Brighton 2-0 Swansea: Connolly on a Benda with two past Swansea Steve
It took the Romans 30 years to complete their conquest of Wales. Brighton & Hove Albion have managed it in the space of 36 days, eliminating both Swansea City and Cardiff City from the Carabao Cup via comfortable 2-0 victories over Cymru’s Championship clubs.
This latest success came against the Swans at the Amex and was delivered via two goals from Aaron Connolly, rather ironically scoring past a Swansea goalkeeper named Steven Benda. Connolly has been on a few of those in recent weeks, as the gossip pages of the tabloid press can attest to.
A brace for a striker whose relationship with Love Island star Lucinda Stafford has been on and off more times than he has managed goals in 2021 was not the only cause for celebration for the 8,838 tickets sold at the Amex.
The headline news was Tariq Lamptey making his return after nine months out injured. Lamptey got through 45 first half minutes unscathed before a pre-planned half time substitution with Pascal Gross – back from isolation – taking his place.
There were a couple of rapid advances down the right hand side from Lamptey who, although some way from full match fitness, showed glimpses of the player who had lit up the Premier League in the first half of last season.
The dream of Graham Potter deploying him and Marc Cucurella down the flanks is a little closer now with Lamptey having seemingly passed this test. What a frightening prospect that is.
DJ Jurgen Locadia took time out from spinning the platters that matter to make his first Albion appearance in two years. He was greeted by a raucous reception from the crowd, who are clearly enjoying his recent Instagram posts as much as we are here at WAB Towers.
And in Ed Turns, Brighton appear to have unearthed another young gem of a centre back who had a touch of the Ben White about him. What makes his potential doubly exciting is that he has a fantastic name with a wealth of crap jokes potential, especially when it comes to making regular use of a GIF of the possessed girl in the Exorcist when her head starts spinning around.
Turns was the only debutant in Potter’s starting line up, which showed the customary Carabao Cup 11 changes from Brighton 2-1 Leicester City.
That the Albion can field a second string line up and have it contain full internationals from Poland, Colombia, Argentina, the Republic of Ireland and Zambia (had Enock Mwepu not been injured in the warm up) highlights the extraordinary strength in depth available to Potter.
Seeing this strength in depth and having the opportunity to watch the talented players the expensively assembled academy is now beginning to churn out has given the Carabao Cup a new-found popularity amongst Brighton supporters.
The attendance may not have reflected that, but there were still plenty of interested observers passing comment online and listening to the superb BBC Radio Sussex coverage provided by Johnny Cantor and Warren Aspinall. It is a far cry from when Albion fans would argue that the competition was pointless.
What has helped this turnaround in opinion is the way that Potter and the Albion have embraced the competition over the past two seasons.
Whilst Pep Guardiola reckons Manchester City should be allowed to field a B Team in the Football League rather than have to compete in the Carabao Cup, the Albion have taken the opportunity to show off the best of their development squad alongside the likes of Jakub Moder, Alexis Mac Allister and Steve Alzate in team selections that are still designed to win games.
Turns, Haydon Roberts and Marc Leonard – Mwepu’s late replacement – were the young players given their opportunities from the start in Brighton 2-0 Swansea.
So too was Taylor Richards, who is a little further ahead than those three on the development pathway. Richards has already made his Premier League debut this season fresh from a year at Doncaster Rovers where he hit double figures as a number 10.
Joining Richards in midfield for the final 20 minutes was Jeremy Sarmiento, an England youth international signed for considerable expense from Benfica in the summer.
Sarmiento enjoyed an exciting, fearless cameo and he is another worth keeping an eye on over the course of his initial two-year contract.
The other enjoyable thing about the Carabao Cup is the relaxed atmosphere. Cheap tickets give parents the chance to take their kids. Friends who may not get the chance to go to games with each other can sit together.
That is an attractive proposition, especially for those Brighton fans refusing to pay for the club’s season ticket sharing scheme this season, which makes enjoying a game next to your mates in the Premier League all but impossible.
Winning helps the mood, of course. Whilst it was by no means a classic, Brighton 2-0 Swansea made it six wins from seven matches in all competitions to start the 2021-22 season.
From the first team racking up points in the top flight to the back up players and youngsters in the development squad swatting aside decent Championship opponents in the League Cup, there is a real feel good factor around the club at the moment.
Connolly is certainly somebody who can benefit from that. As well documented as his off-the-field antics have been, he has looked a player bereft of confidence.
When a centre forward is stuck in that sort of rut, sometimes they just need a little bit of luck to get out of it. That might be a goal scored off their arse, their ear or via a ridiculously lucky deflection.
For Connolly, it was the latter of those which got him up and running for the season and represented his first goal since January 2nd when Wolves came to town.
Benda looked like he would have Connolly’s weak 33rd minute effort easily covered until it struck a defender and looped over the helpless Swansea goalkeeper. It was a scrappy goal in keeping with what had been a scrappy game up until that point.
The one moment of quality had come from the assist provided by Mac Allister, a perfectly weighted through ball to release Connolly, adding another goal involvement to Mac Allister’s burgeoning stats for the season.
Connolly’s opener came from Brighton’s first attempt. Swansea could have been 2-0 ahead by that point, Albion captain Jason Steele having to push away a Liam Cullen shot at full stretch and Korey Smith failing to connect with a cross when the goal was gaping.
Having waited nine months to score his second goal of the calendar year, Connolly’s third of 2021 arrived just five minutes later.
There was nothing fortunate about this one, Mac Allister again sending Connolly away down the left to hit an emphatic right footed shot into the far corner of Benda’s goal.
A quickfire double. Suddenly, Shoosh were on the phone to the local Cash & Carry trying to source extra supplies of beer as there was the potential for quite a celebration in Connolly’s usual booth later in the evening.
Do those two goals point to a turnaround for Connolly? Will be now get his head down and keep out of trouble? Or was he simply scoring twice against struggling Championship opposition because this is his level?
We will only find that out over the coming weeks. There is an argument to be made that scoring both goals in Brighton 2-0 Swansea proves that Connolly should be on loan in the second tier this season.
Imagine what netting regularly could do for his morale. Had he returned to Brighton next summer having notched over 20 goals for a Stoke City or someone this season, then we might well have a different beast on our hands to one who at this moment in time does still not look Premier League ready.
There was a reminder of that when Connolly passed up the opportunity of a first half hat-trick, firing wide from inside the box after neat link up between Alzate and Moder minutes before the interval.
Swansea came out of the blocks quickly at the start of the second half, allowing Steele to show why he is fast becoming one of Brighton’s great entertainers.
One minute, he is pulling off an outrageous stop from Smith. The next, he is doing things you would expect from a man who has been on the old whacky backie at half time, getting in a right mess with a loose pass to Alzate.
The Swans intercepted and worked the ball to the lively Smith who somehow hit the bar from only 10 yards out. The woodwork was by now getting quite a workout, Cullen having also rattled it with a header as Swansea had more than enough chances to force extra time.
They were unable to do so, drawing parallels with Potter’s Brighton side of last season – nice football, create plenty of opportunities, cannot hit a cow’s arse with the proverbial banjo.
To complete a busy evening for frames of the goal, Gross then did remarkably well to get a free kick right on the edge of the box onto the Swansea cross bar via a deflection off the wall.
There was some justice that Gross’ effort did not go in – Brighton 2-0 Swansea was a harsh score on the visitors, let alone had Gross notched a third in the final minutes.
Immediately after Brighton 2-0 Swansea came the draw for the fourth round and it has not been particularly kind, sending Brighton to Leicester City.
The Foxes will begin as favourites, unless someone at the Albion can get hold of the linesman who disallowed those two goals at the weekend for offside against Harvey Barnes.
Brighton of course have been underdogs against Leicester in the League Cup before, back when it was sponsored by a different fizzy drinks people in Coca Cola.
The Foxes were a top flight club facing the third tier Seagulls and despite the two division gap, the Albion won 3-0 on aggregate over two legs – even though they finished the second game at Filbert Street with only 10 men after Jimmy Case was famously sent off for being deaf.
Within a year of that upset, the Goldstone Ground had been sold and Brighton were homeless, heading to the bottom of the Football League and the brink of extinction.
Now, we are beating Championship clubs with a reserve line up and conquering Wales quicker than the Romans. It is yet another reminder of the extraordinary journey Brighton have been on over the past 25 years.
