Set-piece expert Darren Currie earned Uncle Tony’s approval

THE PINPOINT accuracy of Darren Currie’s passing and shooting was a joy to watch, even though a lack of pace stopped him being as good a player as his famous uncle.

Currie was a decent player in his own right, making nearly 700 appearances for 15 different clubs, but wherever he went he was always known as the nephew of the former Sheffield United, Leeds, QPR and England creative midfielder Tony Currie.

Perhaps with a hint of family bias, Uncle Tony said in an interview for ITV Digital: “Darren is, without doubt, the best crosser of the ball, after Beckham, in the country. He’ll produce nine times out of ten, right foot or left foot.”

The young Currie attributed his crowd-pleasing skills to the start he was given in the game by West Ham. After 10 years stuck in the lower leagues, Currie was given a platform to perform in the Championship by Brighton, and he very nearly made it to the top when transferred for £250,000 to high-flying Ipswich Town.

As if by a cruel twist of fate, Ipswich lost to the Hammers in the 2004-05 Championship play-off semi-finals having just missed out on automatic promotion.

“Playing for West Ham at youth and reserve levels was a terrific way to start a career,” Currie told the Ipswich Star. “They gave me everything but my debut.”

He certainly came close though, featuring alongside recognised first-teamers like Lee Chapman and Frank Lampard in friendlies and testimonials, but he had to move elsewhere to gain competitive first-team action.

Initially he had loan spells with Shrewsbury Town and Leyton Orient, and when the Shrews bid £70,000 for him in 1996, he chose to drop down a couple of divisions to get regular football.

“The difference in money was only about £50. The then West Ham manager Harry Redknapp called me in and said that I was an adult and had to think about continuing to play regular first team football,” Currie explained. “I was given the opportunity to have a new contract at West Ham or moving permanently to Shrewsbury.

“I was a young pro at West Ham and I had been out on loan a couple of times and I got the buzz for playing at three o’clock on a Saturday afternoon. There was no other feeling like it.

“I thought to myself I’ll go to Shrewsbury and I’ll play really well for a year and I’ll get a move back up to the top.

“My naivety kicked in then because it didn’t quite happen. I thought I’d done OK and I was linked with a couple of moves but the route back to the top wasn’t as simple as I thought it would be in my head.”

Indeed, it was a decade in which, after three seasons with the Shrews, he moved on briefly to Plymouth Argyle, then to Barnet (three seasons) and Wycombe Wanderers (three seasons).

Currie said it got to a point where Wycombe couldn’t afford to keep him, and boss Tony Adams made it clear he was free to look elsewhere.

Mark McGhee invited him to Brighton for a trial and was impressed with the way he knuckled down in training to get himself fit following a programme devised by McGhee’s deputy, Bob Booker.

Currie was offered a 12-month contract but it was more about the opportunity to play at a higher level that prompted him to sign.

“It wasn’t a fantastic offer – put it this way, Peterborough offered me three years – but it wasn’t about the money,” Currie told Spencer Vignes in an Albion matchday programme article.

“It was about the football and playing in the Championship. I was determined to do well and to prove myself, which I did. That’s when people began to sit up and take notice.”

Currie’s ability on the ball carved him out to be a crowd-pleaser and the first of two goals for the Albion typically came from a free kick in a 3-2 home defeat to QPR that left Argus reporter Andy Naylor purring over its execution.

“Currie, having shaved a post and hit the bar with two earlier free-kicks, made it third time lucky from 20 yards just before the break. It was a sumptuous effort from the set-piece expert which rendered Rangers’ keeper Chris Day motionless.”

His other goal came in a 1-1 draw at home to Sheffield United, more noted for Albion wearing the limited-edition Palookaville strip to help publicise backer Fatboy Slim’s latest album.

Injury-hit Albion considered it a point gained rather than two dropped and Naylor complimented Leon Knight for “superbly crafting” Currie’s goal by evading his marker and threading a square pass through the legs of Leigh Bromby.

“Currie, with time as well as room, picked his spot to score, which meant even more to him because of the opposition,” wrote Naylor, informing readers that the Yorkshire side had rejected him as a 16-year-old following a fortnight’s trial.

Unfortunately for Currie, he was only on the bench when the Albion travelled to Upton Park on 13 November 2004. After three successive defeats, McGhee confessed he set the side up not to lose rather than go for a win.

Somewhat ironically, the Seagulls blagged a 1-0 win courtesy of a Guy Butters goal, in a real backs-to-the-wall match, with veteran striker Steve Claridge ploughing a lone furrow up front.

It was only in the 90^th minute of the match that McGhee introduced Currie in place of Claridge to play out the final few minutes of the game.

Currie only played 22 games for Brighton over four months but the fee they received for him from Ipswich gave a vital boost to club funds when they were struggling to compete in the division because of the restricted crowd numbers at Withdean. Having signed him on a free transfer, the deal was a no-brainer for the Albion hierarchy, even if it weakened a squad who subsequently only avoided relegation back to the third tier by a single point.

McGhee wasn’t that surprised to see Currie go, telling the Argus: “He was obviously happy here, but I thought he was doing so well that he would keep his options open.

“I cannot see Darren being a regular for Ipswich in the Premiership if they are promoted, but his skills and touch are good enough to justify him making a contribution to a squad in the Premiership.”

It didn’t pan out like that, but Currie was nonetheless grateful to the Albion, and told Vignes: “I am so pleased I had the chance to be a part of it all down there, to see what the support is like and to play with a group of lads who stick together through thick and thin.

“I played at the Goldstone when I was a kid, playing youth team football with West Ham, so I know how important the stadium issue is for everyone. I always will be extremely grateful to the Brighton fans and Mark McGhee because without a doubt without their help this opportunity wouldn’t have come along.”

Currie explained in a matchday programme article how McGhee had helped to develop his game and to add other dimensions which improved him. “I owe a helluva lot to Mark and Bob Booker,” he said.

Currie became an instant hit with the Tractor Boys fans earning the man of the match accolade in two of his first four games.

“I tend to build up a rapport with supporters wherever I go,” he told the Ipswich Star. “I am my own biggest critic and I know when I have done well, and I am very satisfied with my contribution so far.”

After his brief cameo for the Seagulls at West Ham, he got the chance to play against his boyhood club three times that season with Ipswich.

He was in the Town side that lost 2-0 at home to the Hammers on New Year’s Day 2005. Then, in the first leg of the play-off semi-final, Currie and Matt Richards (later a loanee with the Albion) were half-time substitutes who helped Ipswich to recover a deficit to draw 2-2.

Currie started the second leg and had Ipswich’s best opportunities with a shot straight at James Walker, then a long-range drive 10 minutes before the interval which the goalkeeper hopelessly misjudged but fumbled to safety. But they failed to make the final when Bobby Zamora scored two second half goals for West Ham to earn them a 2-0 second leg win. West Ham beat Preston in the play-off final.

Born in Hampstead on 29 November 1974, Currie’s early footballing talent drew interest from Watford and Chelsea, but he decided to join West Ham’s academy.

“The facilities were great, the training for us there as kids was first class and I really enjoyed my time there,” Currie said.

“A lot of the player I became was what I was taught as a kid at West Ham,” he told twtd.co.uk. “It was all about the ball and all about the technical skill and how to manipulate the ball. It was a way I enjoyed playing anyway so it was a really good fit for me.”

After signing professional in 1993, he was a regular in the West Ham reserve side and a trawl through the excellent archive website whu-programmes.co.uk records show he played in a Football Combination game away to Brighton on 1 April 1994, and later the same month was up against Guy Butters in Portsmouth’s reserve side at the Boleyn Ground. Mark Flatts and Paul Dickov were in opposition when the Hammers stiffs entertained their Arsenal counterparts at home on 11 May.

In an Avon Insurance Combination match at the Goldstone Ground on 30 November 1994, Currie scored the only goal of the game from the penalty spot in a West Ham side also featuring Lee Chapman and Frank Lampard.

The following summer, Currie played in four matches when he was part of West Ham’s squad on a centenary tour of Australia.

Shrewsbury boss Fred Davies, a former playing colleague of Redknapp’s at Bournemouth, took Currie on full time after his two loan spells at Gay Meadow.

He moved on to Plymouth Argyle in 1998 but only played five matches in three months, then switched to Barnet where he made 136 appearances, plus seven as a sub, in three years.

Wycombe Wanderers paid £200,000 to sign him in the summer of 2001 and manager Lawrie Sanchez told BBC Three Counties Radio: “He’s obviously a quality player. He gets crosses in and that’s an area where we weren’t very good last year. He’s come to add that to our game and his free kicks will trouble the ‘keeper as well.

“It was quite a lot of money for our club to spend but I’ve got to back my judgement. I’d looked at him for a while and quite liked him. He gives us something we haven’t got, he’s a great technician. He hasn’t got particularly great pace but what he does with the ball is tremendous. We’re hoping he does all the things he was doing at Barnet and a little bit more for us.”

Sanchez added: “A lot of people looked at him for a long time. He’s always been considered one of the best players in the Third Division and hopefully we’ll give him the stage where he can prove he’s one of the best players in the Second Division.”

After Currie’s flirtation with promotion to the Premier League ended in disappointment, Joe Royle left Portman Road and his replacement Jim Magilton axed Currie from the side in the 2006-07 season. He was sent on loan to fellow Championship sides Coventry City and Derby County, for whom he made a play-offs appearance as a substitute, although he wasn’t involved in the final when County beat West Brom 1-0.

That summer, on the expiry of his Ipswich contract, Currie moved on a free transfer to League One Luton Town. He made 38 appearances for the Hatters but when they went into administration, were deducted 10 points and relegated, he was among several players given a free transfer.

Micky Adams, back in the hotseat at the Albion, was hopeful of getting Currie back to Brighton for a second spell, telling BBC Southern Counties Radio on 11 July: “He’s a player I’ve admired for a long, long time. We want him, and he wants to come back. He’d offer competition for places and fantastic delivery from set pieces.”

But at the end of the month the player rejected the terms on offer and took up a three-year contract at Chesterfield instead.

While the first year at Saltergate went OK, in the second season, the manager who signed him, Lee Richardson, had been replaced by John Sheridan, and Currie was out of the picture. He went on loan to fellow League Two side Dagenham & Redbridge and the deal was made permanent in January 2010. Currie played in 16 matches as the Daggers won promotion to League One.

They went straight back down the following season, and Currie departed for Conference South outfit Borehamwood as player assistant manager. He was there less than three months before moving to Isthmian League Hendon for a year as a player.

In October 2012, Currie returned to Dagenham & Redbridge, initially as a development coach and later as assistant manager under John Still.

In June 2018, Currie was appointed assistant manager at National League side Barnet, working under Still. He succeeded Still in December 2018, initially as caretaker, before landing the role permanently in January 2019.

Currie, assisted by former Albion loanee midfielder Junior Lewis, came close to getting Barnet promoted to League Two but, having missed out, and the club struggling financially because of the Covid-related lack of fan revenue, both left the club in August 2020.