Wycombe - Home, Withdean Era
Season 11 (H) 18/11/09 FAC R1r - 2-0 ~ Crofts, Bennett
Under Hinshelwood's caretaker leadership, Albion somehow drew at Adams Park to force a replay. But the outrageous score of 4-4 underlined B'ton's season in L1 - we could score goals but also, equally concede 'em and all. Then Tony Bloom appointed Gus Poyet as numero uno at BHA and suddenly all was right with the footy world - knockout or not. It was GP's first home game and although B'fans were supportive, many stayed at home on a windy and moist nite - low gate less than 3400.
Poyet got a great result at So'ton on Saturday previously but changed both forwards here. Inspired and reborn striker Murray was rested. Second string forwards started hoping to notch and catch el gaffero's eye. But it was Crofts who opened the scoring with a stab at the far post (36 min). Albion were in control but couldn't finish it by h-t. FDM didn't appear second period and musta pulled a jaw muscle yawning. Wanderers clung on to hope for an hour as B'ton couldn't find the net from close. Bennett finally sealed it with a neat shot from 30yards (62m). We were into R2, although it wasn't exactly a stroll and GP could see he had plenty to do to crack the Withdean effect. Bet he was glad Falmer was being built before he got old.
Kuipers (Smith), Whing, Elphick, Tunnicliffe, El-Abd, Bennett, Dicker, Crofts, Cox (McLeod), C Davies, Dickinson (Forster).

Season 11 (H) 5/9/09 - 1-0 ~ Forster
Tony Bloom was a rich man. He was also a racehorse owner and majority shareholder in BHA too. Oh, he was Chairman and all when the chairboys came to visit under old BHA hero Peter Taylor. He'd left in '02 when Falmer was just a dream. Now it was a steel structure getting bigger every week. It was also September, still warm and B'fans weren't too worried that we were in the proverbial drop zone. We were used to battling against hold ups. After all Russ Slade had saved us from League2 last term and this was just a short loss of form - wasn't it?
Slade's new squad was surely better on paper than last season's misfits and loan signings but couldn't get a result for free. Somehow RS had to turn this lot into winners and get 'em to play like '01/2 and '03/4 squads. Taylor's bunch came for the draw and the longer it went on, looked like getting it. It wasn't pretty but it wasn't dirty either. Ref upset a few with absurd decisions but what's new. Anyway over the hour, Cox went on and Albion mixed positional play in a sort of 4-2-4. Cox provided a square ball for Forster (75m), who tapped in as B'ton pushed up in numbers. We'd broken WW locked door tactics but got all nervous and edgy in running down the clock. Hart put his late chance wide and somebody wet their pants in the family stand. Albion defended the east goal 2nd 45m and fans were on the track urging our defence to keep it clean in the face of shit hitting us.
Kuipers, Whing (Elphick), Virgo, Tunnicliffe, El-Abd, Bennett, Crofts, Dicker, Davies A (Cox), Forster (Hart), Dickinson.
League1 P 6 . W 1 D 2 L 3 . F 5 A 13 . Pt 5 Po 21

Season 5 (H) 26/12/03 - 4-0 ~ Piercy 2, Carpenter, McPhee
Prior to this Xmas bash, Mark McGhee said, 'we are still well in the shoot-up and I think we are slowly coming to the kind of form where we will win games comfortably. In the last week we've extended McPhee's contract and signed El-Abd and Robinson as pros. These boys along with others already in the team and several coming along behind are the future of the Albion. That so many of them are in contention for the first team squad is testimony to the brilliant job that Martin Hinshelwood, Dean Wilkins and their team are doing for the club.' In truth some fringe players were never going to make it and that included Pethick, Pitcher, Wilkinson, Marney, Lee, Beck and Wilson-Denis. On loan Rehman was about to go back to Fulham shortly too.
Knight was suspended and Flitney was in goal with Keeley as sub. Injured keepers Kuipers and Roberts were on the mend and after neck surgery, Oatway was back at last. It was still hoped Blackwell and Rodger could recover from serious knee injuries before too long. McGhee was putting out nearly his strongest sixteen each week. There was competition for places in all departments, as the likes of Virgo and Harding were pushing for a start. During an inclement spell, the pitch was also doing the biz and looked money well spent after previous mud baths of Xmas & New Year. This game represented the halfway stage of hopefully a promotion season, where Brighton had to do it all again in return fixtures - starting with Swindon.
Tony Adams musta been wondering how to kick-start a managerial careeer and gain some semblance of credibility after this demolition of his charges. They were close contenders for worst outfit seen since 6-0 in August 1999. Their singing fans must have thought they'd seen quite enough of stuffed turkey! Four goals in thirty minutes, evenly either side of beverages, left 'em with distinctly empty plates. They lost two men to red cards and it was all over by an hour and washed up to boot.
Flitney, Watson, Cullip, Butters, Mayo, Hart (Marney), Carpenter (Oatway), Yeates (Rehman), Piercy, McPhee.
Div 2 (League 1) P 23 . W 11 D 5 L 4 . F 36 A 25 . Pt 38 Po 5

Season 3 (H) 5/3/02 - 4-0 ~ Watson, Brooker, Zamora 2
Not many football fans had heard of CABE, which was a government watchdog for schemes looked at from architecture, building and environmental viewpoints. They had got to grips with Arsenal's Ashburton Grove project and picked up on pertinent points for attention and improvement. Planning was thus waved through and you know what happened next. The commission had read and inwardly digested Falmer proposals and did what jobs-worth bodies do, produced a report. Their findings were very positive because for kick-off, there are no flies on Martin Perry and his team of consultants. CABE was impressed by the way our community stadium fitted into surroundings and its potential to be a notable landmark. Oh, they wanted solar panels on the roof and all. Brighton & Hove council were in theory behind the application but it still needed ratification at the all-important forthcoming committee meeting. Then lines would be drawn on a down-land chalk slope and with combatants engaged, the proverbial clock measured time in each half.
Mid-table Wycombe popped in for a Tuesday night kick-about and after turning out in all orange, thought they'd been well and truly tangoed. Zamora got a double, running on to let fly a swivelling left foot and then rounding Wanderers hapless keeper to slot home. Brooker did what we always knew he could and why had it taken so long for his first Withdean goal? Watson did what he knew we would like and is a veritable f-k specialist. Taylor said, 'once we scored the first goal, we settled down and played some really excellent football and scored four top class goals.' Huh, that managing lark is a piece of cake - ain't it?
BHA had once again produced a result after suffering defeat in their last fixture. To cut a long story short, Albion remained unbeaten henceforth. In six losses, we'd scored 2 and conceded 16 but immediately afterwards stopped the rot. Subsequent collective scores were, 16 goals for and 6 against. Those positives had prevented any losing sequences evolving and went a long way to keep the chasing pack forever rolling in our wake.
Kuipers, Watson, Cullip, Morgan, Mayo, Hart , Carpenter (Rogers), Lewis, Brooker, Steele (Pethick), Zamora (Oatway).
Div 2 (League 1) P 37 . W 19 D 12 L 6 . F 52 A 37 . Pt 70 Po 2

Season 3 (H) 30/10/01 LDV2 - 2-1 ~ Pitcher, Melton
Peter Taylor had been our new boss for about a fortnight and obviously wanted to make a full assessment of his div2 squad a-s-a-p. This evening LDV trophy tie thus gave him that opportunity sooner rather than later. Micky Adams extrinsically jumped ship just when Brighton's planning application for a new stadium at Falmer was under consideration at council offices, so what did he know? Adams had done a remarkable job in reversing fortunes at BHA, assembling a team of experienced players who had known other promotions - winners in fact. Perhaps his biggest achievement was to find a kid from lower league fringes who not only could score goals but enough of 'em to surpass those conceded - making us a promotion-chasing outfit in consecutive seasons. Taylor was no mug and his basic philosophy was if things weren't broke then no need to fix. He said, 'I am still learning about the players all the time and because I want to see everybody in a first team shirt, I have rested a few.' Looking at the team-sheet he'd obviously taken a real punt on going into that LDV hat, in a year when for once in our lives we were on bookies short odds list. Only 3200 got along and it was a tad eerie in deserted autumnal south stand blocks.
Ramsay, Virgo, Hammond, Wilkinson and McPhee constituted the bench. Only Virgo made an appearance before, as a sub in round one and McPhee hadn't even got a numbered shirt until tonight. Albion began putting a game plan together as per practice pitch sessions and it was a good deal better than watching reserves on a Wednesday eve at Woodside Road, Worthing. A tad before citrus juice time Pitcher flowed forward and filled the net from Jones top up, as Albion 'seconds' led against eleven men wearing orange. Like Johnson in a LDV tie last term at Withdean, it was a first and last ever BHA goal. Wanderers inexplicably equalised against run of play and at 90 minutes there was a quick restart for extra time. We soon understood why as a sudden death situation kicked off in an instant. Kuipers immediately then made one of those selective 'very best of all time' saves ever seen at Withdean in the whole era. Amazingly Albion rushed up field and Steele slid a thru ball to Melton who let fly. It rippled the old onion bag and it was all over within a mere two minutes of k-o. Spooky or what? But after all it was nearly Halloween and someone had to get a fright on this particular night.
Kuipers, Pethick, Wicks (Virgo), Crosby, Jones, Pitcher, Rogers, Melton, Brooker (McPhee), Lehman, Steele.

Wycombe - Away, Withdean Era
Season 11 (A) 28/12/09 - 5-2 ~ Murray 4, Forster
Those M-ways were slower than walking and when B'fans eventually got there for this in between Xmas - New Year bash, there was snow in Hillbottom Road to boot. Albion were in a fix together with WW, in the bottom four and points were vital to both outfits for suvival. Gus Poyet was now El Gaffero but hadn't done good at all. There could only be one winner and a point-a-game draw wouldn't keep us up in the long run. Loads of B'fans filled the Dreams end and prayed to baby Jesus that gold, Tony's sense and more goals would see us thru these 12days of Xmas. It was bloody cold but hey, end of 2009 coulda been worse.
The first half was nothing to write home about. Wanderers opened the scoring (27min) as BHA were on the back foot. Murray levelled (36m) with an oh kick but we went 2-1 down by h-t. Brezovan dropped a harmless ball from a f-k onto the boots of a happy Wanderer (40m). Seagulls took off from beginning of the second period when Forster smacked in Dicker's centre (49m). Then it all kicked on as Fozzy and Muzza ran riot. Glenn got 3 more (56, 70 & 80m) and they were all pukka goals from a striker on fire. Needless to say he kept the ball. So Brighton fans had something to celebrate on this Bank Holiday apart from sales bargains. There was a long way to go to reach safety but thankfully a short ride back to Sussex, full of cheer and goodwill to tier three.
Brezovan, Hoyte, El-Abd, Elphick, McNulty, Bennett, Dicker, Navarro (Virgo), Cox (Smith), Forster (Hart), Murray.
League1 P 24 . W 6 D 6 L 12 . F 30 A 43 . Pt 24 Po 20

Season 11 (A) 7/11/09 FAC R1 - 4-4 ~ Bennett, Forster, Murray 2
First of all for this first round bananna skin, Hinshelwood was in caretaker charge because Slade, Booker and White were sacked at beginning of this week. Second of all, Tony Bloom was looking for a new manager to take us to Falmer in the Championship. Steve Coppell had ruled himself out but there were plenty of other applicants coz we are a sleeping giant after all is said if not done. The main probs facing an incoming team of gaffers and coaches were mainly in fixing a poor defence and getting results. But was it rocket science or what?
Albion went ahead early when Bennett netted from fast forward play (3 min). Wanderers hit back with a soft pen (18m) as Virgo fouled in the area. They had a man over when Hoyte saw red (33m) and went ahead (38m) to further upset BHA following and encourage a sparse home crowd of around 2700. Forster levelled to 2-2 from the spot when Murray was brought down (45+). In the second period Seagulls flew but got shot down. Murray got a second for visitors to put us ahead (51m), then it was diving on a downward curve. WW scored twice again in ten mins to make it 4-3 (61 & 70m). Davies C replaced Fozzy (73m) coz Dickinson didn't make the 18, due to a late night on the town. Seven mins from ninety, Murray got his pen in lieu after handball (83m). Albion coulda won it but hey, at least we were in r2 draw with home replay advantage - oh no, not old bogey Withdean one dark night! You couldn't make it up.
Smith, Hoyte, Virgo, Elphick, El-Abd, Bennett, Dicker, Crofts, Cox, Forster (Davies), Murray.

Season 5 (A) 7/2/04 - 1-1 ~ Benjamin
A point on the road is always handy but when a team with a dodgy away record goes to the bottom outfit, it's kinda nice to get all three. Six games after hammering 'em at Withdean, Albion went to Wycombe trying to keep a play-off dream alive. Any one of teams from position four through eleven putting a run together, could virtually secure a spot in the knock-out semi-final in May. Unfortunately Brighton in 5th were a tad in-and-out away from home and were about 10 pts adrift of 3rd place at any given time Nationwide.
Wearing their usual all yellow strip, Albion took the game to Wycombe and Benjamin put us ahead 10 minutes before half time. Over 1600 travellers saw we'd won a corner up the other end and a centre duly sailed across. Next thing we'd netted and after celebrations concluded, apparently our on-loan target-man had back-heeled a lead. Just ahead of the break Albion conceded while looking for offside. Roberts didn't show for a second 45 min and sub Stuart Jones kept his end clean and tidy. There were penalty appeals turned down below us but Wanderers went close too on more than one occasion. Tony Adams had latterly sorted out his side, who might have snatched it bar intervening woodwork. Albion shaped like 433 at times but didn't have enough class overall to execute to advantage. Strikers weren't generally busy enough or had that bit extra to shake up a defence that conceded over 50 goals to date.
Brighton fans stayed behind after 5pm to demonstrate in favour of Falmer. The Public Inquiry Inspector had rubbished BHA and applicable B&H Local Plan policy and we were none too pleased. There is a certain irony that we protested there. The Causeway Stadium is actually in an AONB. The vision, ambition and drive of local man Frank Adams finally saw the project built after many years. It was not a huge leap of imagination to detect a parallel with the similar BHA / B&H case in point.
Roberts (Jones), Virgo, Cullip, Butters, Mayo, Hart (Robinson), Oatway, Carpenter, Watson, Knight, Benjamin (McPhee).
Div 2 (League 1) P 29 . W 13 D 7 L 9 . F 41 A 24 . Pt 46 Po 6

Season 3 (A) 25/9/01 - 1-1 ~ Jones
Wycombe's ground is at the bottom of a hill and funnily enough, you have to get there via Hillbottom Road. They've got a load of trees out back, like at Withdean and other bits of greenbelt to make punters think it's really countryside. There is a half decent stand, which gives locals a view of the hill opposite, while travelling hordes congregate behind a goal. In September, Brighton took nearly 1500 on a Tuesday night to Wycombe in a gate of 7000 plus. Both clubs had started the season in good form and were strong on their own turf. Albion had just played their centenary match at Withdean and were in confident frame of mind. Early fixtures came twice a week and this progressive squad had touched table top a couple of times already.
The game provided an end-to-end affair and progressed similar to a cup-tie. Darren Currie was on Wanderers books in those days and obviously an asset, although the haircut needed work. Adams Park witnessed a pukka game of football, while Adams side were beginning to look a quality outfit. The addition of Simon Morgan at the back was proving to be an inspiration. He had dropped down from Fulham and in the autumn of a career that reached 500 appearances, showed old is sometimes gold. Apart from their only loss, Kuipers had kept goals against BHA to only one per fixture bar keeping clean sheets. He would have added another to this spotless record but for Ref failing to spot handball before Wanderers netted. Adams said, 'while I don't want to get into a debate about referees, we felt that we were very harshly treated.' Ref also wound him up to a new high in Wycombe, when judging a penalty appeal as outside the box. Jones smashed in a volley for Seagulls share of points. It was just as well he did, in over 150 appearances Jonah had got merely seven goals. Contrast this to Zamora who had passed 60 apps and chalked up putting the ball in the net 40 times and counting.
Kuipers, Watson, Cullip, Morgan, Mayo, Hart (Brooker), Rogers, Carpenter, Jones, Steele (Pitcher), Zamora.
Div 2 (League 1) P 10 . W 6 D 3 L 1 . F 13 A 6 . Pt 21 Po 2