Brighton v Southampton – the wartime football fixture the Luftwaffe hated
August 1940 saw the beginning of the Battle of Britain but even with the Luftwaffe over the skies of England, wartime football continued to be played in England which led to plenty of farcical situations, not least when Brighton took on Southampton.
Clearly, Hermann Göring’s feared Nazi air force had a real hatred of games featuring Seagulls and Saints. Twice in the space of four weeks they launched air-raids over Sussex when Southampton were visiting the Goldstone, forcing the abandonment of one game and the significant shortening of another.
Whilst Brighton and Hove was not in the direct firing line during the Blitz, the city did suffer from many daylight raids during World War II. Between 1940 and 1944, there were 86 such raids with 222 civilians killed and nearly 300 homes completely destroyed.
As a result of the war, the Football League structure became a confusing mishmash of clubs and competitions throughout the six seasons that the conflict raged.
The 1940-41 season was arguably the strangest wartime football campaign as Brighton and Southampton were two of 34 clubs from the “south” of England who took part in one huge Football League South Division.
There was no formal fixture list; instead, clubs were responsible for arranging their own games against any willing opponents. The final table was decided on goal average due to no club being able to guarantee they would complete a certain number of games because of the constant disruption brought about by air raids and warnings.
Coventry City for example managed to fulfil just 10 fixtures as much of their city was raised the ground. Swansea City were in a similar boat and just about managed to limp into double figures. In contrast, Stoke City managed to pile through a league-best total of 36 games.
Brighton meanwhile recorded 25 results, ending in 27th position with a goal average of 0.680. The Saints were 32nd on 0.477, with the early season meetings in Hove not helping either clubs’ cause of breaking into the, er, top 25.
The first game took place on Saturday September 21st 1940. A week earlier, Southampton’s great rivals Portsmouth had been leading 2-1 at the Goldstone when the warning of an incoming air raid went up and play was immediately suspended.
It ended up being the most devastating single raid on the city of the entire war. A lone Dornier bomber had become separated from its squadron and with a Spitfire in hot pursuit over the skies of Sussex, the Dornier decided to drop all 25 of its 100-pound bombs in a desperate attempt to lose weight and boost the plane’s speed, manoeuvrability and chance of escape.
The bombs rained down on Kemp Town, including two which directly hit the old Odeon Cinema on St George’s Road where around 300 people had gathered to watch a matinee showing of a comedy film, The Ghost Comes Home. 55 people were killed; four children and two adults in the cinema and a further 49 in the surrounding areas.
In the aftermath of such horrors, there was an understandable reluctance to go to public spectacles and so a crowd of just 250 turned up to the Goldstone seven days later for the fixture with Southampton. Those who did were treated to all of 210 seconds of action before the sirens were sounded as the Luftwaffe launched another raid.
Needless to say, the three-and-a-half minute match didn’t count towards the final league table. The line up that day for the shortest match in Albion history was Gordon Mee, Roy Watts, Ted Martin, Len Darling, Stan Risdon, Stan Hickman, Charlie Chase, Joe Wilson, Stan Willemse, Bobby Farrell and Charlie Harman.
A month later on Saturday October 12th 1940 and the two sides tried again, this time in front of 500 fans at the Goldstone. On this occasion, they managed to get through 20 minutes of action before the Nazis arrived and everybody headed for the shelters.
Remarkably, play continued after the first air raid with the break re-branded as half time rather than an interruption due to planes carrying bombs.
The second half lasted for 25 minutes before the Luftwaffe returned and proceedings were again halted as players and supporters sought cover.
Despite the fact that play totalled only 45 minutes and much of that was to a background of enemy aircraft buzzing around which made concentrating on football extremely difficult, the 0-0 draw between Brighton and Southampton was allowed to stand – one of the strangest games throughout wartime football.
Brighton would arrange three further games against Southampton in the second half of the 1940-41 season, all at the Goldstone. With no interruptions, the Seagulls ended up running out comfortable winners on each occasion.
They triumphed 3-1 on Saturday March 8th 1941 thanks to a brace from future Albion boss Don Welsh and a Southampton own goal. The Albion won by the same score line on Saturday April 19th 1941 as Welsh again netted alongside a double from Ron Jones.
The best result came in between those two meetings when Brighton hammered Southampton 6-1 on Easter Monday 1941. The formidable Bert Stephens claimed a hat-trick with Welsh converting two penalties and Jack Balmer rounding off the scoring.
