On 1st November 1973 the football world was stunned by the news that Brian Clough had been appointed as manager of 3rd Division Brighton & Hove Albion. Clough had recently left Derby County, a team he had guided to the championship of the Football League and the European Cup (now the Champions League) in the most acrimonious of circumstances. Clough spent less than a year at Brighton, leaving in the summer of 1974 to take over at Leeds for a brief (very brief, only 44 days) and even more acrimonious spell before moving on to Nottingham Forest – the rest, as they say, is history (a League title and two European Cup wins).
What must Brighton’s players have made of Clough? He was undoubtedly, as football managers go, a megastar; they for the most part were journeymen used to plying their trade in the lower reaches of the Football League. One player, Dave Busby, had perhaps more reason than most to have some feelings of trepidation. Dave had been for a trial at Derby in 1970. Clough told him then that he was unlikely to reach Division One standard but might make a living in the lower divisions. When they met at Brighton Dave thought Clough probably did remember him, albeit after a little prompting.
But Dave had already secured his place in Brighton history before Clough arrived by becoming their first black player on 20th October 1973 in a home game against Shrewsbury Town.
The game ended in a 2-0 win for the home team after Dave went on as substitute to replace John Boyle in the 78th minute. Dave’s name is not on the team sheet but does appear elsewhere in the programme, in a report of a recent South East Counties’ League game against Millwall. Dave is one of two players said to have been ‘prominent in attack.’ Clearly he had caught the eye of manager Pat Saward and done enough to earn his chance in the first team.
Dave’s career at Brighton lasted longer than Clough’s and he made his full debut on 7th September 1974 at Blackburn Rovers’ Ewood Park ground. But that was his only start. After one start and three appearances as substitute Dave’s career at Brighton was over. He drifted into non-League football and took an apprenticeship as a mechanic so, to an extent, Clough’s prediction proved right. What Clough failed to foresee was that Dave Busby would become the first black player at Brighton and also at Barrow.