West Ham - Away, Withdean Era
Season 8 (A) 6/1/07 FA Cup - 0-3
This round 3 tie was played in pouring rain, watched by 32000 with a huge turnout of blue and white up for the cup. West Ham had been in the sporting press a lot previously, due to a 6-0 hammering at Reading a week earlier. Curbishley had recently taken over there and Albion expected some sort of backlash as a result. The FA Cup competition also came as something of a relief from weekly League 1 grind, where B'ton had just lost all four Xmas/New Year matches. Confidence therefore was not exactly brimming as Wilkins' young squad, bolstered by a few old heads took to the park below huge tiered stands full of mainly opposition's faces.
Brighton kept it as tight as possible in the first half, where obviously Hammers took the initiative to pressurise. They probed down the flanks and gained most possession but Albion's central defence was doing the do and hoped to set up counters. Into the second period, Utd upped the tempo from a previous patient approach and made the breakthrough with quality finishing. The game went beyond us with two incisive strikes before the hour mark. A final goal on the stroke of time flattered them. However, they'd not let us play enough and stamped class on the whole event. We'd no real answer to a superior outfit.
Henderson, O'Cearuill, Butters, Lynch, Mayo, Fraser (Hart), El-Abd, Hammond, Frutos (Rents), Revell (Gatting), Robinson.

Season 6 (A) 13/11/04 - 1-0 ~ Butters
BHA applied to West Ham for more tickets and got turned down - capacity is 35k. They initially allocated 2700, which sold out quickly. Plenty of people got upset about the, 'first come - then you get one' policy, especially season ticket holders who essentially put good money into their Sussex club. Those who had also generously given to B'ton's ongoing Alive and Kicking appeal, then standing at something like 230 thousand pounds in total, felt especially aggrieved not to get a chance to visit Upton Park. A promised strict order of priority was to be established thereafter. Even that was to be open-ended and again controversial. An official gate of nearly 30,000 showed someone really had dropped off.
Albion had lost four games from six in a month, the last three being on the spin. Mr McGhee was at loggerheads with er, a slightly more critical and cutting vocal south-centre block, replying to the effect of 'put up and shut up'. Our boss would stand beside the dugout and you could see barbed comments bouncing off. He had a more important job to do, so there. McGhee watched his chosen eleven, including first timer Claridge get a right beating from Hammers, without actually going under. It was all change when WHU made a double sub move on the hour. Ex-back to back hero Zamora came on and B'ton fans cheered the loudest. Butters came up and nodded an unlikely winner 10 mins later. Virgo went down and got sent off 5 mins later. A massed defence held out for 15 mins to final whistle. It was only Palookaville dark blue as per strip, everything else was light, bright and whiter than white.
Kuipers, Reid, Hinshelwood, Cullip, Butters, Nicolas, Oatway, Carpenter, Harding, Claridge (Currie), Virgo
Champ's P 19 . W 6 D 4 L 9 . F 16 A 27 . Pt 22 Po 18

West Ham - Home, Withdean Era
Season 6 (H) 23/4/05 - 2-2 ~ Hammond 2
There was something purely academic called a 2nd Public Inquiry, ongoing into 'proposed' Community Stadium alternative sites. It would all be resolved soon, wouldn't it? How hard could it be to sift the facts and reach a decision? Ah, Liberals, democracy, appeals procedures, blatant delaying, various councils, anti bodies, AONB waiting for a National Park and Brighton/Lewes boundaries. It's merely a year on year wind up.
6800 punters were entertained with a pukka Championship style contest, in a sub-standard setting. Albion fell behind very early to yet another soft goal, conceded to play-off near certainties in a moment of blue & white madness. We somehow got to the break only one-nil down. Immediately after this, Hammond nodded in super-sub Hart's first cross - to restore parity. A minute later B'ton went behind again from a swift counter move down the middle. Time went by and Zamora came on, wearing claret - B'ton fans cheered. Tick-tock awhile and sub Robinson had twenty minutes left to do something special. That huge yellow digital display gradually counted down. There was now only two minutes remaining and still we were desperate for a goal. Carpenter crossed and Hammond arrived for an action replay, to that move 40 min prior. Hammers fans couldn't believe it, B'ton fans could and were thankful for a point to assist a critical cause to evade relegation. What a rollercoaster of a Championship ride this season had become.
Blayney, El-Abd (Hart), Virgo, Butters, Harding, Reid, Oatway (Robinson), Carpenter, Hammond, Knight, McPhee
Champ's P 44 . W 12 D 11 L 21 . F 38 A 64 . Pt 47 Po 22