Sheffield Wednesday - Away, Withdean Era
Season 12 (A) 21/8/10 - 0-1
There were 18k odd at that old steel place and a few hundred B'ton fans made the trip to see Gus Poyet's new era squad. He was attempting to make Tony Bloom's master plan work by the time Falmer stad was ready for start of next season. All he had to do was get a bunch of old and young, English and foreign, experienced and otherwise players moulded into a winning team. As that talking meerkat says, 'seemples'. We had been in L1 long enough and likes of Forest, Leeds and Norwich had got back to the Championship. But we only thought we were a big club. Oh well, live the dream or what?
The game was something of a disappointment for B'fans, although in fairness Albion were at least attempting to play football this term. Brighton gave as good as they got but fell behind to a useful move from Owls, following a handy deflection (37min). Albion huffed and puffed but couldn't convert their chances in either half. It was a shame coz using a flexible 451 shape, several of this eleven might have grabbed one, based on chances. Ref spoiled the second period with constant whistle and was a bit of a homey to boot. He showed yellow cards to home foulers but wasn't further gonna upset local Yorkshiremen in the stroppy crowd. He kinda missed the point but there again, so did we. It was all end to end, kick and rush and one incident would settle it. That's the way the mop flops up north.
Ankergren, Calderon, Elphick, El-Abd, Painter, Bennett, Barnes, Dicker, Kishishev (Battipiedi), Smith (Baz), Murray.
League1 P 3 . W 1 D 1 L 1 . F 4 A 4 . Pt 4 Po 11

Season 7 (A) 24/10/05 - 1-1 ~ Kazim-Richards
Hillsborough is a bloody big stadium, so less than 500 Brighton fans in the upper tier of the Leppings Lane end weren't gonna turn the place into a cauldron of noise. 21000 northerners descended there on a Monday night but were also pretty quiet generally. Wednesday and Albion were two of any number of clubs trying to stay above those three bottom berths, so much to play for. This was McGhee's 100th match in charge and without being cruel his loss figure was 40% and counting. B'ton not only had to stay unbeaten but if possible, win it.
The first half was goal-less, soul-less and a little bit hopeless. Owls went one up after the break for supper and battered us, in not exactly full view of floodlight. Albion kept giving the ball away and then an about turn to clear lines again. Hendo had a good one and gave a misfiring front line chances to only convert one for a point. A topless female ran onto the pitch but not from the B'ton end - we are far too respectful of bare flesh above the waist, as per FA instructions. Seagulls were getting desperate to feed from a dearth of chances and even Butters had a dig from range. Then just before final whistle, CKR swivelled his outstretched neck and gulped down a er, titbit from Carole. It beat their keeper all ends up and we'd pinched a point from right off Wednesday's nearly clean plate.
Henderson, Hart, McShane, Butters, Reid, Carole, Oatway, Hammond, Frutos (Jarrett), Knight, Robinson (Kazim-Richards).
Champ's P 15 . W 2 D 8 L 5 . F 15 A 20 . Pt 14 Po 20

Season 5 (A) 27/3/04 - 1-2 ~ Carpenter
A gate of nearly twenty thousand, which was to be the seasons biggest, hung in balance until stoppage time. This reversal halted a promising unbeaten run but most top sides failed to win on the day so no real harm done. Wednesday went ahead on 8 minutes with a quality free kick to the top corner. Carpenter had a long range dig 6 minutes later that also flew into the net in fine style. For some inexplicable reason Albion couldn't ever seem to get a result in Owlerton and so it proved yet again at the death. Cullip had retired hurt at halftime to be replaced by El-Abd for a second game running. Thus a fairly inexperienced backline were up against it during the second period. But justice wasn't done, for a second year in succession at Hillsborough too. There was speculation that ex-Chelsea supremo Ken Bates would take over the Yorkshire club. He thought Knight should have stayed at Sheffield and become a hero like now at Brighton. Knight didn't have a particularly good game but equally managed to get his forthright point across via similar media hype.
Mark McGhee said, 'although the match was our first defeat in eight, it was still very hard to bear. I didn't feel that we deserved any more than one point but didn't deserve to lose. I didn't publicly voice my dissatisfaction in certain aspects but did address those concerns privately. Wednesday were allowed too long a period of pressure. We will deal in training and in future expect to deal with it better. I believe Iwelumo is the perfect partner for Leon. We should see him scoring even more goals than he already gets. The squad as exists are the players who we now rely upon to achieve our ambitions. Our record away from home has not been brilliant but at no time have we been playing as well as we are now.'
Roberts, Virgo, Cullip (El-Abd), Butters, Harding, Lee, Carpenter, Oatway, Jones, Knight, Iwelumo
Div 2 (League 1) P 39 . W 18 D 9 L 12 . F 57 A 40 . Pt 63 Po 5

Season 4 (A) 7/12/02 - 1-1 ~ Hart
Hillsborough is a mighty big stadium and you can see why ex-Chelsea Chairman Ken Bates was at one time interested in plundering its potential. He eventually move in on Leeds to try and make a capital gain but... Perhaps this phrase is also pertinent for a particular Albion fixture, where once again we put a home side under pressure. Sixteen thousand and five hundred local Owls, bolstered by nearly fifteen hundred Seagulls, watched in the gloom. A slightly one sided spectacle saw two bottom clubs get acres of room in which to out-shine the others flight for survival. Brighton were one up on 20 mins when Hart headed in a low centre from Sidwell. We should have then imposed and notched another goal to make it very hard work for a weak Wednesday resuming after the interval.
Leon Knight was in blue and white stripes but as Albion played in that all scarlet sexed up strip, we assume he played for the misfiring northern outfit. He got subbed but Coppell had seen enough to make a mental note for a future team sheet down south. The game appeared to be heading for one of those typical many one-nil affairs but fate interrupted as per '02/3 style. In the event Wednesday produced a classic very late counter to equalise. Brighton's attacking was ok but we couldn't finish and by way of consequence them either. If Albion were getting to grips with problems on the pitch, Sheff Wed definitely had big ones of their own. It was a virtual six pointer, even at that stage of the season and a result that would niggle long into lighter Saturday evenings of a frantic following spring. Coppell said, 'I challenged the defence to try and eliminate the stupid mistakes in order to improve our goals against percentage. We were most unfortunate to concede a goal in the last minute to lose the three points that our overall play deserved.'
Kuipers, Watson, Pethick, Cullip, Mayo, Sidwell, Carpenter, Rodger (Barrett), Jones, Hart, Zamora.
Div 1 (Champ's) P 21 . W 3 D 4 L 14 . F 21 A 40 . Pt 13 Po 24

Sheff Weds - Home, Withdean Era
Season 12 (H) 9/4/11 - 2-0 ~ Wood, Bennett
Funny how we always seemed to meet Wednesday in either promotion or relegation scenarios. Mark McGhee and Steve Coppell were part of Withdean era history and never the twain shall meet - see below. Current Albion boss Gus Poyet wasn't remotely old school but a first full-season talent, inspirational motivator, astute man-manager and miracle worker to boot. He had guided BHA to top league1 for over six months and now title aspirations were on Brighton fans lips. On the day over 8000 attended coz ten percent wuz Wednesday fans at the Worthing end. It was sunny and warm and we were all glad to be at Withdean for one of our last fixtures there.
You coulda put money on nil-nil by half time but you woulda lost. Owls were a hoot early barn doors but Albion woke up to threats and started to impose home advantage. Just prior to tea and sympathy, Murray got brought down in the area and Ref gave us a pen. BHA's record from spot kicks wasn't too hot this year, although we'd been given enough free shots at goal. Anyway Wood scored and yeah, cheers, laughs and clapping followed by coffee (44min). In the second period Albion looked very pretty on the park but couldn't snatch another score from numerous on/off targets. Barnes also got a go for half an hour. Then Bennett unleashed a piledriver for the top corner after good work from Painter (74m). Sparrow immediately replaced an impressive Noone with the job done. At the death Elphick got on coz Greer was sent off for violent conduct in a goalmouth melee. He would miss four matches and during this period Brighton were expected to achieve promotion and get the league1 title to boot. Footy is full of surprises, shocks and tales of the unexpected ain't it.
Ankergren, Calderon, Greer, El-Abd, Painter, Bennett (Elphick), Bridcutt, Dicker, Noone (Sparrow), Wood (Barnes), Murray.
League1 P 40 . W 26 D 9 L 5 . F 73 A 29 . Pt 87 Po 1

Season 7 (H) 17/4/06 - 0-2
Easter Monday dawned in north Brighton suburbs and a resurrection was much hoped for. McGhee said before kick-off, 'I saw the job as a five year project. We bring in players when possible for different jobs. Others did not live up to expectations and moved on. That's the football business. Anyone who expected us to be doing better than we are is kidding them-selves. I need your support, patience and understanding because there is no quick fix.'
After eight minutes on a nice afternoon, Albion suffered death by self-inflicted defeat. A Wednesday counterattack resulted in Hendo and Harty in a heap and the ball in our net. So the supposed fairy story ending became a bit of a grim tale. We were beaten fair and square and made to look typical relegation fodder. McGhee shrugged and always reckoned we might at best be a yoyo club. Also the Withdean effect had affected Brighton so much more this season, where Falmer issues remained unresolved and as frustrating as the football.
On seventy minutes, northern Championship survivors scored again to rub salt into open wounds following crucifixion. Albion's back line was static and an opponent broke through to go one on one with our goalie. Henderson was hardly having luck of the Irish since signing and seemed vulnerable at significant moments. Brighton fans were thinking about missing all those big stadiums on the long road north from next August. Little did they realise one nearer to home was becoming more of an annual myth than prolonging a Championship existence. We were down in more ways than one.
Henderson, Hart, McShane, Butters (Hinshelwood), Lynch, Reid (Carole), Hammond, Carpenter, Mayo (Frutos), Kazim-Richards, Noel-Williams.
Champ's P 44 . W 7 D 17 L 20 . F 38 A 64 . Pt 38 Po 24

Season 5 (H) 20/9/03 - 2-0 ~ Knight, McPhee
That long hot summer of 2003, with temperatures in mid to high seventies continuously, was of an Indian type for this late September encounter of ex-div1 (Championship) sides. A trackside tree canopy provided shade in lieu of a roof and with County Cricket Champions taking a bow, the football season almost felt misplaced. Shirt-sleeved fans rose to the occasion however and had cause for celebration in both sports. 'Good old Sussex by the sea' resounded around the athletics stadium, to loud applause at pertinent points on a hot afternoon from 6000 odd parched thoughts.
Leon Knight had a history with Wednesday and this surfaced before build-up in media reports. During the game Knight intended to show his skills and let football do the talking. After only 8 minutes he went through Owls blinking defence and crashed home the opening goal. If you ever want to put one over a previous boss, motivation is the best driving force. Knight had added to his stock more than just arithmetically and was fast becoming an idol, especially with younger fans. Hart hit the bar and sent a screamer inches wide but Albion couldn't kill off labouring opponents. Carpenter replaced injured Oatway after an hour and also McPhee for Knight with 15 minutes to go. Inside the last 10 minutes Butters had a dig that seemed to be touched onto the bar. Sheff W made a goal-line clearance but McPhee got a toe on it to somehow rack up 2-0. Both on and off the field there was much to work up a sweat about, for a good game producing the right result.
Wednesday was still thought of as a big scalp to take and perhaps it was better to play top teams before autumn rains eventually arrived. The Owlerton outfit were below par on the day and for a big club were at least expected to make play-offs. We would see.
Kuipers, Hinshelwood, Cullip, Butters, Mayo, Hart, Oatway (Carpenter), Rodger, Jones, Knight (McPhee), Henderson
Div 2 (League 1) P 9 . W 5 D 2 L 2 . F 15 A 9 . Pt 17 Po 2

Season 4 (H) 21/4/03 - 1-1 ~ Zamora
Steve Coppell was more or less fielding the same side for each match during the run-in. Of the old div3/2 elevens, Watson , Mayo, Cullip, Brooker, Carpenter and Zamora racked up near enough consecutive appearances in division 1. Hart, Jones and Oatway usually made it onto the pitch via a seat from the bench. Of a crop of promising youngsters like Wilkinson, Marney, McPhee, Virgo, Hinshelwood, Hammond and Piercy, little was seen or heard. They had been dispatched to play in Combination reserves, following some early harrowing experiences before Coppell came and got to grips with the squad. Rogers and Butters became old lags of the seconds and were actively helping in future development of these young pro's. Their league consisted of twenty six southern clubs, which gave them twenty five fixtures from August through April. This mainly very young eleven did well in reaching a standard well above usual Wednesday run-outs for sick, lame or lazy.
Nearly 7000 people packed Withdean for an Easter Monday day of reckoning. At least the sun was out with all to play for, as Brighton desperately needed more than a ray of hope. We were chasing Stoke for 21st place and so were Sheffield Wednesday. Something had to give and at this very late stage in proceedings Stoke pulled clear. A bigger shock for Albion happened on 16 minutes, when Wednesday scored. In fairness they were the better team of an opening 45 min. Zamora converted a penalty on 56 min, so Brighton were expected to get a second goal before too long. Owls defended for a point and there was no way through a barn door. Stoke won away, we drew and Sheff Wed went down as a result. Coppell said, 'it was a game of two halves, with first a tepid performance. The second half display showed what this season means to everybody on the pitch.'
Beasant, Watson (Barrett), Ingimarsson, Cullip, Blackwell, Mayo, Brooker (Hart), Carpenter, Rodger, Zamora, Kitson.
Div 1 (Champ's) P 44 . W 10 D 11 L 23 . F 43 A 65 . Pt 41 Po 22