Slade lights the Gas of Brighton’s Great Escape
In every Great Escape from relegation, there’s one result that turns the tide. The victory that suddenly makes supporters believe that, hang on a minute, we’re not as buggered as we first thought. For Russell Slade and the Brighton & Hove Albion squad of the 2008-09 season, that result came on Tuesday 21st April 2009 away at Bristol Rovers.
Look back at that 2-1 win at the Memorial Stadium now and it seems even more important than it did at the time. Which is remarkable as it was pretty bloody vital even then.
Had Brighton lost, Slade’s side would have gone down. The 2009-10 season would have been spent in League Two. It’s unlikely the Albion would have been able to attract a manager of Gus Poyet‘s calibre in the bottom tier.
The club wouldn’t have been revolutionised on the pitch under the management of the egocentric Uruguayan, the League One title wouldn’t have been won in the 2010-11 season, the Amex wouldn’t have opened with Championship football and Brighton’s modern day history might have taken a very different course through the 2010s.
The Albion didn’t just owe their victory over the Gas that wonderful night in to Slade, Lloyd Owusu, Calvin Andrew and Gary Hart. Mother nature played her part, too.
Brighton had originally been due to take on Bristol Rovers on Tuesday 3rd March 2009. It had been raining all day, but with kick off an hour or so away, constant rain turned into a biblical storm with many Albion supporters already in Bristol.
The Memorial Stadium couldn’t handle the deluge and so 45 minutes before kick off, the game was postponed. The WeAreBrighton.com team found out whilst in a local Tescos, buying bin liners and new socks in preparation for how wet it was going to be on the open terraced away end. That we sacrificed a pre-game pub to do that tells you how bad the rain was.
At the time, we were mightily pissed off with the cancellation. A 157 mile journey to Bristol on a Tuesday night for no reason. With the benefit of hindsight however, it was actually a blessing in disguise to have the game rearranged for its April date.
Had it gone ahead in early March, Dean White would have been in caretaker charge. Andrew and Hart were injured and Owusu had only signed the previous day from Cheltenham Town. He certainly wouldn’t have been in the scoring form that ultimately kept the Seagulls up.
Brighton would have gone into the game at an all time low having lost 4-0 at home to Crewe Alexandra three days previously. If lowly Crewe – who ended up being relegated – could stick four past us at Withdean, imagine the damage that Rovers could do with Rickie Lambert, Jo Kuffor and Darryl Duffy – one of the most dangerous front threes in League One – in their starting line up.
Seven weeks further into 2009 and Brighton went to Bristol Rovers in much better shape. After slipping eight points adrift of safety with seven games remaining following a 2-0 defeat at Milton Keynes Dons on April 4th, the Albion had won three of their past four fixtures.
Victory in the game in hand that they had over the rest of the strugglers away at Rovers would move Brighton out of the relegation zone for the first time in two months, with just two games left to play afterwards.
Over 700 Albion supporters made the trek to Bristol. The weather wasn’t going to stop anybody seeing this game, but traffic might. A spate of problems across the M25 and the M4 meant that some supporters didn’t arrive at the Memorial Stadium until after kick off.
Those who were really late would have missed Brighton fall behind. Lambert was of course the scorer, firing through the legs of Michel Kuipers for his 28th of the season.
The goal was wholly preventable too, Tommy Elphick failing to convincingly clear Craig Disley’s cross with the loose ball falling to League One’s deadliest marksman at the back post.
More concerning than the manner in which the Albion had conceded was the fact that we hadn’t come from behind to win once on the road in League One that season.
Under normal circumstances, you wouldn’t expect that to change. But one of Slade’s biggest achievements during the Great Escape of 2009 was to install this real belief and togetherness between Brighton players and supporters, to the point that even when faced with doing something we hadn’t managed in 22 previous away games, most believed that we could still beat Bristol Rovers.
Together was more than a hashtag in those days. And so it proved as Adam Virgo became a one-man blocking machine, preventing Lambert and Kuffour from adding to the scoreline in what was easily the best game of his second spell as a Brighton player.
On 43 minutes, an equaliser arrived. Hart rolled back the years to 2003, scampering away down the left and delivering a low cross to the near post which Owusu diverted past Steve Phillips.
The Albion lost the creative qualities of Cox at half time but Slade was bold and threw on Calvin Andrew in his place, forming a front three with Owusu and Hart.
Slade’s bravery paid off when Andrew scored the winner just seven minutes after his introduction. Hart was again the architect, this time whipping over a cross from the right which Andrew met with a bullet header. The players went wild and it was bedlam in the packed away corner.
A long 40 minutes lay in wait now. Given their attacking talents, Rovers were a side capable of scoring a goal out of nothing.
Virgo continued to be magnificent alongside Elphick while Gary Borrowdale and Adam Hinshelwood – in for the suspended Andy Whing – also played their parts in a memorable rearguard performance.
There were a few heart-in-mouth moments which meant that the release of relief at the full time whistle was even more explosive.
It felt like Brighton had just won the Champions League rather than secured a 2-1 win at Bristol Rovers in League One. Slade certainly got into the spirit, running down the touchline to celebrate like Jose Mourinho famously did to announce himself to the world when his Porto side shocked Manchester United on their way to winning the Champions League in 2004.
Again, that was a sign of the togetherness; players and supporters celebrating as one. Slade told The Argus afterwards, ““The fans are playing their part. They were on my left shoulder for 90 minutes. They were absolutely brilliant and they are keeping us going as well.”
“It’s that sort of togetherness between the fans, the players and myself that is really driving us forward and we have to keep that going. We know we have still got to grind a few more points out and together I know we can do it.”
He was of course right. A 2-2 draw at Huddersfield Town followed four days later with Andrew and Owusu again netting. Brighton then beat Stockport County 1-0 at Withdean on the final day of the season and survival was assured.
It was that night against Bristol Rovers that turned the tide though. On very few occasions have there been scenes like it on a Brighton away day.
Slade lit the Gas under the Albion’s survival bid, and everyone at the Memorial Stadium that night could feel it. Where would we be today if he hadn’t?
