Brighton & Hove Albion 2022-23 Season Review: March
Take your pick for the highlight of March in Brighton & Hove Albion’s 2022-23 season. West Ham were hammered, there was a first win against Crystal Palace in eight attempts and the Seagulls booked a Wembley date in the semi finals of the FA Cup.
The star of Tony Bloom’s horse stable even managed to win back-to-back Queen Mother Champion Chases. Energumene delivered at Cheltenham just a few hours before Brighton finally got one over their fiercest rivals at the Amex.
Not a bad Wednesday for Bloom, who was rumoured to have landed a cool £1.2 million backing Energumene. Wonder what he enjoyed more? Taking a million from the bookies or the Seagulls beating the Eagles?
March began with good news off-the-pitch for Brighton as one of the most impressive performers of the 2022-23 season so far signed a new contract.
Moises Caicedo putting pen to paper came somewhat out of the blue, catching most of the football world by surprise. Just a month earlier, he had been the subject of a £70 million bid from Arsenal.
This sparked a strange series of events involving a ill-advised Instagram statement begging to be sold to the Gunners and Roberto De Zerbi putting the midfield on gardening leave.
After his return from attending to his rose buses and busy lizzies at the beginning of February, Caicedo had been superb. An improved wage was richly deserved, which most Albion supporters realised to be the major reason for him penning a new deal.
It seemed unlikely to change much in regards a likely summer departure, when one of the big clubs will surely stump up the money Caicedo is worth to take him away from Sussex.
But even so, Caicedo’s new contract gave fans and players alike a real boost. West Ham were the unfortunate ones who found themselves on the end of it, Brighton thrashing the not-so-happy-Hammers 4-0 at the Amex for the second season running.
With Roberto De Zerbi serving a touchline ban for his antics in getting sent off after the final whistle of defeat to Fulham the previous month, his assistant Andrea Maldera led the Albion into battle.
Maldera provided a very different presence on the touchline. Whereas De Zerbi is a ball of energy charging around, Maldera was calm and suave, crouching down to offer instructions.
You could imagine him sitting in a piazza in Italy, large glass of red wine on the table despite it only being 10am, watching the world go by.
De Zerbi made one massive selection decision before taking his seat in the West Stand Upper to watch the game. Jason Steele came in for only the second Premier League start of his life in place of Robert Sanchez.
Sanchez had endured his fair share of dodgy moments up to March in the 2022-23 season, but there cannot have been many Brighton fans who expected De Zerbi to jettison a Spanish international in favour of a bloke who Sunderland supporters hailed as the second-worst goalkeeper their club has ever had.
Like most decisions De Zerbi took over the campaign however, it was one he got spot on. Steele made two hugely important saves with his legs from Jarrod Bowen and then Tomas Soucek in the same West Ham attack when the score was locked at 0-0.
Had the Hammers scored either of those, the afternoon may well have headed in a different direction. Instead, six minutes later it was Brighton who took the lead.
Kaoru Mitoma was felled in the box by Bowen with referee Stuart Attwell showing no hesitation in pointing to the spot. Alexis Mac Allister converted the resulting penalty for 1-0.
Such a slender lead did not feel enough at half time. The Albion clearly agreed with this viewpoint, as they moved up another gear entirely to blow West Ham away with three more goals after the break.
Mac Allister flicked a Pascal Gross corner onto the unmarked Joel Veltman at the back post. Veltman had so much time and space as to be able to steer the ball into the empty net using his chest from no more than six yards out.
Evan Ferguson provided one of the more comical moments of the campaign after that. The teenage Irish forward thought he was being substituted and walked slowly off the pitch to a standing ovation from the North and West Stands.
Lewis Dunk began shouting and gesticulating wildly at Ferguson to point out he was not actually the player being hauled and to get back up front.
Which was just as well as Ferguson had a role to play in the third Brighton goal. Veltman gained possession and found Ferguson, whose clever flick was into the path of Gross on the right. Gross delivered a low and hard cross to the back post where the stretching Mitoma converted.
Danny Welbeck added the fourth with a minute of normal time remaining, drilling a shot clinically into the bottom corner from the edge of the box.
West Ham were shell shocked, not least captain Declan Rice. The England international midfielder said afterwards: “Credit to Brighton, they played us off the pitch. To be out there, it was demoralising – to stand there, to try to defend and see them keep the ball.”
Brighton would next aim to demoralise The Leeds United at Elland Road. Despite finishing as runners up in the 1996 Coca Cola Cup, Leeds were in deep relegation trouble when the Albion arrived in Yorkshire and fighting for their lives.
That made them difficult opponents and the point Brighton gained from an enthralling 2-2 draw a useful one, even if in the immediate aftermath it felt more like two dropped.
Leeds could not wrestle possession from the Albion in the opening 30 minutes, much to the home crowds very audible frustration. It was almost as if Brighton did not care, nor were they overawed about playing the world’s biggest football club.
The Seagulls took the lead just past the half hour mark with a goal beautifully crafted by Gross. A mesmerising Double Gross Turn left Junior Firpo in a complete mess, creating the space Der Kaiser needed to cross towards the far post.
Mitoma headed back towards the centre of the goal were Mac Allister arrived to power his own header beyond Peacocks goalkeeper Illan Meslier.
Brighton gave away a poor goal with terrible timing, enabling Leeds to level through Patrick Bamford via a heavy deflection off Adam Webster three minutes before half time.
Equalising gave the Peacocks a lift and they were much the better side at the start of the second half. Brighton had to weather both a lot of pressure on their goal and an increasingly raucous Elland Road.
The Albion badly needed to take the sting out of the game, which they did when retaking the lead against the run of play.
Mitoma drilled in a low cross, Ferguson flicked it on and when Leeds could not clear, March tapped home from a matter of yards – although it was later credited as a Jack Harrison own goal.
Harrison atoned when striking the goal which earned Leeds a draw with 10 minutes remaining. There was plenty of controversy surrounding it, caused by Wilfried Gnonto taking a quick corner from what appeared to be a moving ball.
Somebody then threw a second ball onto the pitch. Because of this, neither referee Paul Tierney nor the Albion were aware that the hosts had restarted.
Leeds ruthlessly exploited the confusion. Harrison collected from Gnoto, drove towards the angle of the Brighton penalty box and then sent an effort over Steele. The Albion were livid that the goal was allowed to stand but De Zerbi cut a more measured figure afterwards.
“There were two balls on the pitch but we had to be more concentrated in that part of the game,” De Zerbi said.
“Because in that part of the game we had many chances to close the game, to kill the game and we have to learn and we have to improve in this part. When we have to close the game, we must be more tough.”
Four days later and March brought Palace to the Amex, a game in which Brighton typically chose to give one of their most below-par performances of the 2022-23 campaign up to that point.
Thankfully though, it did not matter. In spite of a disappointing showing in which the Albion were second best, March scored the only goal of the game with 15 minutes played to secure victory for Brighton.
It was the first time since March 2019 and the afternoon of Antony Knockaert’s famous rocket at Selhurst that Seagulls had beaten Eagles.
To make matters even sweeter, it extended Palace’s winless run to 11 matches and led to Patrick Vieira being sacked as manager two days later. The Albion have never been so far ahead of their rivals.
March ended with League Two Grimsby Town visiting Brighton with a place in the semi finals of the 2022-23 FA Cup on the line.
The Mariners had won five matches to reach the last eight of the competition, all against opponents higher than them in the football pyramid.
More than 4,000 of their supporters complete with inflatable haddock headed to the Amex. Many had come down the day before, taking over the Palace Pier 24 hours earlier.
Despite over 50 places separating Brighton and Grimsby, it had the look of banana skin for the Albion. Who, lest we forget, had exited the Carabao Cup back in December to a Charlton Athletic side whose previous too home games had been League One defeats against Cheltenham Town and Bristol Rovers.
De Zerbi though was never going to allow a repeat of that cock up at the Valley, even if he again had to watch from the West Upper due to another touchline ban.
Deniz Undav settled the nerves by giving Brighton the lead with six minutes played. The Albion were always in control but it remained only 1-0 going into the break, something which the injured Adam Lallana reported to the BBC punditry team De Zerbi had not been happy with.
Brighton duly responded to their manager’s displeasure with four second half goals to run out comfortable 5-0 victors and secure their spot at Wembley to face Manchester United.
Ferguson made it 2-0, producing an astonishing first touch from a ball drilled into him by Mac Allister, turning and firing into the bottom corner.
Undav then laid off to Ferguson to strike the third, March added a fourth with first diving header of his career and Mitoma rounded off the scoring via a heavy deflection off Grimsby defender Luke Waterfall.
March had now set up the final two months of the 2022-23 campaign nicely – a hectic schedule lay in wait, but one which would give Brighton the chance to make history in both league and FA Cup.
March 2023 record: P4 W3 D1 L0 F12 A2
Results: 4-0 v West Ham (H), 2-2 v Leeds (A), 1-0 v Palace (H), 5-0 v Grimsby (H)
League position at the end of the month: 7th
WeAreBrighton.com Player of the Month: Solly March
