Match Preview: Southampton v Brighton

Let us get one thing straight at the start of this Southampton v Brighton match preview – it is not a ‘South Coast Derby’.

The media might try and tell you there is some deep rooted rivalry between the clubs forged by the fact that we are located a mere 64.6 miles apart – the equivalent of Leicester City playing Sheffield United – but in reality, this is a game between two teams with only a passing interest in each other.

Southampton have Portsmouth and Brighton have Crystal Palace. There will be no local pride up for grabs at St Mary’s – just a chance for the Albion to pick up further points and ease some of the relegations fears that have crept back in following a bad weekend. The Saints meanwhile have nothing to play for with their top flight safety already guaranteed.

Not that Ralph Hasenhüttl’s side are playing like a team who could already be on the beach. They have taken four points from Manchester City and Manchester United in the space of eight days coming into this one, two sides who have beaten Brighton by a combined score of 8-1 over the past few weeks.

Remarkably, we have seen some Albion fans brazenly predicting easy points at St Mary’s. There will be none of that in our match preview as Brighton head along the A27 – Southampton are opponents who the Seagulls will have to be at their best to beat in the South Coast Derby.

A brief history of Southampton
Southampton were formed in 1885 as St Mary’s Church of England Young Men’s Association, which sounds like the sort of place where dodgy catholic shenanigans were covered up as opposed to the name of a professional football club.

They adopted their current name in 1897 and for the first eight decades or so of their existence, were a similar sort of club to Brighton in that they plodded around Division Three South with the odd flirtation with their second tier thrown in.

The Saints first reached the old Division One in 1966, spending eight seasons there. In 1976, they famously beat Manchester United to lift the FA Cup as a Division Two side and two seasons later, won promotion back to the top flight, where they remained for the next 27 years.

By the time that Southampton dropped out of the Premier League in 2005, financial problems were brewing. They quickly tumbled into administration and League One before returning to the top table of English football even faster than they had left it, winning back-to-back promotions in 2010-11 and 2011-12.

In recent years, Southampton have become one of those sides unsure of their place in English football. They finished in seventh spot in 2015-16 under Ronald Koeman and eighth in 2016-17 while reaching a League Cup Final with Claude Puel at the helm.

Saints fans were not happy with what they viewed as Puel’s boring style of play. The Southampton board listened and sacked the manager, replacing him with Mauricio Pellegrino who was charged with delivering more entertaining football and bettering Puel’s eighth spot.

Needless to say, this move did not go quite according to plan. Pellegrino was sacked before the season was out and relegation was only avoided on the last day once Mark Hughes had been parachuted in.

Hughes himself only lasted another seven months following the Saints’ escape before he too was fired. Herr Hasenhüttl – the man known as the Austrian Jurgen Klopp – took over and led the Saints to a 16th placed finish in 2018-19, one spot higher than the Albion.

Southampton this season
Southampton have enjoyed a fascinating season which has been a real roller coaster. They managed to set a record for the heaviest ever top flight defeat in English football when losing 9-0 at St Mary’s to Leicester City in October.

Fast forward 12 home games and they recorded a fantastic 1-0 victory over Pep Guardiola’s billion pound Manchester City side to complete a remarkable turnaround.

While pundits and supporters of other clubs predicted that Hasenhüttl would have to be sacked and that Southampton were nailed on for relegation in the wake of that hammering against the Foxes, most Saints fans will tell you that they needed it to shake themselves out of a slump.

Whether you believe that or not, what cannot be doubted is the amazing job that Hasenhüttl is done. Southampton play positive, aggressive football of the sort that you can imagine Graham Potter wanting the Albion to be capable of.

It has taken Hasenhüttl the best part of 18 months to get his side there, but they now look capable of giving the best sides in the country a game – as the results which we noted at the start of our Southampton versus Brighton match preview are testament to.

From an Albion point of view, it will be interesting to see come December time whether we are in a similar position once Potter has had a year-and-a-half at the helm himself.

Brighton’s head-to-head record with Southampton
There have been 89 previous South Coast Derbies matches between Brighton and Southampton with the Saints dominating the fixture, winning 41 times to the Albion’s 26.

The head-to-head between the clubs in their Southern League days and during wartime football is pretty even. Since both joined the Football League in 1920 however, it has been Southampton success after Southampton success.

Brighton have won just eight times in 46 attempts against Southampton across three tiers of English football, the FA Cup and the League Cup.

It is perhaps just as well there isn’t a serious rivalry, as it would be a seriously embarrassing one results-wise for the Albion.

Brighton and Hove Albion’s head-to-head record with Southampton

Last six meetings
• Brighton 0-2 Southampton (Premier League, 24/08/19)
• Brighton 0-1 Southampton (Premier League, 30/03/19)
• Southampton 2-2 Brighton (Premier League, 17/09/18)
• Brighton 0-1 Southampton (League Cup Second Round, 28/08/18)
• Southampton 1-1 Brighton (Premier League, 31/01/18)
• Brighton 1-1 Southampton (Premier League, 29/10/17)

You have to go back seven matches to January 2012 to find the last time Brighton defeated Southampton. Matt Sparrow scored twice with a teenage Jake Forster-Caskey netting his first Albion goal as Gus Poyet’s side picked up their most impressive win of the season, beating a Saints outfit who would end the campaign promoted 3-0 at the Amex.

Since then, the cupboard has been bare – although that might well have changed back in August. Brighton were completely dominant for the opening 30 minutes as Southampton came to Sussex until Florin Andone lost his mind, attempting to break the leg of Yan Valery.

Andone saw red and despite a brave showing from the Albion, playing with 10 men for over an hour in searing heat proved to be too much as Southampton ran out 2-0 winners. Oh what might have been had Andone not been such a liability.

Team news
The five changes which Potter made for the 5-0 defeat against Manchester City at the weekend were all done with one eye on the South Coast Derby match at St Mary’s.

Tariq Lamptey, Dan Burn and Neal Maupay will are certain to return to the starting line up. Dale Stephens must be in with a shot too given that Davy Propper peformed like a man did not know which team he was meant to be playing for on Saturday and Alexis Mac Allister could replace Pascal Gross.

As we said in our Brighton 0-5 Manchester City match report, the trouble with fielding a deliberately weak team in one game is that it means you have to justify the decision by winning the fixture you are targeting.

Potter has put additional pressure on himself to get it right against Southampton. With Aston Villa, West Ham United and Plucky Little Bournemouth all winning at the weekend, that pressure has increased even more.

Southampton’s key players
Two things always seem to strike us whenever Brighton play Southampton. The first is how does Nathan Redmond have the hairline of a 50-year-old coal miner when he is a 26-year-old, highly-paid professional footballer?

The second is why is he still at St Mary’s? Redmond is a superb player which makes it an utter mystery as to why one of the Premier League’s big boys have not made a move for him.

One individual who will surely attract plenty of interest this summer is Danny Ings. The striker had endured a terrible time with injuries over the past few years but he has got himself fit and firing this season, scoring 23 times in all competitions so far.

Brighton were heavily linked with Ings before he made the move from Liverpool to St Mary’s in the same 2018 summer window in which we signed Andone and Alireza Jahanbakhsh.

Just think what this match preview could read like if, rather than wearing a Southampton shirt, Ings had spent this season in a Brighton shirt. How many of those squandered chances that have dogged our campaign would have instead hit the back of the net?

A good WeAreBrighton.com memory of Southampton away
Our appalling record at Southampton means that good memories are hard to find. There is of course one exception from November 2009 when Gus Poyet sat in the Albion dugout for the first time.

Nobody gave Brighton a hope in a South Coast Derby match shown live on Sky. Poyet had other ideas and on his birthday, he made arguably the most impressive debut of any Seagulls manager ever by having his team sweep away Southampton 3-1.

It was the start of one of the greatest eras in Albion history. Which makes it all the more disappointing that Brighton refuse to even acknowledge Poyet by name, instead describing that game on their social media channels as “a memorable afternoon” with no explanation as to why.

Talk about petty. Thankfully, our Brighton versus Southampton match preview has no such childish qualms in mentioning Gus.

A bad WeAreBrighton.com memory of Southampton away
The 3-0 defeat in November 2011 was horrible for all kinds of reasons. Brighton conceded three times in under an hour and Mauricio Taricco saw red for telling referee Peter Walton he was a bit shit. Which in fairness, he was.

The WAB Team left on 60 minutes, thinking our time could be better spent in the pub. This proved to be a woeful decision with an impromptu night out in Brighton following, leading to a lot of sick over the dance floor in one of West Street’s grottiest night clubs, Pasha, in the early hours of Sunday morning.

Thankfully, we have not played Southampton away on a Saturday since. Evening games at St Mary’s are much more amicable.

Our favourite player to play for Brighton and Southampton
Plenty of players have pulled on the shirts of both clubs down the years, including Dean Hammond and Dan Harding who went from heroes to villains in the eyes of Brighton supporters for their pantomime antics during their time at Southampton.

Neither of those get the nomination though; instead, it has to be the Soviet superstar Sergey Gotsmanov. He was one of the classiest, most talented players the Albion have ever had during his brief spell at the Goldstone Ground in 1990.

Sadly, he made only 16 appearances for Brighton. Barry Lloyd wanted to keep him and the Albion offered a second-hand Lada (a type of Russian car, in case you are wondering) in an attempt to keep him with the club. Southampton meanwhile were able to put up £150,000 in cash to Gotsmanov’s parent club Dinamo Minsk and so he moved to the Dell.

What do we like about Southampton?
It isn’t Portsmouth. That is about all it has going for it.

Prediction
Combine Southampton’s excellent recent form with Brighton’s terrible record against the Saints and it is hard to look beyond a home win. A 2-1 defeat for the Albion, making our next game against Newcastle United look even bigger.