Tottenham - Away
Season 6 (A) 8/1/05 FAC3 - 1-2 ~ Carpenter
It had to happen at least once during the Withdean Era. BHA were elevated a second time to the Championship and that gave us undisputed entry to FA Cup round three with the big boys. In 2002 Albion had drawn Preston at Withdean after getting past Shrewsbury and Rushden in a string of home ties for once. Incidentally in 2001 also we entertained Wimbledon and Southampton at our Sussex south coast sports complex for a couple of League Cup knockouts. A year later we went to Ipswich and by coincidence revisited East Anglia at Norwich in FA Cup r3, back then as a first season div1 side. But this was something different, a chance to see how the other half lived and not hundreds of miles away either. White Hart Lane was a massive venue and an allocation of 5400 tickets was snapped up in undue haste by Brighton fans. Being a classic supply and demand dilemma of BHA proportions inevitably a few missed out and provoked subsequent 'sack the board' reactions. Spurs players were on serious mega bucks but Albion's cheap squad had got to New Year comfortably positioned over the Championship drop zone so confidence was high. A half decent away record had given us a cushion to help punch above weight and we'd had wins at Leicester, Gillingham, Forest and unbelievably West Ham.
It was a day out to remember with plenty of noise generated in the Park Lane end plus an expensive yellow balloon cascade from upper and lower tiers of their south stand. Spurs didn't try to steamroller us and stood off a touch to see what we'd do. Brighton went forward with fans right behind them so to speak. It was a tad cat and mouse but we were doing the chasing. You'd have put money on seeing nil-nil at half time but then bizarrely conceded. A fluke back-header looped over Kuipers and advantage to Tottenham. Soon after the break Carpenter struck a thunderbolt free kick from distance that Robinson saw late as it evaded his wall, then outstretched gloved hand. That shook those Prem giants up and Hotspur had to step up a gear to prevent there being a replay on a proper wet night Withdean style. With time running out fast they produced a bit of International class magic, conjured out of nowhere but lit by intense floodlight and acclaimed by over 30,000 raised voices in excited applause. McGhee didn't field any subs and magnificent as our eleven men fighting display was, there wasn't a lot of choice left with selection. So we realised an academic result was really a by-product of sheer brilliance in being elite, mysterious, generated and functional all at one and the same time.
Kuipers, Reid, Hinshelwood, Butters, Mayo, Hart Carpenter, Oatway, Harding, Virgo, Knight.