Phil Prosser the tosser who caused defeat in Coppell’s first Brighton game

“When things aren’t going your way, there are times when you feel like the world is against you.” That’s how Brighton & Hove Albion’s matchday programme described the Seagulls’ 2-4 home defeat to Sheffield United in October 2002. Except the world was not against Brighton – only one man was: Phil Prosser

Prosser was the referee who delivered a performance so biased that he received a standing ovation as he left the pitch from one set of supporters and had a Member of Parliament from the other side saying he should be banned from officiating.

“The referee, in my view, gave a totally inept – some would say corrupt performance. He showed inconsistencies and bias towards Sheffield United,” said Ivor Caplin before going onto call for the FA to launch an inquiry and to suspend Prosser while it was ongoing.

The Labour MP for Hove wasn’t the only Albion fan incensed by the decisions from the man in the middle during Brighton 2-4 Sheffield United.

Several hundred supporters gathered on the running track in front of the South Stand as the game came to it’s painful conclusion to voice their displeasure and objects were even thrown towards the pitch. Quite the baptism of fire for Steve Coppell in his first game in charge of Brighton.

The former Crystal Palace boss, newly cleared of VD following his move south, should have been celebrating the occasion with a win. With any other referee on the Football League circuit, he would have been.

Neil Warnock’s Blades might have been the side in the hunt for promotion, but in the first half there was only one team in it as the Albion defied the form guide which showed 10 consecutive defeats and their position rock-bottom of the table to go into the break 2-0 ahead.

It was a dream opening 45 minutes to the Coppell era. The contrast with the clueless fare served up in the brief reign of Martin Hinshelwood could not be starker.

The new boss had been restricted to two full training sessions with the squad and he decided that the best way forward was to go with experience over youth, recalling Charlie Oatway and Gary Hart in place of Dean Hammond and Daniel Marney.

Most interestingly, Coppell handed the captain’s armband to 21-year-old Bobby Zamora in the absence of the suspended Danny Cullip, who was replaced by Guy Butters.

The Argus described Butters as looking “leaner” since his last appearance a month previously, which probably meant he now weighed just the 18 stone as opposed to the 25 he did when arriving from Gillingham.

It was to be Butters’ last game in an Albion shirt for nearly a year before his incredible regeneration as a stalwart defender and future Player of the Season winner.

From the first minute, the United defence were struggling with the pace and movement of Zamora and Graham Barrett. It was Barrett who set up the first goal midway through the half, delivering a dangerous cross from out on the right which Hart met with a diving bullet header.

The second arrived 11 minutes later, Zamora this time popping up on the opposite flank to drill a precision cross to the near post where Barrett arrived to head home. That was the on loan Arsenal forward’s first goal for the Albion. It would also be his last.

Brighton had two strong penalty appeals turned down by Phil Prosser which drew plenty of ire from the Withdean faithful and those non-awards proved costly once Warnock introduced Carl Asaba to proceedings just before the hour mark.

The Albion managed to get through the next 10 minutes unscathed until Michael Brown fired a low shot past Michel Kuipers from the edge of the box to half the deficit.

Asaba himself levelled things up with 13 minutes to left to play. Michael Tonge showed why he was one of the most highly rated young players in the country at the time as he embarked on a brilliant solo run into the box, only to be halted by an Adam Virgo tackle. Unfortunately for the Albion, the loose ball fell straight to Asaba, who made no mistake to smash home an equaliser.

It stayed 2-2 until the 86th minute when the Prosser Show began in earnest as the referee awarded two inexplicable penalties to gift Sheffield United their 2-4 victory over Brighton.

If Professor Charles Xavier had have been at Withdean that day, he would have offered Prosser a position with the X Men without a second thought after the official showed superhuman powers of sight to decree that Kuipers had bought down Asaba despite being around 25 yards from the incident.

There was no doubt that Kuipers got a touch on the ball before he made contact with Asaba, which Prosser couldn’t see because he was so far away.

The fact that he had no sure way of telling if it was a foul or not didn’t seem to matter to Prosser who pointed to the spot anyway, with Assaba duly converting past an infuriated Former Dutch Marine.

Coppell complained afterwards, “It was the kind of thing you get at Old Trafford at the Stretford End with 60,000 screaming for it. I was very surprised and I think an awful lot of people were when the penalty was given.”

That wasn’t the end of the surprises as Prosser went and awarded a second penalty two minutes later, this time adjudging Virgo to have brushed against Wayne Allison in the box.

The decision was made all the stranger by the fact that not one visiting player appealed for foul. Sheffield United didn’t think it was a penalty, the Albion players didn’t think it was a penalty, neither bench thought it was a penalty and nobody in the stands thought it was a penalty. Only one man thought it was a penalty. An astonishing decision.

Asaba again beat Kuipers from 12 yards to complete a 13 minute hat-trick and send all three points back to Bramall Lane. To make matters worse, Prosser then reported that he and United striker Peter Ndlovu had both been racially abused on making their way off the pitch at the end.

This was despite neither Ndlovu nor the stewards who had to escort Prosser from the field of play to protect him from being lynched hearing anything.

Both an internal inquiry carried out by Brighton and an FA external inquiry could find no evidence of the apparent racism, with some wondering whether Phil Prosser had exaggerated the missile throwing incident in an attempt to cover up his own ineptitude on the pitch.

Whatever the reasons for the misunderstanding, Brighton’s reputation suffered something of a kicking as a result – but not as much as Coppell’s men had received on the pitch though.

From Brighton 2-0 Sheffield United with 20 minutes to go to Brighton 2-4 Sheffield United at the the final whistle – and all because of Phil Prosser the Tosser.