt or extend the loan.

None of those scenarios played out. O’Callaghan provided plenty of entertainment on the pitch through 16 games as an Albion player. Off the pitch, he was banned from driving for going through a red light was drunk.

O’Callaghan v Dick Knight

What O’Callaghan is really remembered for though is the fireworks when he left. He launched a scathing attack in public on Knight, criticising the Albion chairman for allowing Bas Savage’s contract to expire and captain Dean Hammond to enter the final six months of his deal.

“There are a lot of lads who are very important to this team that don’t know if they are coming or going and I think it’s about time the club got a grip on it and sorted it out, because it has dragged on for too long and I feel it is starting to affect the players,” O’Callaghan said after a 3-0 defeat at Millwall on Boxing Day.

“It looks like the team we had two weeks ago could fall apart and the gaffer will have to try and make other signings and probably end up spending more. It’s just a disaster really, because I think we could get promotion.”

Relations may be frosty between Tony Bloom and Paul Barber OBE and Knight, but they share one thing in common – not taking public criticism well.

Knight fired back: “I think George has been very unprofessional because we have given him the chance to shine and show his talents.”

“Negotiations with Dean Hammond are ongoing and will come to a conclusion in the near future. Right now it is not resolved and it’s not George O’Callaghan’s business to tell the club what we should be doing. I am a very experienced chairman who has dealt with player negotiations for a long time.”

Somewhat unsurprisingly, O’Callaghan did not play for Brighton again.

Matt Richards

A much more successful Ipswich player on loan at Brighton was left back Richards. So successful, in fact, that he ended up having three separate loan spells with the Albion.

The first came alongside O’Callaghan during the first half of the 2007-08 season. Richards played 19 times in all competitions before returning to Portman Road.

Spell two came one month later. It took him through to the end of 2007-08 and saw him make another 14 appearances, giving Richards a total of 33 outings over the course of the campaign.

And he was not done there. Micky Adams brought Richards back to Withdean for 2008-09, in which he played a further 32 matches before saying goodbye for the third and final time in January 2009.

At that point, Brighton decided to try and find a permanent solution to their left back problem. Rather than keep signing the same bloke on loan every six months from Ipswich.

The Albion therefore purchased Jim McNulty for £150,000 from Rochdale. Who suffered a freak injury in only his fifth Brighton game which required an operation to remove a kidney.

McNulty was subsequently ruled out for six months. Brighton resisted the temptation to bring Richards back for a fourth spell.

Which was a shame as it meant he never added to his club-record for most Albion appearances by a player who never joined the club permanently of 65.

Dean Bowditch

Dean Bowditch did not actually play in that Pontins Holiday Combination League Champions Cup Final. He was probably injured.

But Brighton already had an idea of what he could bring to the party in 2007-08 having taken him on loan from Ipswich in the previous season.

It was a flying visit first time around in the autumn of 2006. Bowditch made his debut in the Paint Pot against MK Dons before scoring off the bench in a 3-2 win away against Bradford City.

He was injured after his next appearance off the bench, a 1-0 home defeat to Tranmere Rovers. Bowditch made his comeback a month later at Oldham Athletic. He came off injured after 66 minutes. Surgery on a troublesome groin spelled the end of his loan.

The Albion though persevered and Bowditch became the third Ipswich player to join Brighton on loan in the 2007-08 campaign. Incredibly, the initial move had to be delayed. Because Bowditch was injured.

He eventually made it back to Withdean in February 2008. Five starts followed over the next month yielding no goals. Wilkins decided not to extend Bowditch’s stay with the Albion beyond the initial month. He was either recalled or injured. Probably injured.

Ian Westlake

As you have already read, Westlake actually joined the Seagulls from Leeds. It felt like he was another loan from Ipswich though on account of his long association with the Tractor Boys and him being signed to replace O’Callaghan in midfield.

Westlake came through the youth tanks at Portman Road, going onto play 125 times. He moved to Leeds in a deal which saw ex-Brighton left back Dan Harding head to Ipswich in the summer of 2006.

But with first team football limited at the 1996 Coca Cola Cup runners up, Westlake arrived at Withdean ahead of the March loan deadline.

He scored twice in 11 matches and was a major factor in the Albion’s strong finish to the campaign. Many Brighton fans felt he would be a quality permanent addition for 2008-09.

Adams though had his own ideas after controversially replacing Wilkins. Most were terrible and the decision to bring in David Livermore as a midfield option over Westlake definitely ranks in that category.

Westlake took his revenge by scoring against Brighton in January 2009 as the Albion were held to a woeful 2-2 draw by Cheltenham Town, one month before Adams was sacked.