Brighton 2-1 Blackpool: Place in round five makes a happy birthday present

On Friday, someone in the Albion’s IT department pressed a button which sent an email to 23,000 season ticket holders wishing them a happy birthday. 24 hours later and Brighton supporters were celebrating the birthday they didn’t know they had with a 2-1 FA Cup win over Blackpool.

Too many times this season we have seen Brighton play well but fail to win. Against the League One Seasiders, the Albion were bang average and yet found a way to progress to round five thanks to the superstar talent of Yves Bissouma and the back of Steve Alzate.

It was actually nice to win ugly for once. It is no bad thing to do so either. Having the ability to come out victorious when you are not at your best is a trait that all the best sides have and one which Brighton have never really displayed in the Graham Potter era so far. There has been a lot of aesthetically pleasing football but far too few wins, particularly since the start of 2020.

Winning breeds confidence and although the performance was not great – especially in the final third – the result was all that mattered. Back-to-back wins over Blackpool and The Leeds United and a plucky showing in losing 1-0 at Manchester City should be building confidence among the players after a barren December in which the Albion looked very much like relegation fodder.

The recent turnaround means that Brighton could move eight points clear of the drop zone by beating Fulham at home on Wednesday night. Ahead of such a massive Premier League fixture, Potter could have been forgiven for naming a reserve team to take on Blackpool.

Just like in the previous round at Newport County however, he sent out a very strong line up. Christian Walton, Andi Zeqiri and Alzate were the only members of the starting XI who you would not describe as first choice players. Potter deserves a lot of credit for taking the competition seriously this season.

Against a Blackpool side who were weakened by five positive Covid-19 tests, leaving them without seven of the players who had eliminated West Bromwich Albion a fortnight earlier, it was a Brighton team which should have been progressing with ease.

The magic of the FA Cup though is that it is never straightforward. Blackpool were organised and Brighton struggled to break them down in the first half with Percy Tau and Zeqiri making little headway.

It opened up more in the final 20 minutes. Blackpool tried to become more positive to find a second equaliser of the afternoon, leaving space for the Albion to exploit at the same time as Potter threw on the cavalry in Solly March, Leandro Trossard and Neal Maupay to try and make the game safe.

If Brighton could score from inside the penalty area, then Potter’s plan would have worked. Instead, we were given a reminder of how woeful the Albion’s finishing is, the lowlight being when Maupay managed to put an effort from eight yards out with the entire goal to aim at straight at Blackpool keeper Chris Maxwell.

Meanwhile, in deepest darkest Hertfordshire, a man who has scored 111 goals for Brighton & Hove Albion, firing the club from League One to the Premier League, continues to train alone at Watford.

Potter could surely do a lot worse than recall Glenn Murray from the Hornets and get him on the training ground at Lancing to teach Maupay and his teammates how to finish from inside the penalty area.

It is a travesty that Brighton are allowing their second-highest ever scorer to rot at Watford when they could bring him home, pay him in full for the remaining six months of his contract and make better use of his talents than his current loan club are.

Brighton 2-1 Blackpool got off to a pretty turgid start and for the second FA Cup game in succession, the main talking point from the first 20 minutes did not centre on what was happening on the pitch.

For the Brighton fan in a tree at Newport, this time it was a television director who had clearly been drinking too much gin before the game kicked off.

The highlight of having the coverage led by a pissed up bloke who thought he was directing a Martin Scorsese epic rather than Brighton 2-1 Blackpool was a long, lingering shot on Maxwell which lasted 30 seconds whilst the game was going on up the pitch. Trying to work out what was happening by reading the facial expressions of the Blackpool goalkeeper was certainly a new experience.

And then Bissouma struck. Forget that Brighton were playing League One opponents, the midfielder’s goal was the sort of strike that would have been unstoppable in a World Cup final.

He collected the ball 25 yards out and with neither Zeqiri or Tau offering much, decided to have a go from distance himself. Bissouma picked his sport, revved up his rocket of a right foot and smashed an incredible effort into the top right stanchion of Maxwell’s goal.

We might as well give Bissouma the WeAreBrighton.com Goal of the Season award right now – and add another £10 million to his price tag. It was a world class strike from a bloke who has the talent you need to become a world class player in a world class team.

Make the most of him people as it surely cannot be long until one of the biggest clubs on the planet pays the £60 million plus Bissouma is worth to put him on the stage he should be playing on.

Walton had made a decent save before Bissouma opened the scoring when turning a Luke Garbutt free kick around the post. Other than that, Blackpool hardly threatened until Brighton switched off in all too familiar fashion in the final few minutes of the half.

There really is no excuse for highly paid Premier League players to not be able to concentrate for a full 45 minutes. The number of goals Brighton have given away late on in both first and second halves so far this season is criminal and against Blackpool, they had nobody to blame but themselves.

Some sloppy play in midfield and an ill-advised flick from Davy Propper gave the ball away. Blackpool were able to break down Brighton’s right, Jerry Yates backheeled to Garbutt who had time and space to cross due to Bissouma’s half-hearted efforts in trying to prevent the delivery and Gary Madine got across Lewis Dunk to produce a lovely finish with his outsretched boot through the arms of Walton.

The identity of the scorer was not a surprise. It feels like Madine has been a thorn in Brighton’s side since about 1992, making it a bit of a shock to discover he is only 30-years-old. With finishing like that, Potter could do worse than consider a cheeky bid to bring him to the Amex.

What proved to be the winning goal in Brighton 2-1 Blackpool arrived just before the hour mark and there was a huge element of luck about it.

Alexis Mac Allister this time decided that shooting from distance was a better option than playing a forward pass to either Zeqiri and Tau. His drive smashed into the back of Alzate, sending it spinning in the opposite direction to which it had been heading and past the helpless Maxwell.

It was the sort of fortune that Brighton have sorely lacking so far this season and itgave Alzate his first goal in Albion colours, a reason to celebrate – unless of course you had £25 on Mac Allister to score anytime and had been dancing around your lounge at the thought of a pay out of over £100 before the goal was awarded to Alzate, as this author did.

Mac Allister had earlier drawn a good stop from Maxwell with another shot from outside the box. After months of sideways pass followed by sideways pass, it was refreshing to see players willing to have a go from distance.

The fact that the game was worn by Bissouma’s strike and Mac Allister’s deflected effort from range serves as a reminder of what can happen when players are bold enough to take a shot on. The top corner can be found or you end up creating the scenario which led to Alzate scoring with his spine.

Or perhaps there is just something about Brighton v Blackpool that causes the football gods to dream up weird goals; Alzate’s back in Brighton 2-1 Blackpool now joins Dean Hammond’s cracking own goal from 2013’s Brighton 6-1 Blackpool and Andy Crosby scoring with his ear during 2001’s Brighton 1-0 Blackpool as strange moments to have happened when Seagulls meet Seasiders.

Potter then made his triple change in the immediate aftermath of Brighton taking their 2-1 lead against Blackpool as Alzate, Mac Allister and Tau all departed the action.

The substitutes – Pascal Gross also joined the action 15 minutes later for Zeqiri – provided new impetus and the Albion should have made things comfortable as what was almost a Blackpool reserve side began to tire at the same time as attempting to become more adventurous.

Maupay’s glaring miss from Trossard’s cross has already been mentioned and although Maxwell deserves credit for making the save, a £20 million centre forward really should be capable of placing a shot in any of the 17 feet of unguarded net either side of the Blackpool goalkeeper.

Joining Maupay on the naughty list of missed chances were Gross, March and Propper. Gross could not connect properly with another decent cross from Trossard as his effort went wide. March himself then bent a shot the wrong side of the post before Maxwell produced a strong save from Propper.

Unlike at Newport in the previous round, there was to be no late goal forcing an extra half hour. Brighton were through to face either Leicester City or Brentford away next, opponents who the Albion will need to be better against if they are to secure a third appearance in the FA Cup quarter finals in the past four seasons.

Potter and his players will know that though. This was a case of job done for the Albion and a welcome sign that this team can win without playing well ahead of a massive six pointer against Fulham.

Now imagine the extended birthday celebrations us 23,000 season tickets can have if Brighton beat the Cottagers on Wednesday night…