Brighton massacre Crystal Palace on St Patrick’s Day 2013

For fans of the Black Stuff, Sunday March 17th 2013 was an historic day in Amex Stadium history. Guinness was served on tap for the first time and it would take something pretty spectacular on the pitch to steal the limelight. Step forward Brighton 3-0 Crystal Palace.

The St Patrick’s Day massacre as it became known within about five seconds of the final whistle was one of the most complete performances the Albion have ever given against their arch rivals.

But what made it truly special is that it was the first home win an entire generation of Brighton supporters had experienced over Palace.

You had to go back nearly 25 years to Boxing Day 1988 for the previous Seagulls against Eagles clash which saw the visitors leave Sussex empty handed.

It also felt like a changing of the guard. Brighton were the club with the shiny new stadium, the young up-and-coming manager, a rich chairman, a team full of continental flair playing modern passing football and closing in on a Palace side who had started the season at the top of the Championship but were now falling back into the playoff picture.

The Eagles in contrast played in a relic of a ground and were managed by Ian Holloway with a starting XI who cost less in total than Brighton had lavished on a single player in Craig Mackail-Smith.

Admittedly, within two months of Brighton 3-0 Crystal Palace it was the Eagles promoted to the Premier League via playoff semi final victory at the Amex, ending the Gus Poyet Era in the process.

The Guinness tasted nowhere near as sweet on Monday 13th May, but that just serves to underline why Albion fans had to thoroughly enjoy St Patrick’s Day 2013.

Because days like those rarely happen against Palace, with their annoying habit of receiving their entire season’s worth of good fortune in the 180 minutes they face Brighton.

Not even all the luck in the world could have saved Palace from the Albion on this occasion. Brighton were utterly sublime from the back four to Leonardo Ulloa up top.

Such is the importance of Brighton v Palace games that legends can be born through one match alone. Ulloa had only been an Albion player for two months when the Eagles rocked up.

Becoming the first player to score a hat-trick at the Amex had already bestowed immense popularity upon him.

A double past Julian Speroni cemented his place as a Brighton great in double quick time and meant the Albion had finally found their heir to Glenn Murray, who in contrast barely had a sniff on his return to Brighton in Palace yellow.

Between those two Ulloa goals, David Lopez also wrote his name into Brighton folklore. To score in a Seagulls v Eagles game is one thing; to do it via a perfect direct free kick lifted up and over the wall into the top corner is something else.

Lopez finished third stop scorer in 2012-13 behind Mackail-Smith and Ulloa. His nine goals were of varying importance, yet how many other than the Palace free kick can you remember?

One moment of majesty overshadows all else, to the point that Lopez is remembered as a great player. That goal masks the fact he was pretty average in his second season with Brighton before being released in the summer of 2014.

And it deserves to mask it, because it was beautiful. The best goal Lopez said he ever scored in his career, no less.

Poyet rarely named two out-and-out wingers in his starting XI, so it was something of a surprise when the team news came through with both Will Buckley and Kazenga LuaLua in the team.

His hand had been partly forced by Ashley Barnes serving a seven game ban for tripping referee Nigel Miller a week earlier when Brighton were beaten 1-0 by Bolton Wanderers at the Reebok Stadium.

Mackail-Smith and Will Hoskins were both out with long-term injuries, so Poyet was left with little in terms of attacking options.

But there was also a tactical element behind Poyet’s decision. Palace were most dangerous down the flanks with Wilfried Zaha one side and Yannick Bolasie the other.

If Buckley and LuaLua could cause enough problems to force Zaha and Bolasie into having to do more defending than attacking, then Murray would have no supply line and Brighton would have a much better chance of winning the game.

Poyet’s plan worked to perfection, making it all the more bizarre he did not replicate it for the playoff semi final second leg at the Amex.

Given how comfortable the eventual 3-0 outcome was for Brighton against Crystal Palace on St Patrick’s Day, it is easy to forget that the Albion had to weather a storm before three goals in eight minutes blew the visitors away.

Zaha may have been at the beginning of his career, but he already had a determination to do whatever he could to beat Brighton.

He teed up chances for Jonathan Parr to fire straight at Tomasz Kusczcak and Murray, who headed wastefully wide. The Amex delighted in taunting the man who would go onto become the Albion’s record scorer for that miss.

Matthew Upson almost scored what would have been a very impressive own goal, Kusczcak making a superb save to claw a misplaced clearance out of the net.

The importance of that intervention from the Big Pole in Goal became clear minutes later when Brighton took the lead. Buckley crossed and Ulloa bundled home his first of the afternoon at the back post.

That was on 43 minutes. There was still time before the break arrived for the Albion to double the advantage. Buckley was hacked down by Kagisho Dikgacoi and Lopez punished the foul in the most spectacular style.

Any hopes that Palace had of half time bringing a respite proved misplaced as within three minutes of the restart, Brighton had their third.

Buckley was again involved, picking out Andrea Orlandi. Orlandi’s header dropped perfectly for Ulloa to smash home in front of a North Stand who could scarcely believe what they were seeing.

Palace were beaten and there were still 42 minutes of normal time to play. It was brutal from Brighton and it might have become even more embarrassing for Holloway and his players, Ulloa being denied a hat-trick late on by Speroni. The Eagles goalkeeper then kept out Buckley’s follow up.

The impact that beating Crystal Palace 3-0 had on Brighton over the remainder of the campaign cannot be understated.

Poyet said afterwards: “Because of the win, everything has changed with our mentality. We went three games without a win but now it will be a very exciting end to the season.”

Gus was right. Including the St Patrick’s Day Massacre, Brighton won five and drew five of their final 10 games to go unbeaten until… well, you know the rest.

But for 90 glorious minutes and two months, it was the Seagulls who had bragging rights. A day to remember – and not just for the Guinness.