Brighton and Hove Albion announce first four pre-season friendlies
The first four pre-season friendlies that Brighton and Hove Albion will play ahead of the 2018-19 Premier League season have been announced by the club.
The squad will jet off for a training camp in Switzerland before taking on Swiss Super League side FC St Gallen in their opening game on Saturday 14th July. The venue for this game has not been announced which presumably means the club are looking for a similar arrangement to last seasons clash with Fortuna Dusseldorf which was a quiet affair played in the secluded location of Sportplatz Bischofshofen in rural Austria.
The Albion’s first game on English soil comes a week later on Saturday 21st July away at AFC Wimbledon with a 3pm kick off at the Cherry Red Records Stadium. Three days after that on Tuesday 24th July, we make the trip to the Valley to face a Charlton Athletic side who were beaten in the League One play-off semi finals earlier in the month.
Brighton’s final fixture to be announced comes on Saturday 28th July away at Birmingham City where the Albion could come up against former goalkeeper David Stockdale should Blues boss Garry Monk not have been able to sell him this summer. Stockdale has been transfer listed after just one season at St Andrews due to the astronomical wage he was placed on when leaving Sussex and Premier League football in favour of living in the shadow of Spaghetti Junction and counting all his cash.
There are further friendlies to be announced with a show piece home game against European opposition on either Friday 3rd August or Sunday 5th August with Saturday 4th being ruled out due to Pride. Having seen Norwich and Southampton announced as “glamour” friendlies in the early days of the Amex, we’ve actually been quite spoiled in recent times with Lazio and Atletico Madrid the visitors in the last two seasons.
Perhaps most intriguingly, the club have teased the prospect of a potential friendly somewhere abroad in the week of Monday 30th July which could provide a fantastic drinking holiday, so there will be plenty of fingers crossed for a trip to Germany or Belgium for that one.
Unfortunately, the days of drinking beer in the sun and watching the Albion at a local non-league ground such as Burgess Hill Town or Lewes to kick start pre-season seem long gone but at least this season there is no trip to Crawley Town to endure, a game that has held all the appeal of trying to toast bread while sitting in the bath in recent seasons.
