Brighton put up great fight in FA Cup
We LOST – but it was a great day out!
I, along with 6,399 Albion fans, made my way to Birmingham on Saturday for our biggest game of the season.
The cars and coaches streamed up the motorways carrying Gus Poyet's blue and white army.
It was the biggest support that Brighton had taken to an away game that I can remember, apart from maybe Millennium Stadium, Cardiff?
There were 40,000 in the ground and it seemed as if over half were from the South. They weren't of course but the Albion fans were certainly the loudest.
This was the biggest crowd of any of the cup games that weekend.
Premiership side Bolton only had 14,000. Portsmouth could only manage 10,000! The all-Premiership clashes Stoke/Arsenal (19k) and Everton/Birmingham (30k) were way behind.
The Villa gate to see our Seagulls was almost their biggest of the season.
It was a big occasion with big support. It felt like we were a big club again.
It is difficult to describe what it is like going into a top ground after the hardships of Withdean.
Wonderful - four huge stands with fantastic views, even from near the back of the unimaginatively named North Stand. However I'm sure Albion's Falmer will make Villa Park look old-fashioned.
The team I picked was almost the same as Poyet's.
The only difference was that as predicted he went with Alan Navarro rather than James Tunnicliffe. Perhaps my choice would have been too defensive.
Poyet said after the game "I was never going to come to Villa Park and try to play for a 0 – 0 and be boring". I can't disagree with that.
Brighton had a game plan, tried to play football and as Martin O'Neil said afterwards "I think Brighton did very, very well today.
The manager likes them to go and play and they really are a fine footballing side."
O'Neil did us the honour of naming a strong side which included seven full internationals and two or three England players likely to go to the World Cup.
Kuipers kept his spot between the posts. Inigo Calderon stayed at right-back. Tommy Elphick and Adam Virgo played at the heart of our defence. Elliott Bennett, Adam Crofts, Gary Dicker and Navarro made up the mid-field. As predicted, Nicky Forster and Glenn Murray were the attacking duo.
We got to the ground early. To be honest the local hostelries weren't inviting. It was something of a knock-back to find little printed sheets proclaiming 'No Alcohol For Away Fans'. Why not? What had we done to deserve that?
Certainly we needed liquid to help with the singing. The noise from our fans as the teams ran out was amazing.
I think 6,000 blue and white balloons went up in greeting. Our massed ranks stood throughout the game, refreshingly no jobs-worth stewards tried to seat us.
Our high spirits were dented all too quickly. I'm afraid our players hadn't quite got up to the speed of the Premiership and Villa players when Jim McNulty lost the ball in their half.
The Villa break was fast through the misnamed Marc Albrighton. His low cross was swept past the helpless Kuipers from close range by Nathan Delfouneso.
But Brighton commendably got back into the match.
With minutes to go to halftime an Elliott Bennett corner dropped to Tommy Elphick who lashed home with glee. We had equalised.
The noise and celebrations from the Albion fans was unbelievable. We had the halftime break to savour the position.
Pop went the dream in the third minute after the re-start.
We were attacking their penalty area when the move broke down. It was Milner who released Stuart Downing with a fine pass.
His run down the left was followed by the perfect cross onto Ashley Young's head to make it 2-1.
It was hard from that point. Villa played the ball about with all the confidence of a Premiership side beating a team from League One.
Kuipers made a magnificent point-blank save from Fabian Delph. But Delph made amends with 30 minutes left when he scored the claret and blue's third. It was Milner again who found the pass to enable Delph to run at Kuipers and slot home. 3 – 1 to Villa.
Despite the Premiership side's two goal advantage the Albion fans didn't stop their loud vocal support. The Villa stands were comparatively quiet, so much so that we sang 'Shall we sing a song for you?'.
Albion fought on and played their game. Poyet bravely went for an attacking change throwing on all three subs. Liam Dickinson, Seb Carole and Dean Cox replaced Bennett, Dicker and Navarro.
Time was running out but the excitement wasn't over.
McNulty centred and Forster did what he does best.
He controlled, turned and fired past Guzan for our second goal. Unfortunately this was in the 90th minute.
Result 3 – 2 to Villa and a game against Wolves or Crystal Palace. Palace would have made for a marvellous 5th round game for us!
We had our day out. The team did us and Poyet proud. We applauded the fine effort at the end before making the long drive home. There was plenty of time to reflect. We want more days like this. Under Poyet and at Falmer they will come again.
It is said that the attraction has gone out of the F A Cup but this just isn't so. With great occasions such as this the magic is still there.
But it was down to earth, and League One, with a bump on Tuesday night, away to Stockport County.
How can we perform so well against a top Premiership side and then be rubbish a few days later? Not only did we not beat the bottom side in our division, we were lucky to get a draw.
Only a 90th minute equaliser from captain Andrew Crofts secured the one point.
It was a poor pitch, poor crowd, poor game, poor result and a Poyet problem. I can understand the downer for the players. - 39,725 at Villa, - 3,636 at Edgeley Park.
Next up is Millwall on Saturday at Withdean. If just half of the 6,400 travellers turn out we might get a little part of the atmosphere from Villa Park!.
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Weather for Lewes
Tuesday 07 February 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: -4 C to 3 C
Wind Speed: 16 mph
Wind direction: North east
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: -2 C to 3 C
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