Liverpool away Sunday can definitely be considered a glamourous fixture. Hull City away the following Wednesday night definitely can’t. Don’t expect there to be 6200 Albion fans in attendance this time round!! The fixture presents an ideal opportunity to bounce back from the battering at Anfield as we make only our second trip to the KC Stadium to face Nick Barmby’s men.

Who are Hull?

Bad news unfortunately. Hull are in pretty good form, with only one league defeat in 2012 so far taking them a point above Albion in 7th, within touching distance of the Play-Offs. They’ve had the weekend off as well while Albion were being hammered at Anfield, although this is only because of the embarrassment of being knocked out of the cup by Crawley last month. Hopefully we can achieve some sort of Sussex double over them, if there even is such a thing! The KC Stadium is nice though, probably the closest new ground to The Amex in terms of design. Should be a good crowd in too.

(what the hell is this?!)

Their history with Brighton?
There isn’t much really, although the teams do have a bit in common. We both went through boardroom struggled at the same time in mid-90’s as both clubs came close to going out of business. Both teams were rather impressively managed to be in the same division for fifteen out of seventeen consecutive seasons between 1984 and 2001, but with their brand new stadium and vast catchment area, Hull really are the blueprint of what we can hope to achieve at The Amex. Although hopefully when we eventually get into the Premiership, we’ll stay there for more than two seasons….

Last time we met?

A reasonably entertaining 0-0 in October, with Hull smashing the crossbar twice and Vicente looking promising for Albion in a rare start. Our last (and only) visit to the KC resulted in a 2-0 win for the Tigers in 2005.

Who has played for both?

Junior Lewis follows Peter Taylor everywhere, and has therefore played for both. Paul McShane is currently on Hull’s books, although is on loan at Palace (boooo!). Nicky Forster left the KC for Withdean back in 2007, while Gary Hobson also made the journey south in 1996, playing 98 times for the Seagulls. One of the biggest flops of Micky Adams’ dreadful second reign, David Livermore, joined Albion from Hull in 2008, and nobody could really understand why a player who had captained a team in a FA Cup final could be so dreadful. According to Wikipedia, he’s now at Histon…

Who to look out for?
Matty Fryatt is always a real handful with 9 goals to his name this season, while the Amex crossbar is still shaking from Aaron McLean’s effort at The Amex in October. He’ll no doubt be looking forward to meeting up with his old Peterborough strike partner Craig Mackail-Smith.
Manchester United loanee Robbie Brady is more than capable of causing us a few problems as well!

What to expect from Albion?

Goodness knows. Will we finally see CMS and Vokes up front? Will the two Man City kids make their debut’s? Will Brezovan be dropped after opposition goals from 2 poor punches in the last 2 games? Will we add to our own goal haul this week? Only one man has the answers. Let’s hope that man hasn’t departed for Wolves by 7.45pm on Wednesday night!