WeAreBrighton.com 2018-19 Season Review: November
Lewis Dunk made Brighton history in November 2018 as he became only the fourth man ever to play for England whilst a Seagull.
The last had been Steve Foster some 36 years previously. Before that, only Peter Ward and Tommy Cook had pulled on a Three Lions shirt as Brighton players.
Gareth Southgate gave Dunk the whole 90 minutes as his England side eased to a 3-0 win over the United States at Wembley in an international friendly.
It was a comfortable evening for Dunk as the USA offered little as an attacking threat. Goals from ex-Albion loanee Jesse Lingard, Liverpool’s Trent Alexander-Arnold and Plucky Little Bournemouth’s Callum Wilson earned the hosts victory.
Wayne Rooney appeared for a 33 minute cameo from the substitutes bench in what was the record goalscorer’s 120th and final cap in an England shirt.
For Dunk, the fact that the Three Lions didn’t concede meant that he recorded clean sheets on both his Brighton debut – away at Milton Keynes Dons in April 2010 – and his England debut.
Dunk wasn’t the only Albion player making headlines during the international break. There was also the surreal sight of Gaetan Bong captaining Cameroon against Neymar’s Brazil.
The Albion left back even got an embrace from the world’s most expensive footballer during the pre-game coin toss in Milton Keynes, as if they were the best of friends as opposed to one man who cost £197m when moving from Barcelona to Paris Saint Germain and another who’s Brighton’s back up left back signed on a free from Wigan Athletic.
It was just as well November had an international break to offer some decent entertainment as from an Albion point of view it was a terrible month with only one point from a possible nine collected.
The warning signs had been there, of course. Despite winning three out of three in October, the Albion hadn’t actually been playing that well.
In Brighton’s 1-0 win at St James’ Park, Newcastle United had mustered 27 shots. Wolverhampton Wanderers had 25 efforts in their 1-0 defeat at the Amex and they weren’t on the score sheet purely because of the brilliance of Maty Ryan, who made three outrageous second half saves to preserve a clean sheet.
There’s no way that Ryan could continue to be that outstanding every week. Neither for that matter could Dunk and Shane Duffy, who had been one-man blocking, heading and tackling machines.
Against a side with more quality than Newcastle or Wolves, we were always likely to be punished and so it proved at Goodison Park in November’s opening fixture as Everton ran out 3-1 winners.
In Richarlison, the Toffees had the best player on the pitch by some distance. He opened the scoring with 26 minutes gone. Alireza Jahanbakhsh floated a woeful corner harmlessly to the back post, from where Everton cleared and within 20 seconds had broken quicker than John Prescott to an all-you-can-buffet with Richarlison finishing past Ryan for 1-0.
Dunk made it 1-1 when heading home a Solly March cross before the break, leaving most Albion supporters gathered in the cramped away concourse at half time feeling that the game was nicely balanced going into the second 45 minutes. Or so we thought.
Whatever Chris Hughton said at the interval didn’t work as the Albion were awful in the second half. They couldn’t string more than a couple of passes together and within five minutes of the restart, Everton went back into the lead.
They’d hit the post through Idrissa Gueye inside of 120 seconds and there was nothing the upright nor Ryan could do to keep out Seamus Coleman’s effort.
Richarlison put the game beyond doubt with 15 minutes remaining after a terrible bit of defending from Dunk of all people. His loose square pass went straight to the feet of the Brazilian who then went around both Duffy and Ryan to score.
Florin Andone finally made his Albion debut following his £5.2m summer switch from Deportivo La Coruna and he had a lively 10 minute cameo from the bench but this was a largely disappointing afternoon on Merseyside.
Still, most of us accepted the fact that outside of the top six, Everton were probably the best of the rest at this point in the season. Losing there was no disgrace. What wouldn’t be acceptable would be defeat at Cardiff City the following week, a side who were vying with Huddersfield Town for the honour of having the weakest squad in the Premier League.
Needless to say, defeat is exactly what happened at the imaginatively named Cardiff City Stadium – although the Bluebirds did have a huge helping hand from referee Martin Atkinson and his assistants Stephen Child and Peter Kirkup.
You know it’s bad when Hughton, normally one of the calmest managers in the entire Football League and one who rarely lays blame at the door of the officials, is saying he isn’t happy. That’s what happened after a string of contentious decisions gifted the hosts a 2-1 win in south Wales.
The first of those arrived in the 34th minute with the dismissal of Dale Stephens. Contact was minimal but it was the reckless manner in which Stephens went flying in with studs up that convinced the referee to end Stephens’ afternoon with just over half an hour played.
For his part, Hughton admitted that he wasn’t particularly unhappy with the decision, saying that you expect some referees to give it. Watching in real time at the ground, it looked all day to be a red. With the benefit of a slowed down replay with multiple camera angles, it was less clear cut but you could make a case that Mr Atkinson got that one right.
The one that was a million percent wrong, as Louis Walsh might have said, was Cardiff’s winning goal, scored in the last minute by Sol Bamba. Bamba was so far offside that he may as well have been stood on the English side of the Severn Bridge, yet neither Atkinson nor his assistant managed to spot the eight-foot-tall, 25 stone Bluebirds player at least six yards deeper than Lewis Dunk. Even Stevie Wonder could have seen it.
That proved costly as Bamba produced a bicycle kick that hit the post, Maty Ryan pulled off a stunning save to tip Callum Patteron’s rebound onto the bar before Bamba smashed home the loose ball. A shocking piece of refereeing that denied the Albion what would have been a battling point.
Dunk had headed Brighton into the lead from yet another excellent delivery from Solly March. Callum Patterson equalised six minutes before Stephens’ dismissal, heading past Ryan after after Bong had deflected Kadeem Harris’ cross straight into his path.
If the Cardiff game saw Brighton having to play with 10 men for an hour when they didn’t deserve to, then things evened themselves out when Leicester City came to the Amex as that was also the fate that lay in the store for the Foxes.
James Maddison picked up two ridiculous yellow cards early on, the first for a cynical foul and the second for a dive in the box. Brighton were already 1-0 up by that point, Glenn Murray making a beautiful run to the front post to meet Anthony Knockaert’s corner with an even better header.
Once Maddison was dismissed, the general feeling around the Amex was that Leicester were there for the taking. They were short handed, we were in the lead and playing pretty well. Yet as soon as the Foxes went down to 10 men, the Albion retreated to man the trenches and try and defend their way to victory.
Predictably, this didn’t work. Jamie Vardy was introduced from the bench early in the second half, the Albion back four began to soil themselves as a result and when Beram Kayal needlessly brought down Kelechi Iheanacho in the box, it was Vardy who converted the penalty to earn Leicester a share of the spoils.
The final whistle saw the first real dissent there had been from the home crowd towards Hughton and the players, borne out of the believe that sitting back when leading against 10 men had cost us the game. The boos indicated frustration at Hughton’s conservative approach.
For his part, Hughton said afterwards he was disappointed with the team for not carrying out his instructions to get forward more.
Little did we know that a week later, he’d try and rectify the issue by changing to a 4-3-3 formation for the trip to Huddersfield. A decision that would have far reaching implications for the rest of the Albion’s season and his future as the club’s manager.
November 2018 record: P3 W0 D1 L2 F3 A6
Results: 1-3 v Everton A, 1-2 v Cardiff A, 1-1 v Leicester H
League position at the end of the month: 12th
WeAreBrighton.com Player of the Month: Beram Kayal
