Billy Gilmour voted WAB September 2023 Brighton Player of the Month

October 12, 2023 WeAreBrighton.com 0 Comments

First he finished the 2022-23 season as one of the Albion’s most in-form players. Then he was voted WAB Player of the Month for August. And now, Billy Gilmour makes it two Brighton Player of the Month awards in a row by adding the September 2023 accolade to his collection.

Roberto De Zerbi rotated his squad heavily through September as the Albion made their Europa League bow. So many changes to the starting XI from game to game meant that some players struggled for rhythm and form, explaining why Brighton had something of a disjointed month results and performance wise.

Billy Gilmour though was a model of consistency whenever he was selected in September 2023. He was brilliant in the 3-1 win over Newcastle United at the Amex, a performance that scandalously yet understandably went under the radar given the hat-trick heroics of Evan Ferguson.

Take Ferguson’s second goal, for example. Had Gilmour not recovered possession on halfway before feeding a visionary ball 20 yards up the pitch into the feet of the Albion’s Irish teenage striking sensation, Ferguson would have never had the opportunity to find the bottom corner from distance on his way to his treble.

It was also Gilmour who helped haul Brighton back into the Plucky Little Bournemouth game. The Cherries looked like they were going into half time with a 1-0 lead thanks to a disappointing 45 minutes from Brighton.

That was until Gilmour whipped in a delicious cross from the left which led Milos Kerkez to head past his own goalkeeper. Brighton made the most of the platform provided by Gilmour as two Kaoru Mitoma goals after the break secured a comeback three points.

When putting together the shortlist for our Brighton September 2023 Player of the Month award, we thought Mitoma’s match-winning double against Bournemouth might have been enough to push him into second after Billy Gilmour.

Pascal Gross was instead voted as runner up, marginally ahead of Mitoma. Gross once again proved himself Der Kaiser of Old Trafford, scoring his seventh career goal against Manchester United as Brighton won 3-1 at the Theatre of Dreams.

With Lewis Dunk absent for the AEK Athens game, Gross then made Brighton history as the first man to captain the club in a European fixture.

Gross was ruled out injured after the 3-2 loss to AEK. His subsequent absence highlighted just how important he is to the Albion with two defeats following from the three matches he missed.

The 6-1 defeat to Aston Villa was a particularly brutal example, with Villa slicing through the Brighton midfield like a knife through butter.

As already mentioned, Mitoma follows Gross into third. 90 percent of that is down to what happened in the second half against Bournemouth.

Mitoma scored his first of the afternoon within 15 seconds of coming off the bench. It was a goal born from his best traits; balance, speed, agility and his ridiculous ability at dribbling a football. He really should write a university thesis on it or something.

The Japanese Bullet Train then showcased another side of his game, leaping like the proverbial salmon to glance home a Pervis Estupinan cross to wrap up the three points.