Brighton 5-0 Grimsby: Ruthless Albion batter haddock

There was still a nagging doubt ahead of Brighton 5-0 Grimsby Town that the Albion would make a traditional pig’s ear out of an FA Cup quarter final against opponents more than 50 places lower than themselves in the English football pyramid.

The past week had almost gone too well. Beating Crystal Palace on Wednesday night for the first time in eight attempts, leading the Eagles to sack Patrick Vieira whilst considering the frankly phenomenal decision of reappointing Roy Hodgson in his place..

Energumene bouncing back from a disappointing run last time out to retain the Queen Mother Champion Chase at Cheltenham for Tony Bloom. A new contract for Solly March.

Two good things for Brighton are always followed by one bad, so an embarrassing cupset at the hands of the inflatable haddocks was a prospect more credible than most of the footballing world outside of Sussex believed given that everything had gone smoothly for the Albion in the lead up.

Now, it would be easy at this point to say Brighton under Roberto De Zerbi are different. But even De Zerbi himself may have disagreed before kick off in Brighton 5-0 Grimsby.

The Albion head coach has publicly brought up the Carabao Cup cock up at Charlton Athletic in December on several occasions since it happened.

De Zerbi continues to be angry that his players lost to a relegation threatened League One outfit when a place in a quarter final was on the line.

There was no such mistake on this occasion. Brighton battered their haddock holding visitors, advancing with ease to the third FA Cup semi final in their 121 year history.

That two of them have taken place in the past four seasons tells you these are heady times to support the Seagulls.

Brighton will now face Manchester United at Wembley next month. 40 years on from 1983, in case you have not seen it mentioned anywhere yet.

Grimsby fans were in party mood long before kick off at the Amex. They had taken over the Palace Pier on Saturday evening and the South Stand was packed to the rafters, full of supporters enjoying their first FA Cup quarter final in nearly a century.

Some Albion fans bizarrely thought that allowing Grimsby fans to hold up cards in a display of support for their players might hand them the advantage.

It took just six minutes for the Albion to make those worries and criticisms of Brighton look very silly. Moises Caicedo shot, Grimsby goalkeeper Max Crocombe could only parry and Deniz Undav followed up in predatory style to fire home the rebound.

Brighton controlled the rest of the first half without managing to add to their scoreline. Adam Lallana told the BBC pitch side punditry team that De Zerbi had not been happy at half time, no doubt recalling that experience at the Valley again.

Seagulls fans would have shared his concern. A one-goal lead never quite seems enough; especially in a game where Brighton have been on top but not made their dominance count.

Undav put a free header straight at Crocombe, a poor first touch from Evan Ferguson allowed Crocombe to save at the feet of the teenage striker and Kaoru Mitoma was unusually wayward on a couple of occasions.

Ferguson was the player who first responded to De Zerbi’s half time words, enhancing his reputation as one of the stars of this FA Cup run.

Jimmy Case became a Brighton great based on his goals and performances in 1983 alone; 2023 is having a similar impact on Ferguson, no matter what he goes onto achieve in an Albion shirt in future years. Which could be a great deal indeed.

Six minutes after the restart and Ferguson produced an astonishing first touch from a ball drilled into him by Alexis Mac Allister, cushioning the pass, turning and firing into the bottom corner.

Ferguson thought he had the Albion’s third, only for it to be ruled out after an age of checking by VAR – even though it was fairly obvious to the naked eye that an offside decision was forthcoming.

No matter, the floodgates were still about to be opened and by who else than Ferguson? Undav held the ball up well and laid it into the path of his strike partner to do the rest.

March continued his hot streak with the first diving header of his career, throwing himself at a diagonal from Adam Webster.

Mitoma then rounded off the scoring via a heavy deflection off Luke Waterfall, whose block maybe couldn’t be the one to save Grimsby from Brighton making it 5-0.

By the time the final whistle went and both sets of fans were celebrating – Brighton for reaching Wembley and the Mariners for their heroic run to the last eight – all those concerns before kick off seemed a little silly.

The Albion could not have been more professional if they had tried. Wembley beckons and Manchester United hold nothing to fear.

This already-special season under De Zerbi now has even more excitement to offer at the most famous footballing cathedral in the world.