Ian BRIGHTWELL

A product of the club's fruitful youth policy of the eighties Ian Brightwell went on to make almost 400 appearances for Manchester City over a twelve-year period. The son of Olympic athletes Ann Packer and Robbie Brightwell, who both won medals at the 1964 Games, he was equally at home in defence or midfield and his versatility made him popular with a number of different managers over the years.

Born in Lutterworth, Leicestershire, he joined the club straight from school as a 16 year old in 1984, three years before his younger brother David would tread the same path, and in April 1986 was a member of the City team that won the FA Youth Cup, beating Manchester United 3-1 on aggregate in the final. Manager Billy McNeill gave the 18 year old his first-team bow on the opening day of the 1986/87 Division One season in a 3-1 home win over Wimbledon (the photo above is during the game), but a series of poor performances and the resignation of McNeill after only seven games led to the team being in the relegation zone by early November and knocked out of the League Cup in a 3-1 defeat at Arsenal. His replacement was Jimmy Frizzell, who decided he needed more experience in the team, and Brightwell lost his place until mid-February when on his return he got his first goal for the Blues in a 1-1 draw at Norwich City. By that time the club was staring relegation in the face and had been knocked out of the FA Cup at the first hurdle in a 1-0 loss at rivals Manchester United. The poor form continued right up until the end of the season when a last-day 2-0 defeat at West Ham sent them down, Brightwell making a total of 16 appearances with 1 goal in his debut season.

The 1987/88 campaign began with the appointment of ex-Norwich City coach Mel Machin as manager, and he immediately tried a blend of youth team graduates and experienced professionals in a bid to return to the top level at the first attempt. The experiment initially proved unsuccessful, the team sitting below half-way in the table by mid-October. Nevertheless, after Brightwell had opened his goalscoring account in a 3-2 home loss to Sheffield United, results began to improve and they found themselves just below the play-off places in December after an unbeaten nine-game run, including the famous 10-1 thrashing of Huddersfield Town which Ian missed through injury.

There was also progress in the League Cup where they had reached the quarter-final stage, but a serious downturn in form led to a plunge down the table, the only points in seven games coming in a 3-1 win over Stoke City at the turn of the year when Brightwell grabbed one of the goals. Despite the League Cup run coming to a halt with a 2-0 loss at Everton the team had also reached the FA Cup quarter-finals, but another defeat, this time a 4-0 Maine Road hammering at the hands of Liverpool, ended any Wembley hopes and some inconsistent league form followed. Although he was on the scoresheet in a 2-2 draw at home to Bradford and followed up a week later with two in a 3-0 win at Birmingham, Ian's 5 goals in 33 appearances came in the midst of a disappointing season when the team could only finish ninth.

The City faithful looked forward to the following season with renewed confidence after a number of new signings had been made, but they had to wait until the fifth game for the first win when Brightwell and Paul Moulden got the goals in a 2-1 home win over Brighton. The same combination were on the mark again seven days later when Ian got a brace in a 3-1 win over Chelsea, and although in-between there was a 3-1 League Cup loss at Luton the duo of Brightwell and Moulden struck again ten days later when they each scored two in a 4-0 home win over Bradford City as the Blues hit the top of the table. An exit from the FA Cup at Brentford (1-3) did little to curb the momentum but Ian was injured in early February and made only one appearance in the next three months, only returning for the last five games as a late-season stumble meant a point was needed on the last day at Bradford to ensure promotion. In a tense encounter a late goal from Trevor Morley was enough to secure the vital point necessary to send City up as runners-up to Chelsea, with Ian's 6 goals in his 26 appearances the best return of his career at Maine Road. (David Redshaw).

Newly promoted City found the First Division tougher than expected in the 1989/90 season, the team joint-bottom of the table in mid-September with Manchester United the next visitors to Maine Road. However the form book was turned upside-down as City ran out 5-1 winners with one of their best derby match performances ever, and seven days later Luton Town were beaten 3-1 with Ian Brightwell getting one of the goals as the team moved up to tenth in the table. The improvement, however, was only short-lived as a terrible sequence of results culminated in the sacking of manager Machin.

When newly-installed boss Howard Kendall took over things got much better after he brought in a number of his old Everton players, but Brightwell lost his place in midfield and had to be content with a place on the bench. In spite of this he managed to score the most memorable goal of his career in February on one of his rare starts, crashing in a twenty-five yard thunderbolt for the equaliser in a 1-1 draw with Manchester United at Old Trafford in the 100th First Division meeting between the clubs. Although a 3-1 second replay defeat to Millwall in the FA Cup third round was disappointing the priority had been consolidation in the league, and after the team had achieved this Brightwell was given a run at right-back for the last four games of the season, making a total of 28 league appearances with exactly half of them being as a substitute.

Ian kept the number two shirt for the start of the 1990/91 season as the team suffered only one defeat in the opening eleven games, but at the beginning of November manager Kendall decided to leave the club and return to his first love Everton. He was replaced by Peter Reid, who took over as player-manager, and he chose to retain Brightwell at right-back where he established himself for virtually the whole campaign, missing only three league games. Despite faring badly in the cup competitions, where they had been knocked out of the League Cup by Arsenal (1-2) and the FA Cup by Notts County (0-1), a string of consistent performances led to an eventual fifth-place finish, which was the best since 1977/78.

With right-back Andy Hill having been signed towards the end of the previous term Ian reverted to his old position in the midfield for the start of the 1991/92 season, and the team got off to a flying start with ten points from the first four games. A goal from Brightwell in the next game was not enough to prevent a 2-1 defeat at Arsenal, but by December they were handily-placed in the league as they sat in the top-four. Though they were knocked out of both domestic cup competitions with 2-1 defeats to Middlesbrough the league form continued to be good and they were rewarded with a more than respectable fifth-place finish for the second consecutive season, Ian having made 40 appearances in probably his most consistent season in a City shirt.

Ian Brightwell was part of the Manchester City team that kicked off the 1992/93 season in the newly-formed FA Premier League, the club's opening game being a 1-1 home draw with QPR during which he played in an unaccustomed left-back role. Brightwell reverted to the right hand side three games later as the team secured their first win, beating Norwich City 3-1 at Maine Road, and when he got one of the goals in a 4-0 win over Leeds United in November things were looking positive with the Blues in the top six. However, a deterioration in league form saw the team slide into the bottom half of the table and get knocked out of the League Cup in 1-0 home defeat to Tottenham Hotspur, but Ian was to suffer a further blow in a 1-1 draw with Liverpool in December when he snapped a tendon in his knee. It was a serious injury and one that would keep him out for more than a year. (David Redshaw).

It was not until late-March 1994 that Ian Brightwell returned to first-team action in a 0-0 draw with Oldham Athletic at Boundary Park, by which time the club had gone through some turbulent times off the pitch. Manager Reid had left the club the previous August to be replaced by Brian Horton, and a new regime was in place in the boardroom with former player Francis Lee taking over from the ousted Peter Swales. It was a season best-forgotten as the team finished in a lowly sixteenth league position with Brightwell getting 7 first-team starts as he eased his way back to full fitness.

In the 1994/95 campaign Brightwell was used in a number of different positions, including central defence, with the team situated in the lower reaches of the table for most of it. The best performances were saved for the cup competitions, however, where Barnet (0-1 & 4-1), QPR (4-3) and Newcastle (1-1 & 2-0) had been disposed of in the League Cup before a 4-0 quarter-final defeat at Crystal Palace, and an FA Cup run was only halted by a 3-1 defeat at Newcastle United in round five after wins over Notts County (2-2 & 5-2) and Aston Villa (1-0). A hip injury would eventually keep Brightwell out of the side for the final two months of the season, which concluded with the team just out of the relegation spots in seventeenth place, a performance that was to lead to the sacking of manager Horton in May.

The club sprang a surprise before the start of the new term with the appointment of Alan Ball as manager, a move which did not thrill the fans, and he began by alternating Brightwell between both full-back roles as the team had to wait until the twelfth game of the season for their first win, a 1-0 victory over Bolton Wanderers. Results did improve in November, with ten points out of a possible twelve, but cup losses to Liverpool in the League Cup (4-0) and Manchester United in the FA Cup (2-1) did nothing to improve moral and performances gradually deteriorated. The season ended when a 2-2 draw with Liverpool at Maine Road was not enough to save them from relegation, going down into Division One after seven years in the top-flight with Brightwell having made 29 appearances in a disastrous campaign.

If the season before had been painful then 1996/97 would turn into one of the most traumatic in the club's history. After two defeats in the opening three games manager Ball resigned to be replaced by caretaker boss Asa Hartford, who oversaw an embarrassing 5-1 aggregate League Cup defeat by Lincoln before Steve Coppell took over as permanent boss on October 7th. His first game ended in a 2-2 away draw at QPR with Brightwell notching one of the goals, but after only six games and thirty-three days in charge he resigned on medical grounds and was replaced by his assistant Phil Neal on a caretaker basis. Ian was on target once again in a 3-2 home defeat to Oxford United but the club were flirting with the relegation zone by the end of December, and the managerial merry-go-round was complete at the turn of the year when Frank Clark was given the job. Despite an FA Cup exit at the hands of Middlesbrough (0-1) results then improved sufficiently for the club to close the season in fifteenth place, Brightwell's 37 league appearances having come in a variety of different roles under different managers.

The 1997/98 season would be Ian's last at the club as another year of struggle developed, manager Clark resigning in February after fourteen months in the job to be replaced by ex-City favourite Joe Royle, who immediately made it clear Brightwell would be allowed to leave. A 3-0 away defeat at Reading a week after Royle's appointment proved to be Ian's last game as City were relegated to Division Two at the end of the season, and he was snapped up on a free transfer in July 1998 by Coventry City manager Gordon Strachan. In his time at Maine Road he had made a total of 382 appearances (including 45 as a substitute) with 19 goals and had gained 4 England Under-21 caps, earning a reputation as a resolute and dependable stalwart of the club during some turbulent times in the 1990's.

He spent two seasons at Coventry City, never playing a league game and making only one appearance (in a League Cup tie with Luton Town), before going on to play for Walsall, Stoke City, Port Vale, and Macclesfield Town, where he was appointed reserve team coach in 2004 whilst still registered as a player. He later went on to manage the club with Asa Hartford as his assistant.(David Redshaw)