Brighton and Hove Albion v Huddersfield Town
The Sky Bet Championship
Saturday December 21st - 3:00 ko
at The Amex Stadium
Huddersfield Town travel down south to Brighton on Saturday to the Amex Stadium. It will be the second visit to this new ground after a comprehensive walloping last season. That was back in March when Leonardo Ulloa scored a hat-trick. James Vaughan scored the goal of the match though with a spectacular scissors kick just before half time. We were trying to listen on the radio, driving back from Leeds after visiting a friend in hospital. It was when Radio Leeds were splitting the FM frequency with us and Bradford City. The Leeds area's 102.7 had the Bantamweights on and we couldn't hear Oggy and Kieran until we hit Gildersome when 92.4 kicked in. Unfortunately, having left the hospital at 1-1, we were suddenly 4-1 down, wondering how the hell that happened.
That completed the double for Brighton over us. They had won at the John Smith's back in November. Will Buckley scored both their goals in a 2-1 win for them. Town's goal being an injury time consolation from super Simon Church.
How to get there: The stadium is located at Falmer on the outskirts of Brighton, very close to the University of Sussex.
By car: At the end of the M23, continue onto the A23, heading towards Brighton. At the roundabout which is the junction with the A27, take the A27 towards Lewes. After around four miles you will see the stadium on your right hand side. Leave the A27 and take the slip road sign posted Falmer (B2123). At the top of the slip road turn right crossing back over the A27 and the entrance to the stadium is down on the right.
There is no point following those directions though as there is no parking at the stadium for away fans (although coaches and minibuses will be allowed to park providing that they have been pre-booked with the Club) and there is a large no parking zone in force around the area of the stadium on matchdays.
The Club are instead encouraging fans to use the Park & Ride services located at three different locations; Mill Road (BN1 8ZF), Brighton Racecourse (BN2 9XZ) and Mithras House at Brighton University (BN2 4AT).
Probably the easiest for away fans to locate is Mill Road, as it is just off the A23/A27 junction. The capacity of Mill Road is 500 cars and is located next to a BP garage, which you will see over on your right at the top of the slip road off the A23.
The Park & Ride is open from 12 noon on Saturdays (with last departure at 2.30pm) and 5.30pm for evening kick offs. The last buses return from the stadium 90 minutes after the end of the game. The cost of the Park & Ride is included in the price of your match ticket. So just show your match ticket or proof of ticket booking (if collecting your match tickets from the ticket office at the stadium). Please note that vehicles must be removed no later than two hours after the game has ended.
By train: The nearest railway station is Falmer, which is situated right by the stadium. It is three stops from Brighton Central Station on the line to Lewes and Seaford. Alternatively, you can avoid Brighton completely by getting a train to Lewes and changing there for Falmer. There are four trains an hour in either direction.
Wheere to sup: All the pubs around the ground are home fans only. There is a Harvester pub near the Mill Road car park, The Black Lion.
Otherwise there are pubs close to the station. The Queen's Head and Grand Central are opposite the entrance. Or just down Surrey Street there is the Evening Star, which is away fan friendly and just two minutes walk from the station.
There are bars at the ground as well, which stay open after the match, so you can have a pint and avoid the horrendous queues for trains outside. The bars all have tellies and screens showing train times, so you can judge how much supping time you have left.
Black Lion at Patcham
Evening Star on Surrey Street
A brief history of Brighton & Hove Albion FC: They beat us to the League One title in 2011. Apart from that, they finished runners up in Division Two in 1979 and spent four years in English football's top flight. That culminated with relegation in the same season as they got to the FA Cup Final, which they lost to Man Utd in a replay after the famous "and Smith must score" miss by Gordon Smith in the last minute of extra time of the first match.
Those four years were the highlight of a very non eventful club history. The club almost went out of business and out of the league in the mid 90s. The directors sold off their Goldstone Ground as the team plummeted to the bottom of the 4th division. On the last day of the 1996/97 season, having clawed back a 13 point deficit, they needed a draw against Hereford Utd to stay up. They managed it, only just though with a late equaliser from Robbie Reinelt keeping them safe. Safe, but homeless.
Goldstone Ground
Without a home ground to play on, they shared the Priestfield Stadium with Gillingham for three years, before moving back to Brighton to play at the delightful Withdean Stadium, which would become their temporary home for eleven years.
Then, after much fannying about with judicial reviews and incorrect planning and red tape running riot, they finally got the go ahead to build this new stadium and moved in in 2011.
Withdean Stadium
Head to Head
Town trail in the overall head to head with 16 wins to Brighton's 20, with 10 draws. That's in all competitions. In league matches it's 14 Town wins to their 19, with 9 draws.
The first meeting of the two clubs was back in 1922 when we met down at Brighton in the FA Cup. A goalless draw was then followed by a 2-0 Town win. Of course we then went all the way to the final, beating Preston 1-0 to lift the Cup for the only time to date in the club's history. This was when Smile Awhile was first adopted as a club anthem.
The biggest victory margin came as recently as 2009 when Town hammered the poor Seagulls 7-1. Their keeper, Michel Kuipers, got sent off, but we were already 2-1 up by that time and they did have a proper sub goalie, so that was no excuse. His first job was to pick the ball out of the net as super Lee Novak buried a penalty past him to add to earlier goals from Anthony Kay and Peter Clarke. Town went on to add second half goals from Gary Roberts, Danny Drinkwater and a couple from sub Theo Robinson.
The following season though, Brighton had turned it around in dramatic style and were League One champions by the time Town went down there for this classic match......
Classic match - Huddersfield Town v Brighton & Hove Albion, 30/04/2011.
This was to be the final match ever at the Withdean Stadium and also the match chosen for the 3rd Pedal4Pounds event, tagged as With Dean to the Withdean.
Brighton had already won the league title and were due to receive the trophy afterwards before they partyed the night away whilst looking forward to the move to their new home and Championship football. The Town players formed a guard of honour for the champions before kick off, a Football League tradition we haven't had since Watford formed one for us in 1970 at Leeds Road.
But it was Town who started brighter than Brighton and after coming close through attempts by Gary Roberts, Lee Peltier and Scott Arfield, we scored in the 8th minute. Gary Naysmith took a quick free kick to Benik Afobe, who had his back to goal, but turned his defender and shot past the onrushing keeper.
Good work from Ian Bennett keeping out a shot by Ashley Barnes meant that Town went in at half time with a 1-0 lead, despite the Seagulls having most of the chances after Town's early pressure.
However, it was the old sleepy Town who conceded early in the second half. Peltier was harshly booked for what appeared to be a fair challenge on Elliott Bennett as the referee unbelievably pointed to the penalty spot. Barnes took the spot kick, which was brilliantly saved by player of the season Bennett, but the spawny home team equalised anyway as the ball rebounded straight back to the taker who nodded home. It was almost 2-1 as Craig Noone went close, but it was Town who re-took the lead, once more through Afobe. Once again it was from a quick fee kick, this time from Joey Gudjonsson, only it was not that good. But under pressure from young Benik, defender Iñigo Calderón attempted to chest the ball back to the keeper, only for the Arsenal loanee to nip in ahead of him and send the 837 Town fans wild.
Roberts almost made it 3-1, but was denied by goalkeeper Peter Brezovan, before Brighton inevitably levelled once more. This time it was substitute Matt Sparrow who outsprinted the ageing Town midfielder, Kevin Kilbane, to shoot past Bennett from the edge of the area.
Manager Lee Clark, a master tactician, knew a point would be no good. Three points was a must as Southampton were winning at Brentford, level on points but with a much better goal difference. Firstly, he replaced Gudjonsson with Jordan Rhodes and then took off Naysmith for Alan Lee, switching to 3-4-3.
Did it work? Of course it did. It was that boy Afobe again, who collected the ball in the area, dribbled the ball towards goal and then squared to sub Danny Ward, who fired past the keeper for his first Town goal.
That was in the first minute of injury time. There were to be another four, in which Brighton forced a series of corners, but the mighty Terriers held on for a famous victory.
Famous, but ultimately pointless, as Southampton won their game in hand at Plymouth and went on to steal our promotion and we....blah, blah.....Old Trafford...blah, blah.
Let's not go there!
Full time: Brighton 2-3 Huddersfield.
Brighton: Brezovan, Painter, Greer, Elphick, Calderon, Bennett, Dicker, Bridcutt, Noone (Sparrow), Wood (Hart), Barnes.
Huddersfield: Bennett, Peltier, Naysmith (Lee), P.Clarke, McCombe, Kilbane, Gudjonsson (Rhodes), Arfield, Hunt (Ward), Roberts, Afobe.
Att: 8,416.
Town fans arrive in style for the match
Greasy Gus could never beat "Huthethfeel" or pronounce our name
So what have modern day Brighton got?
They come here on the back of a 1-0 win away at Middlesbrough. Managed these days by Óscar García Junyent, the former Barcelona, Valencia and Espanyol player. Since hanging up his boots he has been assistant manager to Johann Cruyff for the Catalonian national team and then had a spell in charge of Barcelona's youth team. Last year he became head coach of Israeli team Maccabi Tel Aviv FC. In his first year in charge he led them to the national championship, but then sensationally resigned, citing personal reasons. Were those reasons that he had been poached by Brighton & Hove Albion? He resigned days after Gus Poyet had been put on gardening leave and then was appointed manager at the Amex Stadium less than a month later.
"Què?"
Who has García been playing in his first XI?
His selected first XI in the last match was.....
01 Peter Brezovan
02 Bruno Saltor Grau
17 Stephen Ward
38 Rohan Ince
03 Gordan Greer ©
20 Matthew Upson
21 David López
26 Liam Bridcutt
09 Ashley Barnes
08 Andrew Crofts
23 Craig Conway
Substitutes
04 Keith Andrews
06 Adam El-Abd
10 Kemy Agustien
14 Iñigo Calderón
25 Kazenga Lua Lua
31 Christian Walton
44 Leroy Lita
Leading scorer - Ashley Barnes with 6.
Recent form - Last six games:
Middlesbrough 0-1 Brighton
Brighton 3-1 Leicester
Brighton 1-2 Barnsley
Bournemouth1-1 Brighton
Wigan 0-1 Brighton
Brighton 3-0 Blackburn
Town 0-1 Reading
Ipswich 2-1 Town
Bolton 0-1 Town
Town 2-1 Burnley
Sheff Weds 1-2 Town
Town 1-3 Birmingham
Brighton are 8th in the league with 31 points, that's 5 more than we have. Town are 12th on 26 points, but could be down to 13th depending on Wigan's midweek result at Hillsborough. A win for them would move us down, if they draw we stay ahead on goal difference.
Club connections:
Joel Lynch of the current Town squad played for Brighton. Born in Eastbourne, his dad's Welsh which is why he plays for Wales, he began his footballing life in the Brighton youth team and reached the quarter finals of the FA Youth Cup with them. He made his league debut as an 18 year old in 2006.
He was an impatient young man though and as he couldn't hold down a regular first team place he handed in a transfer request, which led to him going out on loan to Nottingham Forest. He played half a season for them, mainly at left back, and then signed permanent for the following season.
Last year he signed for Town where he has been in and out of the team. Seemed to be completely out of the picture when Mark Robins took over last season, but has now come on well and been a regular in the line up this season. Has already scored two spectacular long range goals this season against Charlton and....errr....oh Charlton again.
Unfortunately, he got sent off against Reading so won't be playing on Saturday.
SHOOOOOOT!
Diego Arismendi: Stoke City paid £4.8m for him in 2009. No, really they did. No shit! He made a total of zero league games for them and was palmed off on his fellow Uruguyan, Gus Poyet at Brighton, in 2010. He did nowt for them apart from getting sent off and sent back to the Potteries. He then went to Barnsley where he became a hero to the Dingle clan by scoring his only goal in English football in a 5-2 win over Leeds. Came to Town in 2012 and was absolutely dire. Returned to Stoke at the end of his loan, they terminated his contract and he returned home to Uruguay a much richer man.
Mark Barham: Another failure in the bright blue and white. He played for Norwich in the first division in the 1980s, gaining two England caps, but came to Town during the Malcolm MacDonald era and was utter garbage.
Chris Cattlin: Was left back at Town when I first started watching, but was sent to Coventry City to make way for the emerging talent that was Town legend, Geoff Hutt. He played over 200 games for the Sky Blues before moving down to Brighton. He played 3 seasons there before hanging up his boots. He returned though to be their manager when they got relegated in 1983, lasting three seasons in the job before retiring to run the Pizza King Rock Shop on the seafront.
Liam Dickinson: At 28 years old he has dropped out of the Football League and has returned to one of his first clubs, Stockport County, in the Conference North. His first spell at Edgeley park was such a success that Derby County manager Paul Jewell paid £750,000 for him. When Jewell's assistant, Stan Ternent became Town manager, he took him on loan and was one of the few Turnip signings to do well, scoring 6 goals in 13 matches before returning to Pride Park. The following season he came back to the Galpharm Stadium as a member of the Brighton side and scored an equalising goal in the match that the Terriers went on to win 7-1.
Colin Dobson: Signed for Town from Sheffield Wendys, he was a member of the famous 1969/70 2nd division championship winning Town team under Ian Greaves. But after a couple of seasons in the top flight and as Town began to plummet down the league ladder, he was loaned out to lowly Brighton. Managed in the Middle East after retiring and now works as a scout for Stoke. Hope it wasn't him who recommended Arismendi.
Allan Gilliver: Played for Town in the 60s, but had been transferred to Brighton before we won that 2nd division championship.
Steve Harper: Goalkeeper who, despite being a professional footballer for 20 years, has totally wasted his talent being sat on Newcastle United's bench for the better part of his career, making only just over 200 first team appearances. Twenty six of those were for Town in 1997/98 and despite Peter Jackson wanting to sign him permanently, he returned to his seat at St James' Park. In 2011/12 he had a loan period at Brighton, playing 5 times for them.
Chris Hutchings: Played over a hundred matches for both clubs. He started his career at Chelsea. Not when Chelsea were winning owt though. They were a struggling mid table second division team then. He joined Brighton in 1983 and us four years later. He went on to manage Bradford City, getting them into a relegation spot before being sacked. He then managed Wigan Athletic, taking them into a relegation spot before being sacked. He has been assisting Paul Jewell for much of his managerial career, but is now assistant boss at Northern Premier League Division One South side Market Drayton Town.
Leon Knight: He has had a troubled and much travelled football career. As a youngster with Chelsea he played only one UEFA Cup match before coming on loan to Town. He helped us get to the Play Offs in 2002 but got himself sent off in the last league match therefore missing the two matches against Brentford. He was recently quoted as saying that he was about to sign permanently for us but Lou Macari got sacked and he ended up at Brighton instead. He played over a hundred matches for the Seagulls. One he missed though was away at Southampton when he got kicked off the team bus on the way there for being a knobhead! He has had 15 clubs in his career but now at the age of 31 he is without a club having been released by Coleraine in the summer of 2012.
Craig Maskell: A great goalscorer for Town in the late 80s. He signed from Southampton in 1988 and had a couple of seasons with us scoring 54 goals. He was sold to Reading and after a spell at Swindon, he returned to Southampton to play for them in the Premier League. That stint with the Saints didn't work out and after a season with Brighton he ended up playing in Hong Kong.
Neil McNab: Player of the season twice in the 80s for Manchester City having signed for them from Brighton in 1983. He played and scored in an infamous match against Huddersfield Town in November 1987. He joined us on loan 5 years later and was crap!
Paul Moulden: Another ex Man City player. Had loan spells at Brighton and Town before retiring to run a chip shop in Accrington.
Phil Stant: Fought in the Falklands War, serving with 5 Infantry Brigade, before becoming a professional footballer. He scored one goal in a loan spell from Notts County and later in his career had a short stint at Brighton. He's now a youth development monitor for the Football League but he was the subject of an ITV documentary, Falklands 25: A soldier's story in 2007.
Frank Stapleton: A footballer of the highest quality with Arsenal, Manchester United and the Republic of Ireland. Winner of three FA Cup medals he came to Town in 1991. But after only 5 games he was lured away by a player/manager's job at Bradford City. He spent three season's at Valley Parade. After being sacked by them he played 2 matches for Brighton before hanging up his boots.
Frank Worthington: Seems to be in every match thread I do. Started his career with Town. Brighton were the 11th of his 23 clubs, playing 31 times for them in 1984/85.
The most famous one though would be Kieran O'Regan:
Better known nowadays as half of the Kieran & Oggy radio double act. He started his footballing career with Tranmore Athletic in Ireland before Brighton signed him as a 19 year old in 1982. They were in the top flight of English football then, but Kieran wasn't in the side when they played in the FA Cup final. He did make 86 appearances for them though and it was during this period that he earned his four Republic of Ireland international caps. Those were given to him by Eoin Hand and after Kieran had had a season with Swindon in 87/88, Hand signed him for Huddersfield Town.
He played 199 times for Town as a combative midfielder. These were not good days at Town, playing in a crumbling old Leeds Road, in front of a closed down Cowshed. One of the highlights though was a last minute equaliser which saved Eoin's job for a few more weeks. But the most famous one was when he went in goal after goalkeeper Lee Martin had been sent off. He was the regular penalty taker and when Town were awarded one in front of the Cowshed, he strolled up to take it knowing that if his opposite number saved it, it would leave himself a long sprint back up to the other end again. He didn't though and if memory serves correct, it was the winning goal of the match. I'm struggling to recall who we were playing that day though. Think it could've been Blackpool, but not too sure.
After six seasons with us, he went off to the midlands to join West Brom. He played two seasons there before coming back to West Yorkshire to play for Halifax. At the Shay he was captain of the side that won the Conference and then following the retirement of manager George Mulhall, he took over the manager's job in their first season back in the Football League and despite having a good start he got sacked and replaced by Frank's brother Dave Worthington.
His time in management couldn't have been very enjoyable because every time there's a Town manager's job going and punters phone in to say he should apply for it, he always gives the same answer. Never again!
Any more? Brian Horton and Andy Ritchie both played for Brighton and later managed Huddersfield Town.
Brighton's famous fans
Norman Cook aka Fatboy Slim: A DJ, musician, rapper, and record producer.
Michael Fish: A weatherman, famous for not spotting a hurricane was coming our way.
Des Lynam : TV presenter. Hosted Match of the Day for 11 years. Was the main BBC anchor man for such things as World Cups, Olympics and Wimbledon. Presented Countdown for a couple of years before being replaced by Des O'Connor.
Other Championship fixtures this weekend:
Saturday:
QPR v Leicester [12:15]
Birmingham v Nottm Forest
Bolton v Charlton
Burnley v Blackpool
Derby v Doncaster
Ipswich v Watford
Leeds v Barnsley
Reading v Wigan
Sheff Wed v Bournemouth
Yeovil v Blackburn
Millwall v Middlesbrough [17:30]
Team news: Joel Lynch is suspended after picking up a late red card in the match against Reading. James Vaughan and Jonathan Hogg both missed that game and at is unclear as yet as to whether either of them will be fit for the trip down south. One man definitely not in the squad is Jazz Richards who has returned to Swansea.
Leonardo Ulloa, who scored a hat-trick in this fixture last season, has been out injured for two months with a broken foot. He has started light training but shouldn't be ready for this match. Will Hoskins is another long term absentee. He has a knee injury. Ex Leeds keeper Casper Ankergren has a wrist injury and Polish goalie Tomasz Kuszczak has had a stomach problem, meaning they have had a 17 year old on the bench. And our old friend Craig Makail-Smith hasn't played all season, being out with achilles and ankle injuries.
Snooty's prediction: 2-2 draw.
Snooty's Town line-up:
Assuming Hogg and Vaughan are both missing. Callum Woods in at right back. Tom Smith and Anthony Gerrard at centre back. Bring Sean Scannell in and drop Oscar Gobern to the bench.
Betting:
Huddersfield to win 3/1
Brighton to win 10/11
Draw 12/5
Click for more betting on this match.
Alright, bruv. 'Ave you 'ad a word wiv Delroy yet?
Over to you then:
Some talking points for you.
Who should take Lynch's place in the side?
Are you going? Do you think the fixture planners are right to give fans such long journeys just before the Christmas period?
Which was best, Goldstone or Withdean?
Who did Kieran O'Regan score that penalty against whilst wearing the goalie's shirt?
Should this thread have had more homophobic content? It is Brighton after all!
MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY