Scampi and chips but no points: Thoughts of a 66-year-old season ticket holder

Brighton & Hove Albion have now played four games in total, three in the Premier League and one Carabao Cup match with three wins out of a total of four games. That is a good start to this new season… just think about how poor old Arsenal must be feeling at the moment!

Sitting in the East Stand on Saturday afternoon at the 2-0 defeat to Everton with the sun creeping through on occasions, there was still a thrill in the air.

I am sure all our hopes were high before the game for yet another success. However, it did not quite pan out as well as we all hoped it would.

Rafael Benitez’s Everton side appeared much quicker on the break and were faster with their attacking play generally. I think there is some work for Graham Potter to do in that area. However, I am sure he knows what needs to be done.

The two goals that were scored against the Albion by Everton occurred from direct mistakes of the sort that Brighton have not been making in recent weeks.

Also, Robert Sanchez nearly got a hand to that Dominic Calvert-Lewin penalty. If he keeps it out, how different might things have been? Sanchez did really well on Saturday and that is why he was named as the sponsors’ man-of-the-match.

I did chuckle when the opposition appeared to be having a little in-house row over who was going to take their penalty. It was like a group of school kids. Benitez obviously has not had the time yet to cover all the bases with his players.

Aside from the football, the best thing to come out of the Everton game was that the Albion Sweet shops had restocked up with Wine Gums. Oh, and nobody was trampled on in the men’s toilets.

However, there was still no respect on the concourses for actual mask wearing. With Brighton’s high Covid levels at the current time, this matter should really be addressed by the club.

As we left the Upper East Stand it was time to try out the fish and chips outside for the first time. The attendance at the Everton game was higher than the previous week against Watford, it being announced as 30,548, on Saturday afternoon.

This obviously caught out the fish lady who had sold out of fish. I can heartily recommend the scampi and chips having had them instead and they were piping hot as well.

So, while gobbling this lovely post-game scrummy down, it appeared we were standing right by the player’s private car park.

The speed with which the players were getting to their cars, well if they had been that fast on the pitch then we may have caught Everton out during the 90 minutes.

You just do not know who you are going to meet at a game. In the queue for the train away from Falmer on Saturday, I got talking with a Liverpool firefighter who was a watch commander in the city.

He was a really nice guy and explained that it is a family thing in Liverpool as to whether you support the blues or the reds. It took him five hours to drive down to the Sussex coast and I heard some supporters saying it had taken them six hours.

They are very dedicated supporters who unfortunately drowned out our North Stand, which was a great shame. We best make more noise against Leicester City in the next home game, me thinks.

We have to wait now for the international break to complete and then see what the Albion can produce when they take on Brentford away on September 11th.

To be seventh in the Premier League at the moment means we could be doing a lot worse, making it strange that there seems to be so much doom and gloom around. Chins up everyone!