Brighton fans demanded Adams’ head after a 0-2 defeat to Kidderminster
When people talk about the impatient and over expectant Brighton crowd, they often portray it as being a recent phenomenon. Something that has come about with a new generation of fans who have only seen success since the Amex opened in 2011.
In the 2019-20 season, Graham Potter and Paul Barber both made very public comments which effectively told supporters to stop moaning. What neither man realised is that Albion fans have a long history of displaying an uncanny ability to turn on their team very easily. Just ask Micky Adams to cast his mind back to August Bank Holiday Monday 2000.
Brighton had just been beaten 0-2 at Withdean by Football League newcomers Kidderminster Harriers, making it three defeats from four games at the start of the 2000-01 Division Three campaign.
There may have been 42 matches remaining, but that was not enough for a large section of the 6,274 crowd, a new Withdean record at the time following the summer construction of two new stands at the east end of the stadium.
The players were booed off afterwards, chants of Adams out rained down from the temporary stands and the very clear demand was that Dick Knight should consider his manager’s position.
You should not need telling about what happened next. Knight stuck with his man and nine months later, the Albion were lifting the title by 10 clear points from nearest rivals Cardiff City.
Fast forward another year and the Division Two championship was in the bag. Adams had gone by that point – headhunted by Leicester City as opposed to being sacked – but it was still very much his team who delivered back-to-back promotions, even if Peter Taylor was at the helm by the time the second batch of silverware was being handed out.
How different might Brighton’s history look if Knight had got an itchy finger, listened to the fans and sacked Adams? It seems highly unlikely that another manager could have started the ball rolling towards successive divisional titles to leave the club playing just one level below the Premier League two years after losing at home to Kidderminster.
Why was there such strength of feeling that day that Adams should go with the campaign just four games old? Expectation, arrogance and the fear of embarrassment played their parts.
Brighton had been the biggest spenders in Division Three over the summer, largely because of the £100,000 outlay on a teenage striker from Bristol Rovers called Bobby Zamora.
Knight had also waved significant wages under the noses of Richard Carpenter, Lee Steele and Nathan Jones – three of the best players in the bottom tier at the time – to bring them to Withdean at the expiration of their contracts with Cardiff City, Shrewsbury Town and Southend United respectively.
That put expectation levels through the roof and confidence surrounding a successful season had given way to arrogance among Brighton fans. You will not find a better example of that than on the opening day when a 3000 strong away end sung “Bring on the champions” before kick off at Southend United.
There was plenty of egg on face afterwards as Southend won 2-0. Brighton squeaked past Rochdale 2-1 in their second game of the campaign thanks to a Zamora brace but there was another reality check 48 hours before Kidderminster’s first ever trip to Sussex when Brighton were beaten 2-0 at Lincoln City.
To make matters even worse, Dave Cameron (Scottish striker as opposed to former Prime Minister) scored the opening goal at Sincil Bank. Six months earlier, Cameron had seen his Brighton career come to an end when he was infamously hauled after just 19 minutes of the trip to Hull City.
When asked why the player had been substituted before the game at Boothferry Park had reached even its quarter point, Albion assistant manager Alan Cork said, “Cameron was useless, full stop.”
Brighton were now looking like the useless ones and those Seagulls fans who had confidently sung about being crowned champions prior to a ball being kicked were being embarrassed every week. Perhaps that is why the fury towards Adams was so strong – his sides failure to win was heaping on the humiliation.
The Argus described the Kidderminster game as a “timid defeat” which was “kids stuff”. Whilst the local newspaper has become too afraid to be overly critical of the Albion in 2020, back in 2000 they wrote that “The Seagulls seem incapable at the moment of coping with the label of promotion fancies.”
Kidderminster took the lead seven minutes into the second half through Ian Foster and they wrapped up their 0-2 victory over Brighton with 20 minutes remaining through Dean Bennett.
Scoring against the Albion was a particularly sweet moment for Foster, who had been part of the Hereford United side relegated to the Conference when Brighton drew 1-1 at Edgar Street on the final day of the season three years earlier.
It says much about the turnaround that Knight instigated during his early years as chairman that the Albion had gone from being 90 minutes from oblivion to having expectation levels that meant supporters wanted a manager fired for not being top of the table after four matches.
Brighton managed just two chances of note in their 0-2 defeat and both involved the Kidderminster bar being rattled. Zamora’s header from a long ball over the top from Paul Brooker provided the first and after the break, Cullip hit the woodwork from a Paul Watson free kick.
Adams cut an increasingly desperate figure as the afternoon went on, even going so far as to make a treble change. On came Rod Thomas, Steve Melton and Kerry Mayo and off went Darren Freeman, Paul Rogers and Brooker.
It made no difference and once Kidderminster had notched their second, you could hear a pin drop around Withdean. Silence gave way to boos, jeers and those Adams out chants at full time as a baying mob gathered on the running track to make their feelings very clear.
Adams for his part sympathised with supporters. There was no talk of taking the positives or learning from it as we get with Potter, whose post-match comments often wind up fans even more by failing to acknowledge when Brighton have been bad.
“A load of rubbish” was in fact how Adams described his Brighton players after the 0-2 defeat to Kidderminster. “It was bitterly disappointing. The fans were spot on, we were a load of rubbish.”
“If I’d had 11 subs I would have used them. We did not have enough belief. We have got players affected by conceding goals and we are making stupid individual errors.”
“I have a squad which is possibly the envy of the division in some managers’ eyes. But they are letting themselves down. The players are lacking confidence for some reason. We have all got to look at ourselves, including myself. If I can’t improve it I’ll be sacked, it’s as simple as that.”
Most telling though were Adams’ words about the Division Three table, which showed Brighton sitting 21st after losing 0-2 to Kidderminster.
“League tables don’t bother me three weeks into the season,” said the Albion boss. They did not bother Knight either and he stuck with Adams, resisting wading in to tell fans who paid their hard earned cash how they should support Brighton as Barber did with his matchday programme notes before the 1-1 Premier League draw with Aston Villa in the 2019-20 season.
A slight tweak in formation saw Brighton move from a 4-4-2 to 4-5-1 after the Kidderminster game, Gary Hart and Jones now supplying lone striker Zamora from the wide positions with an outstanding midfield three of Carpenter, Rogers and Charlie Oatway in behind.
Torquay United were hammered 6-2 at Withdean five days later and the season was belatedly up and running. The Albion did not look back and from the low of being beaten 0-2 at home to Kidderminster, Brighton experienced the highs of two league titles, a play off final victory and taking on some of the biggest clubs in the land in the Championship over the next five years.
Adams had laid the foundations for Taylor, Steve Coppell and Mark McGhee to continue to deliver success. He just needed a little time and not to be sacked 360 minutes into a season which had another 3780 minutes to run.
Patience is a virtue, but one that Brighton fans have never really had.
