Kidderminster - Home
Season 2 (H) 28/8/00 - 0-2
It was Bank Holiday Monday, BHA were finally allocated a home fixture and some outfit called Kidderminster was coming to a hooligan-free seaside town. We'd never played 'em before in FL week-to-week grind but that's coz they'd been a Conference club until now. Having flirted with possible involvement at that level of football, Brighton had turned it around and this season was one of expectation, with a capital E. Micky Adams said, 'history shows that Conference champions always seem to do very well in their first season in the Football League. I think it all comes down to newly promoted teams having a nucleus of a good side and the confidence from a successful preceding season. The other factors are good organisation and of course good players. No games ever easy in football but bearing this in mind, we will be in for a real test. We have taken steps to ensure that all the players have rested well and recuperated properly.' Read it and weep.
Strangely enough, although there were other periods when matches came thick and fast, an evolving ethos of correct dietary preparation held sway. But sods law tended to operate as soon as mouths were opened to speak, rather than eat. Albion played as if they needed a proper feed and weren't hungry enough in the first instance, or last - see Blackpool history. Albion were done by a side that took two chances and when these arrived, that made a difference to an otherwise inferiority of possession. In four fixtures, Brighton had failed to score three times and that was an obvious flaw in our armoury. Players had plenty of experience, had known various promotions and realised you couldn't win every game but - don't get beat either. Micky Adams said, 'I won't hide away or pretend we were good enough but it's important we all stick together. We haven't lost faith or belief in the players and I am certainly not going to buckle under pressure. At football management level the pressure comes from within. We are all determined to succeed, we've only played four games and nothing has ever been won or lost in August. Let me assure everybody there is no crisis here!'
Cartwright, Watson, Cullip, Crosby, Jones, Freeman (Thomas), Rogers (Melton), Oatway, Brooker (Mayo), Hart, Zamora.
Div 3 (League 2) P 4 . W 1 D 0 L 3 . F 2 A 7 . Pt 3 Po 21

Kidderminster - Away
Season 2 (A) 13/1/01 - 2-0 ~
The full set of return matches for second half of this season had seen a first postponement, away at Rochdale on 30th December. Next, the usual pattern of home fixtures had then been washed away in the mud as BHA entered their centenary year. A new pitch had to be laid to overcome a problem with lack of drainage in the Tongdean Lane bowl. That meant Brighton wouldn't play there from a 1st January defeat in the mire to Southend, until meeting Cardiff on 10th February. In the meantime it was four away matches on the bounce, including a switched LDV round 2 tie at Brentford on 9 Jan - rearranged in west London in lieu of dug-up Withdean. Other away days followed as per FL list, starting at Kidderminster. Brighton fans would still get to wear their new shirts in line with our favourite eleven, who now played in the 2001 version at Hoo Road as Harriers had a red strip. In fact those other forthcoming attractions also provided an opportunity for Albion to take the field in blue & white stripes, with the twin town badges on their chests. This went on into March, when eventually matching home outfits in blue asserted precedence.
Watson found the net at Aggborough Stadium but Ref ruled it out, as they sometimes do and go into jobsworth mode. The west midlands venue accommodated visitors on that College End terrace and 1200 BHA got along in a crowd of 4000. Still, first time for everything and there were worse ex-Conference grounds. After hitting their woodwork, one of the home eleven put the ball into his net for us anyway when er, losing his head in front of goalie. That apart, Brighton largely controlled this game and sealed a useful win with a late penalty. Zamora was 'tackled' in their area with the ball at his trusty left foot. He duly made it 2-0 from the spot. Adams said, 'we did a good job on them and they didn't really cause us any problems. Our keeper never had a shot to save.' The revised central defensive pairing took applause for a job well done. Again Albion bounced back after loss and collected 3 points to keep up a two point per game average.
Kuipers, Watson, Cullip, Crosby, Mayo, Hart (Jones), Rogers, Carpenter, Oatway, Brooker (Freeman), Zamora (Ramsay).
Div 3 (League 2) P 25 . W 16 D 3 L 6 . F 42 A 20 . Pt 51 Po 2