Brighton v Tottenham: History & Head-to-Head of Seagulls v Spurs

Brighton & Hove Albion and Tottenham Hotspur have met on 36 previous occasions with the most notable aspect of the fixture’s history being the crowd trouble that Spurs used to cause whenever they visited Sussex in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

The sides first met in the 1903-04 season, Brighton’s debut campaign in Southern League Division One. Tottenham were one of the biggest clubs in the league and yet the Albion fared relatively well against them, winning three, losing three and drawing four before Spurs departed for the Football League in the summer of 1908.

Nearly 70 years would pass before we met again in a competitive fixture. In those intervening years, Spurs went onto win their fair share of silverware whilst the Albion drifted between Division Two, Division Three and Division Four.

The 1977-78 season saw Tottenham drop into the second tier of English football, where one of their promotion rivals were a Brighton side gunning for the top flight for the first time in their history.

On Saturday 19th November 1977, the Albion became the first side that season to come away from White Hart Lane with a point as Alan Mullery’s side ground out a 0-0 draw in front of a huge crowd of 48,613.

The return fixture took place at the Goldstone Ground on Saturday 15th April 1978. By this point, a cluster of five clubs – Brighton, Blackburn Rovers, Bolton Wanderers, Southampton and Spurs – had broken four points clear of the chasing pack and were battling for the three automatic promotion spots.

Needless to say, the clash between Brighton and Spurs was a real four pointer in the race for Division One. Passions were running high amongst the 32,647 packed into the Goldstone and despite it being an all-ticket affair, the game descended into a riot so bad that it was nearly abandoned.

The trouble had begun on Friday night when mobs from London ran riot through Brighton. It continued the following day at the Goldstone, where 51 arrests were made, there were 85 causalities and 20 people ended up hospitalised. As a result of the violence, the FA ordered the Albion to install perimeter fencing around the Goldstone for the following season.

Spurs fans were supposed to be confined to the East and North East Terraces, only to spill their way from these sections into the North Stand, where fighting broke out.

At one point, the game was held up for 14 minutes as referee Alan Turvey was forced to take the players off the pitch. Brighton led 2-1 at half time through Paul Clark and Graham Winstanley and they wrapped up victory thanks to substitute Eric Potts, winning 3-1.

There were further outbreaks of violence throughout the match, leading to some Albion fans to theorise that Spurs supporters were actually trying to get the game abandoned in an attempt to force it into being replayed as they knew they were heading to defeat.

That cunning plan may have failed, but Spurs unfortunately ended up having the last laugh on the final day of the season when they met Southampton in an event that created further ire between the two clubs.

A draw at the Dell would guarantee that both Tottenham and the Saints were promoted. If one side won, Brighton would climb above the loser and claim a place in Division One for the first time in their history.

Mullery’s Albion did their part, beating Blackpool 2-1. Unsurprisingly, the final score between Southampton and Spurs that day was 0-0. Neither side had a shot on target all afternoon as they contrived to deliver a pre-arranged result to deny Brighton promotion.

The Albion could not be denied their Division One spot for long and won promotion the next season, joining Spurs in the top flight for the 1979-80 campaign.

Brighton won two out of eight meetings with Tottenham between 1979 and 1983. The only Football League win Brighton have ever recorded away at Tottenham in their history was one of those, Michael Robinson scoring in a 1-0 success on Saturday 24th October 1981.

The other was the Albion’s penultimate victory in the 1982-83 relegation season when Steve Gatting and Gerry Ryan netted in a 2-1 success on Saturday 2nd April 1983, a shock result given Spurs would go onto finish fourth a little over a month later whilst the Seagulls propped up the table.

That 1982-83 season saw further crowd trouble when Brighton and Tottenham were paired together in the League Cup for the first time in history at the second round stage.

Brighton were excellent in the first leg at White Hart Lane on Wednesday 6th October 1982. Tony Grealish scored for Brighton as Spurs could consider themselves lucky to escape with a 1-1 draw.

The second leg three weeks later saw Garth Crooks score the only goal to give Spurs a 1-0 win at the Goldstone and a hardly deserved 2-1 aggregate victory, with their fans again rioting through Brighton beforehand.

As Brighton slipped down the leagues and nearly out of business through the darkest period in the club’s history, meetings with Tottenham became few and far between with only two cup clashes between 1983 and 2017.

Richard Carpenter scored a stunning free-kick at White Hart Lane in the 2004-05 FA Cup third round before Robbie Keane struck an equally impressive volley late on to give Spurs an undeserved 2-1 success, ensuring that Martin Jol’s superstar squad avoided the ignominy of having to get changed in a Withdean portacabin for a replay back in Sussex.

Ten years later, Mauricio Pochettino bucked the trend for not taking the League Cup seriously and sent out virtually a full-strength Spurs side including Harry Kane when Brighton and Spurs were paired together in the fourth round.

Sami Hyypia did the opposite and played his reserves, including a debut for Christian Walton, as Tottenham eased their way to a 2-0 win.

Since Chris Hughton led the Albion to the Premier League in 2017, we have recorded three wins over Spurs. Two of them hastened the departures of Tottenham managers from the dugout.

The first came in October 2019 when Aaron Connolly burst onto the scene, scoring twice in a 3-0 win at the Amex marred by Tottenham goalkeeper Hugo Lloris suffering an horrific injury after dropping a cross for Neal Maupay to tap home.

Within a matter of weeks, Pochettino was sacked just a few months after he had led Spurs to the Champions League final.

The second manager to lose his job was Jose Mourinho. He lasted slightly longer after being beaten by Brighton, clinging on for two more months following a 1-0 defeat delivered by a Leandro Trossard goal in January 2021 before biting the bullet.

In the process, the Albion became the first ever opponents to inflict three away defeats on Mourinho in his stellar career. None of Barcelona, AC Milan, Liverpool or Manchester City had managed more than two victories at home to Mourinho.

Brighton though outdid them all, the success over Spurs combining with three points at the Amex from Manchester United in the 2017-18 and 2018-19 seasons to give the Seagulls a unique achievement in world football.

After all the trouble caused by Tottenham against Brighton through the years and their antics in conspiring with Southampton to deny the Albion promotion, there is something rather satisfying about our newfound penchant for writing records against and helping get Spurs managers sacked.