From Bullet Jones to Bobby Zamora – Brighton & Hove Albion goal kings rated in new book

Phil Dennett has rated all the 29 players who scored 50 or more first-class goals according to their scoring rate and detailed their personal histories. It is the first book of its kind about Albion.

And readers will discover a few surprises in his “The Goal Kings of Brighton and Hove Albion”, which took him 15 months to research and write and runs to nearly 300 pages.

The strikers depicted range from heroes of Albion’s triple winning 1909-10 season Charlie Webb, Bullet Jones and Bert Longstaff right up to much later goal aces like Glenn Murray, Peter Ward and Bobby Zamora.

Dedications in the book include one to the late Ray Leaney, of Burgess Hill, who died earlier this year after living with leukaemia. Ray, 69, scored more than 500 goals in Mid Sussex League football and hundreds more in Sunday League games and was still playing indoor football in a group run by Phil just before he died. A donation will be made to a Leukaemia charity from sales of the book.

Former Mid Sussex Times news editor Phil, 73, of Junction Road, Burgess Hill, said: “Ray never had great ambitions to become a professional footballer like the Albion players featured but he loved playing local football. All of the players featured came through small local clubs at one stage of their development, including of course the great Tommy Cook from Cuckfield for whom Ray also played.”

Arthur Attwood emerges in the book as Albion’s most consistent scorer. He was born in Walsall in 1901 and died in Hove in 1974. Phil said: “Attwood did not score as many goals as people like Tommy Cook and Glenn Murray, but he scored his tally more regularly in fewer games. I was delighted his grandchildren Kevin, Leigh and Frances were able to launch the book at Patcham, near the bus stop where Arthur’s bus called when he took up bus conducting after retirement from football. He was aggressive on the pitch but I gather from the family he was a gentle man off it.”

The book is priced at £20 (plus postage where applicable) and is available through Waterstones and other bookshops, and direct from Phil on 01444 245466 or e mail [email protected]. Phil can deliver the book in the Burgess Hill, Hassocks, Haywards Heath area free of charge. The Albion store at Falmer is also to stock the book and it has been available at Burgess Hill Town FC matches.

The distinctive front cover of the book was taken at The Beacon ground of Hassocks FC by Hassocks photographer Ian Pack, and the book is printed by the Lemonade Print Group of Burgess Hill.