McShane in the 79th minute: The night Brighton rocked Palace at Selhurst
Selhurst Park hasn’t been the happiest of hunting ground for Brighton and Hove Albion in recent times. The Albion’s record since 1984 when visiting that squalid area of Croydon reads played 14, won two, drawn five, lost seven, scored 14, conceded 27. Ouch.
Both those victories are therefore extremely memorable. The most recent was delivered by Anthony Knockaert’s stunning goal bent into the top corner from 35 yards in March 2019.
The previous saw Paul McShane become the Brighton hero at Palace, scoring his first goal for the Seagulls after signing on-loan from Manchester United at the start of the season. Not a bad time to do it.
Which of those wins at Selhurst was better? Knockaert’s rocket to complete a Premier League double over the Eagles was good, but given the circumstances it has to be McShane in the 79th on Tuesday 18th October 2005.
What made this particular success over Palace all the more special was that it was so unexpected. You would have had to sniff a significant amount of glue in the lead up to the game to suggest that Mark McGhee’s side would come away with anything.
Firstly, there were the contrasts in form. Before McShane struck at Palace, Brighton had won only one league game all season – a 2-0 success over Plymouth Argyle two months previously.
Even that was misleading given the Pilgrims had basically handed us the points on a plate by playing 72-year-old Taribo West at centre back.
Palace meanwhile were looking to bounce back to the Premier League at the first attempt after relegation. They arrived in great form, having won three on the bounce for a total of eight wins out of 14. The Albion’s last eight wins had been spread over a period of 10 months.
Then there were the respective squads. Palace had a current England international striker in Andrew Johnson in theirs, although he missed the game at Selhurst which, given he netted a hat-trick on the club’s previous meeting there, might go some way to explaining why Brighton won on this occasion.
But even without Johnson, Iain Dowie’s ugly mug could still call upon full internationals such as Gabor Kiraly and Clinton Morrison and proven Championship performers like Jobi McAnuff, Danny Butterfield and Fitz Hall.
The Albion did not have a pot to piss in and when they did have a pot to piss in, they would often stick complete and utter shit in it like Federico Turienzo, signed for a six figure fee despite McGhee discarding him after one failed trial in a friendly against Lewes.
Two of the stand out performers from Brighton’s 2004-05 season in Adam Virgo and Dan Harding had left in the summer, and Brighton had replaced them with Jason Dodd and Colin Kazim-Richards. In short, there was a chasm in class between the two sides.
This pretty woeful squad by Championship standards did at least give birth to Mark McGhee Bingo. McGhee had always had a liking for players playing out of position with Virgo’s exploits as a centre forward being the main example, but in the 2005-06 season it kicked up a notch.
You could just imagine McGhee sitting in a darkened room, curtains drawn, a Scottish film like Trainspotting or Braveheart playing quietly on the television in the background whilst he swigged whiskey straight from a bottle of Glenfarclas and drew names out of a hat as to who would be playing in what position the following day.
McGhee Bingo at Selhurst gave us Paul Reid – a right footed central midfielder – at left back. Gary Hart – a striker or attacking right winger – started at right back.
When Richard Carpenter – a central midfielder – was forced off after being hit in the face by Tom Soares after just 25 minutes, we saw Alexandre Frutos – a left winger – replace him.
Actually, that change from McGhee did kind of make sense as Dean Hammond – a central midfielder who had instead started out wide – came inside, leaving the Albion to play with two out-and-out wingers.
Frutos and Sebastien Carole could now fly down the wings and deliver crosses into the box. A great game plan with a front two of Leon Knight and Jake Robinson, who would not have enough combined height between them to go on some of the rides at Chessington World of Adventures.
As is normally the case in derby games, it was low on quality and high on effort. Remarkably, the Albion were the better side with Wayne Henderson only having to make one save of note all evening from Morrison.
At the other end, Kiraly’s mother would have had a tough time washing all the mud out of his pyjama bottoms as he was kept busy all evening, denying Robinson, Knight and Frutos and sprawling across his goal a couple of times for efforts that flashed just wide.
Scoring goals had been a real problem all season for the Albion and it looked as though it would cost them the chance of a famous win as the clock ticked into the final 15 minutes with the score locked at 0-0.
Then the Albion were awarded a corner in front of the Whitehorse Lane Stand. Carole delivered and McShane rose highest to head home and give Brighton the lead against Palace.
It was a ridiculous header and the sort of goal you only see in derbies, when heightened adrenaline and the will to win means players can often summon something superhuman – in this case the height McShane had to reach, the way he had to contort his body and the power he got to send the ball flying past Kiraly.
McShane ended up being voted Brighton Player of the Season come the end of the campaign and that one moment of magic against Palace no doubt played a significant part in his popularity.
It was a tense last 15 minutes after that and Palace put the ball into the back of the net with the final kick of the game through Morrison.
The Eagles supporters next to Brighton fans in the Holmesdale – away fans were housed adjacent to the home end in the days before the locals discovered fire and Primark’s range of £6 black hoodies – went mad, taunting the Albion support with some lovely hand gestures and a lot of noise.
What they had not noticed was that the linesman’s flag was up, the game was restarting and Brighton were still winning 1-0. And that is how it ended 30 seconds later.
There were wild scenes of jubilation on the pitch at the end with the players celebrating as if they’d just won promotion. And who can blame them?
A season that was one of the worst in living memory outside of the War Years is still looked back on fondly, purely because of the fact that Brighton won at Selhurst for the first time in a generation.
Reid went onto say that the 1-0 victory over Palace was the highlight of his footballing career, and he’s played in a play-off final, won the A-League and represented Australia.
That is what a win away at Palace means and that is why October 18th 2005 remains one of the Albion’s greatest nights.
Palace: Gabor Kiraly, Danny Butterfield, Darren Ward, Emmerson Boyce, Fitz Hall, Jobi McAnuff, Michael Hughes, Tom Soares, Marco Reich, Dougie Freedman, Clinton Morrison.
Subs: Jon Macken (Freedman 63), Ben Watson (Reich 73), Wayne Andrews (McAnuff 83), Gary Borrowdale, Julian Speroni (unused).
Brighton: Wayne Henderson, Gary Hart, Paul McShane, Guy Butters, Paul Reid, Sebastien Carole, Richard Carpenter, Charlie Oatway, Dean Hammond, Jake Robinson, Leon Knight.
Subs: Alexandre Frutos (Carpenter 25), Colin Kazim-Richards (Robinson 71), Adam El-Abd (Knight 90), Kerry Mayo, Alan Blayney (unused).
Goals: McShane (79)
Attendance: 22,400
