Brighton It’s difficult to do much of a match report from the Withdean. Basically from between the Pole Vault run up and the shot-put circle you really can’t get a good perspective on the pitch the other side of the running track. I actually feel a bit sorry for Brighton, they used to have a decent support in the old ground (remember the 2-2 in the 89-90 promotion season) – but now they are marooned in a dump, which you wonder how it gets a licence to host league football. Surreally we started with a minutes applause for Frankie Howard. We’d all agreed that we all thought he’d been dead for year, when they announced he was actually an ex-Brighton player. Expected team with Douglas back from international duty to replace the injured (again) Thompson. First half was woeful. I can remember a header over from Beckford and that’s about it. Neither team seemed to be able to or want to keep the ball and it was largely hoofed from one end to another hoping that a mistake would lead to a goal. Douglas was particularly culpable, often dropping back to take the ball off the back four and hitting an aimless ball forward that Matt Heath (or even Ted Heath) could have managed quite well on their own. No passing, no movement, no entertainment. The only real moment of interest came when Hughes went down injured and our players were incensed with the challenge (that no-one at our end saw). Health whacking the ball out of the ground to run 40 yards to join in the melee. End result a booking each (Marques for us). Hughes went off soon after to be replaced by Douglas. We even lacked the fighting ballboys from last time and so had to content ourselves with chanting “Your not fit to collect the ball” as one vainly chased a ball round the athletics track. The combination of sh*t ground and crap performance meant that the Leeds end was pretty muted with little real noise or support. Second half we managed a bit more possession, which only really served to illustrate we had no idea what to do with the ball. Occasionally making nice little triangles in midfield but then with a bit of space to work with, passing it back to the centre-backs. We still made 2 decent chances for Beckford who headed over from Clapham’s cross and then made a right mess of another header after a great cross field pass from Prutton, he then decided to play injured despite the fact no-one was near him. Casper had a couple
of routine saves to make and the game had nil nil written all over it
– til we found the mistake to change the game. Prutton did well to
chase the ball down in the corner and hold it up long enough to lay
back to the on-rushing Richardson. With the crowd screaming at him to
hit it first time, he took a touch and then hit it along the floor to
the first defender. Who luckily took a swipe which looped it over his
own keeper’s head (the keeper was only about 5’ 6”) who could only
palm it out to give Kandol a tap in. We celebrated with a chant of
“Sh*t ground, Sh*t goal” and Kandol celebrated the fact he hadn't been
subbed - De Vries was waiting to replace him. A final round of applause for Southern railways and Sussex police. For the third time in three visits, they managed to have engineering works on for their biggest game of the season, which meant a tortuous bus service through villages we’d never heard of (Does Hassocks really exist or were they playing a joke on us). After the game they completely failed to have enough buses for everyone – and we spent an hour being sent backwards and forwards by the Police – til the bus turned up at the point we’d been waiting at originally. I actually got back to North London at roughly the same time I get back from Leeds. Still at least the local chavs on the backseat of the bus got a bit of a shock when it got invaded by Leeds fans. Scores
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