Vote for your WeAreBrighton.com Player of the Month for September 2012
August ended with a fest of deadline day activity and a 5-1 demolition of Barnsley, leaving hopes high that September would be a strong second month of the 2012/13 season for Brighton and Hove Albion.
Those hopes were realised as the Albion picked up four wins out of five, losing just once at home to Birmingham City in the final game of the month.
There was a fantastic 3-1 win away at Burnley to kick things off as Craig Mackail-Smith scored a brace for the second consecutive game including a real goal of the season contender with a quite brilliant low overhead kick.
A rocking Friday night at the Amex saw newly promoted Sheffield Wednesday hammered 3-0, Watford were vanquished at Vicarage Road thanks to Mackail-Smith’s cool spot kick and there was a 2-1 win at Milllllllllllll just prior to that second league defeat of the season against the Blues.
One thing that September has really hammered home is that this is a very different Albion squad to last season – the corresponding fixtures with Burnley, Watford and Millwall returned a solitary point in 2011/12 compared to the nine that have been gathered this time around.
A large part of that is down to Gus Poyet’s summer transfer recruitment with four new arrivals making the bumper shortlist of nine players for our WeAreBrighton.com September Player of the Month award.
Liam Bridcutt
A superb month playing just in front of the defence, he got through a ludicrous amount of work in the away wins at both Millwall and Watford and with the Albion under pressure in both those games, was the main catalyst for counter attacking when breaking up the play.
Wayne Bridge
Another month and another goal from left back from the former England international, this time when opening the scorer in the win over Sheffield Wednesday. On this form, he should be playing in the Premier League, not for Brighton and Hove Albion.
Bruno
His September may have ended prematurely through injury but he was again, like Bridge, at his rampaging best throughtout September. The only thing that is missing for our August Player of the Month is a goal but his value to the side was shown in the loss against Birmingham.
Will Buckley
Craig Noone’s departure to Cardiff has opened the door for the former Watford man and now he is match fit, he has secured his place ahead of Kazenga LuaLua in the pecking order. Opened his account for the season against Sheffield Wednesday and was immense in the win at Millllllll.
Adam El-Abd
A first goal in 20 months in the win at Millllllll was the icing on the cake in what was an impressive September for the Egyptian international. Alongside Gordon Greer, he has looked superb in central defence and further international honours cannot be far away.
Gordon Greer
Another good month for the captain extraordinaire at the back that again makes Barnsley thinking they could land him for a five figure sum in the summer even more laughable. He even popped up with a rare goal in the win away at Burnley.
Dean Hammond
When the Albion announced the return of a “club legend”, there were plenty of Brighton fans disappointed that it was former captain Dean Hammond on his way back to the club rather than Bobby Zamora. He’s dispelled any doubts about his signing on-loan from Southampton with some strong displays in the middle of the park.
Tomasz Kuszczak
His commanding performance at Watford and a wonder save at the death earned at Millllll earned the Albion points that last season would probably have been squandered. He already looks like he could be the difference between another top 10 finish and a genuine promotion push.
Craig Mackail-Smith
The Albion’s record buy is finally beginning to pay off that transfer fee and justify all the expectation around him. Two stunning goals including a bicycle kick at Burnley were the highlight in a superb September in which he took his tally for the season onto six before being struck down with injury.
