Vote for your WeAreBrighton.com Player of the Month for April 2014
Despite being written off by many at the end of March, Brighton and Hove Albion will enter the final month of the season still in with a chance of securing a place in the Championship play offs.
That was down to an unbeaten April in which four draws and three wins propelled Oscar Garcia’s side back into the top six, where they will finish the campaign with victory over Nottingham Forest on the final day of the season.
The most pleasing aspect of April was that Oscar seemed to throw caution to the wind and ditched his somewhat boring football in favour of going on the attack. The results were stunning, none more so than winning 4-1 away from home at champions Leicester City.
There was a 3-3 draw at Blackburn Rovers, a 0-0 draw at Barnsley, a 3-0 win against Charlton Athletic, 1-1 draws with both Huddersfield Town and Blackpool and a 2-0 win over Yeovil Town.
Every player who has played through April has contributed in some way and that probably makes our final WeAreBrighton.com Player of the Month award of the 2013-14 season the final one to call.
Bruno
Scored the equaliser at Huddersfield Town before admitting even he didn’t know what he was doing attacking the goal like that. The failed experiment of the autumn of playing him as a central midfielder seems a long time ago now.
Tomasz Kuszczak
Another big month for the goalkeeper. He missed the Charlton Athletic game with illness and had a rare off day in conceding three up at Blackburn Rovers but made up for that with another excellent performance to earn a point at Huddersfield. The Albion should be begging him to sign a new deal when his current one expires this summer.
Jesse Lingard
Goals in the thrashing of Leicester City and the home wins over Charlton and Yeovil Town saw him highlight why he is so highly thought of by the Manchester United hierarchy. Having a genuine attacking threat out wide who can also defend and is willing to cover every blade of grass maybe one of the reasons Oscar Garcia was happier to go on the attack in April.
Kazenga LuaLua
With the Albion needing to attack to ensure they make the play offs by winning games, the flying winger has been given a rare run of starts and responded with a number of impressive games including his first goal in nearly a year against Yeovil.
Dale Stephens
Goals against Blackburn and Blackpool showed that the midfielder has finally settled in since his January move from Charlton and he was absolutely first class against his former side when they visited the Amex, giving the best performance of his Albion career so far.
Leonardo Ulloa
Hit the net just once in March, but he doubled that tally in one game in April scoring a brace away at Leicester while looking like one of the best strikers in the league, meaning it is little surprise to hear rumours that the Foxes want to take him into the top flight with them this summer. He was also on target against Charlton.
Matthew Upson
Missed the Yeovil and Huddersfield games but was absolutely superb away at Leicester dealing with the Championships best strike force and in helping carve out a draw in difficult circumstances at Barnsley. He was part of two of the defences clean sheets during the month.
Stephen Ward
The winner of our March Award for Player of the Month continued that imperious form in April, adding another goal to his Albion collection with the opener at Leicester and remaining the most consistent performer in the back four.
