Brighton 2-1 Doncaster: Buckley owns the house Bloom & Knight built

“I’m only going to have a few pints before the game. I want to remember it and enjoy it.” Not words you normally hear before a Brighton & Hove Albion game, but then again Brighton v Doncaster Rovers on Saturday 6th August 2011 was no ordinary fixture.

This was the day that the Albion finally played a league game in a stadium they could call their own. It had been 14 years and three months in the making, delivered by countless protests, numerous petitions, thousands of letters, a host of Valentine’s Day cards sent to the Deputy Prime Minister, two public inquiries, one High Court challenge, the relentless drive of Dick Knight and Martin Perry and finally, £97 million of Tony Bloom’s personal fortune. Who wouldn’t want to stay (relatively) sober after all that?

Not drinking much did not of course mean abandoning the pub altogether. And it was in the pub at midday that the magnitude of the occasion finally began to hit home as Football Focus came live from the American Express Community Stadium. That would not have happened at Withdean.

Brighton was the centre of attention of the English footballing world on the opening day of the season. It was all a far cry from two years previously when I had been sat outside Hove Station drinking champagne to belatedly celebrate the fact Brighton had somehow relegation into League Two at the end of the previous campaign.

The result that day? A 1-0 defeat against Walsall to start the 2009-10 season via an Andy Whing own goal. One of those afternoons you needed all the alcohol in the world to get through and even then it was a struggle.

If staying sober before a game was an unusual feeling, then rocking up to the ground 45 minutes before kick off was totally alien. The train journey from Brighton to Falmer was a mixture of excitement and nervousness; that first walk over the green bridge over the railway line and up to the imposing, futuristic looking stadium made you feel like a kid at Christmas.

And then it was through the turnstiles and into the concourse selling beer and pies. Nine-year-old me eating chips with more salt than the Atlantic Ocean contains and drinking a hot chocolate that resembled a cup of smoking, liquid shit at the Goldstone Ground would never have believed this possible.

Doncaster had of course provided the opposition in that final game at the Albion’s last permanent residency on Saturday 26th April 1997. The pouring rain matched the occasion as Brighton bid goodbye to their home of 95 years, sold by Bill Archer, David Bellotti and Greg Stanley who intended to kill the Albion and pocket the profits.

Their plan though was foiled. Albion fans fought back, Knight wrestled control of the club from Archer and appeared in the director’s box for the first time as chairman for that final farewell to the Goldstone.

Knight and a sell out crowd of 11,341 watched Stuart Storer score the only goal of the game as the Seagulls moved off the bottom of the Football League for the first time since December. One week later and the Great Escape from the Conference – and possible extinction – was completed away at Hereford United.

Doncaster themselves had been through a journey over the intervening 14 years nearly as traumatic as Brighton. Their own chairman had tried to burn down the main stand at their Belle Vue ground, they had dropped into non league and nearly gone out of business before rising back through the divisions to become a Championship club playing at the brand new Keepmoat Stadium. It is little wonder there is a bit of bond between the clubs.

So much so that Brighton had actually requested to the Football League that their first fixture at the Amex be against Doncaster. How often the “fixtures computer” is tampered with to pander to such requests is a bit of a mystery, but the fact that it was readily agreed to and the Championship season began with Brighton v Doncaster to mirror that final game at the Goldstone and complete a journey 14 years in the making tells you how important this occasion was.

Important and emotional. Everyone has their own point at which the tears started coming. For some, it was the moment that they first set eyes on the sight of a 23,000 seater stadium belonging to Brighton.

For others, it was when the montage of great Albion moments played on the big screen before the game. Storrreeerrrrr, Superb from Jimmy Case and the Stuff of Champions all serving as a reminder of the past. The stadium we were now in suddenly promised an even greater future.

In between the end of that montage and the teams emerging onto the pitch, there was a lull in the music. “Brighton are back, Brighton are back, hello, hello” echoed around the Amex. Blue and white flags waved. It was a sensory overload.

Yours truly managed to hold it together until about 10 seconds into Good Old Sussex By The Sea was being belted out and Gordon Greer led the Albion out at their new home.

All those trips to Gillingham and sitting in the pissing rain at Withdean wondering how much your sixth but of pneumonia in the space of three years knocks off life expectancy suddenly seemed worth it.

After so much anticipation in the build up to the match, it would have been the most Typical Brighton thing ever to play out a dull 0-0 draw or lose 1-0 to an own goal.

Remarkably, that did not happen and we actually ended up getting an action packed 90 minutes featuring controversy, anger, drama, tension and ultimately, a winner deep into the sixth minute of injury time.

Having sauntered to the League One title in swashbuckling style under Gus Poyet in 2010-11, Brighton came into the game as strong favourites despite Doncaster being the established Championship outfit.

There are no easy games in the second tier of English football however; Donny were dangerous opponents and the Albion also needed to avoid becoming overwhelmed by the occasion.

Poyet talked about that in the build up to the game, stressing the need to keep emotions in check if Brighton were to successfully implement their brand of calm, collected passing football which had delivered such success.

Whilst the players heeded Poyet’s words, Gus himself ended up being the man who couldn’t keep his emotions in check as he managed to get himself sent to the stands before the game had even reached half time. The first sending off at the Amex and it was not even a player. Classic Gus.

Another reason why Brighton were so fancied to triumph was because of the money Bloom had spent over the summer. The Albion had broken their transfer record three times; firstly on Will Hoskins, then Will Buckley and finally on Craig Mackail-Smith. Kazenga LuaLua had also arrived for an undisclosed fee rumoured to be in the seven figure ballpark after two successful loan spells.

Despite the cash splashed, Poyet largely gave the players who had delivered such a memorable season last time out the opportunity to make history as the first starting XI at the Amex.

Nine of those involved had finished the 2010-11 season with Brighton. The exceptions were Mackail-Smith and LuaLua, who replaced the departed Glenn Murray and Elliott Bennett.

Casper Ankergren, Inigo Calderon, Marcos Painter, Greer, Liam Bridcutt, Gary Dicker, Matt Sparrow and Ashley Barnes all looked to continue where they had left off.

In the absence of the injured Adam El-Abd and Tommy Elphick, a teenage defender called Lewis Dunk stepped in to partner Greer at centre back. Wonder what ever happened to him?

Dunk had quite the task against one of the Championship’s best marksman, Billy Sharp. Doncaster started the game the better and Sharp should have put them 1-0 ahead early on but he somehow blazed over from six yards from a James Coppinger cross with only Ankergren to beat.

Poyet’s descent into madness began when Barnes got cut in half right in front of the dugouts by Tommy Spurr for a deserved booking. The mood of the Brighton boss did not improve minutes later when LuaLua tumbled to the ground in the Doncaster area and referee Eddie Ilderton booked the winger for diving.

To say that did not go down well with Poyet would be an understatement. Mr Ilderton was eventually summoned over to try and deal with Gus, leading to Poyet’s banishment to the West Stands.

The referee seemed to take great delight in now being the centre of attention, especially when Poyet was then told to move for a second time as his new seat in the media area was apparently too close to the dugouts.

Things were heating up nicely now. Richard Naylor joined LuaLua and Spurr in the book for a mistimed tackle and Barnes missed a glorious chance to put the Albion ahead when his weak effort was hacked off the line by George Friend before Doncaster turned party poopers and took the lead.

No prizes for guessing who scored it, Sharp despatching a low effort which squirmed underneath Ankergren and into the back of the net for the first competitive goal at the Amex. Doncaster led Brighton 1-0 at half time, which was most definitely not in the script.

Poyet withdrew LuaLua at the break, introducing Craig Noone in the first of two game changing substitutions. Half an hour later came Buckley’s 75th minute introduction in place of Sparrow.

There was one other big moment before Buckley entered proceedings. Dunk made a clumsy challenge from behind on Sharp which led to Doncaster’s talisman leaving the action on a stretcher.

Donny fans were incensed, calling on Dunk to be thrown into Broadmoor for a 10-year stretch for ending Sharp’s career. That was of course a total overreaction as Sharp was back from injury within two months; in that moment though, any hope Doncaster had of adding to their lead against Brighton was gone.

With Rovers now utterly toothless, it was up to Brighton to navigate a way back into the game. Buckley was the man to provide it, lashing home from the edge of the box after only eight minutes on the pitch.

Given that we had just witnessed a piece of history with the first ever Albion goal at the Amex, the celebrations were a little subdued. The reason? It was only an equaliser and Doncaster looked there for the taking. There were seven minutes plus injury time to find a winner.

It eventually arrived in the sixth minute of injury time, as if the Albion had been deliberately leaving it as late as possible for maximum drama.

Noone showed brilliant quick feet in the middle of the park to create some space before splitting the Doncaster defence with a perfect through ball played with the outside of his boot to put Buckley through.

Everything suddenly seemed to be happening in slow motion. Buckley was advancing on goal, he had only Gary Woods to beat. He opened up his body and hit a right footed effort towards goal.

In that one moment, the Amex fell silent. 20,000 Albion fans collectively held their breaths… and then the net in front of the North Stand rippled and Buckley was tearing away towards the corner flag to celebrate.

The noise that greeted the winner was something that those who were lucky enough to hear it will never forget. Bloom must have been worried that the shiny roof was about to be lifted off his new stadium.

It was not quite Storer in the final game at the Goldstone Ground, but it wasn’t far away. Not bad, considering that Buckley’s goal was nowhere near as important as that one 14 years previously.

When the final whistle blew seconds later, Fatboy Slim’s Praise You began pumping out across the Amex. Whoever chose that deserved a medal as it was the most perfect song to round off the most perfect 90 minutes.

We’ve come a long, long way together. Through the hard times and the good. I have to celebrate you baby. I have to praise you like I should.

Brighton v Doncaster was a day to praise Bloom, Knight, Perry and everyone else involved in delivering the Amex. It was a day to celebrate the Albion. We had come through a lot of bad times and as for celebrations?

It was finally time to get drunk.

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