Brentford - Home, Withdean Era
Season 12 (H) 28/9/10 - 1-0 ~ LuaLua
Hey, Albion went into this evening fixture having got to top L1 on Saturday, with a very late winner. Everybody was over the moon and suddenly old Withers didn't seem such a bad place after all. Falmer was well advanced and they'd even got plans for a museum in the 21st century sponsor-free north stand. Those of the Goldstone era musta come over all sentimental - well, we'd all got a hellava lot older and some fans had already gone to that great stadium in the clouds. But another generation was coming to replace the lost one and Falmer could be increased in capacity to 32k by filling corner sections with seats. For whole Sussex families it would be a fantastic life changing experience. All BHA had to do was get promoted to put icing on our 2011 cake. 6700 attended on a cool but dry nite with a watered pitch.
Nicky Forster turned out for Bees and mighta scored with a header. But generally, Albion pushed visitors back and tried to break 'em down. The thing so far this campaign was, W'dean gave us home advantage at long last and so optimism for victory was high. The trouble was it got a bit crowded in centre field and we didn't camp in the final third during first half. Gus sorted it around the hour mark with 3 quick subs and it got better as time went on. Murray became a useful target and an improving Barnes knows his game by now. But it was marauding solo-artist LuaLua who snatched the winner (78min) with a fierce low shot from a devastating run. Yer old sports complex went mental and kids wanted to practice somersaults like their hero. We all went home happy and that hasn't happened regularly in recent years either.
Ankergren, Calderon, Elphick, El-Abd, Painter, Bennett, Sparrow (Dicker), Kishishev (Bridcutt), LuaLua, Barnes, Sandaza (Murray).
League1 P 9 . W 6 D 2 L 1 . F 13 A 6 . Pt 20 Po 1

Season 11 (H) 16/3/10 - 3-0 ~ Murray, Virgo, Forster
In what could only be described as a bloody cold winter, this particular fixture got rescheduled to a chilly Tuesday nite in mid March. Originally it was postponed from that big snowfall of early Jan, when only Leeds and Norwich home matches survived among a whole L1 host of frozen pitches. The white stuff was all over nationwide and 'elf & safety took steps to er, prevent slippage. Martin Perry thus went deep into his paperwork for Falmer, to consider undersoil heating at our 2011 expensive icon on the whitened Sussex Downs. Funny really coz it all started as a big white hole in chalk last autumn and now, was a pukka framework of stands and such things like a modern stadium should be. Meanwhile, Withdean was still Seagulls nest, if forever a tad exposed to elements and always occupied under sufference. Home form had been dire too, although Gus Poyet decided not to radically sort stuff out.
GP fielded his usual 451 with a settled side coz he believed we wuz up to speed really. Murray ended a year-long home goal famine by heading the opener from Bennett's f-k (33min). We needed a second goal but Withdeanites had been here before and knew the score. Holroyd replaced injured LuaLua (20m) and in turn also got crocked, to be subbed by Forster (83m). B'ton plodded on for a one-nil, then in stoppage, v late sub Virgo headed home off bar and keeper. Bees next had a bloke sent off for 2yellows when he handled in their area. Forster smacked in the resulting pen to send 5k odd locals home happy for once. Rocketman let one off too and we hadn't seen such celebrations since er, the old place was a fortress in days of yore. Relegation fears were dampened, although we prayed to God GP didn't assume B'ton were the finished article in this ever up and down season.
Brezovan, Calderon, Elphick, El-Abd, Painter, Bennett, Crofts, Navarro (Virgo), Dicker, LuaLua (Holroyd, Forster) Murray.
League1 P 36 . W 10 D 11 L 15 . F 43 A 52 . Pt 41 Po 15

Season 8 (H) 12/8/06 - 2-2 ~ Hammond, Hart
The middle of August and unusually cool with odd showers at those leafy surroundings at a suburban sports complex. In an area acutely aware of hosepipe bans and sprinkler stoppages, the Withdean pitch looked and played as quite magnificent. That bloke given orders to cut grass to plus or minus a millemetre or two had got a perfect adjustment for length. Our home ground might be a collection of temporary British Open Golf stand seats, in more ways than one but the big white ball game had a much better surface than many equivalent putting greens. Over 6700 occupied a majority of seating prior to opposing captains shaking hands and Ref spinning a coin.
On loan Stokes was clattered in the box and so Hammond converted a spot kick on 10 minutes. Brighton fans had hardly sat back down again before Hart darted in close, to net a Lynch square pass. Then a spectacular free kick by Brentford put them into contention a tad ahead of an appreciated refreshment interlude. Forty five more minutes passed. Some of the August audience began to leave rows of green plastic visible as slowly they shuffled along all-weather track toward Tongdean Lane. They must have wondered how soon we'd be top of League 1, like in good old days of centenary celebrations. Deep into stoppage, when a few fans had already left to pick up public transport, Bees stung us with a sustainable equaliser. Seconds later Ref blew for full time. The post mortem is still ongoing.
Henderson, Reid, El-Abd, Lynch, Mayo, Stokes, Hammond, Carpenter, Robinson (Loft), Revell, Hart (Cox).
League 1 P 3 . W 2 D 1 L 0 . F 4 A 2 . Pt 7 Po 6

Season 5 (H) 2/3/04 - 1-0 ~ Carpenter
In covering a very cold pitch for this evening match, Brighton's 'nature reserve' hollow escaped frost problems. Fans went star spotting in freezing conditions and took in a slip and slide affair to boot. Brentford froze us out in the first half, when B'ton tried to thaw a defensive glacial wall. Things were in knife edge balance until the end, as leading from a Chippy long range hammer had hardly looked enough to nail a line to safety. Even when their goalie got a red card for coldly clattering into Robinson, it appeared Albion were still skating on thin ice. There always seemed a proverbial mountain to climb. Guide and expedition manager McGhee would also remove some layers, in sweating it out on a final quest for the summit.
On the open face of it, Brighton required a final total of 75 points to gain an extra couple of games in that end of season knock out competition. That meant plundering 22 pts from 12 remaining fixtures. An unbeaten run would be nice. The top three clubs were locked in an automatic promotion scrap. Just below them was just as tight for points - 4th had 54, 5th (us) 53, 6th 52, 7th 51, 8th 50, 9th 49 and 10th 48. You couldn't make it up, although by Spring they had certainly warmed up.
Roberts, Virgo, Cullip, Butters, Harding, Hart, Carpenter, Oatway, Jones (Mayo), Benjamin, Knight (Robinson).
Div2 (League 1) P 34 . W 15 D 8 L 11 . F 48 A 36 . Pt 53 Po 5

Season 3 (H) 5/10/01 - 1-2 ~ Steele
Huge volumes of fully documented Falmer planning application had recently been passed to Brighton & Hove City Council. BHA had a way to go of course but playing-wise, things had also pushed ahead, moved on and wound up. Steve Coppell brought his useful Greater London outfit to outskirts of town and ironically, Micky Adams was about to quit. Whilst our departing boss had steered Seagulls to second spot, your future div1 'salvage job' gaffer had busy Bees just a tad behind us in fourth. Adams was a previous manager at Brentford and Bob Booker a veritable legend, which together with Cullip, Watson and Oatway made for a notable link by football association.
In shock, Albion lost again on another rearranged Fri nite to forget. Last time was also when England performed on a Saturday - this next occasion to be against Greece. It's a pity B'ton couldn't bend it like Beckham, to turn around such a similar contest with a very late snatched point. Perhaps positives to take home were - another 'capacity' crowd, Seagulls' super-sub sublimely scored and World Cup fever would help sweat away latest stings from these irritating West end buzz boys. With the first quarter of a campaign in higher company completed, did stats suggest promotion was actually possible again?
Div2 (League 1) P 12 . W 6 D 4 L 2 . F 16 A 10 . Pt 22 Po 2

Brentford - Away, Withdean Era
Season 12 (A) 8/3/11 - 1-0 ~ og
Another evening fixture in far west London and previously, we'd merely collected an odd point and not even scored at Griffin Park, whatever time of day or night. Also, Nicky Forster was now boss there, after falling out with Gus Poyet at Albion when the Uruguayan took over from Russ Slade last season. Brighton went there as league leaders, while Bees were trying to sort things out after a dodgy first half of season under previous hero manager Andy Scott. On the night it was dry but chilly and over 1700 travelling faithful attended in the Wendy House for plenty of chanting after tea.
Well, we got the important win to regain a gap at head of lg1. But three points came via an og and we missed a penaly to boot. Albion dominated in defence and midfield and shoulda gone ahead in the first half but Bees keeper was protecting his net against all attacks. During the second period Murray got floored in the area but Barnes spot kick was saved (53min). Wood later replaced him, continuing the striker role in a loose 442 formation. BHA plugged away and took the lead when a red & white defender sliced a clearing volley into the home goal (74m). Soon afterwards Painter was stretchered off when k-o'd attempting a headed challenge. Taricco then came on and fitted in with no probs. The match got a bit stretched, although on stats alone we'd had more chances to grab another goal than locals. Ankergren did his bit in a lively line-up, where we were busy right across the park trying to play football. Seagulls took the somewhat fortunate win er, on points you might say. It certainly helped with a high flying promotion push.
Ankergren, Calderon, Greer, Elphick, Painter (Taricco), Bennett (Dicker), Bridcutt, Kishishev, Sparrow, Barnes (Wood), Murray.
League1 P 33 . W 20 D 8 L 5 . F 62 A 26 . Pt 68 Po 1

Season 11 (A) 15/8/09 - 0-0
We were back there for a first away game of the season. But this time we were in the Brook Road stand, or Wendy House as locals called it. They'd moved out to a roofed Ealing Road terrace - so those standing are preferred to all-seater in this 'elf&safety age. It was a nice summer's afternoon and both tiers were well filled with shirt-sleeved Albion fans, all happy and laughing with joy at a new era of anticipation. Falmer was being built and Tony Bloom apparently had very deep pockets. Russell Slade assembled a squad still short in numbers but hopefully long on ability. He seemed to like 451 and was trying to find out who 'can do' and would swap things about. RS wanted a strong settled defence for starters and two B'ton boys were in c-d spots from day1.
It was a bit of a pedestrian match with limited excitement or goalmouth incidents. Bees looked pacy and our blokes were rushing around like demented third level fodder. Ref blew up a lot but only made one booking, when taking offence to Murray's tackle toward end of a poor game. New signing Jake Wright pulled a hamstring just after h-t so El-Abd took over. Slade swapped wingers and employed a sort of 4411, with Cox linking m-f and Dickinson up front. There was emphasis on defence, although FDM wasn't terribly troubled during a worry-free 90min. RS thought we shoulda nicked it but as a revised 442 threat we lacked a sting, unlike Bees recent front pairing who done good. BHA hadn't scored in 3 contests now. That was a worry surely for Russ?
Kuipers, Whing, Virgo, Elphick, J Wright (El-Abd), M Wright (Murray), Crofts, Navarro, Cox, McLeod (Thornhill), Dickinson.
League1 P 2 . W 0 D 1 L 1 . F 0 A 1 . Pt 1 Po 17

Season 8 (A) 10/2/07 - 0-1
Two thousand Albion supporters assembled in the away end, hoping to see us pick up points from lowly Brentford. A downturn in form since before Xmas, had coincided with a distinct lack of scoring goals. We had got only one from eight games, in all 2007 competitions - including to date. Revell was injured and Robinson in denial as to record. Cox and Hammond had also dried up, while Gatting struggled to start. Brighton fans wondered where the next net buster would appear from and knew from bitter experience how crucial it was to get on the sheet, plus try to keep it clean. B'ton went with 442 and weren't that bad until reaching the final third.
As ever a slip led to conceding, when Albion lost possession and Bees broke thru to go one-on-one and one up. Mayo got sent off on halftime for two bookables and was a bit of a silly billy at this stage for his age. From then on it was damage limitation and try to counter. In a series of reshaping, we ended up as a 333 unit which was actually the best formation on the day. How B'ton didn't equalise in the dying moments is one of those strange but unfortunately true stories, from the depths of yet another Griffin Park nervous breakdown.
Kuipers, O'Cearuill (Rents), Butters (Gatting), Lynch, Mayo, Ward (Savage), El-Abd, Bertin, Hammond, Cox, Robinson.
League 1 P 31 . W 10 D 6 L 15 . F 34 A 42 . Pt 36 Po 17

Season 5 (A) 21/10/03 - 0-4
With a pub on every corner to warm up throats, it was something of a surprise to see Seagulls big terrace following subdued. On a cold night, there was certainly a chilly feeling of deja vu from a dumbstruck past shock. Whatever the reason, Brighton fans remain gobsmacked by the turn of events. The Referee awarded Brentford three penalties, one of which Kuipers saved. This officials apparent hometown bias became thought provoking in the extreme - enough said.
Leon Knight got no sympathy from the man in black and his reputation for theatricals meant Albion didn't get a fair share of free kicks. B'ton couldn't seem to work their diminutive striker into the box and feed him a telling ball. Conversely Brentford cut through us with pace and in truth, constantly exposed our back line.
Mr Dick Knight must have been tired and worried after all that job application vetting for BHA manager. He probably needed to reappraise the bulk paper sift after this leaderless humiliating defeat. Promotion likely depended on his very own critical, careful final selection.
Kuipers, Hinshelwood, Cullip, Butters, Mayo, Jones (Piercy), Hart, Carpenter, Rehman, McPhee (Beck), Knight.
Div 2 (League 1) P 15 . W 8 D 3 L 4 . F 24 A 15 . Pt 27 Po 2

Season 3 (A) 24/1/02 - 0-4
Brighton suffered from fixture overload, following 5 in 12 days of January since an enforced gap at New Year. The final 3 came in a 5 day period with 2 spent on away trips. Overall routine continued to be disrupted with only 3 Saturday afternoons in a run of 9 into February. In fact it became 9 from 20 until the beginning of April. Hey, we can manufacture stats to mitigate any set of circumstances. Brighton got battered at Brentford and really there was no excuse for loss of face to possible play-off protagonists. Taylor didn't like it, coming last from the initial sequence in Jan above, after first a three - nil thrashing at Wigan. Steve Coppell however was keeping Bees humming, although 'relocation' type noises sounded around Griffin Park. You could write a book on Chairmen who had 'good' ideas for 'modern' clubs, when actually real and estate were truly a contradiction in football fans' terms.
Ingimarsson and Sidwell, two players Coppell would bring to Withdean in 02/3 put a goal apiece past an out of sorts Albion. A big numbers allocation of nearly 2300 at the ramshackle away end were at least pleased it wasn't at Selhurst but there's another past, present and future Palace, Brentford and Brighton story. You can't make them up. Oh, BHA wore blue & white, which sort of made a whitewash worse, away from fortress Withdean.
Royce, Watson, Cullip, Virgo, Mayo, Rogers (Brooker), Carpenter, Oatway (Melton), Jones (Steele), Hart, Zamora.
Div 2 (League 1) P 28 . W 14 D 10 L 4 . F 40 A 30 . Pt 52 Po 3

Season 2 (A) 9/1/01 LDV2 - 2-2 ~ Brooker, Zamora
In nine days from New Year this tie was scheduled as a third home game running at Withdean. The autumn of year 2000 had been a wet one and it didn't take much for a rainy period to soak the pitch like a leaky old sponge. On New Year's Day an important table-topping match versus Southend had only gone ahead after much forking and sweeping of waterlogged surface. Brighton lost in a mud bath that seriously threatened a level playing field for future promotion pushing fixtures. Needless to say, said offending pitch was replaced plus incorporating substantial drainage work, ironically inside six lanes of a 400m all-weather track. That meant postponement of matches there for six weeks. In the event our LDV round two tie was referred to Griffin Park for a night out in southwest London.
Micky Adams had been manager at Brentford in 1997 but his div2 outfit bombed and dropped into the bottom tier. Ron Noades then took over that joint - lock, stock and boot room. In the following season of '98/99 Horton's old time Brighton eleven had done for Brentford at Priestfield on Boxing Day to dent their promotion hopes. Adams of course had moved on to eventually end up at Gillingham in April '99 but as boss of Brighton. He started to rebuild an Albion team fit for Y2k and used several players from Fulham and Brentford, where he knew just what we were getting - to try and raise the BHA profile. By New Year 2001 a rejuvenated set of Seagulls were flying high in second place in div3 and compared to that last parrot sickening decade, were over the moon too. Meanwhile Bees had buzzed back into working a higher tier of honeycombed tables. Adams now fielded a strong side, less ex-Bee Oatway who was suspended. In the first half Brooker and Zamora put Albion two up to stun a 2400 'home' attendance. They further had emotions tested to extremes, when Cullip was sent off and Bees alarmingly levelled by final whistle. The thing about mickey-mouse k-o competitions is you have to quickly find a 'winner' to go into that proverbial hat and leave the other, artificially counted down and out. So it was lucky Brentford who went thru 4-2 on penalties in a home spun lottery.
Kuipers, Watson, Cullip, Crosby, Mayo, Brooker (Virgo), Rogers, Carpenter, Jones (Freeman), Hart, Zamora.