Apologies if this has been mentioned before but having searched I cannot find it mentioned on here
The sad passing of former Albion striker John Shepard has died at the age of 86 after battling a long illness.
John Shepherd was born in Kensington, London, on May 20, 1932.
He died on Monday, June 11, and will always be remembered fondly as one of the most famous Albion players In 1958.
Although he played for the Albion before my time he lived in the area and was always happy to chat football I recall him telling me about his Albion debut against Middlesbrough that game where we lost 9-0, John said he touched the ball more times than any other Brighton player on that day as he had to fetch the ball out of the net 9 times to restart the game
He finished the season as the top scorer with 17 goals in 36 games.
He scored 19 goals in 45 appearances in total for the club before ending his professional playing career at Gillingham.
I am sure others on here knew him better than I did and can provide further antidotes and family details, the only other things I know was he had a son Dominic who was as a prolific scorer in non league football for a good number of teams in Sussex and had a couple of trials one with the Albion and a Daughter Julie who ran with another lady who may have been her sister with the Portslade Hedhoppers for a while in the 1990s
The sad passing of former Albion striker John Shepard has died at the age of 86 after battling a long illness.
John Shepherd was born in Kensington, London, on May 20, 1932.
He died on Monday, June 11, and will always be remembered fondly as one of the most famous Albion players In 1958.
Although he played for the Albion before my time he lived in the area and was always happy to chat football I recall him telling me about his Albion debut against Middlesbrough that game where we lost 9-0, John said he touched the ball more times than any other Brighton player on that day as he had to fetch the ball out of the net 9 times to restart the game
He finished the season as the top scorer with 17 goals in 36 games.
He scored 19 goals in 45 appearances in total for the club before ending his professional playing career at Gillingham.
I am sure others on here knew him better than I did and can provide further antidotes and family details, the only other things I know was he had a son Dominic who was as a prolific scorer in non league football for a good number of teams in Sussex and had a couple of trials one with the Albion and a Daughter Julie who ran with another lady who may have been her sister with the Portslade Hedhoppers for a while in the 1990s