Brighton v Newport County: History & head-to-head of Seagulls v Exiles

It may be over 50 years since Brighton & Hove Albion and Newport County last met in a league match, but before 1966 this was a fixture with a rich history which used to provide a lot of goals.

Brighton and the Exiles have faced each other on 71 occasions. The Albion have been the dominant side, winning 40 of those and scoring 142 times. Newport have tasted 19 victories, netting 78 and 12 of the matches have ended in draws.

The first time the clubs encountered each other was in the 1913-14 season in the Southern Alliance League. They then clashed in Southern League Division One in 1919-20 before the Southern League became Division Three South of the Football League for the 1920-21 season, which is where the real fun began.

Between 1920 and 1958, Brighton and Newport faced each other in every Division Three South season except for 1946-47 when Newport were promoted to Division Two for the only time in their history.

The fixture first started gaining a reputation as a goal fest on the opening day of the 1925-26 campaign. The offside rule had been changed at the end of the previous season in an attempt to encourage more attacking play, and it certainly did that as neither the Brighton or Newport defences could get to grips with the new laws with seven goals flying in at Somerton Park on Saturday 29th August 1925.

It was the hosts who came away with a 4-3 victory in front of an extremely happy home crowd of 11,232. From that point on, Brighton v Newport became one of the most entertaining fixtures in Albion history – and also one of the most inconsistent.

Take the 1930-31 season for example. On Good Friday April 3rd 1931, Brighton hammered Newport 5-0 at the Goldstone Ground thanks to braces from Dave Walker and Geordie Nicol and a goal from the Albion’s record appearance holder, Tug Wilson.

Three days later and the return match took place on Easter Monday. The tables had been well and truly turned within 72 hours as Newport were easy 2-0 winners, part of a run of four games without a win for Brighton which ended the promotion hopes of Charlie Webb’s side.

The Albion’s first ever match in the unloved Division Three South Cup came against the Exiles in the 1933-34 season. Only 1,000 fans turned out to watch at Somerton Park on Thursday 22nd February 1934 where Arthur Attwood scored the only goal of the game.

Brighton would go onto make the semi finals – the furthest they ever went in the competition in their history – eliminating Queens Park Rangers following their win over Newport before falling in a second replay against eventual winners Exeter City.

September 28th 1935 saw the first of a series of huge wins over Newport as Brighton hammered their Welsh counterparts 7-1 at the Goldstone. What made that result all the more remarkable is that it came just a week after a 5-0 defeat away at Coventry City, proving that even as long ago as the 1930s, the Albion were more than capable of ‘typical Brighton’ moments and frustrating inconsistency.

Newport won their one and only promotion to Division Two in the 1938-39 season with Brighton six points behind in third place. The Albion might have fared better had they not stumbled so much in their meetings with the Exiles, losing 2-0 at Somerton Park in November and then drawing 0-0 at the Goldstone in mid-March as the campaign prepared to enter the business end.

The Exiles had to wait seven years to compete in the second tier for the first time in their history as World War II put competitive football on hold; sadly, it was only a brief stay as they were relegated back to Division Three South after only one season, meaning that normal fare between Brighton and Newport could continue for the 1947-48 campaign.

This was a disastrous time for the Albion. Tommy Cook’s time as manager was not working out as anyone had hoped and he departed with the season just 17 games old. Webb also stood down after 28 years at the helm as secretary-manager, with Don Welsh taking over the reigns.

Welsh though could not stop Brighton finishing bottom of Division Three South, thanks in part to a terrible run of form in the last two months.

After beating Newport 3-0 at the Goldstone on Saturday 10th April 1948, Brighton failed to win any of their final six games to slip from 18th to 22nd, forcing them to face the dreaded vote for re-election to the Football League for the only time in their history.

The Albion won the vote quite convincingly, maintaining their spot among the professional ranks at the expense of non-leaguers Colchester United, Gillingham, Worcester City, Bath City, Bridgend Town, Chelmsford City, Lovells Athletic, Merthyr Tydfil, Peterborough United and Yeovil Town who had all applied for election.

It was onwards and upwards from that point with Brighton never troubling the bottom places again. Welsh turned out to be such a success as manager that he was headhunted by Liverpool in March 1951.

His replacement Billy Lane had only been in the job for a month when he delivered the biggest ever league win in Brighton history when Newport came to the Goldstone on Wednesday 18th April 1951. 9-1 was the final score with the Brighton goals coming from Ken Bennett (2), Doug Keene, Johnny McNichol (4), Des Tennant and Jack Mansell.

Newport gained some revenge three seasons later when they ended what was then the longest winning streak in Brighton history. Lane had overseen seven consecutive victories between January 9th 1954 and March 6th 1954 before Newport beat Brighton 1-0 at Somerton Park.

That club record would stand the test of time for 57 years until Gus Poyet He Who Must Not Be Named’s Brighton won eight in a row in Mad March 2011 on their way to the League One title.

There was another big Brighton win in the first round of the FA Cup in the 1955-56 season as Newport were hammered 8-1 by the Albion. Peter Harbun scored four, Denis Foreman three and Frankie Howard one.

The Albion then followed that up by beating Newport 4-1 at the Goldstone on Boxing Day before losing 1-0 in the return match at Somerton Park 24 hours later. Again, typical Brighton.

When Brighton won promotion to Division Two for the first time in their history in 1958, that was pretty much the end of Seagulls v Newport as a fixture.

Four meetings took place in Division Four between 1963 and 1965 and Brighton eliminated the Exiles from the FA Cup in 1966 as goals from Dave Turner and Eric Whitington secured a 2-1 win at Somerton Park. It was the last time the Albion would play at Newport’s former home.

There has been just one meeting in the intervening 55 years and it was a memorable one for Newport. The Exiles had just returned to the Football League after a 25 year absence for the 2013-14 season when they were paired with Championship side Brighton in the first round of the League Cup, making it their first match in the competition for a quarter of a century.

Brighton had their own reasons to view it as an historic occasion as Oscar Garcia was in the home dugout at the Amex for the first time. The popular Spaniard could not mark the day with victory however as Newport pulled off an almighty cup shock, winning 3-1 in extra time.

The Albion had taken the lead through Ashley Barnes but a red card for Inigo Calderon changed the complexion of the match. Newport substitute Danny Crow took the game to extra time before putting the Exiles 2-1 ahead with Conor Washington adding a third for the visitors.

Calderon’s dismissal for a tackle which broke the leg of Byron Anthony drew a lot of ire from Newport connections, but in a sign of what a class act he is, the Spaniard dashed straight to hospital after the match and spent the night pushing Anthony around in a wheelchair and making sure he was okay.

Let us hope there are no broken legs or player visits to hospital when the sides meet in the FA Cup this time around. And if Brighton could avoid another shock cup exit at the hands of the League Two outfit, that would be nice too.