Brighton to face the Gas in Carabao Cup Second Round

Now this is a Carabao Cup draw we can get behind. After several terrible years which threw up Plucky Little Bournemouth away (zzzzzzz) and Southampton at home (double zzzzzzz), Brighton have been handed a trip to Bristol Rovers in the second round of this season’s competition.

Graham Potter will take his Seagulls to the Memorial Stadium on the week commencing August 26th. It will be the Albion’s first trip to the blue half of Bristol since February 2011, when Gus Poyet’s eventual League One champions won 4-2 thanks to goals from Ashley Barnes, Elliott Bennett, Glenn Murray and an own goal.

Both of the Gasheads goals that day came from a certain Will Hoskins, which proved to be enough to convince Poyet to fork out £500,000 for the striker that summer. Which worked out well.

Before that, one of our favourite ever away games took place at the Memorial Stadium. It was a Tuesday night in April 2009 with the Albion winning 2-1.

Lloyd Owusu and Calvin Andrew scored thanks to an outstanding performance from Gary Hart, all of which went a long, long way towards helping Russell Slade’s Harry Houdini act.

Slade celebrated it all by running down the touchline like a bald Jose Mourinho. The celebrations in front of the tiny away terrace off to one side were probably some of the maddest we’ve ever experienced.

11 days later and the Albion had drawn at Huddersfield Town and beaten to Stockport County to pull off the greatest of great escapes from relegation to League Two.

A quick glance at the recent head-to-head between Rovers and Brighton makes for comforting read. You have to go back nine meetings to find the last time that we lost to the Gas.

Ironically, that was the last time we met in the League Cup in 2004. Rovers were in League Two at the time and Brighton in the Championship but that counted for nothing as the visitors to Withdean won 2-1 against Mark McGhee’s strongest available side.

That’s one of four victories that Rovers have tasted in our six meetings in the competition. Their other wins came when they won 2-1 at their old Eastville Stadium in the 1983-84 season, a 4-0 success in the 1972-73 season and a 1-0 victory in 1970-71.

Brighton’s two positive results saw them overturn that 1983 defeat with a 4-2 win in the second leg back at the Goldstone. There was also a 1-0 win at the Memorial Stadium in 2003 thanks to Chris McPhee’s first senior goal.

It’s not really the football that has got us excited though, if we’re being honest. Bristol happens to be one of the best drinking cities in the country, which is where most of the joy at this draw is coming from.

Even the prospect of parting with hard-earned GBP’s for the pleasure of watching Alireza Jahanbakhsh and a load of Under 23s seems an enticing one in exchange for an excuse to spend a day drinking Somerset ciders.