IT WAS back on October 20, 1988, that Asa Hartford broke the (then) County transfer record by paying Derby County £33,000 for the services of rookie striker Brett Angell.

Born 20 years earlier in Marlborough, Angell was initially given a chance to forge a professional career at Portsmouth but he failed to land a contract at the end of his traineeship.

Like many players before him - and many more since - he dropped into non-league before kick-starting his flagging career at Cheltenham Town.

The Robins, incredibly, actually discovered Angell playing 6-a-side soccer and, under the guidance of Town boss Don Murphy, he was determined to make the most of his opportunity.

By the February of 1988 he'd scored 24 times from just 37 appearances prompting Derby County boss Arthur Cox to pay £45,000 to take him to the old Baseball Ground.

With chances limited at Derby his stay with the Rams was a short one; eight months later Hartford persuaded him to drive up the A6 to Edgeley Park.

He made his debut in our 1-1 draw at Scarborough and hit his first Hatters goal a week later when Hartlepool were beaten 3-0 at Edgeley Park. Rodger Wylde scored the third County goal that evening and our current physio ended his only season as a Hatters' player as top scorer with 12 goals from 24 starts.

With John Cooke, Tony Caldwell, Bob Colville and the emerging Tony Hancock all finding the net fairly consistently Angell struggled to hold down a regular place.

The jury was still out; five goals from 26 appearances was not the sort of return the Edgeley faithful expected. Significantly, though, six of those games came under new boss Danny Bergara who had replaced Hartford in March 1989.

The little Uruguayan caused something of a stir by allowing fans' favourite Colville, and then Hancock, to leave Edgeley Park.

But Bergara - a quality striker in his own playing days - had spotted Angell's potential and so the transformation began.

Five games into the 1989-90 season Hartlepool were beaten 6-0 at Edgeley Park. Angell's four-goal haul was the first by a County player since Freddie Goodwin's exploits against Orient more than two decades earlier.

His 23 League goals, from 43 starts, helped County to their best season in over 20 years - they missed promotion by a solitary point - but despite receiving the Golden Boot for topping the Fourth Division charts the hitman rocked the club by asking for a transfer.

And to rub salt in the wound he agreed to move to Southend - the club who had so narrowly beaten the Hatters to that final promotion place!

That wasn't the end of the story, though. County wanted £250,000 for the young striker; Southend offered £15,000, a figure Bergara described as 'diabolical'.

A League Tribunal eventually set the fee at £100,000. With County having to pay Derby £19,500 as part of an agreed sell-on it left the Hatters with a paltry £80,500 for, arguably, the most promising striker in the lower divisions. Angell's departure, though, didn't derail Bergara's bandwagon as the Hatters stormed to promotion the following season.

But Angell was flying as well - Southend finished runners-up to Cambridge United to win a place in the (old) Second Division for the first time in their history.

He continued to score at the higher level prompting speculation of a move to the top flight.

And, in January 1994, Everton paid £500,000 to take him to Goodison Park. Unhappy with the tribunal's verdict when he left for Southend, County were now rubbing their hands; the sell-on clause negotiated in 1990 would now earn them a cool £160,000!

Despite scoring just once in 20 appearances for the Toffees, the Merseysiders managed to make a £100,000 profit on the striker when they sold him to Sunderland in March 1995.

His time on Wearside, though, was the low point of his career. By 1996 he was so out of favour that he was training with the youth team.

However, a turning point in his career was just around the corner. County boss Dave Jones saw Angell as the striker to spearhead his side's promotion bid and managed to secure a loan deal. Although he was well short of match fitness - and had no future in the North-East - the Black Cats were demanding £200,000 to make the deal permanent.

Stubborn negotiating eventually reduced the fee to £120,000; the Angell had landed and County were flying.

Chronicling the 1996-97 season is a story in itself. FA Cup Fourth Round; Autoglass Trophy Northern Finalists; Coca Cola Cup Semi Finalists and, of course, the small matter of elevation to English football's second tier for the first time in 60 years.

Who will ever forget the night at Chesterfield when our 1-0 win secured promotion?

And who scored the all-important goal? Once again Angell's goals had shot a team to promotion, an achievement he would repeat at Preston in 2000 and Walsall twelve months later.

Angell ended his second spell at Edgeley Park by increasing his goal tally to 95. Only Jack Connor, Kevin Francis and Alf Lythgoe have scored more.

And in his four full seasons at Edgeley Park he ended top scorer on each occasion. On October 12, 2002, Brett Angell was one of the first 19 players to enter the club's Hall of Fame. There can be no greater tribute.

Brett Angell's full League career:
 

Club	Date Signed	Apps	Goals
Derby County	February 1988	0	0
Stockport County	October 1988	84	33
Southend United	August 1990	136	63
Everton (loan)	September 1993	1	0
Everton (loan)	January 1994	1	0
Everton	January 1994	19	1
Sunderland	March 1995	11	1
Sheffield United (loan)	January 1996	6	2
West Bromwich Albion (loan)	March 1996	3	0
Stockport County (loan)	August 1996	22	9
Stockport County	November 1996	129	52
Notts County (loan)	December 1999	6	5
Preston North End (loan)	February 2000	15	8
Walsall	June 2000	70	17
Rushden & Diamonds	March 2002	7	2
Port Vale	August 2002	17	7
Queens Park Rangers	November 2002	13	0
Total		540	200