Garry Nelson enjoyed some of the best days of his multi-faceted working life as a professional footballer at the Goldstone. And endured an acrimonious finale about which he still has a few regrets.

But the striker, turned coach, turned author, turned TV analyst, turned PFA executive, turned marketing specialist, now has another Albion date to look forward to. His debut at the Amex.

Nelson, who plays over-35s football in Essex, has signed up for the Robert Eaton Memorial Fund game against Crystal Palace supporters on May 30.

He will mark the 25th anniversary of his end-of-season move from Albion to Charlton in style. But, despite covering an awful lot of ground since being allowed to leave the Goldstone by Barry Lloyd, he still has vivid memories of his days in blue and white. Good and bad.

Nelson scored 32 goals as Albion won promotion from the third tier in 1987-88 but was out in the cold when they reached the play-off final at Wembley three years later. He admits he would have preferred to have been let go a bit earlier but says he made the best of a tough situation by reviving his career at Charlton.

“You ride the highs and enjoy them and you have to be prepared for the lows and just carry on working hard,” he told The Argus.

The Argus:

Garry Nelson celebrates promotion with Alan Curbishley in 1988

“The promotion winning season stands out as a high and being given a chance at last to play up front. That decision was vindicated and I thoroughly enjoyed that season and that success.

“The downside was the acrimonious way it petered out. Being told in the loos that you are not being involved in the play-off final at Wembley was one of the lowest points of my whole career. But just around the corner was one of the best moves I ever made because I had five fantastic years at Charlton.

“I was old enough to deal with it but there is a lot of regret there. That was a culmination of a long season where, as the PFA delegate, you sometimes put yourself in the firing line.

“Barry brought in a lot of very good players, some of whom did a much better job than I was doing. It was the right decision for the team but, when you are in the middle of it all, sometimes it is difficult to deal with.

“I don’t criticise at all the fact that Barry did it for the right reason and he vindicated that by bringing in Michael Small and Johnny Byrne, who were two fantastic players.

“My only gripe is it could have been easier for me to move on because I had done a job for Brighton and clearly he felt I was surplus to requirements.

“It was the first time I’d had a fall out with a manager and it didn’t sit comfortably with me. But life moves on. I’ve met Barry a few times and we have shaken hands. There is no animosity from my side.

“It was a long, painful season. I knuckled down and worked hard and did what I always did and, as a result, I was able to go on and enjoy anther six years as a professional footballer.

“Eighteen years and more than 750 appearances, says it all really.”

Marketing man – and TV role...

Says it all? Actually, it does not come close. There has been a very varied life since then, thanks partly to some of the foresight he showed during his Albion days.

Nelson passed his 11-plus and had a fine education at Southend High School, the old grammar establishment a few minutes’ walk from what is now the away end at Roots Hall. He stayed on to do his A-levels before joining Southend United out of the Upper Sixth.

He took a business and finance course at Norfolk College in Worthing while he was playing for the Seagulls and later followed with a fast track diploma in marketing.

Nelson held a marketing role in the PFA after a stint as coach at Torquay United. He is now group head of marketing at All Clear Travel, a specialist travel insurance business for people with specific health requirements, and is also involved in their sister company Leisure Link Golf.

But he could have been on our television screens had the business acumen of one of his previous employers been up to scratch.

The Argus:

Nelson scores against Mervyn Day and Leeds 

He was part of what looked like being the ITV Digital revolution back in the early 2000s – and then saw his new career as a summariser come crashing down.

“ITV Digital was a fantastic job,” he said. “But sadly it wasn’t a very good business model. It was disappointing because I did really well.

“Brian Barwick, who was head of ITV sport at the time, said ‘You’ve done fantastically well’. But everyone hated ITV Digital, particularly when they went under and didn’t pay money that was due to the Football League – and which most of the clubs had already spent.”

Couldn’t he have found a TV job elsewhere?

“Life moved in a different direction and I didn’t push it. You have to keep reinventing yourself. I loved the job and it’s a shame it didn’t go on a little bit longer because I could have built more of a reputation.

“There is a conveyor belt of ex-pros. It’s a bit ageist to say it but you don’t see that many people – other than on Sky on a Saturday afternoon – who are older pros. You get younger people coming through.”

The Argus:

Nelson left a steady marketing job at the PFA to go into television.

But he said: “I don’t regret it. At the time I wanted to do it. In the cold light of business day it’s probably not the wisest decision I’ve ever made in my life.

“I was doing well at the PFA but football is in my veins and I was missing the involvement. When it didn’t work out after a year it was time to concentrate on other things.

“I still get a little bit of a fix from playing. I’ve played four times in the Hong Kong Sevens, I’ve played three times for the England Veterans team which goes to a World Cup in Thailand and I’ve enjoyed that.”

Coaching, writing – and writing about coaching!

Two of Nelson’s post-Albion ventures which are better known were his stint coaching at Torquay and his two highly successful books, chronicling life as a player and then off the pitch at Plainmoor.

“I absolutely loved coaching. I really felt as if I was making a positive impact.

“It was very hard work. You weren’t just a coach. You were social worker, van driver, a bit of everything. That is the nature of things at that level.

“But I always try and apply as much energy and enthusiasm as I can to everything I do.

“My wife at the time wasn’t particularly happy. She felt a little bit detached from things because she would see me a lot when we were playing – especially when I was playing for Brighton and we were living in Worthing – and she went from that to seeing nothing of me.

“We were in a very nice village but it was a bit rural and the kids were at school and she was a bit isolated. When the chance to join the PFA came along, she was very encouraging that we try and get that stability and security in our life.

“Fair play, she had been moved from pillar to post during my career. If you had asked me and I’d been totally selfish about it, I’d have probably wanted to carry on coaching.

“But sometimes you have to think about other people as well and it was the right decision to make at the time although I regret the fact I haven’t done a lot more coaching.

“But I do things like ski-ing, which I’ve been keen on since I’ve come out of football. There have been new opportunities.

“I’m more fortunate than a lot of my previous colleagues who have found life after football very difficult. I’ve almost tried to cover too many bases.

“I work in marketing now and trying to keep pace with the changes is very difficult – but it’s interesting and you are learning things all the time.”

The magic is still there....

Nelson will be in good shape when he walks out at the Amex. And he is used to winning.

“I play for a team called Chapel United Boys in Basildon and one of my team mates is another ex-Brighton player, Adrian Owers,” he said.

“I’ve played all over the place – at the back, in a deep-lying role in midfield, full-back. But this season I’ve been playing up front.

“Last year we were in the over-45s but we were unbeaten for two years so we went to over-35s. The line-up has usually got six or seven over-50s in it.

“My stepdaughter still lives in Brighton and I’ve been to the stadium two or three times. But the chance to play on the hallowed turf – the new hallowed turf – is very enticing.”

And that great solo goal at Brentford – was it his best?

It was not captured on TV but fans who were there rave about a goal Nelson scored at Brentford. Ex-goalkeeper John Keeley recently recalled how his old mate from Southend beat player after player before firing into the top corner.

Nelson said: “Without wanting to be pedantic, how do you define your best goal? In terms of the importance of the game, probably not.

“But, in terms of what I did to score the goal, absolutely. It probably would have put a lot of money on my head.

“The fact it was not any video means I can embellish the story as much as I like. There were usually cameras there, even just a do-it-yourself job from the club.

“Very graciously, the local paper at Brentford said it was one of the best goals they had ever seen at Griffin Park.