Palace away tickets on sale from Tuesday – just remember your ID
Tickets for Brighton and Hove Albion’s away game with Crystal Palace will go on sale from Tuesday 29th January – and we can all look forward to some Nazi-esque levels of security for the game at Selhurst Park.
As has become commonplace for trips to Palace, all Albion supporters will have to undergo ID checks before they are allowed to approach the turnstiles of the Arthur Wait Stand.
Each match ticket will have the purchaser’s name written on it and if that name does not match the ID papers shown by an individual to the local KGB officers who will inspecting around Selhurst, then the bearer will be turned away from the game.
Albion fans can also expect to be held back at the end of the game for anything up to an hour afterwards. Last year’s experience of this wasn’t too bad as the Grand National went off at 5.15pm, giving everyone something to watch on their phones.
The prospect of standing in a Croydon street in the pissing down rain in the first throes of March this time around however isn’t exactly an enticing one.
The Albion have been given a reduced allocation of 2,500 which are initially available for supporters with 354 or more loyalty points. With the facilities at Selhurst being on a par with a bombed out ground in the middle of Damascus, the over-the-top policing making North Korea’s security services blush and the fact we hardly ever win there all combining to make it arguably the worst away day of the season, it’s unlikely that it will sell out on day one.
For those who don’t fancy taking a time machine back to football in the 1970s or those who can’t get a ticket, the good news is that the game will be shown live on Sky Sports. As a result, kicks off is now at lunchtime on Saturday 9th March.
Of course, all the hassle will be worth it if the Albion can repeat their heroics against Palace from the last Premier League meeting back in December.
Brighton ran out 3-1 winners in one of the most memorable games that the Amex has seen. Glenn Murray scored a penalty against his former club before Shane Duffy was sent off for headbutting Patrick van Aanholt.
Having to play for over an hour with 10 men didn’t bother the Albion though as Leon Balogun scored with his first touch to make it 2-0 and then Florin Andone netted the goal of the season right on the stroke of half time. Luka Milivojević pulled one back with a second half penalty but Brighton held on for a famous win against the odds.
