Brighton 1-1 Crystal Palace: One point only as Albion pay the penalty

Maybe Graham Potter is destined to never down the Eagles? Brighton 1-1 Crystal Palace meant that Potter has now led the Albion into battle against their ultimate enemy six times. And six times, he has failed to win.

Some Brighton fans have tried to put this down to Potter not “getting” the importance of the game. That thought is not really true.

Brighton play no better or worse against Palace than they do any other opponents. And you could see at the end of the 1-1 draw at Selhurst Park in September that these Albion players do understand the rivalry.

The normally unflappable Robert Sanchez going completely insane, goading and then trying to fight the entire Holmesdale End was a bit of a giveaway.

Instead, the Albion’s failure to beat Palace in the Potter Era sums up the Potter Era completely. Dominant displays which should yield three points but do not because of an inability to put the ball in the back of the net. An outcome less surprising than when news of another lockdown piss up in Downing Street is splashed across the front pages.

This latest 1-1 draw between Brighton and Palace hinged on one particular moment. It was the moment all anyone could talk about at half time and the moment all anyone could talk about afterwards, until Albion fans realised that the plan for getting home supporters away from the Amex was turning into a bit of a shambles.

We are of course talking about that penalty. 36 minutes had elapsed when VAR spotted Will Hughes wrestling Joel Veltman to the ground. Referee Rob Jones trotted over to the pitch side monitor, watched the incident again and awarded Brighton a spot kick.

So far this season, the Albion have converted penalties through Neal Maupay, Leandro Trossard and Alexis Mac Allister. Bizarrely, Potter decided to put Pascal Gross on taking duty.

Not only did that bypass three previous successful takers, but Gross has barely played any football in the past six weeks. He would have been rustier than the Pope’s testicles.

Just 12 days earlier, the Albion had seen what can happen when a player returning to the first team after sometime out is charged with taking a penalty.

Dominic Calvert-Lewin blasted over the bar as Brighton won 3-2 at Everton having barely touched the ball before being told “take this pressure spot kick even though you are still feeling your way back into the game.”

Gross’ penalty was even worse than Calvert-Lewin’s. In fact, you could argue it was the worst spot kick a Brighton player has ever taken, denying Ryan Harley the one accolade he picked up during his two years with the Albion.

It also summed up Brighton 1-1 Palace and the Albion’s tribulations in front of goal nicely. Evolution in the Fatherland means that it is in the DNA of the German people to not miss penalties.

What is in the water at the American Express Elite Football Performance Centre that has managed to overwrite that and lead Gross to miss from 12 yards?

Gross bore the brunt of the anger with some Brighton fans going so far as to claim that should be the end of his Albion career. He seems to get written off every season, only to prove his doubters wrong by coming back even stronger. Fingers crossed that is the case again.

Potter should not be immune from criticism for putting Gross on penalties. It was a decision which ultimately cost Brighton the game; had the Albion scored one, you would fancy them to add another as the Brentford, Everton and West Brom matches have all seen goals come in quick spurts.

Take a 2-0 lead and suddenly, you have a very different occasion on your hands. Palace cannot merely sit back, Brighton are excellent on the counter and with an Amex Stadium as noisy and rabid as it has been for some time, Potter finally gets the beating the Eagles monkey off his back.

Of course, the Albion had other chances. Brighton were so good in the first half that the Palace support was silenced from the first whistle, once those clad in their Sunday best Primark black hoodies had let off their first flare.

Seagulls v Eagles games at the Amex provide a constant source of wonder and amazement about how Palace fans manage to sneak more gunpowder into the ground than Guy Fawkes went to the Houses of Parliament with.

Meanwhile at the Brighton turnstile, any fan with a bottle lid hidden in their pocket is spotted by a steward from a distance of 400 metres, who disintegrates the dissenter via lasers shooting out their eyes like something out of Terminator.

The Albion should gone ahead inside of 10 minutes. Marc Cucurella set the tone for an impressive personal evening down the left, intercepting Joel Ward’s attempted header clear to send Trossard racing away.

In entirely predictable fashion, Jack Butland decided that this was the evening when he would roll back the clock five years to when he was touted as having the potential to be England’s finest goalkeeper since Gordon Banks.

Butland blocked Trossard’s effort with his arm, one of several big saves that justified Patrick Vieira’s decision to start him over Vicente Guaita.

Most of Brighton’s first half joy came down the right flank, making it particularly gutting that Tariq Lamptey was suffering from a slight injury meaning he was deemed only fit enough to come off the bench.

Brand new Skoda owner Jakub Moder combined with Veltman to tee up Maupay for a good chance volleyed wide. Then came the bloody penalty, Butland saving although in fairness the Palace goalkeeper’s grandmother could have kept it out it was that bad.

Brighton did get the ball in the back of the net from the resulting corner but it was disallowed after another trip for Mr Jones to the monitor.

Maupay was adjudged to have fouled Butland who was attempting to gather an Adam Webster header. Although the right decision, it just added to the sense of the frustration over the penalty farce.

The second half was only two minutes old when Gross almost redeemed himself. He delivered the sort of pinpoint ball into the box only he can, straight onto the foot of Moder. The Poland international did not even need to break stride but his first time effort cannoned off the cross bar.

Lamptey was introduced for the injured Lallana on 56 minutes, at which point you thought HERE WE GO! When Webster headed a Mac Allister corner wide and Trossard had a goal bound volley blocked by Marc Guehi, a Sue Gray investigation could have predicted what would happen next.

Yes, that is right. Palace took the lead. Brighton had done well to keep Conor Gallagher relatively quiet up until the moment he volleyed a Jeffrey Schlupp cross past Robert Sanchez.

The Albion now had 20 minutes to find a goal and avoid a third consecutive defeat at the Amex against Palace – from three matches in which they had registered no more than five shots.

This Brighton team seem to like late drama and so it took until the 87th minute for the leveller to arrive. Maupay drilled a low ball across goal out of desperation more than anything else.

He was right to do so; whereas the Albion could find no way past Butland, Eagles defender Joachim Andersen managed to, diverting the ball past his goalkeeper and into the back of the net to make it Brighton 1-1 Palace.

Danny Welbeck might have even won it in the final seconds. Dat Guy was picked out by his fellow substitute Solly March, only for Welbeck’s header to fly inches over the bar and into the North Stand rather than the back of the net.

Had that gone in, nobody with Palace connections could have had too many grounds for complaints. Brighton deserved to win, as proven by an xG of 2.54 compared to 0.47 for the Eagles, whose fans presumably did not celebrate the draw as that would have been tinpot bordering on illegal.

There was certainly no outpouring of joy over the result on this occasion from Brighton fans, unlike after Maupay’s late heroics at Selhurst. The wait to beat Palace goes on.