Not even Glenn Murray doing punditry could bring Brighton luck

The games keep coming thick and fast. Tuesday evening saw Brighton play for the fourth time in 10 days, this time away at Fulham on the banks of the River Thames.

Not being able to make the trip to Craven Cottage, I took a two-prong approach to keeping up. This involved tuning in to watch pictures from the Cottage on an app whilst listening to the BBC Radio Sussex commentary of Johnny Cantor and Warren Aspinall.

We all knew that victory would make Brighton overnight Premier League leaders for the first time ever. Standing in our way was a certain Aleksandar Mitrovic.

How our defenders dealt with him was always going to decide the outcome. Unfortunately, it was Mitrovic who came out on top. There was no shame in that, he is a fantastic player.

Speaking of fantastic players, Glenn Murray was doing punditry on BT Sport. How great to hear him refer to Brighton as “we” when talking about the Albion.

If not even having the Seagulls’ record scorer cheering on from the touchline could provide Brighton with good luck, then maybe it was never meant to be our night?

An ominous sign was the storm clouds gather before kick off. They created a beautiful scene above Craven Cottage.

There was no rain from those clouds, but that did not prevent a couple of Albion players losing their footing and slipping on the turf.

Fulham had the first chance when Bobby Decordova-Reid put in an early cross which Mitrovic could not quite get onto to slot home.

Joel Veltman needed thanking once again for putting the ball behind for a corner. Robert Sanchez had to make a great stop from the corner with Brighton eventually getting a free kick.

When Pascal Gross slipped, he managed to turn it into a pass. Leandro Trossard was the recipient, and his cross from the left was headed wide at full pace and power by Solly March.

The halfway stage was reached with the score still at 0-0 and not many clearcut chances. It had been a real battle in the first half.

I thought Fulham were perhaps the better side. They chased everything, looked fast and moved the ball around quickly. The Albion had not clicked as they have done this season.

Early in the second half and Moises Caicedo fouled Kenny Tete. It was one of those aerial duels where both players were watching the ball and neither intended to impede the other.

Fulham though got a free kick, cleared behind by Adam Webster. I felt nervous whenever the hosts had a set piece, knowing what Mitrovic can do in the air.

However, Fulham took the corner short to Andreas Pereira. His cross was poor but Fulham remained in possession and Neeskens Kebano played in another cross.

This one went right across the goal and guess what? Mitrovic slid it home at the far post to put the Cottagers 1-0 up.

Never mind, I thought. There were still 42 minutes left for Brighton to fight back. The Albion set about doing that by winning a corner.

Of all the things that could have happened from that play, Fulham breaking to score again was the last thing Brighton would have wanted.

Lewis Dunk looked like he was trying to break the land speed record to get back and break up the Cottagers counter.

When Pereira crossed, Dunk was going too fast to stop and he ended up catching the ball with his right foot. Sanchez was wrong footed and the ball sped into the back of the net.

I felt really sorry for both Dunk and Sanchez. It was one of those things neither could do much about. And Brighton trailed 2-0 because of it with 55 minutes played.

You know as well as I do that the Albion never give up. They continued to play their hearts out. Nice play down the left and into the 18 yard box saw Pervis Estupinan and Gross go down.

Referee Thomas Bramall – on his Premier League debut – allowed play to continue. Webster picked the ball up on the right and put it out of play, alerting Mr Bramall that Estupinan was still on the ground still and in a lot of pain.

That seemed to wake the team up at Stockley Park and they told Mr Bramall to have a look at the incident again. Estupinan had been kicked on the calf by Decordova-Reid and Brighton had a penalty.

Alexis Mac Allister seemed to know the outcome before anyone else. He stood there with the ball in his arms waiting to take the penalty.

The wait must have felt like an eternity. When Mac Allister did get the chance, he concentrated on the ball and rifled it to the left of Bernd Leno.

An hour had been played and Brighton were back in the game. We were nearly out of it again when Sanchez had a moment, spilling the ball over the top of his head.

Kebano was right there but somehow missed the open goal by firing over the crossbar. Phew, what a let off I thought – along with urging Sanchez to switch on.

Kaoru Mitoma, Danny Welbeck and Tariq Lamptey soon came on. Mitoma did some great work to create a chance for Trossard but his good low shot was saved by Leno.

Another series of moves gave Deniz Undav a chance. Welbeck chipped in Undav and he hit Leno’s post with Welbeck just unable to slot home the rebound and level the scores.

There were six minutes of injury time but Brighton did not have another chance. The final whistle brought with it a first defeat of the season for the Albion.

Our position in the table did not change though. The Albion remain fourth with 10 points. The longer we can stay in that top group, the better, as it means we are heading towards our first target of 40 points.

Thankfully, we will face Mitrovic only once more this season. This Sunday it is Leicester City instead, who are yet to win a game. Let us hope we can keep it that way!

Thank you to everyone who was purchased my book covering the 2021-22 season, The Seagulls Best Ever Season. It can be found on Amazon at this link.

Tony Noble @Noble1844Tony