The Adams era ends in shoot out heartache and a hail of coins
A penalty shoot out defeat to the worst side in the Football League, a hail of coins being launched from pitch invading locals into the away end and a manager sacked. It is fair to say that Brighton & Hove Albion’s Johnstone’s Paint Trophy Southern Section final visit to Luton Town in 2009 was memorable for all the wrong reasons.
Trips to Luton are pretty horrific at the best of times. For reasons unknown, virtually all the pubs become “home fans only” venues, which was not necessarily a bad thing unless you were determined to drink flat Fosters and potentially get glassed by a local.
The way the Bedfordshire Police constabulary treat football fans makes the Met look like it is being run by Saint Peter and the Apostles and Kenilworth Road is just a terrible place to watch football.
Some supporters describe it as “quaint” due to how old-fashioned it is; presumably these people also get nostalgic about other throwbacks from the 1800’s, such as child labour and dying of polio.
Whilst entering the away end through someone’s front room is rather novel, the lack of facilities combined with the horrible home support make it a dive.
These were not the best of times for Luton Town either. They had been smacked with a 30 point deduction at the start of the 2008-09 season due to financial irregularities, all but guaranteeing they would suffer a third successive relegation before a ball had even been kicked. The Conference was calling and as a result, the Hatters had a huge chip on their shoulder.
Luton were gagging for a way to stick two fingers up to the FA and Football League for consigning them to non league football for the first time in their 123 year history, and the Paint Trophy was seen as their best way of doing it – bad news for Brighton.
Appearing at Wembley and lifting a trophy in front of the same officials who had condemned them to their fate was Luton’s idea of revenge. That made them desperate to reach the final.
Brighton meanwhile were desperate to get there for other reasons – namely, to save Micky Adams’ job. It was a badly kept secret going into the game that the Albion manager’s future hinged entirely on the result.
If Adams could defeat Luton in the Paint Trophy and become the first Brighton boss to lead the club to Wembley for 26 years, the fact the Albion were staring relegation to League Two in the face would be glossed over.
Adams would not need to seek new employment with a final to look forward to. If, however, the Albion were to crash out of the competition to the club sitting bottom of the entire league, he was a goner.
That left an interesting dilemma for Albion fans, one which the WAB travelling party debated in Luton Wetherspoons before the game… once we HAD managed to convince the team of 17 bouncers that we were actually Hatters supporters.
Should we hope for a Luton win and elimination from the Paint Trophy in order to guarantee Adams’ departure from Brighton as that would offer a greater chance of League One survival?
Or would victory, Adams keeping his job and a trip to Wembley be compensation for the probability of trips to Macclesfield Town and Aldershot in League Two the following season?
It was a close call, but in the end the general opinion seemed to be that defeat to Luton would not be the end of the world.
After all, there were only so many 1-0 defeats to nine man Walsall, post game interviews saying that the players just needed a hug and team selections involving Adam Virgo on the right wing that any sane person could take.
The Albion gave those secretly hoping for a home win the best possible start to proceedings as they gifted Luton the lead inside of two minutes with a brilliant piece of comedyfending.
The decision to hand Michel Kuipers his first start after 10 weeks out injured with no prior run out in the reserves backfired in spectacular fashion when the Former Dutch Marine came haring out of his goal to try and clear a Tom Craddock flick on.
Unfortunately for Kuipers, he only succeeded in producing a huge air kick, colliding with Virgo in the process. Craddock continued his run and was now left with the simple task of slotting into the unguarded goal.
It was another one for the already impressive highlight reel of defending in the Adams era, which included Colin Hawkins’ bullet header own goal against Hartlepool United and Adam Hinshelwood beating John Sullivan with a back pass from 30 yards against Colchester United.
Luton were ahead for 18 minutes before Albion captain Nicky Forster equalised with the 200th goal of his career. For once, Chris Birchall looked vaguely interested in pulling some strings in midfield and he played in Forster to hit a rasping right footed drive beyond Lewis Price.
Being the wind up merchant that he was, Forster celebrated with his arms outstretched in front of the Kenilworth Road Stand, revealing a message on his undershirt which read “Sorry, but that’s 200”.
Forster’s 200th career goal was soon followed by David Livermore’s fifth career red card. There could be no complaints, the midfielder putting in a needless lunging challenge on Michael Spillane when his Luton counterpart was going nowhere.
With a man advantage and a ferocious home crowd behind them, it was Luton who dominated possession after Livermore’s dismissal on the stroke of halftime.
Brighton did at least manage to restrict the Hatters to largely long range efforts. The closest saw Kuipers redeem himself for that earlier howler by pushing aside Chris Martin’s stoppage time drive from 20 yards.
That meant the game headed for penalties and Adams’ fate would be sealed by 10 kicks taken from 12 yards out in front of the Kenilworth Road Stand.
Brighton had already relied on shoot outs to see them through the second round of the competition against Leyton Orient and the area semi final against Shrewsbury Town.
It wasn’t to be third time lucky as Price saved the Albion’ fourth and fifth spot kicks from Jason Jarrett and Birchall to send Luton through to the final.
Rather than celebrating that fact, Hatters fans spilled onto the pitch and headed straight for the away end. They stood there taunting the Albion supporters before the coins started coming.
While this was going on, Bedfordshire Police in all their wisdom insisted on a lock in for away fans, meaning that there was no escape from the flying shrapnel.
Escaping Kenilworth Road may have been hard that night, but the result did at least mean an escape from the Adams nightmare.
There were 60 or so hours between Birchall’s decisive missed penalty and Dick Knight issuing Adams with his P45. A little over two weeks later, Russell Slade was appointed as Brighton’s new manager.
Luton went onto lift the Paint Pot by beating Scunthorpe United in the final, delivering the “up yours” to the authorities they had been so desperate to give.
Slade meanwhile oversaw the most unlikely of great escapes, overcoming a six point deficit with five games to go to secure League One survival on the last day of the season.
Missing out on Wembley? Best thing that could have happened to the Albion.
Luton Town: Lewis Price, Ed Asafu-Adjaye, Claude Gnakpa, Michael Spillane, Sol Davis, Ian Roper, Keith Keane, Rossi Jarvis, Chris Martin, Sam Parkin, Tom Craddock.
Subs: Asa Hall (Roper 25), Jake Howells (Spillane 64), Ryan Charles (Davis), Paul McVeigh, Dean Brill (unused).
Scorers: Craddock 02.
Albion: Michel Kuipers, Andy Whing, Adam Virgo, Adam El-Abd, David Livermore, Jason Jarrett, Chris Birchall, Dean Cox, Tommy Fraser, Calvin Andrew, Nicky Forster.
Subs: Tommy Elphick (Cox 45), Steve Cook (Andrew 77), Colin Hawkins, Jonny Dixon, John Sullivan (unused).
Scorers: Forster 20.
Sent off: Livermore 45
Attendance: 8,711
