Blackpool away, Tuesday night, the petrol crisis of 2000
Blackpool away, Tuesday night, petrol crisis – six words that when put together should have made Brighton & Hove Albion’s trip to Bloomfield Road on September 12th 2000 a write off for Seagulls supporters.
Call it stupidity or call it dedication, but 341 Brighton fans could not be put off by the prospect of running out of fuel somewhere on the 594 mile round journey between Sussex and Lancashire.
And those who travelled were handsomely rewarded with a first away win and clean sheet of the season as Micky Adams’ team began to show the sort of form which would lead them to be crowned Division Three champions come the end of the 2000-01 season.
Brighton had been on a mini-tour of the United Kingdom as the fuel crisis grew in seriousness. On Tuesday 5th September 2000, the Albion undertook the short journey to the Den for a highly creditable 1-1 draw with higher division Millwall in the second leg of their League Cup first round tie.
On Thursday 7th September, the first protests at fuel rising to 82p a litre – the most expensive in the world – begin in the United Kingdom.
Inspired by similar action in France, around 100 farmers and lorry drivers from Wales and north-west England blockaded the Stanlow Shell Oil Refinery in Cheshire, stopping tankers leaving the site to fill up the nation’s petrol pumps.
Saturday 9th September saw Brighton record another decent draw, this time away at promotion rivals Cardiff City. The previous day, more than 100 lorries staged a “go-slow” protest on the A1 before blockading the Texaco refinery in Pembroke.
Refineries around the country were by now struggling to get any fuel out at all as oil companies instructed tankers to stay put for fear of their safety amidst the growing anger.
Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown said on Sunday 10th September that he would not be swayed into cutting the duty paid on fuel to bring prices down, which in turn caused people to start panic buying for fear of petrol stations running dry.
Once stockpiling by the public began, it snowballed and by the time the Albion are making their way to Blackpool, more than 90 percent of the country’s petrol stations have run dry.
Whilst government ministers hold a series of crisis meetings on getting fuel out of the refineries, Brighton supporters were concerning themselves how to get to the Vegas of the North.
With no trains back south afterwards, unless you were willing to undertake an overnight stay, the journey had to be made via car. That led to a real team effort amongst the 341 who hit the road, not knowing if they would make it home.
Once one Brighton fan discovered a petrol station on the M40 around Oxford with supplies, news spread like wildfire among the traveling contingent.
The forecourt was soon inundated by Albion supporters clad in blue and white, stocking up with precious petrol. Cars were filled and so were extra containers as backup for the journey home.
Once everyone arrived in Blackpool, these extra containers proved a God send to supporters who had been unable to refuel on route. Those who were lucky enough to have excess supplies shared them with those who did not.
It was like Jesus feeding the 5000, if the 5000 were 341 people taking on board petrol rather than fishes and bread to watch a fourth tier game of football as opposed to witnessing the son of God preach.
Bloomfield Road was about to undergo a total rebuild at the time, meaning it had just two crumbling stands open and three floodlights remaining.
Not only had Brighton fans travelled 594 miles to Blackpool using their last reserves precious fuel, but they had done so to witness 90 minutes of football from the worst away terrace in the Football League at the time – yes, even worse than Withdean.
It proved to be all worth it. A strong north wind blowing unhindered by the lack of stand from one end of Bloomfield Road to the other meant that whichever team made the most of their 45 minutes playing with the gale were likely to be the ones who emerged victorious.
Brighton had the advantage in the first half. On 33 minutes, Paul Rogers made it count, latching onto a poor headed clearance from Blackpool’s Ian Hughes to rifle home a volley from 12 yards past Phil Barnes in the home goal.
Gary Hart added a crucial second with literally the last kick of the half. The trip to Blackpool in the petrol crisis came right at the start of Hart’s reinvention as a right winger.
He first fulfilled the role in the draw at Millwall two games earlier as Adams opted to have Bobby Zamora lead the line alone in a 4-5-1, ably supported by Hart down the right and Nathan Jones or Paul Brooker down the left.
Hart showed what he could do from his new position out wide when escaping the attentions of Tommy Jaszczun, cutting inside and hitting a brilliant 25 yarder which dipped and swirled with a little help from the wind to nestle in the far corner of Barnes’ goal.
At half time, the Blackpool mascot paraded up and down in front of the Albion contingent with a petrol can. That could not spoil the Brighton mood as the 341 retorted with a chant of “We ain’t got no petrol, we ain’t got not petrol, la la la la, la la la la.” Nothing lifts the spirits in a national crisis like being 2-0 up away at Blackpool.
The players were going need plenty of fuel in their tanks for the second half as they now faced the ominous task of defending the wind which seemed to be getting stronger as the evening went on.
This Albion team though were a classic Adams side who were about to start hitting the peak of their powers and they displayed the battle, the fight and the defensive fortitude that was the Adams trademark in his first spell as Brighton manager.
Danny Cullip marshalled the defence with young Matt Wicks on his third appearance since joining on loan from Peterborough United alongside him.
Paul Watson and Kerry Mayo were excellent in the full back roles; Rogers, Charlie Oatway and Richard Carpenter chased and harried everything in midfield and Hart and Jones played their parts too by helping out defensively.
Blackpool were no slouches in attack. John Murphy was a regular scorer in Tangerine across the lower divisions and Brett Ormerod would be a Premier League player with Southampton within a couple of years. Supplying that talented front line was Ritchie Wellens, later to become a Championship regular in a very good Leicester City side.
Such were the Albion’s defensive efforts that Mark Cartwright in goal had only two saves of note to make. He kept out a Phil Clarkson effort from a tight angle and then used his legs to deny Ormerod just past the hour mark – a big stop from the on loan Wrexham man which prevented Brighton having to defend a one-goal lead in what would have been a very nervy final 30 minutes.
Paul Simpson did hit the post with five minutes remaining but Brighton held on for three very impressive points against a Blackpool side who ended the season winning the playoffs to earn promotion alongside the Albion.
It was all a far cry from 15 days earlier when a 2-0 home defeat to Kidderminster Harriers had seen Brighton slip to 21st in the table, suffering three defeats from four games which led to chants of ‘Adams out’ ringing around Withdean.
Adams did not pull any punches after the defeat to Kidderminster, saying, “It was bitterly disappointing and the fans who booed us off were spot on, we were a load of rubbish.”
He was in a much better mood at Blackpool, praising his players for digging in for victory before turning his attention to the Brighton supporters who made the trip despite the fuel crisis.
“The thing that astonished me most at Blackpool was the level of support we had at the game, bearing in mind the current petrol crisis – you are all a credit to Brighton & Hove Albion,” Adams said, before adding, “We are more than flattered by your dedication to the cause.”
Adams spent the journey home from Bloomfield Road plotting how to make Wicks and Cartwright permanent additions to his squad. Brighton fans meanwhile concerned themselves with how to complete a 297 mile trip back from Blackpool in the middle of a petrol crisis.
Some had to nurse their vehicles home at 40mph with no radio or heating for the entire journey to conserve fuel. Others limped back on fumes with warning lights flashing from as far away as Wycombe.
Some did not make it. There were tales of Brighton supporting cars being left strewn across the country as they ran out of fuel, leaving fans to make the rest of the journey home by train the next day. They returned once the fuel shortage was over to collect their transport.
One supporter who abandoned his vehicle somewhere in the north of England left it there for 11 days, picking it up again on the way to the away game at York City on September 23rd. That too ended with a victory and clean sheet on the road, this time 1-0 via a Jones goal.
The Albion were now begin to motor towards to the Division Three title. As for the fuel crisis, the day after Blackpool v Brighton, panic buying spread to supermarkets as people began to stockpile bread and milk for fear that no petrol meant no deliveries of food.
Food shortages proved to be the straw that broke the camel’s back. When it was just fuel being impacted, public support for the protests was as high as 78 percent.
Once the disruption threatened food and other essential supplies – the NHS was placed on red alert – that support dropped to 36 percent. On Thursday 14th September, the protestors called off their blockade of refineries.
In November’s budget, Gordon Brown announced a number of changes to ease the burden on motorists, which included freezing fuel duty for at least two years.
The petrol crisis had helped the protestors make their point – whilst Brighton had picked up all three at Blackpool in front of 341 supporters who made it to Bloomfield Road and back against all the odds.
