Vote for your WeAreBrighton.com Player of the Month for September 2013
Just the one defeat from a month that featured away games against two newly relegated sides who both feature heavily in the betting for an immediate return to the Premier League represented a good September for Brighton and Hove Albion.
Back-to-back 0-0 draws at promotion fancies Reading and Queens Park Rangers look like excellent results for the Albion and are testament to the quality of the defence that Oscar Garcia has to select from, something reflected in the fact that September’s shortlist features all four defenders and goalkeeper Tomasz Kuszczak.
We only managed to score in one of the months four games, a 3-1 success over Bolton Wanderers in which David Lopez managed to justify the marketing departments decision to turn the game into a “Spanish Day” by giving the Trotters the lead with an own goal. Fortunately, three goals in four second half minutes including one from Inigo Calderon turned things around.
The month did end on a sour note however as the Albion delivered one of their worst performances in recent times to go down 2-0 at Ipswich Town. Perhaps we shouldn’t have been surprised by that as October is just around the corner, a month the Albion haven’t won in since 2010.
Keith Andrews
The international break allowed him to get up to speed and since then he was been superb, particularly in the Liam Bridcutt holding role in the draws at Reading and Queens Park Rangers. On this form, he looks like the Albion’s best purchase of the summer.
Will Buckley
Oscar Garcia seems to have jettisoned the experiment of playing him through the middle as a central striker already and he gave his best performance for some time out on the right against Bolton Wanderers, getting himself on the score sheet in the process.
Inigo Calderon
The fact that Bruno has had to be shoehorned into midfield on his return from injury shows just how well the popular right back has been playing. He even managed to get onto the scoresheet with a goal in the demolition of Bolton.
Gordon Greer
The captain was at the heart of those two clean sheets against Reading and QPR. He has had his fair share of doubters so far this season with some questioning why he is starting ahead of Adam El-Abd and Lewis Dunk, but more performances like this should silence them.
Rohan Ince
After being harshly dropped, he returned to the side when Keith Andrews was ineligible to play against his parent club Bolton and wasted no time in reminding everyone what a talent he could become with another man-of-the-match showing.
Tomasz Kuszczak
Wasn’t at his best in August but there was a return to the impressive form of last season away at QPR as he pulled off a number of key saves, following up on an extremely solid showing at Reading. Without him in goal, those were points that would probably not be on the board right now.
Kazenga LuaLua
Oscar seems to appreciate his talents far more than his predecesor Gus Poyet did, with him having a solid game in a rare away start away at Reading and impressing against Bolton by running the Trotters ragged from his left wing berth.
Matthew Upson
It’s no secret that he was one of the 2,576 players Harry Redknapp was interested in breaking the bank to sign for QPR in the summer and Redknapp must have been ruing missing out on the former England defender after his performance at Loftus Road while he was also a key player in the clean sheet at Reading.
Stephen Ward
The defence continues to improve since his arrival on loan from Wolves with left back far removed from the problem position it was at the start of the campaign when Calderon and Vitālijs Maksimenko were fighting over the shirt. Four more impressive outings.
