[Lord Snooty]

Brighton & Hove Albion v Huddersfield Town
The Sky Bet Championship
Tuesday September 13th - 19:45 ko
at The Amex Stadium

David Wagner's Table Toppers travel down to Brighton to the Amex Stadium on Tuesday evening for a clash of the blue and white stripes. Town of course, won't be playing in blue and white though, probably the Ray Wilson red kit.
And with 16 points from a possible 18 in a club record breaking start to the season, go there full of confidence. A thunderbolt strike on Saturday from the brilliant baldy Australian, Aaron Mooy at Leeds United gave Town our latest three points and a four point gap at the top, so win, lose or draw in this one, we will still be top of the league.


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.

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.

Head to Head




Town trail in the overall head to head with 16 wins to Brighton's 21, with 15 draws. That's in all competitions. In league matches it's 14 Town wins to their 20, with 14 draws.

The first meeting of the two clubs was back in 1922 when we met down at Brighton in the FA Cup. A goalless draw was then followed by a 2-0 Town win. Of course we then went all the way to the final, beating Preston 1-0 to lift the Cup for the only time to date in the club's history. 
The biggest victory margin came as recently as 2009 when Town hammered the poor Seagulls 7-1. Their keeper, Michel Kuipers, got sent off, but we were already 2-1 up by that time and they did have a proper sub goalie, so that was no excuse. His first job was to pick the ball out of the net as super Lee Novak buried a penalty past him to add to earlier goals from Anthony Kay and Peter Clarke. Town went on to add second half goals from Gary Roberts, Danny Drinkwater and a couple from sub Theo Robinson.
The following season though, Brighton had turned it around in dramatic style and were League One champions by the time Town went down there and won 3-2. That was our last win over them though and in the four visits to the Amex we have lost twice and drawn twice.

Last 6 meetings:
2015/16
Brighton 2-1 Town
Town 1-1 Brighton

2014/15
Brighton 0-0 Town
Town 1-1 Brighton

2013/14
Town 1-1 Brighton
Brighton 0-0 Town


So what's new at the Amex? 

Managed nowadays by Chris Hughton, the former Newcastle manager, who spent most of his playing career at Spurs, has been manager at Brighton since his appointment on New Year's Eve 2014.

Notable players in their squad:- The most notable name is Anthony Knockaert. The French winger introduced himself to English football in 2012 scoring his first two goals for Leicester City at the John Smith's Stadium against us. And what a couple of goals they were as well. See video below.



It ended in heartbreak for him that season though as he had a penalty saved at Watford in the Play Offs. I'm sure you remember it well as Watford went up the other end and scored. See video below and note Jonathan Hogg bursting through to get on the end of Cheaty McCheatface's cross to set up the winner.



He did however win the Championship with Leicester though the following season. After one season in the Premier League, he joined Standard Liege in the summer on a free transfer. The move only lasted until January when he came back to England to join Brighton.

There are a couple of ex Town players in their squad. Elvis Manu came to us last season, but wasn't very good and left the building returned to sender was recalled by his home club. He has scored twice already though this season, both in the EFL Cup against Colchester and Oxford.

Oliver Norwood played two full seasons for us before moving to Reading at the start of his third. He is a Northern Ireland international who scored a few spectacular goals for us, but quite frankly, was nowhere near good enough. He has trod water since leaving us, whereas if he had stayed and had the influence of David Wagner with him, would now be a world beater. Waste of talent!

One player to be wary of is Glenn Murray, a former player who has returned for a season long loan from Bournemouth. He scored 53 goals in 118 games in his first spell for them before transferring to Crystal Palace.
He will be battling for a place in the forward line with Sam Baldock (ex MK Dons, West Ham & Bristol City) and Tomer Hemed, an Israeli international who signed at the start of last season from Almeria. Hemed isn't the only Israeli in the squad, midfielder Beram Kayal signed from Celtic in 2015.
He is partnered in midfield by Czech international Jiri Skalak, a new signing this season. Also in midfield is old timer Steve Sidwell, ex of Reading, Chelsea, Villa and Fulham, who has had eleven consecutive seasons in the Premier League before being released by Stoke at the end of last season.
Another attacker in the line up could be Kazenga LuaLua, once of Newcastle but has been with Brighton since 2009.
The defence sounds like some kind of comedy act. Bruno, Duffy, Dunk & Bong now appearing at the Brighton Pier circus. Let's hope they're proper clowns on Tuesday night.

Recent Form: Town are 1st in the league with 16 points and Brighton are 13th with 8.

Last 6 matches:

Leeds 0-1 Town
Town 1-0 Wolves
Town 2-1 Barnsley
Aston Villa 1-1 Town
Newcastle 1-2 Town
Shrewsbury 2-1 Town (League Cup)

Brighton 0-2 Brentford
Newcastle 2-0 Brighton
Oxford 2-4 Brighton (League Cup)
Reading 2-2 Brighton
Brighton 3-0 Rotherham
Brighton 3-0 Nottm Forest

Leading League Goalscorers:

Town:
Michael Hefele (1)
Jonathan Hogg (1)
Elias Kachunga (1)
Chris Löwe (1)
Aaron Mooy (1)
Kasey Palmer (1)
Jack Payne (1)
Rajiv van La Parra (1)
Nahki Wells (1)

Brighton:
Anthony Knockaert (3)
Glenn Murray (3)

[jjamez]

Do you happen to know any decent places to park snoots?

I think we will see a little bit of squad rotation for this one. Dunno who will drop out mind but maybe payne and bunn out for palmer and wells

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Also did knockaert get injured on saturday?

[WakeyTerrier]

This may help you, parking at the ground and near is it is at a premium and getting out after not much better. You maybe better either using the Park and Ride or the train and using the free travel included on the ticket

http://www.seagulls.co.uk/documents/trav...169722.pdf

[Lord Snooty]

Saturday's defeat at home to Brentford was Brighton's first home defeat since New Year's Day. A run of 12 unbeaten. What chance of another tomorrow night?
Come on Town. Make it happen.

[Lord Snooty]

Yaaaaay! We've got 774 tomorrow. I can go sit in the car and listen to Oggy.

[jjamez]

Cheers wakey. Will look in to parking near there then. Around the ground seems to be extortionate

[SHEP_HTAFC]

Cracking thread m'Lud
I've been feeling confident about most games we've played this season, but not that sure about this one.
I would take a draw right now, as we don't seem to do that well down there generally.
They will be up against it though, as the pressure on them will be building. I'm sure they thought that they had a 6 pointer with two home games v Brentford and us.
Another defeat could put real pressure on them.
I'll stick with a 1-1 draw.

[EastLondonTerrier]

Take a draw all day long. Like Shep has said, I think 1-1 could be the outcome. They score first and then we equalise 75th minute and hang on to take a point up the M1.

[theo_luddite]

Top thread m'lud (made sure I got that bit right this time ). As you've pointed out, not long ago we couldn't lose to them, now we're struggling to beat them. That said there's been a lot of draws and wouldn't be surprised if this finishes up as one. I'd take it right now tbh.

I was somewhat surprised that Leicester let Knockaert go as I thought he was a key player in their promotion push. Then again I also thought that about Vydra and Forestieri when they were at Watford but it goes to show that in this game your face only fits as long as the coach/manager wants you around.

The good news is I won't have to listen to Eddie Gray slowly dragging himself on a noose up to the rafters during this one , the bad news is I probably won't find any commentary at all. So I suppose it will be BBC text/R5 Live and Sir Jeff of Hartlepool on the telly giving me updates (and anyone on here listening to Oggy). It certainly won't be some numpty on Talkcrap that can't do basic maths.

Unless Schinnies schins are schtill schot from the kicking he got off the animals up the A62 I'd expect an unchanged back 4 and keeper - beyond that - perm any 6 from the rest of the squad.

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PS anyone going by train, even for part of the journey might find this useful - http://www.northstandchat.com/showthread...ddersfield

[WakeyTerrier]

Try downloading the Mixlr app for iPad/iPhone or android based tablet/phone

www.mixlr.com

You have to sign up for it, once you've done that search for Terriers1908

He sometimes puts the commentary for the matches on there. Admittedly I haven't listened to any of them yet but I know others have.