Settee springs take a bashing: Thoughts of a 66-year-old season ticket holder
Well, last Saturday afternoon the sun shone on the Brentford Community Stadium as well as on the Albion. For those fans lucky enough to visit the Bees’ new ground, there was an added bonus with chairman Tony Bloom right in amongst the Brighton support for the whole match.
Saturday 11th September 2021 was certainly a day to remember in Albion history – as we also remembered the 2,996 people who lost their lives in the twin towers in New York in 20 years ago, including Brighton fan Robert Eaton.
Once again, the game sounded like it got off to a fast start. Listening intently as I do to Johnny Cantor and Warren Aspinall on BBC Radio Sussex, Brighton dominated the first 15 minutes according to the commentators.
This gave the listener great cause for excitement. Then out of the blue, forgive the pun, Ivan Toney the Brentford striker fired a shot from 40 yards out which fortunately went over Robert Sanchez’s crossbar. What vision and forethought Toney has.
Shots from distance have been commonplace recently, as evidenced in the game on Sky TV on Monday night between Everton and Burnley when Andros Townsend scored for the Toffees from 25 yards.
What a goal that was! I was just thankful that, unlike Townsend’s rocket at Goodison Park, Toney’s shot on Saturday flew over the goal. It might have been a different game had it gone in.
Us listeners were informed that Brentford’s opportunities in the first were coming from from mistakes that the Albion were making. These mistakes they will surely learn from going forward.
The Bees continued to look the most likely to score as the opening 45 minutes wore on. Toney for Brentford got another shot away and luckily, for the second time, over the crossbar it went.
It was soon after that the commentators reported that Adam Webster had suffered a groin injury and had to come off. This allowed Graham Potter to substitute Webster with Jacob Moder. Straight away Moder was reported as “driving on up the pitch”.
Adam Lallana then took a ball straight in the face, which seemed to stop a session of football ping pong and allowed play to steady down. The restart resulted in a drop ball.
So the first half came to a close at 0-0 and to be fair it was lucky the Albion were not 2-0 down, especially when Brentford missed their best chance of the game in time added on. All the quality so far appeared to come from Brentford with Brighton sounding very scrappy on the radio.
Things improved in the second half, particularly for Leandro Trossard who was playing a blinder. It sounded like he was involved in most of the action and that if one team were going to score in the final 20 minutes, it would be the Albion.
As the game got closer to the full time whistle, the more nervous I became. Could Brighton find a way to make a breakthrough? We all know that feeling, I am sure.
Then in the 90th minute, Trossard seized the opportunity and curved one into the right hand corner. I jumped for joy, forgetting I was sitting on the settee. The lampstand took a fall, but who cares as it finished Brentford 0-1 Brighton.
What an exciting ending, even for a radio listener. What it must have been like amongst the Albion supporters actually present I don’t know… perhaps Mr Bloom will tell us!
