Cans of Stella and a Hove B&B: Chris Wilder's Brighton memories ahead of Sheffield United clash

Earlier this week, as he met the media to preview Sheffield United's FA Cup clash with Brighton, Chris Wilder took little persuading to cast his mind back to his own playing days with the Seagulls. It was 1999 and Wilder had just finished his second spell as a player at Bramall Lane, when a mutual connection took him to the south coast to sign a short-term contract under fellow Blade Micky Adams.

The Brighton that Wilder encountered then is a different beast to the outfit that travels to South Yorkshire seventh in the Premier League table and in the last 16 of this season's Europa League. The Blades boss was part of the first Albion side to play at the Withdean, the athletics track they used to call their home. How times have changed.

"Just a bit!" the United manager laughed. "But I had a great time and really enjoyed it. I stayed in a bed and breakfast at Hove and travelled back to Sheffield after a game with my eight cans of Stella. By the time I got back, I was wobbling through Sheffield station!

"It was good, really good home support and they’re passionate. It comes across a little as Sussex-by-the-Sea and it’s a beautiful part of the world but they love their football, they really do. They were away from home, but took a really healthy following and are passionate supporters. They now have a new home stadium and training ground, but we were at the Withdean, an old athletics stadium with temporary stands. We trained at the university and didn’t do a lot of training.

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"We just did a lot of running, I can remember. I was only there for six months, but I really enjoyed it. It has to start somewhere and it did. There are a lot of people in the background who can take an awful lot of credit for getting them back into Brighton. On the back of that, they’ve had an incredible journey. It won’t stop and it’s only going to go one way."

Wilder's Brighton career spanned 11 league games before a chance came up to move to Halifax, where he ended his playing career and made the successful transition into management, and saw quite an unusual arrangement where he trained on Monday and Tuesday with former Blades boss Dave Bassett at Barnsley before travelling south ahead of matchday.

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"I headed down to my old pal Bob Booker’s house on a Wednesday night and travelled down to Brighton on a Thursday morning," Wilder continued. "I’d then train Thursday and Friday, play Saturday. I’d get a lift to the little train station outside the Withdean, with a little off licence right next to it, get eight cans of Stella and then the next minute I’m in Sheffield station.

"I don’t know how I got there! I’d get the train up to Victoria, the tube across, train to St Pancras and then back home and meeting up at 8 o’clock in Henry’s. It was the perfect club for me, although when the weather was cold and wet those journeys seemed to be a bit longer and then mighty Halifax Town came in for me. And I had a couple of years there at the back end of my career."