All aboard! Boxing Day on the bus made worthwhile as Albion sting Bees
Belated season’s greetings everyone… and what a late Christmas present we had on Boxing Day evening at the Amex as the Albion ended that winless run with a 2-0 success over Brentford.
My planning to get to the stadium and back from North Sussex had begun in mid-October when it became apparent there would be no public transport.
The best bet looked to be booking early to avoid disappointment with our trusted travel firm Seagull Travel. As those meerkats say, “simples”.
I went onto the booking site and secured two return tickets from Seaford Station, driving and parking nearby and then boarding the bus to the Amex.
Boy, was it worth it. The Seagull Travel team are real professionals and made the whole experience really easy. It must have taken a military-style operation to organise as I have never seen so many buses and coaches in my life all in the one place.
We worked out if the visitors’ South Stand was full with its normal 3000 visiting fans, Brentford would have needed around 60 hire coaches themselves for their supporters. That gives you an idea of how many buses were required to get Albion fans to and from the Amex from all over Sussex.
The Brentford end however was only half full. The Brighton sections were around the same. We all know why. A Boxing Day 8pm kick combined with the dreaded Covid-19 problem, something we avoided both before and after the game with a negative test returned on Monday. Funnily enough, no official attendance was announced at the game.
Two bits of punditry caught my eye in the lead up to the game, both from Sky Sports. It was reported that Brighton had led for only 42 minutes through the last 11 games. What does that even mean as a statistic?
Paul Merson also said that we did not have any natural goal scorers. Maybe he should eat his words after Neal Maupay and Leandro Trossard scored two excellent goals? All I can say to pundits like this is watch this space as you write the Albion off at your peril.
There is always something extra exciting about Boxing Day football. It takes me back to my childhood days watching at the Goldstone Ground, when seeing the Albion over Christmas was a real treat and something to look forward to.
When Trossard opened the scoring, my wife said to me: “Calm down and sit down before you have a heart attack”. I couldn’t help myself… when the Albion score goals, all is well in the world.
My late dad – who was a Hove Grammar School Boy in the 1930s and was far cleverer than me by the way – would have been so proud of the Albion these days, competing in the top division with the best teams in the land.
He played football until he was 45 years of age for Hove Grammar School Old Boys most weeks. Their home pitch was in Hove Park, a stone’s throw from the Goldstone. I still remember the roars that came from the ground, even today.
Strangely, the noise that was made throughout Brighton 2-0 Brentford was louder than when the Amex has over 30,000 spectators in it. You could see the difference it made to the players who obviously need lots of vocal support.
I feel sometimes that we as fans need to make more noise, like the travelling Everton and Wolves fans did when they visited the south coast this season.
Brighton were able to welcome back several players returning from injury. The team appeared to be really up for it, putting in 120 percent and chasing down every ball.
The Albion also had the rub of the green as they say in golf. Moments of luck seem to have avoided us in recent months but on this occasion, the ball was kind to us.
Not many men in blue and white slipped over either, compared to the 1-0 defeat to Wolves when players seemed to hit the ground regularly. Perhaps the ground staff have realised that the pitch need not be overwatered?
Both Maupay and Trossard pressed the Brentford goalkeeper hard early on, as if they smelt blood and were desperate to force an error. This proved sensible as Alvaro Fernandez did look a little shaky. Unfortunately, nothing ended up coming of it.
Early attacking play from the Seagulls laid down a pattern of what was to come during the game. Brentford could have posed a real threat through Ivan Toney and Bryan Mbeumo but Adam Webster returning in a back four along with Dan Burn and Tariq Lamptey did extremely well to control the Bees’ strikers.
Burn made a big start to the game, preventing Mbeumo getting a shot away in the first two minutes and then clearing from behind Robert Sanchez when a long ball forward allowed Mbeumo to chip over the Albion goalkeeper. It would have been given as offside, however Burn was not to know that at the time.
Up the other end and Burn hit the crossbar with a header from a beautifully taken Alexis Mac Allister corner. A great ball from Sanchez out to Marc Cucurella sent him off to cross smartly for Enock Mwepu.
Mwepu’s shot flew past the post from seven yards out. A good chance missed but that he gets into those positions means that more opportunities will continue to come for Mwepu over the second half of the season.
Possession was around 50-50 as the game reached the 30 minute mark, indicating how even it had been. The deadlock was then broken when an exquisite forward pass from Mwepu found the perfectly timed run of Trossard from an onside position.
Fernandez committed to coming to the edge of his penalty area and Trossard connected to the ball dropping out of the sky with his left foot, lifting it over the head of the Brentford goalkeeper to make it 1-0.
It was a brilliant goal followed by the excitement of fans going mad. No need to worry about jumping into anyone during the celebrations and knocking fellow fans over – we had nobody near us at all.
What we needed in the remaining 11 minutes of the first half was a second goal. As luck would have it, that is just what we got by the way of Maupay hitting a perfect shot into the top right corner of the Brentford net. Fernandez had no chance and credit should also go to Jakub Moder for a great assist.
Brighton might have added a third in the early stages of four minutes of stoppage time. A free kick was awarded just outside the D of the Brentford penalty area. Trossard lined up to take it just a little off to the left but he put it straight down the throat of Fernandez.
The second half brought the return of Danny Welbeck in place of the injured Trossard and some amazing saves from Sanchez. Despite Thomas Frank giving his team a hard talking to during the break, I felt that Brighton would go onto add to the score in the second half.
That was not to be despite the Albion continuing to push and not falling back on their laurels. Instead, it was Sanchez who made an astounding save in the 59th minute, managing to get a leg to a deflected shot by Shandon Baptiste.
Less than a minute later and Sanchez’s amazing agility kept the ball out of the Albion net following a header from Ethan Pinnock. It was another brilliant stop that ended up preserving a clean sheet but not without a little pain, Sanchez colliding his shoulder with the post.
Cucurella was next to deny Brentford, heading off the line from Pinnock as Brentford persisted in trying to prevent Brighton earning a shut out.
The Albion though got there, leaving fans as pleased as chairman Tony Bloom who was watching on from the director’s box.
The only task remaining afterwards was to find the bus home. With coaches everywhere – busier than Southdown Pool Valley ever used to be – that proved to be the hardest part of a brilliant Boxing Day.
Tony Noble @Noble1844Tony
