The 1999/00 season was certainly one of the most poignant in the career of former Albion defender Danny Cullip.
Not only was it his first campaign with the Seagulls, as the club set foot inside Withdean for the first time, it was also a career-defining one, with the defender making a successful return to action following a serious knee injury sustained at former club Brentford.
“I signed on 17th September and made my debut the very next day against Chester,” Cullip recalls. “I suffered a cruciate injury the previous August so hadn’t kicked a ball in anger for 13 months. That was the reason why I initially signed for Brighton on loan because nobody was sure how the knee would hold up.
“To get through that first game was a big milestone in my career. To make that first challenge, that first block tackle, and to go on and play the full 90 minutes was massive for me.”
Cullip even found the target that day in a game which saw the visitors secure a last-gasp 3-2 win. Results continued to be patchy during in the opening half of the season, yet the centre-back knew improvements would soon start to show under Micky Adams, his former Brentford and Fulham boss.
“Micky always signed big characters who bought into the way he played,” Cullip adds. “He had a plan, a vision, and he wanted players who gave 100 per cent in every game and players who would really play for the fans. While we came from various backgrounds, he brought in players who he trusted, who were hungry and who had real desire.
“He knew what the club and the fans had been through, and he brought a real togetherness on and off the pitch – an ethos which exists at the club to this day. You could say he helped lay the foundations.”
Cullip, Andy Crosby, Charlie Oatway, Paul Rogers and Darren Freeman were all players who followed Adams to Withdean and, as we turned into the new millennium, it wasn’t long until results started to turn in the Albion’s favour.
“We went 14 games unbeaten and by the end of the season we were the fifth highest goalscorers, conceded the sixth least amount of goals and were joint fourth when it came to goal difference,” Cullip impressively recalls. “We finished only five points off the play-offs and the momentum carried over into the next season. We all know what happened then...”
Indeed, Adams guided Albion to the Third Division championship, which preceded another title success the following campaign. While the primitive surrounds of Withdean could have been a hindrance, it proved anything but.
“It was a unique place but it was still a grass football pitch that we played on,” Cullip pointed out. “We were all comfortable with it and, when you look back, we created some fantastic memories there. Obviously the title celebrations were great but the other stand-out moments for me involved the fans. I remember the brown envelopes against Chesterfield and the pitch invasion following the Swindon play-off game. I remember bumping into four people who lived near me and we all celebrated together.”
Togetherness is a common theme in this piece and Cullip reveals that also extended off the pitch at Withdean. “The players had an area sealed off in The Sportsman [pub] after the game but we would always end up mixing with the fans because they were very much a part of our success. My mum and dad would watch me home and away and they also got to know a lot of the fans and would sit with them. It was just a great time to be a part of the club and I look back at my five years with happy memories.”
Not that his association ended there. Cullip returned to the club to work for Albion in the Community, alongside former team-mate Guy Butters, and he is delighted to see Albion maintain an association with its former players.
“Obviously it’s a different club now compared to when I played. The chairman has done wonders in making our dreams a reality with the stadium, training ground and Premier League football. But he is also someone who doesn’t forget the former players, and it’s great to see Guy and myself, Bobby Zamora, Sidders [Steve Sidwell], Andrew Crofts and, of course, Bruno still at the club.”
We couldn’t end without quizzing Danny about his impressive statistical knowledge of that first season at the club. So, does he have a photographic memory? “As Micky always used to say, fail to prepare, prepare to fail… website interviews included!”