Brighton’s Solly March lined up against Newcastle yesterday in our 1-0 defeat at the Amex, but the winger has revealed how he could very easily have been lining up in black and white if things had turned out differently.
The former England U-21 international has admitted that he was offered a trial on Tyneside while playing for 7th tier side Lewes back in 2011, however the then 17-year old fell ill and fainted before the game, missing his big chance to impress.
The Seagulls winger had the following to say to Brighton’s official website about his failed move to the North-East:
“There were a few clubs interested and Newcastle came in,”
“They are a big club and I went up there at the age of 17.
“I don’t really know what happened but I just got ill. I was in the car going up there and I passed out in the morning.
“I didn’t sleep well the night before and it just happened. It was bizarre – it only lasted a few seconds.
“I missed the trial and was supposed to go back up there for another one but by that time Brighton came in and it was the right thing to do for me being a local boy.”
Maybe it was fate given Alan Pardew was the manager at the time – hardly a man renowned for developing youngsters over his time at NUFC.
March has no regrets and rightly so given his rise to the top on the south-coast, claiming he made the right decision to join Brighton despite being handed a second trial by Newcastle:
“What’s happened was probably for the best – staying local with Brighton definitely gave me more of a chance of making it.
“It was the right thing do – it’s worked out well so far and hopefully it stays that way.”
The ex-England under-21 international has already bagged a goal and an assist this season and has found his way from the seventh tier of English football to the bright lights of the Premier League with Brighton. You can’t blame him for having no regrets!
