Cambridge - Away
Season 3 (A) 4/12/01 LDV 3 - 1-2 ~ Melton
Peter Taylor said, 'we were disappointed to lose on golden goals. It was pretty much the same side that had played in the previous round against Wycombe. The game gave me the opportunity to look at our squad players in a more competitive situation.' As a result certain actions emerged, supposedly by design as opposed to coincidence. The first eleven had probably surpassed all reasonable expectation, with a recent ten match undefeated run including victory in FA Cup round one. Our seconds side had reached LDV trophy round three, so possibly Taylor thought it appropriate to take another punt and hope to get lucky again. He hadn't tasted defeat yet but didn't later want to burnout players by over competing at this stage in cup competitions. A settled unit took to fields of battle week in, week out and to lose a valuable member to injury in a very soon forgotten knockout would be deemed professionally questionable. A FA Cup third round money-spinner was ok but in LDV was more of a burden on resources. The trouble was Brighton didn't have strength in depth to bridge a gap in quality.
They'd been tarting up the old place at Abbey Stadium and for an intrepid 400 travellers on a Tuesday night, after visiting Bury on Saturday it wasn't exactly end of the world. Brighton even led through Melton, who had got that astonishing golden goal against Wycombe at Withdean. United levelled through Kitson, later to try his luck in higher spheres of influence like Zamora. In sudden death after a statutory hour and a half lifespan, we unfortunately were exterminated and got buried. Taylor then made decisions in aftermath of our third tier demise. Crosby and Wicks never played again, while Rogers' chances for selection greatly diminished when as arranged prior, Junior Lewis arrived later for the run-in. Pitcher and Lehmann also disappeared from the squad. So too did Ramsay but Melton still clung to hope of a reprieve. Virgo began his BHA career ending eventually in glory. Pethick made many more appearances as well as Albion went on a massive drive for promotion and elusive back-to-back divisional titles.
Kuipers, Virgo, Wicks, Crosby, Mayo, Pitcher, Rogers, Pethick, Melton, Steele, Lehmannn (Ramsay).

Season 3 (A) 11/8/01 - 0-0
Opening day for Micky Adams' third summer campaign kicked off this time with Brighton starting in div2. He had been around long enough to know lower leagues and about what was required to progress. A div3 trophy now sat inside the trophy cabinet - two full seasons after he'd arrived late in the day at ground-shared Gillingham. Could he possibly improve the lot of BHA by the time Falmer was at least sanctioned? If not actually in process of being built, proverbially by the duck pond. Dick Knight thought so and had signed him up for three years to try. BHA had limited capacity at Withdean, even with yet more proposed seat increases and hadn't played to a five figure gate when miles away from Tongdean Lane either. There was scope to visit 'big' clubs and the likes of QPR, Reading, Cardiff, Stoke, Huddersfield and Bristol City were on the itinerary this season. On travels right up north, Albion usually took approx 500 supporters and a wet weekday night to outer reaches of div3 had gotten between 200 and 400 faithful through turnstiles. Due to ground rebuilding, Cambridge only allocated 1000 tickets to Brighton but hey, it was a long season and twenty more new venues to come.
Adams had signed Pethick, Morgan, Lehmann and Pitcher to bolster the title winning squad. Kids and budding pros were clearly on fringes but time would tell. Freeman had retired due to injury. From the line-up at Newmarket Road, it appeared 442 was to be employed and give Zamora a break from being tip of an arrowhead formation. United went with a route one approach, which Adams described as 'unusual'. Rogers got sent off before half time, so this necessitated a change of shape to account for two contrasting styles of play. Oatway and Melton came on to stop, or perhaps help soak up aerial bombardment. A new central defensive partnership went from strength to strength. Adams said, 'I don't think we'll encounter too many teams who play that way over the season. We stood up to the test well and still showed enough character and composure to gain our first point. We can all take heart from that.'
Kuipers, Watson, Cullip, Morgan, Jones, Hart (Oatway), Rogers, Carpenter, Brooker (Melton), Lehmann (Steele), Zamora.
Div 2 (League 1) P 1 . W 0 D 1 L 0 . F 0 A 0 . Pt 1 Po 13

Cambridge - Home
Season 3 (H) 19/1/02 - 4-3 ~ Zamora 3, Hart
For a club that had its fair share of ups and downs before and during a relatively short Football League history, United again looked destined for the drop. They floated into Withdean from second bottom berth and took a punt at overturning us. For all but two minutes of ninety they kept bailing out and kept an even keel. By completion of stoppage time United had been sunk but not without trace.
Peter Taylor made a few comments about a multi-score thriller that left a mid-winter crowd suitably happy at a heart-warming victory. He said, 'we had a humdinger against Cambridge with seven goals and extreme entertainment. But for me it came when the final whistle blew because it signalled three very important points for us. There were good and bad things to take on board from the game. I was pleased with the way we kept at the task but the disappointing thing was the way we conceded three goals. Although credit is due to Cambridge because they responded and really got playing.'
The Ref was a certain Mr Prosser and he gave two penalties and sent off a U's bloke to boot. Perhaps he wanted to be centre of all trackside attention under floodlight, reflecting brightly from a lime green surface. Twenty one year old Zamora celebrated his birthday in fine style by notching a triple to add to 15 league goals. He appeared to have it all, two feet and a head for good measure, which thankfully was in correct order for a striker. He also had possession of a yellow Mitre Ultimax football as befits such an occasion. Hart grabbed the opener but every time Albion led, Cambridge levelled things. It was one of those hit and run, end-to-end, kill or be killed, do or die cup-tie affairs that everybody got caught up in through sheer momentum. Taylor looked at the result with a clinical manager's eye. Brighton fans were almost welling up as Prosser characteristically checked his watch at the death.
Royce, Watson, Cullip, Morgan, Mayo (Pethick), Hart, Rogers, Carpenter, Jones (Webb), Brooker (Steele), Zamora.
Div 2 (League 1) P 26 . W 13 D 10 L 3 . F 38 A 25 Pt 49 Po 4