This is something I wrote a few years back about Ian Brightwell. I hope you enjoy it… Of all the players to appear in City’s 1986 FA Youth Cup winning side, Ian Brightwell is the one who ended up having the longest playing career with the Blues. He remained at Maine Road until 1998. By that time he had played for a total of ten permanent managers and numerous caretakers in a 12 year first team career. It’s a wonder any player could cope with so much change.
He made his debut against Wimbledon on 23rd August 1986 (their first game in Division One), around four months after the Youth Cup success over Manchester United: “Billy McNeill gave me my debut in the opening game of the following season against Wimbledon. He told me a few days before that I’d be playing. He came up to me and told me, and I couldn’t believe it. I’d only just turned 18, but I had a few days to prepare. We won the game 3-1 and it helped me that Steve Redmond was already in the side. Of that Youth side Reddo was first in and then it was me, and I remember us watching to see who would be next. My second game was at Anfield and that was a great experience. We drew the game 0-0 but how we got away with that I’ll never know. We were battered.”
Brightwell made 12 League appearances plus four as substitute that season, but it was not a great time for the Blues as City were relegated at the end of the campaign. Billy McNeill had left early in the season: “I had great respect for him and was really disappointed when he left. He was a real legend – first man to lift the European Cup for a British side. Jimmy Frizzell took over, so that helped as it was more of a continuation. But for me it became the norm that managers would be changed. I don’t think Billy should have left when he did. I’ve still got great respect for him as a person and of course as a football manager. I’ll always be thankful to him.”
Under Mel Machin the following season Brightwell became an established member of the promotion seeking side before the arrival of Gary Megson limited his chances for a while: “It was a strange season because it was the first time as a group those of us from the youth side weren’t winning. I know we’d been relegated the previous season, but by 1987-88 a few of us were regulars in the first team. We were disappointed and felt we should have done better. I missed the 10-1 against Huddersfield, but I appeared in the 6-2 against Plymouth a few days later. Those games did bring a lot of attention our way, but I’d rather City be consistent. We weren’t good enough overall, but the following year that experience helped push us on. But it was difficult in 1988-89 as well. It’s a tough division to get out of.”
Promotion was achieved on the last day of the 1988-89 season in a nerve-wracking match at Bradford: “The pitch invasion followed. I was carried off on fans’ shoulders and had half my kit ripped off me. In the dressing room I remember thinking how close we’d been to missing out.”
The following season there was yet another managerial change and Howard Kendall was brought in. Under his guidance Brightwell was given an extended run in the team and, on 3rd February 1990, he scored his most memorable goal. It was a marvellous 25 yarder against Manchester United at Old Trafford: “I remember that the ball was out on the right and Mark Ward sort of half-crossed it. It came to me and I’ll never forget this – I heard Steve Redmond on the half way line shout: ‘Bob…’ I’d best not say his exact words, but let’s just say he wanted me to have a go in his strong scouse accent! It was on my left foot, which isn’t my strongest, but I did what Reddo said. It went in the top corner!
“I ran off and jumped about twenty feet in the air – or at least that’s how it looks on the photos. I remember the noise because back then the away fans used to get about 10,000 tickets at Old Trafford and it was phenomenal.”
Afterwards an excited Brightwell, when asked to explain how he’d scored, told the media: “I just wellied it!” It became the expression of the season and seemed to match everybody’s impression of a boyhood dream come true.
In the years that followed Brightwell performed consistently and was loyal to the City cause. Many of his former youth team colleagues were transferred or, in the case of Paul Lake, suffered serious injury, but Brightwell remained: “It was odd once the others went. They didn’t all go at once and of course Lakey was injured, but it did feel different. We’d known each other as a group for about 15 years, so a big loss. But my incentive was always to stay in spite of everything else. I actually think that if we’d have had continuity of management during that time that we’d have all stayed. If that had happened… well just look at United. They had a crop of talented youngsters about ten years after us like Butt, Scholes, Neville, and so on and they grew as a team. We never got that chance.”
There were some bright moments for the Blues in the early Nineties, however the second half of the decade saw City plummet through the divisions. In 1998, after relegation to the third level of football, Brightwell moved on: “It broke my heart to see City fall so low but I still didn’t want to leave. It was a difficult decision but Joe Royle had explained that the Club couldn’t offer me a contract at the level I was on. In the end I had to go and I moved to Coventry who were still in the Premier League, but my first impression was that this was such a small club in comparison with City. They may have been two divisions higher but in my mind there was no comparison.
“It didn’t work out at Coventry and I became injured. I kept going back to Manchester to watch City whenever I could.”
After Coventry Brightwell played for Walsall (including an emotional return trip to Maine Road), Stoke and Port Vale, before moving into coaching. In 2004 he was caretaker manager of Port Vale and, in 2006, he performed a similar role at Macclesfield. In 2007 he became Macclesfield’s manager on a permanent basis, but was dismissed in February 2008. He admitted in 2010 that Tony Book and Glyn Pardoe, who had been City’s youth coaches during the Eighties, remained influential figures throughout his career: “It’s difficult to stress how important Book and Pardoe and some of the others were. When I moved into coaching and, of course, management at Macclesfield, I used a lot of the things they said. They were so influential and if you think about where they got it from – well that was Malcolm Allison and Joe Mercer. You can’t get any better. Tony Book used to always say ‘control and play’. It sounds simple but in essence that’s what the game is all about and I still use that. Tony and Glyn used to drum it into you in the A team.”
To the wider world Ian Brightwell may not be the most well-known player from City’s 1986 FA Youth Cup winning team, but in terms of commitment to the Blue cause and longevity he was certainly one of the most dedicated. He was also a passionate Blue from childhood: “It was the team I supported and I used to go down to Maine Road. Colin Bell was nearing the end of his career when I went but there were people like Asa Hartford, Peter Barnes and Gary Owen. City were still a major side at that time. I remember the year we missed out on the title by a point to Liverpool (1977) – we should have done it. Tony Book was manager and the players were a different class. It was great to watch.”
During his career it was often highlighted that Brightwell came from a family with a great sporting pedigree. His brother David also played for City, while his parents were successful British Olympic athletes: “I couldn’t ask for a better sporting pedigree. My mum (Ann Brightwell nee Packer) won a gold and a silver in Tokyo and my dad (Robbie) won a silver.”
On this day (9 May) in 1987 Manchester City were relegated after a 2-0 defeat at West Ham (see match report). At the end of the game City supporters and West Ham fans climbed over the fences and onto the pitch. Some thought that the two sets of supporters were about to confront each other, but the fans knew differently. The Hammers began chanting “You’ll be back” and both groups swapped scarves and souvenirs on the pitch. It was the kind of moment that should have been widely reported in the media but at the time focus tended to be on hooliganism and confrontation rather than the positives of football support. City had been relegated, but their supporters did not seek revenge. The West Ham fans could have ridiculed, but they didn’t. If only those condemning football fans at the time could have seen the two sets of loyal supporters genuinely appreciating and understanding each other.
The relationship between the fans of the two clubs is not something that is widely discussed or promoted but it is something that has endured. City fans have never forgotten the ‘You’ll be back’ game and in recent years, as others have unfairly mocked both sets of fans, the supporters of both the Blues and the Hammers seem to understand and respect each other. Inevitably, there will always be banter during a game but outside of the match the mutual recognition and respect always seems to win through.
To many West Ham are the City of the South – a proud football club with a great history and heritage, combined with a loyal and passionate fanbase.
You can read more on Ian’s debut season of 1986-87 below. This is a 2,500 word feature on the entire season and is available to subscribers.
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