Ian Hart: Brighton’s Cup progress is a joy, but competition is another FA bodge job

A week after the 7-0 humiliation at Forest, the Albion were required to deliver a performance to answer their critics but also to allay the fears of a section of the support.

You can’t sugar-coat it, the capitulation in the East Midlands last weekend rang alarm bells in certain quarters.

Had Hurzeler lost the dressing room? Was the young manager out of his depth? And would Saturday night’s FA Cup tie with Chelsea possibly provide the answer to those questions?

Well, as on many occasions with the Albion, the footballing gods’ wicked sense of humour was apparent fairly early on.

‘Throwing one in the net’ (almost literally) on five minutes probably put the detractors and the doubters on Red Alert, but for the next 85 minutes everything turned 360 degrees.

For whatever reason Chelsea effectively ‘downed tools’ – they looked like they didn’t want to be there, the Albion clearly capitalised on this, put in a shift and ran out worthy winners.

Worthy, but also perhaps fortunate?

Did Tariq Lamptey handle the ball in the lead-up to Karou Mitoma’s winner?

Probably, but it’s those footballing gods doing their stuff again. The FA had deemed that VAR wouldn’t come into play in the competition until the fifth round.

I’ve no doubt VAR would have chalked off Albion’s winner, but I’m confident the Albion would still have run out eventual winners against the lacklustre Londoners.

But here’s the rub: the Albion now travel to Newcastle for a fifth round tie early next month and VAR will be in operation – and as far as I’m concerned this is yet another bodge job by the FA.

It has to be all or nothing. It’s the greatest knockout competition in the world, but by introducing video technology halfway through means it’s effectively a different competition from now on, and is that really fair?

Brighton, on this occasion, had the rub of the green, but given the number of times they’ve been on the wrong end of things, it’s almost poetic justice. But it remains the case that what the FA are doing from now on is flawed.

Had there been no VAR in the semi-finals last season, Mark Robins’ Coventry City would have made it to the final at the expense of Manchester United, ironically the eventual winners.

And it will be the same again for the 16 teams left in the competition... a different set of rules with the lower ranked sides hoping they won’t be this season’s Coventry City!