Brighton, Chelsea and the 60s FA Cup tie which set crowd record
Whoever was in charge of ticketing arrangements when Brighton drew Chelsea in the 1966-67 FA Cup fourth round deserved a medal.
With one genius move, they managed to set two Albion attendance records which are unlikely to ever be broken.
Unless the capacity of the Amex gets expanded beyond 35,000. Or B teams end up playing in the Football League at some point and there is a sudden explosion of interest in watching Brighton Under 21s.
In league terms, the 1966-67 campaign was pretty crap. The Albion spent most of the season just above the Division Three relegation zone, eventually finishing in 19th place. Only two points away from dropping into Division Four.
But in cup terms, there was plenty of excitement. Brighton reached the fourth round of the League Cup for the first time ever. They knocked out a couple of higher division opponents along the way in Norwich City and Coventry City.
The Albion were then just seven minutes away from a place in the quarter finals when Northampton Town equalised to take Brighton back to the County Ground for a replay.
This did not go as well as could be hoped. It finished Northampton 8-0 Brighton, for the second-heaviest ever defeat in Albion history.
Not that the Seagulls showed any ill-effects from being hammered by the Cobblers. Brighton won four of their next five matches, including opening their FA Cup campaign with a 2-1 win at Newport County.
Victories over Southern League Bath City in round two and a third round replay success over Aldershot secured a plum tie for Brighton – star studded Chelsea at home.
The public interest in facing the Blues was made clear by the Goldstone Ground crowd for that replay win over the Shots.
29,208 attended with the carrot of Chelsea dangling. More than double the previous home game, when 13,591 turned up to watch a 1-0 win over Mansfield Town.
Beating Aldershot 3-1 thanks to goals from Eric Whittington, Kit Napier and Charlie Livesy meant Tommy Docherty bringing his Blues side full of household names to the Goldstone.
England internationals Peter Bonetti and Bobby Tambling. Eddie McCreadie and Charlie Cooke of Scotland. And £100,000 centre forward Tony Hateley.
Brighton against Chelsea in the FA Cup was therefore going to be the hottest ticket in town. Which is where this unknown person in charge of ticketing earnt their money.
You are probably aware that the internet did not exist in the 1960s. No Twitter meltdown after losing 8-0 to Northampton. No online casino offering reel spinning without investing funds. And certainly no logging onto a computer to purchase a football ticket which then downloads into your digital wallet.
Anyone who wanted a ticket for Brighton against Chelsea in the FA Cup therefore had to head to the Goldstone to buy one. In person. Printed on paper.
In a ridiculously crafty move, the Albion put said tickets on sale at the same time as the Reserves were playing Notts County in the Football Combination.
I suppose the modern day equivalent would be Brighton drawing Real Madrid in the Champions League. And tickets only being available to buy if you popped down to the Amex to watch the Under 21s against Whitehawk in the Sussex Senior Cup. Not that we want to give Paul Barber OBE ideas or anything…
The result was queues snaking from the back of the Goldstone West Stand, up Newton Road, onto Old Shoreham Road and beyond. A total of 22,229 people paid to watch Brighton Reserves take on Notts County in order to secure their Chelsea FA Cup ticket.
This set a somewhat dubious record of biggest ever crowd to watch an Albion Reserve home game. One which will stand forever more unless 22,230 people decide to watch Brighton Under 21s in the future.
Capacity at the Goldstone for the Chelsea FA Cup game was capped at 35,000. It easily sold out, making it the biggest attendance for a home FA Cup tie in Albion history and the second-highest in any competition. Only bettered by the 36,747 who watched Brighton beat Fulham 3-0 on Saturday 27th December 1958.
What followed was a classic FA Cup tie. Albion boss Archie Macaulay did his best to disrupt the Division One visitors, telling Chelsea one hour before kick off that neither side would be allowed to warm up on the pitch because it might damage it.
No problem for third tier Brighton, used to such inconveniences. But not something the top flight Blues were accustomed to.
Tambling gave Chelsea a fifth minute lead but they suffered a blow when John Boyle was sent off for kicking Wally Gould before half time.
Four minutes after the break and young Brighton captain Dave Turner equalised. The 22-year-old had apparently fallen off his settee at home in excitement when seeing the Albion paired with Chelsea on that there tellybox.
Brian Tawse thought he had won it for Brighton towards the end with a blistering volley giving Bonetti no chance. The Goldstone roar was described as deafening but the joy was short lived.
Referee Jim Carr ruled that Napier had infringed somewhere and the goal was ruled out. Meaning a Wednesday night replay under the lights at Stamford Bridge.
Chelsea did not follow Brighton’s suit and put tickets on sale at a reserve game. Although they might have wished they had. 54,852 crammed into the Bridge, catching the Blues by surprise.
The turnstiles had to be shut on an estimated 3,000 more to prevent overcrowding – many of them Seagulls supports.
But even with the lockout, it was another near-attendance record from an Albion point-of-view. Brighton had only ever played in front of a crowd bigger than that at Chelsea once in their history, when 56,649 were present at St James Park for an FA Cup fourth round tie in 1930.
There was by now little love lost between Brighton and Chelsea before they stepped onto the pitch for the FA Cup replay.
The Blues were incensed at a deep gash they claimed had been left on the leg of Byrne by Gould, causing him to kick the Albion winger in retaliation when receiving his marching orders at the Goldstone.
Other flashpoints in the first tie included Brighton full back John Templeman being booked for a pretty violent tackle on Charlie Cooke. Bonetti meanwhile ended up in a long conversation with Mr Carr after being clattered by Gould.
Comments made to The People newspaper by Macaulay served only to fire things up further. Macaulay claimed Chelsea only wanted to kick Brighton off the park, that Blues boss Docherty had sworn at him.
And that he had “lost all respect for Chelsea after the way they conducted themselves. They were dead lucky to get a draw.”
The Albion gave a good account of themselves at Stamford Bridge through the opening 20 minutes. Had Jim Oliver connected with a Gould cross with the score at 0-0, Brighton may well have silenced the crowd and gone onto cause further problems.
Oliver though could not quite get there. Tambling punished the miss by putting Chelsea 1-0 up on 23 minutes. He then doubled the Blues’ lead on 32. Second half goals from Hatley and Allan Young completed a 4-0 success for Chelsea.
Not that everyone was impressed by the Blues that night. Daily Express journalist Desmond Hackett wrote afterwards he would walk barefoot from Wembley if Chelsea ended up winning the FA Cup.
Mr Hackett must have been sweating come Saturday 20th May 1967 when Docherty led his side out at Wembley to face Spurs in the final. His feet were saved as Tottenham ran out 2-1 victors thanks to goals from Jimmy Robertson and Frank Saul.
But forget Spurs or Chelsea. The real winner from the 1966-67 FA Cup? Whoever was running the Brighton ticket office.
