Neal Maupay v Norwich wins Brighton Miss of the Season 2021-22

June 27, 2022June 27, 2022 WeAreBrighton.com 0 Comments

Oh, Neal! Neal Maupay completes a quite unique WAB 2021-22 Awards double by adding Brighton Miss of the Season for his atrocious penalty against Norwich City to the Last Minute Goal of the Season he earlier picked up for his 95th minute equaliser at Crystal Palace.

Such is the life of La Petite Shithouse Francaise. The enigmatic Maupay veers from devastating finishes like that lob over Vicente Guaita which sparked bedlam at Selhurst to astonishing misses such as fluffing his lines against the Canaries.

In isolation, the Norwich penalty was bad enough. Any highly paid professional footballer should be able to at least hit the target from 12 yards with an unchallenged shot. If the goalkeeper saves it, he saves it. To completely miss the goal altogether is totally unacceptable.

Maupay achieved it and in quite spectacular style too, send the ball over the bar as if he were going for three points in rugby rather than one goal in football.

Rumour has it that the International Space Station had to take evasive action to avoid a collision with Maupay’s penalty as it hurtled in the direction of Saturn.

What made the miss even worse (or better depending on your viewpoint) was the context it came in. Brighton had not scored a goal at the Amex for approaching three months when Neal Maupay was handed a golden opportunity to break that duck against Norwich.

The Canaries were already doomed to relegation despite it only being the first weekend of April. They were one of the worst teams in Premier League history and yet here were the Albion, unable to beat them.

Actually, make that unable to beat them twice as the October meeting at Carrow Road also ended in a 0-0 draw.

The reaction to the Neal Maupay penalty against Norwich told its own story. Normally when a team misses a spot kick, supporters will boo or howl with anguish.

Not Brighton fans though. Instead, the ball departed over the roof of the Amex with the majority of the 30,000 people inside the stadium laughing. Because if you did not laugh, you would have had to cry.

Just 1.33 percent of the vote separated Maupay against Norwich in first with the runner up in the WAB Miss of the Season vote, which also went to Monsieur Maupay for his eighth minute effort in the 0-0 home draw with The Leeds United.

Brighton racked up 20 shots over 90 minutes against the biggest club in the world but none of them made a dent on the scoreboard.

Maupay set the tone nicely for what was to come when he somehow managed to put the ball over the bar from eight yards out when presented with an open goal.

The Albion ended up being booed off the pitch by a smattering of the Amex crowd at full time as frustration at an all-too-familiar tale of missed chances boiled over.

Graham Potter made his infamous “history lesson” comments during his post-match interview as a consequence with Brighton in the midst of a club-record worst ever run of 11 games without a top flight victory.

The final game in that sequence came when Wolves won 1-0 at the Amex 10 days before Christmas. Barely 15,000 fans were there to watch as the poor form, people not wanting to risk catching Covid-19 and having to isolate on December 25th and the inability to pass on season tickets without paying £25 and knowing a MyAlbion+ Member combined to leave swathes of empty seats.

Those who did attend were treated to the third best Brighton miss of the 2021-22 season. Barely six weeks after scoring WAB Goal of the Season for his stunning strike away at Liverpool, Enock Mwepu defied all the known laws of physics against the Old Gold.

Mwepu was stood virtually on the goal line when a loose ball fell to home. Incredibly, he managed to lift the ball up and over the bar from what should have been an impossible angle to do such a thing. Put it down to The Computer suffering from a virus.