Despite it not being a particularly long list of names, Andy Petterson is probably not the first Australian who played for the Albion that supporters would think of. Partly because he was part of a run of defeats which most fans would to choose to forget.
He first arrived from Australia in 1988 as a teenager to join Luton Town but played just 19 games for the Hatters in five years. During that time he was loaned to Ipswich Town in 1993 after they had an injury to their first choice ‘keeper Craig Forrest. A spell that saw Petterson make his Premier League debut on the last day of the season in a 2-1 win against Nottingham Forest.
Having not played for the club in his spell there yet, he only found out 45 minutes before the game that he was due to make his debut. And far from being an end of season dead rubber, this was a game which Ipswich needed to win to avoid relegation.
Petterson admitted “I’m driving to the game and I’m late… I dash into the dressing room and before I could even put my bag down, I was told number two keeper Clive Baker was out sick. And I’m starting… So I run out and obviously I’m very nervous to start.”
A year later he made a move to Charlton where he initially continued his life as back up, with his first 2 seasons involving four separate loan spells, including another loan spell at Ipswich.
But on New Year’s Day 1997 he was brought into the side, kept his place and went onto impress so much that he won the club’s player of the season award as they finished a disappointing 15th in the First Division.
As a result, for the first time in his career he began the following 1997/98 season as his club’s number one goalkeeper. All seemed well as the team pushed for promotion to the topflight. But he soon lost his place in the team in February of that season and had to watch from the bench as Charlton won that iconic playoff final on penalties against Sunderland after the game ended 4-4 after extra time.
He would later admit: “although we got promotion, that day at Wembley wasn’t quite as special for me as if I had played in the game. At the time when Sasa saved the penalty we had just won at Wembley in such dramatic fashion and it was fantastic for me. But a few days later it sort of sank in that I missed another opportunity to play at Wembley, like when I was at Luton and we got to an FA Cup semi-final that was played at Wembley.”
After featuring just twice for Charlton in the topflight, both of which games they won, he was soon demoted to third choice keeper and loaned to First Division Portsmouth. But injuries to Sasa Ilic and Simon Royce saw him return for another run in the team. However, at the end of the 1998/99 season he was let go and returned to Portsmouth who offered him a permanent deal.
Despite not being a regular under him, Petterson has mostly good things to say about his Charlton manager, the former Albion player Alan Curbishley. “He was a really good coach and a really good guy who treated players really well and he wasn’t like other managers who come across as being a bit of a bully sort of thing.”
Despite his issues there, the five seasons he spent at Charlton would end up being his most successful spell in football. At Portsmouth he started as first choice but by November he’d lost his place in the team and admitted later: “The loan spell [at Portsmouth] went well. The permanent move didn’t, unfortunately. It was the beginning of the end when I went back to Pompey. My career never really recovered.”
Petterson had lost his place in the Portsmouth team, in part after a row with assistant coach Kevin Bond. And after loan spells at Torquay and Wolves, he left for West Brom on a free transfer, where once again, he was surplus to requirements.
However, he would make a comeback by signing for Brighton in August 2002 on another free transfer when Albion’s number one keeper Michel Kuipers suffered his first of a number of injuries that season.
But it was another false dawn for the Australian, as he played only nine times for the Seagulls. Which included playing in six of the club’s run of record equalling 12 consecutive defeats. And things began as they meant to go on for Petterson, when on his debut he was at fault for Walsall’s first goal as the team lost 2-0.
He was not initially perturbed and still seemed to be relishing his opportunity with the Albion, with the next game seeing him face his old club Portsmouth. By then he was an old hand in the English game and with his new team struggling with the step up to the second tier, he felt he could make a difference in that area, telling the Argus before the match: “I would like to think I could help some of the younger lads build in confidence.”.
However, he let in a further four against the league leaders as Albion lost an entertaining game 4-2, and conceded a total of 15 goals in his 7 league appearances for the club, with all bar one ending in defeat.
That included another 4-2 defeat, this time at home to Gillingham. With the game still in the balance at 3-2 and Albion pressing for an equaliser, a quick Gillingham counter saw Petterson experience probably the nadir of his spell at Albion. As the Australian fell over his own leg whilst rushing back to his goal, it left Gillingham’s Kevin James to put the ball into an empty net.
Further defeats to Stoke and Rotherham followed before Michel Kuipers returned from injury to save Petterson the ignominy of any involvement in Albion’s further five defeats, which included a 5-0 defeat away to rivals Palace.
He did have one final involvement as a late substitute in Albion’s record avoiding win away to Bradford, after Michel Kuipers had been sent off. But his first job was to pick the ball out of the net after Andy Gray had blasted in the resultant spot-kick to set up a tense finale. Thankfully, Brighton held on for a long awaited win.
Petterson made two more appearance as an unused substitute at Albion before he was let go to continue his nomadic career in the lower reaches of the English Football League.
He next signed a short-term contract with Bournemouth, before spells with Rushden and Diamonds, Southend, Walsall and Notts County, during which time he made only a smattering of appearances.
Petterson admitted after retiring that “[I] maybe mentally didn’t have the belief in myself enough. I’m a bit of a laid-back, casual sort of guy. Sometimes you have to be that pushy arrogant sort of person for the coach to take notice of you a bit more. I tried to do it, as a footballer you have to be a bit of an actor, but it just wasn’t in my nature.”
The Tweeting Seagull 