04-04-2018, 08:55
Brighton & Hove Albion v Huddersfield Town
The Premier League
Saturday April 7th - 15:00 ko
at the American Express Community Stadium
![[Image: view-from-west-stand.jpg]](https://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/0c/62/df/68/view-from-west-stand.jpg)
Head to Head
![[Image: s-l300.jpg]](https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/jpgAAOSwGYVW-8ML/s-l300.jpg)
Brighton lead in the overall head to head with 22 wins to Town's 18, with 15 draws.
We first met Brighton back in 1922 en route to winning the FA Cup, overcoming them 2-0 at Leeds Road in a replay after the first match had ended goalless.
The first league encounter didn't arrive until 1958 after Brighton had been promoted to Division 2. We beat them 3-2 at home but lost 0-2 away.
We never built up any kind of rivalry with them and it looked likely that we would be heading in opposite directions once more when in 2009 we beat them 7-1 at the Galpharm Stadium. They survived that season though and we didn't go up. The next season they not only survived but went up to the Championship as League 1 champions, despite us doing the double over them, famously winning the last ever match at the Withdean Stadium 3-2 with goals from Benik Afobe (2) and Danny Ward.
We met up again after our promotion in the following season and built up some sort of rivalry, no more so than last season when we pushed them all the way for automatic promotion. We lost 0-1 down at theirs, our first defeat of the season, but won a great match at the John Smith's in front of the Sky Sports cameras on a Thursday night by 3-1 with first half goals from Tommy Smith, Nahki Wells and Elias Kachunga. Tomer Hemed had earlier equalised after we took the lead. And this season we beat them again at home, this time with a Steve Mounie double.
Our record down at Brighton's new ground isn't right cracking however. In the five games we've played there, we haven't won any and have only twice come away with a point, in goalless draws in 2013/14 and 2014/15.
So what's happening at the Amex? Managed still by Chris Hughton, the former Spurs player and Republic of Ireland international. He turned out almost 300 times for Spurs and gained 53 caps for Ireland before he moved on to West Ham and then Brentford.
When he finally hung up his boots he got a coaching job at Spurs and also became assistant manager of the Republic. But it was at Newcastle where he got his first proper manager's job and got them promoted back to the Premier league in his first season. Another crazy decision in the Newcastle life of chairman Mike Ashley though led him to sack Hughton in the following season with the side comfortably mid table.
He then went to Birmingham City, leading them in their Europa League campaign (they'd finished runners up in the League Cup), and led them to the Play Offs. Premier League Norwich came sniffing and he went there the following season, keeping them up with a victory on the last day. It wasn't good enough though and he was dismissed.
From there he ended up at Brighton and has had a pretty successful time down there.
![[Image: dcc9741cbacfb8792962f5c610a8bcef.jpg]](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/dc/c9/74/dcc9741cbacfb8792962f5c610a8bcef.jpg)
Club Connections: There were two Brighton players with Town connections at the start of the season. Play Off winning legend Izzy Brown went to the Amex on loan for the season from Chelsea, played against us, but later got injured and returned to Stamford Bridge.
Oliver Norwood left Town in 2014 to play for a bigger club. That bigger club being Reading. He did alright there, but before they could be good enough to reach the Play Offs they'd had to offload him to Brighton. He turned out on 33 occasions for the Seagulls in their promotion season, but Hughton obviously thought he was at best a Championship player and so was sent out on loan to Fulham for the duration.
There are others. Going back to when I were a lad, we had a left back called Chris Cattlin. He left for Coventry during my first season as a Town fan in 1968 and played at the top level for many years with them. Later, he joined Brighton, eventually becoming manager before retiring to run the Novelty Rock Emporium on Brighton sea front.
Much missed Radio Leeds co commentator Kieran O'Regan (he was so much better than Matt Glennon) started his footballing career at Brighton, turning out 86 times for them. He then moved on to Swindon before being signed by Eoin Hand for Town in 1988. he turned out 199 times for us then joined West Brom and then Halifax, who he later managed and captained their team that got promoted back into the Football League.
Joel Lynch became a fans' favourite at Town with his spectacular long range goals. He started out at Brighton, then following a few seasons at Nottingham Forest he came to Town and is now wasting his career away playing for Ian Holloway at QPR.
Can you think of any more?
![[Image: 2017-12-09T150513Z_679054367_RC14DFBC646...DD-BRH.JPG]](https://premierleague-static-files.s3.amazonaws.com/premierleague/photo/2017/12/09/6f70bb0f-78d5-4fd3-82d4-eec340c92a62/2017-12-09T150513Z_679054367_RC14DFBC6460_RTRMADP_3_SOCCER-ENGLAND-HDD-BRH.JPG)
Recent form: Town are 16th in the Premier League with 31 points. Brighton are in 13th with 34 points.
Well people keep banging on about us not having scored for the last four matches, but nobody seems bothered that the Seagulls have also drawn a blank for the last three. Goalless draw anybody?
Last 6 matches:
Newcastle 1-0 Town
Town 0-2 Crystal Palace
Town 0-0 Swansea
Spurs 2-0 Town
WBA 1-2 Town (van La Parra, Mounie)
Town 0-2 Man Utd
Brighton 0-2 Leicester
Man Utd 2-0 Brighton (FA Cup)
Everton 2-0 Brighton
Brighton 2-1 Arsenal (Dunk, Murray)
Brighton 4-1 Swansea (Murray 2 (1 pen), Knockaert, Locadia)
Brighton 3-1 Coventry (FA Cup) (Locadia, Goldson, Ulloa)
Brighton's line up v Leicester:
1 Mathew Ryan - Australia's number 1
21 Ezequiel Schelotto - long haired Argie
22 Duffy - had a number 1 in 2008 with Mercy
5 Dunk - the Hob Nob of the defence
3 Kevin Philips-Bong - Slightly Silly Party (one for the Monty Python fans out there)
24 Davy Pröpper - midfielder signed from PSV in the summer
25 Jürgen Locadia - striker signed from PSV in the summer
13 Pascal Groß - ex Ingolstadt teammate of Kachunga and Quaner
7 Beram Kayal - Israeli international midfielder signed from Celtic
19 José Izquierdo - Colombian winger signed from Club Brugge in the summer
17 Glenn Murray - ex Carlisle, Stockport and Rochdale striker
Substitutes
2 Bruno - played by Sacha Baron Cohen
9 Sam Baldock - played for MK Dons against us in the Play Offs
10 Tomer Hemed - Israeli international striker
18 Connor Goldson - ex Shrewsbury and Cheltenham defender
20 Solly March - winger signed from Lewes
26 Tim Krul - reserve keeper spent most of his career at Newcastle
29 Markus Suttner - another Ingolstadt connection
![[Image: Brighton+Hove+Albion+v+Huddersfield+Town...Lkbvrl.jpg]](http://www1.pictures.zimbio.com/gi/Brighton+Hove+Albion+v+Huddersfield+Town+Sky+e2NPJMLkbvrl.jpg)
The Premier League
Saturday April 7th - 15:00 ko
at the American Express Community Stadium
Huddersfield Town travel to the south coast this Saturday for another Premier League match, this time with Brighton & Hove Albion.
We go there without Elias Kachunga, who in only his second game back from a serious knee injury, has now got ankle ligament damage from a disgraceful assault by a Newcastle player and will now sit out the rest of the season. One more injury to add to a catalogue of injuries which, if we do go down, will certainly have had an effect on the season, but won't be used as an excuse.
Brighton meanwhile, will be without our old nemesis Anthony Knockaert, who is still suspended after his red card at Everton. But they do have another player available who has been a thorn in our side in the past, Leonardo Ulloa, who is on loan from Leicester but couldn't play in their last game, as it was against Leicester.
We go there without Elias Kachunga, who in only his second game back from a serious knee injury, has now got ankle ligament damage from a disgraceful assault by a Newcastle player and will now sit out the rest of the season. One more injury to add to a catalogue of injuries which, if we do go down, will certainly have had an effect on the season, but won't be used as an excuse.
Brighton meanwhile, will be without our old nemesis Anthony Knockaert, who is still suspended after his red card at Everton. But they do have another player available who has been a thorn in our side in the past, Leonardo Ulloa, who is on loan from Leicester but couldn't play in their last game, as it was against Leicester.
A brief history of Brighton & Hove Albion FC: They beat us to the League One title in 2011. Apart from that, they finished runners up in Division Two in 1979 and spent four years in English football's top flight. That culminated with relegation in the same season as they got to the FA Cup Final, which they lost to Man Utd in a replay after the famous "and Smith must score" miss by Gordon Smith in the last minute of extra time of the first match.
Those four years were the highlight of a very non eventful club history. The club almost went out of business and out of the league in the mid 90s. The directors sold off their Goldstone Ground as the team plummeted to the bottom of the 4th division. On the last day of the 1996/97 season, having clawed back a 13 point deficit, they needed a draw against Hereford Utd to stay up. They managed it, only just though with a late equaliser from Robbie Reinelt keeping them safe. Safe, but homeless.
![[Image: goldstoneground1990.jpg]](https://thegoldstonewrap.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/goldstoneground1990.jpg)
Goldstone Ground
Without a home ground to play on, they shared the Priestfield Stadium with Gillingham for three years, before moving back to Brighton to play at the delightful Withdean Stadium, which would become their temporary home for eleven years.
Then, after much fannying about with judicial reviews and incorrect planning and red tape running riot, they finally got the go ahead to build this new stadium and moved in in 2011.
Since then of course, they have gone from strength to strength. Having won promotion in their last season at the Withdean they started life at the Amex in the Championship. They reached the Play Offs in 2014, losing to Crystal Palace and again in 2016, losing to Sheffield Wednesday. But then last season they finally made it to the Premier League, finishing as runners up to Newcastle.
![[Image: 488.jpg]](http://cache.images.globalsportsmedia.com/soccer/venues/600x450/488.jpg)
Withdean Stadium
Those four years were the highlight of a very non eventful club history. The club almost went out of business and out of the league in the mid 90s. The directors sold off their Goldstone Ground as the team plummeted to the bottom of the 4th division. On the last day of the 1996/97 season, having clawed back a 13 point deficit, they needed a draw against Hereford Utd to stay up. They managed it, only just though with a late equaliser from Robbie Reinelt keeping them safe. Safe, but homeless.
Goldstone Ground
Without a home ground to play on, they shared the Priestfield Stadium with Gillingham for three years, before moving back to Brighton to play at the delightful Withdean Stadium, which would become their temporary home for eleven years.
Then, after much fannying about with judicial reviews and incorrect planning and red tape running riot, they finally got the go ahead to build this new stadium and moved in in 2011.
Since then of course, they have gone from strength to strength. Having won promotion in their last season at the Withdean they started life at the Amex in the Championship. They reached the Play Offs in 2014, losing to Crystal Palace and again in 2016, losing to Sheffield Wednesday. But then last season they finally made it to the Premier League, finishing as runners up to Newcastle.
Withdean Stadium
Head to Head
Brighton lead in the overall head to head with 22 wins to Town's 18, with 15 draws.
We first met Brighton back in 1922 en route to winning the FA Cup, overcoming them 2-0 at Leeds Road in a replay after the first match had ended goalless.
The first league encounter didn't arrive until 1958 after Brighton had been promoted to Division 2. We beat them 3-2 at home but lost 0-2 away.
We never built up any kind of rivalry with them and it looked likely that we would be heading in opposite directions once more when in 2009 we beat them 7-1 at the Galpharm Stadium. They survived that season though and we didn't go up. The next season they not only survived but went up to the Championship as League 1 champions, despite us doing the double over them, famously winning the last ever match at the Withdean Stadium 3-2 with goals from Benik Afobe (2) and Danny Ward.
We met up again after our promotion in the following season and built up some sort of rivalry, no more so than last season when we pushed them all the way for automatic promotion. We lost 0-1 down at theirs, our first defeat of the season, but won a great match at the John Smith's in front of the Sky Sports cameras on a Thursday night by 3-1 with first half goals from Tommy Smith, Nahki Wells and Elias Kachunga. Tomer Hemed had earlier equalised after we took the lead. And this season we beat them again at home, this time with a Steve Mounie double.
Our record down at Brighton's new ground isn't right cracking however. In the five games we've played there, we haven't won any and have only twice come away with a point, in goalless draws in 2013/14 and 2014/15.
So what's happening at the Amex? Managed still by Chris Hughton, the former Spurs player and Republic of Ireland international. He turned out almost 300 times for Spurs and gained 53 caps for Ireland before he moved on to West Ham and then Brentford.
When he finally hung up his boots he got a coaching job at Spurs and also became assistant manager of the Republic. But it was at Newcastle where he got his first proper manager's job and got them promoted back to the Premier league in his first season. Another crazy decision in the Newcastle life of chairman Mike Ashley though led him to sack Hughton in the following season with the side comfortably mid table.
He then went to Birmingham City, leading them in their Europa League campaign (they'd finished runners up in the League Cup), and led them to the Play Offs. Premier League Norwich came sniffing and he went there the following season, keeping them up with a victory on the last day. It wasn't good enough though and he was dismissed.
From there he ended up at Brighton and has had a pretty successful time down there.
Club Connections: There were two Brighton players with Town connections at the start of the season. Play Off winning legend Izzy Brown went to the Amex on loan for the season from Chelsea, played against us, but later got injured and returned to Stamford Bridge.
Oliver Norwood left Town in 2014 to play for a bigger club. That bigger club being Reading. He did alright there, but before they could be good enough to reach the Play Offs they'd had to offload him to Brighton. He turned out on 33 occasions for the Seagulls in their promotion season, but Hughton obviously thought he was at best a Championship player and so was sent out on loan to Fulham for the duration.
There are others. Going back to when I were a lad, we had a left back called Chris Cattlin. He left for Coventry during my first season as a Town fan in 1968 and played at the top level for many years with them. Later, he joined Brighton, eventually becoming manager before retiring to run the Novelty Rock Emporium on Brighton sea front.
Much missed Radio Leeds co commentator Kieran O'Regan (he was so much better than Matt Glennon) started his footballing career at Brighton, turning out 86 times for them. He then moved on to Swindon before being signed by Eoin Hand for Town in 1988. he turned out 199 times for us then joined West Brom and then Halifax, who he later managed and captained their team that got promoted back into the Football League.
Joel Lynch became a fans' favourite at Town with his spectacular long range goals. He started out at Brighton, then following a few seasons at Nottingham Forest he came to Town and is now wasting his career away playing for Ian Holloway at QPR.
Can you think of any more?
Recent form: Town are 16th in the Premier League with 31 points. Brighton are in 13th with 34 points.
Well people keep banging on about us not having scored for the last four matches, but nobody seems bothered that the Seagulls have also drawn a blank for the last three. Goalless draw anybody?
Last 6 matches:
Newcastle 1-0 Town
Town 0-2 Crystal Palace
Town 0-0 Swansea
Spurs 2-0 Town
WBA 1-2 Town (van La Parra, Mounie)
Town 0-2 Man Utd
Brighton 0-2 Leicester
Man Utd 2-0 Brighton (FA Cup)
Everton 2-0 Brighton
Brighton 2-1 Arsenal (Dunk, Murray)
Brighton 4-1 Swansea (Murray 2 (1 pen), Knockaert, Locadia)
Brighton 3-1 Coventry (FA Cup) (Locadia, Goldson, Ulloa)
Brighton's line up v Leicester:
1 Mathew Ryan - Australia's number 1
21 Ezequiel Schelotto - long haired Argie
22 Duffy - had a number 1 in 2008 with Mercy
5 Dunk - the Hob Nob of the defence
3 Kevin Philips-Bong - Slightly Silly Party (one for the Monty Python fans out there)
24 Davy Pröpper - midfielder signed from PSV in the summer
25 Jürgen Locadia - striker signed from PSV in the summer
13 Pascal Groß - ex Ingolstadt teammate of Kachunga and Quaner
7 Beram Kayal - Israeli international midfielder signed from Celtic
19 José Izquierdo - Colombian winger signed from Club Brugge in the summer
17 Glenn Murray - ex Carlisle, Stockport and Rochdale striker
Substitutes
2 Bruno - played by Sacha Baron Cohen
9 Sam Baldock - played for MK Dons against us in the Play Offs
10 Tomer Hemed - Israeli international striker
18 Connor Goldson - ex Shrewsbury and Cheltenham defender
20 Solly March - winger signed from Lewes
26 Tim Krul - reserve keeper spent most of his career at Newcastle
29 Markus Suttner - another Ingolstadt connection
![[Image: 2ZJuVRk.gif]](https://i.imgur.com/2ZJuVRk.gif)
![[Image: aO7W3pZ.png]](https://i.imgur.com/aO7W3pZ.png)
![[Image: DaLnNRBWkAEy_Lt.jpg]](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DaLnNRBWkAEy_Lt.jpg)
![[Image: DaLpGDuWkAEPlc2.jpg]](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DaLpGDuWkAEPlc2.jpg)
