The history of Brighton v Millwall

Given that Brighton and Millwall have both spent their existences bouncing through the divisions, it comes as little surprise to find out that there have been well over 100 meetings across 13 different competitions over the past 115 years.

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Easily the most famous of those 100 meetings came in the second tier play offs at the end of the 1990-91 season when the Albion booked a place at Wembley against all the odds. Barry Lloyd’s side had only snuck into the end of season lottery in the last minute of the last day of the campaign thanks to Dean Wilkins’ free kick against Ipswich Town. Even more remarkable was that they did it with a goal difference of minus six.

Brighton hadn’t managed to score a goal against Millwall in the two league meetings and that made the Lions firm favourites to advance to the final. The first leg took place at the Goldstone on Sunday 19th May and Lloyd was forced to give a full debut to Stefan Iovan, a Romanian sweeper signed for £60,000 while Mike Small started as a lone striker with his regular partner John Byrne on the bench.

Millwall dominated the opening stages and took the lead on 14 minutes but Mark Barham levelled five minutes before the break. That provided the platform for the Albion to go onto win the game with an incredible blitz of three goals in seven minutes.

Small netted the first of those on 53, laid on the second for Clive Walker two minutes later and then teed up Robert Codner for the third four minutes after that to secure a ridiculous 4-1 win in one of the Goldstone Ground’s greatest days.

The job wasn’t yet done though as the Albion then had to get through 90 minutes at the Old Den, a ground whose name alone could spark fear into opponents. Needless to say, the locals were restless after the first leg capitulation and that made for a red-hot atmosphere down at Cold Blow Lane. The Lions again went ahead inside of 15 minutes and should have doubled their advantage but Perry Digweed pulled off a brilliant fingertip save that turned the game.

Brighton held out to the break and after regrouping, came out in the second half and shocked the home side by equalising through Codner just 120 seconds after the restart. That knocked the stuffing out of Millwall and the Albion even managed to grab a winner with 20 minutes remaining through John Robinson which secured a 2-1 win on the night and a magnificent 6-2 victory on aggregate.

The final of course went less well as Brighton were easily beaten by Notts County, going down 3-1 at Wembley. That meant league games with Millwall in the second tier again in the 1991-92 and just four months after the Seagulls’ success at the Den in the play offs, there was another memorable victory in South Bermondsey.

On this occasion, Digweed got injured late in the warm up which meant a late call to reserve goalkeeper John Keeley, who was sitting in the stands. Keeley wasn’t ready by kick off however, which meant Brighton playing the first eight minutes with defender Gary Chivers in goal. Despite the shambolic situation, the Albion ran out 2-1 winners through goals from Byrne and Codner.

Those are just two of many impressive results Brighton picked up at Millwall’s former home. They were actually the first ever visiting team to play there following the Lions move from North Greenwich in 1910, spoiling the party by winning 1-0 through a Jack Haworth goal in front of a crowd in excess of 25,000.

Speaking of spoiling the party, that’s what Millwall supporters did on their visit to the Goldstone in August 1977 with a riot forcing the Albion into introducing a pen in the North East corner of the ground capable of holding 3,800 supporters. The Lions fans moods certainly weren’t helped by their sides performance on the pitch as Brighton came from 2-0 down to win 3-2 thanks to a second half own goal and late strikes from Peter Ward and Steve Piper.

Brighton have enjoyed their fair share of success at the New Den as well. Both Dean Wilkins and Dean White celebrated their first games in caretaker charge with 1-0 victories away at Millwall whilst there was a memorable Johnstone’s Paint Trophy win in which stalwart Kerry Mayo got a rare moment in the limelight by scoring the winning penalty in a shoot out.

That was one of the highlights of Mayo’s Brighton career, which had begun when he made his debut as a 19-year-old. Not many have done so younger than that, but one who did was Reg Bowles who was just 15 years and 258 days old when he made his first appearance for Brighton in a 5-0 home win over Millwall in November 1941. Bowles did well at left back and played five further times for the Albion’s first team before going onto become a well-known name in Sussex non league circles for his exploits with Lancing Athletic and Worthing.

Bowles remains by some distance the youngest ever player to play for Brighton but because his appearances all came in wartime football, his record isn’t officially recognised.