The Football Blog

Put your sunglasses on, it's getting Bright...

His middle name is Abraham, he once played for Leek Town, and he was the first person to be voted off the award-winning celebrity show Cirque de Celebrite. It's none other than former Palace, Wednesday and Charlton striker MARK BRIGHT...

What do you make of this season?
This is the best Premier League race I'd say since it began. There's enough teams involved at both ends of the table, Manchester United have obviously pulled away now, but at the bottom of the league, any one of around nine teams can go down, so it's interesting.

With the likes of veterans like Giggs, Windass and Scholes still playing, do you wish you were still putting the boots on?
No. The reason I don't is that I gave everything to football when I was playing. So I don't have any regrets. It's not like I wish I'd trained harder or anything, I had some great memories and I've been quite lucky. At Palace we got promotion, I played in the FA Cup Final, at Sheffield Wednesday I played in the FA Cup final and the League Cup Final, at Charlton we got promotion via the play-offs again, against Sunderland. So I'm lucky enough that I had quite a lot of highs in my career, so I enjoyed going and being around the big games. Obviously the money element is a lot greater now than when we played and you know how much easier that'll make your life after football, and I'd be a liar to say I wouldn't miss that but in times of playing you realise you have your time, you have your moment.

What was your favourite game as a player?
The first big game I played was the play-off semi final against Swindon, it was home and away. We lost 1-0, then won 2-1, then the final, which was home and away in those days, was against Blackburn. And we lost up there 3-1, and came down here and won something like 3-0. That was a great day. But the stand out game for me was the FA Cup semi-final game against Liverpool for Palace. Purely because we'd been beaten 9-0 the same season, in September, and it was the first time they'd ever televised live games for the semi-final, there was Manchester United v Oldham, and we were the early kick off at midday. And everyone thought we were going to get a tonking on live TV, and we ended up turning it around 4-3, with Alan Pardew scoring the winner. That was my first really big game. I scored and we won and it was a great feeling. The Cup Final was great, but we didn't win it, and the Cup Final with Sheffield Wednesday was great but we didn't win it, same with the league Cup Final.

You bagged a couple in your time, so what was your favourite goal?
Scoring the winner against Sheffield United, for Sheffield Wednesday, was such a big game for the city and it went to extra time and I scored the winner. Though it was more relief than enjoyment, because we had, from the goalkeeper to the forwards we had a team of international players, I think I was virtually the only one who hadn't played internationally. So we were expected to win, and win comfortably, they were Harry Bassett's ragtag team pulled together from lower divisions, and it was built up for us to fail. So that wasn't an enjoyable game, until the end.

Who was the best player you played with?
Chris Waddle. I had a great relationship with Wrighty at Palace, and I'm sure Wrighty will go on to say that someone like Dennis Bergkamp, Patrick Vieira or Tony Adams for him, and I would never deny that he and I worked well together and were great but in terms of playing with genius, it was Chris Waddle. I think in 1993 he was voted player of the year by the sports writers, he'd just come back from Marseille, he was awesome. Passing, skill, creating and scoring goals, great guy off the pitch, no edge or arrogance to him, team player, loved the banter, I think he would say that for everything he achieved at Marseille, Newcastle and Spurs, I would be sure that he would say the '93 season at Wednesday was amongst his favourite moments in football because he just had a great season. I'd seen Chris Waddle play loads of times for England, Newcastle and Spurs, but then when I played with him, I just said to him "Jesus, you're better than I thought you were!" Our coach at the club said "he will get you two chances per half Brighty." It might be a half chance, but you know he'll create, and those two seasons when I played with Waddle was my most productive in terms of scoring.

With a surname like Bright, you're probably best qualified to tell us who was the cleverest teammate you ever had?
Alan Smith at Leicester, he was at University. I'm sure he got a degree, Smudger. He writes now as well. I did a year night school doing Spanish when I was 24. I just thought if the chance ever came to go abroad, and you can speak the language, obviously the better it is. Eric Young was studying to be an accountant while he was at Palace, he was doing night school and stuff. And he is an accountant now apparently. John Humphries used to do the Telegraph crossword all the time, and everyone used to go "oh look at you sitting there with your Telegraph!" He used to just smile smugly and say "don't put The Sun on my table Brighty!"

Who is your player of the season?
I think they're trying to champion Ryan Giggs, but I'm not so sure about that. He's won it before and there was no question he deserved it. But I don't think you can argue with Nicolas Anelka's contribution to Chelsea this season, while the model of consistency for me has been Frank Lampard, three seasons running and sixty odd goals. I know Chelsea have had an indifferent season but I still think he's played quite well. Torres? No. Keane? Van Der Sar? That was a fair old record. They have to vote soon, I think it comes up in April, I used to vote for the people who had played well against us. Last year it was quite clear, you had to say Ronaldo. This year he's been a bit indifferent, Rooney hasn't been outstanding. But everyone's done a job. It's difficult, but I wouldn't say to go for Ryan Giggs just because.

Which young players should we be keeping an eye on?
Collison looks good, for West Ham. I saw Pato for AC Milan in the derby, I was really impressed with him. His movement was excellent, his touch, his ability to run with the ball. And his positional sense was good, even for a young player. The two at Everton look good, Gosling and Rodwell. I think Jay Simpson too. It's nice to see those players coming through and getting a chance.

Can you see anything other than a Man Utd league title this season?
With the points gap and only a few games to go, I don't think Manchester United are going to drop that many points. It's a shame really but Rafa's rant put paid to the challenge by the looks of it. Do you know what, it was untimely. I wished he hadn't have said it, I wish he'd just left it, and with a few games to go, say something then. I'm sure all the Liverpool fans do as well. But that haven't been consistent enough, with the injuries to Gerrard and Torres, the Keane thing, the situation with the contract.

Mark Bright is promoting the Prostate Cancer Charity's Real Man Cup 2009, raising awareness of prostate cancer throughout March.