Norwich - Home, Withdean Era
Season 11 (H) 13/2/10 - 1-2 ~ Bennett
Yeah, five years since last meeting chirpy ex-Champ's Canaries and who knew? Winter came down from the north-east with arrival of top-side City and at least they brought enough fans to bolster W'deans gate to 7500. A few days earlier for yer last local L1 match in mid-week, there was only 4700 attending but it was bloody cold to boot. Also lowly Brighton had not won at home under Gus Poyet, bar a couple of FAC ties. Our piss-poor form at good old Withers meant BHA were in constant danger of becoming a bottom four resident for rest of '9/10. But at least Falmer took shape during this period and thank God, following years of waiting, while likes of Carrow Road capacity received an update. Look we know how to suffer for our sport and regularly pay penance. Gods of football can be so cruel in any division you mention.
Kaz LuaLua was brought in on loan from Newcastle and made an immediate impact. He was on left flank but swapped with Bennett at times and drifted inside from deep too. His impact helped to give Albion a toehold in this defining fixture. B'ton got forward and won a f-k on 21 min. Bennett drove the ball low from o/s the area and it went under bodies like a knife thru butter. By h-t Albion still led but Canaries hadn't got off their perch yet. It was different in the second period and seemed they'd equalise soon. GP made his two subs on the hour but got 'em wrong. BHA were not as fluid and those wasted chances of first 45m were much regretted. City upped it and class told with 10 mins to go. They were more assertive and put one away in the six yard box (80m). Within five mins NCFC won it from a header close home to a long f-k (84m). Albion's defence had cracked twice but backpeddled every time opponents attacked. Some players appeared to hide as we kinda accepted defeat on running out of steam. OGH went on at the death but it was a futile gesture by our S American boss. Gus was mad and in his defence, had a right to be so - getting done very late was hard to take.
Kuipers, Calderon, Virgo, Elphick, Bannister, Bennett, Navarro (Hart), Crofts, LuaLua (Dicker), Holroyd (Carole), Murray.
League1 P 30 . W 7 D 9 L 14 . F 35 A 49 . Pt 30 Po 21

Season 7 (H) 1/10/05 - 1-3 ~ Frutos
First signs of autumn began to show on a cool, showery afternoon. A rainbow appeared at one stage over yellow and green clad Norwich supporters and suggested where a pot of gold was going to end. Brighton in regular Argentina blue and white stripes, looked nice but were second hand in this colourful contest. McGhee pushed on with a 4-2-4 line-up, where attack was his modus operandi to apparently secure some desperately needed points.
Canaries scored first to accept a giveaway goal and alarmingly Albion went two down just before half time. The best we could hope for was to rescue a point, although Withdean's atmosphere remained typically funereal. McGhee bollocked his team, drank pints of whisky and sent 'em out to sort it. Frutos drove home a volley with 25 min left and game on. Norwich however knew too much and netted a late killer strike. McGhee had gone 4-4-2 to finish but we'd been done before then, so any formation was purely academic. On the face of it, we couldn't compete in open games where our quality was inferior to opposition in front of goal. A lesson we had to learn quickly.
Henderson, Reid, McShane, Butters, Mayo (Hart), Oatway (Robinson), Hammond, Carole, Jarrett (Frutos), Kazim-Richards, Knight.
Champ's P 12 . W 1 D 7 L 4 . F 12 A 17 . Pt 10 Po 21

Season 4 (H) 17/8/02 - 0-2
Falmer was on the horizon and Brighton had kicked off this season full of expectation. Dick Knight said, 'we at BHA have a lot to be proud of. We have a great squad, which has achieved a feat only six sides have done - two championships in successive seasons. One of the things we've tried to do is ensure that the club is a positive force in the community. Brighton & Hove and Sussex in general are nice places to live but the Albion can be the catalyst to make them even better. Division one football was a distant dream just a couple of years ago but here we are taking on some of those clubs many thought we'd never meet again.'
Brighton had an unbeaten home record going back to October '01 in the div2 promotion push. This was quickly brushed aside as fans began to understand true levels of competition we'd now met in a higher division. Norwich arrived on the south coast or at least a suburb there of, looking like a pukka div1 outfit. They played what we later knew as Championship standard football - and some. Canaries were a good solid, tried and tested, settled side that had too much know-how for our new-in-school boys. Their fans were noisy too, not so easy in an airy northeast corner of off track Withdean. Brighton played their usual passing game or tried to but lost Zamora early in the contest to a knee injury. That would prove to be a big blow to goal scoring in coming weeks. We got to the break as even steven, although really it was a struggle to make the grade. Around the hour mark Kuipers made a partial save and Norwich went one up from the loose ball. Not long after they'd turned the screw when we failed to equalise and effectively sealed our fate. B'ton fans had anticipated some beatings so it was taken as no disgrace to fall to a top side. In a sense this was our super league with bigger and better elevens putting us through a protracted initiation.
Kuipers, Watson, Pethick, Cullip, Mayo, Hart, Carpenter, Oatway, Brooker, Zamora (Marney), Wilkinson (Harding).
Div 1 (Champ's) P 3 . W 1 D 1 L 1 . F 3 A 3 . Pt 4 Po 12

Norwich - Away, Withdean Era
Season 11 (A) 24/11/09 - 1-4 ~ Tunnicliffe
Gus Poyet was now manager and facing the same old probs as Hinshelwood, Coppell, McGhee, Wilkins, Adams and Uncle Tom cobblers and all. Whatever squad we had, being paid decent money by rich Tony Bloom and all, B'ton couldn't field a winning team. We always seemed to be struggling at the foot of some poxy table of pretty average outfits, bar likes of Leeds and Norwich. It got to be disappointing, then a touch depressing as the decade drew to a close. Anyway Falmer was rising like a sky scraper, which at least gave us hope for a better future. On a dry, cool and breezy night, B'fans went back to East Anglia hoping for a change of luck. We wore red & black stripes this term - a good omen in back-back years at beginning of the noughties.
On 2min Norwich went ahead, chipping Smith with ease. On 22m they went two up with a strike close in after we lost the ball in our box. Poyet put McLeod on for second half, following a punch-up on halfhour mark involving Cox. Just over the hour (61m) Tunnicliffe stabbed in from an Albion corner. But in truth we never looked like levelling and fell apart for the final thirty min. City grabbed a cushion from an og following a f-k (69m). Then they ran riot and notched a tad easily (82m) as B'ton lost the plot. It coulda been 5 or 6 and several BHA positions appeared vunerable as the transfer window swung closed before January.
Smith, Whing (Hoyte), Elphick, Tunnicliffe, El-Abd, Bennett, Crofts, Dicker, Cox (McLeod), Dickinson, Murray (C Davies).
League1, P 18 . W 4 D 5 L 9 . F 22 A 35 . Pt 17 Po 20

Season 7 (A) 14/2/06 - 0-3
For some reason, away displays were on a different level to regular Withdean fare. Brighton had also been beat enough times on those very long roads but fans never thought we'd be on yet another hiding to nothing beforehand. Somehow the football was often better, as Albion rose to the occasion and performed well, pressure seemingly off when only lowly visitors. Brighton ended up at Norwich on Valentine's nite for a less than a loving relationship with an underachieving home outfit. McGhee said, 'we played with skill and cohesion, showed self-belief and confidence.' Albion lost three - nil but he reckoned we had largely dominated and to an extent that was true. We also had an equal chance of getting back from a goal down until Hinshelwood was sent-off, just under an hour in. A fairly even steven first half went to caged Canaries as they broke out and let fly. Second period, in his first game back from months out, Hinsh collected a second yellow card and a relaxing solo in the jacuzzi. Ref generally made a meal of penalising defenders challenges, when all and sundry were getting away with professional fouls of a subtler kind. A ten man unit battled all the more and went close but to no avail. Two very late strikes sealed our fate and flattered hosts for a home time luv-in. Brighton in pushing up had been hit on the counter twice and Hendo was playing rush goalie anyway. McGhee said, 'one of the things I have had to become during our time in the Championship is a master of managing disappointment.'
Henderson, El-Abd, McShane, Butters, Lynch (Reid), Hinshelwood, Carpenter, Mayo, Frutos, Gatting (Robinson), Hart (Kazim-Richards).
Champ's P 34 . W 5 D 14 L 15 . F 31 A 54 . Pt 29 Po 22

Season 4 (A) 26/12/02 - 1-0 ~ Sidwell
There are odd away games where the ball breaks once upon a time for underdogs and being skint Brits, don't we just love a fairy story. Those Brighton devotees who got to Carrow Road on Boxing Day enjoyed such a fantastic chapter, from what otherwise had been a sad Grimms tale of a season. You had to be there. Everything but Delia's kitchen sink was thrown at us. Brighton were ducking and diving, trying to keep it clean and defy almost impossible stats at the same time. We were odds on to crash to another defeat, having not beaten those play-off contenders there in the last fifty years. Brighton fans were all hee, hee, hee when Norwich couldn't score because ha, ha, ha our goal led a charmed life. Ho, ho, ho Santa got stuck up their chimney and couldn't drop a couple of presents in our net. It was our single best one ever, given a Scrooge style existence. East Anglian hordes were muttering bah, humbug in a canary chilled atmosphere.
Sidwell crashed in the winner after a slick corner routine to return a ball from the far post. A few more than 1200 Albion supporters at least felt happy, knowing we had won the first 40 minutes and went to their mince pie break full of smiles. The gate was 20,000 and most thought there was still plenty of time to show why Norwich were in 4th place and us at the bottom. Michel Kuipers was doing his bit and some but unfortunately sustained a leg injury. Seagulls' defence stood firm, while Canaries attack fell short. It was a backs to the wall second period performance worthy of festive celebration when the final whistle shrilled. Brighton fans were ecstatic. The problem to follow and eventually bring us down to earth, was a bid for Sidwell that Albion tried to match but were obviously second best in the great scheme of things.
Kuipers, Watson, Pethick, Cullip, Mayo, Sidwell, Rodger (Oatway), Carpenter, Jones, Barrett (Hart), Zamora.
Div 1 (Champ's) P 25 . W 4 D 5 L 16 . F 23 A 43 . Pt 17 Po 24

Season 4 (A) 14/1/03 FAC3 - 1-3 ~ Pethick
Talk about coincidences, last year the original date at round three was rescheduled for completion after another ten days and it happened again twelve months later. Previously it was due to postponement, this time abandonment caused by lack of generated artificial light. Also when Brighton had previously progressed to get into the proverbial hat against half decent sides in cup competitions, we did ok but would go out anyway - as at Ipswich in September. Southampton and Preston had similarly then beaten us in last terms ongoing knockouts on Withdean turf. Unfortunately achieving div1 status now precluded being classed as potential giant-killers but although shocking our hosts on Boxing Day, generally Albion was struggling for good form. That had been our first league win since a run of seven fixtures gained us only three single points. Tremendous numbers of travelling Brighton fans had actually gone five months since opening day before watching that second victory on the road. As on our other trip into East Anglia at a rival Suffolk venue, a much less than average 500 now took seats in a corner to watch some floodlit cup-tie action but really some sort of divisional distraction.
Norwich hammered us as before but actually scored this time around. Brighton took their 'usual' lead but just into the second half on this occasion. Mostly it was helped by a keeper’s error but Pethick still had to 'miss'. City levelled quickly and it was lots of canary yellow flying past sorry Seagulls on a night without much song. Kuipers season was finished after 30 minutes when he pulled up lame - again. All but a year to the day of Packham's first and only appearance, he returned in goal as official FAC r3 stopper. Three random types of chance went into our net but the kid did his very best. Emergency on-loan custodian Ben Roberts was in between posts, for both senses, four days later back at Brighton against table toppers Portsmouth. Steve Coppell realised our Xmas fixture was a nice surprise present and likely we wouldn't be going there to trouble 'em next year either one way or another.
Kuipers (Packham), Watson (Piercy), Pethick, Cullip, Mayo, Brooker, Carpenter, Oatway, Jones (Blackwell), Barrett, Zamora.