Queuing for penalty shootout defeat: Charlton 0-0 Brighton photos
The Albion played their first competitive game for six weeks and honestly, where you expecting anything else? These photos from a surreal evening feature The Queue, a backwards Roberto De Zerbi flag and four missed penalties as Brighton exited the Carabao Cup in a shootout defeat following a 0-0 draw at Charlton Athletic.
When a trillion people queued on the streets of London to see The Queen lying in state back in September, nobody could have imagined that three months later there would be another long line of patient Brits waiting in the capital.
Rather than to mark the sad passing of a long-reigning monarch, this queue was Albion supporters waiting to collect duplicate tickets from the Valley after their originals failed to arrive in time due to postal strikes.
The Queue lasted more than an hour and over one thousand match tickets were handed out. Some fans missed kick off and others simply gave up, not wanting to spend longer than the game would actually last queuing up to see it.
Those who did successfully negotiate The Queue and were inside the stadium before the teams came out were next treated to the sight of the De Zerbi flag being passed over the heads of Albion supporters the wrong way round.
90 minutes of football later and a strong Brighton side who ended the game with five World Cup representatives on the pitch had found no way through the Addicks, despite registering 18 shots throughout the match.
That meant penalties, which was never likely to be good news for the Albion. Pascal Gross hit a post. Leandro Trossard hit the bar.
Solly March did a wonderful Jonny Wilkinson impression by putting the ball miles too high. Moisces Caicedo saw his spot kick saved.
Total those up and you get Brighton missing four penalties out of six. Charlton were slightly better, only missing two.
Having eliminated Premier League leaders Arsenal from the competition in the third round, Brighton were now out in the fourth at the expense of a club four points offer the League One relegation zone, without a win in eight league games and whose two most recent home fixtures had been defeats to Bristol Rovers and Cheltenham Town.
One of those surreal experiences which Brighton fans will be talking about for years.
If you have any photos you would like included in our Charlton 0-0 Brighton gallery, please e-mail them to wearebrighton@hotmail.co.uk or tweet them to us @wearebrighton
