Brighton fans sense something is not quite right behind the scenes
What Brighton needed after the disappointing 1-0 home defeat against Everton was a positive reaction at Nottingham Forest.
Instead, the Albion delivered a painful experience in being beaten 7-0 by the Tricky Trees. Things do not get any easier either with two matches in the space of six days against Chelsea.
Lose both and Brighton will be out of the FA Cup and outside the top 10 in the Premier League. The season may well find itself drifting into nothingness with half of February and all of March, April and May still to play. It already looks like I will not be writing Seagulls Best Ever Season Volume III this summer.
Forest are a good side. They play fast, attacking football and look like they mean business. Their current league position reflects that.
But even so, for Brighton to lose 7-0 was shocking. To Albion fans. Probably to Forest fans too. And certainly to the owners of The Gedling Inn, who before the game offered a free pint for anyone in the pub every time Forest scored.
Seven goals later and the landlady estimated she had ended up giving away £1500 worth of beer. I wonder how many of our loyal Seagulls supporters who travelled to Nottingham wish they had gone to The Gedling rather than the City Ground?!
Where do Brighton go from here? As fans, we have to hope the Forest game was a one-off poor show. Forest were themselves bouncing back from a 5-0 defeat at Bournemouth, showing what can be done if a determination to put things right is there.
To get back to winning ways against Chelsea, the Albion have to rediscover their fight. There certainly cannot be any silly individual mistakes of the sort we have seen throughout the campaign.
Robert Sanchez was dropped by the Blues for their win over West Ham United on Monday night, so we may not be able to rely on him making a ricket on Saturday night.
There will be a reduced Albion crowd with ticket sales slow because of the kick off time and a potential 11pm finish if it goes to extra time and penalties.
Which has seen Chelsea given an increased allocation with up to 6,000 away fans present. It could end up feeling like a home game for them, making an Albion victory more difficult.
But hopefully, Brighton can turn it around. As I get older, I will not have many more opportunities to get to Wembley.
Another FA Cup semi final would be a fantastic occasion. Who knows? We could even go one better than the semi final defeat to Manchester United in 2023.
But I also sense that maybe something is not quite right behind the scenes. Having worked and led teams for over 30 years, I know you rely on your teammates and management all the time.
If you do not have faith in your team leader, it can be disastrous. Do Brighton have faith in Hurzeler? Reading comments online, I am not the only one wondering this after picking up on player body language, little comments in interviews, snippets posted on social media and the general reaction to losing 7-0.
I hope I am wrong and that Forest was just the annual thrashing the Albion suffer once a season – like the 6-1 at Aston Villa or the 5-1 against Everton – rather than being a sign of deeper problems at the club.
Either way, we will learn more and find out over the next few weeks.
Tony Noble @Noble1844Tony
