That excitement when you visit a ground you’ve never been to

There is something exciting about visiting a new ground when watching Brighton. The sight of the floodlights on the road to the ground – or the to the docks when we took a wrong turn on the way to Portman Road in the 1990s – the smell of the burger van and the strange accents you encounter a relatively short distance from your home… especially when you live in the south west like I do.

During the 1990s and 2000s I visited around 60 different grounds, many multiple times, watching Brighton.

I loved the days out travelling to parts of the country from Hereford to Hartlepool, Stoke to Scunthorpe. Places I’d never normally venture. Although I have been back to Scunthorpe for work since.

At the start of the 2010s, my friends and I started having (our own) families. This coupled with the opening of the Amex meant the opportunities to spend Saturdays trawling up and down the country for away games reduced dramatically.

I had ticked off almost all of the grounds on the M5/M6 corridor with one notable exception: The Hawthorns. So, while most of my friends – and as it turns out most West Brom fans – were disappointed with another crap FA Cup draw, I knew Covid permitting, I’d finally be able to tick it off my list.

Before heading to the Hawthorns, I tried to think back to the last ‘new’ ground I’d visited. I went to Wembley on a freezing December night in 2017 to see us roll over and have our belly’s tickled for a very poor Spurs, but I’d been there before on a freezing May night to watch Green Day 2011, so the new Wembley experience wasn’t that new.

I’d also seen the Albion at the original Wembley in 1991, so it wasn’t really a new ground to me. I did tick off a stadium watching a game on a work trip to Abu Dhabi in 2018.

It was a more pleasant place to spend time than Scunthorpe – but I still had to get up for work very early the next morning and it wasn’t that enjoyable, to be honest.

The quality of Al Jazira and Al Ain reminded me of our days at the Priestfield, plus it wasn’t a Brighton match so it just didn’t feel the same.

I therefore decided to look up my last new ground with Brighton and was surprised that it was way back in 2013 when I saw us beat Birmingham City 1-0 at St Andrews.

Leonardo Ulloa was the star man that day, but the way Brighton have progressed in the last eight and half years, he would struggle to get into our team these days.

My trip hit its first snag when my friends dropped out of going despite a win for an ‘Albion’ being guaranteed as the FA Cup tie had to be decided on the day.

Clearly, clearing out the garage or watching monster trucks were preferable alternatives to traipsing up to the West Midlands on a filthy January afternoon.

By the time the game reached the 70th minute mark with the Albion trailing 1-0 – and despite seeing Boiler Man, the best mascot in England – I could see their point. Why wasn’t I sorting out my garage?

Brighton had created little and were being beaten by a very poor West Brom side. Luckily, West Brom’s defender Cedric Kipré decided to have a couple of brain farts and get himself sent off around this time, turning the tie in Brighton’s favour.

In truth, Graham Potter’s substitutions meant Brighton pressure had already stepped up by that point. As the Albion began to exert their dominance, the removal by West Brom of their attackers Karlan Grant and Callum Robinson just before Brighton equalised meant that once Jakub Moder scored, it looked likely that there would only be one winner.

The excellent Evan Ferguson almost snatched the winner just before full time, but the ball fell just over the crossbar.

That meant the 8,208 hardy souls who had spent their £15 to go to the game got an extra 30 minutes, which was one way traffic as Brighton exerted their dominance over their lower league opponents.

Luckily, Neal Maupay managed to find a way past the excellent David Button, saving us all from a penalty shoot-out. As the game drew to a close, it was clear from the body language of the West Brom players and the virtually empty home end that the other Albion were defeated.

We just had to wait for the referee to now confirm it. He eventually did so and my first visit to the Hawthorns ended in success; West Brom 1-2 Brighton.

As I trudged back through a grim industrial estate taking me back to my car, I failed to spot any home fans. I took my life in my hands crossing the M5 slip roads for the second time in the day to find my car alone in a deserted car park dreaming of my next ‘new’ ground.

I’ve never been to Spurs’ new ground, so maybe that will be number 62 on FA Cup fourth round day?

David Williams @DrDGWilliams