Kevin was nobody’s friend – unlike Grealish who made a young fan’s day
Positives from Brighton v Manchester City – it was not raining as hard for this home fixture as it had in the previous game at the Amex against Arsenal.
Although we had been successful against City last season, deep down I think most of us did not expect the Albion to be winners this time around. It would all depended on the number of errors made.
Whereas Norwich the week before were not able to major on Brighton mistakes, the champions ruthlessly exposed them and their reward was a comfortable looking final score of Brighton 1-4 Manchester City.
I must say that the effort and determination to fight on despite the three goal deficit at the start of the second half was brilliant.
The highlight of the 90 minutes for me though came in the first half and that goal line overhead kick to clear the ball away by Lewis Dunk – absolutely incredible timing.
Sitting in the East Stand Upper, several of the decisions made by referee Kevin Friend were very clearly incorrect and because of that, you kind of got the feeling that nothing was going to go right for the Albion.
When you are parallel to the North Stand goal line, the ball goes out of play and it is quite clearly an Albion corner, well, you can understand the anger and frustration of fans when Mr Friend awards a throw.
Aside from the referee, I really enjoyed the game. You never feel confident of winning against one of the best squads in the world but Brighton managed to match City in that second half. When a team that good start time wasting, you know you have them on the back foot.
Brighton were much improved once Tariq Lamptey and Enock Mwepu were on the pitch. Lamptey produced that moment of magic against Jack Grealish right in front of me and yet I still had to watch it back several times on TV to believe it had happened.
For Lamptey to go swerving, ducking and diving around a player like Grealish just goes to show the talent we have under our bonnet.
Speaking of Grealish, he showed what a great guy he is before the game when taking time to speak to a young fan in the East Stand during the City warm up.
Gully and Sally on the touchline managed to attract Grealish’s attention, pointing to a supporter who clearly wanted to meet the England superstar.
Over Grealish came, giving the little boy a day and memory which will last a lifetime. What a fantastic gesture when most Premier League footballers would have simply continued warming up.
It was a disappointment when City added their fourth late on and I do not think that they deserved to win by three.
Nobody could deny that it was a great game to watch and the Albion remained in fourth spot in the Premier League as we left the Amex on Saturday night.
Finally, City’s supporters were in really good voice, out singing the North Stand. Next time out against Newcastle United, we need to be cheering the Albion on from all three sides of the pitch.
