WeAreBrighton.com 2018-19 Season Review: April
Seven games, one goal scored, two points earned and a club record 12 hours and 15 minutes without a goal. April was a disaster which helped to seal Chris Hughton’s fate as Brighton manager.
It’s hard to recall a more depressing month as an Albion supporter since Tony Bloom assumed control of the club a decade previously. Sami Hyypia’s reign of terror was gruesome to watch, but the Finn was faced with a toxic combination of being clueless himself and having a woeful set of players to work with.
Hughton was a man who, for the previous four-and-a-half-years, had barely put a step wrong. He was managing a talented squad of players who three months previously were on the cusp of the top 10.
That’s what made it all so disappointing – a good manager running out of ideas and a squad who looked collectively like they were giving up. It was dire.
April began with a trip to Chelsea and although only those who were sniffing an industrial amount of glue would have expected us to get a result at Stamford Bridge, a little bit of ambition wouldn’t have gone amiss.
The opportunity to try something new and be a little positive was certainly there. With one eye on the FA Cup Semi Final with Manchester City which was to come three days later, Hughton rested some of his key personnel.
Because of that, he could have used an experimental line up to look at new ideas. But no, we got the same 4-3-3 formation which hadn’t worked for four months and a performance in which left back Bernardo had the Albion’s only shot on goal in the entire 90 minutes. Even that was a hopeful one, coming as it did from a full 30 yards.
Chelsea meanwhile didn’t really need to get out of second gear to cruise to a 3-0 win. All of their goals were of the highest quality in fairness, Olivier Giroud flicking home Callum Hudson-Odoi’s cross and then Eden Hazard showing why Real Madrid are surely going to sign him this summer, leaving Lewis Dunk in a confused heap on the ground and arrowing the ball into the top corner before turning provider for Reuben Loftus-Cheek three minutes later.
One of the great days in Brighton history followed as 34,000 Albion fans decamped to Wembley in the hope of seeing the Seagulls shock Pep Guardiola’s quadruple chasing Citizens.
The west end of the national stadium was a sea of blue and white and there was even something resembling an atmosphere in what is normally a soulless, corporate bowl as the teams took to the field. It was a stark reminder of why being in the Premier League is so good – for days like these.
Brighton managed to keep City’s superstars out for all of four minutes. Kevin de Bruyne delivered a searching cross from the right placed perfectly out of the reach of Shane Duffy and straight into the path of Gabriel Jesus who stooped low to head past Maty Ryan.
At that point, it looked like a cricket score might have been on the cards but City managed only three more shots on target all evening without scoring another. Yes, they weren’t playing at anywhere near their best but that couldn’t take away from a dogged and battling performance from the Albion.
Brighton might even have forced extra time when Duffy headed down an Anthony Knockaert corner and Glenn Murray looked set to score, only to see Aymeric Laporte clear the ball from off Murray’s foot and over his own crossbar. It was an outrageous piece of either luck or skill, depending on your viewpoint.
Coming away from Wembley, there was a sense of pride in the Albion’s performance against one of the finest teams the English domestic game has ever seen. Which made what happened the next week all the more shocking.
How could a team go from pushing Manchester City all the way in a cup semi final to losing 5-0 at home to Bournemouth in the space of seven days?
At 2pm on Saturday 13th April, the Hughton out bandwagon had a small minority of Brighton supporters on it. Within three hours, the bandwagon had become a juggernaut as even some of the more level headed Albion fans began to jump on board. It’s hard to recall a 90 minutes in Albion history that has been so terrible to affect such a swing in opinion.
Because this was terrible. You had to go back nearly 46 years to December 1973 to find the last time a Brighton side were beaten so heavily home, an 8-2 defeat to Bristol Rovers in the third tier under Brian Clough.
Four of Bournemouth’s five goals came about through Brighton errors. Duffy gave the ball away for the first, Knockaert for the second, Yves Bissouma for the fourth and Dale Stephens for the fifth.
That these highly paid professional footballers were making such basic mistakes wasn’t the worst of it either – it was that they didn’t look like they gave a toss.
Rumours began swirling afterwards about players downing tools to get Hughton sacked. Apparently, a delegation led by the sensible voice of Glenn Murray had approached Hughton and asked if we might try a more attacking approach before the game.
Hughton reportedly refused, dropped Murray and as a result had now lost the dressing room. Whether you believed that or not, there was no doubting that Hughton himself looked flummoxed at what was unfolding in front of him, even admitting that he feared it could have been worse than five.
His decision at 2-0 down to make a like-for-like change of Murray on for Florin Andone when we surely should have gone two up front to chase the game was greeted by boos from the terraces.
Likewise, his decision not to haul off Knockaert after the Frenchman had gifted the Cherries their second showed up a manager oblivious to what was going on around him. As soon as things don’t go his way or he makes a mistake, Knockaert sticks his chest out like a petulant pigeon and you know he’s going to take his frustration out on something or someone like a spoilt child.
Lo and behold, 13 minutes later he decided to try and break somebody’s leg. Straight red card and a three game ban for March’s Player of the Month ahead of what was now easily the biggest game of the season against Cardiff City three days later.
Remarkably, the players decided not to show up for that one either. Hughton finally abandoned 4-3-3 two months after the rest of the world realised it wasn’t working, but not even that could shake the Albion out of their slump as Neil Warnock’s side left Sussex with all three points and a 2-0 victory.
Cardiff were now just two points behind and with a slightly easier run in than the Albion, not to mention with momentum and confidence of which there was none left at the Amex. From 12 points clear of the relegation zone at Christmas to studying Cardiff’s fixture list to see where they might drop points, it was quite the fall.
Tellingly, Hughton dropped every single one of his summer signings for the next game away at Wolverhampton Wanderers. Instead, he reverted to the players who’d won promotion from the Championship and then kept us up last season.
It was a subtle yet damning verdict on Paul Winstanley’s £50m spending spree. Hughton’s faith in the old guard was vindicated though as the likes of Bruno, Gaetan Bong and Beram Kayal helped grind out a 0-0 draw against a side pushing for a European spot.
There was nearly an even more impressive point on the road three days later as the Albion made their first visit to Tottenham Hotspur’s new stadium, where it took a moment of individual brilliance from Christian Eriksen in the final five minutes to break Brighton’s resistance and win the game for Spurs.
Those two performances gave hope going into April’s final home game, a 5.30pm kick off against Newcastle United. Already relegated Fulham had done the Albion a massive favour by beating Cardiff at 3pm with Ryan Babel’s goal earning him our WeAreBrighton.com Player of the Month award with over 80% of the vote.
Hughton meanwhile threw his normal cautiousness out the window, surprising everyone by switching to 4-4-2 and pairing Andone and Murray up top. It was a change that some supporters had been begging him to try for sometime, yet it turned out to be a complete disaster – not helped by Hughton trying to cram Pascal Gross into the team out on the right wing.
Newcastle went into half time 1-0 ahead after some Sunday League defending allowed Ayoze Perez to score with 18 minutes played. The Albion’s performance in that opening 45 minutes was as bad as both the Bournemouth and Cardiff games as they failed to create a meaningful opportunity.
It was only once Andone was replaced by the outstanding Solly March at half time and 4-4-2 was ditched in favour of 4-4-1-1 that Brighton came into the tie. March was mesmerising and when Knockaert joined the action down the other flank in the 66th minute, we finally mustered our first shot on target. That drew sarcastic cheers from around the Amex.
Sarcasm was replaced by genuine jubilation shortly after when, after 12 hours and 15 minutes, the Albion finally scored a goal – their first since March had struck away at Millwall in the FA Cup six weeks previously.
Bruno and Knockaert interchanged passes down the right with the Albion captain delivering a cross which Murray rose highest to head goalwards towards Gross, now back in his favoured number 10 role.
There was still a lot to do, but do it the German playmaker did, nipping between Dummett, Federico Fernandez and Dúbravka to head home for 1-1.
And that was how it finished. A vital, vital point which meant that Cardiff would now have to win their final two games of the season against Crystal Palace and Manchester United in order to stay up.
Survival was nearly assured, after which the inquest could open. April’s evidence would be telling.
April 2019 record: P7 W0 D2 L5 F1 A13
Results: 0-3 v Chelsea A, 0-1 v Man City, 0-5 v Bournemouth H, 0-2 v Cardiff H, 0-0 v Wolves A, 0-1 v Spurs A, 1-1 v Newcastle H
League position at the end of the month: 17th
WeAreBrighton.com Player of the Month: Ryan Babel
