Newport 1-1 Brighton: Strange set of ratings from a strange FA Cup tie
Newport County 1-1 Brighton was a bad evening of football for the Albion – but how bad only became clear when we pieced together our WAB Player Ratings and sitting at the top of the pile was Lewis Dunk.
Graham Potter named a Seagulls starting XI containing six of Brighton’s best players and yet here we are with a central defender as man-of-the-match against League Two opposition. It does not look good.
Just behind Dunk were Solly March and Yves Bissouma, unsurprisingly. Under normal circumstances, you would expect a goalkeeper who saves four spot kicks in a penalty shoot out to be the overwhelming winner of the player ratings so it says much about Jason Steele’s interesting performance that he was outscored by five of his teammates.
Steele veering from zero to hero in the space of 30 minutes summed up a strange FA Cup tie in which Brighton were fortunate to squeak through. Here are the scores on the doors for all 15 players who were involved in Newport County 1-1 Brighton.
Jason Steele – 6.18
An incredibly bizarre evening in which he looked like a bloke on crack over the course of the 120 minutes before turning into prime Manuel Neuer for the penalty shoot out. As one of the comments on our Brighton 1-1 Newport player ratings thread on Twitter said: “Deserves a one for the game and a 10 for the penalty shoot out.” A performance we will be talking about for years.
Adam Webster – 6.89
He has looked in good nick recently and continued that with another solid performance. Showed nerves of steel to coolly despatch the deciding penalty which he later revealed was the first spot kick he has ever taken in a competitive game.
LEWIS DUNK – 7.21
Without their captain, Brighton would have been facing an embarrassing exit from the FA Cup. His acrobatic goal line clearance in the first half spared Steele’s blushes after the goalkeeper got in a right state from a backpass and Dunk then used his head to keep out 54-year-old Kevin Ellison’s effort in the last minute of extra time. Scored a penalty in the shoot out and got onto several Pascal Gross corners to test Tom King in the Exiles’ goal.
Ben White – 5.82
His return to the club where he first began to make a name for himself on loan in the 2017-18 season did not go quite as well as he would have hoped. Seemed to be more impacted than most by the Rodney Parade pitch which was strange given he spent a year of his career playing home games on it.
Alireza Jahanbakhsh – 4.14
Scored the lowest mark of the Brighton starting XI in the player ratings for the 1-1 draw with Newport. Having given an interview in the week leading up to the game in which he said he wanted to leave due to a lack of first team opportunities, it would surely now be in everyone’s interests for the Albion to cut their losses and allow him to go. He is a nice bloke who deserves to move to a club playing at a level where he is good enough to start regularly. Unfortunately, that is not in the Premier League based on this.
Yves Bissouma – 7.00
Seeing as he misses Wednesday night’s trip to Manchester City through suspension, his inclusion against Newport was not that big of a surprise. Gave an energetic performance in midfield and was one of the few players with the ability to control the ball on the bumpy surface. We will ignore the penalty miss and his ill-advised stuttering run up.
Pascal Gross – 5.57
He nearly outpaced a Newport player at one point which must have made everyone watching think they had slipped into the Twilight Zone. His set piece delivery was on point all evening and were it not for a series of outstanding saves from King, he could have had at least a couple of assists from corners.
Solly March – 7.07
One of the few Brighton players who wanted to try and make things happen. His goal was an example to everyone of what can happen when a player does something radical like take a shot from outside the box.
Alexis Mac Allister – 5.04
A rare opportunity for the Argentinian to start but he failed to grasp it as he was largely anonymous. There is a school of thought developing that he is just not suited to Potterball with its patient build up play; instead, he would thrive in a team packed with pace and counter attacking ability.
Andi Zeqiri – 5.75
Brighton’s best attacker of those who started, not that it was much of an accolade given the way in which his teammates struggled. Denied a debut goal by a world class stop from King in the first half before making way for Leandro Trossard, a poor decision to say the least on the part of the Potter.
Neal Maupay – 4.68
You might not have realised he was playing until he missed a penalty in the shoot out with grim predictability. An out-of-sorts performance given that he had been in fine form in his last couple of Premier League starts, scoring at West Ham United and at home against Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Davy Propper – 6.00
Named among the substitutes because he will presumably come in for Bissouma at the Etihad Stadium in midweek. His foot made of silk meant that he was one of the only Brighton players who could get the ball under and it was his clever shuffle and lay off which created the space March needed to score the Albion goal.
Leandro Trossard – 3.68
Awful. According to Albion Analytics, gave the ball away 24 times from 59 touches in 57 minutes on the pitch. Compounded that by taking the worst Brighton penalty since Ryan Harley away at Millwall in 2011 with what was essentially a gentle back pass to King.
Percy Tau – 6.43
903 days after signing for the Albion, we finally got to see the Lion of Judah in a Brighton shirt. A lively 50 minutes in which he showed a willingness to run at the Newport defence, something which Potter will no doubt coach out of him in the coming weeks.
Bernardo – 4.61
Steele letting the cross pass through him as if he were Casper the Friendly Ghost to gift Newport their equaliser rather overshadowed Bernardo’s role in the shambles. He had been on the pitch for less than five minutes when attempting some weird sort of scorpion kick clearance when he just needed to put his foot through the ball to stop it reaching Newport’s right flank. He missed the ball, the Exiles’ crossed and suddenly there was an unwanted extra 30 minutes to play.
The WAB Player Ratings are formulated using marks out of 10 given by Brighton fans via Twitter. To have your scores included, follow We Are Brighton on Twitter and look out for the player rating thread after each game.
