The night Michel Kuipers made the best save in Brighton history

Brighton have had many great goalkeepers down the years who have pulled off many unbelievable saves, but it is hard to find anything better than the sensational double stop Michel Kuipers made away at Wolves in 2002.

You know the one we are talking about. It was a save so good it used to feature in the highlights reel played on the Amex big screens before every game.

In amongst classic match winning goals such as Jimmy Case’s free kick which sent Brighton to their only FA Cup Final and Leon Knight’s promotion winning penalty at the Millennium Stadium, there was Kuipers flinging himself around the Molineux penalty area on a cold Monday in November.

It set the benchmark for every save made by a Brighton goalkeeper since. When David Stockdale pulled off that great double stop from a Fernando Forestieri penalty against Sheffield Wednesday in January 2017, the first question on everybody’s mind… was it as good as Michel Kuipers at Wolves?

Likewise the extraordinary, gravity-defying finger tip save Maty Ryan made from a Jannik Vestergaard thunderbolt at Southampton during lockdown in July 2020.

In his role as a pundit, Steve Sidwell hailed it the best save made in the 2019-20 Premier League season. Forget all that Steve… do you think it was better than Michel Kuipers at Wolves? You made your first Albion debut that night, after all.

Robert Sanchez, Tomasz Kuszczak and Wayne Henderson probably pulled off stops that were seen as comparable when they happened, we just don’t remember them now with the passing of time.

Which kind of proves the point. Not many saves are that memorable even five years on, so the fact people still talk about Michael Kuipers at Wolves over two decades later says it all.

The game was 59 minutes old when it happened. Brighton were 1-0 ahead by that point. A classy dink from Bobby Zamora over Matt Murray had given the Albion a shock half time lead.

Wolves were booed off going into the break. The disgruntled locals were very angry that their promotion pushers were being outplayed by the side bottom of Division One, who had not picked up as much as a single point on the road since beating Burnley 3-1 on the opening day of the campaign.

The hosts responded to the audible anger of their supporters by being the better side after the break. It looked a case of when, not if, they would equalise.

That moment appeared to have arrived when a low cross was sent into the Albion box from the right. It evaded the outstretched leg of Dean Blackwell and caught WAB favourite Robbie Pethick by surprise, leaving Alex Rae to hit a powerful first time snapshot towards goal.

With the ball flying through a crowd of players at speed, it seemed destined for the back of the net. But Kuipers had other ideas.

In half-a-second between glimpsing the ball for the first time as it emerged through a sea of bodies and it flying into the goal, Kuipers somehow managed to react quick enough to get his 6’2, 14.5 stone frame down low to his left and palm the shot away.

It was an unreal piece of goalkeeping. The only trouble now being the rebound was heading straight to the feet of Kenny Miller.

With Kuipers lying prone on the ground following his initial heroics, Miller had an open goal to aim at from no more than 10 yards. Or at least that is what everyone thought,

Nobody had reckoned on Kuipers being able to get up from the foetal position he was occupying in the centre of his six-yard-box, extend his right arm into the top left hand corner of the goal and keep out Miller’s follow up. All within the space of about two seconds.

Yet that is exactly what Kuipers did. He even managed to grab the ball as it dropped out the sky to save it from going behind for a corner.

It was not just those inside Molineux who were treated to this piece of astonishing goalkeeping. The game was being shown live on Sky Sports, hence why it took place on a Monday night.

Brighton on television was a rarity in those days. There was less interest in the second tier back then and the Albion were not very good.

To hear a commentary team gushing about a Brighton player was almost an alien concept, as they did about Michael Kuipers at Wolves.

“Fine save…and an even better one to deny the follow up from Kenny Miller. You will not see a better save, double save, than this. This is top quality.”

“How late does he see this shot from Alex Rae? He’s not sure whether it’s coming through, he’s down very, very sharp.” Needless to say, there was only going to be one winner of the Sky Sports man-of-the-match award following those comments.

Just two minutes after the double save and Michel Kuipers was denying Wolves again with another superb intervention.

Dean Sturridge outstripped Kerry Mayo for pace but Kuipers rescued his side once more, using a strong hand to keep out the Wolves stiker’s one-on-one effort.

Wolves did eventually manage to find a way past Kuipers with 14 minutes remaining, although it required a huge deflection to end the Former Dutch Marine’s resistance.

A Marc Edworthy cross was met by Miller, whose volley looked to be heading straight into the arms of Kuipers until it hit Rae on the way through.

That diverted the ball into the bottom corner and just out of the reach of the Albion number one’s desperate dive.

1-1 was how it finished, a fair result but one that was much more pleasing for Steve Coppell’s strugglers than it was Wolves.

There were two other reasons as to why this particular Monday night at Molineux was notable. It was the first time Coppell deployed the 3-5-2 formation which helped transform the Albion’s season.

An injury to Paul Brooker saw Coppell introduce Pethick to the starting XI alongside Blackwell and Danny Cullip in a back three.

Coppell stuck with the new shape until the end of the season, delivering 36 points from 30 games. That form replicated over the 46 game campaign would have seen the Albion finish 15th rather than being relegated.

The damage had been done by the 12 game reign of Martin Hinshelwood at the beginning of the season. It was something of a miracle that the Albion went into the final day with a chance of avoiding the drop if they could win at Grimsby Town and other results went their way.

Brighton were not victorious at Blundell Park. It would not have mattered in any case; Stoke City beat Reading 1-0 to make whatever happened at Grimsby academic.

Wolves in contrast won promotion to the Premier League, although they failed to beat the Albion on their way to doing so.

In the February return match at Withdean, Brighton run out 4-1 winners on one of the most astonishing afternoons of the Albion’s 12 year residency at the Theatre of Trees.

The second reason this night at Wolves was notable has already been touched upon. A 19-year-old midfielder signed on loan from Arsenal made his debut for the Albion as a second half substitute.

Mr Sidwell may not have gone onto have the sort of lengthy Brighton career Kuipers enjoyed, but he did produce a goal every bit as memorable as the Former Dutch Marine’s save at Wolves when scoring from the halfway line at Bristol City in his second spell as a Seagull some 14 years later.

As for Kuipers, this was probably his crowning moment in a Brighton shirt. He could not kick for a toffee and there was often a collective intake of breath whenever he came for a cross.

His shot stopping though was absolutely out of this world, something which few other Brighton goalkeepers in history if any could rival him at.

Wolves away was Michel Kuipers at his very best. They will still be talking about it in 50 years time, when a Brighton goalkeeper makes an outrageous save in the 89th minute of the Champions League Final.

“Great save that one to single-handedly win us a European Cup…. but was it as good as Kuipers at Wolves in 2002?”

And you know what the answer will be.