A wonderful Remembrance tribute – and then Sanchez saved the day
Brighton & Hove Albion are very good at lots of things but one area they excel in is paying respect when pre-game tributes are required at the Amex.
With the Newcastle game being our final home fixture before Remembrance Sunday, the club appropriately remembered all the fallen heroes from previous world wars and conflicts.
The Albion management team deserve a lot of credit for going streets ahead of many other clubs with their wonderful montage of poppies displayed in the East Stand.
Every spectator on that side of the ground played a part – including myself – by holding up their relevant piece of card prior to the two minute silence.
The Surrey & Sussex Drum & Bugle Corp played the Last Post to a silent crowd. It was a reminder to us all that there are more important things in life than football… and then the game kicked off and a lot of us seemed to forget!
Whereas many seemed to be expecting three points based on Newcastle being at the other end of the table, I arrived at the Amex thinking otherwise.
As Graham Potter always says, there are no easy games in the Premier League – even if on paper, it looked like our team should have walked it against a Magpies side who came to Brighton winless.
They left winless too, all thanks to Robert Sanchez. Had the Albion goalkeeper not taken the drastic action he did in the final minutes, then we would have lost the game 2-1.
Not that it seemed like that at the time. My thoughts were “Blimey, what’s going on here?” when Sanchez charged from goal and tripped Callum Wilson. On later reflection, I realised what a good decision he had made.
It meant that Newcastle left the Amex with only five points on the board and marooned in the relegation zone. Eddie Howe of course was sitting in the directors box, watching and scrutinising every move I am sure before taking over on Monday.
My worry that this would not be a straightforward 90 minutes left me really quite nervous at the start. Lewis Dunk lost the toss and Newcastle turned us around, meaning that Brighton attacked the North Stand in the first half. That has not happened for a very long time and perhaps it contributed to a slow start from the Albion.
Brighton began to settle as the game reached the 20 minute mark. The moment then arrived when Leandro Trossard used his nifty moves to set up a shot inside the penalty area. Contact came from Newcastle defender Ciaran Clark but referee David Coote said no penalty.
VAR at Stockley Park took an age to review the decision and then asked Mr Coote to have another look on the pitch side monitor. It was heart-in-mouth time and Mr Coote did not help, taking even longer than VAR had to watch the replay back.
Eventually, he turned back to the North Stand, signalled in the air the sign for a VAR decision and pointed to the penalty spot. The North Stand erupted and for the only time all evening, shut down the very loud Toon Army.
It was the Newcastle fans who dominated the atmosphere throughout, something that we really must address. The North Stand needs to turn the noise levels up to give the team every bit of encouragement they can, especially in games against stubborn opponents like Newcastle.
Despite this very long wait from foul to penalty, Trossard kept his cool and put a great effort past Karl Darlow to give Brighton the lead.
Now we needed to find the killer second as everyone knew that if Miguel Almirón or Allan Saint-Maximin were given an opportunity, then they had the quality to hurt the Albion.
That second never arrived. The closest it came was when Sanchez started a move with a pinpoint pass to Marc Cucurella.
It seems sometimes like Sanchez has some sort of homing beacon in his boots with the perfect accuracy he displays in putting the ball to an exact spot 60 yards away.
Moments like that show what an amazing goalkeeper Sanchez is – and it is better to remember those than the mistakes because when a goalkeeper has a bad day, it really shows up compared to an outfield player.
Once Cucurella had possession from Sanchez, he found Adam Lallana who shot wide. I am positive that one of these weeks, Lallana will slot one home rather than the wrong side of the post!
Then of course came the Newcastle equaliser from Isaac Hayden, which did not bode well for the Albion. Despite plenty of effort, we seemed to struggle after that and the problems nearly peaked when the game reached stoppage time.
An Albion attack broke down, Joelinton slid through a long ball which Shane Duffy could not cut out and that left Wilson with only Sanchez to beat.
Sanchez advanced, the two came together and Wilson went to ground. Mr Coote looked at the replay again which showed Sanchez had clipped the right ankle of Wilson and so the Brighton goalkeeper was shown a red card for denying a goal scoring opportunity.
There were still four minutes of seven left to play. Lewis Dunk donned the oversized goalkeeper shirt and gloves and I took a big gulp. I was sure that if Newcastle had a single shot on target, they would win.
They had that opportunity with a direct free kick in a good position with seconds remaining. To my absolute amazement, Jonjo Shelvey opted to put the ball out to the right hand touchline rather than have a crack on Dunk’s goal. A terrible piece of decision making which, along with Sanchez taking one for the team, saved the day.
Despite the disappointment of not beating Newcastle, we move into the international break with Brighton seventh in the Premier League having accumulated 17 points from 11 games so far. That is testament to the great squad and coaching staff we currently have at the Albion.
Aston Villa away is up next, a tough enough game even without Villa’s players and fans wanting to impress new boss Steven Gerrard in his first match in charge – similar to Newcastle and the watching Howe.
Another reminder – and I am sure Graham will tell us in the lead up to the Villa Park trip – that there are no easy games in the Premier League…
