David Cameron Walker

Posts Tagged ‘Gus Poyet’

A week is a long time in football….

Saturday, May 18th, 2013

If Harold Wilson thought a week was a long time in politics, heaven knows what he’d think about the last seven days at Brighton & Hove Albion. This time last week we were 90 minutes away from Wembley, favourites with the bookies and pundits to be promoted to the Premier League, and had one of the brightest managerial prospects in the country sitting in our dugout.

All seemed so well, but in the blink of an eye our season has been destroyed by our biggest rivals on our own turf, our manager, assistant manager and first team coach have been suspended for an alleged breach of contract, our most famous player has branded the manager ‘selfish’ and ‘egocentric’, and the country’s most read newspaper has run a back page exclusive alleging an unknown member of Albion staff defecated on the away dressing room floor on Monday night.

So, where on earth are you supposed to start after all that? I guess we should start with the football itself. After a hard fought goalless draw against Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park, there was no doubting who had the upper hand in the tie. We had home advantage at a ground where we hadn’t lost in the league since Christmas, and Palace were without their 30 goal striker Glenn Murray following a serious knee injury in the first leg. If only football was that simple!

It pains me to say it, but Palace more than deserved their victory. They were quicker, stronger and – crucially – more clinical in front of goal. Most annoyingly of all though, they just looked more up for it. Whilst Gus Poyet sat in his seat, probably pondering whether he’d rather move to West London or Merseyside, Ian Holloway was like a man possessed on the touchline – kicking every ball and living every moment. The respective manners of the managers was reflected on the pitch – our players looked fraught with nerves whilst Palace’s played with bundles of energy and excitement.

Poyet’s post-match comments also struck me as strange, where he questioned if the club had ‘hit the roof’. We are a club who have gone from League One to the Championship play-offs in two seasons, have a stunning new training complex in construction, and have seen attendances quadruple since moving to our £100m state-of-the-art stadium in August 2011. I’m struggling to think of any team in the country who is quite as upwardly mobile as us right now, and I see this as merely the beginning, not the end.

Without the odd stroke of bad luck and the occasional defensive slip up, we’d have finished second this season and be planning our trips to Old Trafford and Stamford Bridge right now. That wasn’t to be however, but with another season of Championship experience in the bag, and a full campaign with a top quality striker in the ranks (Leonardo Ulloa) for the first time since Murray moved up the A23, there is no reason why 2013/14 cannot be our time.

The next step is presumably going to have to be done without Poyet though, after he was suspended alongside Mauricio Taricco and Charlie Oatway on Thursday as the week quickly descended into farce. Exactly what the alleged breach of contract is will probably be revealed in due course – for the time being we’ll simply have to speculate. Poyet’s refusal to deal with the retained list is bound to have angered Tony Bloom and is probably the most likely reason Poyet is currently suspended from his position. That sort of behaviour is simply not acceptable – any employee who refuses to do such an important part of their job deserves to have the book thrown at them, and Poyet is no exception.

Hopefully this sorry state of affairs can be put to bed sooner rather than later, with both Poyet and the club moving their separate ways. I would imagine Bloom and the board are already on the hunt for a successor to Poyet, and if you believe the bookies, that man will be either Roberto Di Matteo or Darren Ferguson.

No disrespect to Fergie Jnr, but surely there is no contest between the two. Di Matteo is a man who has won promotion from this division with West Bromwich Albion, before winning the greatest club trophy of all with Chelsea 12 months ago. To have someone of that calibre would be a massive coup for Brighton, and I would have every faith in him replicating his success at the other Albion with us.

2012/13 may have ended in traumatic style, but once the Poyet affair is put to bed once and for all, it is time for everyone to forget the past and imagine the future.

Written by Liam Dawes – We Are Going Up’s Brighton and Hove Albion Blogger

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Derby Day win reignites Brighton’s promotion push, but is Poyet off?

Wednesday, March 20th, 2013

As the massive derby game against Crystal Palace loomed last Sunday, I think I could be forgiven for feeling a little pessimistic. We had just suffered back-to-back defeats, we only had one striker available, one of our best defenders was suspended, and we were facing one of the best strike forces in the Championship.

Frankly, as I woke up that morning, I could only see one outcome – Glenn Murray would score a first half triple hat-trick in front of the North Stand, Wilfried Zaha would destroy Marcos Painter down the wing, Kevin Phillips would come off the bench with a handful of minutes to go to score his customary brace, Leo Ulloa would get sent off and leave us with no recognised first team strikers at the club, we’d get deducted 50 points by the FA for crowd trouble, Gus Poyet would resign and take over at Reading, Tony Bloom would withdraw his investment, Michael Appleton would take over as manager, Crawley would do the double over us next season, and attendances at the Amex would drop to below 1,000.

OK, so I may have got a bit carried away, but it’s fair to say my confidence in the Albion was far from sky high as I approached the stadium. But wow, my pessimism wasn’t half misplaced!

We won 3-0! I’m going to say that again to make sure I’m not still dreaming – WE WON 3-0!!!!! Ulloa’s brace confirmed what many of us had suspected after his hat-trick against Huddersfield earlier this month – we have finally found a quality target man to replace Murray. David Lopez (Spanish Dave to his friends) showed us again why he played for many years in La Liga with an unstoppable free kick, and Tomasz Kuszczak produced a stunning save to prevent Matthew Upson scoring an own goal when the game was still goalless.

It was our first home victory over our biggest rivals in 25 years, and only the second victory at all in my lifetime. Aside from the buzz of beating our biggest rivals, it’s also a huge victory in the race for a play-off spot. After defeats at Bolton and Barnsley, there was a fear that our season would tail off just as it did 12 months ago. One victory later, everyone is suddenly full of belief that this year really could be the one.

If we are to achieve that though, Ulloa cannot do all the work up front. After injuries ruled out Craig Mackail-Smith and Will Hoskins for the season, we were already down to just two fit strikers. Then Ashley Barnes self destructed in astonishing style at Bolton to halve that already minuscule number. A player not being given a last minute penalty and reacting by deliberately tripping the referee is the sort of thing you expect to see in a Venezuelan fourth division game on Youtube, not in one of Europe’s most watched leagues, but trip him he did, and a seven match ban at such a crucial time of the season is crippling for the side. The ban means Barnes will have been suspended for 10 of our last 14 games by the time he returns against Blackpool on April 20th – hopefully the powers that be inside the club have taken a very dim view of this and have fined him accordingly.

Fining Barnes doesn’t solve our immediate striker crisis however. Poyet needs to act quickly to bring someone in, because if Ulloa gets injured, suspended or loses form, we are in deep trouble. I would like to think Gus has been making many a phone call about this very situation.

One situation I hope he hasn’t been making phone calls about though is the one at Reading. As I’ve been writing this blog today, Sky Sports News has said that Poyet has been given permission to speak to the Berkshire club, and odds as skinny as 1/10 have been reported on him becoming their new manager. Right now, I personally can’t see this happening – Reading will more than likely be playing in the Championship next season, and I believe he still has unfinished business with us (namely getting us promoted to the Premier League).

Nothing surprises me in football anymore though, and the move has the potential to shatter our play-off dream for this season. Could one part of my pre-Palace nightmare actually be coming true? If it does, Bloom could do a lot worse than to replace him with Nigel Adkins, a man who knows how to get out of this division at the right end.

Written by Liam Dawes – We Are Going Up’s Brighton and Hove Albion Blogger

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Poyet needs time to finish Project Brighton

Thursday, December 6th, 2012

In December 2009, Brighton & Hove Albion slumped to a 2-1 home defeat to Colchester United. The attendance on that freezing night in a stadium more suited to javelin throwing than professional football was less than 6,000, and the result saw Albion cement their place in the League One relegation zone. A few weeks earlier, a Uruguayan called Gus Poyet had been appointed the club’s new manager, replacing the sacked Russell Slade following a nightmare start to the new campaign.

Three years’ later, the club could hardly be more different. The dire surroundings of Withdean Stadium has been replaced by the spectacular American Express Community Stadium, and attendances have quadruped. The playing squad has also changed beyond all recognition – of the 18 players named in the squad for that game against Colchester, only four are still on the club’s books, and only Adam El-Abd and Andrew Crofts are first team regulars.

Within one year, Poyet transformed a team that was 21st in League One into one that led the division by three points, and ultimately won it with four matches to spare. Into the Championship we went, finishing a highly commendable 10th in our first season back in the second tier. As I type, we now sit just two points outside the play-offs in 8th position. However, despite such an amazing transformation, there are a growing number of supporters beginning to call for Poyet’s head.

As Poyet’s good friend Roberto Di Matteo will testify, football management is a very cut-throat profession in which to earn your living. Pressure from fans who demand instant success can lead to chairmen getting trigger happy, but that is the last thing Brighton need now. Gus’ name and powers of persuasion have brought top quality names to the Amex that his rival managers could only dream of, and embedded a style of football which is the envy of the division. I cannot think of another Championship manager that could have lured Wayne Bridge and Bruno to their club, and it’s signings like those which are propelling the club forward at a rate of knots.

The pressure on Gus has hardly been helped by last Saturday’s defeat to arch rivals Crystal Palace. The rivalry may be unfathomable to anyone outside Sussex and south-east London, but it is very real and very passionate. Losing is simply not an option when it comes to this fixture. Losing 3-0 is barely comprehensible.

It’s hard to see how blame for the defeat can be put at the manager’s door though. It is not Gus’ fault that Lewis Dunk mis-controlled a pass 25 yards from his own goal and was sent-off for denying Yannick Bolassie a clear goal scoring opportunity. It is also not his fault that makeshift left-back Andrea Orlandi broke his rib at the end of the first half, leaving his 10 men with only three defenders against the attacking excellence of Bolassie, Wilfried Zaha and Glenn Murray.

If Poyet can be blamed for anything that led to the loss at Selhurst Park, it is his failure to convince Murray to stay at the club 18 months ago, meaning he was scoring against us rather than for us last weekend. But again, is it Poyet’s fault that Murray wanted more money than the club was prepared to pay him? It isn’t, and you only have to look 50 miles along the A27 to see what happens when a football club spends beyond its means. We are very lucky to have a chairman who is sensible with the club’s finances – rather than one that will risk everything for a chance of securing a Premier League berth – even if it did make me want to string myself up from the nearest lamppost at 4.50pm last Saturday!

The defensive crisis we now have as a result of Dunk’s red card, plus injuries to Orlandi, Bridge, Marcos Painter, El-Abd and Bruno, brings me onto our ever increasing habit of conceding late goals. It has happened three times in the last month – against Wolves, Huddersfield and Bolton – and has the potential to ruin our chances of making the play-offs come May. Whilst we still managed to escape with all three points at Huddersfield, we weren’t so lucky against Wolves and Bolton, dropping a total of four vital points. If we had held onto those points we’d currently be fourth, and even defeat at Palace would have seen Poyet under little pressure from those on the terraces.

Margins in football can be extremely slim. Those who want Poyet sacked may crave instant success, but axing him would put us further away from the promised land, not closer. He has already taken us from League One relegation fodder to Championship play-off contenders in three years. If he is here for another three years, who knows where we could end up.

Written by Liam Dawes – We Are Going Up’s Brighton and Hove Albion Blogger

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Hammond’s shock return pays dividends

Friday, September 21st, 2012

At around 9.45pm on Transfer Deadline Day, I received a text from my Dad. ‘We have signed Stephen Dobbie, David Lopez and Hammond’ it read. ‘Ah, Stephen Dobbie, that should go a long way to solving our striker problem’, I thought. ‘David Lopez…. I’ve never heard of him, but he sounds Spanish, and every Spanish player Gus Poyet ever signs turns out to be fantastic, so he’s bound to be another astute signing.’ Hang on though, the only ‘Hammond’ I know is Dean, surely we haven’t signed him?!

A quick flick through my mental encyclopedia of British footballers still only revealed the one match. Either Dean Hammond had returned to the club which gave him his break in professional football, or we’d signed the little bloke from Top Gear.

It’s probably fair to say that Dean Hammond wasn’t the most popular man amongst the Amex faithful prior to signing his season-long loan deal three weeks ago. After initially leaving the club to join Colchester in January 2008, he ended up an integral part of Nigel Adkins’ revolution along the coast in Southampton. Given our clubs’ rivalry over the past few seasons, a former Seagull is never likely to be particularly popular when turning out for the Saints, but Hammond secured his status as the ultimate villain during our meeting on April Fools’ Day 2010.

After scoring Southampton’s first equaliser in a 2-2 draw, Hammond ran the length of the Withdean touchline, cupping his ear in the direction of the home fans, and yelling a series of phrases which I won’t repeat on a family website. We don’t forget things like that quickly around these parts – just ask Scott McGleish, who did something similar after scoring for Leyton Orient in April 1997, and still gets booed to this day whenever our paths cross.

Despite all that though, it really was Dean Hammond who signed on the dotted line that Friday evening, not the co-presenter of a BBC motoring programme. You have to admire the guys balls to be frank. Lesser men would have turned their back on the opportunity, and continued to trouser their wage from the St Mary’s bench.

With the fans’ reaction to Hammond’s return lukewarm to say the least, Hammond moved fast to apologise for his previous misdemeanors, claimed he is a changed man, and vowed to do his talking on the pitch. So far, he hasn’t disappointed.

His performance in the 3-0 win against Sheffield Wednesday last Friday was superb, the type of performance only a top quality player could give. He wasn’t exactly shabby in the midweek win at Watford either – even the most unforgiving of Albion fans will soon forget the actions of April 2010 if he keeps this form up.

So, what of Poyet’s other deadline day signings? Dobbie and Lopez – along with Andrea Orlandi who signed on the morning of August 31 – have only made brief appearances thus far, so it would be harsh to judge them just yet. Lopez has the makings of an excellent signing given his pedigree though – no player gets in Athletic Bilbao’s side without being a very decent player. My hunch is that he’ll become another gem of a signing by Poyet.

Scotsman Dobbie may not be the most glamourous of our deadline day signings, but it was no secret that we desperately needed a new striker – hopefully he will become the perfect foil for the born-again Craig Mackail-Smith.

As I’ve written before in this blog, Mackail-Smith was probably the biggest disappointment of last season. That doesn’t look like it’s going to be the case this time around though. Macca has struck six times in his last four games – easily the best form of his Albion career. Suddenly, the £2.5m we paid Peterborough for his services just over a year ago seems worth every penny. Every time Macca scores, we take the three points – his goals and general play have played a massive part in our brilliant start to the new campaign.

If Mackail-Smith has been doing the business up front, Bruno has been the star of the show at the back. I’ve supported Brighton for 16 years now, and this man could possibly become the best player I have ever witnessed. Whether it is snaffling the oppositions threat at one end, or setting up chances at the other, he simply has it all. His assist for Mackail-Smith’s first goal in the rout of Wednesday was incredible. Even with Macca being in the form it is, it was still Bruno’s name that was being sung from the rooftops as the celebrations started on that fine evening. How he is not playing in the Premier League I do not know.

Another recent signing that really should be playing in the top flight is Tomasz Kuszczak. The Polish goalkeeper has been in stunning form already this season – conceding just three goals in six league games is a cracking effort. He simply oozes confidence at all times, a marked change from from the heart attacks Casper Ankergren and Peter Brezovan gave us all last season!

So, it may only be six games in, but Albion seem to have found the perfect combination of strikers who can’t stop scoring, and defenders who don’t give the opposition an inch. Could this really be our year? If we keep up this form, it could be you know.

Written by Liam Dawes – We Are Going Up’s Brighton and Hove Albion Blogger

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A promising season beckons for Brighton

Monday, August 13th, 2012

What do the following players all have in common? Raul, Adrian Mutu, Michael Owen, Roque Santa Cruz, Jordan Rhodes, Glenn Murray, Wayne Bridge, Carlton Cole, Fabian Delph, Emmanuel Frimpong, Ross McCormack and Greg Bobkin.

The answer? They’ve all been rumoured to be joining Brighton & Hove Albion at some point this summer.

Obviously, most of these rumours are complete fabrication, a total nonsense. Of the names mentioned above, only Bridge has actually joined Albion. Stevenage ‘player’ Bobkin doesn’t even exist! There is a wider point to these rumours though. The mere fact that a sane person would even give the smallest consideration to a piece of speculation concerning Brighton signing Raul shows that this little club on the South Coast is really starting to become big.

Bridge’s capture on a season-long loan from Manchester City is further proof of Albion’s ever increasing power. With 36 England caps and hundreds of Premier League appearances, he really is a stunning signing, the sort that I feel gives us a genuine chance of gaining promotion to the so-called promised land this season.

Another man who gives us an excellent chance of promotion this season is Vicente. Regular readers of my blog last season will know I constantly waxed lyrical over the Spaniard, and with good reason. ‘The Dagger’ single-handedly won us several games last term, and may well have secured us a play-off spot is he had been fit all season. With his injury problems now apparently behind him, I simply cannot wait to see him tearing Championship defences to pieces for an entire campaign.

Should homesickness ever be a problem, Vicente has a friend to rely on this time around, after his former Valencia team-mate Bruno Saltor became Gus Poyet’s second summer capture. I have to be honest and say that I’ve seen very little of him in action so far, but all the reports I have heard have been extremely positive. He could also be the most attacking right-back I’ve ever seen – in the one game I have watched him play against Reading last week he appeared to spend more time as an attacking midfielder than he did in defence!

Poyet’s first summer action was to rectify the area that had been our biggest problem last season – the goalkeeper. With Peter Brezovan and Casper Ankergren both looking more like decent number two’s than quality number one’s, something needed to be done. Step forward Tomasz Kuszczak – the Manchester United goalkeeper whose name has probably been mis-spelt more times in this country than any other (before you ask, yes, I did just use Google to check the spelling myself!). Whilst he didn’t feature too heavily during his time at Old Trafford, you don’t a contract there without being a quality player, and I’m told he looked very good during a loan spell at Watford last season.

So, with Kuszczak bound to take the gloves this season, the futures of Brezovan and Ankergren seem less certain. Whilst neither deserve the number one jersey ahead of Kuszczak, neither deserves to be a number three either, which is the fate that awaits one of them. Whoever that is will surely need to move on to get a better chance of game time – if you’re reading this as a supporter of a League One team who needs a new goalkeeper, your answer could lie within the Amex’s home dressing room.

Albion’s final new face so far this summer is actually an old face. Andrew Crofts re-joined the club last week on a three year deal, two years after leaving for Norwich City. Crofts is an ideal replacement for the released Alan Navarro in the heart of Albion’s midfield, and will complement Vicente, Liam Bridcutt and Will Buckley perfectly.

So, that’s the goalkeeper, defence and midfield sorted. All we need to do now is find a new striker to complete the jigsaw. After an injury plagued first season at Albion, Will Hoskins looked set to be the answer to our problems, until injury struck yet again. Of course, Craig Mackail-Smith is still here, but he disappointed last season, and talk of him leaving the club has barely stopped all summer. That just leaves Ashley Barnes and rookie Norwegian Torbjorn Agdestein as our firepower for tomorrow night’s League Cup opener at Swindon Town. I’m sure Poyet is on his phone trying to rectify this as I type!

For all of the player’s coming in, one significant name has left the Amex in the last few days. Defender Tommy Elphick made over 150 appearances in the stripes after coming through the club’s youth system, before moving along the coast to AFC Bournemouth on Saturday. It’s a great shame that Elphick never got to play for his hometown club at the Amex after missing the whole of last season with a knee injury, and I think you’ll be hard pressed to find an Albion fan who doesn’t wish him well as he enters a new stage of his career.

Now though, the time has come for me to predict our league finish this season, a prediction that could potentially look ridiculous come May. All bias aside, I honestly think we are going to have a fantastic season, so I’m predicting a 5th place finish. I’m not saying a word about how we might do in the play-offs though!

Here’s to a great season!

Written by Liam Dawes – We Are Going Up’s Brighton and Hove Albion Blogger

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An excellent first season at the Amex

Wednesday, May 9th, 2012

Well, the play-off dream didn’t happen after all. After tempting fate by checking the play-off dates ahead of my last blog, Albion failed to win another game all season, ending the campaign in 10th place, nine points adrift of that elusive sixth place.

Despite tailing away during the last month of the season, 2011/12 has been a season to remember for everyone involved at Brighton & Hove Albion. The opening of the Amex Stadium has, of course, been the biggest change of all, and has changed the club beyond all recognition.

I’ve watched about 30 games there now, yet I still get goosebumps every time I go through the turnstiles. As someone who remembers all the protests and petitions required to get the planning permission in the first place, it still seems barely believable that the place really is ours. To say it is a different match day experience to Withdean would be an understatement!

The club could never be accused of sitting on its laurels though, proven by the application to expand the Amex’s capacity to over 30,000. The proposal was granted planning permission by Brighton & Hove City Council less than two weeks ago, yet work is already well underway. An extra 5,000 seats will be ready for use by the start of the new season, with the rest completed by the start of 2013. If the Amex is great now, I can only imagine how good it will be when 30,000 fans are packed inside.

It isn’t just the new stadium that has made this season so special though. Our 10th place finish is the highest the club has achieved in over two decades, further proof that the club is moving in the right direction at a rapid pace. We’ve also finished above arch-rivals Crystal Palace for the first time in just as long, which is particularly pleasing for those of a blue and white persuasion!

On the pitch, Albion has signed players of staggering quality. Inevitably, that leads me onto Vicente – a man who has graced the Champions League on a regular basis, and won 38 caps for Spain during a glittering career.

It is no understatement to say the Spaniard has been a revelation on the south coast. The way he can run past opponents with such ease, always have that extra yard of pace, and see passes that no-one else can is a pleasure to watch. Chuck in the stunning goals he has scored as well, and that is some player.

Naturally, all the talk now concerns whether Vicente will sign a new contract with the club, or decide to head back to Spain. My head says he’ll choose the latter option, but then again, I never thought he’d join us in the first place! If it turns out he has appeared in an Albion shirt for the final time, he will leave us with dozens of brilliant memories, including his spectacular solo strike at Ipswich and his match winning strikes against Portsmouth. I feel honoured to have been around to witness him play for my club, as I will constantly remind my grandchildren in about 50 years time!

As well as Vicente, other players more than warrant a mention for a superb season, particularly Liam Bridcutt and Will Buckley. Despite going own goal crazy during our 6-1 FA Cup defeat to Liverpool, Bridcutt has been a rock in our midfield this season, culminating in him being named Player of the Season by the fans. Aside from trying to tempt Vicente into signing a new deal, tying Bridcutt to a long term contract is Gus Poyet’s main objective this summer. It is only a matter of time before bigger fish come sniffing otherwise.

Buckley couldn’t have started the season better when he scored both goals in a 2-1 win against Doncaster in the first ever league game at the Amex. His performances during the rest of the campaign were hardly shabby either, particularly in the FA Cup win over Newcastle where he virtually beat the Premier League high flyers on his own.

For all of the players that have had great seasons, some have slipped below the standard expected, including £2.5m signing Craig Mackail-Smith. Maybe the huge price tag weighed him down, or maybe he hasn’t managed to adapt to our style of play yet – either way, I’m sure scoring just 11 times this season and ending the campaign as an impact sub isn’t what he hoped for when signing from Peterborough.

With the season now completed, attention has turned to who Poyet plans to keep for the 2012/13 assault on promotion. Poyet has already played tough in that department with the surprise release of midfielder Alan Navarro. The Liverpudlian had been a virtual ever present since the turn of the year, so would have been forgiven for being confident over a new deal.

Poyet clearly has his own ideas though, and obviously feels he can bring in players of a better calibre than the likable Navarro. If that is the case, we are set to enjoy another thrilling season in 2012/13. Roll on August!

Written by Liam Dawes – We Are Going Up’s Brighton and Hove Albion Blogger

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Play-off push is on at Brighton

Monday, April 2nd, 2012

Throughout Brighton’s first season back in the Championship, I have always been quick to pour cold water on any talk of the club playing Premier League football next season. Every time any talk of the play-offs was muted, I was quick to talk about consolidation in the second tier, and dismissed fans saying it was possible as people who clearly didn’t understand just how tough the Championship is.

Not anymore though. Just one defeat in 16 since the turn of the year has fired Albion into the top six, and left me munching on humble pie. The side that Gus Poyet has assembled is now one of the very best in the division, and has a play-off place in their hands if they can keep this form up.

A huge amount of credit has to be given to Poyet for the work he has done. The Uruguayan, who was rightly awarded the Football League’s Outstanding Managerial Achievement Award last month, has been justified in every signing he has made this season – Billy Paynter aside – and has brought huge strength in depth to the squad at a time of the year when legs will inevitably be getting tired.

That strength in depth is now so strong that over £4m of talent wasn’t even in the 16 for the recent game at Nottingham Forest, a game Poyet’s side led until Joel Lynch’s 94th minute equaliser. As soon as a player becomes unavailable through injury or suspension, there is another waiting to step in.  At this stage of the season that is invaluable.

However, it is only fair and right to exercise an element of caution before we start singing ’We are Premier League’ (wow, I got all the way to paragraph five before turning negative again!) With three of the top four still to play, there is no doubting that the run-in is extremely difficult. I anticipate Brighton will need at least five points from the games with Reading, West Ham and Birmingham to hold onto a top six berth.

The ability to hold onto one of those sought after spots could also depend on the form of Craig Mackail-Smith. After becoming turning down attention from bigger clubs to become Albion’s record transfer signing last summer, it has to be said that his season is becoming something of a disappointment.

There is no doubting his work rate – he will chase after defenders all day long – but in front of goal it just doesn’t seem to be happening. Nine goals in 39 league appearances isn’t exactly what the Amex faithful was expecting when Poyet spent £2.5m on the Scottish international, but if he can find his shooting boots soon and fire us into the Premier League, no-one down here will care one bit.

Replacing Mackail-Smith in attack during the last few games has been Wolves loanee Sam Vokes, another shrewd Poyet signing. The 22-year-old has done a brilliant job at holding the ball up for others over the last few games, and has chipped in with a few vital goals himself, but I can’t help but feel the team would benefit even more if Mackail-Smith was on the pitch to run onto his flick-ons.

The two had a rare chance to play together during the closing stages of Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Middlesbrough, and showed the makings of a very promising partnership. A few assists from Vokes could do wonders for Mackail-Smith’s confidence, and secure that all important top six finish at the same time.

Unfortunately though, I’ve just tempted fate by checking what dates the play-off fixtures will take place on. Fellow Brighton fans, if we miss out, the fault lies solely at my door!

Written by Liam Dawes – We Are Going Up’s Brighton and Hove Albion Blogger

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Consistently inconsistent Brighton look set for mid-table

Tuesday, January 17th, 2012

How would I describe Brighton & Hove Albion’s season so far? In two words – consistently inconsistent. Losing to bottom of the table Coventry one day, and then beating top of the table Southampton the next seems to epitomise our first season back in the Championship.

Games such as that Coventry debacle sum up why we are not yet ready to push for a place in the Premier League. The Sky Blues were there for the taking, but a totally inept Albion performance resulted in a great opportunity to push for the top six going to waste.

Forty-eight hours later, things could not have been more different. Local rivals Southampton rolled into town and, if I’m being completely honest, I thought we’d get stuffed. How wrong could I be?

The Saints were well and truly beaten into the dirt as we romped to a stunning 3-0 victory. Jake Forster-Caskey was the star of the show and scorer of the opener – it is only a matter of time before the big boys start chasing the 17-year-old if his recent performances are anything to go by.

That superb win had the whole club on a high ahead of the FA Cup visit of Conference leaders Wrexham. The Albion have a bit of recent history when it comes to cup ties against non-league opposition, having been taken to replays by Woking and FC United of Manchester last season. This was to be no exception.

I have to give Wrexham a lot of credit. Their fans were fantastic – taking over 2,000 fans all the way down here is a brilliant effort, and the noise they made was better than any away following at the Amex so far.

On the pitch, they deserved their chance to take us back to North Wales. Gus Poyet’s decision to rest most of the first team backfired, and has left us with a tricky task on Wednesday night.

That’s not to say that some of the youngsters wouldn’t have been playing anyway. The number of injuries and suspensions that we have had in recent weeks has been truly staggering, and has stretched the squad to the limit.

It has been well documented that our disciplinary record is the worst in the Championship, so maybe this is influencing referees when they make their decisions on the pitch – who knows….

Some referees we have had this season have been abysmal. First, there was Peter Walton’s display in the away game against Southampton, but even that performance was blown out of the water by what happened against Burnley just before Christmas.

Craig Pawson was the referee that afternoon, and is a name I will not forget for a long time. Albion found themselves reduced to nine men after just 12 minutes following two highly questionable decisions.

Firstly, Romain Vincelot was dismissed for an off the ball incident. I must confess that I didn’t see the incident, nor was it picked up on camera, but those who did see it have said it was an extremely harsh decision.

If that was bad, what happened seven minutes later when Ashley Barnes joined Vincelot in the changing room was staggering. Barnes was the victim of a two footed lunge from Chris McCann, which he successfully managed to hurdle. In doing so, he landed on the Burnley man, which Pawson somehow saw as a deliberate stamp. The official duly sent Barnes off instead of McCann, and nearly sparked riots in the home stands.

The remaining nine could, and maybe should, have still rescued something from the wreckage, but eventually slipped to a 1-0 defeat.

If the players show that much heart in every game, 2011/12 could still be a season to remember. If we beat Wrexham in the Cup replay, Newcastle United will be next, and who knows who could follow after that. There is also the small matter of a trip to Selhurst Park at the end of the month as well, where revenge will be on the menu after Crystal Palace’s win at the Amex back in September.

Written by Liam Dawes – We Are Going Up’s Brighton and Hove Albion Blogger

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Back to reality at the Amex

Saturday, October 15th, 2011

Well, it had to go wrong sometime. After spending eight consecutive months at the top of League One last season, and starting this season in much the same style, everyone at Brighton & Hove Albion have finally had to take a reality check.

Defeat at Leicester four weeks ago was disappointing – any defeat is of course – but realistically there aren’t many teams that are going to get anything at the King Power Stadium this season. Things could have been very different had Craig Mackail-Smith not missed a complete sitter during the second half, but he more than made up for his error in Brighton’s next league game against Leeds United.

Two-nil down at half time, and with the team being booed off the pitch (those who did boo really need to remember that just over two years ago the team were playing in the worst stadium in the Football League and on the verge of dropping into League Two), it looked like we were going to lose two games in a week for the first time in as long as most fans can remember.

That was until CMS decided he was going to pay back a large chunk of his £2.5million transfer fee. First, a superb turn and shot halved the arrears; he then won the penalty from which Ashley Barnes equalised, before scoring his second of the night to complete a stunning turnaround.

Ross McCormack’s stoppage time goal for Leeds meant we couldn’t quite hang on for a stunning win, but we’d have certainly taken a point at half time!

Forty-eight hours earlier, glamourous Liverpool was in town. I am never more popular than when high profile games like these come along, as everyone I have ever met suddenly wants me to get them tickets. Those who were lucky enough to get in might have wondered why they bothered after a poor first half Albion performance, which saw us extremely fortunate to go in just one goal behind.

The second half was a different story altogether. We more than matched the five time European Cup winners – in fact, we were better than them. Forget Gerrard, Suarez and Carragher, we had Bridcutt, Barnes and Greer!

It was unfortunate that we conceded a second late on as Gus Poyet went more and more attacking, but at least we got the goal we deserved when Ashley Barnes converted an injury time penalty. It was the very least we warranted.

The third of three home games in seven hectic days came the following Tuesday, and this was the biggest of them all. Arch-rivals Crystal Palace was in town, and this meeting had even more spice than usual. Not only was it the first meeting between the sides in six years, but it also marked the return of a certain Glenn Murray.

Murray, it is worth remembering, is a player that I was far from complimentary about back in the summer, when he rejected Albion’s new contract offer, and then pitched up in south London for what appears to be purely financial reasons.

All seemed to be going to plan early on – CMS paid back a bit more of his record fee by giving us an early lead, and despite heavy pressure as the game wore on, we were still in front with ten minutes to go.

Then, it all went horribly, horribly wrong. Wilfried Zaha got the equaliser that Palace’s pressure deserved, before Darren Ambrose delivered the sucker punch with just one minute left on the clock.

That wasn’t it though. With the Amex’s home ends rapidly emptying, Mr Murray decided to rub salt into very open wounds by adding a third. You’ve probably figured by now that Glenn isn’t going to be on my Christmas card anytime soon, but I will give the guy some credit where it’s due. First of all, the goal was a peach – right into the corner from 25 yards out. Secondly, his lack of celebration was very sensible – an Adebayor-esque reaction could have started a riot, but instead he just trotted back into his own half. Fair play.

The chance to repair those wounds came at Ipswich four days later. On a scorching afternoon, we were more than holding our own until Vicente produced a moment of magic to give us the lead. The run from inside his own half was brilliant, but to then turn Jimmy Bullard inside out and curl the ball into the corner from 25 yards as well – that is special.

I dared to think that the sticky patch might have been coming to end. It hadn’t. Minutes later, we were pegged back. Before we knew it, we were behind and the player’s confidence was visibly shot to pieces. For the third game in a row we had taken the lead, and for the third time we had blown it.

Despite all the doom and gloom of the last month, the table still reads well. We’re in fifth ahead of Saturday evening’s visit of Hull City, and that can’t be bad for a team that has just been promoted. Five games without a win is alarming though, and it will be interesting how Poyet deals with the slump. A couple of wins against Hull and Millwall are surely a must, ahead of two tough looking games against West Ham United and Birmingham City in late October.

Written by Liam Dawes – We Are Going Up’s Brighton and Hove Albion Blogger

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Brighton: A Rollercoaster Ride

Sunday, July 24th, 2011

What would you queue up for three hours for? The opportunity to see some fame hungry wannabes audition for The X Factor? The chance to see Andy Murray and Rafael Nadal play each other in the semi-finals at Wimbledon? Maybe the chance to charm Angelina Jolie into going on a date with you? Or how about getting tickets to see a pre-season friendly?

The latter is what I spent three hours queuing for recently. Welcome to the crazy world that is supporting Brighton & Hove Albion FC.

“Why?” I hear you all screaming. Well, these are not your normal pre-season friendlies. These are the first ever games at the American Express Community Stadium, the 22,500 capacity venue that Seagulls fans can finally call home after 14 long years of campaigning.

The snaking queues outside the club shop on that gloomy Wednesday afternoon are just one indication of the massive buzz around the city of Brighton & Hove ahead of the new season. It’s also a sign that the online and telephone ticket systems are still about as useful as a chocolate teapot. New era, same old teething problems.

On the playing side of affairs, heights have been reached that no Albion fan ever dared dream possible. “How much do you think Gus (Poyet) will have to spend in the summer?” a mate asked me in April. “A couple of million maybe?” was my optimistic response. How wrong could I be?

To date, our charismatic Uruguayan chief has splashed out on over £4m worth of talent, with up to five more faces expected before the big kick off in August. Our chairman, professional poker player Tony Bloom, clearly has no intention of making up the numbers in our first season back in the second tier.

Within days of our last League One fixture at Notts County, Will Hoskins joined from Bristol Rovers for £500,000. Not since our foray into the top flight over 30 years ago has such a large cheque been written in these parts. But that was only the start.

Next was Will Buckley from Watford. The fee? One million pounds. The first seven figure ever paid in the 110 year history of the football club. This was our Trevor Francis moment. Brighton and Hove Albion were officially becoming a big club.

Of course, with a huge wad of notes burning a big hole in Bloom’s pocket, there have been rumours galore circulating about possible new signings. One of the more farcical concerned the capture of Michael Owen, with Sky Bet reducing their odds on him being in a Brighton shirt come late August to as low as 6/4 at one point. Sadly, the biggest coup in world football died when Owen penned a new one-year deal at Manchester United in June.

Attention then centered on Peterborough hotshot Craig Mackail-Smith. Poyet liked what he saw of the man who scored over 30 goals last season as Posh joined ourselves and Southampton in winning promotion to the Championship, but so did his counterparts at Wolves, QPR, Leicester and West Ham. You had to admire the clubs ambition, but surely we were aiming a big too high this time?

Not so. Following feverish speculation in the proceeding 24 hours, Mackail-Smith signed on the dotted line at Albion on the afternoon of July 4 for a fee starting at £2.5m. North Stand Chat, the main forum for Seagulls fans, went into meltdown. I was physically shaking when the news was announced. The entire budget I expected us to have had just been spent on one player – a player that had turned down the Premier League to wear a Brighton shirt. It took a long time for that to sink in. I’m not entirely sure it fully has yet.

Then, in the last few days, the longest transfer saga on the south coast has finally concluded… for now. Kazenga LuaLua signed a six month loan deal on July 16, following months of speculation. It all seemed too simple at the end of last season – we were told the fee was agreed, and LuaLua himself couldn’t wait to sign. If rumours are to be believed, the snag occurred when he failed a medical, presumably on the broken leg he suffered when with us on loan last season, so ourselves and Newcastle have been forced to compromise.

But, one way or another, he is now here, and I simply cannot wait to see him tearing down the wing at Championship defenders. The kid has lightening pace and a thunderbolt of a shot on him – I certainly wouldn’t want to be playing against a team with him in their ranks.

With full back Romain Vincelot signing from Dagenham and Redbridge, and striker Roland Bergkamp – nephew of Arsenal legend Dennis – also signing, Poyet’s first Championship squad is taking good shape.

For all of the faces entering the club, some have also left. Gary Hart, Fran Sandaza, Agustin Battipiedi, Cristian Baz, Radostin Kishishev and Chris Holroyd were all released, and to be honest, it’s hard to argue that any of them would have cut the mustard this term. Glenn Murray on the other hand left of his own accord.

Speculation had been raging over Murray’s future for months. With our main striker out of contract and able to leave on a free, would the club be willing to meet his inflated wage demands? Bloom played his best poker face, and wouldn’t budge. Murray was on his way.

The fact he then rocked up at Crystal Palace, our fiercest rivals, should have added insult to injury. In reality, I can’t say I’m particularly bothered. No player is bigger than the club, and we shouldn’t be held to ransom by someone who values money more than ambition. If rumours are to be believed, he will earn £2,000 a week more at Palace than he would have here, and I hope he enjoys every penny. His bank balance won’t mean a thing when he walks out to a wall of abuse at the Amex on September 26 – I hope he remembers to bring his tin hat.

Another man who went through the exit was Elliott Bennett. Following a strong offer from Norwich and a subsequent transfer request from Bennett in January, this move always looked on the cards. The only doubt was whether or not Paul Lambert would deem him good enough for the Premier League following their promotion. He did, and come June 14, Bennett was unveiled at Carrow Road.

Bennett showed true professionalism when his transfer request was rejected back in January, and was a massive part of our run-in which saw us win League One at a canter. Unlike his former team-mate Murray, he will be due a very warm reception should he ever end up in these parts again.

Anyway, back to that grizzly Wednesday afternoon outside the club shop. After two and a half hours of small talk with the others in the queue, I actually made it through the front door of the shop. With stocks slowly being transferred from the city centre location to the store at the Amex, the stock appeared to be completely out of date. Who would want a photo of Glenn Murray for 50p for example? Maybe that’s what Murray himself will be spending some of his extra £2,000 a week on.

30 minutes later, it was finally my turn. I purchased a total of 16 tickets for various people, setting me back over £250. My only proof of this purchase was a flimsy receipt – our ‘tickets’ were uploaded to our new smart cards, rather than given over the counter. “What happens if our smart cards don’t arrive in time?” I asked. “Come back to the club shop, and we’ll replace them with paper copies” the guy behind the counter replied. After queuing for so long, I prayed it didn’t come to that.

It didn’t, but only just. My smart card arrived the day before the first game at the Amex – the Sussex Senior Cup Final between Albion’s Development Squad and Eastbourne Borough. Torrential rain meant that anything bar a brief look outside the ground was impossible, but that didn’t stop myself and many others spotting one major omission from the ‘Wall of Fame’. As good as the likes of Guy Butters, Paul Rogers and Leon Knight were in their day, none of them should be there ahead of Gary Hart.

Hart, who was released in the summer after 13 years at the club, was given the honour of captaining Albion, and fittingly scored the first ever goal at the Albion’s new home when he headed in a flick on in the 70th minute. For the record, Steve Cook added a second late on for a comfortable 2-0 victory. But that wasn’t what the day was about. It was all about the stunning surroundings that the game was being played in.

After 12 years of toughing it out in the wind, rain and snow at Withdean, it’s hard to fathom that the place is actually ours. The seats are probably more comfortable than the settee I’m sitting on right now, the pies are top quality (there’s no stereotypical lukewarm mush being served up here), and, unlike at Withdean, the away fans will actually have the luxury of being able to see the pitch!

As you would expect, there were a few minor issues. The main problem seemed to be with queue times for refreshments. As nice as the pies were, I won’t be spending 25 minutes waiting for one every game! The crowd for the game was around a third of the stadiums total capacity, so this has to be a worry ahead of the new season. After the last 15 years though, it’s great to be able to grumble about such a minor thing.

The next visit to the Amex will be on July 30 when Harry Redknapp’s Tottenham Hotspur visit for the clubs ‘flagship friendly’, before the real action gets underway against Doncaster Rovers on August 6. Ironically, Donny were the last ever opponents back at the Goldstone Ground in 1997 – it is sure to be an emotional occasion for all.

For all of the hype in these parts, and talk of back to back promotions, I would say that a season of consolidation would represent success for Poyet. I’m going to stick my neck out now and predict a 12th place finish – we’ll see in May how accurate that is!

Whatever happens, it is sure to be a rollercoaster season. Make sure you strap yourselves in.

 Written by Liam Dawes – We Are Going Up’s Brighton and Hove Albion Blogger

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