Bournemouth 1-2 Brighton: Never insult Brighton Beach

Hell hath no fury like a football club whose beach has been insulted. The Cherries learnt the hard way as an ill-advised social media post apparently provided all the motivation needed for the Albion ahead of Plucky Little Bournemouth 1-2 Brighton.

A graphic featured Seagulls defender Igor Julio in an ice cream van with “Cherry Cones – The South Coast’s Finest” written on it. The post itself read “Oh I do like to be beside the (proper) seaside.”

Shots fired. Which did not go down well with the Albion squad. The outstanding Joao Pedro said it was the reason Brighton were so motivated to secure a rare, rare win at the Vitality Stadium despite ending the game with only 10 men.

Pedro revealed afterwards: “I think this game was very important for everyone because you saw things on the internet, and you didn’t like it. So we had more motivation to win this game.”

And to further hammer home the point, Pedro then took to Instagram to upload a picture of himself alongside an emoji of a man eating an ice cream.

For longer than I care to remember, visits to Bournemouth have been horrible. Wayne Henderson letting the ball slip under his foot in the last seconds on New Year’s Day 2007, resulting in an entire hungover away end booing him was a classic of the genre.

Or how about when Graham Potter played Dale Stephens at right back, brought on wingers Leandro Trossard and Solly March and had them whip in crosses for Aaron Connolly and Neal Maupay whilst Glenn Murray sat on the bench?

The trip along the coast seven months ago under Roberto De Zerbi was equally grim. A terrible team selection followed by a performance and 3-0 defeat which turned some Brighton fans against the man who less than one year earlier led the Albion into the top six.

That though is what Bournemouth away does. Who knew that all the Albion needed to secure only their third league win at the Vitality Stadium in 30 years was for Bournemouth to try and claim their beach is better than Brighton’s?

Pedro required just four minutes to open the scoring in Bournemouth 1-2 Brighton. It came at the end of a magnificent passing move which cut through the Cherries like a knife in warm butter.

Danny Welbeck, Pedro and Georginio Rutter were all involved before the Albion’s £40 million record signing got a distance shot away parried by Kepa Arrizabalaga. Pedro was on hand to smash home the rebound from close range.

Bart Verbruggen blocked from Evanilson, who then put the ball in the back of the net after the Cherries countered quickly. The Brighton defensive line, however, was spot on and the flag went up to deny Bournemouth’s own Brazilian forward.

The Albion made an equally quick start to the second half as they had the first, scoring again after four minutes. Pedro turned architect this time, playing a genuinely world class through ball into the run of Kaoru Mitoma cutting in from the left flank.

Mitoma did the rest, applying the finish into the bottom corner across Kepa. Whilst the idea of playing Bournemouth leads most Brighton fans to break out in a cold sweat, Mitoma seems to love facing the Cherries. This was his fourth goal in four career games against Bournemouth.

It would not have been possible though without the pass from Pedro. His form this season – even though he has already missed large chunks of it with two injuries – is good enough to attract European Super League interest this summer.

Pedro is a special player who we should enjoy watching in the stripes whilst we can. Because it will not be long until he becomes the next mega money departure from the Amex.

Bournemouth should have pulled one back within a minute but Evanilson could only steer wide when in a really good position.

10 minutes later and the major talking point from Bournemouth 1-2 Brighton (other than who has the better beach) arrived.

Carlos Baleba ran across Milos Kerkez as the Cherries left back went lunging in. The two came together and when Kerkez began rolling around on the floor screaming, it lured referee Stuart Attwell to show Baleba a second yellow card.

Fabian Hurzeler said afterwards it was never a booking and he was right. An incredibly shit decision but not really a surprise when you look at the man making it. Brighton now had to see out the remaining 30 minutes with only 10 men.

Suddenly, it felt like being transported back in time 20 years to the Withdean days. The rain had been lashing down, the wind was howling and now the Albion needed to give a backs-to-the-wall, battling performance to come away with three points.

Brighton subsequently showed the character which used to be the hallmarks of Richard Carpenter, Charlie Oatway, Danny Cullip and the rest.

Bournemouth struggled to find any way through in the normal time that remained, bar one Evanilson header which Verbruggen grabbed at the second attempt.

Injury time though was a different story. David Brooks pulled one back with an outside of the boot finish in the third of six additional minutes.

The magnificent sight of a goalkeeper up for a corner occurred for the final kick of the game. Jan Paul van Hecke managed to head clear challenged by Kepa but the ball made it only as far as the edge of the box, where Antoine Semenyo was lurking.

Semenyo crashed a technically perfect volley back towards goal which beat Verbruggen all ends up. Thankfully for the Albion, it smashed into the bar and out for a goal kick as Brighton hung on.

The scenes at full time were a reminder that gritty wins in terrible weather which you have to fight for can be amongst the best and most rewarding.

As for Bournemouth, a reminder never to insult Brighton beach again.