RISING FROM THE ASHES
Twenty years ago, Brighton were 30 minutes away from dropping out of the Football League... today they can reach the top flight
The wild celebration is vivid in the mind of Rob Reinelt after nearly 20 years, more than the goal.
‘Kerry Mayo jumped on my back and yelled, “You’ve just saved my effing life”,’ Reinelt says.
‘his exact words. I don’t know where he came from because he was playing left back that day.
‘The rest of the game was a blur because you’re all hyped up realising what it could mean. Then it went absolutely mental after the final whistle.’
When Brighton trailed at hereford to an own-goal from 19-year-old Mayo with less than half an hour of the 1996-97 season remaining, they were not simply heading out of the Football League. With the club mired in crisis and about to be rendered homeless, relegation would probably have been followed by liquidation.
Mayo’s skin was saved and Brighton lived on thanks to a goal in the 62nd minute by Reinelt, signed on a free and sent on as a sub with nothing to lose, who pounced on the rebound when Craig Maskell hit a post.
‘I thought I was further out,’ he says. ‘I was actually quite close, which is good because it was on my left foot. Any further out and I would probably have missed.
‘I was wearing boots which my wife had bought me for my birthday. I’d said, “Get me something I’ll remember”. So she bought me these boots.
‘Then somebody ran on the field after the match and said, “Let’s have yer boots”, and I gave them to him.
‘Lisa was in the crowd and she saw it happen. After the game, I came out all happy-happy and she said, “Why did you give your boots away? Couldn’t you have given him your shirt?”’
Reinelt’s shirt fetched a fourfigure sum when auctioned for charity a few years later and there was a fleeting reunion with the chancer who made off with his boots.
‘I was at Brighton Races for one of Kerry’s testimonial events and that guy was there,’ Reinelt says. ‘he said, “You won’t recognise me, but I’ve got your boots”. I said, “My missus wants to speak to you”. I never saw him again.’ STEVE GRITT was thrilled at the chance to get back into management but as he pulled up at the Goldstone Ground it was impossible to miss the graffiti inviting him to return promptly whence he came.
‘ The position was perilous,’ Gritt says. ‘We were 11 points adrift with 24 games to go. I wasn’t a big name and I was portrayed as a puppet for the chairman and the chief executive.’
Gritt replaced Jimmy Case and started in mid-December with a 3-0 win against fellow strugglers hull. ‘The club photographer came into the dressing room before the game and asked to take a photo of me outside,’ says Gritt.
‘I thought it would be by the dugout but when he walked me into the middle of the pitch to a chorus of boos I thought, “This might be harder than I imagined”.
‘Two-up at half-time and someone chained themselves to the goalposts in protest. I was worried it might be abandoned but they got him free and we won.
‘The second game at Leyton Orient was Peter Shilton’s 1,000th game. We lost 2-0 and our supporters refused to leave. ‘The police came into the dressing room and I ended up on a megaphone asking them to go back to Brighton. It was not going to be a normal job.’ Protests were aimed at majority shareholder Bill Archer and chief executive David Bellotti. Gritt only saw Archer twice, but he convinced the board to back two free signings: Reinelt from Colchester and defender John humphrey from Gillingham. Results slowly improved and the ninth win in a 17-game run was against Doncaster in an emotional final game at the Goldstone, which lifted Brighton above hereford on goal difference and sent them to edgar Street needing just a draw.
‘Going 1-0 down was tough but we regrouped at half-time,’ Gritt remembers. ‘ We brought on Robbie and he made one hell of a mark on the club’s history.
‘If Brighton had gone down, with their financial situation and no ground, I don’t think it would have come back for an awful long time. It’s great to see how they’re doing. To reach the Premier League would be fantastic.’ GRITT had started the biggest day of his managerial career by taking a phone call saying Millwall wanted him to be their next manager. he was at the end of his short-term deal at Brighton, but in the afterglow of their epic survival, he felt a loyalty to the club and signed a new contract.
They sacked him eight months later and he joined the coaching staff of Billy Bonds at Millwall. At 59, he is now assistant manager at ebbsfleet United. Mayo stayed at Brighton to make more than 400 appearances, leaving in 2009.
Reinelt’s 18- month deal at Brighton was his last professional contract. he was promised improved terms if things went well but this failed to materialise and Brian horton soon replaced Gritt. ‘I did feel let down when I left,’ Reinelt says.
Reinelt now works for Network Rail. Football plays only a small part in his life these days but his place in Brighton folklore is safe.
‘It will be a nice story to tell my grandkids,’ he says. ‘And it’s really good to see they’ve gone on and prospered.’