Solly March voted WAB November 2020 Brighton Player of the Month

December 8, 2020December 8, 2020 WeAreBrighton.com 0 Comments

The WeAreBrighton.com Player of the Month awards have been running for 10 seasons now and in that time, only a handful of players have managed to win back-to-back votes. Take a bow then Solly March, who joins an exclusive club after being voted as the best Brighton player in November 2020.

March picked up our November Brighton Player of the Month award with a massive 50.74% of the vote, following up his win in the October Player of the Month poll which was achieved with 29.59%.

For a player who many Albion fans would have been nonplussed to see depart in the summer when he was linked with moves to West Ham United, The Leeds United and Newcastle United, that is quite the turnaround.

The highlight of March’s month came with his scrumptious winner as Brighton beat Aston Villa 2-1 for their first ever victory at Villa Park.

March was picked out on the edge of the box by a clever low pass from Pascal Gross, from where he bent an effort into the top corner of Emiliano Martínez’s goal.

The winger followed that up by tearing Liverpool apart when the champions were fortunate to escape from the Amex with a 1-1 draw. There was even talk about March receiving an England call up for the Three Lions’ matches with the Republic of Ireland, Belgium and Ireland, given the dearth of English left wing backs.

Gareth Southgate ignored March’s claims, but if March keeps this form up for the remainder of the season then he should be under consideration come the resumption of international football next year – providing of course that he does not run over Southgate’s cat, as Lewis Dunk must have done to be constantly overlooked.

Coming a distant second behind March in the November Player of the Month voting was Yves Bissouma, who scored 17.91% of the vote. Matches with Tottenham Hotspur, Aston Villa and Liverpool gave Bissouma the opportunity to test himself against some of the best midfielders in the Premier League like Jack Grealish, Diogo Jota and Tanguy NDombele.

Even facing such talents, Bissouma shone with a series of dominating performances. It came as little surprise to hear Bissouma linked with Liverpool and Arsenal towards the end of the month, although any suitors would have to pay big money for him based on the way he has played so far in 2020-21. £60 million would do for starters…

Third place went to a man whom you would have got long odds appearing in the poll at the beginning of November. Pascal Gross had not started a game in the Premier League before the Albion went to Spurs and when he was a surprise inclusion in Graham Potter’s XI at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, the ‘pAscAL gRoSS iS tOo sLoW aNd a SeT pIeCE meRcHAnT” club were out in force.

Gross has done his best to quieten them throughout the month. He set up Tariq Lamptey’s goal at Spurs, March’s winner at Aston Villa and showed nerves of steel to convert the injury time penalty which earned a deserved point against Liverpool.

Two assists and one goal took Gross past Glenn Murray as the Brighton player with the most goal involvements since the Albion won promotion to the Premier League, highlighting just how important he has been – and continues to be – in helping the Seagulls establish themselves in the top flight.