Gillingham - Home, Withdean Era
Season 11 (H) 13/10/09 - 2-0 ~ Bennett, Elphick
Brighton were in the bottom four going into this re-arranged evening fixture. Weather had been kind in Sussex but results hadn't and Albion's were abysmal at W'dean. Russ Slade sorted his squad and got Hoyte in on loan from Arsenal. Murray and McNulty started following long injury, while Virgo returned from the naughty step. Thornhill began again and apparently RS was to work out his loans list - both in and out. Just short of 6000 attended on a calm but chilly nite. Old boys Oatway, Cullip and Carpenter came along for old times sake.
Albion opened up like they meant business and some of the footy was half decent. But it was same old in front of goal and we didn't get an early breakthru. Then with Gills pressing, Bennett went solo up field. He got a f-k and flighted it home Becks style (24min) to wake W'dean up. The rest of this fixture was routine lg1, although ex-BHA goalie Royce made some super saves to deny Crofts and Dickinson. Then Elphick got in a header (78m) from Bennett's cross and game over. It was just what the doctor ordered but Gills had their own version of swine flu to give us a headache. Russ was relieved and he loved it when a plan finally came together.
Kuipers, Hoyte, Virgo, Elphick, McNulty, Bennett, Dicker, Crofts, Thornhill, Murray (Hart), Forster (Dickinson)
League 1 P12 . W 3 D 4 L 5 . F 14 A 20 . Pt 13 Po 17

Season 9 (H) 4/3/08 - 4-2 ~ Forster, El-Abd, Elphick, Robinson.
This match was played as 5th of 5 consecutive homes, due to postponement from a pre Xmas Friday nite 'sell-out'. It was still cold on a frosty Tue eve but no cancellation probs to worry about this time. Over 6800 attended following recent sub-5k turnouts. BHA board were making Falmer dreams into plans and had given a slide show at Hove Town Hall a week before. They'd also just announced reduced prices for U21s next season and no rise for adult faithful. On the pitch we had an outside chance of getting to 6th place and competing for play-offs, if winning all games in hand. We'd got rub of the green with a couple of results and were unbeated in 7 at W'dean. Away from Sussex was a much different record over winter. Wilkins had midfield injury problems and brought in Ian Westlake that day from Leeds to top up his unpredictable squad.
Gillingham who were struggling above the drop zone, went ahead on 4 minutes when FDM got beaten from 30 yards. It went over his head and under the bar. On 20 min Ref sent off Gills centre-half for an ott tackle right by dugouts. He also granted Albion a penalty on 23 min, which Forster as captain elected to take and score. By half time Albion were 3-1 up, with set-piece goals from defenders El-Abd and Elphick. Robinson came on as sub and added a second period fourth around 70 min. Gills got one back as B'ton back pedalled at 76 min. Five minutes later a second yellow shirt got an early shower for two bookables. It was not a near perfect performance but a nice way to end three weeks of up and down Tongdean Lane and 11 points accumulated with no defeats (except FA Cup) in 2008.
Kuipers, Whing, Elphick, El-Abd, Richards, Bowditch (Robinson), Fraser, Martot, Westlake (Mayo), Murray, Forster.
League1 P 33 . W 13 D 10 L 10 . F 44 A 36 . Pt 49 Po 10

Season 8 (H) 8/8/06 - 1-0 ~ Robinson
It was the first home game of '06/7 and we met ex-Championship has-beens, former landlords and outer London mid-table mediocrities, beyond the fringe once more. As in the opening match at Rotherham, opposition wasn't too hot on a warm summer evening. The gate was 6600 and not too bad for holiday time in high season. There was a new family stand in operation with a push to get the missing generation back without associated ticket problems.
Home and away dugouts had swapped over but Albion had a certain amount of confusion in finding the net. Both teams were plugging through in lower league fashion, with hoof and long ball. Gradually B'ton settled into a more fluid, on the floor approach. An attacking shape had three to the fore but fairly interchangable and well supported from mid-field. It took over an hour to score but Jake's swivelling volley was well worth sitting around for. We should have got another to make sure but didn't. Gills huffed and puffed and missed their chances. Yes, all right on the night - for Brighton anyhow.
Henderson, Reid, El-Abd, Lynch, Mayo, Stokes, Carpenter, Hammond, Robinson (Loft), Revell (Gatting), Hart (Frutos).
League 1 P 2 . W 2 D 0 L 0 . F 2 A 0 . Pt 6 Po 5

Season 6 (H) 26/12/04 - 2-1 ~ Carpenter, Virgo
A one o'clock kick-off on Boxing Day and on a festive frosty pitch that proved to be icing on the cake. It was a bit like old div3 days at times, though far less enjoyable. We kind of expected more for a second turn around in the Championship, a downside being greater disappointment. This display was far from polished, especially on a cracked and crazed surface. Pressure, persistence and pluck grabbed Albion three points, in coming from behind and particularly peed 'em off! Gills thought the fixture should be called off but snatched a lead and defended resolutely. Brighton fans would rather have points in the bag against lowly opposition than games in hand, although it developed into a close call on both accounts.
Our equaliser was a beauty from Richard Carpenter, who rifled a 25 yard shot on target. Step up Adam Virgo, a makeshift front man capable of nicking crucial, very late goals. He stabbed home a winner two minutes ahead of the requisite ninety and added to his status as a local hero. Brighton had scored a couple on only a third occasion to date and actually those other two had been defeats. We looked forward hopefully to a happy New Year.
Kuipers, Reid, Hinshelwood, Butters, Mayo, Hart, Carpenter, Oatway, Nicolas (Jones), McCammon, Virgo.
Champ's P 25 . W 8 D 4 L 13 . F 19 A 33 . Pt 28 Po 20

Season 4 (H) 14/9/02 - 2-4 ~ Carpenter, Hart
A couple of things had happened in the close season that came to haunt Chairman Dick's nightly dreams. Very late on, he appointed a manager without credentials for our new place in football's second tier, which for a while caused lost sleep. He also heard the Secretary of State had called in the Falmer planning application to a Public Inquiry, which has resulted in continuing nightmare. For such sins, the man is obviously made of hard but true blue Brighton rock.
Martin Hinshelwood expressed disappointment after this shocking home result. First of all, he wanted Albion to stop giving away extremely early, silly school-boyish goals that left a proverbial mountain to climb. Second of all, refereeing... Oi Ref - no! Gillingham turned us over like taking a stick of aforesaid rock, from an infant on the prom. We were given a good licking as er, Brighton went through it, from one end to the other. Gills wrapped it up by half time and left us broken in pieces by hammering a hapless goalie assisted fourth, just before alighting a Kingsferry coach, after a nice 'n easy day out on the south coast. Not really kid's storybook stuff. Was it a wake up call for Mr Knight?
Petterson, Watson, Cullip, Butters, Pethick, Melton, Carpenter, Oatway, Jones (Hammond), Wilkinson (Marney), Kitson.
Div1 (Champs) P 8 . W 1 D 1 L 6 . F 7 A 15 . Pt 4 Po 23

Season 1 (H) 11/8/99 LC 1/1 - 0-2
Just when Brighton fans thought they had seen the last of Gillingham, the second division outfit wanted to come down and actually play us in midweek. It was for a round 1 tie of the League Cup, sponsored at the time by Worthingtons. Withdean had only been open officially for less than a week having hosted our opening-day div3 fixture that weekend, being a first three pointer on true home turf since demise of the Goldstone ground. BHA 'enjoyed' a couple of seasons ground-sharing at Priestfield, until an emotional homecoming with a friendly match against Nottingham Forest in July. In these last days of an old century, LC ties were over two legs and the second was literally back to Gillingham in a fortnight. This was Brighton's first floodlit game and fortunately on an evening when sitting outside wasn't such a bad idea after all. Micky Adams said, 'it will be a real test for us but hopefully after Saturday's encouraging start we will display the same passion and resolve against a team from a higher division. We want to show it heralded the start of a new look Brighton & Hove Albion.' Withdean had a capacity of 6000, in line with FL regulations and over 5600 got along to witness this event. The place was still a bit of a novelty and Sussex people had been starved of watching live league football in their immediate locality for quite long enough.
Darren Carr had transferred to Brighton from Gillingham pre-season but didn't play due to injury. One who did was Guy Butters, as part of a pretty solid Gills defence that were put under pressure by Seagulls fresh from a filed day feeding frenzy. Perhaps if Albion had scored first they might have been able to go into that second leg at least on level terms. A defensive error if not to say cock-up allowed our former landlords an undeserved lead. In a repeat performance after an Adams pep talk plus drinks, Brighton piled forward in search of an equaliser. Gills played in all yellow and many still retain an image in their heads of a quick as a flash counter attack, pouncing on a mistake for visitors winner. Hart was having a great game and got chopped when foraging on edge of the area. Gills lost a man but were too savvy to chuck away a comfortable cushion to lower league fare.
Ormerod, Wilder, Hobson, Crosby, McPherson (Cameron), Campbell, Freeman, Rogers, Oatway (Johnson), Thomas (Armstrong), Hart.

Gillingham - Away, Withdean Era
Season 11 (A) 13/4/10 - 1-1 ~ El-Abd
You wouldn't believe how many managers we'd had in the Withdean era since meeting Gills in Aug '99, over two legs in the League Cup - see below. Yeah, Micky Adams twice, Peter Taylor, Martin Hinshelwood, Steve Coppell, Mark McGhee, Dean Wilkins, Russell Slade and currently Gus Poyet. And guess what? We were still stuck deep in lower leagues and struggling to be even a mid table outfit. But hey, Tony Bloom was paying huge sums for Falmer and Buckingham Group was building it big, so it didn't matter a farthing about funding funny money, post credit-crunch recession. We'd got another season to endure at W'dean before living the dream and hey-ho, life is a proverbial beach in Sussex after all. Mind you, not all of our current squad was gonna be on books next term and we'd had more blokes in b&w stripes than Dick Knight had canapes in hospitality suites that last decade. But would Gus get it together and find our dream team from those still left in summer? How much time do you have to wonder? Anyway back to now and it was a dry, chilly Tuesday nite up the Medway and over 1200 B'fans turned up.
After five minutes El-Abd headed in from a corner to put Albion in a strong position for enough points to ensure safety again in L1. By half time it was only a question of how many we might get on turn around. But Gills equalised quickly (49m) and we were back to square one. Gus got to the last thirty mins then swapped his midfield about at ten min intervals. Gills made it more a physical challenge and hey, this was third tier after all. Murray couldn't score for toffee and stepped up to take a very late penalty (86m) - only to have it saved. The home unit were reduced to ten but held out as Albion fucked around trying to be better than relegation threatened hosts. Gus wasn't too pleased with our outfit and put out an emergency call for scouts to got get a 30 goal a season striker for next term.
Brezovan, Calderon, Virgo, El-Abd, Hoyte, Bennett, Arismendi (Navarro), Crofts, Hendrie (Dicker), LuaLua (Barnes), Murray.
League1 P 42 . W 12 D 13 L 17 . F 52 A 59 . Pt 49 Po 15

Season 9 (A) 15/9/07 - 0-1
A funny sort of season so far with 3 straight home wins and 3 consecutive away losses beforehand, if including an unlucky late LC defeat at Cardiff aet. Falmer had been a veritable wish granted to BHA and all they had to do was deliver on and off the pitch! There was three years diaried to make it happen, transform set-aside into a green-field venue and basic League 1 squads into Championship material. DC & MP were arranging some special funding and had appointed Ken Brown to run the regular club admin. Wilkins had now been manager for a first year and what was taking him so long? Brown said, 'this is a great club and I firmly believe that the new stadium will unlock all that huge potential.'
It was a nice afternoon in Medway country, although the score could have been better for exciting visiting numbers. Brighton started as if they were going to take a managerless Gillingham apart but flattered to deceive. We huffed and puffed, went up and down and across but maybe not all out. Gills woke up and stopped flooding midfield to stretch us a bit second half. It just had to be yet another late goal to sink a battling defensive display - we'd also lost those three others on the road in similar circumstances. Albion could kick themselves for being done on a break again and this always seemed to be our achilles heel. Hard to believe B'ton were in the top ten on that showing and what did it say about League 1 generally?
Kuipers, Whing, Elphick, Butters (Hinshelwood), El-Abd, Martot (Robinson), O'Callaghan, Hammond, Cox, Savage (Revell), Forster
League 1 P 6 . W 3 D 0 L 3 . F 9 A 8 . pt 9 Po 6

Season 8 (A) 20/2/07 - 1-0 ~ Savage
It was a steal in every sense. Savage was the bloke who signed for Brighton and didn't for Gillingham after his contract finished there. He got roundly booed by local mobs and then punted home a daisy cutter from distance, off a post inside 20 mins. For the other 89 min plus stoppage, Gills worked us over systematically. They failed to score so we left with three points - not daylight robbery as it was an evening match but bloody close in circumstances of a typical mid-table battle. They deluged us with a succession of crosses in both halves and correspondingly at each end. Lynch had to come off injured but replacement O'Cearuill did ok and our defence generally was sound. A young stand-in keeper from Palace got off his sick bed to deputise for Kuipers, who lay on a treatment table with a groin strain.
We did not look much of a threat going forward and pretty footy had been abandoned from a 4132 shape, with a return to 442 and route one. Revell came back from injury and two 'foreign' guys from across channel and oceans had also made a positive contribution. Albion had now won three on the spin and that was a first for a long haul and all.
Flinders, El-Abd, Butters, Lynch (O'Cearuill), Rents, Cox, Bertin, Ward (Fraser), Hammond, Gatting, Savage (Revell).
League 1 P 34 . W 13 D 6 L 15 . F 41 A 44 . Pt 45 Po 11

Season 6 (A) 25/9/04 - 1-0 ~ Knight
Promoted Brighton fans returned to Priestfield Stadium after eighteen months and there was a kind of deja vu feeling prevailing. Pre-season, John Prescott had decided a second Public Inquiry was deemed necessary into Falmer, which could almost be an action replay on previous events in what was now called the Championship. A video loop was set to run and run but somehow although pathetic politics remained much the same, football didn't and had moved on.
Our Millennium Stadium winning team of that magnificent day in May had evolved. There were new players onboard, kids had come through and old stagers were back fighting fit. BHA intended to stay in the 2nd tier of league footy, push restrictive boundaries out further, defy all odds and take it to the limit. Albion poached a win with a late penalty, after having to reshape following injury to El-Abd. Play anywhere Virgo moved to central defence and it's business as usual. Build up flowed down the flanks and across the middle in fine style. Proper football held centre stage, it was just like watching...
Kuipers, El-Abd (McPhee), Cullip, Hinshelwood, Harding, Hammond, Carpenter, Nicolas (Oatway), Currie, Virgo, Knight.
Champ's P 10 . W 3 D 2 L 5 . F 9 A 14 . Pt 11 Po 19

Season 4 (A) 1/3/03 - 0-3
That open terrace, split between home and away throngs behind the Priestfield Rd end goal, is a seated area these days. For the record, BHA borrowed the ground to play home games there, once upon a bad time - enough said. Even so, 1300 Albion supporters made it back one early March afternoon, on the banks of the muddy Medway and immediately got a sinking feeling. A Public Inquiry, held at Hove Town Hall was ongoing into Falmer and how we needed such a dream to become our eventual reality. As plans, schemes, details and paraphernalia were unveiled, it became apparent Brighton and Hove Albion could, nay should be a big club again. How long would it take?
Gillingham did for us in a kind of (what we now call) League 2 equivalent way. Tier two football was as far away as a B&H City icon at the foot of a Downs chalk slope, while bump, hump and lump ensued. It was flashback to days when our landlords effectively received their dosh, while Albion took regular fortnightly beatings up there. Oh my God. Other results transpired to leave four clubs at the bottom of div1, scrapping in a relegation dogfight, from which one only would survive. Reality bites.
Beasant, Watson, Ingimarsson, Cullip, Blackwell, Mayo (Jones), Rodger, Carpenter, Brooker (Wilkinson), Rougier, Barrett (Piercy).
Div 1 (Champ's) P 34 . W 7 D 8 L 19 . F 34 A 54 . Pt 29 Po 21

Season 1 (A) 24/8/99 LC 1/2 - 0-2
A few weeks after playing a last div3 fixture at Priestfield, Brighton went back to their temporary home of two years to find some changes. There was a new Rainham end with seats and that old grandstand had also been flattened Goldstone style. To add insult to injury, fans who had parted with hard-earned to help Gills coffers overflow, were stuck up on an uncovered terrace at the town end. Also BHA played in new away strip of red and black stripes as per FL home & away regs but wore white shorts and red socks. This unfamiliar combination was to deliberately contrast Gills genuine home colours of blue and black. Micky Adams had started his playing career there and their manager now was Peter Taylor, who later followed an M20/25/23 journey to Brighton after Adams took the high road to Leicester. Taylor emulated Tony Pulis in attempting to get Gillingham promoted to div1 and a taste of the big time. Somehow this west Kent outfit had blown a two-goal lead in play-offs at Wembley during May '99, to have to do it all again under new management. Nearly 800 travelled to the Medway, which was quite ok in the circumstances of a LC round 1 second leg where Albion were two down to start with. Perhaps it was a visit made mainly for old time sake.
In '98 at Priestfield, on the usual August evening into an opening month of the season, BHA had entertained div2 Northampton in the Worthington Cup second leg. Town arrived with a 2-1 lead from Sixfields but Horton's new era Albion eleven took them into extra time before conceding a third on aggregate. There were only three subs pre '99 and only one used on the night. Bizarrely a spare keeper was included for a match that could conceivably end with penalties. A substantially altered Brighton team, where Hobson, Hart, Thomas, Ormerod, Arnott and Mayo figured in a revamped overall squad, couldn't hold a stronger div2 club at present. Northampton were now in div3, where as Gillingham seriously intended going the opposite way. Brighton too had another boss who was building a side to re-launch aspirations of third tier football at least. However team spirit is one thing but we didn't have enough collective experience as a unit to make a necessary jump in class. Not until a fully bonded and settled side had emerged could Brighton compete with quality opposition on equal terms, whether it was a one-off cup tie or long chase for a play-off place ourselves.
Ormerod, Watson, Hobson (Johnson), Crosby, Campbell, Wilder, Rogers (Freeman), Oatway, Arnott, Thomas, Newhouse (Hart).