Manchester City - Home
Season 10 (H) 24/9/08 LC r2 - 2-2 ~ Murray, Anyinsah
Albion win 5-3 on penalties.
Brighton were struggling for points at home in League1 during early stages of Micky Adams revolution2. In fact we had only gotten two, from two draws and two defeats on our nice and neat pitch next to that nature reserve. Man City had been elsewhere for Euro-league antics during round2 nite proper, so turned up at the athletics track when others were contesting r3. Without going into details, they'd got taken over by multi-billion-buck owners from the middle east. Although Falmer was on the horizon, the gulf between C21 footy status was like comparing their mega-rich sheikh with a credit crunched British banker. But nobody in the Prem said it was fair in football's grassroots pyramid now did they?
It was nil-nil at half time, with opening 45min watched by nearly 8000 excited locals on a half-decent evening. By full time the score was 1-1. City went ahead on 63m with pukka build-up which deflected past Kuipers. With few moments left, Thomson burst into big-boys area and Murray netted close home on 88m. With Withdean buzzing for extras, sub Anyinsah on home debut finished a Cox assist (95m) to snatch the lead. Unfortunately Albion got caught with route one when City levelled in third tier style (108m). So far so good as officially it finished 2-2 aet. Livermore, Elphick, Murray and Virgo made it 4-3 on pens and Kuipers saved City's fourth. Richards dispatched Albion's fifth to trigger a pitch invasion from north, east and south. Collectively 800 in the west end were sick as a proverbial parrot to boot. One club had to go thru and it went with a twist, to 'flip of a coin' at the death. In 120 min City got 22 on-off targets, while Albion recorded just 7. But that stat didn't count in a one-on-one shoot-out series now did it?
Kuipers, Whing (Cook), Elphick, Virgo, Richards, Thomson, El-Abd, Livermore, Fraser (Cox), Murray, Loft (Anyinsah).