EVERY PICTURE TELLS A STORY: BRIGHTON 1979

📸Season 1979-80 First Division

📆25th August 1979

🏟 Maine Road

Early season home action between City and Brighton in a 3-2 thriller in favour of the Blues.

Image shows goalmouth action at the Brighton end, watched by a well-stocked Kippax. The goalkeeper making the acrobatic save is Eric Steele, who would go on to total 87 Brighton appearances, before moving on to Watford in time to be a part of their surge into the big time, although his appearances there were restricted by Steve Sherwood and later Tony Coton. On retiring to run a pub, Steele set up a goalkeeping school and later resurfaced at City as goalkeepers' coach in 2007 as a replacement for the departing Tim Flowers.

Crumpling to the ground in front of Steele is Michael Robinson, the City striker finished as top scorer this season, but with a feeble 9 goals. His 46th minute penalty past Steele put City 3-1 up in a rollercoaster game that had seen Teddy Maybank equalise Paul Power's 24th minute opener. In between ex-England striker Mike Channon (2) had already netted City's second. Robinson would move to Brighton and score freely against City, before heading for a surprise upgrade to Liverpool and a career playing for the Republic of Ireland. Channon would also head to the south coast, but in his case back to his first love Southampton, where he would also call in the Law of the Ex-Player, by scoring twice against City in the opening game of the 1980-81 season. 

Attempting to mark Channon in this instance is future BBC pundit Mark Lawrenson, who, like Robinson, would end up at Anfield and play for the Republic and would be remembered as one of Brighton's best-ever players.

Completing the picture is no.2, John Gregory, who would go on to become a classy midfielder for QPR, Derby and Aston Villa, winning 6 England caps along the way. Curiously, he ended up managing these three clubs too, as well as Plymouth, who he had also briefly played for. Is there another individual who has both played for and managed as many as four clubs? Gregory's only tenuous link to City was that he became one of the regular names linked with the club whenever a management vacancy came up at Maine Road/the City of Manchester Stadium, but he never made it past the newspapers' gossip shortlists.

In Brighton's side on this sunny August afternoon was Brian Horton, future City manager, as well as the recently deceased Gerry Ryan. On the City side, goalkeeping giant Joe Corrigan would play 36 games at the Goldstone Ground in 1983-84 to add to the near 500 he managed for the Blues.    

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