Brighton 2-1 Manchester United: Albion win it in Fergie Time

I have said it before and I will say it again. For a kid who grew up in a Sussex school during the 1990s, there is not much better than seeing Brighton beat Manchester United. And to see Brighton beat Manchester United 2-1 via a last minute winner was perhaps the best of the lot.

Around 75 percent of my classmates in cosmopolitan Burgess Hill were United fans. Most could not point to Manchester on a map.

They did though know what the Premier League and FA Cup trophies looked like, which is what attracted them to supporting a team from a city 260 miles away.

Ironically, I now see several of these former United followers at the Amex, where they are season ticket holders. Some would say that makes them plastics.

I would say good on them. The whole point in building the stadium was to attract new fans to fill it beyond the core 6,000 who would attend every week through mostly rain and sometimes shine at Withdean.

The Albion managed to get them in, turn their admittedly flaky allegiances to the red half of Manchester and now you see them dancing along to Freed From Desire when Brighton beat United 2-1 via a last minute Joao Pedro goal.

This felt like a big win for the Albion and not just because of who the opponents were. Victories over United will always be special because of their history and their glory hunting supporters who surround us in Sussex and extend into the suburbs of Surrey.

An additional reason for wanting to beat them comes from that FA Cup semi final against United at Wembley in April 2023.

Losing on penalties was a tough enough pill to swallow. But to then be stood on Wembley Way, rain pissing down and hearing that God-awful “You’ve see United, now fuck off home” song was not so much rubbing salt in the wounds as pouring concentrated acid into them. Not only are United fans largely glory hunters but they are also classless.

Needless to say, it was therefore rather enjoyable to hear the Amex singing “You’ve seen the Albion, now fuck off home” after Pedro headed in the winner.

And fuck off home they did. In their droves. The away end emptied quicker than you could say “Jim Ratcliffe moved to Monaco to save an estimated £4 billion in tax” as the Albion made it five wins from their past six Premier League meetings with the not-so-mighty United.

The opening 30 minutes of Brighton 2-1 Manchester United was hardly a classic. So little happened on the pitch that full attention could be given to the new waterfall installed on the West Stand Upper roof.

In a summer in which the Albion look set to break the £200 million on transfer fees for the first time, you might have thought they could spare a few quid on a roofing bloke to sort out a significant leak.

Unsurprisingly, it was Danny Welbeck who grabbed attention back to what was happening on the pitch. Dat Guy has a phenomenal record playing against former clubs. Of his 28 goals for the Albion, 29 have now come against Manchester United*.

None of those 29 goals* have been as easy as this one. United were a mess defensively, Kaoru Mitoma was able to cross into the box and Welbeck was left unmarked inside the six yard box to slide the ball home.

Neither side had created a goal scoring opportunity before that. Welbeck’s goal though sparked the game into life. United thought they had equalised straight from the restart when Marcus Rashford headed home the rebound from a stunning Jason Steele save. Rashford though was offside.

James Milner almost doubled the lead five minutes into the second half with a poked effort cleared off the line by Diogo Dalot.

Both Dalot and Noussair Mazraoui had fine games at full back for United, blunting the significant threat posed down the flanks by Mitoma and Yankubu Minteh.

Erik ten Hag had clearly done his homework on where the Albion are dangerous in between bouts of shining his incredibly shiny bonce.

United clearly set out to nullify Brighton’s wingers, which was another reason why this was such a pleasing victory – because the Seagulls still found a way to win, even with their main supply line shutdown for the most part.

With the flanks largely nullified, playing through the middle become vital for Brighton. Thank goodness for Billy Gilmour. An injury to Mats Wieffer handed Gilmour a surprise start ahead of his expected move to Napoli.

If Gilmour was viewing this as one last opportunity to impress Fabian Hurzeler and show he should not be flogged to Italy, then it was one he grabbed with both hands. He was outstanding.

Brighton selling Billy Gilmour after that performance is the equivalent of going on a date with Jennifer Lawrence, her wanting to see you again for dinner, and you deciding to go to Wetherspoons with Ann Widicombe instead #BHAFC

— We Are Brighton (@wearebrighton) August 24, 2024

Further chances came for the Albion after Milner’s effort. Welbeck headed straight at Amadou Onana and then onto the bar as Brighton sought a second goal which felt like it would kill the game off.

Instead, it was United who equalised. Amad Diallo cut inside Jack Hinshelwood and his effort was deflected beyond Steele by Jan Paul van Hecke.

Momentum suddenly shifted in favour of the visitors. United should have gone 2-1 ahead when substitute Alejandro Garnacho beat Steele, only to see the ball strike fellow replacement Joshua Zirkzee on the knee on its way in. Zirkzee was in an offside position, meaning his unfortunate touch ruled the goal out.

Brighton by this point appeared to be crying out for changes down the flanks to try and wrestle back the initiative by giving United’s full backs something different to think about.

Carlos Baleba and Julio Enciso came on in central positions but in terms of exchanging his wingers, Hurzeler waited and waited and waited.

The 89th minute then brought a triple change. On came Simon Adingra, Yasin Ayari and £40 million record signing Georgino Rutter. Off went Mitoma, Minteh and and Gilmour.

It did not take long for the Albion to find their winner after those changes, although an earlier Ten Hag substitution was arguably a bigger contributing factor than Hurzeler’s move.

Had Harry Maguire not been withdrawn on 79 minutes, his huge head would almost certainly have cleared either the initial ball into the box or Adingra’s dinked cross back in which led to Pedro’s winner.

But with Maguire off, United could not clear and the Brazilian forward was left totally unmarked to nod beyond Onana and make it Brighton 2-1 Manchester United with 95 minutes on the clock.

Cue pandemonium on the terraces, a chorus of “Top of the League” and scenes of jubilation when referee Craig Pawson blew the full time whistle not long after.

It meant Hurzeler became the first Brighton manager to win his first home game in charge since Peter Taylor almost 23 years ago.

None of Martin Hinshelwood, Steve Coppell, Mark McGhee, Dean Wilkins, Micky Adams II, Russell Slade, He Who Must Not Be Named, Oscar Garcia, Sami Hyypia, Chris Hughton, Graham Potter or Roberto De Zerbi managed it.

But more important than ending a quirky little statistic was what Brighton 2-1 Manchester United means for the Albion’s 2024-25 campaign.

We said before the game that if the Albion had designs on a European return come the end of the season, beating rivals for those Europa League spots like United would be vital.

Job done in that regard. A trip to Arsenal next week will tell us more about how good this Brighton team might be. Bring it on.

*Statistic may have been made up.