Vote for your January 2024 WAB Brighton Player of the Month

January 2024 was a good month for Brighton in the FA Cup but less so in the Premier League, meaning our WAB Player of the Month poll centres mainly around those who shone in the world’s greatest cup competition.

The Albion were handed two potential banana skin ties in the third and fourth rounds. Firstly, they went to Championship strugglers Stoke City.

Visiting the Bet365 Stadium is never easy at the best of times, let alone when the Potters are in the midst of a new manager bounce.

Brighton though eased to a 4-2 victory, inflicting a first defeat as Stoke boss on Steven Schumacher. Joao Pedro scored twice, Pervis Estupinan once and Lewis Dunk once whilst Pascal Gross claimed two assists.

The Albion even had the good grace to make the tie a little interesting by gifting the hosts both their consolations through a wonderful Jan Paul van Hecke own goal and Dunk conceding a penalty for hand ball.

Van Hecke did make up for scoring past Bart Verbruggen, claiming a superb assist when charging forward from the back for Brighton’s fourth.

There were a couple more defensive mishaps in the next round at fellow Premier League outfit Sheffield United but once again, they did not overly impact on the result.

Brighton won 5-2 against the Blades, securing only their second win at Bramall Lane since 1986. Pedro was the headline maker again with a sensational hat-trick, joined on the scoresheet by a Facundo Buonanotte stunner and a powerful Danny Welbeck run and finish.

Three Premier League outings were less fruitful with the Albion failing to score in any. Defensively, they did at least record their first clean sheets of the season in 0-0 draws at West Ham and against Wolves at the Amex. You wait a club-record 25 matches for a league shutout and then two come along at once…

Those clean sheets might have put Jason Steele and other members of the back four in contention for the Brighton January 2024 Player of the Month shortlist until the absolute horror show at Kenilworth Road which rounded things off.

The Albion were thrashed 4-0 by the side who started the evening 18th in the Premier League. Luton Town scored twice inside the opening three minutes, including their first with just 18 seconds played against a Brighton side who looked like they had never played football before.

Ouch.

The candidates for WeAreBrighton.com January 2024 Brighton Player of the Month

Facundo Buonanotte
The teenager from Argentina has really begun to shine these last couple of months. His strike against Sheffield United has already been labelled the Goal of the FA Cup this season for the way it had a touch of Lionel Messi about it, Buonanotte stepping inside from the right via a mazy dribble before firing left footed into the top corner from 25 yards.

Billy Gilmour
Nothing particularly spectacular in January 2024 but he is a player who makes everything look so smooth and so is important now to Brighton. The best on the pitch in the Wolves draw before giving an all-action display against Sheffield United which helped the Albion dominate the ball, particularly through the opening 30 minutes in which they enjoyed 85 percent possession.

Pascal Gross
Set up both Dunk’s goal and Pedro’s first in the FA Cup win at Stoke with typically pinpoint crosses to add another two assists to his ever-growing collection. The only criticism you could level at Der Kaiser was he probably should have scored against West Ham.

Jack Hinshelwood
The December 2023 WAB Brighton Player of the Month kept his impressive life to start in the Albion first team rolling through January. Roberto De Zerbi switching to a back three and wing backs to try and compensate for having no fit or available natural wingers gave Hinshelwood even more attacking freedom up and down the right. His most telling contribution came at Luton, when he was one of the only players to emerge from the debacle with any credit after replacing the injured James Milner on 16 minutes.

Joao Pedro
This season’s Europa League top scorer so far is now also leading the race for the FA Cup golden boot following five goals in two matches. A double against Stoke and a hat-trick at Sheffield United took him onto 18 in all competitions, already breaking Glenn Murray’s Albion record for most goals in a Premier League campaign. It is now just a matter of time until he goes past Michael Robinson’s top flight record haul of 22, set in the 1980-81 season and therefore largely ignored because it came before Sky Sports invented football in 1992. Some signing Pedro is proving for £30 million.

Jan Paul van Hecke
Probably the only defender who could escape blame for what happened at Kenilworth Road, where three of the Luton goals came from the opposite side of the pitch to the one he was guarding. WAB loves an own goal (insert weekly reference about Adam Hinshelwood against Colchester United on Boxing Day 2008 here) and his at Stoke was delightfully comical. An hour later and Van Hecke found himself surging 70 yards up the pitch to set up Pedro, highlighting his huge worth at both ends of the pitch.

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Poll closes at 10pm on Sunday 11th February 2024