Charlton 0-0 Brighton: Penalty heartache is peak Albion
At what point did you realise Charlton 0-0 Brighton followed by the Seagulls exiting the League Cup on penalties was going to be a shambles?
Was it when you were in a queue for more than an hour as the Albion in all their wisdom opted to try and give out a thousand tickets in a two-hour window?
Or maybe it was when the Roberto De Zerbi flag was passed over the heads of Albion fans the wrong way around?
What about when Pervis Estupinan produced one of the most astonishing dives ever to try and win a penalty?
How about when shot 14, 15, 16, 17 or 18 of the evening failed to go in? Or did you manage to stay in a positive state of mind right up until the shootout, when four Albion players missed from 12 yards?
Perhaps you were ambivalent about the whole night until Brighton posted an extraordinary statement about the ticket collection nightmare, trying to claim that collections began at 5pm (they didn’t) and that eight members of staff were on hand (more like four at the most).
The club even tried to lay the blame at the door of fans, saying “problems were exacerbated for some supporters… arrived having not requested duplicates.”
Fact of the matter is problems were exacerbated by the club not mitigating for the postal strike everyone knew about before thinking they could hand out every ticket in 120 minutes at the rate of one every eight seconds.
The absence of the word “sorry” for fans who spent more than 90 minutes queueing, who missed kick off, or who just gave up with the whole charade and didn’t bother with the game was astonishing but at the same time hardly a surprise.
Brighton & Hove Albion cannot apologise as to say sorry means they got something wrong, which as we all know never happens.
The good news is that there are entire articles dedicated to #TheQueue and the ticketing fiasco to come. WAB might yet make it two Christmases in a row where Paul Barber tries to dismiss criticism of the club as clickbait.
The bad news is that moving on from #TheQueue means having to talk about the actual football from Charlton 0-0 Brighton. Which, let’s be honest, was peak Albion.
Here we were, having eliminated Premier League leaders Arsenal from the previous round of the League Cup, drawn against a team four points off the third tier relegation zone whose two most recent home games ended in defeat to Cheltenham Town and defeat to Bristol Rovers.
Since promotion to the Premier League in 2017, Brighton had never lost a League Cup game against opponents from a lower division. And coming off the back of nearly six weeks off, De Zerbi could and did name a very strong side.
A place in the quarter final of the competition for the first time since 1978 and only the second time in Brighton history was there for the taking.
From there, Wembley was potentially three wins away. A piece of major silverware (ignoring the 1910 Charity Shield) and a place in Europe potentially four wins away.
Even by the Albion’s high standards of cocking things up, this was spectacular. Brighton ended the game with five players who played at the World Cup on the pitch and yet failed to find a way through struggling League One opponents.
Charlton lined up in a 5-4-1 formation with the intention to defend and frustrate the Albion. Their place in the last eight of the competition suggests it was an approach which worked, but in reality it was Brighton that lost the tie rather than the Addicks winning it.
Lewis Dunk headed three good opportunities wide. Adam Lallana hit the bar. Solly March, Levi Colwill, Tariq Lamptey, Billy Gilmour and Deniz Undav all had efforts saved by Ashley Maynard-Brewer.
Undav maybe should have had a penalty. Estupinan definitely should not have done, Jesurun Rak-Sakyi being a country mile away when the Ecuador international threw himself to the ground in dramatic fashion that would not look out of place in Christmas Day EastEnders.
Based on what we saw in the shootout after it finished Charlton 0-0 Brighton, perhaps it was a good thing that neither spot kick was awarded. The Albion would only have missed, making elimination from the competition even more gutting.
Brighton even had the advantage of Dunk winning the toss and the penalties taking place in front of the mass ranks of Albion fans gathered in the Jimmy Seed Stand.
Pascal Gross set the tone by taking a stuttering runup like a granny on ice and hitting the post. Leandro Trossard followed suit by hitting the bar.
Young Evan Ferguson showed his more senior teammates how it was done by converting. Lewis Dunk did likewise.
When Jason Steele denied George Dobson and Jes-Rak Sakyi with two saves low down to his right, Brighton had a chance to win it from what had seemed a hopeless position after squandering those first two penalties.
Solly March stepped up and produced a kick which would have been deemed perfect had it taken place the other side of London at Twickenham.
Unfortunately, this was a Football League Cup tie and not a Rugby Union Cup tie and so the ball clearing the bar and ending up amongst the travelling Albion fans was not much use.
Charlton converted their next two penalties. Lamptey scored but Maynard-Brewer keeping out Moises Caicedo’s effort meant that when Lavelle converted, Charlton were through and Brighton out.
De Zerbi and the Albion knew this was a huge opportunity missed with the head coach saying afterwards: “I’m sorry for the result and sorry for our fans. We wanted to win the game and play in the quarter-finals.”
So at least we got one apology from someone at the Albion. Otherwise though, a shambles. Classic Brighton.
