Agony for Albion

WRITING this week's Banter brings back all the humiliation and hurt. Losing 5-0 to old rivals Crystal Palace last Saturday was a gut-wrenching experience.

Brighton were a laughing stock in their first local derby for 13 years and failed to give their 6000 travelling fans any glimmer of hope for the remaining campaign. The team lost to a poor Palarse outfit that had been booed off the pitch at the end of their previous home game. Now they were inflicting Brighton's heaviest defeat for 12 years. It resulted in a 12th league loss in succession, equalling a club record.

It wasn't the worst Albion performance ever. It's possibly one of the most embarrassing footballing experiences I've had to endure, perhaps the most painful ever, but we have played worse on previous occasions and recovered.

When a football fan suffers a disaster such as losing to Palarse, the pain doesn't end with the final whistle. First, you have to face thousands of Croydon's finest Neanderthals outside the ground. With Brighton fans being detained on the terraces while the locals took up their positions outside, the scene was set for a tricky journey home.

Over zealous policing infuriated the situation further. I myself was pushed by one police officer whilst seeking directions. My girlfriend was attending her third Albion match and was pushed and kicked in the after-match melee. A police shield, aimed at her head, would have found its intended target had it not been for my intervention. Anyone was a target for their 'All football fans are hooligans' mentality, which enraged a delicate situation further.

But the trauma doesn't end with you finally reaching the safety of your car. Oh no. It is only just beginning. The Sunday drink with mates takes on a melancholy. The first hours at work on a miserable Monday morning brings at least five closet gloaters out of hiding. Each one making you re-live the torture in slow motion. Everyone seeks a reaction, ready to add their own opinion, before leaving with a cutting remark about your team.

Then every Palarse fan in Sussex seems able to sniff out the blood of an injured Seagulls fan to taunt for years to come. Commemorative t-shirts will likely follow. The humiliation will never end. The result will have an impact on my life for years to come.

If the team carries on as they are, it could be another 13 years before we visit Smellhurst again for the chance of retribution. Relegation is looking likelier with every passing week, as we continue to lose and other teams above us pick up valuable points.

After two glorious promotion seasons, where the team won a record amount of matches, the step up in standards from division three, to two, to one is a giant leap. Portsmouth, who are top of the table, have spent millions on players. Brighton's team cost 200,000. Nine of the starting 11 last Saturday were playing in Division Three just two years ago. For some the improved standards may be finding them out.

They just need to remember the work ethics that took them to two championships, the team unity which bonded them together and the confidence to compete, win and enjoy. This may be the one and only season many of these Albion players will ever play in Division One.

I hope they remember everything they went through to get there and want another taste of it next season. With the current transfer climate, their best opportunity for this is to remain at the Albion and put in some performances worthy of Division One. If they can't, there will be many more humiliations to come. Surely the season can't get any worse. Can it?