What's the most DEPRESSING defeat you ever saw?

[Brovion]

In line with the general doom and gloom today I was wondering what was the most depressing Albion defeat you ever saw? Not necessarily the biggest but the one that left you smothered under a dark cloud of misery?

I suppose the 5-0 at Palace will rate highly but for me it as a 4-0 defeat away at Barnsley in the League Cup in about 1983. It was a midweek game, the excitement and novelty of reaching the top division had long since worn off, we were a struggling side and Barnsley, no glamour team obviously, were in the 2nd divison at the time. All these factors combined to reduce the travelling attendance to only about 70-80 Brighton fans; basically one coach and a few intrepid souls like me and my mate who'd made our own way up. Barnsley utterly outplayed us and the Brighton players, like the fanbase, were totally disinterested in the match. Because of the exploits in the 1970s the League Cup was still 'our' cup at the time and for the first time I had a real fear for the future if the fans were going to desert the club like that.

Mind you, our away attendances in the 1st division were never THAT great, certainly not a patch on what we get now.

 

[Cadiz Seagull]

Brentford away when we lost 4-0.

The ONLY time I have ever left a game before the end

 

[The Large One]

5-1 against Stoke was worse than last night (not that I saw last night's game), mainly for the spineless performance, and the fact it was the last match of the season which meant we had all summer to brood over it.

 

[Easy 10]

Has to be the Notts County defeat at Wembley for me, I have NEVER been more gutted coming away from a game, either before or since.

 

[Mendoza]

5-1 against Stoke was worse than last night (not that I saw last night's game), mainly for the spineless performance, and the fact it was the last match of the season which meant we had all summer to brood over it.

that one, and when we lost 3-0 away at Walsall and 3-1 away at Carlisle last season

 

[strings]

0-3 at Walsall last season. I thought we were gonners.

 

[Storer68]

3 December 1996 2-3 against Darlington in 1996.

We were dead as a club at that stage

Football League Two - KO 19:45
Brighton 2 (1) - 3(0) Darlington
Maskell 12
Baird 53
Blake 47
Naylor 62
Naylor 87

At Goldstone Ground on 03-12-1996



Brighton: Rust ,Smith (Minton ,72 ) ,Tuck ,Allan ,Morris (Hobson ,77 ) ,Johnson ,Storer ,Mayo ,Baird ,Maskell ,Mundee (McDonald ,72)

Darlington: Newell ,Shaw ,Barnard (Carss ,54 ) ,Laws ,Crosby ,De Vos ,Brumwell (Atkinson ,75 ) ,Oliver ,Roberts ,Blake ,Naylor
Subs not used Brydon,

Bookings: Morris (Brighton) Naylor (Darlington)

Attendance: 2709

 

[Icy Gull]

I don't even remember the team we were playing, it was night game in the dark days at the Goldstone when Case was manager and after yet another defeat the majority of the crowd gathered outside the main entrance and stood there chanting and protesting for nearly an hour.

During that evening I really felt that the club was very very close to folding and that was indubitably my lowest few hours as an Albion fan.

 

[jonesie]

Last night was depressing and to boot a bloomin tail back on the M1 made for a slow journey home but for me, most depressing top 3 defeats

Notts County Play off Final 91'
Losing to 9 man Walsall last year 1-0.
Man Utd 4-0 Cup final

 

[Merseyside Seagull]

Last night. I've never left a game with over 15 minutes still to go. And in 37 years of watching the Albion I have never seen us concede 6 goals, (I missed the 7th)
The 8 goals comceded against Bristol Rovers I saw on TV, so that doesn't count!!

 

[rcf0712]

away at Kingstonian in the FA Cup, that was dire.....

 

[Billy the Fish]

The 5-0 away to the scum

The 2-3 at home to Darlington in 97

Losing at home to Sudbury on penalties

All of these were way worse than last night.

 

[El Presidente]

In line with the general doom and gloom today I was wondering what was the most depressing Albion defeat you ever saw? Not necessarily the biggest but the one that left you smothered under a dark cloud of misery?

I suppose the 5-0 at Palace will rate highly but for me it as a 4-0 defeat away at Barnsley in the League Cup in about 1983. It was a midweek game, the excitement and novelty of reaching the top division had long since worn off, we were a struggling side and Barnsley, no glamour team obviously, were in the 2nd divison at the time. All these factors combined to reduce the travelling attendance to only about 70-80 Brighton fans; basically one coach and a few intrepid souls like me and my mate who'd made our own way up. Barnsley utterly outplayed us and the Brighton players, like the fanbase, were totally disinterested in the match. Because of the exploits in the 1970s the League Cup was still 'our' cup at the time and for the first time I had a real fear for the future if the fans were going to desert the club like that.

Mind you, our away attendances in the 1st division were never THAT great, certainly not a patch on what we get now.

We were shithouse that day, I think it was 1981/2. Our cup form that season was equally impressive in the FA Cup, with a 3-0 home defeat against Oxford United, who were also a couple of divisions below us.

Special mention has to go to the Hinshelwood inspired 1-0 defeat at Rotherham in the Championship, we never got the ball over the half way line, let alone a shot or a corner, and our front pairing was Danny Marney and Shaun Wilkinson (I think) both of whom went on to better things elsewhere of course.

 

[Tony Meolas Loan Spell]

Good question.

The defeat that made me feel the most depressed was Leyton Orient away last season. A real 6 pointer at the time and losing like that to a wonder goal in the last min...well...

 

[Gritt23]

4-0 ManUre in the Replay. I've still not fully recovered from that.

 

[The Grockle]

away at Kingstonian in the FA Cup, that was dire.....

1995? My first away game! As a Naive 12 year old I was convinced we would win about 10 nil

 

[pishhead]

got to be 5 zip to palace, for the team to play so shit in a game that meant so much to the fans was hard to take. I got out at 5 nil but lots of others weren't so lucky.

 

[Storer68]

Brentford away when we lost 4-0.

The ONLY time I have ever left a game before the end

which one?

 

[Easy 10]

I can also remember coming home late one night, I think it was during our first season back in the basement division around 96/97. We were away at Rochdale, and I'd not been to the game, but turned on the teletext to see how we'd got on.

We'd lost. 3-0.

I remember I gave out an audible sob and sank to my knees. A 3-0 defeat at Rochdale, poxy 4th division furniture Rochdale, really brought it crashing home just how utterly CRAP we had truley become. After I'd gathered my thoughts, composed myself and pulled myself together, I went upstairs and beat the living daylights out of the wife.

 

[Man of Harveys]

IMHO, no amount of big game defeats can compete with any number of the defeats that took place around '95-'97. Because each one felt like it could somehow contribute towards what looked a fairly likely demise of the whole club: the worse we were, the more likely people would give up on team without a ground. Just unimaginably awful.