You’re not worth that – Brighton, Palace and the FA Cup

Nobody seems particularly happy with the fact that Brighton and Hove Albion will be playing Crystal Palace in the third round of the FA Cup in under a month’s time.

Paul Barber isn’t happy with the police, given that they made up an absolute barrage of nonsense about Palace fans turning up with knives and knuckle dusters, besmirching both the Albion and Eagles fans to save face because they were completely inadequate at the job they were meant to be doing last time we met.

We’re not sure why Barber is surprised. Sussex Police have long held football supporters in contempt. One of our friends was just one of a number of Albion fans they issued banning orders based on jumped up charges as they walked past Palace supporters at Brighton Station in 2011. Needless to say, the cases were very quickly dismissed. Not so lucky were the Albion fans who, after being chased around Marseille by Russian’s for days on end in 2016, decided they had no choice but to try and defend themselves. Sussex Police very quickly slapped banning orders on all of them via a decision in a closed room with no hearing of their side of the story or indeed a chance to appeal.

Crystal Palace aren’t happy either. Because of their “ultras” storming a fire exit in the last meeting, flooding the away end with ticketless fans and leaving genuine supporters who had paid to get in stranded outside, the safety advisory board has said they should receive no more than 2,000 tickets for this game when they are entitled to an allocation of 4,500 due to the 15% rule for the FA Cup.

Both Palace and the majority of both clubs supporters aren’t happy with the game taking place on a Monday night. Given the trouble that happened on the last evening game, it isn’t hard to see why but both clubs are held over a barrel by the powers that run the sport these days, namely the television companies. Barber said in The Argus that Monday night was the best available option due to engineering works on the railways that weekend, but he is kidding himself if he thinks anyone believes that, let alone the fact that Southern will be capable of putting on a decent service no matter what day of the week it is.

The unhappiness and bitterness caused by both that last encounter and the circumstances surrounding this one should at least lead to a spicy atmosphere off the pitch, even if both sides send out their stiffs on it. Another chapter in the history of the Brighton v Palace rivalry could be about to be written, and it seems only right it’s coming in the FA Cup as it was in this competition when things really sparked to life 41 years ago.

Both Brighton and Palace were upwardly mobile clubs who would end up rising through the divisions together as fierce competitors. Both clubs had flamboyant managers who were teammates at Tottenham Hotspur, Terry Venables at Palace and our own Alan Mullery.

The FA Cup first round draw of the 1976-77 season threw these two wildly ambitious third tier sides together and there was nothing to separate them as the original tie at the Goldstone ended 2-2 and the replay at Selhurst Park finished 1-1. These were the days when you only had three channels on your television and Jimmy Saville was a national treasure, which of course means there were other bizarre ancient customs such as second replays for cup games.

The first two arranged second replays were called off due to bad weather with the tie eventually being played at Stamford Bridge on December 6th 1976.

It was an interesting game to say the least. Phil Holder gave Palace a first half lead, after which the Albion dominated but were constantly frustrated by referee Ron Challis. Firstly Peter Ward had the ball in the back of the net, only for Challis to rule it out for handball after Ward was shoved into the ball by Jim Cannon.

Challis did award Brighton a penalty with 12 minutes remaining, which skipper Brian Horton duly converted, only for Challis to demand it be retaken due to encroachment. Naturally, Horton second effort was kept out by Palace keeper Paul Hammond, which was enough to send Palace through to round two.

Mullery was seething and confronted Challis after the game. As he made his way down the players tunnel, somebody threw coffee over the Brighton manager at which point he took some change out of his pockets, threw it into the mud on the floor and shouted “You’re not worth that Palace” while flicking V signs everywhere. That’s one sure fire way to ignite an already simmering rivalry.

Given that the men in the dugout this time around in Chris Hughton and Roy Hodgson are two of the least combustible managers in the game, it’s pretty unlikely we’ll see anything like those fireworks at the Amex. Indeed, the football odds for the clash currently suggest we could be in for a game every bit as boring as last month’s 0-0.

But off the pitch, the rivalry lives on, now seemingly more heated than it has been for decades. Nobody may be happy about drawing each other in the FA Cup, but you can guarantee that it won’t be dull.