BRIGHTON & HOVE ALBION
No, its not the last time we've played each other, but on Valentine's Day 1998, we met again at the Priestfield Stadium, Gillingham as the 91st and 92nd placed clubs in the football league.While Donny were having that nightmare season that nearly saw us disappear from existence, Brighton fans were enjoying a 140-mile round trip to a stadium voted the crappiest football ground in the country in 2004.
That match was celebrated as Fans United II, an initiative to draw attention to the plight of football clubs being mis-managed (and my God, they could not have found two better advertisments for this cause on that day).
Anyway, our heartfelt thanks to Seagull's fans for publicizing the issue to the extent that Clubs in Crisis was formed in 2001 by their then Supporters Club Chairman, Tim Carder.
Looking at the site, its a shame that it hasn't been maintained since 2008 as I know that there are clubs out there with similar problems to the ones that we had. I guess its time for them to take the ball as for Brighton & Donny, for now, and hopefully forever, those days are consigned to history.
Well I think that picture is what the day is all about as we play the first league game at the Amex Community Stadium and bloody hell, does it look great or what? The last time Donny played a first match at a new stadium was...well...our own. And nobody pooped that party! Huddersfield Town were dispatched 3:0 on New Year's Day 2007. So now that we've established Donny are good at inaugral games in new stadia, its an obvious away win then! Oh I wish, but I'd say that the euphoria going around Brighton at the moment makes this the toughest opening day in the Championship. Promotion as champions AND a new stadium. Donny need something to seriously piss Brighton off in the next few days, and lets face it, what could, the Seagulls have only sold the 17000 season tickets!
The first name I notice in Brighton's team is captain, Gordon Greer. Most Donny fans who know me will tell you that I like our manager, however, sometimes he does have even me scratching my head. Some players seem to hang around Donny and do not an awful lot while others do perform but have their bags packed and are on their way. Gordon comes in that second category. Yes, he had injury problems while he was a Rovers player but has since done very well for both Brighton and Swindon Town. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, I know, but this is one who got away.Looking at Brighton, what I liked was the way they played around the box. They have players very capable of holding the ball up and are comfortable enough to play a few passes while looking for the killer-balls. When they come, they can be extremely good, in particular when delivered in the air. Very precise so Rovers defenders will have to keep on their men.
Another player I'll give a shout for is last season's 20-goal leading scorer, Ashley Barnes. You don't get 20 in any league without being decent and in the three games I looked at, I saw three Barnes' finishes which, although not spectacular, made him look the good opportunist that he obviously is.
In the next game, there was similar genorosity with space and another freebie-goal this time for Huddersfield Town in the last game played at the Withdean. Hang on a minute. Huddersfield beat Brighton in the last ever game at Withdean; Huddersfield get beaten by Donny in the first ever game at the Keepmoat. Am I feeling some kind of karmic connection here?
In any case, though I criticize the defending in the games I saw, it should be recognized that the league had already been won before these games were played and Brighton conceded only 40 in the league last season. Nah...I'm not fooled. They are better at the back than the clips that I saw indicate.
So here we are at the start of our fourth season in the Championship. Its also the third season of Fuzzy's match thread (did anyone really think I'd let the BBC kill it along with 606?) Do you know we're favourites for the drop? I wonder over the last 3 years, how much money the bookies have made on that one?
"Last Season I said that the squad wasn't strong enough,an we are not as strong as we were last season." - Rovers' Manager, Sean O'Driscoll,In fairness, the tag is probably as justified this season as it was when we were promoted as play-off winners in 2008. Twenty-first place last season caused many Rovers fans to find out what shirt tails are for and from January our record was simply awful. True, there was an injury crisis that would strain most club's strength in depth; also true, injuries caused us to play the same defence for three games in a row just once last season. But Donny certainly were not the Arsenal of the North as the press had dubbed us the previous season and the warning signs were there very early on that the defence left much to be desired. Up front, though David Healy and Jason Euell certainly applied themselves to the cause, without Billy Sharp we looked blunt...and without Sharp and Hayter we were completely toothless.
So strengthening the squad was in order and that's just what has been done. Tommy Spurr (R) has been brought in at left back from Sheffield Wednesday with ex-Leeds captain, Richard Naylor bringing more experience to the back 4. Only today (4th August) the defence has been further strengthend with the addition of centre-backs Rachid Bouhenna, a stylish, 20 year-old Algerian and 18 year-old Oscar Radford who started his career with Hungarian giants Ferencvaros.
Kyle Bennett sounds like a very exciting addition to the midfield. Also in midfield Giles Barnes, formerly of Derby and WBA has signed a short-term contract.
For me, most important of all is the aquisition of Chris Brown from Preston. At last Rovers have another attacking option other than the Sharp/Hayter partnership. Don't get me wong, I like both of these players but they are both 5'9". Brown's 6'3" will surely provide Sharp with even more knock-ons than were provided by Hayter. And we all know how much Billy loved those.
And speaking of our Fat Lad from Sheffield, well he's still here, thats the main thing at the moment. He's also no longer incumbered by hernias and groin strains so hopefully back to his imperious best. This season must be his turn for a 20-goal season after being prevented only by injury from achieving the mark in the previous two seasons. I'm sure it will happen....unless the Premier League come a-knocking in the January transfer window.
Good luck to Billy if they do although I would advise any Premier League club that Sharpy will deliver more if he gets to do the pre-season with you so I'd suggest waiting until the summer.
Enjoy the match and the occasion everyone!
No comments:
Post a Comment