Just about to depart on holiday to Italy (I delayed the trip to go to the Toolbox ) and invested in Mark Bright’s autobiography on my Kindle . I hadn’t realised that he had been a foster child and it looks like a good read despite his Palace love in .
Of course I couldn’t resist reading the Chapter ‘Happy at the Valley’ before the rest of the book as I always like to see what our ex players think about their time with us .
I feel he was a good player for us in the play off season and similar to Jonny Williams he has achieved success with both Charlton and Palace and I feel is quite well respected by both sets of fans .
Despite his Palace connections he really brought into the ethos of Curbs and he is ‘ grateful that I was able to be part of something that was very special in the clubs’ history ‘. And was ‘pleased and proud to be part of it ‘ and describes how our fans ‘ had suffered but never stopped supporting Charlton’ . He ‘liked ‘ the club and he felt ‘happy and settled ‘ and he never ‘ felt unwelcome ‘ despite his Palace connections .
He speaks about how he had arrived when a previous move to Swiss club Sion had fallen through because Sheffield Wednesday had demanded a fee . Curbs initially ‘liked the idea of taking me to the club for the last few weeks of the season to see how it worked out ‘. He said Steve Coppell gave him a good reference . He didn’t want to drift into retirement and was impressed that Curbs wanted a ‘real crack’ at promotion and that the challenge was ‘full on’.
Of course it did work out and he tells the Play off story well . Apparently Mark videoed the day because he wanted to saviour the day at Wembley as he knew the day would pass quickly .
He decided to play on for a last season in the Premier League even though Curbs warned him he wouldn’t feature much .There is one sour note . He describes an incident with Kevin Lisbie in a reserve game where Lisbie hadn’t passed to him when Brighty was in a better scoring position . Apparently Kevin told his senior colleague to ‘ f…ing shut up’ . Mark was so upset by this exchange and nearly retired early until Curbs intervened and Lisbie apologised .
He praises Curbs man management and describes how he was allowed to spend time with his termally ill Grandmother before she died
His last day as a pro seems to have been memorable as his Addick colleagues chaired him off the pitch and he told them to ‘ bounce back’ and win promotion.
Comments
Always seemed a decent bloke.
Loves Curbs, as stated above, and loves to talk about Charlton or any footy for as long as you care to.
Mendonca came back against Huddersfield, Bright scores the winner and we never looked back.
On the morning of the Huddersfield game we had a few of our fans on Soccer AM. When asked by Lovejoy how was Bright getting on, one of our fans (Martyn Freak) answered he is useless. Was even better when Bright went on to score the winner
Excellent striker for us.
I remember that to this day .. a deliberate and very nasty piece of business, worth 10 red cards and a long suspension, Bright wasn't even booked. Different 'rules' in those days lol .. I also remember that Bright apologised for it .. better late than never