RIP Doug Loft

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RIP Doug Loft

Former Albion midfielder passed away at the weekend, aged 39.

2026-10-12T16:45+01:00

Doug Loft signed for Albion in 2006 and made his Championship debut against Preston.

The club was saddened to hear of the passing of our former player Doug Loft.

Doug, 39, died at the weekend following a medical emergency.

The Maidstone-born midfielder was playing non-league football for Hastings United when he signed for the club in January 2006 when the club were in the Championship.

“Dean White had flagged him to us at Hastings, and he went on to make the best of himself,” Doug’s first manager Mark McGhee said.

When Dean Wilkins took over from McGhee in September 2006, Loft became an integral part of Wilkins’ ambition to field an entire team of players who had grown up in Sussex.

Loft allied his ball-playing and passing skills to qualities of hard work, commitment and determination. It was a combination guaranteed to make him a fan favourite, his name the subject of a variety of chants sung up and down the country.

“He was extremely fit, unassuming, and worked hard improving the technical side of his game,” Wilkins said. “We almost had to slow him down he had so much energy. Just a good guy.”

They went on to be relegated that season but Doug made three appearances in the second-tier with a debut against Preston in March 2006.

Albion fans who remember that era will recall that when Doug came off the bench to score his first goal for the club against Stoke City he was named man of the match, even though Albion lost 5-1.

In the following season in League One he was a regular, and played a further 46 times for the club, scoring three goals, before heading to Port Vale in June 2009.

He was part of Russell Slade's squad that won 13 points from Albion's last five games to avoid relegation from League One at the end of the 2008-09 season.

He made 196 appearances for Vale over the next five years before spells with Gillingham, for whom he played 70 times, Colchester United and Shrewsbury Town.

Our thoughts are with Doug’s family and friends at this sad time.