The Friday Interview: Controversial former Brighton and Hove Albion striker Leon Knight on the managers he played under and his topsy-turvy career

A bare-chested Leon Knight, roaring with delight, after calmly converting the late penalty which took the Seagulls back into the Championship at the Millennium Stadium 12 years ago.

It was one of the high points of Knight's career, a career littered with controversy and acrimonious departures from clubs.

He has just had another, in his first taste of management.

The only surprise to many will be that Knight lasted almost a year as player-manager of part-timers Barnton Rovers in Northwich, Cheshire.

They are top of the table in the North-West Counties League but internal wrangling and frustrations reached fever pitch on Saturday, when they were beaten 1-0 at title rivals Hanley Town.

Knight was sent-off, three minutes after introducing himself as a late substitute, for stamping.

Barnton apologised to Hanley after a match report on the club's official website heavily criticised their opponents. On Monday Knight resigned.

So ends another chapter in the eventful story of the irascible little striker from Hackney, with an enduring capacity to entertain, thrill and infuriate in equal measure.

His spell with Albion at Withdean from 2003 to 2006, in which he accumulated 36 goals in 108 appearances in League One and the Championship, was no exception.

Little more than 18 months after securing promotion for Mark McGhee's side in the play-off final against Bristol City in the Welsh capital, Knight was thrown off the team coach by the same manager on the way to a match at Southampton.

Or was he? Father-of-three Knight, now living just outside Liverpool with a new girlfriend, said: "That story about the team coach wasn't actually true.

"I was at the ground. He (McGhee) wanted to dump me off but I didn't leave. It was a stand-off for five minutes. We were going to be late to the game, so he eventually told the coach driver to go on.

"That day I was on the bench anyway, so he took me off the bench and sat me in the stand."

Knight was sold to Swansea soon afterwards. He is still only 33 and time has not diminished the memory of the sunlit afternoon in Cardiff when he wrote his name into Albion folklore.

"That's got to be up there in my career," he said. "It was a special moment. People will remember it for a long, long time. Nobody can ever take that away.

"Mark McGhee wasn't a bad manager. The way he went about his day to day work was pretty good to be honest."

That last remark is tantamount to a ringing endorsement from Knight, whose strong opinions on a variety of subjects now manifest themselves on social media. He is both prolific and brutally outspoken on Twitter.

McGhee should be relieved. So too should Chris Turner (Sheffield Wednesday) and Kenny Jackett (Swansea) that this is a family newspaper.

Knight rates the ex-goalkeeper and current Wolves boss as the worst of an enormous bunch - he played for ten clubs in England, two in Scotland, two in Northern Ireland and one in Greece.

He said: "Chris Turner was just bad. He couldn't handle confrontation. Kenny Jackett as well. What I'd like to say about them you couldn't print."

They were not all bad. Some, like McGhee's predecessor at Albion, brought the clinical best out of Knight.

"I couldn't pick out of two," he said. "Steve Coppell and Lou Macari. Steve instilled a confidence in me that was greater than anything you were going to compete against.

"He made you believe the defender you were playing against that day wasn't at your level, even if he was. You would go out there and strut your stuff.

"He didn't do it with everybody, he did it with the players he knew had a bit more in them.

"And Lou Macari, who took me from Chelsea to Huddersfield on loan, just gave me the freedom to play."

Sadly the goalscoring exploits - Knight scored a hat-trick on his Swansea debut and represented England at under-19 and under-20 level - were regularly overshadowed by red cards and fall-outs.

At Rushden and Diamonds, for example, he was sacked for continual breaches of conduct, leading to a long-running dispute over the terms of his contract involving the FA.

At Coleraine, he was transfer-listed and suspended for failing to turn up to training and matches.

For Knight, labelled rather harshly on Wikipedia as a "journeyman player", the ride was crammed with ups and downs but it was never dull.

He said: "It was allright. I enjoyed it. I could have done more. I certainly could have reached higher levels, definitely, 100 per cent.

"But people don't understand, sometimes it's timing as well. If I was playing in this era now I'd have properly played in the Premier League, with more young English players coming through.

"Sometimes it was attitude but that was out of frustration at where I thought I should have been when others were pushing on. It was a mixture of stuff, some things my fault, some things not.

"I have regrets but I had a good time. To get on a football field at a decent level, that's an achievement in itself."

Dropping down the levels, Knight learnt a lot during his time in charge of Barnton in a sedate corner of Cheshire, where the average age of the population is high and crowds rarely rise above the proverbial one man and his dog but also where he was in control of "some decent talent".

He said: "I feel professional clubs should have a look at stuff like that and try to catch the younger ones early and make something of them."

What next for him? A talent scout perhaps? He is not a nine-to-five animal, that's for sure.

"It's all I know really (football)," he said. "I'm not the sort of guy who is going to be sitting in an office. This is all I know and to pass on information from when I played, which was very eventful."

He can say that again. Parting company with Barnton Rovers might be where the road finally ends, it might not. One way or another, it is unlikely to be the last we will hear of Leon Knight.