Legions of Scotsmen have journeyed south over the years to play football for the Albion. Which is a little bizarre, when you think about it, considering Brighton is considerably closer to Paris than Partick.
Even more bizarre is how few of those Alba marauders ever got to play for their country. Not even Gordon Smith, one of the most cultured Albion players of all time, wore the blue of Scotland. Crazier still is that when international recognition did finally come to a handful of our own come the 21st century, they weren’t actually from north of the border at all. Unless, that is, the border’s been redrawn recently to include Watford (Craig Mackail-Smith) and Reading (Liam Bridcutt). At least Craig Conway came from Ayrshire but, seeing as he was only here for a brief loan spell, I’m not altogether certain he counts.
Then there was Gordon Greer. Gordon was the real deal, as Scottish as a pub crawl around Glasgow. I know there are fewer Albion players from recent times more popular than the big man. Gordon was a leader. Gordon was intimidatory. Gordon could play. That’s a rare and wonderful combination in the modern game. Even better (certainly for us), having been a bit of a football nomad over the years, his career went interstellar on arriving at the Theatre of Trees that was Withdean from Swindon Town in 2010. Consequently, our success on the field in scooping the League One title and pressing for promotion to the Premier League brought him belated international recognition at a time when many players start reaching for the pipe and slippers. Gordon doing well seemed somehow to confirm that we were doing well.
“I’m not someone who really remembers dates and places, but I do know I was one of the oldest players ever to make their debut for the national team,” recalled ‘GG’. “Many years beforehand, when I’d been playing in the SPL for Kilmarnock, the national team had been going through a bit of a difficult period under Berti Vogts. Because of that, there were lots of changes going on and they were starting to look at younger players.
“My motivation then had been to get in there, to get noticed. I did this thing called the ‘Future Squad’ which involved young, up-and-coming players who could potentially play for the team. But then, as the criticism kept coming, they decided instead to go with experience over youth which wasn’t ideal, if I’m being totally honest. So I had been involved, a few caps in the sort of B team, and then I drifted away until I was 32 or 33.”
The post-Kilmarnock, pre-Brighton years saw Gordon put his form at club level to the fore. He was playing in League One which meant the prospect of further international recognition of sorts was unlikely. He never gave up on the dream, but, then again, he wasn’t exactly losing sleep thinking about it either.
Then came the move from Wiltshire to Sussex. In his first season, Gordon captained the team to a first-place finish. Far from making up the numbers in the Championship, Albion pushed hard for promotion over the next couple of years, at which point Scotland came back onto the radar, thanks, in part, to a former manager of ours.
“We were doing really well at the time and Mark McGhee, who was involved with the Scotland squad, was coming to quite a few of our games, so I knew they were watching me,” Gordon added. “At one point Mark said, ‘How would you feel about it?’ and I said how much I’d love to be involved. After that I got a phone call saying I was going to be in the next squad, but I’d just had a clean-up on my knee and it took longer to heal than planned.
“Although I joined up with the squad, my knee blew up after just one day of training. I thought that might be my big opportunity gone but Gordon Strachan, who was Scotland’s manager, said, ‘Look, I’ve seen enough in the training session to think you’ll be back.’ So I was confident I’d get another chance.”
Strachan was true to his word. Even so, our Gordon was only too aware of where he stood in the pecking order, especially being an international novice. “They sort of gave me the thing like, ‘Listen, we’ve got people who we think are going to be starters, so it’s just basically cover’, but you never know what can happen once you’re involved in a set-up like that,” he said. “So I just concentrated on training well. That went on for six months or so before I got to play a few friendly matches. After that came a few of the qualifying games [for Euro 2016] which was great. It was a dream, I’ve got to be honest, and for me to start doing it at 32, 33 was amazing.”
Remarkably – but then again perhaps not, remembering just how comfortable on the ball he was – Gordon suited the rigours of international football to a tee, despite his lack of top-flight experience in England.
“Believe it or not, and I’m not saying this out of any big-headiness, I discovered that the higher I went in football, the easier it became,” he reflected. “I felt like the lower I went, the harder it was. In fact, I found the lower leagues harder than I did playing for Scotland. I might not have been the best physical specimen out there, but I could play a bit of football. Having people to pass to, good players that understood the game, meant playing at a higher level suited me.”
Even so, surely there must have been the odd opponent over the course of his 11 full caps who caused him a problem or two?
“The one game that I did seem to get loads of publicity over was when we played against Poland and I was up against Robert Lewandowski. I had a really good game, one of those occasions where everything came together for me.
“Afterwards, Lewandowski came out and said I should’ve been sent off for a tackle that I made. On the back of that I got loads of phone calls from the press, including the press in Poland. It was a bit bizarre. And he kept it going, which I didn’t understand. He was more bothered about me than I was about him! Aye, I got under his skin, and he wasn’t happy, I’ll tell you.
“On the other hand we played France in France just before the Euros with a younger squad. They were really good and that was a tough game for us. Great memories. I do feel I was good enough to be selected for more games but, unfortunately, I only really became relevant when I was playing well in the Championship. However, I’m more than happy with the way it ended. To play for your country once, let alone 11 times, was an honour.”