Walsall 1-3 Brighton: Albion waltz in Walsall to League One title
Walsall has always been an underrated town. There are a lot of good pubs. Mr Sizzle has his vans dotted around the centre serving some of the best burgers around. And as Albion fans found out in 2011, it is a great place to have a party if the final score at the local Banks’s Stadium finishes Walsall 1-3 Brighton.
When the Seagulls headed to the West Midlands on Saturday 16th April , there were still five games of the 2010-11 League One season left to play. Gus Poyet had turned his side into such a dominant force however that victory would see Brighton crowned champions.
Promotion had been won four days previously when Dagenham & Redbridge were beaten 4-3 at Withdean. Poyet had achieved Tony Bloom’s main objective and delivered Championship football to coincide with the opening of the Amex, but in a weird way that felt a little anticlimactic. Just going up wasn’t enough.
Brighton had not been top of the table since September. Promotion had therefore seemed almost inevitable for some time, even to the most unoptimistic Albion fan. There was not a team in League One who could cope with Poyet’s football and so a top two finish was the least they deserved.
Actually, one team should have been able to compete. Southampton had the money and a squad including talents like future Champions League winner Adam Lallana, future European Champion Jose Fonte, Morgan Schneiderlin, Rickie Lambert, Dean Hammond, Kelvin Davis, Lee Barnard, David Connolly and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.
They also had everyone’s favourite David Brent tribute act in charge, Nigel Adkins. Poyet and plenty of Brighton fans had developed a deep dislike of Adkins over the course of the 2010-11 season thanks to the nonsense he spouted. In reality, he was a comedy character who loved a ridiculous sound bite.
Amongst Nigel’s best work was comparing Southampton to Red Rum by saying that, just like the Grand National hero, the Saints would rally towards the line and pip Brighton to the title at the post.
Earlier in the season when asked if he thought the campaign would end with Southampton and Brighton battling it out for promotion, he said “If they can keep up with us, perhaps.”
Nigel, his Brent-esque phrase book and his overconfidence were the other reason Brighton had to win the title. There was no doubt that the Albion had been the best team in the division, but they needed the history books to reflect that by having the letter C etched next to their name. At the same time, that would wipe a little of the smugness off Adkins’ face. Just a little.
Such was the demand for tickets amongst Brighton fans wanting to be in Walsall for the day that history could be made, the Saddlers kept opening different sections of the Banks’s Stadium for away supporters.
The initial allocation in the small stand behind the goal sold out even before there was a chance that the League One title might be won. Brighton’s home support might have trebled overnight with the opening of the Amex, but the Albion have always been well backed on the road, even when we were in the lower divisions.
Walsall then offered Brighton a couple of blocks down the side of the pitch. They went. Then a couple more blocks. They went. A couple more. They went.
Officially, 2,322 of the 6,115 in attendance were Seagulls supporters but that doesn’t take into consideration those who had gone undercover in the home sections. In reality, it was likely that 50 percent of the crowd for Walsall 1-3 Brighton were Albion fans.
The 2010-11 season was such good fun because you went into every game expecting an Albion result. Away days had a party feel about them from the minute the train pulled out of Brighton Station.
You were not trekking to Oldham or Peterborough worrying if the 90 minutes of football would ruin the day out, as is so often the case watching Brighton on the road. Only five road trips ended in defeat in the entire season.
Walsall had even more of a party feel to it, what with the lingering prospect of winning the title. The town was busy and full of blue and white, the beers had flowed on the train up and on arrival and Mr Sizzle probably had record takings. Good on him, his burgers were bloody incredible.
Unusually for Brighton away games back in League One, everyone appeared to have rocked up to the Banks’s Stadium early. Normally, half the crowd would pile in with only 10 minutes to go until kick off having wanted to eke every last minute of drinking time possible as quite a few stadiums did not serve alcohol. They were dark times.
The air of expectation around what was about to unfold made this different though. The WAB Team were in place by 2.30pm – absolutely unheard of – and the players got a rousing reception as they completed their pre-game warmup in front of the away end.
It was a sea of blue and white down there. People had balloons, inflatable trophies, tin foil trophies and in what must be the Albion’s worst nightmare in 2021, a lot of Gus Poyet masks. If Brighton did not manage to beat Walsall, it would have been quite the anti-climax.
That was never likely though. It took just six minutes for the Albion to take the lead. Matt Sparrow had a double effort turned behind and Elliott Bennett swung over the resulting corner for Inigo Calderon to head home his eighth goal of the season. A ridiculous return for a right back.
Something unusual happened next – Brighton lost their composure. Five minutes after Calderon’s opener and Walsall levelled things up. A rare mistake from Liam Bridcutt saw him miscue a clearance, spooning the ball directly into the air. Nobody in blue and white took charge of the situation and as it dropped, Andy Butler was on hand to head home.
Suddenly, Walsall fancied their chances of ruining the party. Brighton’s early dominance was over and it was a much more even first half of football.
Both sides had chances to take the lead, but ultimately the break was reached with the score Walsall 1-1 Albion. Not what the travelling hoards had been expected, and no beer in sight to settle the nerves.
Whilst the away end may have been a little restless after that half of football, Poyet wasn’t. Whatever he said in the changing room during the interval worked and within two minutes of the restart, the Albion took the lead and there was no looking back.
This is where the lack of alcohol on offer actually turned out to be a good thing as otherwise, a lot of people would have missed Glenn Murray’s goal still sipping on their half time pint. Another Bennett corner came over and Brighton’s top scorer met it with a glancing header in front of the packed away end.
“Are we keeping up?” the Albion fans sang in response, taunting Adkins whose Southampton side were labouring 0-0 at home to Bristol Rovers. Brighton meanwhile had to withstand a couple of hairy moments of their own but their task was made easier when future Albion loan signing Emmanuel Ledesma was shown a red card for a wild lunge on Adam El-Abd.
The crowning glory arrived in the 90th minute and it was apt that Bennett was the man who made it Walsall 1-3 Brighton with the goal that secured the League One title.
A few weeks earlier, he had been voted Four Four Two League One Player of the Year and however good El-Abd was in that 2010-11 season, the Egyptian King winning the Albion’s Player of the Season award ahead of Bennett was a travesty, really.
Bennett was the best player in the best team of the 2010-11 season and having chipped in with two assists already, he decided to go it alone, charging down the middle before unleashing a ferocious right footed drive into the top corner from 25 yards.
By now, the party was in full swing. There were no further goals as it finished Walsall 1-3 Brighton and on the full time whistle, fans spilled from the Albion sections onto the pitch to celebrate with the players.
It must have been the most well-mannered invasion of all time; the Walsall tannoy announcer asked the Albion supporters to get off and everyone did within a couple of minutes.
Poyet then led the players back onto the pitch to celebrate. The Brighton boss was at his articulate best afterwards, saying: “Without any doubt, we are the best team in this league – by far.”
“To be crowned champions is an unbelievable feeling, but this was a real team effort. We’ve had the organisation, the desire, we have defended well, we have also scored goals. Everyone’s played their part, including the fans.”
“You don’t realise how happy you can make people. They forget about everything today. They forget about health problems, about family problems, about financial problems. That’s football.”
Gus might have been hoping that Walsall 1-3 Brighton and the success of his League One champions could make people forget about health and finances, but in a way the opposite was true as there was still a train journey home to make.
Back in Birmingham afterwards and the champagne and beer were flowing. Corks popped the whole way from Moor Street (whose idea was it to book trains on the slower route?!) to London and in monetary terms, the GDP of a small developing country was probably showered on celebratory food and drink.
As for health, no doctor is likely to recommend a drinking session starting at 8am on a Saturday morning and ending at 2am Sunday morning. It is just as well that the Albion have won only four divisional titles as a Football League club in 100 years as the resulting party knocks years off your life.
Was it worth it though? Of course. Days like Walsall 1-3 Brighton come along very rarely for Brighton and a season such as 2010-11 is once-in-a-generation stuff.
Nigel and Southampton were not keeping up (they did squeak a 1-0 win over Bristol Rovers whilst we were busy winning the title) and Brighton had proven themselves the best team in League One. Walsall away, what a day – Campione, campione, ole ole ole!
Walsall: Jimmy Walker, Clayton McDonald, Richard Taundry, Tom Williams, Andy Butler, Matt Richards, Julian Gray, Marc-Antoine Gbarssin, Marc Laird, Jon Macken, Jordan Cook.
Subs: Emmanuel Ledesma (Richards 60′), Olly Lancashire (McDonald 68′), Darren Byfield (Cook 72′), Will Grigg, Alex Nicholls, Darryl Westlake, David Bevan (unused).
Scorers: Butler 11′.
Brighton: Casper Ankergren, Inigo Calderon, Adam El-Abd, Tommy Elphick, Marcos Painter, Elliott Bennett, Gary Dicker, Liam Bridutt, Matt Sparrow, Ashley Barnes, Glenn Murray.
Subs: Craig Noone (Sparrow 63′), Chris Wood (Barnes 76′), Alan Navarro (Bennett 90+1′), Lewis Dunk, Radostin Kishishev, Fran Sandaza, Peter Brezovan (unused).
Scorers: Calderon 06′, Murray 47′, Bennett 90′.
Referee: Jonathan Moss
Attendance: 6,115
