“Boring boring Stoke” give League One Brighton a FA Cup lesson

The fun lasted for all of 14 minutes at the Britannia Stadium on Saturday 19th February 2011. Brighton fans travelled to Stoke City for their FA Cup fifth round clash believing that Gus Poyet’s League One leaders would show their hosts how to play football, only to be 3-0 down before half time.

With hindsight, thinking the Albion could go and win at the Britannia Stadium was incredibly naïve. Even the best teams in the Premier League struggled when faced with the agricultural, physical style of play deployed by Tony Pulis’ team of giants at the greyest, windiest, stadium in the country.

But outplaying every team in the third tier plus Championship sides Portsmouth and Watford in the previous rounds of the world’s greatest cup competition left Seagulls supporters confident that their side were good enough to beat anyone. Yes, even on a cold Saturday afternoon in Stoke.

Liverpool, Manchester City, Chelsea and Arsenal all failed to win at the Britannia in the 2010-11 season. Brighton though were going to be different in their first appearance in the fifth round for 25 years… or so a lot of people thought.

That confidence translated into Albion fans getting on their high horse with a repertoire of songs taunting Stoke for their reputation as a long ball team of set piece merchants compared to Brighton being the Barcelona of League One.

Those opening 14 minutes saw the 3,450 strong away end treat the locals to chants such as “Boring, boring Stoke” whenever the hosts earned a set piece.

“What’s it like to see a pass?” broke out when the Albion began knocking the ball about in the manner which had dominated the third tier of English football.

And then there were classics like “Hooooooooooof” when Stoke went long and sarcastic cheers when Rory Delap launched his first trebuchet of a long throw towards the Brighton goal.

It was from Delap’s second long throw – with “Boring boring Stoke” doing the rounds – that the hosts opened the scoring.

Taunting Stoke for their style of play suddenly looked very silly when Delap threw the ball into the box, Sexy Pete Brezovan got in a right mess and the big bald head of John Carew nodded home.

The second goal came eight minutes later from a well-constructed goal – ironic really given the earlier chorus of “What’s it like to see a pass?”

Marc Wilson and Jermaine Pennant combined down the left to create a lot of space around the normally unflappable Inigo Calderon. Pennant and crossed and Jonathan Walters headed straight through the hands of Brezovan.

The big Slovakian goalkeeper was by now enduring the biggest nightmare of any Brighton player in what The Guardian match report described as a “car crash” of a first half from the Albion.

It would have been 3-0 to Stoke inside of 25 minutes had Brighton captain Gordon Greer not cleared brilliantly off the line when Brezovan had another moment.

The Potters wrapped up the scoring two minutes before half time. Pennant’s corner was flicked on by the unmarked Walters to the unmarked Ryan Shawcross, who headed home.

Three headers. The goals. Stoke 3-0 Brighton. Thankfully, the staff in the away end at the Britannia Stadium kept the concourse bars open during the second half so that those who wanted to drink away their sorrows rather than returning to their seats could.

Those who did brave the action after the break were treated to a much more resilient Albion showing, helped by the hosts sitting back as they knew the game was won.

Brezovan belatedly began to resemble a goalkeeper to keep a clean sheet after the break. Ashley Barnes stung the palms of Thomas Sorensen and substitutes Cristian Baz and Jake Forster-Caskey tried their luck from distance.

That though was as good as it got. Brighton had been given a harsh lesson in the difference in standard between not just the top of League One and mid table in the Premier League, but of the step up from Championship to top flight too.

Greer eluded to that afterwards, saying: “Having played Portsmouth and Watford in the competition, we saw there is massive jump between the Championship and the Premier League. It is a step too far for us at the moment.”

“We knew what to expect from Stoke,” Greer added. “You can do all your work on the training ground but it’s not until you come face-to-face with the likes of Carew, Huth and Shawcross that you realise what a big and powerful unit they really are.”

“Then there was the Rory Delap throw. We obviously don’t have anyone who can launch the ball like he does, so in training last week we practiced by taking our throw-ins further in field.”

“But again, it wasn’t until we witnessed him in the flesh that we realised just how difficult those throws are to defend. As we’ve seen on Match of the Day, plenty of teams have struggled with him – not just us.”

Spurs had been one such team in the past, meaning Poyet had known exactly what to expect from his time as assistant manager to Juande Ramos at White Hart Lane.

Gus being Gus, he was typically exuberant with his own comments: “I came here with Tottenham, so I knew what was coming. I remember that Heurelho Gomes was left crying on that occasion.”

“We trained hard to try and deal with the threat they pose from set-pieces, but now my players know how difficult it is to play against it.”

No Brighton fan – or goalkeeper – was left crying after their own experience at the Britannia. There was merely a bit of dented pride as it turned out the Albion could not do it on a cold Saturday afternoon in Stoke.