York - Away
Season 2 (A) 23/9/00 - 1-0 ~ Jones
Brighton & Hove City Council were now a unitary authority and had drafted a Local Plan for future developments and in some cases re-development within its borders. During late September this was duly launched for public consultation into the great wide world. Among others reading Policy SR25 for allocating land at Village Way to purposes of building a new community stadium, were Falmer Parish Council and Lewes District Council. They began to discuss concerted opposition, involving legal representation and an open ended timescale to match planning progress, government intervention and courtroom proceedings. The bright new dawn of a twenty-first century was fully up and running but the anti's bodies also had modern rights. They would stop at nothing to quash a perceived virus infecting their closeted nineteenth century lives.
Brighton & Hove Albion were now a club going places and employed a manager who had a cunning plan, as well as a winning mentality. Micky Adams was getting results for everyone to see and putting Brighton on the map again. Other outfits were out to stop us and try to keep the divisional status quo. Dick Knight had nearly succeeded in his first mission to steer the club into a 100th year, although he had only been a supporter for over 50 of them! He also wasn't stopping progress for a group of, 'here today gone tomorrow' politicians and intended to be a driving force for as long as it takes. He was a veritable legend already.
York were beaten because they couldn't score and Brighton could - once. Jones hit the net at the second attempt, as the ball came back from York's goalie's parry. At least he'd used both feet, to send over 1000 standing on that Grosvenor open terrace into rapture, seeing it all happen in blue & white. During a first half period of dominance, Albion should have increased their lead but found aforesaid keeper in good form, apart from the odd slip. City tried to make a game of it but failed to match Brighton's score in the second period and also numbers left on the pitch - as they were reduced from 11 to 10. So they got er, nowt.
Cartwright, Watson, Cullip, Wicks, Mayo, Rogers, Carpenter, Oatway, Jones (Brooker), Hart (Steele), Zamora (Crosby).
Div 3 (League 2) P 9 . W 5 D 1 L 3 . F 15 A 10 . Pt 16 Po 4

Season 1 22/4/00 - 0-0
Life in division 2 during those nasty nineties wasn't a total barrel of laughs for York or Brighton, although both could see a funny side on occasion. To some extent York had been on the up, while for Brighton it was down and down. City made a play-off semi-final in trying to reach what much later became the Championship. Albion had previously fallen from such dizzy heights and were having financial difficulties with taxmen, plus other massive debts. In 1995 news broke concerning sale of the Goldstone to developers and the club imploded. There was no purpose-built, brand spanking new stadium on the horizon and our club was on verges of leaving town for a very undetermined future. In that last home game of '95/96 against York, there was a pitch protest as Brighton fans sought to nationally highlight vast differences between passions for money and football. This game clinically abandoned, was further to be replayed on a Thursday morning in early May 1996. A lease back deal was done to prolong Goldstone agony for another term and Brighton were unceremoniously relegated. Three years later York joined us in division 3 after struggling with 20th, 16th and finally 21st place finishes in div2. They too sold an asset, their million pound striker. Believe it or not City only got the chop when a relegation rival scored seven minutes from time, to send then down instead. That's more than just eleventh hour bad luck.
Plenty of blue and white got to stand on that open Grovesnor Road terrace, over 900 anyway and watched BHA play in home strip. The game went ahead after two pitch inspections but they worry a lot up there about floods. There was certainly no excess of goals on a wet wicket of a former county cricket ground. This nil-nil draw made it eleven unbeaten since end of February, with a dramatic reversal of Y2k fortunes at Chester, another historical footy place with a river running through it. There was once again talk of play-offs but a string of draws had slowed progress and we were 9 points off 7th spot with a game in hand.
Walton, Watson, Cullip, Crosby, Mayo, Freeman, Ling (Thomas), Rogers, Oatway, Brooker, Hart.
Div 3 (League 2) P 43 . W 15 D 15 L 13 . F 61 A 45 . Pt 60 Po 13

York - Home
Season 2 (H) 24/2/01 - 1-1 ~ Hart
There was some trouble at mill as exiled Yorkshireman Adams had put goalie Cartwright and millennium hero Freeman on the transfer list. BHA had a small squad, so players on whatever fringes there were always got a fair to middling chance to gain appearances. Early in the season Crosby was suspended and Wicks kept the shirt for months. He in turn succumbed to injuries and Crozza never looked back at er, the back. Freeman recovered from weeks on the sidelines and surgery to regain a place on the bench. Hart, Brooker and to some extent Jones and Melton tended to vie for wide-men roles so chances for others were limited. Thomas hadn't been in the sixteen since early November. Steele got crocked on more than one occasion and found inclusion on the bench to be as competitive as a forlorn first eleven place. Ramsay had tried to walk in Zamora's footsteps or rather stud marks but trailed in his wake. Young Virgo was the only kid making progress into the squad and began to warm the bench on a regular basis.
Albion's average gate was 6500 punters and we were clear second in the division's attendance table. The same figure turned up to watch York in much more than an average scenario of top versus bottom but witnessed a quite ordinary result. There was a bit of almost cynical booing at the end, as an overly indulged fortress mentality threw vocal stink bombs, after failing to break the siege of York. Charlie said, 'we are div3 footballers and sometimes it doesn't work out right.' He had obviously been around the inside track and it made perfect sense. Hart got our score from deep into the box - div3 style. Apart from a once a season type of result at Cheltenham, the last few games had been very close affairs. Namely, Exeter (A) L 0-1, Torquay (A) W 1-0, Cardiff (H) W 1-0, Blackpool (H) W 1-0 and now York (H) D 1-1. The margin between success and failure was minimal. But you only needed one more goal than opponents to get three points anyway. It could have been worse.
Kuipers, Watson, Cullip, Crosby, Mayo (Brooker), Hart, Rogers (Melton), Carpenter, Oatway, Jones, Zamora.
Div 3 (League 2) P 31 . W 19 D 4 L 8 . F 47 A 25 . Pt 61 Po 2

Season 1 (H) 16/10/99 - 0-1
With a 6000 ceiling but no roof at our suburban sports complex, questions were being asked about spare seats and cover for Withdeanites. Home and away on-the-day punters were segregated and a length of green netting was usually employed, like barbed wire used to be for WW1 trenches. It begged the question to create separate stands altogether and provide further overspill seating at the east end. Gates to date had registered between 5700 plus and approximately 5900, although against York was in upper regions of 5800s. Perhaps it was because they had been in div2 previously. If fans were getting wet it could affect crowds but with money already in their club's fiscal bank, proverbial pre-paid banks of south-standers could expect to experience extreme elements for as long as it took thank you. Oh it also exceeded terms and conditions for athletic ticket-less to climb trees in the nature reserve for ninety minutes on a Saturday - so there.
Talk about very late goals going in, it happened again and Brighton lost, again. Similar catastrophe befell early leavers from trackside blocks when a stoppage time visitors' winner had gone in versus Chester and earlier against Torquay. A consequential drop-off also occurred when drawing at Halifax to then lose and when leading in Plymouth only to draw. It seemed too frequent a set of circumstances to merely be put down to coincidence and stats anoraks were consulting old reference books, attempting to find a historical parallel. Somehow could Sweat, the anti Albion residents group have put a hex on Withdean? Micky Adams said, 'certain critics have suggested that maybe fitness is a problem. I tend to disagree as a game lasts 90 plus minutes and you need to concentrate fully for the whole time. If you don't the consequences are dire. We are finding it increasingly difficult when teams put bodies behind the ball and are not interested in attacking. Our play to counter that must be improved and we're working on this in training. Cynics and doubters are currently having a field day because we are a Jekyll and Hyde team at the moment. Any team is capable of beating another.'
Walton, Wilder (Watson), Cullip, McPherson, Hobson, Campbell, Rogers, Oatway, Aspinal (Thomas), Freeman (Ramsay), Hart.
Div 3 (League 2) P 12 . W 5 D 3 L 4 . F 20 A 12 . Pt 18 Po 11