Trossard joins exclusive Brighton club with hat-trick at Liverpool
When the ball hit the back of the net in the 83rd minute at Anfield to make it Liverpool 3-3 Brighton, Leandro Trossard entered a very exclusive club with his first hat-trick in English football.
Only two other players in the 121 year existence of the Albion had scored top flight trebles for the Albion. Nobody had managed the feat for 42 years, giving Trossard the added distinction of becoming the first Brighton Premier League hat-trick scorer since Sky Sports invented football in 1992.
We take a look back at the two previous hat-trick scorers in Brighton history prior to Trossard and his heroics to shock Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool.
Both were as impressive as the Vampire of Genk’s effort, but for different reasons compared to all being scored with the left foot at Anfield.
Peter Ward – Wolves 0-3 Brighton, Friday 21st December 1979
It comes as little surprise that Peter Ward was the first ever Brighton play to score a top flight hat-trick. The man whose goals had helped power Alan Mullery’s Albion side from third tier to top tier achieved the feat three days before Christmas Day 1979 as the Seagulls won 3-1 away at an icy Molineux.
That Wolves were the opponents should not be a shock either. This was the first ever league meeting between the clubs, starting Brighton on their journey to becoming the Old Gold’s bogey side.
It take Wolves 12 years and 14 matches from Ward’s treble to win against the Albion for the first time in a league fixture.
Their record has scarcely improved through to the day Trossard scored his hat-trick at Liverpool, reading just six league victories in 36 attempts.
Nobody travelling to the Midlands 43 years ago could have predicted what was about to happen. Brighton had endured a difficult start to life in Division One, winning only four times prior to their trip to Molineux.
Just one of those successes had come on the road, although it was a hugely impressive one in mid-November when Gerry Ryan scored the only goal in a 1-0 win at European Champions Nottingham Forest.
Before the visit to the City Ground, Brighton have received a £600,000 bid from Forest for Ward, who had managed just two goals all season by that point.
Mullery was happy to move on his out-of-form striker but before Ward could decide whether to go to Forest, Brian Clough pulled the offer and the deal fell through.
Ward seemed to take this rebuff from Clough personally and began playing like a man possessed through December. He scored the opener in a 2-0 win over Derby County three weeks before his historic hat-trick against Wolves.
The treble against Wolves moved Ward onto six for the season. He would score another 10 in the 21 remaining games, helping fire the Albion to 16th place in the table.
Avoiding relegation by a clear six point margin was achieved largely because of the Christmas form Ward’s hat-trick and the win over Wolves kick-started.
Crystal Palace were beaten 3-0 at the Goldstone on Boxing Day with Ward scoring one and assisting the other two. Brighton then hammered Manchester City 4-1 at home on December 29th, drew 2-2 at Bristol City on New Year’s Day and beat Bolton Wanderers 2-0 on January 12th.
That sequence of results pushed the Albion outside of the relegation zone. They would not drop into the bottom three again all season. Ward’s hat-trick was both record-breaking and very important.
Gordon Smith – Coventry City 3-3 Brighton, Saturday 4th October 1980
10 months after Ward’s treble at Wolves and Gordon Smith became the second Brighton player to score a top flight hat-trick in a sensational 3-3 draw away against Coventry City.
The Albion trailed 3-0 at Highfield Road with just 21 minutes remaining. Mullery’s side looked dead and buried. Smith though had other ideas, plundering a 19 minute hat-trick to secure the most unlikely of 3-3 draws.
Smith had signed in the summer of 1980 for a club-record £400,000 from Glasgow Rangers. He did not take long to show the Goldstone faithful what he could do as an attacking midfielder with an eye for goal, scoring four times in his first five appearances for Brighton.
The hat-trick against the Sky Blues was something else altogether. It remains one of the best comebacks from any Albion side ever and was pretty much entirely down to the elegant Smith and his clinical finishing ability.
Not that many people remember Smith for that. Instead, his Brighton career is overshadowed by one thing – that miss in the 1983 FA Cup Final.
“And Smith Must Score” came the commentary from Peter Jones. Unlike at Coventry 38 months later, Smith was unable to score. A good save from the spread legs of Manchester United goalkeeper Gary Bailey denied Smith and Brighton the chance to lift the FA Cup.
Smith had of course scored earlier in the final with a beautiful header. He was also instrumental in the semi final win over Sheffield Wednesday at Highbury, making the winner for Michael Robinson.
He deserves to be remembered for moments like those – and that hat-trick at Coventry – rather than just what happened under the Twin Towers of Wembley.
