Did Zamora miss on purpose to help keep Brighton in the Championship?

They are the greatest conspiracy theories of our time. The moon landings being faked. Paul McCartney dying in a car crash and being replaced by a look-a-like. The CIA being behind the JFK assasination. Bobby Zamora deliberately producing a wonderful miss for West Ham at Withdean to help keep Brighton in the Championship.

Okay, so the Zamora miss has not had millions of words written on the internet about it. Netflix are unlikely to commission a documentary examining exactly what happened on Saturday 23rd April 2005 at the Theatre of Trees either. Nor can you join a Bobby Zamora Missed On Purpose Society to discuss the subject with like-minded weird folk.

Yet to this day it remains a topic of conversation which crops up every now and again amongst the 6,561 Albion fans who were present for Brighton 2-2 West Ham.

Forget whether man did actually set foot on the moon, what we all want to do when sat in the pub is discuss that Zamora miss against Brighton and whether it was intentional.

As with all great myths and legends, this one starts with something that seems impossible. The basis for the conspiracy theory was that after producing his astonishing second half miss, Zamora winked at the crowd to suggest it was deliberate.

Even with the best will in the world, it is hard to give this credence. You would be hard pushed to spot a striker wink at a normal football stadium, let alone at Withdean where fans were separated from the action by eight lanes of running track.

The Hubble Space Telescope would be needed to pick out such fine details of player facial expression for those sat in the South and North Stands.

And Zamora was a boyhood West Ham fan too. He might have enjoyed his three season stay at Brighton, received universal love from supporters for his goal scoring exploits in firing the Albion to two promotions, but would be really produce a deliberate miss?

Especially given the importance of the game to West Ham, who needed three points themselves in the battle for a Championship playoff spot.

At the business end of the season, with promotion to the Premier League on the line for the Hammers, Zamora cannot have had any sympathy for the Seagulls’ plight, right?

And yet that is what makes it such a tantalising conspiracy theory. One that has entered Brighton folklore as playing a defining role in keeping the Albion in the second tier against the odds.

Brighton had been doing reasonably well up until Christmas of the 2004-05 season. Five seasons at Withdean though was beginning to bite on the club’s finances.

Tony Bloom was still a couple of years away from pumping in money as a silent investor, so Dick Knight had to seriously listen to any offers for his star players to raise funds to keep the club afloat.

In the space of seven December days, that led to Darren Currie and Danny Cullip being sold for £250,000 each. A terrible shoulder injury to Michel Kuipers a month later meant Mark McGhee had lost his three most important players for the second half of the campaign.

Six consecutive defeats through March and early April plunged the Albion into the relegation zone. The run was ended with draws against mid-table Leicester and Burnley, helped by 18-year-old Jake Robinson turning into prime Michael Owen after being recalled from a loan spell at Aldershot.

West Ham though would prove an entirely different test to Foxes and Clarets outfits who had nothing to play for. The Hammers rocked up at Withdean needing points to pip Reading to sixth place in the table and the final playoff spot as they attempted to end a two-season spell outside the top flight.

Brighton meanwhile knew that defeat could leave them four points adrift of safety with just two games of the campaign left to play.

They also had a vastly inferior goal difference to that of Crewe Alexandra, Gillingham and Cardiff City, which would have effectively made the gap five points. Defeat was not an option.

As important as the Zamora miss was, Brighton 2-2 West Ham was also the day that Dean Hammond really burst onto the scene.

The midfielder had scored the equaliser in the previous week’s 1-1 draw at Burnley – the infamous game when McGhee threw Mark McCammon off the team bus and made him get the train home – and followed that up with both goals against the Hammers.

Brighton got off to the worst possible start when falling behind after only eight minutes. Matthew Etherington scampered away down the left and hung up a cross to the back post for Marlon Harewood.

Harewood could have gone for goal himself but he was unselfish, knocking down to Nigel Reo-Coker. He beat Albion goalkeeper Alan Blayney to the ball to scramble it into the back of the net.

McGhee shook things up on 51 minutes, replacing Adam El-Abd with Gary Hart. The change took just three minutes to pay off, Hart whipping in a perfect cross from the right which Hammond ghosted into the box unmarked to head past Jimmy Walker.

Brighton were not level for long, however. Within two minutes, Walker sent a long kick forward which was misjudged by Guy Butters.

Teddy Sheringham – who would go onto gain fame as a singing tree on The Masked Singer – took full advantage, beating his fellow veteran in the air with a clever flick on to send Harewood clear.

Harewood had the simple task of lifting the ball over Blayney and into the back of the net. Not exactly the famous West Ham way, but no Hammers supporter in the North East corner was complaining as their side were heading back into the top six.

Zamora entered the game on 59 minutes in place of Sheringham. The infamous miss arrived – much to Withdean’s delight – shortly after as West Ham sought to put the game beyond doubt.

Another reason to doubt the Zamora conspiracy theory is that Harewood produced an even more ridiculous miss himself. Shaun Newton channelled his inner Cafu for a moment, leaving Dan Harding in a spin to deliver a perfect cross.

Harewood had been left completely free at the far post. All he had to do was place a header out of the reach of Blayney and West Ham would have their three points.

Instead, he inexplicably went for a totally unnecessary acrobatic volley which ended up causing significant damage to the passing 16.29 Brighton to London Bridge service.

Having also seen Reo-Coker put an easy one-on-one chance wide of the post in the first half, perhaps the whole West Ham team wanted the Albion to stay up? How nice of them.

Still, Brighton had to punish all those misses by finding an equaliser. McGhee necked a pint of whiskey and became bold, chucking on Robinson to play the final 20 minutes with a front four.

The Albion left it late, but eventually they got their leveller. 91 minutes had elapsed when Richard Carpenter sent over a corner and Hammond rose highest once again to head home.

Cue bedlam at Withdean as Brighton stole a 2-2 draw with West Ham. Seagulls supporters were far too busy celebrating to pay any attention to whether Zamora was winking at the equaliser as well as the miss, which is a shame as that would add some more substance to the myth.

Three points at already-relegated Rotherham United a week later lifted the Albion out of the drop zone. Their escape from the clutches of League One was completed with a 1-1 draw at home to Ipswich Town on the final day.

Brighton survived by one point. Had they finished on 50 alongside Crewe and Gillingham, they would have gone down on goal difference instead of the relegated Gills. That is how important the draw with West Ham was. Or to be more precise, the Zamora miss was.

As for West Ham, they qualified for the playoffs where Zamora famously ended up being the hero. There was to be no miss and wink at the Millennium Stadium, where his 57th minute goal gave the Hammers a 1-0 win over Preston North End and promotion to the Premier League.

All is well that ends well.