Vote for your March 2023 WAB Brighton Player of the Month

You can always tell it has been a good four weeks when you are missing big names from a Brighton Player of the Month shortlist, as is very much the case with March 2023.

No Pervis Estupinan. No Moises Caicedo. No Evan Ferguson. No Pascal Gross. You could make a case for any of those potentially winning the vote, let alone not being amongst the six candidates.

The Albion began March in impressive fashion, hammering hapless West Ham United 4-0 at the Amex in what was one of the best impressive performances of the entire season so far.

Alexis Mac Allister got the party started with a first half penalty, followed by goals from Joel Veltman, Kaoru Mitoma and Danny Welbeck. Oh, add Dat Guy to the names not on the March 2023 Brighton Player of the Month shortlist.

A tough looking trip to The Leeds United followed. Mac Allister again scored along with Solly March as the Albion secured a decent 2-2 draw against a Peacocks side fighting for their lives at the bottom of the table – despite having reached the Coca Cola Cup final in 1996.

Then came the big one. Crystal Palace at the Amex. March struck again to give Brighton a first win over their arch rivals in over four years.

The Albion were not at their best, but when you have a player like March scoring in the 15th minute of March 15th, you can get away with it.

March (the month, not the player) ended with a potential banana skin FA Cup quarter final tie against Grimsby Town.

The Mariners had already eliminated five opponents from higher divisions in the competition, including Premier League Southampton in the previous round.

Some Brighton minds were not yet over the Carabao Cup cock up at Charlton either, when the Albion were knocked out of the League Cup by a relegation-threatened League One side.

That night at the Valley certainly remained ingrained in Roberto De Zerbi’s memory, given the number of times he has referenced it in the intervening three months.

We need not have worried. Brighton were thoroughly professional, running out 5-0 winners. Two goals from Ferguson and one apiece from March, Mitoma and Deniz Undav secured safe passage to a Wembley semi final against Manchester United.

And so to the shortlist. Tin hat on, these are the six players you have to choose between. Sorry Estupinan, Caicedo, Ferguson, Gross and the rest…

The candidates for WeAreBrighton.com March 2023 Brighton Player of the Month

Lewis Dunk
At 31 years of age and with over 400 Brighton appearances under his belt, it is astonishing that Lewis Dunk appears to still be improving. Helped the Albion to three clean sheets from four and even in the game in which the Seagulls conceded twice, he topped the WAB Player Ratings at The Leeds United.

Alexis Mac Allister
His confident spot kick set Brighton on their way to victory over West Ham. A bullet header followed at The Leeds United, although he was guilty of missing a couple of easy chances afterwards. Rounded off the month by playing the pass which led to Ferguson’s sublime first goal against Grimsby.

Solly March
March has now finished runner up in our February, January and December Player of the Month awards. Three goals including a winner against Palace will make him one of the strong favourites to end that run of always the bridesmaid but never the bride.

Kaoru Mitoma
Premier League defences have started double marking him (or in the case of League Two Grimsby, triple marking) but that did not stem a flow of two goals and three assists.

Jason Steele
De Zerbi made a huge decision ahead of the West Ham match when dropping Robert Sanchez and handing Jason Steele his first ever run of games as a Premier League number one. Two clean sheets and some important saves suggests the Albion head coach made the right call.

Joel Veltman
A rare goal for the dependable Dutchman when he was in the right place at the right time to take advantage of some woeful West Ham marking from a corner. His pocketing of Wilfried Zaha was arguably the greatest ever performance a Brighton full back has given against the Eagles’ talisman.

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Poll closes at 8pm on Sunday 26th March