Kazenga LuaLua voted WeAreBrighton.com Player of the Month for May 2013
He was the only Brighton and Hove Albion player who managed to score in a May in which the Albion’s promotion dreams came to a crushing end against Crystal Palace, so it was little surprise to see Kazenga LuaLua voted our WeAreBrighton.com Player of the Month.
Those two goals came in a a man-of-the-match performance in the final game of the regular season, a 2-0 victory over Wolverhampton Wanderers which confirmed the visitors dramatic descent from Premier League to League One in consecutive seasons.
His reward for that performance was not to start either of the play off games against Palace. Missing the first one was understandable given that we were away from home and he isn’t exactly known for his defensive work, but to not introduce him in the home leg until Palace were 1-0 up was a massive mistake from Gus Poyet, especially given the damage he caused against the same opponents at the Amex in March.
Liam Bridcutt capped an impressive season by being named the clubs official Player of the Season and winning man of the match in the first leg of the play offs at Selhurst Park, with his performance being complimented by no less than Rio Ferdinand on Twitter.
That was enough for him to secure second place ahead of Wayne Bridge, who signed off in style if, as expected, this was to be the last time we see him in an Albion shirt. Kept Wilfried Zaha unusually quiet again until Ian Holloway finally had the idea to switch him to the other flank, at which point our Wembley dreams were ended as the Manchester United bound winger tore Inigo Calderon apart.
Kazenga LuaLua – 37.93%
Liam Bridcutt – 25.86%
Wayne Bridge – 12.07%
Matthew Upson – 8.62%
Tomasz Kuszczak – 6.90%
Dean Hammond – 3.45%
David Lopez – 3.45%
Gordon Greer – 1.72%
