Brighton v Wolves: History and head-to-head of Seagulls v Old Gold

There are not many teams in the Football League that the Albion can claim to be the bogey side of. In fact, there is probably only one. Step forward, the Wolves of Wolverhampton Wanderers and their weird history of always struggling against Brighton.

In 38 previous meetings between the Albion and Wolves, the Old Gold have triumphed just seven times, and two of those have been in cup competitions.

Wolves have only ever beaten Brighton six times in the league in their history, a remarkable statistic when you consider that for all but 14 out of the 121 seasons that the Albion have existed, Wolves have finished as the higher placed team. They have been better than us for 89 percent of our history, and yet have beaten us only six times in the league.

One of the few season in which Wolves have not finished above Brighton was the 2012-13 campaign. In fact, we ended up relegating them, which must rank as the lowest point in the history of the fixture from a Wolves point of view.

A 2-0 victory for Brighton condemned the visitors to back-to-back demotions and third tier football. So bad was it that when Roger Johnson attempted to give his shirt to the away supporters at the end of the game, they threw it straight back at him.

You would have got long odds on Wanderers having such a terrible record after the first two meetings. Wolves won both, triumphing 3-2 in the League Cup Third Round in 1969 and then winning by the same score line in the FA Cup Third Round at the Goldstone a decade later.

That game saw Mark Lawrenson score one of the greatest goals in Brighton history, dribbling out of defence and around what felt like at least 27 different Wolves players on a mazy run up the pitch which ended with the ball in the back of the net.

There were six Division One meetings during the Albion’s first spell in the top flight, Brighton winning all six, scoring 13 times along the way and conceding only once.

Amongst the highlights of the Albion’s domination of the fixture in the early 1980s was a 1-0 success thanks to an Andy Ritchie goal in September 1981 which took the Seagulls soaring into fifth place.

The prospect of UEFA Cup Football coming to the Goldstone was a real possibility as late as March 1982, when Brighton lay eighth in the table.

That was until a rapid decline set in and the Albion won only two of their remaining 14 games – no prizes for guessing one of those was a 2-0 success at Molineux through Andy Ritchie and Sammy Nelson.

Brighton’s hold over Wolves in the top flight continued when they were promoted to the Premier League for the 2018-19 season. Glenn Murray made it seven wins out of seven in October 2018, scoring his 100th goal in Albion colours in the process.

Four draws, two Wolves wins and one Brighton victory have since followed, meaning that Brighton have lost only twice in 12 of flight games against the Old Gold – the 2-1 reversal at Molineux in May 2021 and their 1-0 win at Amex in December 2021.

The history books show 30,362 as being in the crowd that night for Brighton against Wolves. The reality of course is that there were around 15,000 empty seats, one of the more ridiculous prettendances of the Amex era.

Graham Potter oversaw both of those defeats in the top division against Wolves. That also means that he is responsible for 33 percent of the matches Brighton have lost to the Old Gold – a pretty impressive achievement in three seasons work.

Potter was however in charge of the biggest win Brighton have managed against Wolves at Molineux. Alexis Mac Allister, Leandro Trossard and Yves Bissouma scored in a 3-0 success in April 2022 which could have been even more – as well as scoring a penalty, Mac Allister missed one earlier in the game.

Beating Wolves while in the midst of bad runs is another common feature of the fixture. The Albion had not won for eight games when making the trip to the Black Country in December 1984, but they came home with all three points courtesy of an Eric Young goal.

That kick started Chris Cattlin’s side’s season and they lost just four times between the trip to Molineux and the end of the campaign, missing out on a return to the top flight by just two points.

Equally depressing runs were ended in both games against the Old Gold in the 2002-03 season. A 1-1 draw at Wolves in November earned thanks to Michel Kuipers pulling off the best double save in Brighton history earned the Albion their first point on the road in over three months.

Fast forward to February 2003 and Wolves made their first ever of three visits to Withdean. Brighton were winless in six whilst the Old Gold would end the season being promoted to the Premier League.

Despite an obvious gulf in class, Brighton ran out 4-1 winners in one of the most remarkable displays that took place at the Theatre of Trees.

Bobby Zamora, Paul Brooker, Dean Blackwell and Gary Hart got the goals in easily the best performance of Steve Coppell’s reign.

That probably remains the best result Brighton have had against Wolves, which shows just how good it was when you consider what happened on Good Friday 2017.

Two goals from Anthony Knockaert put Chris Hughton’s Brighton on the verge of promotion to the top flight for only the second time in the club’s history.

We bloody love playing Wolves.