Brighton v Sheffield United: History and head-to-head of Seagulls v Blades

Back in the 1910s and 1920s, the Albion had something of a reputation for being FA Cup giant killers. One of the more extraordinary upsets that Brighton have pulled off in their history came in their first ever meeting with Sheffield United in the first round of the world’s greatest cup competition in 1921.

Facing the top flight Blades looked a tough enough challenge on its own. But Brighton’s task was made even harder as a flu epidemic swept through the squad in the lead up to the January clash at the Goldstone, leaving Charlie Webb’s side to have a very strange look about it.

In a set of selection decisions that Mark McGhee would have been proud of, Webb had all kinds of players playing in all kinds of weird and wonderful positions. Most notably, he named regular full back Jack Thompson as a centre forward.

These bizarre selection policies ended up working. Wally Little opened the scoring so early that many of the crowd missed the goal which proved to be the only one of the game, sending United out of the competition and setting the Albion up for a plum tie with Huddersfield Town in round two, who were just about to start their domination of the decade under the management of Herbert Chapman.

Brighton had a long wait before they crossed swords with the Blades again. 37 years to be precise, when the Albion finally realised their long-held dream of reaching the second tier of English football in 1959.

It is at this level that 24 of the 30 meetings in the history of Brighton versus Sheffield United have taken place. Overall, United have won 13 to Brighton’s nine with seven draws thrown in.

When people look back at the Albion’s missed opportunities to win promotion reach the Premier League, the focus tends to be on the conspiracy between Tottenham Hotspur and Southampton in 1978 which kept Brighton out of the top three on the final day or the failed play off campaigns in 2013, 2014 and 2016.

But there was another opportunity which often goes forgotten. It was a long shot, but victory over Sheffield United on the final day of the 1984-85 season coupled with defeats for Blackburn Rovers, Portsmouth and Manchester City could have seen Brighton sneak into Division One for the second time in the Albion’s history via third place.

Chris Cattlin’s side did their bit, beating the Blades 1-0 through an own goal. Unfortunately though, all three of the other required results went against the Seagulls and it was City who joined Oxford United and Birmingham City in winning promotion to the promised land.

The most extraordinary meeting between Sheffield United and Brighton in the history of the fixture so far took place at Bramall Lane in September 1989 – in fact, it’s one of the most ridiculous games that the Albion have ever been involved in.

United raced into a 3-0 lead and looked to have the three points sewn up early on until Brighton launched a sensational comeback to go 4-3 ahead thanks to two goals apiece from Paul Wood and Kevin Bremner.

The action still wasn’t done and the Blades added two more to their tally, retaking the lead to eventually see off Barry Lloyd’s men 5-4. Lloyd’s first game as Albion boss had been against United two seasons earlier in a 0-0 FA Cup draw, a far cry from the nine-goal thriller in South Yorkshire.

Brighton lost the replay 2-1 at the Goldstone and ended the season being relegated from the second tier, their final win of the campaign coming against United on May 2nd with Danny Wilson scoring the only goal in front of just 5,377 spectators.

Imagine that number turning up to the Amex for a Championship game. We haven not always been as well-supported as Brighton fans like to claim.

Stepping into the 21st century and United had the misfortune to visit Withdean on three occasions, two of which were highly memorable.

The first came in October 2002 and etched the name of a referee into the minds of Brighton fans forever more – Phil Prosser. The Albion looked to be heading towards a 2-0 win in Steve Coppell’s first game in charge, only for Mr Prosser to decide he didn’t fancy letting that happen.

In the final 10 minutes, he awarded the Blades two of the softest penalties you’ll ever see as Neil Warnock’s side turned things around to win 4-2.

As a result of his afternoon’s work, Mr Prosser received an actual standing ovation from the visiting supporters as he made his way off the pitch.

This reception was a far cry from that of Hove MP Ivor Caplin, who wanted Mr Prosser investigated for corruption. To cap a mad day, Mr Prosser then claimed he had been racially abused by the Withdean crowd, allegations that were never proven.

Two seasons later and United returned to Withdean with the stadium rechristened Palookaville for the day in honour of Fatboy Slim’s newest album.

The Dick Knight marketing machine went into overdrive as the Albion even debuted their new kit, that wonderful dark-blue number which remains one of our favourite shirts ever. Darren Currie scored in a rare 1-1 draw.