Forest 7-0 Brighton: Albion thrashed for heaviest defeat in 67 years

When a football club is 124 years old, it is pretty rare for present-day fans to be able to say they were there for one of the heaviest defeats or biggest victories in said club’s history. Around 3,000 Brighton fans get that honour thanks to Fabian Hurzeler overseeing a 7-0 defeat away at Nottingham Forest, the second-heaviest league loss ever inflicted on an Albion side.

You have to go all the way back to Saturday 23rd August 1958 to find a worse loss. The Seagulls first fixture in the second tier of English football soon turned into a bit of a nightmare as Middlesbrough ran riot, beating Brighton 9-0 at Ayresome Park. A certain Brian Clough scored five.

No Seagulls supporter had seen a league defeat that bad for 67 years before Forest 7-0 Brighton. The last time the Albion lost a league game by seven clear goals, rationing had only ended four years earlier.

Queen Elizabeth II was just five-and-a-half-years into her 70 year reign. Homes in Britain were still being built with lead pipes and asbestos.

Spam was the most popular sandwich filling in the United Kingdom. Charles De Gaulle was Time Man of the Year. Capital punishment was 11 years away from being abolished.

And it was still legal to ride a donkey into a pub and the landlord be obliged to provide it if requested with a complimentary pint of ale as long as that ale was brewed within a 15 mile radius.

Alarm bells began ringing the moment the team was announced. Hurzeler included all of Danny Welbeck, Joao Pedro, Georginio Rutter, Yankubu Minteh and Kaoru Mitoma in his starting XI.

Five forwards and only one central midfielder in Jack Hinshelwood – who last started a game in November – away against opponents in the race for Champions League football. Who play 3-5-2 with three midfielders in central areas.

You do not need a Cambridge degree in mathematics to see that one against three in a crucial midfield area is a mismatched overload.

And it was not like Hurzeler was completely shorn of midfield options either. Even with Yasin Ayari and Carlos Baleba missing. Matt O’Riley and Diego Gomez were both named on the bench.

Both have played far more football in the past three months than Hinshelwood. Starting one of them alongside Hinshelwood might have at least helped poor Jack in his attempts to stem the flow of red shirts overwhelming him in the middle.

Before the game had even reached half time, Hinshelwood had picked up a yellow card. Fouling had become his only answer.

By the time Hurzeler introduced reinforcements at the break via a triple substitution, Brighton were already 3-0 down.

No changes at that point were going to turn things around. Forest were rampant. Albion looked crushed. The Tricky Trees subsequently added another four to the scoreline.

Anyone defending Hurzeler’s team selection and tactics in Forest 7-0 Brighton needs their head examining. The Youngest Permanent Manager in Premier League History then made matters worse in the eyes of the travelling support by disappearing straight down the tunnel at full time rather than coming over to the away end.

Instead, it was down the players to front up and listen to the fan reaction. Led by Mitoma. A penny for his thoughts having turned down a potential £16 million per year contract with Al Nassr on Friday to lose 7-0 with Brighton at Forest on Saturday.

When a fanbase resorts to gallows humour on the terraces, it tends to not end well for the manager. Albion supporters actively began cheering Stoke City scoring goals at Withdean when the Potters inflicted a 5-1 defeat on Brighton on the final day of the 2005-06 season.

Mark McGhee was sacked less than seven games later. The Amex spent the end of Brighton 0-5 Bournemouth in 2019 singing for former players rather than the current crop. That was the day Chris Hughton’s end-of-season fate was pretty much confirmed.

A poll on North Stand Chat has 58 percent of Albion fans wanting Hurzeler out. Social media was awash with mentions of Roberto De Zerbi on Saturday night.

Something certain to drive Tony Bloom and Paul Barber OBE crazy as some fans show public dissent towards the decision making of a board, who love to bask in the glow and cultivate the image of being the best run club in England. Supporters pining for the bloke who Brighton effectively sacked nine months ago flies against that.

Which is why anyone wanting or expecting Hurzeler to receive his P45 soon is going to be disappointed. Bloom, Barber and Brighton hate admitting they have made a mistake more than anything in the world.

It is why Sami Hyypia clung onto his job for two months longer than he should have. Even when Hyypia tried to resign, the Albion said no.

I would therefore be absolutely stunned if Hurzeler left Brighton before the summer. Hurzeler will continue to tell us to trust the process. As he of course did after overseeing the second-biggest league defeat in Albion history.

We will just have to hope Hurzeler heeds his words and learns. Not playing a one-man midfield and five forwards away from home in the Premier League again would be a very good place to start.

Shall we talk about the seven Forest goals briefly? The first came on 12 minutes. Tariq Lamptey got sucked into midfield from left back to try and help Hinshelwood, already being overrun by the Tricky Trees three of Morgan Gibbs-White, Danilo and Elliot Anderson.

With Lamptey out of position, Gibbs-White charged into the space left. He latched onto a Danilo pass and crossed low and hard, where Lewis Dunk produced a magnificent finish beyond Bart Verbruggen.

At least Hurzeler now knows next time he wants to throw a centre back up front, Dunk is a better option than Adam Webster, who fulfilled the role in the closing stages of last weekend’s equally dire 1-0 home defeat to Everton.

Forest moved 2-0 ahead on 24 minutes. Minteh surprised everyone by making a perfectly timed tackle on Chris Wood in the box. Brighton rewarded Minteh for his defensive efforts and intervention by allowing Gibbs-White to head home the resulting corner unmarked.

Another cross into the box resulted in another goal on 32 minutes. Elanga this time delivered and Wood converted to continue his phenomenal scoring record against the club he helped win the League One title 14 years ago.

With that, the game was done and dusted in a just over half hour. Little did we know that Forest and Wood in particular were only getting started.

The 64th minute brought goal four for the Tricky Trees. Wood. Again. From an Elanga cross. Again. Four minutes later and Wood wrapped up his hat-trick from the penalty spot after Lamptey auditioned for a guest spot in Saturday night’s WWE Royal Rumble by wrestling Gibbs-White to the ground.

It remained 5-0 until the 90th minute, after which Forest added two more in injury time to ensure we could write a match review containing references to spam sandwiches and Charles De Gaulle.

Nico Williams made it six from close range, followed by Verbruggen gifting the ball to Jota Silva. The Forest substitute gleefully accepted the gift, lashing past Verbruggen to complete the humiliation.