Brighton, Newcastle and Adam El-Abd dancing with an inflatable FA Cup
When the ever growing list of iconic Amex Stadium moments gets wheeled out, there always seems to be one notable omission. You know what we are referring to. Adam El-Abd dancing with a seven feet tall inflatable FA Cup after Brighton beat Newcastle United in 2012.
Here he was, the Albion’s hard man defender tasting victory against Premier League opponents for only the second time in his nine years as a Seagull.
How else could be celebrate but by skipping around with a total stranger dressed as the trophy? And they have the nerve to say the FA Cup has lost its magic these past 20 years.
El-Abd was a wind up merchant at the best of times, but he seemed to know how to get under the skin of Newcastle in particular.
Before rubbing their noises in it by showing off his moves with the mascot, he had been involved in a running battle with Leon Best. Yes, that Leon Best.
This culminated in Best and his teammates losing their rag with the Egyptian King. Yohan Cabaye somehow got away with a stamp on El-Abd after kicking out at the Albion defender when the two tangled on the ground in the second half.
Danny Simpson decided to victimise Craig Mackail-Smith in retribution, producing a horror tackle to earn a yellow card. That sparked a fantastic argument on the side lines between Mauricio Taricco and Newcastle assistant boss John Carver.
When the only goal of the game arrived shortly after to hand the Albion a 1-0 win, Tano did what Tano did best – celebrated wildly to antagonise the visiting bench even further.
Brighton 1-0 Newcastle was memorable for other reasons than merely the antics of El-Abd. It was the first time Brighton had eliminated a top flight side from the FA Cup since Chris Cattlin led the Seagulls to the quarter finals in the 1985-86 season.
Their opponents 25 long years earlier? Newcastle again, defeated by goals from Eric Young and Dean Saunders at St James’ Park.
Brighton’s next top flight victims in the FA Cup after Newcastle in 2012 also happened to be Newcastle, beaten 2-0 at the Amex a year later in the third round of the 2012-13 competition.
The Toon were floundering just above the relegation zone for their 2013 visit, making a win for promotion pushing Brighton no giant killing.
That was not the case on El-Abd dancing with giant inflatable FA Cup day. Brighton 1-0 Newcastle was a genuine FA Cup shock, a mid-table Championship outfit eliminating a Toon side who would end the 2011-12 campaign in fifth place in the Premier League.
Newcastle fans arrived in Brighton expecting an FA Cup run. Alan Pardew had a team packed with talent as their finishing position just four points off the Champions League places showed. Said finish also contributed towards Mike Ashley handing Pardew his infamous eight year contract.
This was a time when the big clubs’ disdain for the competition was at its peak. Portsmouth had twice reached the final in the previous five seasons. Wigan Athletic would go onto win it the following year.
For a team like Newcastle good enough to qualify for Europe, the FA Cup in 2012 represented a very realistic opportunity of securing a first piece pf major silverware since 1955.
Pardew realised this. He paid Gus Poyet He Who Must Not Be Named and Brighton respect, naming a very strong team including future Albion goalkeeper Tim Krul, Jonas Gutierrez and El-Abd’s new best friends, Cabaye and Best.
Best you cry? Yes, it turns out he was actually half decent during his time with Newcastle with a surprisingly good scoring record in the Premier League.
Not the disinterested timewaster who could not hit a cow’s arse with a banjo, who Chris Hughton inexplicably opted to sign on loan for the second half of the 2014-15 season over extending Darren Bent’s stay with the Albion.
The only first choice player Newcastle were missing was top scorer Demba Ba. That was not through choice; Ba was away at the African Cup of Nations with Senegal.
Given how good El-Abd and Gordon Greer were on the evening of Saturday 28th January 2012, it is doubtful Ba would have made much difference anyway.
Poyet The Dark Lord was in bullish form going into the game. He wrote in his programme notes: “Newcastle will be a totally different test for us against one of the best teams in the country, but we should not be overawed by the occasion.”
“We faced a similar situation against Sunderland and Liverpool in the Carling Cup and in both games we applied ourselves well and both sides knew they had been in games against us.”
“Beating Sunderland no doubt gave Newcastle something to smile about and our second half performance against Liverpool was one we were proud of.”
Both of those League Cup matches had come against weakened Premier League sides. Brighton beating Newcastle in the FA Cup felt a lot bigger because it was the first time in a generation that the Albion defeated opponents of true top flight quality in 90 minutes.
Poyet He Who Must Not Bed Named had been gearing Brighton up for this moment since he he first walked through the door 26 months earlier. His aim was to revolutionise the Albion on-the-pitch, to eventually be able to compete with Premier League standard teams like Newcastle.
Brighton had destroyed everyone in the 2010-11 League One season playing a brand of possession football that nobody thought could win you a third tier title until Poyet You Know Who proved otherwise.
The first six months in the Championship had not been without speedbumps. Poyet He Who Must Not Be Named had decided to give his League One champions the chance to prove themselves at the next level, making only minimal changes to his squad.
A difficult autumn saw the Albion struggling to score. That form hit its nadir on New Year’s Eve in a 2-0 defeat away at rock bottom Coventry City in which Brighton failed to have a single shot on target.
Poyet You Know Who reacted by making wholesale changes for the next fixture, a home game against leaders Southampton. In came the likes of Peter Brezovan, Matt Sparrow and Jake Forster-Caskey.
The Albion wiped that smug grin of the face of Nigel Adkins with a 3-0 win. They had remained undefeated ever since, meaning that confidence was high about causing an historic upset against Newcastle.
Brighton showed they would not cower against their Premier League opponents. The Albion set out to dominate possession as they would in their bread and butter of the Championship.
Newcastle too wanted to get on the ball. That meant plenty of pretty passes but a very congested midfield, making outright scoring opportunities hard to come by.
Best headed a good chance over and Peter Brezovan saved with his legs. Mackail-Smith fired wide and Will Buckley went close on two occasions with a cross-shot and then getting crowded out by the Toon defence.
Buckley looked the player most likely to break the stalemate. Whenever Brighton’s first million pound man used his pace and directness down the right flank, he had the beating of Davide Santon.
Poyet He Who Must Not Be Named realised this and the Albion were instructed to constantly look to use their passing football to work the ball out to Buckley in the second half.
It was here where the winning goal duly came from. Buckley slalomed around Santon and into the Newcastle box with a mix of stepovers and speed. He fired a shot towards Krul, it hit Mike Williamson on the way through and ended up in the back of the net.
Officially, it went down as an own goal. That was harsh on Buckley, whose effort had looked like it might beat Krul even without the deflection off Williamson.
There were 14 minutes remaining when Buckley struck. Brighton saw the remaining time out relatively comfortably, save for one hairy moment when a Cabaye shot seemed to strike Ashley Barnes on the arm.
Newcastle wanted a penalty. Justice was done when their appeals were turned down. Cabaye after all should not have even been on the pitch by that point following his kick at El-Abd.
And there was El-Abd at full time, dancing with that inflatable FA Cup. The Streets won’t forget an iconic moment in Amex Stadium and Albion history.
