Mad March 2011 – when Poyet led Brighton to eight wins in one month

March 2011. It’s a month that Albion fans will never forget. Eight games were crammed into four weeks in what became known as ‘Mad March’ and despite the fixture congestion, Gus Poyet’s Brighton walked away with wins from every single one of them.

24 points out of 24. Even when tiredness and injuries inevitably crept in due to the schedule, the Albion remained a relentless winning machine who crushed every opposition in their path. It was an unbelievable feat, a post-war Brighton club record for consecutive victories and it went a long way towards securing the League One title.

After the final game of the month away at Dagenham and Redbridge which completed the sequence of wins for Brighton, Poyet said: “We played eight in March and I thought that would be the key month for us to make it or fail, and we won the eight games so I cannot ask for more.”

We couldn’t ask for anymore either. There were wins at venues we never won at, seven goal thrillers, last minute wonder strikes, missed penalties and comical own goals all thrown in for good measure. The entertainment value was nearly as good as the results.

Here is what happened as Brighton picked up eight wins from eight in Mad March 2011.

Yeovil Town 0-1 Brighton, 01/03/11

Mad March kicked off with a game that used to be as tough as they come for the Albion. Yeovil was a horrible place to go, a town which you could only reach after a 17 hour trip down roads too narrow for a bicycle and whose only station was not even in the same county.

Huish Park itself was situated at the end of a bleak industrial estate and just to complete the misery, Brighton had never won a league game there.

To win titles, you generally have to end unwanted records like that and the Albion duly did, Elliott Bennett scoring the only goal after 25 minutes to give Brighton their first – and still their only – win in that horrible little corner of Somerset.

Brighton 4-3 Carlisle United, 05/03/11

Game two was as crazy a 94 minutes of football as you’ll ever see. Tom Taiwo opened the scoring to put visitors Carlisle United 1-0 up at Withdean inside of three minute with Glenn Murray levelling 20 minutes later. Ashley Barnes gave the Albion the lead early in the second half, Ben Marshall equalised and Barnes put Brighton back ahead.

3-2 was how it stayed until the 92nd minute, when Harry Arter struck another equaliser for the Cumbrians. That looked like it would be it but 60 seconds later, Liam Bridcutt found himself 25 yards out from goal with the ball dropping out the sky.

Without a second thought, he swung a boot at it and hit a crashing left foot volley past Adam Collin to win the game. It really was the stuff of champions, the stuff of dreams, as the now infamous commentary goes.

Brentford 0-1 Brighton, 05/03/11

A week after a visit to Huish Park where Brighton never, ever won, the Albion travelled to Griffin Park where they also never, ever won. Visits to Brentford didn’t just stop at disappointment though – they normally ended in embarrassment with a plethora of 4-0 defeats and no goals scored in five previous visits.

It looked like that inability to find the back of the net in this particular patch of West London would continue when Richard Lee saved a terrible Ashley Barnes penalty, but the Bees’ Karleigh Osborne scored a fantastic own goal 15 minutes from time to give the Albion a 1-0 win.

Brighton 2-0 Tranmere Rovers, 12/03/11

Struggling Tranmere Rovers proved to be stubborner opponents than most people predicted, with the Albion having to wait until the second half to see them off.

Chris Wood kicked things off with a 63rd minute penalty and Murray then scored one of the best goals of his first spell with the club, rolling Ian Goodison and smashing an unstoppable effort past Tony Warner to make it 2-0.

Oldham Athletic 0-1 Brighton, 19/03/11

The best sides grind out results when they aren’t at their best and that is what happened away at Oldham Athletic. Boundary Park was as windy as ever and the Latics were certainly the better side over the 90 minutes.

They should have gone ahead when a certain Dale Stephens hit a 25 yarder which Casper Ankergren tipped over at full stretch for a stunning stop which earned the Albion goalkeeper his Marlboro Lights and Carlsberg money for the week.

The only goal came with 20 minutes remaining and there was controversy about it, Barnes looking offside as he burst through to slot home and secure win number five.

Brighton 1-0 Notts County, 22/03/11

Notts County’s visit to Withdean had originally been due to take place a few days before Christmas. Albion were in their worst run of form of the season back in December so in some ways, having the game rearranged for three months later because of snow worked out very well.

Again, this one was far from a classic with Inigo Calderon scoring the only goal just past the hour mark after good work by Craig Noone. The 1-0 win sent the Albion 10 points clear of second placed Huddersfield Town and still with two games in hand.

Brighton 2-1 Swindon Town, 26/03/11

Mad March’s penultimate fixture saw Swindon Town visit Withdean and it gave the Albion the chance to win a seventh consecutive game for the first time since 1956.

Gary Dicker was the latest player whose key had come out the bowl for penalty taking duty and he scored from the spot after Andy Frampton had hauled down Noone.

David Prutton was undergoing his midlife crisis at this time which had resulted in him growing a ponytail but that didn’t stop him equalising before Frampton’s interesting afternoon continued as he conceded a second spot kick, this time bringing down Murray in the box.

Dicker wasn’t so convincing second time around and his effort was saved by David Lucas but it mattered not as Murray scored midway through the second half for 2-1.

Dagenham & Redbridge 0-1 Brighton, 29/03/11

No Brighton side since World War II had picked up eight wins in a row and history was made at quaint little Victoria Road in the final game of Mad March.

Dagenham & Redbridge’s home was a venue straight out of non league with an actual cafeteria underneath the away end and the players tunnel coming out from the same stand behind the goal. That stand was packed with Albion fans and we had the best seats in the house for the two key moments.

The first came in the first half when former Brighton favourite Bas Savage produced an astonishing miss, putting the ball over the bar from two yards out with nobody near him. The second saw Murray produce an impressive improvised volley from a Noone cross for what proved to be the only goal of the game.

With the proponents exiting the pitch basically into the away stand, it led to Poyet, Mauricio Taricco and all the players going absolutely mental while stood virtually in the crowd. And who could blame them after eight wins out of eight. What a mad, mad March.