Cup woes – 15 times Brighton suffered shocks against lower league sides

For most clubs, drawing a lower league side in a knockout competition provides a genuine opportunity to progress, pick up prize money and enhance their chances of maybe even winning some silverware. Not though if you are a club like Brighton with a long and proud tradition of being a victim of cup shocks.

Since 1994, the Albion have suffered 15 cup exits to sides from a lower division. These range from the slightly understandable upsets, such as a reserve side losing against promotion chasers from one division below as was the case away at Walsall in the League Cup in 2015, to the downright diabolical like being eliminated from the FA Cup at home against Sudbury Town.

What these games tend to throw up is classic moments. The aforementioned match at Walsall saw Chris O’Grady take the worst penalty known to man and the Sudbury defeat sparked one of our favourite ever Albion rumours about manager Jimmy Case being found asleep in the bath during the game.

Here, we look back at all 15 of the Brighton & Hove Albion’s exits to sides from lower leagues via glorious cup shocks from the past 25 years. If you do not laugh, you will have to cry…

Lincoln City 3-1 Brighton – FA Cup Fourth Round, Saturday 28/01/17
Having already despatched another Championship side in Ipswich Town in the third round of the FA Cup, Conference leaders Lincoln City were in the mood for further FA Cup giant killings when Brighton headed to Sincil Bank for the fourth round of the 2016-17 competition.

Chris Hughton sent his second string to face the Imps and despite taking the lead through Richie Towell, the Albion ended up on the end of a humiliating 3-1 defeat. On-loan Chelsea defender Fikayo Tomori marked his debut in fantastic style by scoring an own goal.

After beating Brighton and Ipswich, Lincoln would go onto add to their list of FA Cup shocks by eliminating Burnley in round five before losing to Arsenal in the quarter finals. Both the Albion and the Imps ended the season winning promotion.

Walsall 2-1 Brighton – League Cup Second Round, Tuesday 25/08/15
It was League One Walsall who inflicted a first defeat of the 2015-16 season on the Albion in the second round of the League Cup at the Bescott Stadium.

This game will forever be remembered for one of Chris O’Grady’s better moments in an Albion shirt when he nearly caused a collision with the International Space Station when taking a penalty. What made it even more bizarre was that Jake Forster-Caskey had actually scored from the spot earlier in the game.

Brighton 1-3 Newport County – League Cup First Round, Tuesday 06/08/13
Brighton’s only defeat at the Amex against lower division opposition so far came against league newcomers Newport County in Oscar Garcia’s first home game in charge at the start of the 2013-14 season.

This was Newport’s first game in the competition since 1988 and they made up for lost time with a 3-1 victory in extra time against a strong Albion side featuring Gordon Greer, David Lopez, Will Buckley and Ashley Barnes. A miserable night for the Albion was compounded when Inigo Calderon saw red for breaking the leg of Robbie Willmott.

Swindon Town 3-0 Brighton – League Cup First Round, Tuesday 14/08/12
The start of the 2012-13 league season was delayed due to the London Olympics, which meant that the competitive action got underway with the League Cup.

Brighton still looked on the beach as despite fielding a full strength side, Gus Poyet’s side were undone 3-0 by Paolo Di Canio’s Swindon Town.

It was a particularly satisfying evening for Alan Navarro who, having managed a grand total of one goal in three seasons in a Brighton shirt, scored twice against the Albion that night on what was his Swindon debut.

Northampton Town 2-0 Brighton – League Cup First Round, Tuesday 10/08/10
The Albion had made a great start to a 2010-11 season in which they would eventually end up League One champions. winning 2-1 away at Swindon on the opening day thanks to two goals from Matt Sparrow.

Sparrow was one of the few first team players on show three days later at Northampton Town in the League Cup and he clearly did not want to be working that night as he got himself sent off after half an hour.

He was not the only one to have an evening to forget, goalkeeper Michael Poke letting a shot squirm through his legs on his one and only Albion appearance.

Luton Town 1-1 Brighton – Johnstones Paint Trophy South Final, Tuesday 17/02/09
Luton Town were bottom of League Two and doomed to relegation out of the Football League. They were all that stood in the way of a first ever Paint Pot Final and a rare trip to Wembley for the Albion.

A simple task then? Of course it wasn’t, as the game finished 1-1 and Luton took their chance in the resulting penalty shoot out to win the tie. It wasn’t all bad news though – the result meant Micky Adams was sacked, in came Russell Slade and the rest, as they say, is history.

Brighton 1-2 Mansfield Town – FA Cup Third Round, Saturday 05/01/08
Cup shocks against clubs at the bottom of League Two were par for the Brighton course around this time. A year before the Luton debacle, another side sitting 92nd out of 92 in the Football League had inflicted embarrassment on the Albion.

Mansfield Town were woeful, but Brighton gave one of the worst performances of the Dean Wilkins era (plenty of competition for that) to crash out of the FA Cup at the third round stage.

It rounded off a disastrous week in which George O’Callaghan and Bas Savage had both openly criticised chairman Dick Knight and left the club as a result.

Shrewsbury Town 3-2 Brighton – League Cup First Round, Tuesday 23/08/05
Gay Meadow was always a popular away day with Brighton supporters but our last ever visit there in the first round of the 2005-06 League Cup would not rank as a highlight. Bar a debut for French goalkeeper Florent Chaigneau, it was pretty much a full strength team that lost 3-2 to League Two opponents.

Inexplicably, Leon Knight captained the Albion from central midfield in a sign that Mark McGhee was perhaps now drinking too much whiskey, whilst the Shrews had an impressive teenager by the name of Joe Hart in their goal. Wonder what happened to him?

Brighton 1-2 Bristol Rovers – League Cup First Round, Tuesday 24/08/04
Brighton had played four times in the 2004-05 Championship campaign since winning promotion through the play offs at the end of the previous season and picked up a grand total of one point.

League Two Bristol Rovers’ visit in the League Cup looked a good chance to get a win on the board and McGhee certainly thought so, fielding a full strength side.

Things looked good when Guy Butters scored inside of 10 minutes but Rovers battled back to win 2-1 and send the Albion into crisis. McGhee’s answer? Starting Adam Virgo up front in the next game.

Lincoln City 3-1 Brighton – FA Cup First Round, Saturday 08/11/03
Oh look, its another 3-1 defeat against Lincoln City. McGhee took the strange step of naming six defenders in his starting XI (Graham Potter likes this) to take on a side from a division below. Even stranger was that Robbie Pethick was chosen to start in central midfield, probably for the only time in his entire life.

The result was Lincoln storming into a 3-0 lead inside of an hour to win the tie. Chris McPhee continued his hot streak by netting the Seagulls consolation.

Hereford United 2-1 Brighton – FA Cup First Round, Saturday 15/11/97
It was the draw everybody knew was going to happen. Six months after Hereford and Brighton met on the final day of the season to decide who would stay in the Football League, we were paired with each other again in the first round of the FA Cup.

Edgar Street was packed with a baying crowd of locals wanting revenge and they got it as Neil Grayson scored twice to send the Bulls into the second round. Stuart Storer notched for the Albion.

Brighton 1-1 Sudbury Town – FA Cup First Round Replay, Tuesday 26/11/96
The 1996-97 season was an absolute catalogue of misery for Brighton, but even amongst that, being eliminated from the FA Cup to Sudbury Town in a home replay and one of the biggest FA Cup shocks in Albion history stands out as the lowest point.

Sudbury packed their corner of the East Terrace and the travelling fans were treated to a penalty shoot out win after a 1-1 draw. Things got even stranger with the fantastic rumour that circulated in the aftermath of the match, suggesting that Jimmy Case had been found asleep in a bath during the game. Not the most encouraging behaviour to hear about from your manager.

Brighton 0-0 Fulham – FA Cup Second Round Replay, Tuesday 14/12/95
Fulham proved to be a real thorn in the side of Brighton when it came to inflicting cup shocks during the 1995-96 season. The Cottagers were in the bottom tier with the Albion struggling one division above, yet it was Fulham who progressed in the FA Cup with a penalty shoot out win at the Goldstone.

Brighton managed to score a grand total of one of their spot kicks with Fulham converting all four. We had only just squeaked past the might of Canvey Island in a replay in the previous round as well. A truly horrible time to be an Albion supporter watching knockout competition football.

Brighton 0-2 Fulham – League Cup First Round, Tuesday 22/08/95
Yes, Fulham completed a double by eliminating the Albion from the League Cup in 1995-96 as well. These were the days in which the first and second rounds of the competition were played over two legs, which essentially doubled the embarrassment the Albion could suffer.

In this case, that embarrassment came from a heavy 3-0 defeat away at Craven Cottage which was followed two weeks later by a 2-0 loss at the Goldstone. Brighton 0-5 Fulham, but the Albion were so bad that you probably could not count it among the real cup shocks.

Kingstonian 2-1 Brighton – FA Cup First Round, Saturday 12/11/94
Whilst Brighton had suffered famous defeats to Walton & Hersham and Leatherhead in the 1970s, they had not crashed out of a cup competition to a non league side for nearly 20 years until this FA Cup first round defeat in 1994 away at Kingstonian for whom Jamie Ndah scored twice.

We would love to know what was going through the mind of Liam Brady, one of his generation’s finest players, as he managed an Albion sie who were outclassed by a team of electricians and postmen. It would of course get much, much worse for Brady and Brighton not long after defeat at Kingsmeadow.