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2012-13 Season Review Part One
An expanded Amex Stadium,
one of the strongest squads in the division despite only
having "the 14th best budget", sell out crowds every
week and one of the brightest young managers outside of
the top flight.
Everything was set up for Brighton and
Hove Albion to make a real push for the Premier League
in 2012-13.
And until that fateful moment when somebody
decided to take a dump on the away changing room floor,
that's what looked like would happen. Here's part one of
our Season Review
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Pre-Season 2012
Quality signings were what were needed to turn
the Albion from a top ten side into one who
could challenge for the top two and that is what
Gus Poyet bought in during the summer with three
full internationals arriving. The goalkeeper
problems of last season were consigned to
history with Tomasz Kuszczak coming in from
Manchester United, the worrying lack of pace in
the full back positions addressed with Bruno from Valencia and one of the
transfer coups of the summer, Wayne Bridge and
Frankie Sandford on-loan from Manchester City
and former captain Andrew Crofts returned from
Norwich. After a disappearing act, the great
magician that is Vicente also returned with the
club taking up the option of an extra year on
his contract despite him wanting to return to
Spain. Following the previous seasons tour to
Portugal which ended up in a mass brawl, the
pre-season tour instead took in Spain and saw a
victory over Portsmouth (how did they afford to
go there?) and a draw with local side Cordoba.
As if optimism wasn't ripe enough already, it
went through the roof when the Champions of
Europe - Chelsea, not Leeds - played their first
game on English soil since lifting the trophy
and were duly dispatched 3-1. That was an Albion
side with Vicente playing as a striker against a
full strength Blues outfit. Everybody who was
there that day
predicted two things - that Roberto Di Matteo
would be gone before Christmas at that this was
going to be a good year for the Albion. |
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August 2012
The season started
with a cock up in the COCup as League One side
Swindon Town dished out a 3-0 hammering to the
Albion with Alan Navarro predictably netting on
his debut for the Robins. The league season
opened with a 1-0 defeat at Hull followed by a
0-0 draw at home to Cardiff - little did we know
at that point we'd faced the eventual top two
already. Three games in and no goals scored made
it look like Gus had dropped a huge one by not
bringing in that much-needed new striker but
that all changed when Barnsley were hammered 5-1
at The Amex with braces for Ashley Barnes and
Craig Mackail-Smith and a first goal for the
club from Wayne Bridge. Nobody even minded that
Craig Barn Door Davies got on the score sheet
and celebrated in front of the North Stand. There
was plenty of business on transfer deadline day
as the squad became even stronger - Andrea
Orlandi arriving from Swansea, Dean Hammond
returning on-loan from Southampton, David Lopez
coming in from Athletic Bilbao and yet another
attempt to address the centre forward issue with
promotion expert Stephen Dobbie signing having
previously gone up through the play-offs with
both Blackpool and Swansea. Craig Noone
finally completed his long-expected move to
Cardiff for £1.5m.
Record: P4,
W1, D1, L2, F5, A5
Results: 0-3 Swindon A, 0-1 Hull A, 0-0
Cardiff H, 5-1 Barnsley H
League Position at End of Month: 10th |
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September 2012
Craig Mackail-Smith
began September on fire scoring not just one,
but two contenders for goal of the season away
at Burnley including a stunning overhead kick.
Gordon Greer got a brace of his own in the 3-1
win, one of which was unfortunately an own goal.
The Friday night visit of Sheffield Wednesday
saw another goal fest as Wayne Bridge, Mackail-Smith
and Will Buckley all netted in a 3-0 win with
CMS debuting his new C-Gull celebration. The
Albion took an absolute battering away at
Watford but Tomasz Kuszczak showed his worth in
a superb display in a 1-0 win through another
Mackail-Smith goal, this time from the penalty
spot. The win took the Albion top of the table
and comparisons were already being made to
2010-11 when the Seagulls went to the head of
League One in September and stayed there until
the end of the season. A 2-1 victory away at
Miiiiilllllllllll did nothing to dampen
expectations of a title challenge. Ashley Barnes
and Adam El-Abd got the goals with another
former Seagull, Chris Wood, scoring for the
Lions. The good run was over in what would
become familiar fashion as Gus Poyet's side
battered Birmingham, failed to score and ended
up losing 1-0.
Record: P5,
W4, D0, L1, F6, A3
Results: 3-1 Burnley A, 3-0 Sheffield Wed H,
1-0 Watford A, 2-1 Millwall A, 0-1 Birmingham H
League Position at End of Month: 1st |
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November 2012
The Sky cameras
rolled into The Amex for their annual
broadcasting of Brighton v The Leeds United and
it wasn't a disappointment as the game finished
2-2. Craig Mackail-Smith netting twice and being
denied a third and the chance to win the game
when his spot kick was saved. A first win in
seven came against Peterborough when Stephen
Dobbie popped up in the last minute to score in
a 1-0 win. That was followed by the first of
what would become another recurring theme -
points thrown away at the death. The robbers
were ten man Wolves with Roger Johnson scoring a
94th minute equaliser after Stephen Dobbie had
scored a 91st minute penalty to put the Albion
3-2 ahead. Two goals from Will Buckley at
Huddersfield secured a 2-1 win in which Sexy
Pete Brezovan was called into play in goal at
the last minute delighting the females in
attendance at the McAlpine/Galpharm/John Smith
Stadium. Another last minute equaliser from
David Ngog got Bolton out of jail as they
rescued a point with a 1-1 draw when Ashley
Barnes not only missed a penalty but then put
the rebound straight at Adam Bogdan with the
goal gaping before Bristol City were beaten 2-0.
Record: P6,
W3, D3, L0, F11, A7
Results: 2-2 Leeds H, 1-0 Peterborough H, 3-3
Wolves A, 2-1 Huddersfield A, 1-1 Bolton H, 2-0
Bristol City H
League Position at End of Month: 7th |
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December
2012
December got off to a woeful start as leaders Crystal Palace dished out a 3-0
hammering at Selhurst Park. FFSMurray scored
twice and the Albion's cause was far from helped
with Lewis Dunk seeing red within ten minutes on
a rare start. A 2-2 draw at Charlton followed
with Craig Mackail-Smith and Kazenga LuaLua on
target. Nottingham Forest came to The Amex and
went away with a point in a 0-0 draw. Gus Poyet experimented with a
3-5-2 for the visit
of Millllllllll which led to Chris Wood scoring
twice more against us within the opening hour. Kazenga LuaLua
and a David Lopez penalty rescued a 2-2 draw.
The long trip to Blackburn was due to be next
but with Rovers suffering an injury crisis and
heavy rain leading up to the match, the game was
postponed just two hours before kick off which
led to most Albion fans heading to Accrington
Stanley v Plymouth. Funny how a League Two
ground five miles away could with the weather
cope but a Championship one couldn't. December
ended with the Albion being torn apart 3-1 by
Watford, easily the most impressive team seen at
The Amex. A winless month lead questions about
just where the club would go in 2013....
Record: P5,
W0, D3, L2, F5, A10
Results: 0-3 Crystal Palace A, 2-2 Charlton
A, 0-0 Nottingham Forest H, 2-2 Millwall H, 1-3
Watford H
League Position at End of Month: 10th |
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