Teddy Maybank went back to Fulham and helped Albion secure their first ever victory at Craven Cottage.

The striker covered every blade of grass according to Evening Argus reporter John Vinicombe as the Seagulls won 1-0 through Paul Clark’s goal to go top of the table.

It was a timely win in the second tier promotion race of 1978-79 which ultimately took them into the top tier for the first time.

But Maybank also had a lasting effect on the Fulham outfit he had left less than two years earlier for a mind-blowing £237,000.

The profit of about £170,000 Fulham showed on the fee they had handed Chelsea for his services enable them to pay off the new riverside stand which Albion fans at the Cottage today will see away to their left.

The Argus:

Maybank told The Argus: “They hadn’t paid for it. It was the Eric Miller Stand and I funded it.

“I go to Fulham quite a bit. I stay in touch with Les Strong, Perry Digweed, Tony Gale, people like that, and they always say it should be called the Teddy Maybank Stand!

“Chelsea was great but Fulham, even though I didn’t play that many games, was when I was young and fit, no injuries. That was when I played my best football.”

Maybank scored on his first return to Fulham when Albion went down 2-1 in 1977-78.

But he was also out there in what turned out to be a more important result in February 1979.

Whether Vinners’ praise of his largely unsung role helped win over fans is open to doubt.

Maybank still recalls how a knee injury prevented him playing his best the club as he tried to strike up a double act with Peter Ward.

He said: “You’ve got Wardy there who was the hero, Ian Mellor had come through and, with the fee they paid, you feel you’ve got to go out and make a statement.

“I scored in my first couple of games and then we were playing against Orient and they had an open goal.

“Dennis Rofe went to whack it in and I put my leg between the ball and his boot.

“He had thighs bigger than both my legs put together. He went through my knee and smashed it to bits.

“The club gave me cortisone injections and said I couldn’t do any more damage.

“I wouldn’t train but I’d play and then have fluid drawn out of the knee.

“I could run in a straight line but, if I put any weight on my left leg, I fell over. There was no pain because of the injections but I’d fall over.

“The crowd didn’t know anything about it.

“If you mention it, the centre-half would just clatter you, in those days especially. So the crowd got on my back.

“I still feel a little bit bitter about it. I had an operation but never really got back to my peak, which is a shame because I was only 22.

“But I still did as well as anyone else. It was just an ongoing battle with the fans.”

Clark’s winner, as sub for injured Peter Sayer, knocked the stuffing out of the hosts.

“Fulham, if I’m not mistaken, look spent,” wrote Vinnners.

He was spot on. Bobby Campbell’s side only won two of their remeianing16 games and ended up in tenth place.

Fulham: Peyton; Evans, Money, Gale, Strong; Marinello, Bullivant, Beck, Margerrison; Guthrie, Kitchen.

Albion: Steele; Cattlin, Rollings, Lawrenson, Williams; Ryan, Horton, Sayer (Clark 15), O’Sullivan; Ward, Maybank.