Match Review: Brighton 1-0 Huddersfield Town

Like a night on West Street, it was far from pretty, it certainly wasn’t enjoyable and it left you feeling sick at times, but who cares – Brighton and Hove Albion finally recorded their first win of 2019 with a gritty 1-0 success over the Premier League’s worst team, Huddersfield Town.

This was a must-win game for the Albion, not because Huddersfield could catch us in the table but because of what defeat would have done to the morale of both players and supporters. Failing to beat the side who, barring a complete miracle, will finish bottom of the pile at home could have led to mutiny on the terraces and a poisonous atmosphere among fans.

Chris Hughton confirmed as much in his post-match interview. Speaking afterwards, he said, “The team has been knocked and it has been a fright. For some who don’t know the Premier League as much as others, that is how tough it is. I think we have enough character and quality but everyone else is fighting. We just have to fight harder.”

That confirms the worries that many of us had about what the winless run was doing to the player’s confidence levels. Now the monkey is off their back, hopefully the Albion can push on and reach the magic total of 40 points as soon as possible to put to bed any lingering relegation fears.

For the first real time since the Albion had limped to safety in his first half-season in charge, questions were being openly asked about Hughton by some of the more excitable elements of Brighton’s fan base. Among the gripes were his apparent resistance to make changes to his side, either in formation, personnel or substitutions, which often don’t arrive until the final 20 minutes.

The Albion manager should therefore take great credit for addressing all those concerns in one afternoon. He gave most fans the two changes they’d craved with Gaetan Bong being jettisoned for Bernardo and Yves Bissouma starting in place of Pascal Gross, although Hughton’s hand was admittedly forced with the second of those due to a minor injury to Gross. Given the Albion’s definition of minor seems to differ wildly from anybody else’s, we should expect to see the German playmaker back some time in 2021.

Hughton was also bold in dropping Solly March, comfortably our best winger so far this season and playing Alireza Jahanbakhsh instead. It was a decision that looked a gamble before kick off with the Albion’s record buy having done the grand sum of bugger all since his £17m arrival from AZ Alkmaar before the visit of the Terrier’s but by full time, the Iranian had delivered his finest performance so far to offer hope that he may not follow Jurgen Locadia – not even considered worthy of a place in the 18 man squad – into the expensive flops hall of shame.

The Albion manager also answered the substitutions question as it was two of his changes who ended up winning the game. Florin Andone came on at the unheard of time of 57 minutes in place of the ineffectual Glenn Murray and ended up scoring a brilliant header from a fine cross from Anthony Knockaert. That move had all started with another of Hughton’s replacements, Jose Izquierdo picking out Knockaert less than 120 seconds after he’d taken the place of Jahanbakhsh.

From early in the first half it was glaringly obvious that Andone’s pace and bustling presence would be much more useful than Murray’s target man skill set. Huddersfield were slower at the back than a rubbish truck driving up Mount Everest, yet until the Romanian entered the fray just before the hour mark we had no pace to get in behind them.

That in part explained why the first half was so dire. In that opening 45 minutes, both sides looked like teams that would be playing Championship football next season, with the only real moment of interest coming when Jahanbakhsh hit the bar with an incredible strike from distance.

How he managed to get so much dip on the ball is an utter mystery, but most of the crowd had already begun sarcastically cheering the shot as it looked like it was ballooning towards the executive boxes at the back of the South Stand, only for it to dive down at the very last minute and crash against the frame of the goal. An outstanding piece of skill.

Huddersfield had more possession and more shots on target in that cagey first half before Andone’s introduction brought the Albion to life. He hadn’t been on long when he hit a snap-shot out of nothing which forced a flying save from Jonas Lossl. Then came the header, packed with power and placed perfectly past Lossl for a goal that had Alan Shearer purring on Match of the Day – and he’s a bloke who knows a thing or two about headed goals.

The Terriers almost equalised immediately with a header of their own but Steve Mounie’s effort was tipped over the bar at full stretch by Maty Ryan. That was all that the visitors could muster but even so, it was a tense last 10 minutes and the roar that greeted the final whistle was testament to what a relieving victory this was.

Brighton will need to be better – much better – if they are to win at Crystal Palace next weekend for the first time since Paul McShane Day 14 years ago. The clamour will be for Andone to start at Selhurst Park after his contribution here, but you can’t simply discount Murray’s fine goal scoring record against his former clubs, with three goals in his past three games against Palace.

Andone’s hotheadedness might not be the best attribute to go into a derby with either and he picked up another stupid booking for leaping into the crowd to celebrate the goal. Hughton certainly has a dilemma on his hands when it comes to deciding who to play at Palace, which is a welcome problem given that just two weeks ago against Frank Lampard’s Derby County, Locadia was the only fit and available senior striker.

Suddenly, we seem to have options again. That can only be a good thing and while the jury remains out on the 4-3-3 formation still, the hope must be now that this proves to be the catalyst for a strong end to the campaign. A good day for Brighton, a good day for Jahanbakhsh, a good day for Andone and most importantly of all, a good day for Hughton.