Brighton v Manchester Utd: History & head-to-head of Seagulls v United

Brighton & Hove Albion and Manchester United have met 27 times in their history but it is a fixture that will always be associated with one particular match.

Saturday 21st May 1983 is the day we are referring to and the game in question was the FA Cup Final at Wembley Stadium. Brighton’s one and only appearance in the final of the world’s greatest cup competition remains one of the best days in the club’s history.

Nobody gave Brighton a hope, especially without their captain Steve Foster. No team had ever been relegated from the top flight and won the FA Cup in the same season.

Were it not for Gary Bailey’s legs and Gordon Smith’s shooting boots, the Albion might feasibly have entered the history books. With the sides locked at 2-2 in the final seconds of injury time, Michael Robinson slipped in Smith.

The normally reliable Scottish centre forward had just Bailey to beat. But he couldn’t do it, instead firing a shot straight at the legs of the United goalkeeper. The chance went, a replay was convened for five days later, Foster returned, and Brighton were hammered 4-0.

How different might the respective history of Brighton and Manchester United have turned out if Smith had scored and the Albion had won the cup?

Within 15 years of the FA Cup Final, Brighton had slipped into the bottom tier of English football and were homeless. Manchester United were under the management of Sir Alex Ferguson and in the midst of a golden period in which they won every trophy going.

The Albion’s homelessness came as the culmination of years of financial mismanagement. Brighton might have gone out of business in the 1992-93 season had they not been handed three paydays in cup competitions against United which helped pay various bills to the tax man to keep the club afloat.

The League Cup was the first of those competitions, back in the days when the early rounds were played over two legs. Ferguson brought United to Hove on Wednesday 23rd September 1992 for a 1-1 draw, a night made famous for a teenager called David Beckham coming off the bench for his Manchester United debut.

Beckham was greeted by a deafening chorus of “Who the f**king hell are you?” from the 16,649 packed into the Goldstone. His first contribution as a United player was to fail to track the run forward from left back of Ian Chapman, who hung up a cross to the back post for Matthew Edwards to head home the Brighton equaliser.

England’s future captain didn’t feature in the second leg two weeks later at Old Trafford, a game won 1-0 by United through a Mark Hughes goal.

Those League Cup ties were worth £92,000 to the Albion and another £100,000 was pocketed three months later when the FA Cup third round draw sent Brighton back to Old Trafford. United again ran out 1-0 winners again, this time with Ryan Giggs on target.

Brighton and Manchester United met for the first time in their history in the FA Cup, a 1-0 defeat for the Albion at United’s former home of Bank Street.

They have faced each other seven times in total in the competition, crossing swords in the third round in the 1980-81 season – when United needed a replay to win through – and in the quarter finals of the 2017-18 campaign at a snowy Old Trafford.

That 2-0 defeat to goals from Romelu Lukaku and Nemanja Matic did not come as a much of a surprise to anyone; at that point in time, the Albion had beaten United only once in 18 attempts, a 1-0 victory in the 1982-83 season with Peter Ward netting.

Since then though, the Albion’s form against United has picked up markedly with the record now reading four wins in 28. Those three recent success all came at the Amex Stadium and all are unlikely to be forgotten anytime soon.

Pascal Gross scored the only goal in May 2018 as Brighton beat United 1-0 to secure Premier League survival on a memorable Friday night under the Amex lights.

Three months later and an enthralling clash went the way of the Albion. Glenn Murray, Shane Duffy and Gross again were on target in a 3-2 victory for Chris Hughton’s side, a remarkable turnaround given the season had kicked off a week earlier with a terrible 2-0 defeat at Watford.

May 2022 then brought one of the most famous victories in Brighton history when Manchester United were hammered 4-0 by Graham Potter’s rampant Seagulls.

United still had hopes of qualifying for the Champions League. The Albion meanwhile had won just three matches out of 17 at the Amex, scoring only 12 goals.

Moises Caicedo put Brighton into a half time lead with his first goal for the club. Marc Cucurella, Gross and Leandro Trossard all scored in the opening 15 minutes of the second half, putting Brighton four goals ahead inside an hour.

United interim boss Ralf Rangnick (did you know he once played in the County League for Southwick?) responded by introducing England centre back Harry Maguire. Yes, the mighty Red Devils were reduced to strengthening their defence to restrict Little Old Brighton heaping further embarrassment.

It was an utterly glorious evening of football and one which nobody will ever forget for all the right reasons. Unlike United’s September 2020 visit to the Amex, which nobody will ever forget for all the wrong reasons.

The full time score was Manchester United 3-2 Brighton – but that only told half the story of a controversial 97 minutes which ranks as one of the strangest games in Albion history.

Brighton were totally dominant, scoring through Neal Maupay and Solly March and hitting the woodwork five times, a Premier League record. Trossard smacked the frame of the goal three times alone.

Somehow though, Graham Potter’s side found a way to lose. Six minutes of injury time were awarded and yet the game rolled into a seventh additional minute, at which point Maupay rather stupidly handled the ball in the box.

Still, it looked like the Albion had got away with it as the final whistle blew. VAR though decided to stick its beak in, leading referee Chris Kavanagh to award a penalty even though he had signalled that the game was finished. Bruno Fernandes duly despatched and football had another ready example of how video technology was changing the game for the worse.