Post Match report for the Tottenham game - Saturday, 22nd September 2018

PREMIER LEAGUE; Brighton v Spurs

ALBION CANNOT PLAY CHICKEN WITH HOTSPUR


VENUE; the Amex, Falmer - 3rd home match of six fixtures to date.
RESULT; 1-2 ~ Knockaert . SHAPE; 4-1-4-1 . REF; more jobsworth than contentious.

OVERTURE; fans turned up for a rescheduled teatime tv kickoff, many latterly disappointed that personal flasks were banned, which potentially poured cold water on the modern match-day experience.
Memorial stones previously laid outside the west entrance had been replaced by tarmac. Dedicated but deceased Withdeanites from the original six thousand souls were turning beneath good old Sussex by the sea soil.
GATE; 30,531 . WEATHER; rain throughout.

CHRIS HUGHTON had options available with squad players now getting up to speed. Gross was injured and replaced by Bissouma. Strategically Stephens screened rearguard while Propper went forward.

TEAM; . . . . . . . 1 Ryan
. . 22 Montoya, 4 Duffy, 5 Dunk, 3 Bong
. 11 Knockaert, 6 Stephens, 24 Propper, 20 March
. . . . . . 8 Bissouma, . . . . . . . 17 Murray

BENCH; 27 Button, 30 Bernardo, 14 Balogun, 10 Andone, 7 Kayal (21), 16 Jahanbakhh (73), 9 Locadia (79).


GOALS; 42 - 0-1. At a set piece there was handball in the BHA area when a fast chip crashed into the wall. The resulting penalty was duly scored.
76 - 0-2. Opponents are noted for fluid countermotion up field to keep defenders backtracking and off guard. Their superior numbers counted when the ball got passed around much too easily into the BHA box.
93 - 1-2. KNOCKAERT netted a consolation at end of a belated counterstroke.

INCIDENTS; 18 - following a melee in the BHA first third the ball was eventually hacked clear. Holding midfielder Stephens went to ground and stayed there.

YELLOWS; 61 - Kayal clipped his man from behind in consecutive fouls. 74 - Bissouma got entangled in bipartisan throwing weight about.

SUBS; 21- Kayal replaced injured Stephens. 73 - Jahanbakhsh came on for March, switching flanks with Knockaert. 79 - Locadia took a turn in lieu of Bissouma, Albion changing to 442.
Hughton was hamstrung by the early enforced change and later moved Kayal forward and put Propper & Bissouma in behind.
He elected to play Locadia late in the day in reaction to going two down, after a critical phase when at nil-one Albion stayed in the match and also produced chances to level it.


ANALYSIS; yet another seemingly hopeless game of catch up, for the third time running, fell short in total by the odd goal compared to six conceded. The first half plan of containment failed just prior to the interval and that repetitive second period chase was again apparent.
As the clock ticked down towards full time, exposed urgency replaced tactical scouting, reconnoitre and methodical offense. A number of visiting England squadies proved professionally resilient in the face of an underwhelming attacking force of dads army enthusiasm. Their firepower & marksmen were just better trained than ours.
Default man of the match - Knockaert.


1ST FAN; +defeat was not inevitable but our lot got determined by a crucial official decision in an unbalanced contest of fine margins+

2ND FAN; +Seagulls cannot rely on Murray scoring every week. Others must step up but historically we lack a regular goal-scoring defender or midfielder+

3RD FAN; +do we want to be known as a side that is forever trying to claw back a two goal deficit at the death? They were heroes but the situation was still pointless+

Fatmanslims