Coventry - Home, Withdean Era
Season 7 (H) 7/1/06 FA Cup - 0-1
Micky Adams must have fancied his chances of advancing into round 4. He probably thought with our Cup record and form this was as good as meeting a lower league outfit at some dismal ex-Conference venue. He wasn't far wrong. The first half developed into a stalemate, as Sky Blues waited for night to arrive before stealing it under cover of darkness. They had defended well and Albion washed up short of breaking through, like waves on a pebble enbankment. Playing a proven Championship outfit requires a high degree of skill and ability just to compete. Beating such a side is another matter, where maybe luck of an FA Cup variety might sway a knockout result. Albion's luck was out, Adams knew that and had a goal scorer to the good. Mr McGhee was at a loss to fully explain or attempt to change fate. He had a pen but no cheque book, so hoping for a Prem club in the draw as an interim fix didn't actually apply now either. He said, 'I will take responsibility for signing strikers for next to nothing, who perhaps haven't turned out to be 20 goal Champ's strikers'. At least he'd admitted to there being a problem.
Chaigneau, El-Abd (Reid), McShane, Butters, Mayo, Hart (Robinson), Hammond, Carpenter, Frutos, Kazim-Richards (McCammon), Carole.

Season 7 (H) 17/9/05 - 2-2 ~ Knight, Kazim-Richards
At that time of year it's still warm, expectations are high and even Withdean feels a little bit like home. There was a sell out crowd and plans were afoot to increase capacity by opening up the W is for 'Worthing' end. This included new changing rooms, away end and enlarging er, hospitality - once people moved. Mr McGhee was continuing with an 'experimental' 424 formation, where attack was the finest form of defence. It had worked once, then was only good for any number of draws. Nevertheless, better to try now for points, than grasp at straws later in the season.
The first half would have been boring and goal-less but for our on loan, Man U teenage wonder slicing a City cross into his net. In a flurry of scores after the break, Albion levelled off a post, only to go behind again a minute later from a free header. Six minutes later saw super-sub CKR wriggle into the box and tuck an equaliser home on the near post. Either side could still have converted a chance to clinch victory. Mr McGhee, although seemingly adventurous wasn't getting the breaks to out score opponents game after game. A more pragmatic approach was needed, especially when we came up against clubs who had superior striking powers. He thus began to walk a tight rope, possibly to take us yet again to the wire.
Blayney, Hart, McShane, Butters, Reid, Carole (Frutos), Carpenter, Hammond, Jarrett, Knight, Robinson (Kazim-Richards).
Champ's P 9 . W 1 D 5 L 3 . F 10 A 13 . Pt 8 Po 20

Season 6 (H) 14/8/04 - 1-1 ~ Virgo
For one reason or another Brighton's small squad was becoming more flexible. Pre-season injuries to Carpenter, Watson, Rodger, Roberts, McPhee and an unfortunate Oatway, after only twenty-five minutes on day 1, had reduced available numbers. Also, Blackwell had all but retired and Piercy suffered a chronic illness, so Albion were down to less than twenty from which to select sixteen. Hinshelwood by rights considered a defender, temporarily converted to midfield. He said, 'the manager asked me to do a job and it's up to me to go in there and do it to the best of my ability.' Virgo was a regular right-back but McGhee said, 'he's a centre-half. Eventually we're going to have to work with him in that position.' Reid had started the season in midfield but there were moves afoot to play him at full-back in reserves fixtures. Hammond and El-Abd were only on fringes of filling bench seats, having been part of last terms useful seconds side.
Knight was still suspended from div2 infractions, so Robinson got to make his debut. Harding had been called up for Eng U21 but deemed suspended for previously seeing red. Currie showed signs of ability and Jarrett, pace and trickery. However, Albion had a job on and it returned goal-less at a break for well-earned refreshment. McGhee originally pushed the squad during training to attain peak fitness for this demanding standard and wanted to hit the ground running. While taking a breather, Albion ended up chasing the game when Cov'try snatched a lead unexpectedly. More effort went into going forward, although an end product was mostly seen as sweat. B'ton had to regain an initiative p-d-q as time inevitably ran out. There seemed to be a bit too much of the old hoofing it up-field retained in attacking play. Two minutes from final whistle, Virgo somehow slotted a long low free kick to inside a post.
Kuipers, Virgo, Cullip, Butters, Mayo, Currie, Hinshelwood, Nicolas, Jarrett (Jones), Robinson, Molango (Hart).
Champ's P 3 . W 0 D 1 L 2 . F 3 A 6 . Pt 1 Po 24

Season 4 (H) 13/8/02 - 0-0
This was Brighton's first home game in division 1 at our suburban sports complex. Brand new manager Martin Hinshelwood had been appointed in midsummer, after deliberations by Dick Knight and friends had caused something of a vacuum in preparations. The departure of Peter Taylor had not caused huge consternation among doubly promoted Brighton fans, who felt absolutely champion for a two year winning experience at fortress Withdean. Albion had not brought any new faces in, bar only a spare keeper and with no elite experience in the team, were perhaps more than a little naive. On opening day, Brighton won away and Hinshelwood said, 'although there have been calls for me to sign new players, the current crop are ones who won this club promotion, they have earned the right to play in this division and they deserve it.'
With regard to the Falmer situation, Dick Knight said, 'we had a great success in June when the council voted 11 to 1 in favour of our plans for the new stadium. A major hurdle has been safely negotiated but the next one now looms, with the Government decision to call in the scheme for a public inquiry. The frustration is that the process will delay us one more year in getting there. Our vision for Brighton offers a stunning landmark centre of excellence, also a range of seven day working facilities for the community at large.'
Coventry came to town on a beautiful Tuesday evening in front of 6800 excited punters and who needed a roof? Nil-nil was something of a result against such prestigious company who had mega-buck stars on show from years previously in the Premiership. If ever we had been presented with a new fish and ponds scenario... They were reduced to 10 men before halftime for an elbow incident on Pethick - well we needed some advantage to make it a fair fight. It wasn't really a dirty game but five other yellows were flashed as bonus.
Kuipers, Watson, Pethick, Cullip, Mayo, Rogers (Wilkinson), Carpenter, Oatway, Brooker, Hart, Zamora.
Div 1 (Champ's) P 2 . W 1 D 1 L 0 . F 3 A 1 . Pt 4 Po 4

Coventry - Away, Withdean Era
Season 7 (A) 4/2/06 - 0-2
We went to the brand new Ricoh Arena in awe, as it was a million miles away from bleak Withdean. Brighton also got nothing in return for all their huff and puff, while Coventry netted twice courtesy of a Wise old man on the pitch. A couple of defensive lapses at crosses and we'd another loss on the road. It was a familiar story of missed chances and of course mistakes being severely punished. A further season in the Championship looked increasingly unlikely as stats isolated a bottom three from the rest. The law of diminishing returns applied all round - to squad, stadium and set-up. Mr McGhee said, 'we played for periods without an end product. Until we find someone to come in, we work with ones we have'. The true problem was even if Albion could get some money together, who would want to come down to a League 1 sports complex next year?
On a positive note, the Youth team coached by Dean Wilkins reached the QF of their cup competition by defeating Blackburn in round 5 aet. Note that team - Martin, P Hinshelwood, Elphick, Lynch, Cobbs, Jarvis, Fraser, Chamberlain, Fogden, Leach, Gatting. Writing was on the proverbial wall. Wilkins said, 'It's all within their minds. They will have to cope with a bigger stage and perform close to their capabilities'. Six months later most of the team turned pro for Brighton & Hove Albion in League 1. Wilkins also took an elevated position - as first team coach.
Henderson, El-Abd, McShane, Butters, Lynch, Carole, Hammond, Carpenter, Frutos (Kazim-Richards), Hart, Robinson (McPhee).
Champ's P 32 . W 5 D 14 L 13 . F 30 A 49 . Pt 29 Po 22

Season 6 (A) 2/4/05 - 1-2 ~ Virgo
Cardiff, Stoke, Plymouth and now Coventry were all places where Brighton conceded a penalty and what did we do to deserve this latest miscarriage of justice? Brighton fans were used to ups and downs but this reversal in a series of bad luck incidents was making life extra difficult. It was hardly a reflection of balancing out those moments that go for you, or against over a season as per normal. But hey, we had to move on and face reality of a relegation position after six months of campaigning. During August Albion had actually touched bottom of an average looking Championship sized pool. Since then we had floated around in lower reaches, had risen to as high as 15th but mostly stayed half submerged at 20th. Now we had to swim for our lives.
There were two new players on view - keeper Alan Blayney and centre half Joe Dolan. Nearly 2400 visiting Sussex by the sea types got into Highfield Road to join 16000 midlanders. For once we had a side view of the ensuing debacle and could face Micky Adams with a song or two and a cheery wave. An unspectacular but well supported first forty-five minutes proved to be goal-less. Then immediately after re-start Ref spotted a reason to point to a 12 yard freebie but many Brighton fans thought spots were actually before his eyes. Virgo smashed an equaliser around the hour mark. Everyone huffed and puffed and a point appeared likely - er, no. A sky blue took advantage of Albion enjoying a lazy break in springtime sun to stroll through and bounce a winner in off a post. At the end the squad saluted magnificent support and McGhee seemed to be telling them what brilliant fans we were and deserved better.
Blayney, Reid, Dolan, Butters, Harding (Jones), Hart, Oatway, Hammond (Nicolas), Knight, Virgo, McCammon (McPhee)
Champ's P 40 . W 12 D 8 L 20 . F 34 A 57 . Pt 44 Po 20

Season 4 (A) 11/1/03 - 0-0
You get points for putting the ball in that big old onion bag but it must have been put up the wrong way round for nil to register after 90 minutes. God knows Brighton desperately needed goals, to ensure a gap that had opened up to 23rd place again could be closed quickly. In those games after a creditable 3-2 victory at home to Bradford, which marked only a second since opening day at Burnley, there were 3 wins, 6 draws and 4 losses. An average of 1.15 pt/gm would in the course of a full season, produce enough points for survival. However in the 34 games allotted to Steve Coppell this stat was too low, given a starting score of almost zero. Somehow he had to consult the oracle and find a way to reverse low scoring losses and draws into wins. The old year had ended on a positive note but could this possibly be extended on through the new one? Coppell needed an average of above 1.35 pt.gm overall to reach a minimum of 50 points generally required to beat the drop. In effect that now represented a win every other match - a tall order by any-ones standards.
Up at Highfield Road, Albion had a good game but didn't know their onions when it came to bagging one. We hit the bar twice and not just one at the back of away support. Nearly 1600 blue and white devoted watched our scarlet clad heroes play havoc with sky blues in a crowd of 16,000. So we were 10% of the crowd making at least 50% of stadium noise. A win definitely looked on as the home mob lost the plot with their eleven and had a boo or two. The crucial result of 1-0, often for games hanging in balance, didn't actually flip one way or the other. It's a pity we just couldn't nick it this particular time. Steve Coppell said, 'we had an excellent performance against Coventry, although disappointed to come away with only one point. I have maintained in my time here that our level of performance will determine our future.'
Kuipers, Watson, Pethick, Cullip, Mayo, Brooker, Sidwell, Carpenter, Jones, Zamora, Barrett.
Div 1 (Champ's) P 27 . W 4 D 7 L 16 . F 25 A 45 . Pt 19 Po 24