Brighton attempt to attract new generation of fans… and lose 0-4 to Darlington

March 1999. The Albion are now just four months away from returning to the city after a two-year exile playing in Gillingham. Before their homecoming, the Seagulls decide to attempt to reconnect with children in Sussex by bussing them to the Priestfield for a home fixture and offering free admission. The game in question? Brighton 0-4 Darlington.

Growing up in a Sussex school in 1999, you were an oddity if you supported the Albion. Manchester United tended to be the club of choice. Tell somebody you were a Brighton fan and they would say “Yeah, but who is your Premier League team?”

So few kids followed the Seagulls because of the lack of glory. Why support a Brighton side relegated in 1992, relegated in 1996 and almost relegated in 1997 and 1998 when you could latch onto Sir Alex Ferguson’s treble winners?

But an entire generation had also been lost thanks to what the Albion were put through by Bill Archer, Greg Stanley and David Bellotti.

When Brighton fans were fighting to save the club via pitch invasions and protests at the Goldstone, many parents would have – rightly or wrongly – concluded it was not a place to take their children on a Saturday afternoon.

Playing home games in Kent then involved a 150-mile round trip to watch fourth tier football. The time and cost getting to Gillingham to watch fourth tier football was enough to put off people who had previously followed the Albion; let alone families bringing their kids to watch Brighton for the first time.

The Albion taking up residence at Withdean therefore created a unique opportunity to connect with a new generation of young supporters lost over the previous five years.

As a result, 1999 was branded the club’s ‘Year for Youth’. And the visit of Darlington was chosen to showcase the Albion with free bus travel and admission for children from across Sussex, a fantastic gesture which must have come at considerable expense.

All Jeff Wood and his players had to do now was put on a show. Deliver a result and performance which would have one thousand kids watching Brighton live for the first time begging their parents to come again. Ah…

Why was the Darlington game chosen? Well, Darlo had spent the entire campaign in the bottom eight of the Division Three standings.

Obviously, there is never anything like a guaranteed win when it comes to Brighton. But hosting struggling Darlington would have seemed as likely a game as any for the three points needed to produce the first spark of a lifelong love affair between new fans and club.

Brighton though should have perhaps been wary about facing Darlo. 18 months earlier and Darlington had to play for over an hour with 5’6 striker Carl Shutt in goal after number one David Preece was sent off. Still the Albion could not score and it finished 0-0.

Another reason for selecting the visit of Darlington as the ‘Year for Youth’ game was due to it being – and the timing of this is absolutely glorious – Comic Relief weekend.

The club handed out red noses at the match as part of the fun designed to keep the kids entertained in addition to what happened on the pitch.

There was even a poster of the entire first team squad wearing red noses which could be bought in exchange for a small donation to Comic Relief.

The headlines wrote themselves afterwards. These were the days when Andy Naylor could criticise and poke fun at the club rather than operating as a mouthpiece for it for fear of having his access revoked, leading to a quite brilliant opening paragraph to The Argus match report.

“Forget the red noses Albion’s players were wearing in the programme,” wrote Naylor. “Red faces more like. There was nothing comic about their heaviest home defeat for nine years.”

Yes, Brighton 0-4 Darlington meant the Seagulls had saved their worst home loss in nearly a decade for the game chosen to make kids from across Sussex into Albion fans.

It also made it six defeats in a row for the first time in 11 years. Having only replaced the Port Vale-bound Brian Horton a month or so earlier, Wood was already under pressure with the Albion tumbling quickly from playoff contention towards another potential relegation battle.

“The worst display I have ever been involved in,” was the manager’s take afterwards. “There was a total lack of character, commitment and bottle”

Rather than all those children heading back to Brighton having been dazzled by the goals of Gary Hart, the skills of Stuart Storer or the saves of Mark Ormerod, it was hat-trick scoring Darlington forward Marco Gabbiadini who was the star of the show.

Darlo had been long dominant before Gabbiadini gave them an unsurprising lead with 24 minutes on the clock.

Brighton were then in-part to blame for their own downfall, producing a succession of moments in keeping with having been dressed as clowns a few days earlier for that Comic Relief photoshoot.

Paul Armstrong missed a penalty five minutes before half time after Super Richie Barker was fouled in the box by Craig Liddle. Things might well have turned out different had the Albion gone into the break on level terms.

Instead, Gabiadini doubled Darlo’s lead three minutes into the second half thanks to defending which Wood described as “sloppy”. The correct term would in fact be dreadful.

Peter Smith then scored a fantastic own goal to give the visitors their third and the rout was rounded off when Danny Davis conceded a ridiculous penalty converted by Gabbiadini with three minutes remaining.

The aim of the day was to attract a new generation of fans ahead of the imminent return to Withdean. Nothing quite says come and support this Division Three football club like a 4-0 home defeat to Darlington. What an advertisement.