Charlton v Brighton… if you can beat The Queue
What a welcome back to watching live football Brighton fans are in for this evening as the Albion head to Charlton Athletic with a place in the quarter finals of the Carabao Cup up for grabs.
Potentially 3500 Seagulls supporters will have to collect their tickets from the Valley thanks to a combination of Royal Mail strikes and the club not taking into account the problems these would cause to deliveries.
Where does this number come from? We ran a poll on the WAB Twitter account asking whether Albion fans had received their tickets yet.
At time of writing, 52 percent voted no and 48 percent voted yes. All we need now is a message on the side of a bus saying how no Charlton tickets will save the NHS £350m a week, or David Davis telling us there will be no downside to no Charlton tickets, only a considerable upside.
Has your Charlton ticket turned up yet? #BHAFC
— We Are Brighton (@wearebrighton) December 20, 2022
Apply that 52 percent to a sold out away allocation of nearly 7000 and you have a lot of Brighton supporters waiting to collect tickets. It will be the second-longest queue London has seen this year after, er, The Queue.
To make matters even more chaotic, the Albion were only allowing fans to report missing tickets on the day of the game. And here comes the best bit. Brighton fans can only collect tickets in a two-hour window before kick off.
If 3500 supporters do indeed need to collect, that means tickets will have to be handed out at a rate of 29 per minute or one every two seconds.
It sounds like a task contestants on The Traitors should be subjected to, not football fans who simply want to watch Charlton v Brighton in the Carabao Cup.
Anyway, enough about The Queue. Let us talk about the football. Because if you manage to collect your ticket before Christmas Eve and get into the Valley, there is a chance you will see history unfold.
The League Cup through its various guises – Milk, Coca Cola, Worthington’s, Carling, Capital One – has never been the most fruitful of competitions for Brighton.
Only once have the Albion ever progressed as far as the quarter finals. That was as long ago as 1978, when strikes were last commonplace throughout a winter of discontent. Maybe all Brighton need to do well in the League Cup is for the country to be in an absolute mess?
Reaching the quarter finals would mean Wembley is just three games away; a two-legged semi followed by the final itself.
If Roberto De Zerbi were to lead Brighton to victory under the arch, it would be the first piece of major silverware (if you discount the Charity Shield of 1910) in Albion history and a place in Europe would follow.
Based on what we saw in the previous round when Brighton won 3-1 at Arsenal, De Zerbi is eyeing up his place in the record books.
He used the perfect blend of youth and experience to eliminate the Premier League leaders, including pre-planned substitutions so that senior players like Lewis Dunk, Adam Webster and Pascal Gross could play a part without being overworked.
De Zerbi seems set to name an XI strong enough to win at the Valley. He said in his pre-match press conference that Levi Colwill, Billy Gilmour and Deniz Undav will all receive an oportunity.
Danny Welbeck is injured and Leandro Trossard may not feature following his World Cup exploits with Belgium.
That would give Undav an extended runout leading the line as the only fit and available centre forward, other than young Evan Ferguson.
Undav scored both the Brighton goals in a 2-2 friendly draw against Aston Villa a fortnight ago and so should come into the Charlton game full of confidence.
De Zerbi’s desire for rewriting the record books is not the only reason for Albion fans to be confident. Recent history is also on the side of the Seagulls.
The Valley has become the Happy Valley in the past decade for the Albion. Brighton have delivered some of their most memorable away displays and results at Charlton, including that incredible 4-0 victory under Gus Poyet He Who Must Not Be Named in the 2010-11 League One title winning season.
Brighton are yet to lose a League Cup game to a club from a lower division since winning promotion to the Premier League in 2017 either.
That might explain why the competition is held in such high regard by Albion fans at a time when the rest of football treats it with disinterest bordering on disdain.
A sold out away end went to Forest Green Rovers in round two. 7000 went to Arsenal in round three. Another 7000 will be at Charlton in round four.
Over to De Zerbi and co to make more League Cup memories. And whoever is handing out the tickets to rattle through 3500 in two hours. Good luck, everyone.
